THE UNIQUENESS OF JOHN’S GOSPEL:
A Unique Structure By Steven Russell Synopsis: John’s gospel is structured differently from the three synoptic gospels, largely because he writes with a unique purpose.
Introduction
The structure of the fourth gospel in our canon is certainly unique from the first three. Our goal in this brief article is to articulate just how that is so. Let’s establish one thing at the outset. Each of the gospels has a unique and specific structure to accomplish a particular goal. The uniqueness of John is that its structure varies more even at first glance, but the other three have striking differences as well. Often, our goal has been to figure out how all four go together instead of figuring out what they are doing separately. While there is benefit in seeing what the gospels can tell us in composite form, we rob ourselves of great treasure if we ignore their primary value as distinct works. They were delivered one at a time. Each conveys an entire message about Jesus. None of them tell us all there is to say about Jesus, but each means to tell us completely something about Him. A Unique Point There are a few ways to look at the primary focus of John’s gospel account. One is to use the stated purpose for its writing in John 21:31, “but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.” This is helpful as far as it goes, but this point really encompasses all the gospels at some level. It does not get to what makes John distinct. Getting to that comes by seeing the structure and emphasis John makes all along the way. A more specific description of John’s major emphasis can be found in the opening words of the book. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). John’s overriding message is that Jesus is God. He communicates this reality from the very start with an explicit proclamation. While the other three gospels prove the deity of Jesus, none states it so straightforwardly as John. Certainly they do not do so in the first sentence. Mark comes quite close but requires some exegesis of the phrase Son of God. Slightly less explicit references are scattered throughout the book of John. For instance, Jesus refers to Himself as “I AM” on multiple occasions. The most well-known occurs in John 8:58, where Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” He also tells His disciples that if they have seen Him, they have seen God (John 14:6-11). Coming back to the beginning of John, we can see more than the explicit statement “the Word was God.” In John 1:1, the author uses the language of Genesis 1:1 to introduce Jesus. John starts with “In the beginning,” just as Moses does. Also, just as Moses introduces God as the creator of all the world, so John borrows those words to introduce us to the Word (Jesus) as the creator of all the world. Not only is the deity of Jesus more prominent, but other themes are deemphasized. For instance, the idea of the kingdom is almost absent compared to the other gospel accounts. The Greek word for kingdom shows up fifty-five times in Matthew, forty-six times in Luke, twenty times in Mark, but only five times in three non-sequential verses in John. This does not indicate that the theme of God’s kingdom is unimportant, but it is not as important to what John wants to communicate as it is to Matthew, Luke, and, to some degree, Mark. Because John is focusing more on a distinct aspect of Jesus and minimizing attention on other aspects, the stories he includes, and the details of those stories, are going to differ from writers who have other goals. It is why, even when he tells the same story, he does so with a different approach. Extended Dialogues One of the main distinctions in John’s approach is the lengthy discourses he records for us. The longest of these, and the longest discourse recorded in any gospel, is often referred to as “the Farewell Discourse” in John 14-17. This extended message of Jesus to His apostles is not even referenced in any of the other three gospels. It perhaps speaks not only to the uniqueness of the point of John’s gospel but perhaps the uniqueness of the timing. If John’s gospel is written as late as is often supposed, then he may have more reason to reassure the followers of Jesus about where He has gone and the nature of our continued hope, which is the major subject of those four chapters. In John 6, we have an extension of a story recorded in all the gospel accounts. The feeding of the 5,000 is recounted at the beginning of the chapter, but John adds the subsequent conversation that occurs when the people show up looking for more. It is a telling conversation and extremely helpful in understanding the full meaning of the miracle. In John’s account, Jesus is shown to be the true bread of life, which is a hard truth for the Jewish audience to comprehend. He exposes that they are shallow in their understanding of Israel’s history and how it points forward to greater truths. Of course, we also see that many depart as a result of this difficult teaching. What we find in the extended discourses that John records is more developed theology of the life of Christ. These include not just the miracles, but the consequent questions and explanations that follow them. Not just the Last Supper, but the questions that followed along with the answers. While Matthew, Mark, and Luke lay the groundwork to give us the fuller picture of Jesus’s ministry, John takes the time to develop a majority of the events he records. This brings us to our final point. Less Is More The concluding words of John’s account are, “There are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written one after the other, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written” (20:30). John tells us what we already know: that there is much more he could have included. Nevertheless, as he has already said, he has included what was needed to produce the desired effect—that is allegiance to God in the form of Jesus Christ. John has included the least number of miracles registering even less than Mark’s comparatively short record. One might suppose that a man intent on proving the deity of Christ would include more miracles in order to solidify the point. However, I believe this disparity points to an important aspect of miracles in the work of Jesus. Miracles were never an end in themselves, but always pointed to an inescapable end—namely, that Jesus is the Messiah, God in the flesh. It is the meaning of the miracles that finally brings us to where we need to be, and while the meaning is often left implied in the other gospel accounts, John blesses us with more instruction attached to those miracles. This leaves less space for additional miracles, but we are at no loss for the tradeoff. Conclusion Like John, I can say that much more could be written. We could examine the way his gospel is outlined. There seems to be some level of chiastic structure and various narratives pointing to Old Testament structures. Yet, these are not unique aspects of John. Our goal here is to point to the ways in which John distinguishes himself from the synoptics. I hope that this article shows not only how John’s structure differs from the other gospels, but why it does. It isn’t terribly profitable to observe that his gospel looks different from Matthew, Mark, and Luke if we don’t understand why. It is not random. John doesn’t simply have a distinct style. There is a purpose behind these distinctions. Not only this, but we find that these differences tell us more than the similarities. Where one gospel tells us something that another leaves out, or where there is a conspicuous absence in one gospel present in the other three, it gives us an opportunity to ask, “Why?” So let us ponder the unique gospel of John. Then let that spur us to ponder the uniqueness of each of the other gospels—then each book of the Bible. They all have something to say, and each one has a distinct purpose from the others. All this while, they each lead us to one great conclusion: That Jesus Christ is the Lord and King of all creation! 
Author Bio
Stephen Russell has worked with the Pepper Road church of Christ in Athens, AL, since 2015. He and his wife, Amy, have three children. The church website is here. He can be reached here. | 
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