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John the ApostleGospel of John
Nonfiction | Scripture | Adult | Published in 90A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Authorial Context
The Gospel of John is traditionally attributed to one of Jesus’s original 12 disciples, John, the son of Zebedee (not to be confused with John the Baptist). According to early Christian sources, John was the longest-living and last-surviving of the disciples, and he is said to have written (in addition to the gospel) the book of Revelation and three New Testament letters: 1 John, 2 John, and 3 John. The gospel itself, however, makes few internal claims toward an identifiable author—the title is a latter addition to the manuscript tradition, and the only self-referential attributions are to a character identified as “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (see 13:23, 19:26, 20:2, 21:7, 21:20), or, more traditionally, the “beloved disciple.” Some scholars have called into question the identification of John as the author, suggesting instead that the gospel might hail from a later period of early Christian development, perhaps from another author in the Johannine circle. The evidence in either direction is not strong enough to make a firm conclusion, so one can find scholars across the spectrum defending multiple positions on the authorship question.
Tied to the question of the gospel’s authorship is that of the date of its composition. Early Christian sources suggest that it was the last of the four gospels to be written, sometime in the latter decades of the first century CE. Some 20th-century scholars, skeptical of these traditions and believing that John’s gospel represented a significantly later development in Christology, suggested dates of composition in the mid-to-late second century. Recent research, however, has moderated that theory, and the mainstream scholarly position has returned to a composition date in the late first century or at the turn of the second century. (A small group of contemporary scholars would advocate for an even earlier date, a pre-70 CE composition.) Internal textual evidence shows that the gospel’s author had intimate knowledge of the geography and culture of first-century Palestine, but beyond that the text offers little information with which to pinpoint a date.
Historical Context
The Gospel of John is tightly focused on a period of just a few years, sometime around 30 CE (the exact dates of Jesus’s ministry are a subject of scholarly debate, but it is generally assessed as being three years long and falling somewhere in the window of 27-34 CE). All of the gospel’s events take place in Roman-occupied provinces in the eastern Mediterranean, inhabited by populations of Jews and Samaritans (a group related to Jews) who had lived in the area for centuries. Most of the story is set either in Galilee, a northern part of the region, or in Judea, in the central highlands of Jerusalem.
During this period of history, the Jewish people were in a difficult and unsettled situation. Over the previous five centuries, they had gone through the experience of exile under a foreign empire (Babylon), a restoration and rebuilding under another empire (Persia), waves of occupation by later powers (the Greek Syrian Seleucids and the Greek Egyptian Ptolemies), a brief period of independence after a violent upheaval led by the Maccabees, and finally a subjugation under the growing power of Rome. Roman sovereignty over the Jews was exercised partly by Rome’s own governors and partly through the puppet rule of an Idumaean dynasty called the Herodians. Both the Romans and Idumaeans were largely despised by the Jewish people, although some prominent Jewish families and religious authorities cooperated with the occupiers. Several Jewish sects arose during this period, including the Pharisees (a sect marked by a rigorously pious observance of the Old Testament law), the Sadducees (an influential group represented by many priestly leaders), the Zealots (who were devoted to the expulsion of the Romans, by violence if necessary), and the Essenes (a quasi-monastic, ascetic expression of Judaism). Amid this fervid mix of sects and perspectives on occupation, much of the populace harbored hopes that the messianic leader promised in the Old Testament would soon arise and deliver them.
Religious Context
The Gospel of John is a foundational text in the development of Christianity, which arose from a first-century Jewish context and quickly grew to encompass a multi-ethnic movement of believers in Jesus as the Messiah. The four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, provide the New Testament’s record of the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and are of such importance in the Christian tradition that their four authors are described with the special title of “Evangelists” and often depicted in paintings, illuminated manuscripts, and stained-glass windows. John the Evangelist is usually rendered with the symbol of an eagle.
The importance of the Gospel of John can be seen in its eloquent defense of Jesus’s divine identity. While other parts of the New Testament make similar claims about Jesus, the Gospel of John contains the clearest and most varied examples of the divinity of Jesus, providing a foundation for fundamental Christian beliefs. The gospel depicts Jesus as the pre-existent Word of God, the Son of God, one with God the Father, the light of the world, the good shepherd, the living water, and the bread of life. The Gospel of John is also among the most important New Testament books in establishing the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, as it devotes significant attention to the interrelationship between Jesus, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit. It also portrays the crucifixion of Jesus as a salvific act and the pinnacle of Jesus’s messianic work, in harmony with the rest of the New Testament.
