Aurel Gheorghe

John's silence on Christ’s baptism and Lord's Supper have puzzled Bible scholars for centuries. Some have suggested that perhaps manuscript pages were lost, others believed that John was an old man when he wrote the book and inadvertently forgotten some of the details. School of Tübingen theologians argued that John purposely overlooked the Lord's Supper story because it appeared ‘too Jewish’ and might offend the Gentiles audience. 

However, most of these opinions can easily be rejected. There is no indication that any pages are missing, John gospel is the Word of God and not the product of a failing or ignorant mind. It’s also unlikely that John was trying to be secretive about Lord’s Supper which was well detailed in the three other gospels which were known in his time. 

Although the Lord’s Supper is not mentioned in the Gospel of John, Jesus’ words about the bread of life in John 6 contains clear references to it. In my opinion, John simply believed that baptism and Lord’s Supper practices were well established by the time he wrote his book, and wasn't a need to mention them again. Rather than repeating Jesus’ institution of the Lord’s Supper, John preferred to focus more on Jesus as Christ, the Son of God (John 20:30-31).

January 02 2021 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Tim Maas Retired Quality Assurance Specialist with the U.S. Army

Unlike the synoptic gospels, which each had a target religious or ethnic audience in mind, John directed his gospel to people in general, irrespective of those considerations. I understand that the most ancient observances of the eucharist in the church may have been conducted in secrecy, because of the possibility of the nature of the eating of Christ's body and the drinking of His blood being adversely misunderstood by a wider or uninitiated audience, such as might read John's gospel. For that reason, John also omitted it from his writings. (This is figuratively represented by Revelation 3:20, where Jesus is first seeking admittance to people's hearts before He will come in and dine with them.)

January 01 2021 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Grant Abbott Child of Father, Follower of Son, Student of Spirit

John’s gospel was the last gospel book written. The apostle John would have been quite familiar with the contents of the gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark and Luke, because they were already in general circulation among the Christian churches.

The Lord’s Supper was already well documented in the other accounts. There are many verses in the gospel of John that do not appear in any of the synoptic gospels because John had a different purpose in writing. He sought to portray the spiritual truths underlying Jesus mission as saviour of the world. He focused on revealing Jesus as the Son of God. He recorded many intimate conversations that Jesus had with his disciples. 

John also does not include an account of Jesus birth as a human being, again because these events are well documented in the other gospel records. The fact that each gospel record has many different stories of Jesus life and ministry, plus the fact that the same events are portrayed with different emphases, is strong evidence that these accounts are authentic and truth, not copied from each other.

January 02 2021 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report