Gospel of John and James

Michael Pannone

1) For whom do you imagine the gospel was written?

After Reading the Gospel of John there was an overall feeling along with a written passage that has led me to believe the audience for whom this gospel was written for is not as concrete as the three other synoptic gospels. I think the answer is more broad, in John 20: 30-31 the author simply states “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.” What I take from these passages is that the author was writing to a community in hopes to get them to believe in Jesus, what he stood for and his ministry.

The Gospel of James has a much different message, the writings are expressed to a group of 12 tribes of Israel whom seem not to all be present. It seems like this is written for the Jewish culture since they are from Israel

2) What do you see as similarities/differences between the 2 gospels you were assigned?

When looking at the Gospel’s of John and James it is clear to me that there are a majority of differences between these two rather than having some similar concepts but still being different at the same time. First the Gospel of James seems to be a book of infancy, Mary as well as Jesus. John on the other hand is the only gospel of the 4 in the cannon without a infancy narrative on Jesus. James talks about the birth of Mary, her upbringing and the birth of Jesus in which the gospel according to John Does not. Another difference is John writes about the life that Jesus lived where James does not. One thing that both gospels do have in common is the fact that they both depict Mary as the Mother of Jesus.

3) Is the content primarily intended to be a rehearsing of history?  a collection of stories? a set of teachings?  What is the evidence that leads you to that...