From the moment one reads the opening lines of John's Gospel they realize that it is much different than the other Synoptics. While the three Synoptics give remarkably similar accounts of their subject's life, John creates a portrait of Jesus that differs in both outline and content from the other Gospels. The fourth Gospel offers a different chronology of Jesus" ministry, a different order of events, a different teaching, and a distinctly different teacher.
The Gospel of John is so different from the Synoptics that most scholars view it as fundamentally not a portrait of the historical Jesus, but a profound meditation on his theological significance. The community that produced this Gospel held a high view of Jesus divinity, and in some respects, viewed him equal to God. John is believed to have taken this view due to visitation by the Paraclete who revealed Jesus" true nature. .
The author of this Gospel is traditionally John, son of Zebedee and brother of James, one of the Twelve. The writer, who does not identify himself, states that his version of Jesus" life is based on testimony of an unnamed "beloved disciple." Scholars classify the work as anonymous. It is thought to have been composed from about 90 to 100C.E., after Christians had been expelled from worship alongside Jews. The location of composition is unknown.
John's opening hymn to the Word introduces several concepts vital to his portrait of Christ. The phrase "when all things began" recalls the Genesis account when God brought light to a dark universe by his word. With God at the beginning, the Word is an integral part of the Supreme Being. What God was, the Word was. John's supreme irony is that the very world that the Word created rejects him, preferring spiritual darkness to the light he imparts. Nevertheless, the Word became flesh and walked alongside humans allowing them to witness his true divinity. .
After the prologue, John repeatedly links his hero to the concept of divine wisdom, a personification of God's creative intelligence.
