Purpose & authorship Flashcards
Describe the external evidence for John the Gospel
- ## John the Apostle is seen as the author from the earliest time
Compare opinions of ‘the beloved disciple’
Raymond Brown:
- may have been a companion of Jesus (but not necessarily a disciple)
- may have lived through the development of the ‘church’
- ‘beloved disciple’ provided oral tradition written down (possibility of this being 80CE) then edited by community
Westcott:
- in 2001 he claimed the author was a Palestinian Jew who was an eyewitness & disciple
- claimed the Beloved Disciple was John as others suggest
Describe evidence suggesting John as ‘John the Elder’
- Eusebius (widely known as the father of Christian history) quoted Bishop Papias - John the Elder lived in Ephesus (70-146CE) therefore during Trajan’s reign
- 2 John and 3 John seem to have been written by John the Elder
- but neither letter seems to resemble the Gospel or 1 John (1 John is anonymous but similar to the Gospel)
Describe evidence suggesting John as ‘John Mark’
- Mark lived in Jerusalem at the time
- was from
Who claims John was written by the Johannine community & why?
Raymond Brown claimed:
- that is was likely to have been written by the Johannine community - a Messianic community who were followers of John in Ephesus
- 1:14 & 3:11 - “We…” is used to suggest a writing community which was rejected or oppressed by the Temple for following Jesus
- 21:24 - “We know that his testimony is true…” - links the Johannine community with the Beloved Disciple
- Bultmann (1971) - a community editor was behind the final work - the community had moved away from Judaism by this time & were sharing beliefs through reliable witnesses
Which scholar claimed John was separate from the Synoptics & why?
- C.H. Dodd argued that John was completely independent of the synoptic gospels:
- John not only has contradictions of the other of events (
What are the pure meanings of the word ‘gospel’?
- the teaching or revelation of Christ
- a thing that is absolutely true
- a set of principles or beliefs
- ‘good news’ or ‘good story’
What are the characteristics of Mark’s Gospel that show that it was written to spread the ‘good news’ of Jesus?
- Jesus of action & authority
- eyewitness details
- retention of Aramaic
- persecution
- simple style & language
- unfolding (growing) messiahship
What are the characteristics of Matthew’s Gospel that show that it was written to spread the ‘good news’ of Jesus?
- Jewish interest & links
- suggested anti-Jewish elements
- the Church
- eschatology (theology concerned with death) & judgement
- Jesus as a royal figure
- supernatural emphasis
- special interest in the teaching of Jesus
What are the characteristics of Luke’s Gospel that show that it was written to spread the ‘good news’ of Jesus?
- women
- salvation & forgiveness
- concern for outcasts
- universality
- the Holy Spirit
- prayer & praise
- humility
- wealth
- the historical
Explain Jesus as the ‘Christ’ as one of the purposes of John (using specific examples)
- numerous references to OT prophecies of the Messiah (contextually, ‘Messiah’ refers to the Greek word as a translation of the ‘Hebrew messiah’; meaning “the anointed one”)
- emphasises salvation through belief in Jesus - this was the culmination of Judaism & a New Covenant with God (contextually, it is important to add that Jewish authorities regularly denied Jesus’s messiahship)
Explain Jesus as the ‘Christ’ as one of the purposes of John (using generalised examples)
- Jesus cleansing the Temple - a promised Messianic action (Psalm 69)
- the healing at the pool (John 5:1-16)
- the disciples recognise him as the Messiah (John 1:41-49)
- declares himself the Messiah to the Samaritan woman (John 4:25-26)
- messianic overtones in the feeding of the 5000 -> scholar R. Brown commented on how this reflected the prophecy of God feeding his people (Isaiah 25:6)
- Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem - John 12:9-19 linked to Zechariah 9:9
Explain The Son of God as one of the purposes of John
- John the Baptist bears witness - John 1:34
- Jesus refers to intimate relationship with God -> because he was sent by God on a unique mission
- Jesus knows ‘father’s will’ inferring that Jesus & God are one (in John 3:35; 5:19-20; 14:10)
- the blasphemy charge which led to Jesus’s crucifixion was “…because he claimed to be the Son of God” (John 19:17)
Explain reasonings for the bible quote “…may have life in his name” representing a key purpose of John’s Gospel
- one of the most famous Bible passages -> John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
- some of the other references to this purpose include: “…lays down his life.”; “Lamb of God…”; “…offers himself as a sacrifice…”
- a key scholar in analysing this purpose, R.V.G. Tasker added in 1960, “His whole incarnate life is, in fact meaningless apart from ‘the hour’ to which it is inevitably moving and is none other than the hour of his passion.”
Explain other possibilities that play a role in the purpose of John’s Gospel
- the possibility of a ‘spiritual gospel’: “Last of all John, perceiving that the external facts had been made plain in the Gospels, being urged by his friends & inspired by the spirit, composed a spiritual gospel.” (Clement of Alexandria, 150-213)
- it is a widely known fact that the author[s] certainly went beyond historical accounts in that they presented a spiritual gospel whose meaning lay in allegorical interpretation
- the purpose of the Gospel had a deliberate intention not to be an accurate biography, in order to express Christological* ‘truths’ about Jesus & to lead people to faith
*referring to the branch of theology relating to the person, nature, & role of Christ
