Is anyone still there? I figured the title alone would get many, if not most, Christians to skip this.
I am a Jewish man who also believes that Yeshua is the Messiah God promised to send, but despite what my Jewish brothers and sisters would say, and most Christians, as well, I am NOT a Christian!
I was raised in a reform Jewish household, and never really cared much for the traditions, especially when praying from a Siddur (prayer book) because I could never accept that if I was to pray to God that I had to use someone else’s words. When I was in my early 40’s, I came to realize the truth about Yeshua- not the Jesus I was raised to reject- and since then (which has been over a quarter of a century) I have read the entire Bible (Genesis through Revelation) many, many times.
Being raised Jewish, I have a unique view of the Gospels and the Epistles, since I was never indoctrinated to already “know” what they mean. I can read them with a totally fresh, unobstructed (by traditional teachings I was raised to believe) view, and as such see them in a way most Christians don’t, and sometimes refuse to.
When I was first seeking the truth about this guy Jesus, the one place most Christians told me to start with was the Gospel of John; now, after having read it so often, in different versions of the Bible, that is the one book I would tell new believers, especially Jews seeking the truth about their Messiah, to avoid at all costs!
Still with me? Good- now I will tell you why I reject John’s gospel.
But first, a little history: it is considered to have been written between 80-95 A.D., although some say it might have been earlier. Although traditional Christian teaching is that it was written by John the disciple and eyewitness to the life of Yeshua (Jesus), many scholars over the centuries have doubted this, and disagreed about who the real author is. The main reason for this is the significant difference between John’s gospel and the other three, as well as the difference in the writing style between John’s Gospel and Revelation, supposedly written by the same man.
Some of these differences are that nearly 90% of what occurs in John cannot be found in the other gospels, what the other gospels call “miracles” John describes as “signs”, and John is less concerned with Yeshua’s teachings and parables, concentrating instead on his relationship with God.
Now, let me tell you what I find to be so “wrong” with this gospel.
It fails the test for hermeneutics. That means that what Yeshua does and says in John is different from the other gospels. For example, in the other three he tells his disciples not to tell anyone that he is the Messiah (Matthew 16:20) and prevents the exorcised demons from telling people who he is. Yet, in John, he openly and often claims to be the Messiah, such as when he talks to the woman at the well.
In the other three gospels, he refers to himself as the Son of Man, but in John he constantly refers to himself as the Son of God.
What really gets me is how he separates himself from the Jewish people and from the Torah!
How? By constantly referring to the people as “the Jews” or “the Judeans” and to the Torah as “their” Torah (or law, in many versions). If you are Jewish, as I am, when talking about other Jews, you would never call them “the Jews”- you’d refer to them as “the people”. And the Torah is never “their” Torah, it is “the” Torah, or “our” Torah. In John 8:7, 10:34, and 15:25, just as a few examples, Yeshua uses “The Jews” or “their Torah”, which indicates he considers himself separate from Jews and Torah.
Now let’s put these things in perspective.
The end of the First Century was a turning point for the new believers in Yeshua; there was constant battle between Rome and Jerusalem, and this contributed to the gentile believers thinking it wasn’t such a good idea to be associated with the Jewish population. My research shows that it was at the end of the First Century, right around the time this gospel was written, that the (now mostly) gentile leadership of this Jewish sect was changing things around to avoid the Roman authorities, because even though there was opposition (strong opposition) from the Jewish “power elite”, by the latter part of the First Century the Jews had their hands full fighting off Roman rule (The Jewish-Roman Wars lasted from 66 AD to 135 AD).
At that time, with most (if not all) of the original disciples dead or martyred, and most of the Jews who accepted Yeshua that we read about in the other three gospels also dead or dying, what was originally a Jewish movement to accept Yeshua as the Messiah was now being morphed into a totally new religion, which rejected the Jewish roots that it came from.
Around 98 A.D., the Sabbath was changed to Sunday by Ignatius of Antioch; also, there was less concern for learning the Torah as the gentile leaders of this new religion were interpreting Shaul’s (Paul) letters in a way that led them away from Torah, despite the fact that the Elders in Jerusalem expected these neophyte believers to be learning the Torah (Acts 15:19-21).
I believe that the Gospel of John was not written by a Jewish person! I believe it was written by a gentile believer in Jesus (no longer being called Yeshua) who wrote exclusively to the gentile believers to show them how Jesus considered himself separate from the Jewish population and from the Torah, in order to more easily assimilate them into the new religion this sect was becoming.
Also, John’s long-winded and convoluted speeches by Jesus about his relationship with God is nothing but confusing (when you see me you see him, but you don’t see him because you don’t see me, but I know him and if you knew me you would know him, but because you don’t accept me you don’t accept him, yadda, yadda, yadda….), and allows for the introduction of the Trinity.
In my opinion, John’s gospel is anything but “gospel”; rather, it is propaganda designed to help indoctrinate gentile believers into what was being formed as a new religion, and to keep Jews from wanting to join.
One sure way to keep more Jews from joining was the subtle intimation that Jesus is God, himself, which is (even today) a major turn-off to Jews, who believe that God is a singular and totally unique entity. And the way Shaul’s letters, which were trying to get these new gentile believers to become Torah observant a little at a time, were misinterpreted and twisted to be polemics against the Torah, when they were actually apologetics for the Torah.
Let’s put it all together…the Gospel of John was written right at the time the Jewish sect of believers in Yeshua was growing with many more gentiles than Jews, and those gentile leaders wanted to get away from the “Jewishness” of this movement to avoid trouble with Rome (which later proved not to be such a good idea.) Add to this the misuse of the Epistles written by Shaul, and we can see clearly that this gospel was designed to distance Jesus from the Jews, from the Torah, and remove any lingering semblance of Judaism from this emerging religion called Christianity.
If it was up to me, the New Covenant would have the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the books of Acts, James, and Hebrews, and Revelation. All the rest just misdirects people from who Yeshua really is, and what he really taught.
Anyone still here? If you are, then maybe I made some sense to some of you. I doubt many, if any, are in total agreement with me, but if even some of this made sense, then I hope you will continue to study and keep an open mind. I never tell anyone what to believe, only what I believe, and why I believe it, and if that leads someone to a new understanding or even just to question what they have been told, then I feel I have succeeded.
The truth will always stand up to questioning, and if after reading this you think you might question what you have already believed about John’s gospel, then please continue to question it. You never know what you may find out, and when you pray to God to lead your search for the truth, I know he won’t ever mislead you.
