Real Bible Study

[Read more carefully before you criticize the Bible Part 2: Who wrote the Gospel of John]

My Comment:

The Bible teaches us that every Bible believing Christian must be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks a question about their faith.

The general evidence is that very few even Bible believing Christians are prepared to obey this command of Scripture found in 1 Peter 3:15.

These things need to be taught to every Christian, including children and young people.

Failure to teach Christians old and young is one central reason why the majority of even Bible believing Christians no longer actually believe in the Biblical and Christian worldview but have accepted a worldview from the surrounding culture that is utterly contrary to the Bible.

Failure to teach these things to our children may lead to their spiritual downfall later in life when they encounter first-hand viewpoints that contradict what they were taught at home and in church to believe.

Please read carefully all I have presented below as I focus on the proof that the Gospel of John was written by the Apostle John and not, as claimed by some, another writer in another place at a later time.

OP response to me (8-6-24):

Does your own scholars are also lacking understanding when they wrote about authorship of John’s Gospel?

We read :

We may never know for certain who wrote the Gospel of John, any more than we can know who wrote the books of Matthew, Mark and Luke.

https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/…/gospel-of-john…/

My Reply to OP (8-7-24):

Those are not my scholars! Consider that in terms of the historical evidence we have, the four Gospels as we now have them have never been attributed to anyone else.

Consider also that when these written documents were first received they were received in the Christian community of believers who knew at the time who their authors were. The early church did not receive anonymous writings and were very meticulous to reject forgeries claiming to be apostolic writings as we see even in the New Testament where someone wrote an epistle in Paul’s name as mentioned in 2 Thessalonians 2:2.

These claimed doubts about the authorship of the New Testament documents seem to have arisen only in more recent history, doubts inspired by unbiblical worldviews and philosophies in the last two centuries or so.

I plan to share with you evidence that counts because based on facts as contained in the documents themselves and known cultural factors of that time which shed helpful light on these questions.

OP Reply to me (8-9-24):

saying “those are not my scholars“ wont solve the problem. Unless there is overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the issue remains- Gospel of John is anonymous author and therefore unreliable

My Reply to OP (8-9-24):

You are welcome to follow unbelieving scholars all you want. I do not accept their presuppositions or their conclusions. There are scholars in this field whose work I have read with whom I do agree. Archeologists are not known to be well educated experts with regard to matters of textual criticism.

You have presented no answer to the reasoning I have provided regarding the authorship of the Gospel of John.

Furthermore, you seem to have a predisposed opposition to the view you know I hold.

If the Gospel of John is, as you claim, written by an anonymous author, what evidence do you have to show that the Gospel of John was only much later attributed to John the Apostle and disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ?

If the Gospel of John were in fact written by an anonymous author outside of the land of Israel perhaps many years after the alleged facts presented in the Gospel of John, how did that unknown author manage to know and seamlessly work into his account such matters as the location of Jacob’s Well? And especially, how did he know about the pool of Bethesda and know that it had five porches? The correctness of John’s record of five porches has been established by modern archeological findings.

There is humor and irony used by John as recorded in John 7:52 at the expense of both Sadducees and Pharisees, proving, like most Bible readers, that in their case they did not know the geography and history of their own country as recorded in their own Bible.

Joh 7:52 They answered and said unto him, Art thou also of Galilee? Search, and look: for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet.

And like most Bible readers even yet, what John wrote in irony is missed by most readers, proving that they do not know the Bible as completely as they think they do.

This powerful and unanswerable evidence demonstrates that the Gospel of John was written by John who lived in that culture and who was an eye witness to the facts he writes of. The Gospel of John could not have been written by someone who came along at a later time and different place who could not have assembled such a document filled with many such accurate details reflecting both the culture and the geography surrounding what happened.

OP reply to me (8-8-24):

Jerome Smith genuine impartial scholars were guided by reason, empirical evidence and not by blind faith or theogical reason.

My Reply to OP (8-9-24):

I have presented you with factual information based on the contents of the Gospel of John itself. I asserted that the details contained in the Gospel of John, details pertaining to the culture of that time period and the physical details of features in the land of Israel which have been lately confirmed by archaeology, could not have been dreamed up by an unknown author in another place and time.

I have asserted the historical fact that all four Gospels have always been attributed to the authors whose names they now bear.

Neither you nor anyone else have ever produced actual evidence to the contrary that refutes this fact.

Therefore, case closed. I am right. Your position is based upon mere speculation and hypothesis. Talk about “blind faith or theological reason”–that is all you are able to present against my evidence.

Any scholar who disbelieves what is stated in the text of the four Gospels is hardly “impartial.”

The Gospel of John in particular concludes with the sworn testimony of its author and those who received this document:

Joh 21:24  This is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things: and we know that his testimony is true.

Who is this disciple? Careful readers who know how to compare Scripture with Scripture know that the answer to this question is supplied by both the immediate, near, and remote contexts:

(1) The immediate context:

Joh 21:7  Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher’s coat unto him, (for he was naked,) and did cast himself into the sea.

Joh 21:20  Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following; which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee?

Who is the disciple that leaned on the breast of Jesus at the Last Supper? This is answered by consulting the near context.

(2) The near context:

The specific disciple “whom Jesus loved” is identified as John in the near context of John 20:2.

John 20:2
2  Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him.
King James Version

In context, Peter and John both ran to the tomb, and John, being younger, ran faster and reached the tomb first and looked but did not go in, but waited politely to let Peter enter first:

John 20:4-8

Joh 20:4  So they ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre.
Joh 20:5  And he stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in.
Joh 20:6  Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie,
Joh 20:7  And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.
Joh 20:8  Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed.

(3) More Remote Contexts:

While still on the cross, Jesus asked John, the disciple He loved, to care for Mary:

Joh 19:26  When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son!
Joh 19:27  Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.

Most significantly, at the Last Supper, it is John who is asked by Peter to ask Jesus who it is that was to betray Jesus:

Joh 13:21  When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me.
Joh 13:22  Then the disciples looked one on another, doubting of whom he spake.
Joh 13:23  Now there was leaning on Jesus’ bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved.
Joh 13:24  Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him, that he should ask who it should be of whom he spake.
Joh 13:25  He then lying on Jesus’ breast saith unto him, Lord, who is it?
Joh 13:26  Jesus answered, He it is, to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it. And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.

Notice John 13:23. Careful readers notice that John loves to suppress his own name. The words “whom Jesus loved” (Greek, agapao) is a reference to John, who never names himself. It cannot be a reference to Lazarus, for Lazarus was not one of the Twelve, whom Jesus also loved. But note that the word “love” in direct reference to Lazarus (John 11:3, 5) is the different Greek word for love, “phileo.” John as the disciple who wrote these things identifies himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved in John 21:7, 20, 24 and John 19:26 which I cited above.

I have taken you directly to the text. What is written supports my view that the Gospel of John was written by John the disciple of Jesus whom Jesus loved. An anonymous writer writing long after these events in another place and time would not have any reason to suppress the name “John” the way the original actual author John did. John’s immediate audience, the original recipients of his Gospel, knew very well who wrote this Gospel or it would never have been received in the first place.