DAY 155
CHALLENGE
“If John’s Gospel is reliable, why is it different from the others?”
DEFENSE
Every author has his own style, and John was supplementing the other Gospels.
Differences between John and the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) are often exaggerated. They tell the same basic story, referring to many of the same incidents in Jesus’ life (the Baptism by John, early preaching in Galilee, feeding the 5,000, later ministry in Judaea, the triumphal entry, the Last Supper, the Crucifixion and Resurrection).
The differences are principally of two types: (1) matters of style and (2) incidents John mentions that the synoptics omit or vice versa.
In terms of style, John presents Jesus’ teachings in extended speeches rather than pithy sayings. Before tape recorders, long speeches in historical documents involved reconstruction, which the audience knew. The claim was not that a historical speech was a word-for-word transcript, but that it accurately conveyed the thought of the speaker. John was an eyewitness of Jesus’ ministry (21:24) and was thus in a position to accurately express Jesus’ thought in his own literary style (see Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, 1:229).
That John includes incidents the synoptic Gospels omit and vice versa is primarily because he is writing to supplement the synoptics. Early sources indicate he was urged to supplement what they had written (see Eusebius, Church History 6:14:7) and that he initially expressed some reluctance to do so (see Muratorian Canon 9-16). This may ex- plain his statement that, were all of Jesus’ deeds to be recorded, “I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written” (21:25).”
John expects his readers to know the synoptic tradition. In 3:24 he mentions John the Baptist “had not yet been put in prison”—the imprisonment being mentioned in the synoptics but not elsewhere in John.
Comparing John and Mark reveals John’s outline is structured so its events fit around those recorded in Mark (see Jimmy Akin, “Did John Use Mark as a Template?” online at JimmyAkin.com; Richard Bauckham, “John for Readers of Mark” in The Gospels for All Chris- tians). This reveals John intended to supplement the synoptic tradition.