Keenan's Book Reviews: Search results for John the Baptist

Thursday, December 2, 2010

The Gospel of John

The Gospel of John. The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

More than the other gospel writers, John emphasized the deity of Jesus--that Jesus is God. The other gospels contain this part of Jesus’ nature, but John stated it explicitly in his opening statement, which mirrors the opening of Genesis, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (NKJV).

After this introduction, John starts his biography of Jesus shortly before He started His opening, with the witness of John the Baptist to who Jesus is. Mark’s gospel begins at this point, too. This would have been an important testimony to John the Apostle because he was probably a follower of John the Baptist before he became a disciple of Jesus.

As Matthew lays out prophetic demonstrations that Jesus is the messiah predicted in the Old Testament, John presents a number of Jesus’ claims of deity. Other witness, most importantly God the Father and John the Baptist, a prophet, corroborate these claims. Other supporting testimony comes from Jesus’ disciples, His family and, surprisingly, evil spirits. His miracles and, ultimately, His resurrection provide additional support for His claims. In John and the other gospels, He is called the “Son of God” and this is clearly understood as a claim of equality to God; it was one of the charges against Him when He was sentenced to death.

Like the other gospels, John gives a lot of attention to the days leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus. The crucifixion is the central act of Jesus’ ministry, in which He suffers all the punishment and death we deserve so we no longer have to pay it and can become recipients of God’s mercy; it is the central act of God’s mercy.

John gives more attention to Jesus’ post-resurrection ministry than the other gospels. His death and resurrection becomes the basis of our reconciliation with God, and this is symbolized especially well in Jesus’ restoration of Peter, which ends the book. Outside the courtroom where Jesus’ was tried, Peter denied being one of His disciples. After His resurrection, Jesus sought out Peter and said, “Follow me,” just as He did when He first called he disciples.

The other gospels are referred to as the Synoptic Gospels because they offer synopses of Jesus’ life and because of the similarities in the material they cover. John covers some of the same material, chooses many episodes that aren’t covered elsewhere.

What may be most striking is that John expresses focuses on Jesus’ highest attribute, His deity, while at the same time presenting the most private and affectionate view of Him. Jesus showed his power over death by raising Lazarus, but He wept because his friend had to suffer death. John showed us Jesus writing on the ground with His finger before showing mercy to an accused adulteress. The apostle who explicitly called Jesus the creator of all things referred to himself as the disciple “whom Jesus loved,” as if they were best friends. It is a radical thing about John’s gospel, and about the teachings for Christianity, that the all-powerful, perfect, sovereign God, creator and judge of the universe, could love us with such tender affection that he could take on humanity and suffer a horrible death to save us and reconcile us to Himself.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Matthew
Mark
Luke
Other books of the Bible

Novelist Henry James seems like an unlikely partner to fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. Dan Simmons pairs them in his novel The Fifth Heart. James provides Holmes with access to the inner circle of American politics, where Holmes investigates the death of Clover Adams, wife of historian Henry Adams. Together, they thwart an attempt to assassinate President Grover Cleveland at the opening of the Chicago Columbian Exhibition.

In some ways, Simmons draws from the weakest of genre writing, such as the fortunate happenstance of James and Holmes meeting on the bank of the Seine, where the story begins. Simmons writing in this style is not weak, though. He also writes in more literary style, though not a densely written as James’ novels, and uses the likes of upper-class dinner parties to explore social customs and mores.

One of the ways Simmons creates a deep sense of the setting is by constantly dropping names. Many of the characters in the book, or their real counterparts, were famous or well-connected in their day and actually knew each other, such as Adams, the Hays, James, and Samuel Clemens. They also knew, or knew about, a lot of other famous or well-connected people, so the discussion of all these names seems natural. I started jotting down the names, and I recorded more than 100 (some are listed below). Some were fictional (like Hercule Poirot), but many were real people.

On the whole, the novel is a good adventure full of interesting characters. Simmons goes a little deep into philosophy in a consideration of what it means to be a real person, or the potential reality of fictional people (Holmes suspects he may be fictional). The book can be enjoyed without sweating that point.

In a sense, all the characters in the book are fictional, even if they are based on real people. The Holmes of this novel describes the symptoms that indicate he may be fiction, such as the fog he experiences between adventures, and the James of this novel experiences the same thing. Of course, many of us experience arriving home from work and having almost no recollection of driving, so some fogginess may be a natural part of memories and the way we form them (or don’t form them).

Thursday, December 2, 2010

The Gospel of John

Sunday, September 20, 2015

The Fifth Heart by Dan Simmons