Essay: The Judaism of the Fourth Gospel

This essay is an original work by LT. Please comment only on the talk page.

Seldom in history, it appears, has the Gospel of John been evaluated in Christian theological discourse as a Judaic writing in the Bible. Ill-faith antisemitic agitators and rabbinic Jews alike have propagated the notion that the Fourth Gospel is inherently a polemic against Judaism and "the Jews." Yet a nuanced analysis of the full story yields the diametrically opposite conclusion especially if the time context is taken into account.

Church history, if I recall properly, pinpoints the penmanship of John's Gospel account to cir. 97 A.D., shortly after the last surviving Apostle was released from his exile at the island of Patmos. Towards the end of the Apostolic Era, false teachings in Christianity rapidly spread as the firsthand disciples of Jesus Christ were—one by one—martyred. Paul warned in the Acts of the Apostles:

“	For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.	”
—Acts 20:29–31

The Fourth Gospel, if the church history record, is correct, was almost certainly the last book of the Bible written. Its implicit emphasis, especially where they differ from the Synoptics, therefore can logically be assumed to have at least partially borne/constituted a reaction to the heresies of the late 1st century. Consider the opening famous statement:

“	In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.	”
—John 1:1

There are two separate Greek terms used that are both translated "God": Θεόν (Theon) and Θεὸς (Theos). Contrary to what the neo-Arianist Jehovah's Witnesses claim, this distinction does not negate the status of Christ: it simply identifies Christ as of a different "essence" from the Father, yet of equality in basic terms of divine power. Such an affirmation serves simultaneously to combat the heresies of modalism (which assumes God as one essence morphing between Father, Son, and Spirit), docetic Marcionite Gnosticism (which denied that the God of the Old Testament was also the God of the New Testament), and various proto-Arian denialism that posited Christ as merely another typical man.

Hanukkah

The Fourth Gospel is the only book in the Bible to mention the Feast of Dedication, or commonly known as Hanukkah:

“	And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter. And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch.	”
—John 10:22–23

Note that even Matthew's Gospel account, typically regarded as the "most Jewish" of the four Gospel books, did not mention Hanukkah!

Quartodecimanism

“	Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.	”
—John 6:32–35

“	Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.	”
—John 6:47–51