The rest of the New Testament had been completed for more than two decades. Peter and Paul were both dead and the Jerusalem temple had long since been destroyed. Nearly all of the first generation of Christians had died. In the final decade of the first century, the last surviving eyewitness to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ took his pen in hand to write the last books of the New Testament.
He wrote the gospel of John first, followed in the next few years by three short epistles. Last of all, while in exile on the island of Patmos during the reign of Emperor Domitian, he penned the book of Revelation. All commentators recognize that John’s gospel is quite a bit different in its approach and subject matter than Matthew’s, Mark’s and Luke’s—earlier writings called the “synoptic gospels” because they follow a similar outline and describe many of the same events.
Why is John’s gospel different? After all those years, what was the need for yet another gospel—and for three short letters added to the canon of Scripture? The book of Revelation, of course, is in its own category and worth discussing elsewhere. This article, however, will show that when we look carefully at John’s gospel, its purpose is clear and its timing is very significant.
Second century testimony about John’s writings can be found in the works of Irenaeus (ca. 120–202ad), who grew up in the area of Smyrna and later lived in Rome and in Lyons. In his book Against Heresies, Irenaeus mentioned that in his youth he had known Polycarp, a church leader in Asia Minor who had personally known and been taught by the Apostle John. Irenaeus preserved the information, also confirmed by other ancient sources, that John came to Ephesus near the time of Jerusalem’s fall in 70ad, and in the early 90s was exiled to the island of Patmos on the order of Emperor Domitian. After the emperor’s death in 96ad, John returned to Ephesus, where he died in approximately 98ad, shortly after the beginning of the Emperor Trajan’s reign. He had written Revelation while on Patmos (Revelation 1:9); he had evidently written his other books before his exile.
Why did John believe it necessary to write yet another gospel account? Simply put, the situation had greatly changed since the other accounts had been written in the 50s and 60s. A new generation had come on the scene and new heresies were creeping in. After the destruction of Jerusalem in 70ad, the church population was no longer centered in Galilee and Judea, but in predominantly Gentile areas. Yet John in a special way addressed both Gentile and Jewish concerns in his gospel. Paul stated in 1 Corinthians 1:22 that the Jews were seeking signs while the Greeks were looking for wisdom. John emphasized both in his writing. He showed that the wisdom the Greeks sought through philosophy was really revealed only in Jesus Christ. He also showed that “the signs of Messiahship” that the Jews claimed to want were displayed by Jesus—and by Him alone.
John demonstrated that what both Jews and Greeks claimed to be searching for could only be realized in the person and the message of Jesus of Nazareth. He also made clear to the increasingly Gentile church that Jesus Christ had revealed His gospel in the context of the Holy Days. Nearly all of John’s gospel is organized around the actions and teachings of Christ during selected festival seasons throughout His ministry. Far from “doing away” with the Holy Days, Christ’s entire message was revealed in the context of Holy Day themes. John provided a last witness to those who would arise in the early years of the second century and promote their own ideas.
In the time immediately following John’s death, both Jews and Christians were confronted with serious choices. History shows that many Jews, urged on by leaders such as the priest Eleazer and Rabbi Akiva, accepted a false Messiah in the person of Bar Kokhba and launched the Second Jewish Revolt (132–135ad). “The suppression of the revolt all but depopulated Judaea and thereafter Jews could enter Jerusalem but once a year” (An Encyclopedia of World History, William Langer, editor; 1968 edition; p. 124). During the same period, the professing Christian church increasingly went after heresies centered in Rome that sought to label the law as “Jewish” and no longer binding upon Christians. The influence of Gentile converts with a background in Greek philosophy and Platonic thought also set the stage for serious third-century heresies concerning the nature of God. Many of the generation to whom John originally wrote were confronted by these circumstances and were forced to make decisions accordingly.
Themes in the Gospel of John
The Greek word for “believe” occurs 98 times in John’s gospel, far more than in any other book of the New Testament. At the conclusion of his gospel, stating his very purpose for writing, John emphasized that he had written so “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life” (John 20:31). He made the same point, in very similar words, in his first epistle (1 John 5:13). John made plain that Jesus the Messiah is the source of life and that only through Him is real life available.
The Greeks placed much emphasis on wisdom and knowledge. Those influenced by philosophical schools such as Plato’s thought that a proper understanding of God and spiritual truths could be arrived at through proper logic. They believed that men could reason themselves from darkness to light. John emphasized at the very beginning of his gospel that true knowledge of God and the spiritual realm is only available through the One who knew firsthand and had come to reveal that knowledge to mankind. Jesus Christ declared or revealed the Father (John 1:18).
In fact, John’s gospel records Jesus speaking of the Father more than do the other three gospels combined. While first-century intellectuals, influenced by Greek philosophical thought, viewed the supreme God as remote and unknowable, John made plain that the Father was very knowable as a result of Jesus Christ’s ministry. John explained that Jesus alone had seen the Father (5:46), that He came from Heaven to do the Father’s will (5:38) and that He knew the Father just as completely as the Father knew Him (10:15). Christ’s bold assertion that He and the Father were one—were totally unified in outlook and approach—prompted His Jewish listeners to pick up rocks and try to stone Him (10:30–31).
John also used the word truth more than all other New Testament writers combined. In his gospel, as well as in his three epistles, he emphasized again and again that Jesus Christ came to reveal the truth. John recorded that, when Jesus was on trial before Pilate, He explained that He had come to “bear witness of the truth” (John 18:37). Not only did Jesus bear witness of the truth, He came as the light of the world to illuminate the truth! John’s gospel made plain for wisdom-seeking Greeks that absolute truth is knowable, but can only be known as a result of divine revelation, not through philosophic speculation and reasoning.
Just as the Greeks looked to wisdom as proof, the Jews looked to signs. The New Testament uses three words to refer to miracles. One word refers to wonders or miraculous events. Another means power and is often used to emphasize the miraculous power employed by God’s servants. The third Greek term—semeion—literally means “sign,” and refers to miracles in the context that they are signs or evidence. John consistently uses this term rather than the other two, though most English translations obscure his choice by rendering semeion sometimes as the English word “miracle” and sometimes as “sign.” In his gospel, John records signs so his readers might know that Jesus was the true Messiah and Son of God.
Signs of the Messiah
John actually calls attention to seven miraculous signs performed by Jesus, though he emphasized that Jesus did many others that he did not record in his gospel account (John 20:30). John 2:11 provides a starting point by stating that Jesus’ turning the water into wine at the wedding feast in Cana was the beginning of the signs (the Greek term here is properly rendered “sign” rather than “miracle”) that He did. In fact, we are told that in doing so He manifested His glory—and His disciples believed on Him.
While Jesus performed a number of unnamed signs during the first Passover season of His ministry (John 2:23), John emphasizes the healing of the nobleman’s son as the second sign he was recording (John 4:54). This gives us the clue that John is describing only selected miracles—recording them as signs that point to Jesus as the Messiah. Counting onward through John’s gospel, we find five other such signs detailed. John 5:2–16 records a third miraculous sign: the healing of a crippled man on the Sabbath. John 6:4–14 records a fourth sign: feeding of the 5,000 with loaves and fishes. John 9 tells of a fifth sign: restoring sight to a man blind from birth. John 11 tells of a sixth sign: the raising of Lazarus from the dead.
What was the seventh sign? None other than the one Jesus had promised the religious leaders when they asked, at the beginning of His ministry, for a sign to validate His authority. The seventh sign was that, after three days and three nights in the tomb, He would be raised up in power and glory (John 2:18–19).
What is the special significance of these signs? How do they point in a unique way to Jesus’ Messiahship? Ultimately, the Messiah is the only One who can meet all of Israel’s needs. All other attempts to do so will eventually end in failure and disappointment. Jesus began to reveal Himself to His disciples when, at the wedding feast in Cana, He turned water into wine. This occasion of celebration and joy was threatened with being cut short; it could only continue because of a miracle of conversion or transformation—the changing of one substance into something else. The true Messiah is Israel’s source of true joy and celebration because He is the only One able to bring real change and transformation.
By the second recorded sign, John emphasized that the Messiah is the source of healing for Israel, the One through whom the sick can be made well. The third sign, also a healing, emphasized that the crippled man was impotent or powerless. The Messiah is the only one who can restore power and strength to Israel. In recording the fourth sign—feeding the 5,000—John showed that the Messiah is the only source for assuaging Israel’s hunger. Jesus Christ not only fed Israel physically, but also offered Himself as the bread of life, the only way to assuage their spiritual hunger. The fifth sign—giving sight to the blind—showed another aspect of the Messiah’s special role. Only through the Messiah can the spiritual blindness besetting Israel, and indeed the whole world, be removed. He alone can enable the people to see.
The sixth sign showed that not only is the Messiah the source of joy, health, strength, nourishment and sight; He is also the source of life! John 11 describes Jesus’ raising Lazarus from the dead, which convinced the Jewish religious leaders that they must take action to “get” Jesus (John 11:46–53). They were afraid that these signs would convince the common people that Jesus Christ was the Messiah, provoking a Roman crackdown and costing them both their special status and indeed their very nation. Ironically, it was their rejection of the signs of Jesus’ Messiahship that brought upon them the very outcome that they feared!
The seventh sign recorded in John’s gospel was the culmination of everything that identified Jesus as the Messiah. Jesus Christ announced in advance that not only would He voluntarily lay down His life for the sheep; He would also take up His life again. He alone had authority from the Father to carry out such an unheard of action (John 10:15, 17–18).
These signs, John declared, were recorded so that his readers would know that Jesus was the Messiah and the Son of God—and so that by believing on Him they might have life.
Holy Days and the Gospel
John also focused on Jesus Christ’s words and actions in the context of God’s annual festivals. Leaving aside many of the details recorded in the other gospel accounts, John used Jesus’ words, spoken in the context of seven different festivals during His ministry, to reveal the gospel.
John 2:13 calls attention to the first Passover of Jesus’ ministry. The cleansing of the temple, the miraculous signs performed during the festival period and the ensuing private discussion with Nicodemus marked the beginning of His public ministry. In this context, He spoke of His future crucifixion and of God’s love in making forgiveness possible (John 3:14–17).
John 4 opens by describing Jesus and His disciples returning to Galilee after several weeks spent baptizing new disciples. Comparing Mark 1:14 and Luke 4:14–19 with this account, we find that Jesus returned to Galilee in time to be in the Nazareth synagogue for the first Pentecost of His ministry. The Luke 4:16 term which most English-language translations render as “Sabbath day” literally means “day of the Sabbaths [or weeks]” and is a reference to Pentecost—called in the Old Testament the Feast of Weeks—as confirmed by the John 4:35 reference to the harvest being four months distant. The seventh month was the time of the Feast of Ingathering (or Tabernacles), which celebrated the completion of harvest. Four months earlier would have been the beginning of the third month, or just prior to Pentecost. John 4 tells of Jesus teaching the woman at the well in Samaria about the Holy Spirit, the river of living water and the importance of worshiping the Father in spirit and truth.
John 5 describes Jesus, in Jerusalem for an unnamed festival, giving a message emphasizing the resurrection (vv. 28–29) and His role as judge of mankind (v. 22)—which certainly points to it being given during the fall festival season. In John 6:4, we learn that the 5,000 were fed just prior to Passover, and Jesus’ subsequent teaching to many of that same group in the Capernaum synagogue (v. 59)—that He was the “bread of life”—was most likely on the first Holy Day of Unleavened Bread. John 7 records Christ’s teaching, about judging righteous judgment, that He gave during the last Feast of Tabernacles of His ministry.
Beginning in John 7:37, we have a detailed account of Christ’s activities on the Last Great Day of 30ad, the final one of His ministry. When we compare John 7:53 with John 8:1–2, we see that the account opened with the events of the evening that began this final festival, and that the ensuing events recorded in chapters 8, 9 and 10 are the activities during the daylight period of this Holy Day. Jesus used this festival to describe the time when the Holy Spirit would be available to all mankind, when sinners would be given a chance to change—to go and sin no more—and when blindness would be removed from all. These themes all relate to the Last Great Day.
John 11:55 begins the story of Christ’s final Passover. Far more than any of the other gospel writers, John records what Jesus taught His disciples on their final night together. Almost half of John’s gospel—ten out of the 21 chapters—describes events connected with this final Passover and Jesus Christ’s subsequent crucifixion and resurrection.
The gospel message Jesus proclaimed certainly did not do away with the need to obey God or to observe His annual festivals. Rather, as John made clear in this fourth and final gospel account, Jesus Christ’s life and teachings are most clearly understood in light of God’s annual festivals and their meaning.
John’s Epistles
In addition to his gospel, John wrote three short letters. By carefully noting the beginning verses of 1 John, we can discern that they were penned after his gospel. John opened his first epistle by referring to things that he had explained clearly in the opening verses of his gospel. If his readers had not previously read John 1, they would not have understood his allusions, in the opening verses of 1 John, to the Word, the One who was in the beginning, life and light.
Jesus Christ came to make things clear, or to manifest. John used the Greek word for “manifest” several times in both his first epistle and his gospel. In his short first epistle, he used the word nine times. We learn that Jesus was manifested to take away our sins and to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:5, 8), and that the Father manifested His love toward us by sending His uniquely begotten Son (4:8).
In each of his three epistles, John stressed the importance of the truth. The truth can be known—and it is something in which we must walk. John also stressed the importance of obedience to God’s commandments. Writing at a time when many claiming to be God’s people sought to de-emphasize obedience to God’s law, John emphasized that real love toward God would reflect itself in keeping His commandments (1 John 5:3; 2 John 6).
At a time when many were departing from the truth and accepting heretical ideas, John commended those who remained faithful. Some had departed from the Church and gone their own way (1 John 2:19). Others had sought to take over entire congregations and cast the true Christians out (3 John 9–10). It was a time of many antichrists (1 John 2:18). In that time of confusion, what was the answer for God’s people? “Abide in Him,” John told his readers (1 John 2:18). The word rendered “abide” or “continue in” was used throughout 1 John, as well as in John’s gospel. To “abide” in Christ is to follow His ways (1 John 2:6) and to keep his commandments (1 John 3:24). John exhorted his readers to continue faithfully in the truth that they had learned from the beginning (1 John 2:24).
This elderly Apostle, the last surviving eyewitness to all of the events of Christ’s ministry, provided a final witness in the twilight years of the first century. Only those who would take heed to that witness—and would believe the message that Jesus came from the Father to reveal—could have life. John made plain who Jesus really was: the Logos—the Word—the One who was in the beginning with God and was Himself God. He was the Lamb of God, who came to take away the sins of the world. He was the Light of the World, the Bread of Life, the True Vine and the Good Shepherd. He came to reveal the Father and to make Him knowable to His disciples. He came to bear witness of the truth. His words not only offered spirit and life, they were spirit and life (John 6:63). They still are!