One of the foremost students of the books of the New Testament—a man well versed in the original languages spoken at the time when those books were written, has said that the Gospel of John is “a work which, in thought, scheme and execution, takes rank as the greatest literary production of the New Testament, and the greatest religious monument of all time.” Another writer has described the Fourth Gospel as the most wonderful book ever written. It will therefore be a matter of interest to all sincere readers of it, to ascertain who was the author, where and under what circumstances it was written, and what were the religious ideas which prevailed at the time.
In the first place, then, who was it who wrote the Fourth Gospel? The traditional view, long held by the majority of Christians, is that it was the Apostle John, the brother of James, the son of Zebedee. The author refers to himself, in the gospel, as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” Of course, the fact that he was a “disciple” does not in itself prove that he was one of the Twelve. But in support of the idea that he was actually the Apostle John it may be said that he never refers to Christ’s forerunner as “John the Baptist"—as the other gospel writers do—but simply as “John.” The other writers would naturally discriminate between the two Johns; but to the second John—the Apostle—there would be only one John to write about, and there would be no need to add the words “the Baptist"—to distinguish him. However probable is the idea that the author was indeed the Apostle—the son of Zebedee—who accompanied Jesus along with the other eleven throughout his ministry—there are certain difficulties in the way of accepting it fully. One of these is, that whereas the Synoptists devote a large part of their narratives to the ministry of Jesus in Galilee, the Fourth Gospel is chiefly concerned with the ministry of Jesus in Judaea and Jerusalem. An attractive theory, put forward by certain students of this gospel is that the author was not one of the Twelve, but a young Jerusalemite disciple, who was admitted to the inner circle whenever Jesus was in Jerusalem, and especially during the closing weeks of Our Lord’s public ministry. This would account for the gospel being mainly concerned with the Judaean ministry. Whoever he was, he was certainly a Jew, and a Jew of Palestine. He had first-hand knowledge of the topography of Palestine, especially of Jerusalem; and also of the customs of the Jews, and the traditions of the Priests and the Rabbis. And, al chough he wrote his Gospel in Greek, the cast of his thought and of his language is certainly Hebraic. The literary style and wording of his Gospel is so much Hebraic, that a certain Oriental scholar, well versed in Hebrew and Aramaic, namely Dr. C. F. Burney, has advanced the idea that this Fourth Gospel was originally written in Aramaic, and was later on translated into Greek. I have read this scholar’s book, entitled The Aramaic Origin of the Fourth Gospel, and he certainly makes out a good case. It is almost certain that the author wrote this Gospel at Ephesus, for the special benefit of Gentile Christians. Several of the early Fathers vouch for this fact—and this brings us to the enquiry as to the circumstances under which it was written, and the aim of the author in writing it.
There is no doubt that Ephesus, at that time, was a city in which met various religious cults, and various philosophical ideas; and the fact that John makes use, in the introduction to the Gospel, of a certain Greek word which was in common use among the philosophers, has led students to suppose that it was with special reference to the philosophy of the time that the Fourth Gospel was written.
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Author: P. Wale
Keywords: book of John, gospel of John, Logos, Word, Jesus Word, Word became flesh, word made flesh, Jesus logos, in the beginning was the word, word incarnate, Jesus incarnate, god incarnate, John's gospel
Bible reference(s): John 1
Source: “The Historical Background of the Gospel of John,” The Testimony, Vol. 16, No. 192, December 1946, pp. 319-23.
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