The Enigma of the Fourth Gospel: Another Look

Abstract

The Fourth Gospel is often said to have derived from a situation at the end of the first century when the Christian church had finally separated from the synagogue. Such a view is thought to explain the gospel’s polemic against ‘the Jews’, its dualistic outlook and other-worldly Christology, and its sectarian emphasis on Christians loving ‘one another’. However, these Johannine emphases are shown in this article to have significant parallels in Christian traditions that can be traced back to the time of Paul and perhaps earlier. The probability is that the author of the Fourth Gospel has highlighted certain strands in early Jesus tradition more than the Synoptic Gospels because of controversies about the person of Jesus inside and outside the Christian church.