The First Jewish Roman War

While numerous scholars say that John is the Gospel to the world (and Matthew to the Jews, Mark to the Romans, and Luke to the Greeks), a Jewish scholar such as Israel Abrahams might very well believe that the Gospel of John is the most Jewish Gospel of the four by the way it reflects Jewish traditions and symbolisms. According to David Wenham[i], there is more attention given to Jesus as the Messiah in the Gospel of John than in any of other Gospels. In John, from chapter one onwards people are directly talking about Jesus as Messiah, and then there is intense public debate about whether Jesus is Messiah or not in John 7:25-31, 41-44[ii], which indicates that John is quite mindful of Jewish issues.

In the time Paul was writing to the Romans there was conflict between the Gentiles and the Jews. Many of today’s scholars have presented a number of likely reasons as to why Paul may have written the book of Romans. One of these believed reasons was for him to address the continued power struggle between the Gentiles and the Jews. In the book of Romans, Paul encourages unity as people of God and begs the Jews and Gentiles to have peace and love with not only each other but with everyone in the world.

John also reveals Christ’s identity, “In the beginning the Word (logos) already existed. He was with God, and he was God…He created everything there is. Nothing exists that he didn’t make. Life itself was in him and this life gives light to everyone.” (John 1:1, 3-4)

The post presents a clearly defined explanation of Jewish traditions and culture in the Book of John. Correctly stated, the use of the term “the Word” plainly displays an entity that is more than just mortal. Jewish scripture accurately predicts a messiah that was eternal. John’s explanation of “the Word” plainly lays out the fact that He was existent from all eternity. (TOWNES X). Furthermore, in John’s Gospel care is taken to provide chronological timeline by identifying Jewish holidays. Especially unique is John’s mention of the Feast of Tabernacles. Customs such as the wedding at Cana and the agrarian references to sheepherding assume the reader would be familiar with a particular way of life. Continuing, the notice of John’s

The Crusades, a series of wars, are an extremely important part of history in the 12th century, occurring during the Middle Ages. The Middle East or the Holy Land was always a place that Christians traveled to to make pilgrimages. The Seljuk Turks eventually took control of Jerusalem and all Christians were not allowed in the Holy City. As the Turks power grew, they threatened to take over the Byzantine Empire and Constantinople. The Byzantine Emperor, Alexius I, asked Pope Urban II for help and Pope agreed, hoping to strengthen his own power. He He united the Christians in Europe and In 1095, Pope Urban II waged waged war against muslims in order to “reclaim the holy land.”

Analysis of the Gospel of John 1:1-6 and its comparison with Genesis 1 and 2: 1-3 and Proverbs 8 gives us insight into how a Christian text references Hebrew texts implicitly and explicitly. In chapter one, verse 1-6, of the Gospel of John, we not only witness the explicit references from Genesis and Proverbs, but also see how different ideas present in the two Hebrew texts have been reframed by the Gospel of John. We see a highlight of this reframing in the verse one of the Gospel of John, which states, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” In this verse, for instance, the notion of “The Word” is, one could argue, similar in its meaning and connotation to the idea of “Wisdom” present in

It is also interesting to note that even though John makes it very clear that the author is Jewish, the Gospel is written primarily for a Greek audience. Because of his knowledge of the Old Testament, which he continually quotes, his understanding of Jewish ritual and culture and he knew and understood the prophesy of the coming Messiah, there is no doubt that either John was Jewish himself or he studied Judaism very well. However, the lack of concern for proving the prophecies set down in the Book of Isaiah supports evidence that this was not a testimony to a Jewish audience. Throughout the gospel, Jesus is shown as being both fully God and fully human, a concept that is more synonymous with Greek culture. Also, the very beginning of John states that Jesus was with God

Jesus is the fulfillment of Judaic prophecies; he is the new Moses imparting the new Law of Love.

The term that is used in St. John’s Gospel to describe the second person of the Blessed Trinity is “Word”

The ancient Rome Empire raises their empire by coquetting many lands by fighting and coquetting them. One on the things that made Rome special was their expansion of the territory. What was different of other empires is, when they conquer a foreign land, they let them keep their traditions and their own culture. Instead of teaching them religion and make them be a Roman, they made them swear fealty to Rome. Roma wanted to spread their territory and their trading zone. One example of this was the war of the Roman and the Carthaginians in 264 BC. After many battles of this war better know as the Punic Wars, finally the romans defeated the Carthaginians. It took 100 years to put and end to this war.

Two major forces struggled for dominance within Rome during the last century before the Common Era began. These two political forces were the citizens, whom Cicero believed should rule, and the military. The latter would assume power and according to Cicero this was the beginning of the end of the Roman Republic.[1] Cicero was correct in his stoic assessments that when the power was taken from the people and put into the hands of the few then no longer was Rome guided by moral and philosophical principals. With the power in the hands of the military Rome would now be put on a war path of conquest, greed, corruption, and self-preservation founded on fear and intimidation rather than public service, personal accountability and honesty.[2] Cicero however Novus Homo that he was, being the first elected from his family to the Consul in 63 BC, was in a loss for true company among the biggest the power players of his day.

“The gospel gives away more to as who Jesus was as person and telling of his teachings in the ministry. John takes us behind Jesus’s ministry, where we get a glimpse of what it means to believe in Jesus as flesh of the eternal and living God, as the source of light and life, and for a believer to be a ‘Son of God.” (Sparknotes

Throughout the book of John, Jesus did many signs and miracles. Through these signs, Jesus attempted to show both the multitudes as well as his disciples one small truth about Him—His is God. In this gospel, Jesus goes toe-to-toe with many of the Jewish spiritual leaders (i.e., Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, etc.) in order to show the people who He truly is. Scholars disagree with how many Messianic signs Jesus performed, but one thing remains—every single sign pointed back to the fact that Jesus was who He claimed to be. The signs performed by Jesus show both the Israelites of old, as well as the people of today, that He is, indeed, God.

Johannine literature truly portrays Jesus as God, with the theme of His deity interwoven throughout numerous passages. In this respect, John’s style differs from the other four gospels, as Bickel & Jantz (1998) point out that the other three had been written prior to John’s gospel, therefore, “he wasn’t interested in just retelling the events” (p. 222). Since Jesus is the focal point of Scripture, a scholar of the New Testament with uncertainty concerning Jesus’ oneness with God will fail to perceive the crux of Christianity. Therefore, in spite of its importance, John does not focus on Jesus’ entrance into the

In the New Testament we find Jesus Christ, the son of God, preaching the word of God to the people. In the gospel of John 12:49-50 Jesus says, “For I have not spoken on my own, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment about that to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I speak, therefore, I speak just as the Father has told me.” Jesus conveys to the people that everything he speaks is what God wants to be spoken.