John is the author of the fourth Gospel, the Gospel of John; the three epistles, John 1, 2, and 3; and the Book of Revelation. In total John the apostle is the author of five books in the Bible. The gospel of John is not regarded as one of the synoptic gospels (Synoptic is a Greek word meaning “seeing together”). The gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke are called the synoptic gospels, which means that they are very similar, while the Gospel of John differs.
John was the son of Zebedee, a fisherman of Galilee and Salome who is said to be the sister of Jesus’ mother, Mary. The apostle John along with his brother, James were two of the twelve disciples of Jesus. Prior to their call into ministry with Jesus, both men and their father Zebedee and apostles Peter and Andrew were all partners in a fishing business. They were on their boat in the Sea of Galilee when Jesus called them to be fishers of men.
Jesus defined John, James and Peter as an inner circle of disciples (13:23-24). Added to this, John refers to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved (20:2). John and his brother James were given the nickname Boanerges, meaning ‘sons of thunder’, by Jesus because of their rash and aggressive personality. This is evident in Mark 9 when they forbid a man from casting out demons because he was not one of the twelve disciples; and in Luke 9 the brothers calling down fire from heaven to wipe out the Samaritans when they did not welcome Jesus. In both instances they were gently rebuked by Jesus.
Their passion and love for Jesus caused a temporary rift between both brothers and the other disciples due to their ambitions and youthful exuberance to be seated on the right and left hand of Jesus in the kingdom (Matthew 20).
John’s account of his time spent in ministry with Jesus takes a different outlook from the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. One could say that John may have been satisfied that the synoptic accounts were sufficient and so it is best to provide another point of view. Is it not fair for us to get another account and thus a fulsome report of Jesus’ ministry? We appreciate the fact that John took a different approach. We may also take the view that he was inspired by God to give his account in the way he did. Written in 100 CE after the synoptic gospels, the introduction of his book is based on what was taking place in the society at the time. There were the gnostics at the time whose view was that Jesus’ appearance in the flesh was not real; they did not believe in the deity of Jesus, thus John begins: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God…” John was responding to the controversy, and what some people believed and probably still believe about Jesus. John placed emphasis on the deity of Jesus while the synoptic gospels emphasized Jesus’ humanity.
Additionally, the diversity of first-century Christians – those of the world who chose darkness over light; the Jews in the synagogue who excluded the Johannine Christians; and the Baptists who were John followers and who viewed Jesus as less superior to John, motivated Apostle John’s writing as he did. It was a community struggling to find self, so John’s ultimate responsibility was to declare the truth.
Again, John gave his report on Jesus’ ministry predominantly in Judea as opposed to the synoptic gospels, which mainly covered Jesus’ ministry in Galilee. It therefore argues that most of the events recorded in John’s gospel would be the events of Jesus’ ministry in Judea. Some important facts to note are that only John’s gospel records Jesus washing the disciples’ feet (John 13:4-16) – Jesus’ simple act of servanthood; and the casting out of demons, a major part of Jesus’ ministry in synoptic gospels were never mentioned in John’s gospel. John included the resurrection of Lazarus, the synoptics did not. The Lord’s prayer, Jesus’ sermon on the mount and the parables were not included in John’s gospel.
John’s loyalty to Jesus saw him as the only one of the 12 apostles present at the cross (John 19:26-27). John played an influential role in the early church after Jesus’ resurrection. Paul referred to John James and Peter as the pillars of the church in Jerusalem (Gal 2:9). John is found with Peter going to the temple when Peter healed the crippled man. John suffered beatings when he joined Peter in preaching the gospel in Jerusalem (Acts 5:40-42). John passionately proclaimed the truth; Jesus as the light of the world; and he emphasized Love, and thus called the “Apostle of Love”.
After serving the church in Jerusalem for many years John moved to the church in Ephesus (modern day Turkey) and became the pastor there. While living in Ephesus it is said that Mary the mother of Jesus was with him for a few years. This may be based on Jesus committing the care of his mother, Mary to John.
John is believed to have written his epistles while in Ephesus, where he spent the last twenty five years of his life. The first epistle has no personal references and indicates that it was written in sermonic style to Christians all over Asia Minor. Speculation is that it was a circular letter, similar to the Ephesians. The letter expressed, “I write unto you, little children,” which indicates that, it was an epistle.
The second epistle is written to a lady, an elect lady, who has a Christian household which is threatened by the invasion of false teachers, and she is warned against them.
The third epistle is written to Gaius, a loyal friend of John’s; Gaius is warned not to yield to the false instructions of a certain Diotrephes, who seems to be a pastor or elder of the church who has disobeyed the commands of the apostle and snubbed certain evangelists whom he had sent to minister in that neighborhood.
In Ephesus John developed a special relationship with the other churches in the area based on his letter to the Seven Churches in Asia, in the Book of Revelation. John was exiled to an island called Patmos by order of the Roman emperor Domitian. There is unsubstantiated report that during a persecution in Rome John was thrown into boiling oil but emerged unhurt. In the cave of the Apocalypse in Patmos Jesus presented the text of the sacred Book of Revelation in visions to John, where he recorded the contents in Revelation. After his release from exile in Rome John returned to Ephesus.
John is the last of the apostles to die; his brother James was the first. All the other disciples died violently, while John died peacefully in Ephesus at an advanced age between either in 98 or 100 AD.
http://www.abideinchrist.com/messages/1jnintro.html
http://www.biblepath.com/john1.html
http://www.biblestudytools.com/classics/strong-popular-lectures-on-the-books-of-the-new-testament/the-epistles-of-john.html
https://www.blueletterbible.org/study/intros/john.cfm
http://www.gotquestions.org/life-John-Apostle.html#ixzz3gIACXVU9
https://bible.org/seriespage/2-major-differences-between-john-and-synoptic-gospels
Interesting inspirations as this one, and more from daily devotional – Devotions on the ROCK. The first edition available at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1978141696 in print and kindle.
Beyond the Word 