Hugo Méndez, "The Gospel of John: A New History" (Oxford UP, 2025)

Nov 4, 2025

Hugo Méndez is an Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina, specializing in ancient Mediterranean religions. He dives into the complexities of the Gospel of John, exploring its authorship and the high rates of pseudepigraphy in early Christian literature. Méndez argues for a single author while addressing the gospel's connections to the Synoptic Gospels. He discusses the innovative theology within John, the identity of the 'beloved disciple,' and the implications of reading it as pseudepigraphal, emphasizing its creative and unique nature.

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ANECDOTE

How Méndez Came To John Scholarship

Méndez discovered his interest in John after taking a course that covered J. Lewis Martyn's classic study.
He later became critical of that tradition while building his own alternative history of John.

INSIGHT

Authorship Claims Are Often Unreliable

Early Christian books often hide, misattribute, or invent authors, so authorial claims are frequently unreliable.
Hugo Méndez argues John fits this pattern and was likely written under a false authorial pretence.

ADVICE

Balance Scholarship With Accessibility

Aim to write for both specialists and informed general readers to broaden impact.
Méndez wrote his book as a 'crossover' title, balancing technical argument with accessible prose.

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Throughout the centuries and into the present day, the Gospel of John has indelibly shaped Christian theology and thinkers in significant ways, but major new questions are being raised about the genesis of that gospel, its relationship to other Christian writings and influences, and especially the masked identity of its author. In The Gospel of John: A New History (Oxford University Press, 2025), Hugo Méndez presents a provocative new thesis that the Fourth Gospel was produced under false authorial pretenses, in a period after the distribution of the preceding Synoptic Gospels, to propound not just a high Logos-Christology amenable to trends in prevailing Jewish and Greco-Roman philosophy from the first century CE, but also its author’s stark new vision of salvation in which believers could participate in Christ’s exaltation and deification in the present. To plot out his new history and as a reintroduction to the New Testament’s Johannine literature, Dr. Méndez joined the New Books Network recently to discuss John’s relationship to the historical Jesus and other early Christian writings, the “invented” identity of the Fourth Gospel’s “beloved disciple,” the gospel’s later attribution to John of Zebedee in the church fathers, and the “afterlives” of the “beloved disciple” as a letter and treatise writer in canonical and extracanonical Christian texts.

For a 30% discount on Dr. Mendez’s The Gospel of John: A New History from Oxford University Press, use code AUFLY30.

Hugo Méndez (Ph.D., University of Georgia, 2013) is Associate Professor in Ancient Mediterranean Religions at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he teaches New Testament and Early Christianity. His research interests include the Gospel and Epistles of John and the reception of biblical texts, figures, and images in late antiquity. He has published multiple books, including The Cult of Stephen in Jerusalem (Oxford UP, 2022) and the most recent edition of a popular introductory textbook about The New Testament (8th ed.; Oxford UP, 2023), co-authored with Bart D. Ehrman. His research has also been featured in the Journal of Biblical Literature, the Journal of Early Christian Studies, and New Testament Studies, among other prominent venues, and in his spare time, he enjoys cooking and spending time outdoors with his family. For more on Hugo’s work and research interests, visit his website at https://www.hugomendez.com/.

Rob Heaton (Ph.D., University of Denver, 2019) hosts Biblical Studies conversations for New Books in Religion and teaches New Testament, Christian origins, and early Christianity at Anderson University in Indiana. He recently authored The Shepherd of Hermas as Scriptura Non Grata: From Popularity in Early Christianity to Exclusion from the New Testament Canon (Lexington Books/Bloomsbury, 2023). For more about Rob and his work, or to offer feedback related to this episode, please visit his website at https://www.robheaton.com.

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