John: believe and have life
John, the fourth Gospel, comes from the disciple whom Jesus loved. Through signs and long conversations it shows Jesus as the Word who was in the beginning and became flesh, and it was written so that its readers may believe that he is the Christ, the Son of God, and have life in his name.
About the book
Matthew, Mark and Luke often tell the same stories side by side, but John is different. In place of parables it gives long conversations, with Nicodemus or the Samaritan woman; it chooses a few miracles as signs of who Jesus is; and again and again Jesus says ‘I am’. What a Gospel is, and why there are four, we saw with Matthew.
The book calls its author only "the disciple whom Jesus loved" (John 21:20). He reclined at Jesus' side at the last supper (John 13:23), stood by the cross, and ran to the empty tomb. The book ends, "This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who has written them down" (John 21:24). The church has received this disciple as John, the son of Zebedee, one of the Twelve. Around 180 Irenaeus wrote that John, the Lord's disciple who had leaned on his breast, issued the Gospel while living at Ephesus in Asia Minor Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.1.1, and the church has usually placed it in the 90s. It has also seen a sign of authorship in this: John son of Zebedee, prominent in the other Gospels, is never named in this one.
Many scholars think the book took shape over time in a community of John's followers. The ‘we’ of 21:24 vouches for the disciple's witness; 20:30-31 sounds like an ending, yet chapter 21 follows; and the style and thought bear the marks of long reflection. Eusebius reads Papias as naming, besides the apostle John, a John ‘the elder’ Eusebius, Church History 3.39, and some take the beloved disciple to be this elder, a disciple outside the Twelve. They too usually date the book to about the 90s. Many other scholars, among them evangelicals, who stress the authority of Scripture and the telling of the gospel, hold that John son of Zebedee wrote it, or that his witness stands behind it and his followers added a few closing words.
Its events fall in the era the map under the Jesus tab calls Jesus (c. 4 BC–AD 30), and it stays longer than the others in Jerusalem and at its feasts.
How it unfolds
| Chapters | What happens |
|---|---|
| 1:1–18 | The Word: the Word who was in the beginning becomes flesh |
| 1:19–12:50 | The signs: from the wedding at Cana to the raising of Lazarus |
| 13–17 | The farewell: the washing of feet, Jesus' last words and prayer |
| 18–21 | The cross and resurrection; morning by the Sea of Tiberias |
Readers usually count seven signs in chapters 1–12, from water made wine (John 2:11) through the feeding of the five thousand and the healing of the man born blind to the raising of Lazarus. Chapter 13 opens, "Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the very end" (John 13:1).
Key passages
John begins with the first words of Genesis:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:1
The Word is the Greek . God made the world by his word, and that Word came as a man:
The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:14
From this incarnation flow the best-known words of the gospel: "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). Jesus makes himself known with ‘I am’: the bread of life, the light of the world, the good shepherd. At Lazarus's tomb he says, "I am the resurrection and the life" (John 11:25), and before he leaves his disciples, "I am the way and the truth and the life" (John 14:6).
The book and Christ
Jesus said of the Scriptures, "These are the very words that testify about Me" (John 5:39), as he showed on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:27). So John shows Jesus through the Old Testament. John the Baptist calls him "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29), and Jesus says, "Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up" (John 3:14).
When Thomas saw the risen Lord, he confessed, "My Lord and my God!" (John 20:28). Augustine, the North African church leader, writes that "Thomas saw and touched the man" Augustine, and confessed as God the one he could neither see nor touch. Straight after, John tells why he wrote:
But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.
John 20:31
The guide under the Jesus tab follows Jesus' question, "Who do you say I am?" (Matthew 16:15), until it reaches this book's words, "No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6). John's Gospel was written so that its readers might answer that question. What it means to believe, the New Believers course explains in What believing the gospel means.
Reading it
A chapter a day takes three weeks; begin with John 1. Mark each sign and each ‘I am’ as you meet them, and read the words in the upper room, chapters 13–17, slowly. Then go on to Acts, where the risen Lord leads his church by his Spirit.
Practice
- Practice 1 of 6
In John 20:31, why does John say he wrote his book?
- Practice 2 of 6
Compared with the other three Gospels, what stands out in John?
- Practice 3 of 6
According to John 1:14, how did the Word come?
- Practice 4 of 6
Whom has the early church held to be the disciple whom Jesus loved?
- Practice 5 of 6
What did Thomas confess when he saw the risen Jesus?
- Practice 6 of 6
What is true of the authorship of John?
Reading to the end marks it read; tap to switch it.
Related topics
Source
- Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies 3.1.1 — c. 180. How Matthew, Mark, Luke and John came to write the Gospels (John at Ephesus).
- Eusebius, Church History 3.39 — c. 325. Quotes Papias: Mark, Peter's interpreter, wrote down what Peter taught; Matthew put together the oracles in the Hebrew language. Reads Papias as naming the apostle John and an 'elder John', and says he used 1 John and 1 Peter.
Lessons from the Bible, the church's creeds and classic commentary. Each book's author and date are given as the church has received them, and scholars who see them otherwise are presented fairly. Scripture quotations: BSB.