John – Introduction
The soaring, majestic Gospel – “Whether through the image of the lion or that of the eagle, commentators have noted the lowly and simple majesty of John’s language and its call to the reader/hearer to become a disciple of the Word become flesh and so to share in that which he himself is: eternal life. More—with Chrysostom preachers have noted that John the evangelist declares himself to be a voice, a voice in which the voice of the Word is heard. Indeed, through the evangelist, says Chrysostom, the divine Paraclete is speaking, the Spirit who empowers and makes possible all Christian preaching. The Gospel of John is in the first instance the Word of God, not a word about God, but the Word of God, that is, the Word from God, in which Word God himself speaks. Moreover, in this speaking God makes himself known, proffers himself, and so becomes our God. Thus, the Gospel of John is an Address to us, a Λόγος which invites the reader/hearer to see and to hear what apart from the Gospel narrative cannot be seen and cannot be heard: the Father of Jesus, who is the truee and divine Son. And in seeing the Father in that we see the Son, the reader/ hearer can truly pray with Jesus the prayer which he has taught us to pray: πάτερ ημών ό εν τοις ούρανοΐς, “our Father in heaven” (Mt 6:9). Hie message of the Gospel of John makes that address to God, our Father, possible. Or, to put the matter the other way around, the Prayer of the Lord could not be prayed by us were it not for the Truth of John’s preaching.” – Weinrich, John, p. 2-3 Authorship – The majority, traditionalist view is that the Gospel was authored by John, the son of Zebedee, also the beloved disciple, while in Ephesus towards the end of the 1st century. This view also presupposes a dependency on the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) and that John adapted and supplemented the material to respond to the Docetist heresy. Docetism, from δοκεῖν/δόκησις”to seem”,”apparition, phantom”, is the doctrine that the phenomenon of Jesus, his historical and bodily existence, and above all the human form of Jesus, was mere semblance without any true reality. Jesus only seemed to be human, and that his human form was an illusion. I prefer the minority view…