The book of John is different from the other three (synoptic) Gospels that were written. Of the eight miracles recorded in this book, six are unique, (among the Gospels) to John. Also unique to the book of John is the Discourse in the Upper Room (chapters 14-17). Over 90 percent of John is unique. John does not contain a genealogy or any record of Yeshua’s birth, childhood, temptation, transfiguration, appointment of the disciples, nor any account of Yeshua’s parables, or His ascension.
John gives us much more information about the resurrected Messiah than all the other Gospels combined. That’s because John wrote to not only tell us what Yeshua did, but that He is still alive and working in the lives of His people today. Two of the other Gospels (Matthew and Mark) focus on the miracles of Yeshua. Luke primarily looks at the parables of Yeshua. John focuses on neither one. There are no parables in this Gospel. The word “parable” is used once, but the Greek word used is not the word normally translated as “parable.” It would be better translated “discourse” and it is used in the account of the Good Shepherd.
There is a lot written about “why” John wrote this fourth Gospel with so much new and different information. Most say it was to battle the Greek gnosticism in that day. That may be the case. Greek Gnosticism denied that Yeshua actually came in the flesh, because Elohim is One. Therefore (as the reasoning goes), since Yeshua is Elohim, Yeshua was a spirit and not flesh. It seems that the attempt at explaining God as a “Trinity” is an offshoot of Gnosticism.
Yeshua is simply the Word of the Father made flesh. He is the Father’s Word revealed to us in the flesh. That is why we are to walk as He walked.
Patrick McGuire
Copyright 2014
Patrick McGuire and Beit Yeshua Torah Assembly
All rights reserved, no portion of this Lesson may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations in articles and reviews.
Beit Yeshua Torah Assembly
Fort Smith, Arkansas