John’s Gospel in Western Asia Minor

Abstract

Besides John of Patmos and the fictional John of Zebedee, there is also ‘John’, the author of the fourth gospel. Usually the gospel is attributed to the same John of Zebedee. A literary analysis of the Gospel of John shows, first of all, that there are seperate and originally unattached sections: A Book of Seven Signs, Independent Gnostic Treatises, Gnostic Discourses, Roman Christian Insertions and three Stray Traditions. The Gnostic material was brought to Western Asia Minor at an early date and used there as a compendium for newcomers. When Roman Christianity moved into the East, these Gnostic groups were overrun and the Gospel of John was heavily added to and edited. It was transformed into a Roman gospel that could stand beside the Gospel of Mark.