Commentary
Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of John (Annotated)
Ryle's commentary on John, modernized, in three volumes. In preparation.
Coming soon
Gospel Study Guide
The Gospel of John, Explained
The Word made flesh, from the prologue to the empty tomb
John in One Paragraph
The Gospel of John presents Jesus as the eternal Word of God made flesh, the Son sent by the Father so that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. It opens before creation, "In the beginning was the Word," and closes with the risen Jesus restoring Peter by the lake. In between it tells of seven signs, seven "I am" sayings, long conversations with Nicodemus, a Samaritan woman and the leaders in Jerusalem, a last evening of teaching and prayer with the disciples, and the cross and resurrection. John says why he wrote: "that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name" (20:31).
John is the Gospel most people are handed first, and for good reason. Its language is the simplest in the New Testament and its claims are the largest. A child can read chapter 3 and understand it; a scholar can spend a lifetime on chapter 1 and not exhaust it.
Who Wrote John, and When
John names its author only by a description. Near the end the book turns to "the disciple whom Jesus loved" and says: "This is the disciple who testifies about these things, and wrote these things. We know that his witness is true" (21:24). This disciple leaned on Jesus at the Last Supper (13:23), stood at the cross (19:26 to 27), ran with Peter to the empty tomb (20:2 to 8) and recognized the risen Lord by the lake (21:7). He is never named.
From the second century the church identified him as John the son of Zebedee, one of the twelve. Irenaeus of Lyons, writing around AD 180, said that "John, the disciple of the Lord, who also had leaned upon his breast, did himself publish a Gospel during his residence at Ephesus in Asia." Clement of Alexandria, a generation later, added that John, "last of all, aware that the outward facts had been set forth in the Gospels," and urged by his disciples, "composed a spiritual Gospel."
The case for the apostle fits the book. The author knows Palestine before AD 70, down to the five porches of the pool of Bethesda (5:2). And he never names John the son of Zebedee, though every other Gospel does, which is strange unless the author is that John, speaking of himself in the third person. D. A. Carson and Craig Keener, authors of two of the fullest modern commentaries, both conclude that the apostle wrote it. Others think the beloved disciple was a different eyewitness, or that John's followers shaped his testimony into the book we have; the "we know" of 21:24 may be those followers speaking.
Date
Most scholars place John in the 80s or 90s AD, the last of the four, which matches the tradition that John wrote after the others. Some argue for an earlier date, even before the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70. The firm outer limit is Papyrus 52, a scrap of John 18 the size of a credit card, kept in the John Rylands Library in Manchester and usually dated to the first half of the second century. The Gospel was being copied in Egypt within a few decades of its writing.
Written for Whom, and Why
John is the only Gospel that states its purpose in so many words. After Thomas has confessed "My Lord and my God," the author pauses and speaks to the reader directly:
Therefore Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.
John 20:30 to 31, World English Bible
The signs were chosen, not collected; the aim is belief; and the result of belief is life. Who the first readers were is harder to say, because the evidence points two ways at once.
- John explains Jewish things. He translates "Rabbi," "Messiah" and "Cephas" (1:38, 41, 42), notes that Jews have no dealings with Samaritans (4:9), and calls each feast "a feast of the Jews" (5:1; 6:4; 7:2). That suggests readers who did not grow up in a synagogue.
- John assumes the Old Testament. The prologue echoes Genesis 1; Jesus is the Passover lamb (1:29; 19:36), the bread from heaven (6:31 to 35), the shepherd of Ezekiel 34 (10:11) and the vine of Isaiah 5 (15:1).
- John knows the synagogue dispute. He records that those who confessed Jesus were being put out of the synagogue (9:22; 12:42; 16:2), a live issue for Jewish Christians late in the first century.
The likeliest answer is that John wrote for a mixed church, Jewish and Gentile, and for anyone those believers could reach. "That you may believe" can mean "come to believe," an evangelist's aim, or "go on believing," a pastor's aim, and John would have accepted both. The most famous verse in the Bible is addressed to "the world" and to "whoever":
For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
John 3:16, World English Bible
How John Is Organized
John falls into two halves with a short opening and a short close. Chapters 1 to 12 cover about three years of public ministry; chapters 13 to 20 cover a single week, and most of that one night and one day. Scholars commonly call the first half the Book of Signs, because its seven miracles carry the story, and the second the Book of Glory, because from the foot-washing onward Jesus speaks of his death as the hour when the Son of Man is glorified (13:31). The prologue (1:1 to 18) tells the reader in advance who Jesus is, and the epilogue (21) settles the future of Peter and of the beloved disciple.
| Chapters | Section | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| 1:1 to 18 | Prologue | The Word with God, the Word made flesh |
| 1:19 to 2:12 | The Book of Signs | John the Baptist's witness, the first disciples, water to wine at Cana |
| 2:13 to 4:54 | The temple cleansed, Nicodemus, the woman at the well, the official's son healed | |
| 5 to 6 | The man at Bethesda, the five thousand fed, walking on the water, the bread of life | |
| 7 to 10 | Tabernacles, the light of the world, the man born blind, the good shepherd, Dedication | |
| 11 to 12 | Lazarus raised, the anointing at Bethany, the entry into Jerusalem, "the hour has come" | |
| 13 to 17 | The Book of Glory | The foot-washing, the new commandment, the Farewell Discourse, the vine, the Spirit, the prayer of Jesus |
| 18 to 19 | Arrest, Peter's denials, the trials, the crucifixion, the burial | |
| 20 | The empty tomb, Mary Magdalene, Thomas, the purpose of the book | |
| 21 | Epilogue | The catch of fish, breakfast by the lake, Peter restored |
A second way to map the first half is by the feasts. John mentions three Passovers (2:13; 6:4; 11:55), an unnamed feast (5:1), Tabernacles (7:2) and Dedication (10:22), and much of the teaching is given in Jerusalem during them. The three Passovers are why we say Jesus' ministry lasted about three years; the Synoptic Gospels record only the last one.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:1, World English Bible
Key Themes
The Word made flesh
John begins where Genesis begins, "In the beginning," and says that the Word who was with God and was God has come among us as a man. No other Gospel says it so plainly. The Jesus of John is weary at a well (4:6), weeps at a grave (11:35) and thirsts on a cross (19:28), and he is also the one through whom all things were made. Both are true at once, and the Gospel never lets go of either.
The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:14, World English Bible
Signs and belief
John does not call the miracles "mighty works," as the Synoptics do, but "signs." A sign points: the bread in the wilderness to the bread of life, the opened eyes of the man born blind to the light of the world, Lazarus walking out of his tomb to the resurrection and the life. Each sign is followed by a conversation or a discourse that says what it meant, and each one divides its witnesses: some believe, some turn away, some begin to plot (11:45 to 53).
Eternal life, now
Where Matthew speaks of the kingdom of heaven, John speaks of eternal life, and he speaks of it as something a believer already has. "One who believes in the Son has eternal life" (3:36). Whoever hears Jesus' word and believes the one who sent him "has eternal life, and doesn't come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life" (5:24). The last day is still coming (6:40; 11:24), but the life of that day has started. To know the Father and the Son is itself eternal life (17:3).
The "I am" sayings
Seven times Jesus says "I am" and then names what he is for us: the bread of life (6:35), the light of the world (8:12), the door (10:7, 9), the good shepherd (10:11, 14), the resurrection and the life (11:25), the way, the truth, and the life (14:6), and the true vine (15:1). Each takes an Old Testament picture and says it is fulfilled in a person. Behind them stands the bare "I am" of 8:58, "before Abraham came into existence, I AM," where Jesus takes the name God gave himself at the burning bush, and his hearers pick up stones.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me.
John 14:6, World English Bible
The Spirit and the new commandment
In the Farewell Discourse (chapters 13 to 17) Jesus prepares his disciples for his absence. He gives them one commandment, that they love one another as he has loved them (13:34; 15:12), and one promise, that the Father will send another Counselor, the Spirit of truth, to be with them forever, teach them, remind them of what Jesus said and guide them into all truth (14:16 to 17, 26; 15:26; 16:13). The section ends with Jesus praying for "those also who will believe in me through their word" (17:20), which includes every reader of the book.
Light and darkness
John sees the world in sharp pairs. "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness hasn't overcome it" (1:5). Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night (3:2); Judas goes out from the supper, and "It was night" (13:30); Mary comes to the tomb "while it was still dark" (20:1) and meets the risen Lord. The contrasts are not about two kinds of people but about one decision everyone faces when the light appears (3:19 to 21).
Key Passages
- The prologue (1:1 to 18). The Word with God and the Word made flesh. The whole Gospel in eighteen verses.
- Nicodemus (3:1 to 21). "Born anew," the serpent in the wilderness, and John 3:16. Our guide articles take the conversation a step at a time.
- The woman at the well (4:1 to 42). Living water, worship "in spirit and truth," and a Samaritan town that believes.
- The bread of life (6:1 to 71). The five thousand fed, the discourse at Capernaum, and the disciples who leave. Peter's answer: "Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life" (6:68).
- The man born blind (9:1 to 41). A whole chapter on one healing, ending with the one who sees and the ones who will not.
- Lazarus (11:1 to 44). "Jesus wept" (11:35), and the seventh sign.
- The Farewell Discourse and the prayer (13:1 to 17:26). The foot-washing, the new commandment, "Don't let your heart be troubled," the vine and the branches, the promise of the Spirit, and Jesus' prayer for his own.
- The resurrection (20:1 to 31). Mary Magdalene in the garden, the disciples behind locked doors, and Thomas: "My Lord and my God!" (20:28).
- Peter restored (21:15 to 19). Three denials, three questions, "Feed my sheep."
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies. Whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
John 11:25 to 26, World English Bible
How John Differs from the Other Gospels
Matthew, Mark and Luke share so much material and so much order that they are called the Synoptic Gospels, "seen together." John tells the same story of the same Lord, but in his own way. He leaves out the birth, the temptation, the parables, the transfiguration and the bread and cup of the Last Supper. He alone has Cana, Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman, Lazarus, the foot-washing, the Farewell Discourse and Thomas. In the Synoptics Jesus works in Galilee and goes to Jerusalem once, to die; in John he goes up for feast after feast, and the temple cleansing comes at the start of the ministry (2:13 to 22) rather than in the final week.
| Matthew | Mark | Luke | John | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Portrait of Jesus | The King, son of David, the new Moses who teaches | The Servant who acts, the suffering Son of God | The Saviour of all, friend of the poor and the outsider | The eternal Word made flesh, the Son sent by the Father |
| Opening | Genealogy from Abraham | John the Baptist, no birth story | Birth of John and Jesus, genealogy back to Adam | "In the beginning was the Word" |
| Length | 28 chapters | 16 chapters | 24 chapters | 21 chapters |
| Teaching | Five long discourses | Little extended teaching | Teaching spread through a long journey (9:51 to 19:27) | Long dialogues, the "I am" sayings and the Farewell Discourse; no Synoptic parables |
| Setting | Galilee, then one journey to Jerusalem | Galilee, then one journey to Jerusalem | Galilee, then a long road to Jerusalem | Jerusalem and Judea at the feasts, with visits to Galilee and Samaria |
| Old Testament | Quoted most often, with "that it might be fulfilled" | Quoted least | Quoted, with an eye to the nations | Alluded to, through signs, feasts and the "I am" sayings |
| Only here | Magi, flight to Egypt, Peter on the water, the temple tax, the sheep and goats, Pilate's wife, the guard at the tomb, the Great Commission | The deaf man of Decapolis, the blind man at Bethsaida, the young man who fled | The shepherds, the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, Zacchaeus, the Emmaus road | Cana, Nicodemus, the woman at the well, Lazarus, the foot-washing, Thomas, breakfast by the lake |
The fuller comparison, with the Synoptic relationship explained, is on the four Gospels page.
How to Study John
- Read it through once, quickly. About two hours. Notice how the first twelve chapters move from sign to sign, and how the pace slows to a single night in chapter 13.
- Then go a chapter a week. Twenty-one chapters, twenty-one weeks, with the Farewell Discourse earning a second week if your group wants it.
- Read the prologue twice. Once at the start, and again at the end, when you know what "we saw his glory" (1:14) turned out to mean.
- Mark the seven signs and the seven "I am" sayings. Ask of each sign what it points to, and of each saying what Old Testament picture it fulfils.
- Watch the word "believe." Note who believes, who does not, and what makes the difference.
- Know about the woman caught in adultery. The story in 7:53 to 8:11 is absent from the earliest manuscripts of John, and most modern Bibles mark it. Study it, but do not build on it.
- Read a good old commentary alongside. Ryle's Expository Thoughts on John was written for family reading and for preachers, a passage at a time, and it still serves both.
- End each study with Martha's question: "Do you believe this?" (11:26), and with what believing is for: life in his name.
Free study sheets. "The Four Gospels at a Glance" puts John beside the other three on one page, and "The Life of Jesus: A Timeline" shows where each chapter falls in the story. Both are free on the free downloads page.
J. C. Ryle on John
John Charles Ryle (1816 to 1900) was an English parish clergyman who became the first Bishop of Liverpool in 1880. His Expository Thoughts on the Gospels began with Matthew in 1856 and went on through Mark and Luke. John came last and took longest: three volumes, published between 1865 and 1873, together the longest and most detailed work in the series. Ryle kept the plain expositions written for family reading, but for John he added extensive notes on the text and its interpretation, weighing the fathers, the Reformers and the scholars of his own day and saying plainly which he thought right. A family can read the exposition aloud and stop there; a pastor can go on into the notes.
Our edition of Ryle's John is in preparation, in three volumes to match his own, with the same treatment as the Matthew, Mark and Luke volumes: Ryle's words and his order kept, the "thee" and "thou" and the old spellings modernized, the Scripture references written out, editor's notes in brackets where a word or a reference needs help, and a new biography. The books page says more about what changed and what did not, and lists the volumes available now.
There are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they would all be written, I suppose that even the world itself wouldn’t have room for the books that would be written.
John 21:25, World English Bible
Sources
- The Gospel of John, World English Bible (public domain). Quotations checked against the WEB text.
- Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies 3.1.1, on John publishing the Gospel at Ephesus.
- Clement of Alexandria, as quoted in Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 6.14.7, "a spiritual Gospel."
- Papyrus 52 (P. Rylands Greek 457), John Rylands Library, Manchester: a fragment of John 18, usually dated to the first half of the second century.
- D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John, Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991), introduction, on authorship, date, purpose and structure.
- Craig S. Keener, The Gospel of John: A Commentary, 2 vols. (Peabody: Hendrickson, 2003), introduction.
- D. A. Carson and Douglas J. Moo, An Introduction to the New Testament, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005), chapter 7.
- J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: St. John, 3 vols. (London: William Hunt, 1865 to 1873), prefaces.
Frequently Asked Questions
Because John set out to do something different. Clement of Alexandria, writing around AD 200, said that John, knowing the outward facts had already been set down in the other Gospels, composed "a spiritual Gospel." John has no birth story, no parables of the Synoptic kind, no transfiguration and no account of the bread and cup at the Last Supper. In their place he gives seven signs, long conversations and discourses, the "I am" sayings, and a ministry centred on Jerusalem and its feasts rather than on Galilee. The aim is the same as the others, that readers believe in Jesus, but the route is his own.
John calls Jesus' miracles "signs," because each one points past itself to who Jesus is. Seven are told in detail before the cross: water turned to wine at Cana (2:1 to 11), the healing of the official's son (4:46 to 54), the healing of the man at the pool of Bethesda (5:1 to 15), the feeding of the five thousand (6:1 to 15), walking on the water (6:16 to 21), the healing of the man born blind (9:1 to 41), and the raising of Lazarus (11:1 to 44). John says Jesus did "many other signs" that he did not write down (20:30).
Seven times in John, Jesus says "I am" and then names what he is: the bread of life (6:35), the light of the world (8:12), the door (10:7, 9), the good shepherd (10:11, 14), the resurrection and the life (11:25), the way, the truth, and the life (14:6), and the true vine (15:1). Each one takes a picture from the Old Testament and says it is fulfilled in him. Jesus also uses "I am" without a predicate, most strikingly in 8:58, "before Abraham came into existence, I AM," and his hearers take it as a claim to the divine name.
The book names its author only as "the disciple whom Jesus loved" (21:20 to 24). From the second century the church identified him as John the son of Zebedee, one of the twelve. Irenaeus, around AD 180, wrote that John, the disciple who leaned on Jesus' breast at the supper, published the Gospel while living at Ephesus. Many modern scholars accept that identification, among them D. A. Carson and Craig Keener, while others think the beloved disciple was a different eyewitness, or that his followers finished the book. All agree the Gospel claims eyewitness testimony.
Most scholars place it in the 80s or 90s AD, making it the last of the four Gospels, which matches the ancient tradition that John wrote after the others. Some argue for an earlier date, even before the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70. The firm outer limit is set by Papyrus 52, a small fragment of John 18 found in Egypt and usually dated to the first half of the second century, which shows the Gospel was already copied and circulating by then.
John tells us himself: "these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name" (John 20:31, WEB). Everything in the book serves that end. The signs are chosen to show who Jesus is, the discourses explain the signs, and the word "believe" occurs again and again. John is both an evangelist's book for those who do not yet believe and a teacher's book for those who do.
About three years. John mentions three Passovers (2:13; 6:4; 11:55), so the public ministry spans at least two full years and parts of a third. The Synoptic Gospels mention only one Passover, the final one, so without John we would not know the ministry lasted that long. John also records visits to Jerusalem for other feasts, including Tabernacles (7:2) and Dedication (10:22), which is why so much of his Gospel takes place in Judea rather than Galilee.
Study John with J. C. Ryle
Ryle's Expository Thoughts on John, in three volumes, and the John study workbook are in preparation. The Matthew, Mark and Luke volumes are available now on the books page.
Study workbook
The Gospel of John: A Study Workbook
The week-by-week study workbook for John, with Ryle's exposition in each week. In preparation.
Coming soon