A Tour Through John - Lesson 1

<p>For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ <a href="https://www.douglasjacoby.com/tour-john-lesson-1/" target="_blank"><strong>website.</strong></a></p><p>The Gospel of John: Introduction</p><ul><li>John's is the most universal focus of the four gospels.<ul><li>Mark—the Roman world. Jesus is not the emperor.</li><li>Matt—Jews, though ends with command to launch Gentile mission. Jesus is Messiah.</li><li>Luke—the entire Gentile world. Jesus as ideal human, bringing the message from Galilee to Jerusalem. (And in Acts, from Jerusalem to <i>Rome -- </i>omitting Egypt, parts of Syria, and much more.)</li><li>Jesus is savior of the whole world, as the villagers of Sychar proclaim (John 4).</li></ul></li><li>90% of John’s material is unique, and mainly set in Jerusalem, as opposed to Galilee.</li><li>Unlike the Synoptics, John is not structured around the Caesarea-Jerusalem trek, following Peter’s confession (Mark 8).</li><li>Antitheses: simple yet effective use of paired opposites, combined with physical and spiritual levels (and frequent misunderstanding), like <i>light & darkness, life & death, heaven & earth, </i>and <i>above & below.</i></li><li>John's gospel is a highly theological gospel, although it is easy to understand because of the large amount of <i>narrative</i> and <i>simple themes.</i></li><li>Jesus<ul><li>John heavily emphasizes Jesus’ incarnation</li><li>Humanity: fatigue 4:6; anguish 12:27, 13:21; weeping 11:33-35; irritation 2:4; friends 11:11.</li><li>Same in letters of John</li></ul></li><li>The structure of John<ul><li>Multiple Passover visits, thus a ministry spanning 3 years</li><li>Triple-seven:  7 signs, 7 confessions, 7 I AM statements.</li></ul></li><li>Purpose -- 20:30-31 is the author's statement of purpose.</li><li>For more, see NT chapter notes, esp. the <i>Advanced</i> section (c. 400 pages)</li><li>In this series, we will be reading the NRSV.</li></ul><p>1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3