opinions and musings

  Welcome to my 10 th post on the canonical gospels.   Last time we started looking at the gospel of John and went over some basic information about it.   Now let’s look deeper. When compared to the three Synoptic gospels, what is different about the gospel of John?     Unique characteristics of the Gospel of John: 1.       Covers a three-year ministry period vs. 1 year period found in the Synoptics. 2.       Focuses on Jesus’ ministry in Jerusalem rather than his ministry in Galilee. 3.       Puts the cleansing of the temple in Jerusalem at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry instead of during the final week. 4.       Very little overlap with the content of the Synoptics.   In fact, while 93% of Mark is found in Matthew and Luke, only 8% of John parallels the Synoptics (Kostenberger, 2009, 553). 5.       Gives a very different style of Jesus’ teachings.   In the Synoptic gospels Jesus teaches with parables and short wisdom sayings. In John, Jesus gives long discourses. 6

  Welcome to my 9 th post on the canonical gospels.   I’ve been comparing the four gospels, focusing on their time of composition, the author’s edits to their sources, and their view of Jesus.   Now we move to the fourth and final canonical gospel, the Gospel of John.   Most scholars believe that the Gospel of John was first published sometime between 90 and 100 CE.   The gospel of John is unique in many ways.   It contains accounts of Jesus’ miracles and teachings which are not found in the Synoptic tradition.   In fact, there is very little overlap between the Gospel of John and the Synoptic Gospels. The gospel itself claims to be based on eyewitness testimony, although the author is never named in the book itself. Later church tradition attributed the book to John, the son of Zebedee, who is one of the twelve apostles named in the Synoptic tradition. The gospel of John follows the same basic storyline as the Synoptics.   It introduces John the Baptist as the forerunner of Jesus,