Kilgallen John - A brief commentary on the Gospel of John

Kilgallen, John J. - A brief commentary on the Gospel of John

It is important to offer a general introduction about the Gospel of John before attending to its individual chapters and verses. Introductory remarks concerning who the author might be, why he wrote, his overall theological concerns, his audience, and still other matters like these - these remarks belong in any study aimed at a good understanding of the Gospel of John.

There is a second, more particularized reason for offering an introduction to the Gospel of John. It has to do with the fact that present scholarship must deal, not just with the Gospel itself, but also with past statements and interpretations and traditional claims concerning it; one pays attention both to the Gospel itself and to the ways in which the Gospel has been presented over the past two thousand years to literally millions of students of the Bible. Thus, to the questions we raise at this moment, we try to present our own answers, but with attention to major opinions of scholars in these matters.

Concerned to present the best answers to introductory questions, and to be aware, too, of certain differences of opinion between past and present interpreters concerning these questions, we address ourselves to five basic, introductory points.

I. Who Wrote the Gospel?

From earliest times the Gospel we now study has been known as the Gospel of John. Tradition has held that it was Jesus’s disciple John, son of Zebedee, talked about in other Gospels and in the Acts of the Apostles, who authored what we call the Fourth Gospel. It is important to note that John’s name is never mentioned in the Gospel, that the name, “son of Zebedee”, is mentioned only in Chapter 21,2, a chapter which is strongly suspected today of being a chapter added by an author different from the author of Chapters 1-20.

In a strict sense, then, it can be said that it is not the Gospel that witnesses to the authorship of John, that it must be some other source, let us say Tradition, which says John is the author. What might be a reason why Tradition says that John the disciple is author of the Fourth Gospel?

John the disciple was, traditionally, the youngest of the Twelve chosen by Jesus, and thus the one who can be presumed to have lived a long time as a disciple. Indeed, Tradition says that this John died in the 90’s AD. John, Tradition goes on to say, was persecuted, though not martyred, and exiled to Patmos, an island off present-day Turkey. Tradition knew the story of Jesus’s giving his mother to a beloved disciple at the foot of the cross. Tradition identified this beloved disciple as John and since earliest times John has been the disciple who cared for Mary. A certain tradition has it that Mary lived out her last days in a house provided by John, on the mainland opposite Patmos, the traditional island of John’s exile. Another story of John’s Gospel says that a younger disciple hurried with Peter to the tomb of the risen Jesus. Tradition says that this disciple, again, is John. Being the youngest of the disciples, John would be the most limber, the fastest runner - thus one who would out-run an older disciple to Jesus’s empty tomb, yet, because the youngest, allow the older disciple to enter the tomb first.

Perhaps it was his youth that recommended John as the least sinful, and thus the most spiritually perceptive, of the disciples; his youth would also suggest his being placed at a formal supper next to Jesus, who would appreciate the goodness of the young and try to foster it in special ways. For many reasons, this young man would earn the title, “Beloved Disciple”, or “the Disciple Jesus loved”.