John 15:1-10 The genre of John is The Gospels. The interpretive principals are: The Gospels are narratives. We should always think about the broader sweep of the narrative when we read, constantly relating the various events and teaching to those that precede and follow them. The Gospels demand some background information regarding history and culture. It is more relevant to understand the culture, values, and worldview of the people on the pages of the Gospels than to know the specific author or recipients. The focus of the Gospels is on Jesus, not on us. Our tendency in our reading of the Gospels is to reduce them primarily to sources of insight about ourselves. One of the primary goals of the Gospel writers is to prove that Jesus is the Messiah, not to prove that He is God. All of Jesus’ miracles attest the fact that He is the Messiah, the Anointed One who was long prophesied and long awaited by the people of Israel. With four different Gospels, we should do comparisons of the various Gospel accounts when appropriate. While all four Gospels share the central focus on Jesus, each writer nevertheless has the distinctive emphasis regarding the person of Christ. We must avoid the temptation to blur one Gospel account together with the other Gospels when they contain the same story. And we need to understand the centrality of the kingdom of God in the Gospels. Living obediently as a citizen of the kingdom presupposes our correct understanding of its nature. The sub-genre of
The post presents a clearly defined explanation of Jewish traditions and culture in the Book of John. Correctly stated, the use of the term “the Word” plainly displays an entity that is more than just mortal. Jewish scripture accurately predicts a messiah that was eternal. John’s explanation of “the Word” plainly lays out the fact that He was existent from all eternity. (TOWNES X). Furthermore, in John’s Gospel care is taken to provide chronological timeline by identifying Jewish holidays. Especially unique is John’s mention of the Feast of Tabernacles. Customs such as the wedding at Cana and the agrarian references to sheepherding assume the reader would be familiar with a particular way of life. Continuing, the notice of John’s
The two Gospels that I 've decided to compare are Luke and John. Luke is considered a Synoptic Gospel and presents the human side of Jesus. Luke takes us through the longer version of his birth and his childhood and focuses on the humanity of Jesus. There was a debate in this story whether or not Jesus was human and raised many question to potential followers. Many said that Jesus was just a spirit but by reading Luke, there was great detail of his humanity. Luke directed this book directly to Gentiles and focused more on the teachings and miracles that Jesus created rather than the law. Stated in the text, Luke’s Gospel also depicts more clearly the way in which the proclamation of the kingdom of God and the accompanying mighty works of Jesus brought the benefits of salvation to marginalized people. Luke also highlights the concern of Jesus for the materially poor, and the duty of his followers to be free from love of possession and to give generously to those in need. John was considered a different story in the Bible and in the Gospel. It was the last story of the Gospels and does not repeat any of the other stories from Matthew, Mark, or Luke. John had the opportunity to see the gospel and its affect it had and based that off the
In the Bible, the parable of the Lost Son tells the story of how a father’s son “got together all he had, set off for a distant country and [squandered his wealth in wild living]. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. (New International Version Luke 15: 11-32) With nothing to eat, he had no choice but to return to his father in shame. The son was fearful his reputation with his father was ruined, and that he would be forced to work as a slave to his father. However, the father was cheerful he had returned and celebrated with a party. The son’s reputation was not ruined and was instead restored with his
John presents a very different Jesus compared to the synoptic gospels. It is clear that for John Jesus has many complex elements to his personality and without all of these the picture is not complete. The above quote by Käsemann suggests that in the gospel of John Jesus’ divinity is definite and his presence is felt on the entire world through his words and actions. This allows for the human Jesus but implies the divine Jesus is imperative.
The Gospel of John, the last of the four gospels in the Bible, is a radical departure from the simple style of the synoptic gospels. It is the only one that does not use parables as a way of showing how Jesus taught, and is the only account of several events, including the raising of Lazarus and Jesus turning water into wine. While essentially the gospel is written anonymously, many scholars believe that it was written by the apostle John sometime between the years 85 and 95 CE in Ephesus. The basic story is that of a testimonial of one of the Apostles and his version of Jesus' ministry. It begins by telling of the divine origins of the birth of Jesus, then goes on to prove that He is the Son of
John as we know today was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus. He was also the brother of James, who was also an apostle. John was the son of Zeebee and of Salome. His father was a fisherman while living in Bethsaida in Galilee on the border of the lake Gennesareth. John's mother was one of many women who gave to the maintenance of Jesus Christ. John's parents were very good people, they loved God and his son. It is said that john and his brother James were fishing when Jesus came and chose them. They were soon known as the fishers of men. The John of whom I am talking about is John the Evangelist.
While numerous scholars say that John is the Gospel to the world (and Matthew to the Jews, Mark to the Romans, and Luke to the Greeks), a Jewish scholar such as Israel Abrahams might very well believe that the Gospel of John is the most Jewish Gospel of the four by the way it reflects Jewish traditions and symbolisms. According to David Wenham[i], there is more attention given to Jesus as the Messiah in the Gospel of John than in any of other Gospels. In John, from chapter one onwards people are directly talking about Jesus as Messiah, and then there is intense public debate about whether Jesus is Messiah or not in John 7:25-31, 41-44[ii], which indicates that John is quite mindful of Jewish issues.
In the Men of the Word video L4.1 (2013) Rick Yohn broke down the Gospels, with Matthew representing Jesus as King of the Jews or the Son of David, in Mark as a servant, in Luke as the Son of Man, and in John as God (CCU CAGS). In Matthew, the idea of Jesus as the King of the Jews was to establish His royal lineage and let the Jews know that He is the Messiah who will occupy David’s throne. The style of Mark focused more on Jesus’ deeds to represent His servant-like attitude to live out His Father’s will. Gundry (2012) mentioned how His miracles demonstrated the power over nature, the demonic world, and death (p. 162), possibly to reiterate to the Romans His authority. The use of parables in Luke offered a literary means for people to better understand Jesus’ role as a human, in that He could relate to everyone. Gundry (2012) illustrated this by stating, “Luke thus portrays Jesus as a cosmopolitan Savior with broad sympathies, one who mingles with all sorts of people…” (p. 239). As for John, he aimed to show the omnipotence of Jesus, For He was the eternal God. His Gospel right away established Jesus’ connection to God when it stated, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1, NKJV). Jesus’ different roles were indicative of the different characters of God, and gave just a glimpse at who our Heavenly Father
Johannine literature truly portrays Jesus as God, with the theme of His deity interwoven throughout numerous passages. In this respect, John’s style differs from the other four gospels, as Bickel & Jantz (1998) point out that the other three had been written prior to John’s gospel, therefore, “he wasn’t interested in just retelling the events” (p. 222). Since Jesus is the focal point of Scripture, a scholar of the New Testament with uncertainty concerning Jesus’ oneness with God will fail to perceive the crux of Christianity. Therefore, in spite of its importance, John does not focus on Jesus’ entrance into the
The Gospel of John differs in many key areas to the Synoptics,and I will address some differing lines of thought.
The new testament contains four (4) accounts of the story of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection as presented by Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, The 3 accounts are similar, while Johns bible presents Jesus in a unique way. These differences exist because Matthew and Luke got their information from Mark and John got his information from another source, maybe John did not have access to the other gospels or he chose not to use them. No one really knows the source of John’s gospel and we don’t know for sure who wrote the gospels. Scholars refer to the authors as Matthew, Mark, Luke & John, this may not even be their real names. The Gospel were not first hand accounts except for Mark. John did not seem to have known the existence of the other
In the faith of Christianity, their are four distinct disciples of gospel accounts. Each of the four gospels has its own unique contribution to shaping a precise picture of Jesus. Scholars have contributed a great deal to the understanding of the circumstances of their writing, along with the intentions of their authors. Their are two groups to which the gospels are separated by. The synoptic gospels and the gospel of John. Their are critical differences between these two groups when comparing the historical aspects. They are all differentiated by very tiny detail, but all of them tend to show prove how one was used to write the other. First will be the differences between the two groups. Second will be the the similarities between the synoptic gospels and the gospel of John.
The Gospel of John tells of Christ’s ministry in a behind the scenes fashion, as being a follower of Christ. It tells of the miracles Jesus performs and the meaning to his miracles as God’s presence is with him, as well as, the glorification of Jesus, his crucifixion, and towards the end, his resurrection. Appearing to his disciples, telling them of the news of the Kingdom of God. “As The Father sent me, I send you.” (John 20:21) Why would John write this version so differently from the others?
The gospel of John does not have the birth story of Jesus as it is documented in the Synoptic gospels instead refers Christ as eternal word which became flesh. Gospel of John lacks records of Jesus’ Baptism by John the Baptist but instead records his baptism activities hence contradicting role of John the Baptist in Jesus’ Baptism. Another difference of gospel of John from the synoptic gospels is that there is no indication of temptation of Jesus by Satan but records that Jesus could not be tempted because of his unity with the Father. John indicates that Jesus taught without parables something contradicts synoptic gospels. There is no accounts of apocalypse in the gospel of John but instead indicates that Jesus completed his messianic role (Harris, 2014).
The Gospel According to Matthew is the first book of the New Testament in the Bible, and is a Gospel narrative. The narratives provided by the Gospels in the New Testament are here to provide us with descriptions of the life, death, and resurrection of our savior Jesus Christ, as well as to share His teachings. Like any other narrative, it is important to understand the historical and literary contexts surrounding the Gospel of Matthew, as well as the importance and significance of Matthew itself. As a Gospel, Matthew is here to present us with the narrative of Jesus Christ as our Messiah, as promised in the Old Testament Prophesy. While it is important to evaluate the extensive context surrounding the narrative of Matthew, the meaning behind the narrative can be found through relating it to the various events that are described in the other Gospels. By comparing the Gospels, it is easy to evaluate the underlying meaning and significance, within the context of the Gospels. Because the Gospels were written as narratives to provide us with information on the life and death of Jesus Christ, and all that happened in between, it is important to compare the different accounts described in the Gospels whenever possible. In doing so, it is possible to examine the Gospels within the appropriate context. With 4 Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John), it is important to compare them with one another in order to further evaluate the importance of Jesus Christ, as he is the