So then the Gnostic heresies were expressed in two possible alternative beliefs. They believed either that Jesus was not really divine but simply one of a series of emanations from God, or that he was not in any sense human but a kind of phantom in the shape of a man. The Gnostic beliefs at one and the same time destroyed the real godhead and the real humanity of Jesus.
The Humanity of Jesus
The fact that John is out to correct both these Gnostic tendencies explains a curious paradoxical double emphasis in his gospel. On the one hand, there is no gospel which so uncompromisingly stresses the real humanity of Jesus. Jesus was angry with those who bought and sold in the Temple courts (2:15); he was physically tired as he sat by the well which was near Sychar in Samaria (4:6); his disciples offered him food in the way in which they would offer it to any hungry man (4:31); he had sympathy with those who were hungry and with those who were afraid (6:5, 20); he knew grief and he wept tears as any mourner might do (11:33, 35, 38); in the agony of the cross the cry of his parched lips was: ‘I am thirsty’ (19:28). The Fourth Gospel shows us a Jesus who was no shadowy, docetic figure; it shows us one who knew the weariness of an exhausted body and the wounds of a distressed mind and heart. It is the truly human Jesus whom the Fourth Gospel sets before us.
The Deity of Jesus
On the other hand, there is no gospel which sets before us such a view of the deity of Jesus.
(a) John stresses the preexistence of Jesus. ‘Before Abraham was,’ said Jesus, ‘I am’ (8:58). He talks of the glory which he had with the Father before the world was made (17:5). Again and again he speaks of his coming down from heaven (6:33–8). John saw in Jesus one who had always been, even before the world began.
(b) The Fourth Gospel stresses more than any of the others the omniscience of Jesus. It is John’s view that apparently miraculously Jesus knew the past record of the woman of Samaria (4:16–17); apparently without anyone telling him, he knew how long the man beside the healing pool had been ill (5:6); before he asked it, he knew the answer to the question he put to Philip (6:6); he knew that Judas would betray him (6:61–4); and he knew of the death of Lazarus before anyone told him of it (11:14). John saw in Jesus one who had a special and miraculous knowledge independent of anything which he might be told. He needed to ask no questions because he knew the answers.
(c) The Fourth Gospel stresses the fact, as John saw it, that Jesus always acted entirely on his own initiative and was not influenced by anyone else. It was not his mother’s request which moved him to the miracle at Cana in Galilee; it was his own personal decision (2:4); the urging of his brothers had nothing to do with the visit which he paid to Jerusalem at the Feast of Tabernacles (7:10); no one took his life from him – no one could; he laid it down purely voluntarily (10:18, 19:11). As John saw it, Jesus had a divine independence from all human influence. He was self-determined.
To counter the Gnostics and their strange beliefs, John presents us with a Jesus who was undeniably human and who yet was undeniably divine.
The Author of the Fourth Gospel
We have seen that the aim of the writer of the Fourth Gospel was to present the Christian faith in such a way that it would commend itself to the Greek world to which Christianity had gone out, and also to combat the heresies and mistaken ideas which had arisen within the Church. We go on to ask: ‘Who is that writer?’ Tradition answers unanimously that the author was John the apostle. We shall see that beyond doubt the authority of John lies behind the gospel, although it may well be that its actual form and style of writing did not come from his hand. Let us, then, collect what we know about him.
He was the younger son of Zebedee, who possessed a fishing boat on the Sea of Galilee and was sufficiently well off to be able to employ hired servants to help him with his work (Mark 1:19–20). His mother was Salome, and it seems likely that she was the sister of Mary, the mother of Jesus (Matthew 27:56; Mark 16:1). With his brother James, he obeyed the call of Jesus (Mark 1:20). It would seem that James and John were in partnership with Peter in the fishing trade (Luke 5:7–10). He was one of the inner circle of the disciples, for the lists of the disciples always begin with the names of Peter, James and John, and there were certain great occasions when Jesus took these three specially with him (Mark 3:17, 5:37, 9:2, 14:33).
In character he was clearly a turbulent and ambitious man. Jesus gave to him and to his brother the name Boanerges, which the gospel writers take to mean Sons of Thunder. John and his brother James were completely exclusive and intolerant (Mark 9:38; Luke 9:49). So violent was their temper that they were prepared to blast a Samaritan village out of existence because it would not give them hospitality when they were on their journey to Jerusalem (Luke 9:54). Either they or their mother Salome had the ambition that when Jesus came into his kingdom, they might be his principal ministers of state (Mark 10:35; Matthew 20:20). In the other three gospels, John appears as a leader of the apostolic band, one of the inner circle, and yet a turbulent, ambitious and intolerant character.
In the Book of Acts, John always appears as the companion of Peter, and he himself never speaks at all. His name is still one of the three names at the head of the apostolic list (Acts 1:13). He is with Peter when the lame man is healed at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple (Acts 3:1ff.). With Peter, he is brought before the Sanhedrin and faces the Jewish leaders with a courage and a boldness that astonishes them (Acts 4:1–13). With Peter, he goes from Jerusalem to Samaria to survey the work done by Philip (Acts 8:14).
In Paul’s letters, he appears only once. In Galatians 2:9, he is named as one of the pillars of the Church along with Peter and James, and with them is depicted as giving his approval to the work of Paul.
John was a strange mixture. He was one of the leaders of the Twelve; he was one of the inner circle of Jesus’ closest friends; at the same time he was a man of temper and ambition and intolerance, and yet of courage.
We may follow John into the stories told of him in the early Church. Eusebius tells us that he was banished to Patmos in the reign of Domitian (Eusebius, The Ecclesiastical History, 3:23). In the same passage, Eusebius tells a characteristic story about John, a story which he received from Clement of Alexandria. John became a kind of bishop of Asia Minor and was visiting one of his churches near Ephesus. In the congregation, he saw a tall and exceptionally fine-looking young man. He turned to the elder in charge of the congregation and said to him: ‘I commit that young man into your charge and into your care, and I call this congregation to witness that I do so.’ The elder took the young man into his own house and cared for him and instructed him, and the day came when he was baptized and received into the Church. But very soon afterwards, he fell in with evil friends and embarked on such a career of crime that he ended up by becoming the leader of a band of murdering and pillaging brigands. Some time afterwards, John returned to the congregation. He said to the elder: ‘Restore to me the trust which I and the Lord committed to you and to the church of which you are in charge.’ At first the elder did not understand of what John was speaking. ‘I mean’ , said John, ‘that I am asking you for the soul of the young man whom I entrusted to you.’ ‘Alas!’ said the elder, ‘he is dead.’ ‘Dead?’ said John. ‘He is dead to God,’ said the elder. ‘He fell from grace; he was forced to flee from the city for his crimes and now he is a bandit in the mountains.’ Immediately John went to the mountains. Deliberately he allowed himself to be captured by the robber band. They brought him before the young man, who was now the chief of the band; and, in his shame, the young man tried to run away from him. John, though an old man, pursued him. ‘My son,’ he cried, ‘are you running away from your father? I am feeble and far advanced in age; have pity on me, my son; fear not; there is yet hope of salvation for you. I will stand for you before the Lord Christ. If need be, I will gladly die for you as he died for me. Stop, stay, believe! It is Christ who has sent me to you.’ The appeal broke the heart of the young man. He stopped, threw away his weapons, and wept. Together he and John came down the mountainside and he was brought back into the Church and into the Christian way. There we see the love