Ii. Readers And Purpose
II. READERS AND PURPOSE
What is the purpose which the author had in mind when he composed this Gospel? Some say: to correct the other three. Upon the basis of what has already been said this cannot be granted. Real conflicts between the Synoptics and the Fourth Gospel do not exist.
Was his purpose to supplement the Synoptics? This would seem to be implied in the statement of Clement of Alexandria, quoted earlier: the Gospels dealing with external matters had been written; now the deeper, spiritual background must be shown. Eusebius also defends this view though in a somewhat different sense: John furnishes the record of the Early Judean Ministry, which the others do not give.
This theory presupposes that the apostle had read the Synoptics; at least, that he was acquainted with their contents, which is probably correct. Thus one can explain why so much of the material that is found in the other three Gospels is omitted here. There is here no story of the childhood of Jesus, no genealogy, no lengthy account of the preaching of John the Baptist, no record of Christ’s temptations in the desert, no Sermon on the Mount, no story of John’s doubt, no parables, no discourse commissioning the twelve or the seventy, no narrative with respect to the casting out of demons or the healing of lepers, no Retirement Ministry (April–October of the year 29 a.d.), which according to the Synoptics included such events as the healing of the daughter of the Syro-phoenician woman, the healing of the deaf stammerer and of the blind man who saw men as trees walking, the feeding of the four thousand, Peter’s confession, the transfiguration, and the healing of the epileptic boy; further, there is here no eschatological address, no discourse of woes addressed to the religious leaders, and no account of the institution of the Lord’s Supper.
There are also certain definite passages in the Fourth Gospel which, according to many interpreters, seem to indicate that John presupposed that the readers had read the Synoptics. Worthy of mention in this connection are especially the following:
3:24: “For John was not yet cast into prison.” The author does not tell the story of the imprisonment of the Baptist, but one can find it in Mark 6.
11:2: “And it was that Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.” In the Fourth Gospel this anointing-story is found in the next (twelfth) chapter. Is the evangelist proceeding upon the assumption (here in 11:2) that the readers have already read the account in Mark 14:3–9?
18:13: “And they led him to Annas first.” This sounds as if John meant to say: “Of course, you know that Jesus was tried before Caiaphas, for you have read this in Matthew or Mark, but they led him to Annas first, a fact which the others have not recorded.”
We realize that such facts do not constitute definite proof for the theory that John had read the Synoptics and that he presupposes that his readers had also read them, but, all things considered, this would seem to be probable.
Nevertheless, in view of John’s own statement regarding the purpose of his Gospel (20:30, 31), supplementing the Synoptics must be considered merely subsidiary to the realization of the main objective.
Was it the evangelist’s purpose to combat erroneous views regarding John the Baptist?
It is interesting to observe that it was exactly at Ephesus, the very place where John was living and where he composed this book, that certain men were found who had been baptized into the baptism of John Baptist (Acts 19:3). In all likelihood they had actually been baptized into the name of John. Hence, they were rebaptized, this time “into the name of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 19:5). Now in his Gospel the apostle John repeatedly indicates that the Baptist pointed away from himself to his Lord (1:19–23, 25–27, 29, 36; 3:27–36), and that he wanted to bear witness of the Light, that men might repose their trust and confidence in the latter (1:7–9).
Accordingly, even the combating of erroneous views regarding the Baptist may be considered as contributing to the main purpose of the Fourth Gospel. It fixed the attention of the readers upon the transcendent greatness of Christ (20:30, 31).
Is it true that John wrote this Gospel in order to refute the errors of Cerinthus?
This heretic taught that Jesus was merely human, the son of Joseph and Mary by natural generation; that he was, however, more just and wise than anyone else; that at baptism the Christ in the form of a dove had descended upon him, but had left him again on the eve of his suffering so that it was not Christ who suffered, died, and rose again but Jesus (Ireneus, Against Heresies I, xxvi, 1; Hippolytus, The Refutation of All Heresies VII, xxi).
Now Cerinthus lived in the days of the apostle. Ireneus relates that there were those who had heard from Polycarp that John, the beloved disciple, going to bathe at Ephesus, and perceiving Cerinthus within, rushed out of the bath-house without bathing, exclaiming: “Let us flee, lest even the bath-house fall down because Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is within” (Against Heresies III, iii. 4).
Ireneus also definitely states that John seeks by the proclamation of the Gospel to remove the error which by Cerinthus had been disseminated among men (Against Heresies III, xi, 1).
It is entirely probable that the apostle in writing the Gospel had the error of Cerinthus in mind. Thus we can explain why he places such emphasis on the fact that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that this Christ did not merely hover above Jesus without having ever entered into actual and abiding union with him, but actually assumed the human nature and never laid it aside again. Granted, however, that what Ireneus states as the aim of the Fourth Gospel is true, the fact must still be stressed that also this aim was subsidiary in character: the negative purpose (to combat the error of Cerinthus) was subordinate to the positive, stated so beautifully in 20:30, 31, to which we shall now turn.
“Many other signs therefore did Jesus in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book: but these are written, that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in his name.”
Note in this connection that the best attested reading has “that you may continue to believe” (πιστεύητε). The faith of believers was being undermined by the errors of men like Cerinthus, who taught that Jesus was not really God and that Christ had not actually come into the flesh (had not adopted the human nature). The apostle, seeing this danger and being guided by the Holy Spirit, writes his Gospel in order that the church may abide in the faith with respect to Christ.
Accordingly, it is not at all the purpose of John to write a complete biography of Jesus. That would not have been possible: the whole world could not have contained the books if everything had been recorded (21:25). He writes in order to confirm believers in the doctrine which they had received.
Once this purpose is clearly understood, it will not be at all difficult to see why John, from among all the events that had occurred and all the words that had been spoken, selects exactly that additional material—i.e., material not found in the other Gospels—which was best suited to bring into clear daylight the glory of the Lord; i.e., his Messianic office and his deity in the most exalted sense of the term. With this in mind, note the following distinctly Johannine accounts:
(a) The wedding at Cana. “This Jesus did as a beginning of his signs in Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory; and his disciples believed in him” (2:11).
(b) The conversation with Nicodemus. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his Son, the only-begotten, in order that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life” (3:16).
(c) The conversation with the Samaritan woman. The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he that is called Christ); when he arrives, he will declare everything to us.” Jesus said to her, “I, the One who is talking to you, am he” (4:25, 26; cf. also 4:29, 42).
(d) The healing of the man at Bethzatha, and the discourse which follows. “My Father is working until now, and I too am working” (5:17; cf. 5:18: “he also called God his own Father, making himself equal with God”).
(e) The feeding of the five thousand and the discourse which follows. “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in him should have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day” (6:40).
(f) The discourse about the living water, delivered at the feast of Tabernacles. “If any one thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture says, from within him shall flow rivers of living water” (7:37, 38).
(g) The discourse regarding Abraham’s seed, “If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. Who of you convicts me of sin? … I most solemnly say to you, if a man keep my word, he shall never see death” (8:36, 46, 51).
(h) The cure of the man born blind. “And he worshiped him” (9:38).
(i) The discourse about the Good Shepherd. “I and the Father are one” (10:30).
(j) The raising of Lazarus. “Jesus said to her, Did I not promise you that if you would believe me, you should see the glory of God?” (11:40).
(k) The washing of the disciples’ feet. “Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God.…” (13:3).
(l) Upper Room Discourses and Highpriestly Prayer (chapters 14–17). “I am the way and the truth and the life. No can come to the Father except through me.… This is everlasting life, that they should know thee, the only true God, and him whom thou didst send, even Jesus Christ.… And now Father, glorify thou me, in thine own presence, with the glory which I had with thee before the world existed (14:6; 17:3, 5).
(m) Certain sections in the story of the Passion and Resurrection. “Thomas answered and said to him, My Lord and my God” (20:28).
Note that all this material which is found only in the Fourth Gospel centers in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, and has as its purpose that the church may continue to believe in him unto everlasting life.
The miracles that are recorded in this Gospel also fix the attention upon Christ’s divine power. The nobleman’s son is healed from a distance (4:46 ff); the man at Bethzatha had been infirm thirty-eight years (5:5); the blind man at Jerusalem had been born blind (9:1); and Lazarus had already lain in the grave four days (11:17). (Cf. L. Berkhof, New Testament Introduction, Grand Rapids, Michigan, p. 104).
The readers for whom this Gospel was primarily intended (though in the final analysis it was, of course, composed for the Church of all the ages, cf. 17:20, 21) were living in Ephesus and surroundings. They were Christians from the Gentiles mostly. This explains why the evangelist adds explanatory notes to his references to Jewish customs and conditions: 2:6; 4:9; 7:2; 10:22; 18:28; 19:31, 41, 42. It also explains the circumstantial manner in which he locates places that were situated in Palestine: 4:5; 5:2; 6:1; 11:1, 18; 12:1, 21.
Thus, for example, F. Torm, ZNTW 30 (1931) 130.
Exception: one verse (7:1).
The opposite conclusion is reached by P. Gardner-Smith, St. John and the Synoptic Gospels, Cambridge, 1938; see also W. F. Howard, Christianity According to St. John, Philadelphia, 1946, p. 17. Dr. Howard was “almost persuaded” by the weight of Dr. Gardner-Smith’s arguments. However, he accepts some connection between John and the Synoptics. “Some verbal assimilation to the Marcan and Lacan narratives.” Cf. E. R. Goodenough, “John A Primitive Gospel” JBL, 64(1945), 145–182. Conclusions of this character are generally based on placing all the emphasis on “contrasts” between John and the Synoptics. But we have already shown that the basic pattern is, after all, the same.
See especially F. Godet, op. cit., pp. 356–368.
That this Gospel was written to re-establish the faith of believers is also the position of E. N. Harris, “Why John Wrote His Gospel,” WE 32(1944) 250, 251.