The Gospel of John candidly summarizes the main reason why the Gospel was written. In John 20:30, the Bible articulates “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” (Elwell & Yarbrough, 2013). Therefore, the Gospel was a testimony of the fulfillment of the promises made in the Old Testament. It was good news that opened a path of salvation for the early Christians. Also, the people who had followed Jesus at a time when he was alive had to document the good news of God to others who had not. It is vital to note that the books were written to provide reading and reference materials for Christians who sought to preach the Gospel to the outsiders. Additionally, the authors of the Gospel needed to write down the events because it would have been challenging to teach using the spoken word.
Many years passed before anyone thought of writing the Gospel. The men and women who had witnessed the life and death of Jesus could not write because their hearts were still heavy. As the number of people who had seen Christ lessened, a few of the individuals embarked on writing what they remembered about his life. Mathew mainly had a first-hand account of the life of Jesus because he had been called to be a disciple (Watson, 2013). Mark, on the other hand, is said to have written the Gospel from the account given by Peter. St. Luke drafted his Gospel primarily as a historian and dedicated his work to another individual known as Theophilus. John wrote his book last. By the time he wrote his book, Christ had already ascended into heaven. He was, therefore, able to document some of the things that others might have considered sensitive at their time of writing.
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References
Elwell, W. A., & Yarbrough, R. W. (2013). Encountering the New Testament (Encountering Biblical Studies): A Historical and Theological Survey .Baker Books.
Watson, F. (2013). Gospel Writing: A Canonical Perspective . Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.
