The apostle [John the Evangelist]? is traditionally considered its author.
After the prologue (1:1-5), the historical part of the book begins with verse 6, and consists of two parts. The first part (1:6-ch. 12) contains the history of Jesus' public ministry from the time of his introduction to it by John the Baptist to its close.
The second part (ch. 13-21) presents Jesus in the retirement of private life and in his intercourse with his immediate followers (13-17), and gives an account of his sufferings and of his appearances to the disciples after his resurrection (18-21).
The peculiarities of this Gospel are the place it gives (1) to the mystical relation of the Son to the Father, and (2) of the Redeemer to believers; (3) the announcement of the Holy Ghost as the Comforter; (4) the prominence given to love as an element in the Christian character.
It was obviously addressed primarily to Christians. It was probably written at Ephesus, which, after the destruction of Jerusalem (A.D. 70), became the centre of Christian life and activity in the East, about A.D. 90.
In some people's view, this book contains dozens of anti-Semitic passages; these passages have shaped the way that many Christians viewed Jews. In recent years some have argued that the New Testament isn't targeting Jews, as Pharisees were just one of several Jewish groups. However, this is a new argument. In the time of Jesus the Pharisees were the dominant Jewish group; further, during the years that the New Testament became canonized, the other Jewish sects disappeared, leaving only Pharisaic Judaism (later known as rabbinic Judaism.) For all intents and purposes, all Jews today are Pharisees. (Members of the tiny Samartian community still extant do not refer to themselves as Jews.) Thus, NT passages about Pharisees really needs to be read as a passge about the Jewish people in general.
It may well be that anti-Semitic thought already existed, and was justified rather than caused by misunderstanding of scriptural meanings. Other interpretations suggest that we should read Jesus's and Paul's attacks as specific charges aimed at the existing hypocrisy among certain Jewish leaders of that time. In this view, the New Testament does not condemn the Jewish people as a whole. Nonetheless, this is a new reading of the text, and the NT passages as written do not condemn individuals, but actually target the entire Jewish people as a whole.
![[Home]](wikipedia.png)