Gospel of John, Essay Example

Approximately 90 percent of the Gospel of John is unparalleled in the other Gospels.

In John 2-4 Powell states that the following are only found in Gospel of John and not in the synoptic gospels: Jesus’ early ministry in Galilee, Jesus’ visitation to Jerusalem prior to passion week (washing disciples’ feet), the seventh sign or miracle (i.e. water to wine), and finally Jesus’ resurrection of Lazarus.

John’s inclusion of the above stories speaks to how the chapter is meant to be translated as Jesus being living proof of God: thus the readers are given miracles such as the water to wine, and raising of the dead back into the living. These miracles stand as proof of God’s power through Jesus, thus the emphasis on divine identity.

The most surprising omissions from John are the temptation of Jesus, the lords prayer as canon for Christian belief, Jesus’ power in casting out evil/demons, and most surprising is Jesus’ sermon on the mount not being included in the gospel.

Two of the more significant differences between John and the synoptic gospels is Jesus’ miracles being reported as mere signs by which people are meant to believe in, in order to find God, and the Gospel of John appears to be edited (none of ther other Gospels seem to be).

John’s prologue, or hymnic prologue, reveals the theological belief that Jesus is a preexisting knowledge or Logos made flesh (physical) and this idea/faith is absent from the other Gospels.

John’s use of signs in his Gospel is different from the other Gospels because in the other Gospels these signs were miracles.

John presents Jesus’ death as his Exaltation; meaning Jesus was referred to as being “lifted up” instead of dying.

John stressed how realized eschatology means that salvation is already present for the believer which translates to mean the hope for eternal life in which eternal life means both the future as well as the past or rather that future hope is brought into present circumstances. This means that the people Jesus’ was preaching to should be living their lives in the image of God, in goodness and in charity (as taught in the parables found in the Gospel of John).