of Jesus or his humanity, were influencing Christians, particularly the members of Johannine community. A group in Ephesus seems to have claimed John the Baptist as the Light from heaven and as the Messiah himself (cf. Acts 19:1–7).
Some believed that Jesus was the son of Joseph while Christ was a celestial aeon who descended on Jesus at the time of his baptism and left him before he was crucified. They did not accept the divinity of Jesus. This belief resembles that of Cerinthus, who possibly lived in the late first century (cf. Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. 3.3.4; 3.11.1).
The Docetists, on the other hand, claimed that Jesus Christ did not truly come in the flesh, and that his flesh was only an appearance. For them Christ only seemed to be a man. Thus the Docetists refused to accept the humanity of Jesus.
In the late first century there seems to have been followers of Gnosticism in its embryonic stage. Gnosticism claimed that people became ignorant by the influence of evil forces and that God sent his messenger to cast away their ignorance and give them salvation in terms of the knowledge (gnōsis) that they belong to the other world. Their dualistic thought led the Gnostics to reject Christ who came in flesh, presuming that a holy God cannot take up human flesh, which is evil. John argues against such teachings, saying that eternal life is possible in “knowing” the only true God who was manifested in Jesus (17:3).
1 The influence of these heresies began to threaten the love and unity that existed in the Johannine church and led the members into perplexity about the person Jesus and his teachings, particularly his teaching on end-time events. While John’s Gospel foresees a threat to the unity in the church (cf. 17:21–23), 1 John indicates that the split has already taken place (cf. 1 John 2:19).
(v) In the late first century there was an intermingling of religious and philosophical ideas; cults and philosophies influenced one another. It does not seem that John was “influenced” by Hellenistic and Gnostic ideas as such, but he uses language and ideas familiar in the religious and philosophical environment.27 John thus seems to have been written in a pluralistic context quite similar to our own time.
Why Was the Gospel of John Written?
We may now pose the question as to why John was written when the other three canonical Gospels were already in circulation.
Some suggest that John was written to supplement the Synoptic Gospels in content, chronology, and interpretation and to produce what Clement of Alexandria (ca. 150–215 CE) called “a spiritual Gospel,” as it was believed that the other three Gospels contain only the earthly aspects of Jesus’ story.28 If so, then it is difficult to explain some of the outward differences found between the Synoptic Gospels and the Fourth Gospel.
Another view is that John’s primary purpose was to replace the Synoptic Gospels by producing a Gospel par excellence that would render the others superfluous and would eventually drive them out of circulation. This idea appears dimly in the Muratorian Canon (ca. 200 CE).29 However, John widely uses the Gospel tradition, some of which appears in the Synoptic Gospels, in his writing and there is no clue that he wished to supersede the already existing Gospels. If he had planned so, then his omission of such key passages as the birth of Jesus, the Sermon on the Mount/Plain, the Synoptic parables, etc. becomes inexplicable.
Another theory supports the polemical purpose of John. Irenaeus argued that John’s Gospel was written to refute the rising heresies of the Nicolaitans and Cerinthians.30 One can feel the polemical purpose of John when he emphasizes that the pre-existent Word became “flesh,” without using the word “man” or “body” (1:14; cf. 6:51–56), and that John the Baptist was neither the Light (1:8) nor the Christ (1:20), but was only a “lamp” (5:35) who came to bear witness to the Light. John’s teaching on Jesus’ oneness with the Father (5:18; 10:30; 12:44–45; 14:9–11; 17:21–23; 20:28) and equally on his subordination to the Father (5:19–23; 8:16, 28–29; 12:49; 14:28) can better be understood as a polemic against the prevailing heresies about the person Jesus. It seems, however, that John goes beyond this polemic purpose.
John himself categorically states his purpose: “But these things have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that as you believe, you may have life in his name” (20:31). The primary purpose of John, then, is to proclaim the gospel that in Jesus one can experience divine life and to persuade his readers to believe in Jesus as the Christ.
However, the question is: Was the Gospel written to unbelievers or to those who believed in Jesus? The word “to believe” has two different readings, which have equal support in Greek manuscripts (see comment on 20:31). If pisteuēte (“to continue believing”) is read, then John could have written the Gospel with a didactic purpose to teach young believers to be steadfast in faith in the wake of increasing heretical teachings and persecution. Actually the polemic and the didactic purposes go together, for the believers could withstand the heresies without proper teaching. If pisteusēte (“to start believing”) is read, then the primary purpose of John would be to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to those who have not yet come to faith, whether they be Jews or proselytes or Gentiles or Samaritans. He persuades them to believe Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, so that they might receive divine life through him.
John’s concern for evangelizing all people becomes very obvious, for example, in his use of the term “world” (kosmos)—seventy-eight times in the Gospel, whereas it is used only fourteen times in the Synoptics. In the prologue and in 3:16–21 the author of the Gospel shows great concern for the salvation of the “world” (cf. 1:5, 9–11; 3:19–21). The universal outlook is reflected in the Gospel by oft-repeated words such as “as many as,” “everyone,” “all people,” etc.31 However, proclamation would be impossible unless God’s new community becomes active by being equipped and guided by the Holy Spirit to share its faith (15:26–27; 17:20–21, 23).32 The purpose of John, then, was mainly twofold: (i) to proclaim Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, to the world; and (ii) to confirm the faith of the believers who will witness to Jesus in the world.
In course of reading this commentary, readers will understand how a new community was formed around Jesus in a covenantal relationship with God and how it drew into itself a diverse range of people, including those who live in our own day (cf. 17:20). One may perceive that the community envisioned by Jesus is rooted in and shaped by the cross. The new life given by the risen Jesus will lead them eventually to continue his mission in the world in the power of the Holy Spirit (20:21–23). The community motif found in John has led many scholars to read the Gospel as “embodying the history of Johannine community.”33 However, the inclusive nature of the Gospel leads us to look into John’s community as a universal and inclusive movement.
1. E.g., Culpepper 1989; Stibbe 1993; Malina and Rohrbaugh 1998; and Neyrey 2007.
2. Cf. Brown 1978: 1.lxxii–lxxv; idem 1979: 166–67; Martyn 2003: 37–62; Dunn 1983: 318–25.
3. Keener 2005: 1.xxv, 140–70.
4. Pryor calls this community “the covenant community” (Pryor 1992: 157–80).
5.
