What is the narrative of John's Gospel?

Answer 1

Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

Answer 2

A:The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke are called synoptic gospels, because they are reasonably consistent in their content. John's Gospel differs significantly from the other three. The essentials are there, especially the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, but are told very differently than in any of the other New Testament gospels.

Whereas the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) say that Jesus was the Son of God, John's Gospel equates him to the Greek Logos, or Word: "In the beginning was the Word..." (John 1:1) and says that Jesus was fully divine and pre-existing from the beginning. The author seems unwilling to describe John the Baptist as actually baptising the divine Jesus, and so omits this scene, although those familiar with the synoptic version would infer from John's Gospel that Jesus was baptised.

The synoptic gospels had given the 'Cleansing of the Temple' as the final trigger for the arrest of Jesus, but for theological reasons the author of John wanted to make the resurrection of Lazarus the final trigger. He therefore moved the Cleansing of the Temple out of the way, to the beginning of his story, almost immediately after Jesus met John the Baptist. In this story, Jesus drove out of the Temple those who sold birds for sacrifice, and overturned the tables of the moneychangers (John ch 2).

John's Gospel can be shown to have been based loosely on the Gospel of Luke. Luke mentions Mary and Martha as friends of Jesus, but deals with Lazarus separately in a parable about death and resurrection (Luke ch 16). John treats Lazarus as a real person, brother of Mary and Martha, and really has Jesus resurrect him (John ch 11).

John seems to have wanted to demonstrate that anything the pagan gods could do, Jesus could also do. Just as the Greek god Dionysis could turn water into wine, so coud Jesus (John ch 2). Just as the Greek god Asclepius could heal the sick in his temple at the sheep market outside Jerusalem, so could Jesus (John ch 5). The Bible refers to the visiting god as an angel, but archaeologists have actually found the temple and the pool with five porches and confirmed that it was dedicated to Asclepius.

The author of John seems to have been concerned about the excessive veneration of Peter in the early second-century Church. He went about correcting this by comparing him unfavourably several times with another disciple, the 'disciple whom Jesus loved'. Whereas Luke has Peter run alone to the sepulchre and find it empty, John has the two disciples run to the tomb, with the other disciple outrunning Peter and arriving there first.

Luke has the risen Jesus meet all eleven remaining disciples at a meal in the upper room, but John splits this into two separate meetings in order to introduce the episode of 'doubting Thomas'. Luke also has a minor episode before the death of Jesus, in which he tells the fishermen to cast their nets on the other side, and they caught a huge load of fish; Johntransfers this story to the period after the resurrection and makes it an important final meeting between Jesus and the disciples. In this final scene, Jesus asks Peter what is it to him if Jesus tarry with the disciple whom he loves.

Origen, in defending John's Gospel, said "Although he does not always tell the truth literally, he always tells it spiritually" (Origen, Commentary on John).

Answer 3

The main message of the Gospel of John is that Jesus was and is the Son of God and God Himself.