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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.
Key Figures
Jesus
Jesus is the central character of the Gospel of John, traditionally referred to with the title “Christ” (which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew term “Messiah”). While other gospels describe his supernatural birth to Mary and his adoptive father, Joseph, the Gospel of John takes up the story of Jesus when he is an adult, ready to begin his public ministry. He comes from the town of Nazareth in Galilee, and his ministry is marked by the performance of healing miracles and supernatural feats, as well as by long episodes of his teaching to the crowds. Jesus’s words and actions are so startling that he inspires passionate belief, confusion, and hostility in nearly equal measures throughout the gospel. He is presented as bold, compassionate, and exceptionally wise, a compelling figure to both his friends and his enemies. Along the way, he gathers a group of 12 disciples around him, the most frequently mentioned being Simon Peter, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Judas Iscariot, and the beloved disciple, presumably John.
The gospel also portrays him as a divine hero, both in the narration and in Jesus’s own words. He is clearly identified as the Messiah for whom the Jews have been waiting, but more besides: as the sacrificial lamb of God whose blood takes away the sins of the world; as the pre-existent Word of God, through whom all creation was brought into being; and as the light of the world, the living water, and the bread of life. Jesus frequently comments on his own relationship with God the Father, expressing a unity so intimate that he can claim complete oneness with the Father. He is also presented as the one through whom the Holy Spirit is given to the community of disciples.
The climax of Jesus’s story comes in the events of his crucifixion and resurrection. Arrested by temple guards and taken first to an interrogation before the high priest, Jesus is then turned over to the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, who bends to the will of the mob and allows Jesus to be beaten, crucified, and killed. After Jesus’s death, he is buried, but when Jesus’s followers return to his tomb a few days later, they are startled to find that he has risen from the dead. The resurrected Jesus meets with his followers in several different episodes before the close of the gospel, both in Jerusalem and Galilee. Although the Gospel of John only alludes to what happens after these resurrection appearances, other New Testament texts relate that Jesus ascends into heaven.
John
According to the other gospels, John, the son of Zebedee, was one of Jesus’s 12 disciples. He was a leader of the early church in its first few years along with his brother James, also a disciple. The two brothers were fishermen working on the Sea of Galilee before accepting Jesus as their rabbi and following his ministry. The Gospel of John, however, does not mention either brother by name, despite the gospel being attributed to John’s own authorship. (It does mention two other Johns, however, who should not be confused with the disciple—John the Baptist and Peter’s father, John.) Intriguingly, though, the gospel does regularly feature an unnamed disciple, who along with Andrew is a follower of John the Baptist before becoming Jesus’s disciple, and in other places it refers to a character simply called “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (see 13:23, 19:26, 20:2, 21:7, 21:20). Both the unnamed disciple of John the Baptist and the one called “the disciple whom Jesus loved” are traditionally taken to be John, the son of Zebedee, who out of authorial modesty declines to include his own name. (Not all scholars agree with the first identification, suggesting that the unnamed disciple of John the Baptist might be Philip instead.) The identification of John as the disciple whom Jesus loved is made more likely by the beloved disciple’s closeness with Peter, which matches John’s close association with Peter in other New Testament texts (see Matthew 17:1; Mark 5:37; 14:33; Luke 22:8; Acts 3:1; 8:14; Galatians 2:9).
The character of the beloved disciple is marked by virtues of companionship and compassion. He is obviously someone who has a close friendship with Jesus, and is almost always portrayed in the context of his relationships, primarily with Jesus and with Peter. Perhaps the most poignant scene, though, is that in which Jesus commits his mother into the beloved disciple’s care, illustrating the high regard he has for that disciple.
Peter
Peter is the lead figure among Jesus’s 12 disciples in all four gospels, and in the Gospel of John he is the most frequently mentioned disciple. His given name is Simon, but Jesus gives him the nickname of Peter (Cephas in Aramaic, meaning “rock”); as such he is often referred to in the text as Simon Peter. According to the New Testament, Peter was a fisherman working on the Sea of Galilee before being called to follow Jesus. The Gospel of John relates Peter’s first encounter with Jesus, when his brother Andrew invites him to come and meet the person whom John the Baptist has hailed as the Messiah. The other gospels relate a subsequent story, in which Jesus comes across Peter at work along the shoreline and invites him to become a disciple. In all the gospels, Peter is portrayed as a loyal disciple and a good leader, though prone to outbursts.
Despite his loyalty and closeness to Jesus, Peter ends up denying three times that he has any knowledge of Jesus or any association with him in the hours after his arrest. This sets up a scene of restoration after Jesus’s resurrection, when Jesus walks with Peter along the shore of the Sea of Galilee and invites him three times to pledge his love. Jesus commissions Peter in that scene to “feed [his] sheep” (21:17), which foreshadows the leading role Peter will have in the formation and administration of the early church in Jerusalem.
The Pharisees and Temple Authorities
The Pharisees and temple authorities are often cast as the antagonists in the Gospel of John, as they represent the main body of religious leaders who ultimately arrange Jesus’s arrest and conviction. Some of those authorities are mentioned by name, such as Annas and Caiaphas, high-ranking priestly figures, but many others are simply referred to as “the Jews” (by which John means to indicate Jewish leaders, who were at that time involved in the administration of the temple and the coordination of local policies with the Roman administration’s oversight). Many of the temple authorities were associated with the sect of the Sadducees, which tended to be positively inclined toward working with the Romans, but John notes that in many instances Pharisees were also arrayed against Jesus, sometimes in league with the Sadducee-affiliated temple authorities, despite the theological rivalry between the two sects.
The Pharisees and other authorities grow in their resentment of Jesus throughout the narrative of the gospel. In the beginning, some figures are sympathetic toward him, as is illustrated in Nicodemus’s interest in his teachings. As the story progresses, however, Jesus violates the Pharisees’ strict observance of the Old Testament law by doing such things as healing a man on the Sabbath, which is meant to be a day of rest. Jesus also irritates the religious authorities, particularly those based in Jerusalem, by boldly teaching on his own divine identity and by stirring up messianic hopes, thus drawing people’s attention away from the temple and its rituals. Ultimately, these resentments build up to the point where the temple authorities feel that they have no choice but to act against Jesus, and they do this by partnering with Judas Iscariot, who betrays Jesus’s location on the night of the Passover festival. The authorities arrest him, try him, and turn him over to Pontius Pilate for conviction as a criminal. It is made clear in John’s treatment of Jesus’s trial that he holds the Jewish religious leaders more responsible for Jesus’s death than he does the Romans. Nonetheless, some Jewish leaders, such as Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, continue to be portrayed in a sympathetic light after Jesus’s death, and Jesus is even buried in Joseph’s tomb.
