Gospel of John & Heresies

Question 0

John’s audience

Answer 0

Jewish-Christians who were kicked out of their synagogue

Question 1

John Date:

Answer 1

95 AD

-lots of heresies at time

Question 2

Portrait of Jesus

Answer 2

Jesus is the Logos (the Word of God)

Question 3

John’s “Genealogy”

Answer 3

The Prologue traces Jesus back to God

-no birth story, has prologue

Question 4

Why was John’s audience kicked out of their temple?

Answer 4

They believed in Jesus

Question 5

What kind of tone does John have?

Answer 5

• anti-Semitic (anti-Jewish)

- says Jews are the ones that want to kill Jesus

Question 6

First part of Prologue

Answer 6

Everything in the world came from the Word

• Jesus has always been with us
• Trinity always existed

Question 7

Second Part of Prologue

Answer 7

John the Baptist was created by God, but he was not the messiah. The true messiah was Jesus Christ.

Question 8

Third Part of Prologue

Answer 8

Everyone who believed in God received God, and became his children (Baptism)

Question 9

Last Part of Prologue

Answer 9

God became man, and this man, Jesus Christ, revealed God’s grace and truth to the people, making him known

Question 10

The Hypostatic Union

Answer 10

Jesus is 100% human, 100% divine

Question 11

Trinity

Answer 11

3 Persons in one God; 3 expressions of that God

Question 12

Heresy

Answer 12

False teaching against church

Question 13

Orthodoxy

Answer 13

Teaching that is true about church

Question 14

The Council of Nicea

Answer 14

(Came first)

-declared that Jesus is truly God and is “of the same substance” (defended against Arianism)

Question 15

Docetism

Answer 15

(Anti-Christ)
Jesus had a “phantom body”; appeared as human, actually ghost/illusion, not physical
“Dokeo”=”to seem”

Question 16

Gnosticism

Answer 16

Jesus was a mystical being who came to give “secret knowledge” of salvation to a chosen few. The World is not Good. There is no Messiah. (no Resurrection)

• Teachings of Jesus saved us
• God of Old Testament different from God of New Testament, therefore He created earth to be evil also

Question 17

Arianism

Answer 17

Jesus was half God; not equal to God (Superman)

• more than just a human
• named after 4th century bishop
• 50 AD, early

Question 18

Council of Chacedon

Answer 18

75 years after Council of Nicaea
-affirmed that the relationship of the human and divine natures in Jesus were undivided and inseparable
Jesus is 100% man and 100% divine (against Nestorianism)

Question 19

Adoptionism

Answer 19

Jesus was a good man whom God adopted as his Son at some point in his life

Question 20

Moralism

Answer 20

Jesus was an ethical teacher, nothing more

Question 21

Monophysitism (Apolloinarianism)

Answer 21

God’s Word (Logos) took the place of the human soul of Jesus

-He had a human body, but no mind or will

Question 22

Nestorianism

Answer 22

In Jesus there are two Persons, one divine and one human

-believed 2nd person of Trinity came into being when Jesus was born

Question 23

What were the two main types of heresies about Jesus in the early church?

Answer 23

Denying his divinity and his humanity

Question 24

“Mother of God” to refer to Mary

Answer 24

• because it was declared at he Ecumenical Council of Ephesus in 431
• affirmed Mary as the Theotokos, of Mother of God
• shows her important role in salvation

Question 25

Why do Catholics say the Nicene Creed at certain liturgical?

Answer 25

• it clarifies the church truth and denies heresies

- shows our unity as a community of faith

Question 26

“Credo”

Answer 26

Latin term

Literally means, “I believe”

Question 27

Nicene Creed came…

Answer 27

First!

4th century

Question 28

Apostles’ Creed came….

Answer 28

Second!

5th Century

Question 29

Athanasian Creed came…

Answer 29

Third!

Question 30

consubstantial

Answer 30

“of the same substance”

Question 31

What percent of John’s Gospel is his own?

Answer 31

94%

• only 6% overlap between his and other Gospels
• did not want to tell the same story of Jesus
• needed to demonstrate that Jesus is the word of God

Question 32

Are there parables in John?

Answer 32

No

-Jesus stays and talks, no parables, instead long discourses (sermons)

Question 33

What are discourses?

Answer 33

Sermons

• prove saving power of the word
• contains lots of symbolism, poetry, dualism (contrast; good/bad)

Question 34

No miracles, John uses word….

Answer 34

“Signs”

=signs of his divinity, same way God performed signs in the OT

Question 35

John’s Gospel divided into 2 books. What are they called?

Answer 35

1. Books of Signs (section of gospel where Jesus is revealing his dignity; 7 signs)
2. Book of Glory (not passion, it’s glory; when Jesus speaks he uses “I am”=”YHWH”; teaching his reader Jesus is God)

Question 36

What was Jesus’ #1 purpose?

Answer 36

• Jesus came in order to die (synoptic gospels would disagree)
• John disagreed that crucifixion was an embarrassment
• Cross was necessary so we could be saved

Question 37

Examples of differences in John’s Gospel?

Answer 37

• John shows Jesus saying “for this purpose, I have come” (no agony)
• Jesus walks up to the guards and asks them who they are looking for, then admitting “I am He” (knows cross is why he is there)
• lectures some more during Pilate’s trial, treated as equal
• no sense of abandonment (“it is finished”; knows God’s plan)
• shows crucifixion is the best thing to happen to humanity; without it would be no resurrection, no life