Intermission - The Special Emergy of the Gospel of John

The Fourth Gospel has more of a framework compared to Matthew, Mark, and Luke. That is not criticism but a way of looking at John compared to the other three. That can be appreciated by the careful reading of John. It is easier to look at the Fourth Gospel as the essence of that Gospel, simple in words but profound in meaning.

A writer is sorely tempted to include all kinds of details, which have given us miles of Matthew-Mark-Luke scholarly books but a lot of less of Johannine wisdom. The reason - before one gets upset - is the "Scientific scholars" (aka Thiantific) of endless denials about the truth of the Scriptures. College taught me the rationalistic approaches to Harvard Divinity School, from the New Testament professor. In later years he openly denied the rising of Jesus Christ. Likewise, the Princeton Seminary professor taught the same blasphemy at the Waterloo Lutheran Seminary.

In contrast, the best of the Biblical scholars in their era - the Yale Divinity professors taught the Scriptures, as my favorite insisted - "The text! The text! The one thing we know for certain is the text!" (Nils A. Dahl)

 

The Fourth Gospel soars above the rest because so much is taught, profound and simple words, always worth studying.