Gospel of John the Author

Gospel of John

The author of this report is asked to answer to a number of questions regarding the selected text. These include the name of the selected text, who the author of the selected text was, when the document was written, a summary of the book's contents and the impact to society that the book has in the modern context. This will all be done and more.

Summary of John

Many people attribute John the Disciple to being the author of both the Gospel of John as well as the Book of Revelation. The Bible itself identifies the author as the disciple "whom Jesus loved" but does not name John specifically. Reasons for the doubts about whether John wrote the book including writing style and the fact that the book was apparently updated and written in stages over a certain period of time.

However, since no other author besides John is evident at this point in history, the perspective of John himself will be used. John was obviously one of the main disciples of the twelve and the Gospel of John is one of the four gospels that all depict major perspective of the life and times of Jesus Christ. The four disciples follow the same major story but they all tell the story a bit differently from book to book with noticeable differences existing between the four even though it's the same story being told.

As for when the Gospel of John was written, it was apparently written near the end of the first century AD, a little over 1900 years ago, with the approximate range being in the last ten years of the first centru AD (0-100 AD). As for the historical context of John, it was obviously a recitation and set of observiations of one of ultimate part of the Christian church, given that it covered the life and times of Jesus which allows for the forgiveness of sins after his crucifixion on the cross. Even two millennia or so later, the import of Jesus and how present he is in God-themed discussions varies a lot including the differences with Christianity, Islam and the Jews. The latter two of those groups hold Jesus in a much different light than the former. The Jews obviously focus more on the Old Testament (before Jesus' time) and the Muslim faith focuses on the words of Mohammed in the Quran whereas Christians either focus on the New Testament or the Bible as a whole. Muslims make up roughly a sixth or a seventh of the world's population while the Jews are a fairly small contingent but they are very omnipresent in areas like Israel and the United States. Israel itself traces its lineage back to the Biblical days but has only technically been a country continuously since World War II when it was established by the United Nations after the area was controlled for five millennia by the Ottoman Empire and different iterations of the Arabs before that.

As for a summary of the document, this has already been covered but no quotes from the text have been provided up to this point. Of course, one of the most widely known verses in the Gospel of John is John 3:16 which does not need to be repeated here because any Christian would know it. Other notable passages include chapter 18 when Jesus is arrested, the raising of Lazarus in chapter 11 and the feeding of the five thousand in chapter six. Actual quotes that are noteworthy include John 6:20, when Jesus is walking on the water, when he says "It is I…do not be afraid." Another one to point to is John 3:18, which obviously is just after John 3:16, but is the verse that notes that whomever is believed is not condemned. One set of passages and events that is NOT covered in John is the birth of Jesus and the travails of Mary and Joseph.

As for modern impacts in today's society, there is a wide amount of perspectives and viewpoints about the Bible that are wildly different one to another. Some churches say that being rich is the root of evil while others are on the complete other side and suggest that there is nothing wrong with being rich and they point to people like King David. Some suggest that one must live a very pious live to get into Heaven while others state that so long as one believes in God and Jesus (as noted in the third chapter of John), then that is all that is needed and that it's not possible to not sin so no one is beyond being condemned. The Jewish faith and other Bible-related faiths that center on any part of the Bible don't believe Hell even exists or suggest that there is an intermediate step in between Earth and Heaven. Examples of this belief structure include the Jews and the Catholic Church.