We spent the whole day on John today and we covered more of the introduction on the Historical Context, Major Themes and the Prologue.
A few interesting things I learnt include:
1. Unlike the Synoptic Gospels, the Gospel of John gives hints as to who the author might be
2. John takes on a very strict dualism in the gospel - e.g. you are saved or you are not, you are in the light or you are not
3. Compared to the Synoptic Gospels, John is quite concerned about different things in the sense that he may have written it in complementary to the Synoptic Gospels, e.g. he does not mention the institution of the Lord's Supper nor the Transfiguration
4. While the Synoptic Gospels tell of what Jesus did to show who he is, the Gospel of John talks about who Jesus is, what he is like and what he said to show who he is
5. In John, it has the concept of realised eschatology, e.g. we are experiencing eternal life right this very moment, you don't have to wait until the Last day
We then proceeded into John's Prologue, which to me is one of the most profound and amazing passages in Scriptures. Even though I have read and studied through it many times, each new study is still like walking into a large white room which so much to see, to discover and to understand. I leave the room enthralled at what I discovered only to enter it again in wonder and amazement.
pearlie
Photo 2004 © Peter Hellebrand
I think the relationship between the Father and the Son gets a lot of airtime too, as well as the emphasis on "believing".
ReplyDeleteJohn is certainly interesting (and not easy), isn't it? :) We're going through 1 John at church and my theory is that the apostle was a non-linear thinker!
Yeah... I was preparing for Bible Study some weeks back on John 17 and there too was about the relationship between the Father and the Son.
ReplyDeleteJohn is certainly not easy! What do you mean by non-linear thinking? Examples? Well, in a sense we can say that because John was a Jew while we tend to be more modern in thinking and therefore think in a straight line!