Now Judas and His Redemption by Hueter John E

Author:Hueter, John E. [Hueter, John E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Branden Books
Published: 2011-11-08T16:00:00+00:00

A CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY -- JOHN

If at the date of this writing a poll were taken of church-attending Christian laymen as to whom they considered to be the author of the book titled JOHN, an overwhelming majority would put the pen in the hand of the disciple John. If the poll were made of accredited preachers, it is possible the majority would no longer be with that disciple. But if the poll were taken of scholarly Christian theologians, it is probable that the disciple John would not even register. Thus popular belief, which is based heavily on sentimental mores and dogma, gives plurality to John, while scholarly theological study very nearly eliminates even consideration.

That such a situation has developed is due in great measure to the early churches assuming that the fourth gospel, bearing the name "John," was authored by the only disciple of that name, particularly since John was documented as one of the three topmost disciples. Strangely, the fourth gospel never identifies its author by a given name; instead it attaches to him an endearing nom de plume of "the disciple whom Jesus loved."

As scrutiny turned to this gospel, so at odds with the preceding three, scholarly research in recent centuries determined the basis for such identifying of the disciple John with authorship was not founded, that a glaring and alarming case of mistaken identity existed. That such a mistaken identity came into existence was not a deliberate contrivance,- but like most dogma of ancient inception it is very nearly unalterable in the minds of the more pious laity, for it calls on that group to seemingly doubt a facet they deemed to have been documented in scripture. Actually the exact opposite is documented, but the cherished precept will not be surrendered. The Books of MARK, MATTHEW, and LUKE all record unmistakably the first encounter of the disciple John and Jesus and then continue from that point of introduction to show an association of but a year or less of the two men,- but this fact is discarded or ignored in pursuit of placing with John a writing of considerable years of association when he knew Jesus less than one year.

When the disciple John is shorn completely of the attributes of "the beloved disciple" there is not much to endear him to readers of scripture. His status of being one of the top three disciples remains, but in the first three biographies of Christ he appears as a man with no enviable attributes; in fact his covetousness, his lack of understanding, his wanting in steadfastness, his deficiency in learning are all character faults which most religious minds belabor in others.

John, unlike Peter, does not appear on the scene very often with an individual identity in the original three biographies, usually he is grouped with "the three" or "the twelve;" but there is enough singular identification made that his character is unmistakably transmitted from his day to the present in vivid discrediting portraitures. The absence of mention of

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.