Reflections on Bible study at Taunton Meeting

For our study group it was suggested that we consider St John's Gospel

It has been said that John was written about the same time of Luke, sometime after 93CE. The early Christian church promoted this as the actual writing of the apostle John, the brother of James who was the son of Zebedee. John was killed, however, by Herod Agrippa in 44CE, and therefore, the author was writing under an assumed name (some call it flattery, others call it forgery), leaving the original author anonymous, although we do know that he was from Ephesus (in Asia Minor). The oldest surviving fragment of John is from 125CE, and the earliest versions of John did not contain the final chapter, which describes Jesus Christ appearing to his disciples after rising from the dead. John did not quote as much of Mark as the others did.
The Gospel of John is an interpretation of events in Jesus life that the author had heard about, but, with no parables and instead, some plays on words and figurative, symbolic and abstract speech. Jesus talks for long periods in this gospel rather than briefly, and, historians are deeply suspect about any history where descriptions get more detailed as time moves on from the events described. And some miracles and events were, apparently, only ever seen by the author of John as no-one else wrote about them. This Gospel seems to have little direct knowledge of It is best to be considered imaginative fiction or spiritual encouragement depending on your point of view, but, should not be considered authoritive or factual.

Taunton Meeting

It was decided by the group in our last session, that given the evidence,  we only know for certain that Jesus lived and then died. Any other evidence is perhaps fiction and not historical fact.

The study has elicited a lot of fellowship, controversy and conversation.

One view put forward was that ~St John was writing to promote Christianity in order to convert the Roman Empire and contributed to the persecution of the Jews.

Another view put forward was that to meditate on the text would reveal a spiritual reality.

 Another view is that we all have our own visions of the truth.

Certainly St John whoever he was , was a publicist. My own view is that he was a clever  spin doctor of two centuries ago. And whatever reality of Jesus exists is corrupted with time. Nevertheless I have a faith in God, and I respect the message that the greatest of human capacity is that of LOVE.