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Books of the New Testament

St. John's Gospel

The following notes are intended to supplement, not replace, the readings from the Bible and the text book.
Comments or questions should be sent to: Dr. Rollinson.

The Gospel according to St. John was written after the other Gospels, and seems to assume that the reader is familiar with the material contained in them. John does not record the Lord's Prayer or any of Jesus' parables. His record of the Last Supper does not mention Jesus blessing and giving the Bread and Wine to His disciples, but gives us much more of what Jesus said and prayed after the meal (John 13:2).
Similarly, John does not give any account of the birth and genealogy of Jesus, but relates Jesus to the pre-incarnate Christ who was a member of the Trinity even before the creation of the world. The Greek word used by John, "Logos" would have been more understandable to Gentile Greek readers than the Hebrew "Messiah", or its Greek translation "Christos".

Although John recounts several of the miracles of Jesus, he uses them mainly as "Signs" to show Jesus' power and identity as Christ. The text-book refers to 7 "Signs", because it does not include the Resurrection and Jesus' post-Resurrection appearances. However, John seems to count these also as "Signs" - see John 20:30-31.

Sign location event
1 John 2 : 1 - 11Turning water into wine.
2 John 4 : 46 - 54Healing of the nobleman's som
3 John 5 : 1 - 9Healing of a crippled man
4 John 6 : 1 - 15Feeding of 5,000 men
5 John 6 : 16 - 21Jesus walks on water
6 John 9 : 1 - 41Healing of a blind man
7 John 11 : 1 - 45Raising of Lazarus from the dead
8 John 20 : 11 - 31The Resurrection, and Jesus' appearances

 

Another characteristic of John's Gospel is his recording of Jesus' statements which begin with an emphatic "I AM". English can only show this emphasis by the tone of voice or the stress on the words; both Greek and Hebrew can show the emphasis by using a pronoun. A stressed "I AM" was normally avoided by Jews, as it was part of the sacred Name of God - "I AM THAT I AM" (Exodus 3:14)

 

locationstatement
John 4 : 26I AM He (the Christ)
John 6 : 35I AM the Bread of Life
John 8 : 23, 24, 28I AM from above, I AM the Son of man
John 8 : 58Before Abraham was - I AM.
John 9 : 5I AM the Light of the world
John 10 : 7, 9I AM the door of the sheep
John 10 : 11, 14I AM the Good Shepherd
John 11 : 25I AM the Resurrection and the Life
John 13 : 13I AM (Master and Lord)
John 14 : 6I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life
John 15 : 1, 5I AM the True Vine
John 18 : 5, 8I AM (Jesus)

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Dr. Rollinson

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