John the Evangelist: The Apostle and the Fourth Gospel

In John the Evangelist, Fr Justin Bianchi explores the connection between the Apostle John and the Fourth Gospel that bears his name. Contemporary scholarship has moved towards a consensus that the Apostle did not write the Fourth Gospel, and that the author may not have been an eyewitness. Rejecting the prevailing wisdom, Fr. Justin makes a cogent case that the most likely author of the Fourth Gospel was the Apostle whose name the Gospel bears.

The Book surveys the social and political situation Christians encountered in the second half of the first century. He documents the fall of Jerusalem, the persecution of Christians, and their impact on Christian communities. Fr. Bianchi argues that the persecution of Christians, and the martyrdom of Peter, had a particular impact on the creation of the Fourth Gospel.

Fr. Bianchi considers Pauline writing, and the impact the Letter to the Romans and Cornthians may have had on the author of the Fourth Gospel. John's Gospel adopts the high Christology of Paul-the certain belief that Jesus is divine, that he came from heaven, and returned to heaven. John also borrows Paul's favorable view of the virtue of love, noted in both I Corinthians and the second half of the Fourth Gospel.