Scholars disagree, however, about the purpose of these emendations. Bultmann asserts that the redactor had an ecclesiastical focus, and wanted to make this text less Gnostic and more acceptable to the wider church, outside the Johannine community.5 Raymond Brown argues that the redactor’s principal interest was to preserve Johannine materials that had not been included in the original text.6
The Fourth Gospel was the last gospel to be recorded7 (possibly 90–110 CE).8 The author’s location is disputed, however. Tradition, beginning with Irenaeus in the second century argues for Ephesus,9 and most scholars now accept this view.10 Bultmann objects, however, noting that “nothing in the Gospel points to its origin in . . . Asia Minor.” He suggests Syria as a more likely location.11
Structure
The Gospel is comprised of two main sections. The first is widely referred to as the Book of Signs, roughly chapters 1–12. This section describes Jesus’ public ministry. It is named for the seven signs that Jesus performs, pointing to himself as the One who came down from heaven to reveal the glory of God. These are the signs:
1. Changing water into wine at the Cana wedding (chapter 2)
2. Healing the official’s son (chapter 4)
3. Healing of the man who had been sick for thirty-eight years (chapter 5)
4. Multiplication of loaves and fish (chapter 6)
5. Walking on the sea (chapter 6)
6. Healing of the man born blind (chapter 9)
7. Raising of Lazarus (chapter 11)
In this section of the Gospel, signs are followed by discourses in which Jesus explains the meaning of the signs. For example, chapter 6 contains both the multiplication of loaves and fish and also the Bread of Life discourses.
The last sign, the raising of Lazarus from the dead, is the proximate cause of Jesus’ arrest, trial, and crucifixion, according to the Fourth Gospel. This sign creates a bridge from the Book of Signs to the second major section of the Gospel, which may be called the Book of Glory. In this section of the Gospel, Jesus turns away from public ministry toward his own disciples and his passion. This section contains the lengthy final discourses, with their promise of the Paraclete to sustain the disciples in Jesus’ absence, and it tells the story of Jesus’ passion and resurrection.
Intended Audience
All of the canonical gospels were stories of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, written for an audience that already knew about and believed in the resurrection. As time passed, the early Christians’ practical circumstances diverged significantly from those of the original disciples, and they needed more and more assistance understanding and interpreting the gospel story in the context of new events. Each of the gospels was written for a different community in a different time, responding to a different set of circumstances, and these differences (as much as any variation in sources) help to explain the different approaches that the Evangelists take to the same basic story. In the words of Raymond Brown, “The deeds and words of Jesus are included in the Gospels because the Evangelist sees that they are (or have been) useful to the members of his community.”12 So to understand any of the gospels, one must understand something of the community and circumstances into which it was written. This is especially true of the Fourth Gospel and its relationship to the Johannine community.
This faith community, like the Fourth Gospel, shared an emphasis on realized eschatology; a high, pre-existence Christology; and a belief in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, or Paraclete, in each member of the community, from whom each Christ-believer individually received divine truth. Each of these characteristics of the Johannine community is described below.
The Passage of Time and Realized Eschatology
Eschatology is the “doctrine about ‘last things’ (final judgment and the afterlife).”13 Around 225 BCE, an apocalyptic eschatology developed in Jewish thought and continued through at least the first century CE. This apocalyptic world view provides a main backdrop for understanding the New Testament In apocalyptic eschatology, the idea of end times did not originally refer to the end of the world but to the end of the present evil age, in which God’s people would at last be vindicated against their oppressors by an in-breaking of God to set things right. This Day of the Lord would be inaugurated by a final battle between the forces of God and the forces of evil. Apocalyptic literature classically includes vivid images of “battles, angels, demons, dramatic appearance on clouds, [and] wrathful judgment on God’s enemies.”14
The synoptic gospels and the Pauline letters adopted and adapted this apocalyptic world view by associating the eschaton with the second coming of Christ (parousia). Then the dead would be resurrected and all would be judged, receiving either eternal life or damnation on that day. In the early letters of Paul, it is clear that this return is expected soon—within the lifetime of most early Christians.15 For Mark, the fall of the Temple in 70 CE was “the birth pangs for the eschaton.”16 This expectation of a near and coming eschatological fulfillment is seen in Matthew, as well, in the passages where Jesus says that the Kingdom of God is at hand.17 The problem for Luke-Acts was that the Temple had fallen and Christ had still not yet returned. Luke solved this eschatological dilemma by associating the eschaton with Pentecost, while still anticipating a second coming of Christ in the indefinite future, a “present and future eschatology.”18
By the time that the Gospel of John was written, at the end of the first century or early in the second, Christians had begun to realize that the second coming was not coming soon, and might not be coming at all. This great disappointment created a crisis of faith. On what could believers rely, if not on this? The Fourth Gospel responds to this great disappointment with a new eschatology—an affirmation that the Kingdom of God has already come in Jesus Christ. This characteristically Johannine view is called realized eschatology (or inaugurated, proleptic, or fulfilled eschatology) and Raymond Brown argues that the Gospel of John is the best example of it in the New Testament.19 He writes,
For John the presence of Jesus in the world as the light separates men into those who are sons of darkness, hating the light, and those who come to the light All through the gospel Jesus provokes self-judgment as men line up for or against him. . . Those who refuse to believe are already condemned [3:18], while those who have faith do not come under condemnation. . . For the Synoptics “eternal life” is something that one receives at the final judgment or in a future age [Mark 10:30; Matt 18:8–9], but for John it is a present possibility for men; “The man who hears my words and has faith in Him who sent me possesses eternal life. . . he has passed from death to life” [3:24]. For Luke [6:35, 10:36] divine sonship is a reward of the future life; for John [1:12] it is a gift granted here on earth.20
