Anti-Semitism in the Gospel of John Many people today discredit the validity of the Gospel of John because it includes content that may be interpreted as anti-Jewish. This material could be a reflection of the emerging division between Jewish Christian and Jews. In this paper, I will be inspecting the Gospel of John to validate the presence of anti-Semitic material. Exploration of the historical background of this time will be analyzed to determine the derivation of anti-Semitism within this gospel based on the Gospel of John’s negative representation of the Jews and their traditions. The Gospel of John is unlike any other gospel in the New Testament, considering the symbolic ways it presents the story of Jesus, even changing aspects of major events such as the resurrection of Christ (White, 1998). What makes the Gospel of John so distinctive, however, is the way it approaches the Jews - a way that viewers had never seen prior. In fact, a lot of people that have studied the Gospel of John agree that it is anti-Jewish or anti-Semitic for many reasons that can be justified within the text.
Calling the Gospel of John anti-Jewish may sound extreme, especially since we are observing the story of Jesus, but once the historical background of this time is taken into …show more content…
One cannot help but love the uniqueness of this gospel. It gives an intriguing, symbolic message to present the story of Jesus. We also encounter Jesus in a way we had never seen prior. He tends to speak in full discourses to address situations rather than speaking in parables as seen in the Synoptic gospels (LTJ, pg. 469). John’s gospel also presents us with information that is not recorded in any other gospel. One cannot choose to neglect this gospel simply because of possible human error. Otherwise, we may miss a crucial part of the story of
Calling the Gospel of John anti-Jewish may sound extreme, especially since we are observing the story of Jesus, but once the historical background of this time is taken into …show more content…
One cannot help but love the uniqueness of this gospel. It gives an intriguing, symbolic message to present the story of Jesus. We also encounter Jesus in a way we had never seen prior. He tends to speak in full discourses to address situations rather than speaking in parables as seen in the Synoptic gospels (LTJ, pg. 469). John’s gospel also presents us with information that is not recorded in any other gospel. One cannot choose to neglect this gospel simply because of possible human error. Otherwise, we may miss a crucial part of the story of