A different gospel. Let us add something here to what was said in Step 8, regarding the gospel of John,. This is a gospel so different from the synoptics in style and content, that some biblicists have come even to doubt its authenticity and truthfulness; they believe that the author was not John but another writer from the second century; and, regarding its content, they think one must choose between the synoptics and John since —they say,— both couldn't be true. In this matter, as in many others, some biblicists take such extreme positions which can't be accepted, because in fact there are answers and explanations to the problems this gospel presents.
Problems of the gospel of John. Without going thoroughly into a study about the problems of the gospel of John, which would exceed the object of this book, let us say some words about the problems on style, authenticity and content. The style of the sermons of Jesus in John are a problem, because it is well known that each person has his own style, and his individual way of talking and expressing himself, and Jesus was not the exception to this rule. The style of Jesus in the gospel of John is so different from that of the synoptics, that it must be one or the other. The content is also a problem, because the gospel of John coincides with the synoptics almost only in the narratives of the passion and in three of the miracles of Jesus (see Step 41); it can be said that the rest of the gospel of John is different.
Problem of authenticity. That the gospel of John is authentic, that is, was written by John, is proven by external documents, as we said in Step 8, and it is confirmed also by the intrinsic character of the book. It was written by the disciple whom He (Jesus) loved, as John calls himself (John 19:26), since he does not use his own name referring to events he was part of. The author makes frequent and detailed references about Palestine and the customs of the Jews, so that its author must be a Jewish Palestinian very familiar with these circumstances. He had to be, also, a very close friend of Jesus, in order to report such intimate actions as the gospel contains. Therefore, an author of posterior age and not Jesus' disciple as was John, must be ruled out.
Truthfulness of the gospel. Regarding the content of the gospel and the problem of its truthfulness, it can be affirmed that the gospel of John is indeed truthful in its own way, that is, if it is interpreted under its own terms, according to the way it was written. Precisely because the gospel of John is a such particular book, it must be read and understood from the same point of view it was written; this is essential. If this is not done, the interpretation of John is not correct.
Peculiarity of the gospel of John. John speaks about Jesus in a way entirely unique. Let us explain. Everything contained in the gospel is true: it is honest in the way John had perceived and experienced Jesus in his life. When he refers to what Jesus said or did, he does so —let us say,— through his own "interpretation" and experience. They are words and deeds of Jesus, but at the same time there is the thinking, the experience and the interpretation of the apostle.
The historical Jesus and the Jesus of faith. The gospel of John can not be read as a history book is read, because in the gospel of John, the Jesus of history and the Jesus of faith come together and are inseparably united. Christian faith needs the historical Jesus, because Christian faith is based on the historical event of revelation. Thus in all John's narratives there is a historical element, not separable from what he says; but what he says is not only history, but what that historical reality has produced in his life. What is historical in the gospel of John comes together with his own personal experience, which is a theological experience. In every believer should be a Jesus like the One John contemplated and experienced when writing.
Fusion of history and theology. From what is already said we can understand that in order to interpret the gospel of John, it must be taken in account that in this gospel history and theology merge. This is so essential to this gospel that to interpret or to analyze it from a different perspective of this fusion, would distort the gospel and the apostle's intent when writing. The gospel is an indivisible whole, is an unique message about Jesus; the gospel says who the Jesus of faith is, and this Jesus must coincide with the Jesus of history, the Jesus in flesh.
There is not a question of "yes" and "no." In the gospel of John it is not a matter of asking at every step if a narrative is history or John's interpretation, like searching for yes or no; the gospel was not written with that in mind; there is no way to put a divisory line between history and John's theological interpretation. Rather, the subjacent, underlying message desired by the apostle must be read between lines, in which historical facts and his own theology merge systematically.
Program of the gospel. We have to conclude then, as many interpreters teach, that the "problems" of the gospel of John, rather than being problems, are the plan itself of the gospel, its purpose: they are the program conceived by the apostle when he decided to write the gospel.
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Beyond history. The gospel of John does not add anything substantial to the message of the synoptics, but rather confirms, widens and clarifies it. The difference between the gospel of John and the synoptics is that these latter, starting from the historical Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth, make reference to facts and words that prove His messiahship and divine dignity; and the gospel of John instead raises itself from the very beginning to eternity, and starts by declaring in the first line that Jesus is a divine person, the Word of God. The synoptics begin with historical facts; John starts with a revelation of faith; John begins his gospel where the synoptics end.
The godship of Jesus. The divinity of Jesus is the subjacent theme in the entire gospel of John; the main places where this is affirmed clearly, are:
1. at the beginning of the gospel, when he says: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God... And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:1-2, 14).
2. at the beginning of the gospel also, when he says: All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made (John 1:3). According to this, the Word that became flesh was the creator of the whole universe, that is, God.
3. in the temple, at the feast of dedication. The Jews said to Jesus: If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them... I and My Father are one (John 10:24, 30). The substantial unity of the Father and Son, Jesus Christ, is affirmed here. The Jews understood that because they took up stones to stone Him "for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God" (John 10:33).
4. when Jesus answered the Jews who said to Him: You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham? Jesus answered: I say to you, before Abraham was, I Am (John 8:58). Here the eternal preexistence of the Son, Jesus Christ, is affirmed. On this occasion also they took up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself.
5. after the healing of a man at the Pool of Bethesda, on Saturday. The Jews persecuted Jesus and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath. Jesus answered them: My Father has been working until now, and I have been working (John 5:17). This is a sentence that declares the identity between Him and the Father. The Jews understood it thus and sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God (John 5:18).
6. when Philip said to Jesus: Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us. Jesus said to him: Who has seen me has seen the Father... Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in Me? (John 14:8-11). Once again the identity of the Father with the Son is affirmed. Compare John 16:15.
7. when Jesus is called "Son of God" and "Son of Man." These expressions, which in other places are attributed also to men as we said in Steps 22 and 23, have a particular strength and meaning in the gospel of John, because the purpose of this gospel is to recognize and reveal the divinity of Jesus, as we said before. The principal quotation in this respect is at the end of his gospel. when he says: These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name (John 20:31).
8. when Thomas made his confession. When the disciples were inside and Thomas with them, the risen Jesus came and said to him: "Do not be unbelieving but believing." Thomas responded: My Lord and my God! Jesus said to him: Because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed (John 20:27-29). A clear confession of the godship of Jesus.
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The words "to believe," in the gospel of John. "To believe" and its corresponding noun "faith," are expressed in Greek through the word pisteuo, as we said before. This word occurs 243 times in the New Testament, 98 of them in the gospel of John; this means that this is a fundamental theme, of central importance, for the apostle. John uses only the verb, not the noun. In this Step we are going to see what was, according to John, the origin of the faith in Jesus, and what was the object of such a faith.
The miracles, origin of faith. According to the gospel of John, faith in Jesus originated, mainly, because of His miracles, as that in Cana of Galilee, where His disciples believed in Him (John 2:11). As Jesus was in Jerusalem during the feast of Passover, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did (John 2:23); the same happened at the feast of the Tabernacle, when many of the people believed in Him, because of the signs this Man has done (John 7:31). The nobleman believed also, when his son was healed (John 4:53). Jesus Himself let us understand that He made some signals that they may believe that You sent Me (John 11:42). However, John recognizes that although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him (John 12:37. Compare 10:25, 37).
Faith by seeing or hearing only. Faith was not always due to the signs made by Jesus, but sometimes because of seeing and hearing about Him, as happened to the Samaritans many of whom believed in Him because of the word of the woman; and John adds that: many more believed because of His own word (John 4:39, 40). In 8:30 John says that, as He spoke these words, many believed in Him. Jesus said also: Who hears My word and believes... has everlasting life (John 5:24). In contrast with this are the words of Jesus to the unbeliever Thomas, that we quote in the previous Step, a praise for those who have not seen and yet have believed (John 2):29).
The object of faith is God revealed in Jesus Christ. The primordial object of faith in the gospel of John, is that God has revealed and manifested Himself to mankind in His Son made flesh. We can see this through the whole gospel, as when Jesus says: That the world may believe that You sent Me, which Jesus repeats several times (John 17:21; 5:24; 6:29; 12:44; 17:8); or when He says: I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me (John 14:10). Other times it is by what was said by those who believed in Jesus, as Martha: I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God (John 11:27); or the disciples: We believe that You came forth from God (John 16:30).
Faith in the soteriological mission of Jesus. The soteriological character of Jesus' mission, that is, that the Son of God came to the world to save mankind and that His death was atonement for sin, is, also, an object of faith in the gospel of John. This can be seen clearly in various places, as in the parable of the Good Shepherd, where Jesus says: I lay down My life for the sheep (John 10:15); and also when Jesus says, speaking about the living bread: The bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world (John 6:51). When Jesus uses phrases like: Who believes in Me has eternal life, the meaning is clearly soteriological.
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The noun "life" and the verb "to live" in the gospel of John. Other key words in the gospel of John are: life, which in Greek is zoe; and to live, which in Greek is zo. The meaning and content of the word life is equivalent to salvation or redemption. Jesus teaches, in the gospel of John, that faith in Him brings new life to the believer; he does this in different ways and contexts. Let us see.
Like a new birth. To be born is to start living, and that is what is obtained by faith in Jesus; the believer is born to a new life. Jesus said to Nicodemus: Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God (John 3:3). As Nicodemus asked how this could be, Jesus answered: Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God (John 3:5). To believe is to be born, is to begin life.
Life in contrast with death. Jesus teaches that to believe in Him is like passing from death to life: Who believes... has passed from death into life (John 5:24; 8:51). When Jesus says to Martha: Whoever believes in Me shall never die (John 11:26), what He is telling her is not that one becomes immortal, but that his death will not be forever. And, although Jesus had the power of restoring bodily life, as we can see by the miracles of the nobleman, Lazarus and the son of the widow (John 4:46-53; 11:1-46; Luke 7:11-17), this wasn't the life that He promised but a more important one: eternal life.
Jesus gives eternal life. The most marvelous promise of Christian faith is that of everlasting life. We come here to the text of John which, we could say, synthesizes his whole gospel, and not just his gospel, but it is the synthesis of the message of the whole bible:
Jesus says: Whoever believes in Him (the Son of Man) should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:15-16). In our opinion, this is the most precious and comforting verse of the whole Scripture. Jesus repeats it in 3:36; 5:24; 6:40, 47; 10:28. This is therefore a truth of capital importance in Jesus' message and John's gospel.
Figures of life. Jesus wanted to give an ample teaching about the life the believer receives through figures or parables, among them: the living water, the bread of life, the light and the life, the vine and the branches. Let us say one word about each one of these images.
The figure of the bread of life. Speaking with an obviously figurative meaning, Jesus said: I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst... I am the bread of life which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever (John 6:35, 48, 51). The meaning is that He is the source of life everlasting for everyone who believes in Him. Jesus said, also, that these words should not be interpreted as having a physical meaning, adding: The words that I speak to you are spirit and they are life (John 6:63).
The figure of the light and the life. Jesus speaks about the life the believer receives using the metaphor of light; light and life are interchangeable in the gospel of John, as Jesus says: I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life (John 8:12). The "light of life" is salvation. Because of these words of Jesus, John was able to write at the beginning of his gospel: In Him was life, and the life was the light of men (John 1:4).
The figure of the water. Jesus compares faith with a source of living water springing up into everlasting life. Jesus says: Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst, but the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life (John 4:14). And these: He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water (John 7:38). It is a figurative way of talking about the life the believer receives by faith.
The parable of the vine. Jesus speaks about the life the believers have by abiding in Him, through the parable of the vine, in John 15:1-7. Jesus says: I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing (John 15:5).
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The greatest promise of Jesus. The greatest promise that Jesus made to those who believe in Him is the promise of the Spirit. John uses two Greek words to refer to the Spirit: one is parakletos, which means advocate, comforter, helper, and occurs only four times in the gospel; the other word is pneuma, which literally means wind, and is the name given to the Spirit in the Old Testament as well as in the New Testament. It is 149 times in the New Testament, 92 of them together with the Greek word agion, which means holy, that is, Holy Spirit.
The Spirit, Advocate of the sinner. We find the promise of the Spirit in the sermon of Jesus at the cenacle the eve of His death, when He promised to His disciples: I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever (John 14:16). The believer has the Holy Spirit as his Comforter and Advocate; in his difficulties and problems, in his anguishes and needs; and especially when he sins, the believer can be sure that he has an advocate before the Father. That is Jesus' promise. When Jesus says that the Father will give "another" Helper, He means that He is also Helper for his disciples, and that the Holy Spirit will continue His work when He is gone.
The Holy Spirit, continuer of the work of Jesus. The divine plan was that the believers did not receive the Spirit until Jesus had completed His redemptive work. Jesus said: It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you (John 16:7). John had said before that the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified (John 7:39). But once Jesus has completed His work, He pours out His Spirit upon His disciples (Acts 2:1-36). From the references that Jesus made to the Spirit one can see that, once the physical presence of Jesus is finished, the Spirit will be with them, preventing them from being orphans (John 14:18).
Master of truth. Jesus also will pour out His Spirit to guide and lead the believers to the truth. Jesus said: The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you (John 14:26). Jesus said too: When He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth (John 16:13). We can see from these texts that, on one side, the Holy Spirit will remind the disciples of all the teachings of Jesus; and, on the other side, that He will help them to find "the whole truth," which, in the last instance, is nothing more than to find Jesus Himself, the One they still were not able to understand.
The work of the Spirit in the church. As a matter of fact, it was the Holy Spirit who taught and guided the disciples from the beginning; it was He who allowed them to understand later all the teachings Jesus had given them and that they were not able to understand at the beginning; it was He who inspired them to preach the gospel and to write the whole New Testament; it was He who inspired them as to what they should answer at the trials; it was He who gave them courage and hope among their persecutions and tribulations. And it is the Holy Spirit who now guides the believers in order that they may understand the word and live according to their faith.
A gift for all believers. The Holy Spirit is a gift for all the believers, and not only for some of them in particular; it is given equally to everybody who accepts the gospel, as is attested in Acts (10:47; 11:17; 15:9). The Holy Spirit is not the monopoly of a group of individuals established in power, much less of an individual. To think or act outside this New Testament fact, is absolutely contrary to the teachings of the Scripture.
The exaltation of the King. The gospel of John is, in summary, a book which has the purpose of exalting the King and Lord, Jesus Christ. When the synoptics concentrate in the Kingdom of God, John concentrates in the King and Lord, attributing to Him the highest honor a man could receive: to be at the same level of God. John attained his objective and, thanks to his gospel, millions believe in Jesus and follow Him, saying: We have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God (John 6:69).
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