New Testament · The Gospels
Κατὰ Ἰωάννην
In the beginning was the Word, seven signs, seven 'I AM's, written so that you may believe.
John begins before Bethlehem, in the beginning was the Word, and everything after glows with that light. It is unlike the other three: no parables, no exorcisms, long night conversations instead of short sayings, and seven chosen signs rather than a crowd of miracles. The seven I am statements are the spine, and several of them are spoken at feasts and answer that feast's own ceremony, which is why John repeatedly tells you which festival it is. What surprises careful readers is how physical this most theological Gospel is: Jesus weeps at a grave, washes feet, cooks fish on a beach. John says plainly why he wrote, so that you may believe and have life in his name, and admits at the end that the world could not hold the books it would take to tell everything.
If you remember one thing
John explains his own method: seven signs, chosen out of many, written so you may believe. It is the Gospel most given to new readers and the one scholars never finish with.
“But these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.”
John 20:31
John 7:53 to 8:11
The woman caught in adultery is absent from the earliest manuscripts. Most Bibles keep it with a footnote, and many Christians regard the story as authentic even if it entered John's text later.
Named here rather than skipped. Where Christians read a passage differently, we say so instead of choosing for you.
Everyone here has a write-up, drawn from the same records that explain the names while you read the text.
The carpenter from Nazareth whom the New Testament proclaims as the Messiah promised to Israel and the Son of God. He taught for roughly three years in Galilee and Judea, was executed under Pontius Pilate, and was raised on the third day. Christians across every tradition confess him as fully God and fully man, the formula the Council of Chalcedon settled on in 451.
A young woman in Nazareth who answered the angel's announcement with consent, and whose song of God lifting up the lowly is one of the earliest Christian hymns. She appears at the wedding in Cana, at the cross, and with the disciples in the upper room.
A prophet in camel's hair who preached repentance at the Jordan and baptized Jesus. He named himself the voice crying in the wilderness from Isaiah, and was beheaded by Herod Antipas for condemning the king's marriage.
A Galilean fisherman who spoke first and thought later, walked on water and sank, confessed Jesus as the Christ, denied him three times, and was restored on a beach over breakfast. He preached the sermon at Pentecost and opened the door of the church to Gentiles at Cornelius' house.
A fisherman called with his brother James, part of the inner three, and traditionally the author of the fourth Gospel, three letters, and Revelation. The Gospel calls him the disciple Jesus loved and places him at the cross, entrusted with Jesus' mother.
One of the twelve, who kept the money box and sold Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, then threw the money back into the temple and hanged himself. The Gospels report his motives sparingly and do not speculate.
A woman from Magdala on the Sea of Galilee, out of whom Jesus cast seven demons, who supported his ministry and stayed at the cross when most had fled. All four Gospels place her at the empty tomb, and John has her as the first person to see the risen Jesus.
Sister of Mary and Lazarus, remembered for working in the kitchen while her sister listened, and also for the confession she made at her brother's grave, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.
The brother of Mary and Martha, whom Jesus raised after four days in the tomb. John presents it as the last and greatest of the signs, and as the event that hardened the authorities' decision to act.
The Roman official who tried Jesus, judged him innocent, and sentenced him anyway under pressure from the crowd. A stone inscription found at Caesarea in 1961 carries his name and title, confirming the office the Gospels give him.
The high priest who presided at Jesus' trial and had already reasoned that it was better for one man to die for the people. John records that line as unintentional prophecy.
He came to Jesus by night with careful compliments and was told he must be born again. He appears twice more, arguing for due process when the council wanted to condemn without a hearing, and finally bringing seventy-five pounds of spices to the burial, which is a royal quantity.
A wealthy member of the council who had not consented to its decision. He went to Pilate and asked for the body, which took nerve, and buried Jesus in his own new tomb. All four Gospels record it.
She came to draw water at noon, when nobody else would be there, and got the longest recorded conversation Jesus has with anyone. She raised the real dispute between their peoples, which mountain was the right one, and left her water jar to go tell the town.
A craftsman of Nazareth, betrothed to Mary, who was told in a dream to take her as his wife despite a pregnancy that was not his. He named the child, which in that culture was the act of claiming him as a son, and it is through Joseph that Jesus is legally of David's line.
The apostles the gospels say least about. Andrew, Peter's brother, is the one who keeps bringing people to Jesus: his brother, the boy with the loaves, the Greeks who came asking. Thomas is remembered for one sentence of doubt and forgotten for another, let us also go, that we may die with him.
A quiz for John is on the workbench. In the meantime, the games for the judges, the kings, and the prophets are open.
