The Impact of John’s Gospel, Epistles and Johannine Theology
The Impact of Ancient Christianity on Today - Part 2
This is the second article in a series entitled The Impact of Ancient Christianity on Today. In this series, we journey through key events and figures in early Christian history and how they continue to shape our world. We may overlook the importance of early Christian figures and events, as they may appear overly familiar to us. But to look at these early events with fresh eyes can be enlightening: helping us to appreciate the work of God in the early Church. In this five part series, we will examine the impact of three New Testament thinkers and two pivotal events in early Christian history.
The Apostle John’s work is considered to be one of the two most influential sources of Christian thought, the other being Paul’s writings.1 The number of commentaries written on the Gospel of John in the first five centuries exceed any other Gospel.2 From early on it was both fought over and seen as the apex of the Gospels, due its to differences with the Synoptic Gospels.3
Due to the Gospel of John’s differences from the other Gospels, there is reason to think about its authenticity. In the second century, Irenaeus affirms the Gospel of John as a unique part of the corporate identity of the four Gospels that proclaim Christ.4 In the third century, some of the earliest Christian art depicts scenes from the Gospel of John on the walls of the catacombs in Rome.5 In the 4th Century Athanasius includes the Gospel of John and John’s three Epistles among the canon (kanonizō).6
Joannine literature has had a profound impact on theology. The Gospel of John would end up providing the bulk of theological materials for the Councils of Nicea in 325 AD and Chalcedon in 451 AD.7 Martin Luther in founding his theology on the Word of God would use the first few verses of the Gospel of John as the starting place of his theology.8
Judith M. Lieu and Martinus C. de Boer, “Introduction,” in The Oxford Handbook of Johannine Studies, ed. Judith M. Lieu and Martinus C. de Boer (Oxford University Press, 2018), 1, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198739982.013.25.
William Lamb, “Johannine Commentaries in the Early Church,” in The Oxford Handbook of Johannine Studies, ed. Judith M. Lieu and Martinus C. de Boer (Oxford University Press, 2018), 417, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198739982.013.24.
Lieu and Boer, “Introduction,” 1.
Irenaeus considers it one of the faces of the cherubim in Rev. 4:6-8.Judith M. Lieu, “The Johannine Literature and the Canon,” in The Oxford Handbook of Johannine Studies, ed. Judith M. Lieu and Martinus C. de Boer (Oxford University Press, 2018), 400, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198739982.013.23
Lamb, “Johannine Commentaries in the Early Church,” 41.
Lieu, “The Johannine Literature and the Canon,” 397.
Ben Witherington III, “The Trinity in the Johannine Literature,” in The Oxford Handbook of the Trinity, ed. Gilles Emery and Matthew Levering (Oxford University Press, 2011), 69, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199557813.003.0006.
González, The Story of Christianity, Volume II: The Reformation to the Present Day, chap. 4, Kindle. Lastly, in regards to the Gospel of John’s importance in a negative sense: debates about the anti-Jewishness of the New Testament have often started with the fourth Gospel. Lieu and Boer, “Introduction,” 3