The Gospel of John

Tom Wacaster

Introduction

How to study: the structure will be topical more than textual.

The theme of John is different from the synoptic: the magnificence of Jesus: open the possibility of
belief.

Author: John the apostle: “the apostle whom Jesus loved”.

Reasons:

1. He must have been a Jew: familiarity with the Old Testament. He had Jewish background.

2. First century Palestinian Jew: grasp on the political situation at the time.

3. Eye witness of Christ: plainly stated (John 1:14).

4. Apostle of Christ.

5. One of Jesus closest associates.

External evidence: Church fathers unanimously attributed the book to the apostle.

Themes:

- Christology: the centrality of the person of the Christ. The “I am” statements: the eternity
of Christ.
- Pneumatology: Most of what we know of the H.S. is from John’s Gospel.
- Soteriology: Salvation and redemption
- Eschatology: The study of the las tings.
- Truth and error.

John express the deity of Christ more than anyone else.

Chapter 1

v. 1-2: The eternal existence of Christ: en arché.

The beginning: creation.

The one of whom John is talking is different from the beginning and prior of it. It is entirely
different from all that is subjected to time. A being that is over time and which is the cause of that
beginning.

Logos: the communicative act of the Messiah. The medium in which the world is connected to
God, the self-revealing act of God through the word. There is no word outside that Word: all other
is witness to that word.

v. 3: The word at his role in creation. All things are relativized by the word: its coming into being is
mediated by the word.
Authority

Agency

Action

v. 4-9: Word life and light.

v. 4: Life refers to a soteriological concept of life: eternal life.

Light: Revelation.

As much as the creation is bound to the Word, no revelation can come from other source than the
Word: natural theology is bound to the fact that God has been self-revealed.

v. 5: The darkness could not hold to the light. Comprehend = Apprehend.

v. 6-9: the ministry and work of John.

v. 10: The stepping down from eternity into the time. The world keeps being world that is against
the nature of God.