Unit 14 - Interpreting the text and issues of relationship, purpose and authorship (9RS0)
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A mindmap compiling all notes on the authorship of the fourth gospel into one document, covering a basic revision summary of the whole of topic 3.2. Got an A in A-Level religious studies.
Unit 14 - Interpreting the text and issues of relationship, purpose and authorship (9RS0)
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John the Apostle Community Authorship
From the second century, church tradition states that John John the Elder There may be a whole
the Apostle wrote the Fourth Gospel. If this is true, this John the Elder lived through the reign of Trajan and wrote community behind the
Gospel has the greatest authority as it is an eyewitness the two New Testament Epistles 2 John and 3 John. Gospel, which reflects
account of Jesus’ ministry. Strengths their concerns and issues
Strengths Papias said that there was someone called John the Elder that they faced.
There are many eyewitness details which suggest that the who lived at the right time to write the Gospel, and if he Strengths
Gospel was written by someone who was present, wrote the two other epistles, he may have also written The use of ‘we’ in ‘we
presumably an apostle, ie. There is exact detail in the Trial the Gospel. have seen his glory’, ‘we
Before Pilate and the Great Catch of Fish where an exact Weaknesses speak of what we know,
number of 153 fish is given. There are many Jewish The two letters are very different linguistically and and we testify to what we
references to suggest that the author was a Jew, ie. The six theologically to the Gospel, which is more similar to 1 have seen’ reflects Jewish
stone jars in Water into Wine and the five covered John, which has anonymous authorship. rejection of Jesus and
colonnades at the Pool of Bethesda. The author knows things Jewish Christians.
only a disciple would have known, ie. The setting of the Last
The Authorship of the
Supper and what Jesus did exactly, ‘took off his outer
clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist’. The author Fourth Gospel
John Mark
says he was a disciple, ‘this is the disciple who testifies to
John Mark was the author of Mark’s
these things and wrote them down’. Clement of Alexandra, The Beloved Disciple Gospel and lived in Jerusalem but was
Irenaeus, Papias and Polycrates testify to apostolic The Beloved Disciple is the only unnamed far younger than Jesus and the
authorship, as well as two documents: the Muratorian disciple who appears in many particular disciples. Scholars suggest that he may
Fragment and the Codex Toletanus. passages, suggesting that the disciple is John, have referred to himself running away
Weaknesses and this is how John refers to himself. naked in the garden of Gethsemane.
Early Christian writers who testify to apostolic authorship all However, it may be someone else; a disciple Strengths
claim to have heard it from someone else, so one might be or follower of Jesus from the wider group, or He was known to Paul and the disciples
suspicious that they claimed this in order to ensure that the Lazarus or Nicodemus. It may be a symbolic as a friend and interpreter and had
Gospel had authority. Irenaeus claimed that John had lived in imaginary figure who is the ideal disciple. good religious knowledge.
Ephesus until the time of Trajan, however John would have Strengths Weaknesses
been old by this time, and his memory unreliable. Tradition Wescott says that the Beloved Disciple was He would have been old at the time of
states that John was killed 4 years after Jesus’ death, so he John, since the others were specifically Trajan, and the argument is tenuis and
couldn’t have written the Gospel. The Gospel contains named. inductive, leading to a weak
differing facts and dates to the synoptics, suggesting that the Weaknesses conclusion.
author was not an eyewitness, ie. The Fourth Gospel calls the Tasker argues that to make the Beloved
Sea of Galilee the Sea of Tiberius, but this name was unknown Disciple an imaginary figure reduces his
in Jesus’ time. As a fisherman, John would likely not have position and the incidents in which he is
been able to write, questioning his actual ability to be able to present as meaningless.
write the Gospel physically.
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