The entire prologue , functions like an overture to an opera, as John touches on themes that will be developed later in the book. John also connects the ministry of Jesus to the Jewish Calendar, with its various festivals, as Jesus is seen to visit Judea over a three-year period, in contrast to the one-time visit to Jerusalem as an adult Palm Sunday , described in the Synoptics. Jesus teaches in long discourses in John, but not using many parables. In addition to the events, there are saying of Jesus that are shared with the Synoptics.
A few examples are:. The early church concluded that we needed the four presentations of Jesus that we have in the New Testament.
Each author brings a unique perspective—stylistic as well as theological—to the story of Jesus. Sign up for a course coupon. Enter your email address to receive the latest N. This Logos became flesh and dwelt among men in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.
John says nothing of a supernatural birth. He regards Jesus as a human being who possessed actual flesh and blood, the same as other people. The most significant thing about Jesus is that the divine Logos was present in him, and all of the marvelous things that he accomplished were by virtue of the power of God.
In this way, John conceives the relationship between the divine and the human. Because God was present in Jesus, it is appropriate to refer to Jesus as the Son of God, which is an example of what can happen in the life of anyone else in whom the power of God dwells. In this connection, John says, "Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. John's account of the ministry of Jesus consists of two parts.
The first twelve chapters describe Jesus' public ministry, beginning with his meeting John the Baptist and closing with the visit of the Greeks who came to worship at the Feast of Passover.
The remaining chapters deal with the closing days of Jesus' earthly ministry, when he gave instruction to his disciples and explained the meaning of his life and approaching death in a number of lengthy discourses. This division of the gospel into two parts follows the pattern used by the Synoptic Gospels' writers, but the contents of the two sections differ widely from the earlier accounts. According to John, Jesus' public ministry can be summarized in connection with a number of miracles that John reports and then follows with interpretations that point to their spiritual significance.
John records only seven miracles, considerably less than the number reported in the Synoptic Gospels. But John's use of the miracle stories is different from that of his predecessors. John does not regard the stories' miraculous elements themselves as having great significance but rather the spiritual meanings that he finds implicit in them. The miracles are signs not of the imminence of the coming of God's kingdom as that term is used in the Synoptic Gospels but of the presence of the Logos, or the power of God, which brings about a transformation in people's lives.
The seven miracle stories recorded in John are, first, the turning of water into wine at a marriage feast in Cana; second, the healing of a nobleman's son who was at the point of death; third, the healing of a man at the sheep-gate pool; fourth, the walking on water; fifth, the feeding of five thousand; sixth, the healing of the man born blind; and seventh, the raising of Lazarus.
Each of these stories is used as an introduction to a discourse concerning the significance of Jesus and his message in relation to the quality of a person's life. This use of the miracle stories for the purpose of teaching spiritual lessons is made possible by analogies and, in many instances, by allegorizing the materials found in the stories.
For example, the story of Jesus' turning water into wine is interpreted to mean the contrast between the old and the new dispensations. The water symbolizes a cleansing, and the transformation that takes place when a person's life is filled with the spirit present in Jesus sharply contrasts with the rites and ceremonies performed in the Jewish Temple.
This meaning of the story is given special emphasis in the narratives that follow. In one of these, Jesus drives out the buyers and sellers from the Temple. In the Synoptic Gospels, this event is placed toward the close of Jesus' ministry, but John situates it toward the beginning because to him it represents the goal of Jesus' entire earthly career.
He quotes Jesus as saying, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days," which is a reference to John's belief that Jesus' death and resurrection have brought about a new and more meaningful conception of salvation.
The point is illustrated even further in the story of Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus, in which Jesus says that unless a person is born of the water and the spirit, that person cannot see the kingdom of God. The same point of view is expressed again in the account of Jesus' conversation with the woman at the Samarian well.
In reply to her questions concerning the proper place and manner of worship, Jesus explains that external forms of worship are not as important as worshipping the Father "in spirit and truth. The feeding of the five thousand appears to be taken from the Synoptic Gospels, which present the story as evidence that Jesus is the Messiah because he worked miracles. John reports the story as it was customarily understood, but the use that he makes of it is quite different from that of the earlier writers.
For John, the amount of physical food that came into existence was not of primary importance. How has the kingdom of God arrived if Jesus was crucified and the Romans were still in power? John is writing somewhat later when the church was confronting different challenges. False teachers have arisen in the church. Some are challenging the deity of Christ, claiming he is not fully God. Others are questioning his true humanity, denying that God could become a human being.
Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples that were not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. John writes to provoke faith in Jesus, resulting in eternal life.
This Greek word had a rich history both in Greco-Roman thought and in Judaism. In Greek philosophy, logos could refer to divine reason, the force that brings unity and order to the cosmos. God merely speaks the universe into existence. With a word, he can judge and destroy, as well as redeem and save. John forms the capstone to the Prologue:. For example, Jesus feeds the multitude with loaves and fish, and then teaches that he is the true manna from heaven, the bread of life.
The first sign, turning water into wine at Cana of Galilee John —12 , illustrates their purpose. The miracle, occurring as it does at a wedding celebration, carries symbolic significance.
Rev The seventh and climactic sign is the raising of Lazarus from the dead ch. This sign has two important functions in the Gospel. First, it is the precipitating event that provokes the religious leaders to act against Jesus. Second, the miracle serves as a preview and foreshadowing of the greatest sign of all—the resurrection of Jesus. Century BCE. What does that say about God and, conversely, what does that say about us? Is God still with us? And if so, how do we know it?
Some Jewish communities answered this dilemma by turning to the study of the Law and to prayer as activities that came to replace the now-forever- gone temple and its sacrificial system.
Others turned to an event that had changed their lives: the words, deeds, and death of Jesus of Nazareth, who they believed to be the Jewish Messiah, the pre-existent Son of God.
This belief came also to replace, for some Jewish people, the temple system. The differences with the other gospels reside on the fact that the community that produced the Gospel of John, because of its specific historical circumstances, used a set of traditions that best served their apologetic purpose.
Content was determined by context. Because the context for the other gospels was somehow different they give us a picture of Jesus that is also different, although all of them share the same post-destruction of the temple historical situation.
Skip to main content. Make a donation Join our email list Contact us Search. Asked By:. John is from a different tradition. Dear Dave, The Gospel of John is very different from the other three. John, the Spiritual Gospel. Gospel of John. Early Beliefs Manifested in the Later Jesus. History's Motivation. John is trying to make an apology. Dear Dave: Thousands of pages have been filled with enlightening answers to this very question.
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