Bible Discussion Thread

INTRODUCTION TO THE GOSPEL OF JOHN (Part 2):

I. ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

The apostle John wrote the Gospel of John. He is a different John than John the Baptist who is going to be introduced to us in John 1:6. This is the apostle, John. John the Baptist, and the apostle John are two different people.

So, John, in his gospel, writes about John but he is not writing about himself. In fact, he doesn't mention himself at all. So whatever John you read of, you know he is talking about John the Baptist. He is identified as the disciple whom Jesus loved in John Chapter 21 Verse 20. He never names himself, but he calls himself the disciples whom Jesus loved in John 21:20.

He is the only original apostle not to die a martyr's death. Tradition says that they tried to kill John by putting him in boiling oil and they couldn't kill him, much like Daniel in the lion's den. And so, they exiled him off onto the island of Patmos because they couldn't kill him. They said let's just get rid of him. He is an old man. He has got a lot of wisdom and knowledge. He has got a lot of influence. So, we will just get rid of his influence, and we won't have to mess with him.

It was off on the island of Patmos that he received what we know as the Revelation of Jesus Christ. After he was brought back to the mainland he settled in Ephesus and became part of the church in Ephesus. As a matter fact, the elders of Ephesus are the ones who urged and compelled him to write the gospel of John before he died because there was not a document that contained just one solid teaching to present the deity of Jesus Christ. So, he wrote it.

Eusebius, one of the church historians writing about the things of the church, he writes, "John received Asia as his sphere of work and lived and died in Ephesus." John also wrote 1 John, 2 John, 3 John and the book of Revelation.