Dr. Holley
BIBLE
15 April. 2014
The Gospel of John
The study of the Gospel of John presents the history and story of Jesus Christ that pulls the reader and the community of Christianity into a faith built relationship through three powerful themes: true belief, the Paraclete, and love. One is required to express a hermeneutic to understand the importance of this Gospel. After understanding that history and literature are two ways to study this Gospel; one is required to believe or not to believe, that is to trust and have faith that Jesus is the son of God or not. If the path of belief is then chosen by that individual; then one can begin to apply the truths to both their lives as well as the community of faith that surrounds …show more content…
Standing away from the stories and seeing who the Gospel was speaking is extremely helpful. The individual and the contemporary church are the audience, and this is intriguing on two levels. First, the Gospel gives a wealth of knowledge about our modern day relationship to the Paraclete as Culpepper writes in The Gospel and Letters of John, “There are echoes or allusions to John in several second-century Church fathers, and Montanists based their doctrine on John’s words about the Paraclete.” (87) With that in mind it is easy to study the Gospel of John in a similar way that the early church did. The early church based their understanding on the promised Holy Spirit on the writings of this Gospel and the modern day believer should do the same as well. Secondly, to study the Gospel of John in a historical sense is extremely important when observing who it was written to. Throughout this Gospel Jewish festivals, Jerusalem, and Judea are mentioned allowing the reader to investigate to compare and contrast the situations of Jesus’ time versus that of modern day. Historical studies unveil great insight into the scripture and can allow the reader to relate to the troubles of the past; for example we see the troubles of outwardly accepting Jesus even when people want to believe, “…Leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees …show more content…
Studying this Gospel as a history and understanding it as a literature will shed light on the fact that one is required to have faith and believe that Jesus was the one and only son of God. This faith allows both the reader and the community of faith that surrounds the reader to participate in a relationship with Jesus, and teaches three vitally important in the themes that are recurrent in this Gospel: faith, the Holy Spirit,