Backstory to the Gospel of John

The Gospel of John stands out as very different from the other gospels.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke are usually called the "synoptic gospels" because they tell the story of Jesus very similarly - the "see together."

But John is different.

Whereas the synoptics focus on his ministry in Galilee, John shows more of his activity in Jerusalem.
Whereas synoptics have lots of small snapshots, John focuses on longer scenes.

Not only that, but John seems to intentionally leave out some of the well-known stories from the synoptics (almost as if he was like “that material has been well documented so I don’t need to go over that again…”). But he includes a number of other well-loved stories that are only found in his gospel, such as the woman at the well in John 4 or the raising of Lazarus in John 11.

In this session of The Listener's Commentary, we consider the story behind the Gospel of John: when was it written and why was it written.

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