John, who wrote this gospel, was ‘the disciple whom Jesus loved’. As a young man he experienced over three years of close companionship with Jesus of Nazareth, yet he chose to write the gospel at the end of his life, towards the close of the first century. As best we can tell, he wrote it from the city of Ephesus, where he settled after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 AD. John does not retrace the events recorded in the ‘synoptic’ gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke); rather, he tells us his reason for writing: “Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20 v 30, 31).
Each of the Gospels emphasizes a different origin of Jesus: Matthew shows Jesus came from Abraham through David, and demonstrates that he is the Messiah promised in the Old Testament (Matthew 1 v 1 to 17); Mark shows Jesus came from Nazareth, demonstrating that he is a servant (Mark 1 v 9); Luke shows Jesus came from Adam, showing Jesus to be the perfect man (Luke 3 v 23 to 38); John shows Jesus came from heaven, demonstrating that Jesus is God. The first three Gospels focus on what Jesus taught and did: John focuses more on who Jesus is.
John shows us who Jesus is by highlighting seven ‘signs’ (miracles) of Jesus, six of which are not mentioned in the first three gospels. John shows us who Jesus is by allowing Jesus to speak for himself in seven dramatic ‘I am’ statements, which were not included in the first three gospels. The Gospel of John has even helped scholarly sceptics to believe: the oldest surviving fragment of the New Testament is a portion of John 18, found in Egypt and dating well before 150 AD, indicating wide circulation by that early date.
John’s father was Zebedee. John’s mother was Salome, one of those to go to the tomb early on the morning the resurrection of Jesus was discovered. John’s older brother was James. John was a partner in the fishing business with Peter. John and his brother James were given the nickname ‘Sons of Thunder’.
John begins his gospel by asking the question: ‘Who is Jesus — really? Where did he come from?’ Verses 1 to 18 contain a summary of John’s most profound convictions about Jesus. They focus on this central fact: Christianity is not a philosophy; it is about a person, Jesus. He is central to the Christian faith. To take Jesus out of Christianity is like taking numbers out of mathematics, or taking doctors out of medicine, or like trying to think of daylight without the sun…
The Gospel of John is a beloved gospel. Because of its paradoxical combination of both simplicity and depth, John has been called ‘a pool in which a child may wade and an elephant may swim’.