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The Book of John is probably my favorite book in the Bible. Every time I read it I notice something new. But what strikes me every time is that, from a strictly literary point of view, it is extremely well-written. So I’m wondering if anyone wants to do a literary study of the Book of John with me. I’m going to start reading it next Monday (August 22) and do one chapter for every weekday. That will leave time for discussion of any observations, but if you miss a day or more it shouldn’t be too hard to catch up. (Or if you just feel like jumping in somewhere in the middle of the study, you can do that, too.)
I would love it if as we’re reading, we can focus on: 1) Historical/cultural significance of John’s word choice. If anyone knows anything about the history of a passage, share it! I love delving deeper into the Bible through historical and cultural study. 2) How John ties into the rest of the Bible (Does he foreshadow coming books? Does he echo previous books? etc.) 3) The way the book is written. Look for his literary techniques. I believe there’s a lot to be learned about Jesus in this book, and a lot to apply to our spiritual lives, but there’s also a lot to be gleaned as a writer!YA Fantasy Writer
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Find me at hisinstrumentblog.wordpress.com@his-instrument I’ll read the book of John with you! I’m really not that great at literary analysis, so I probably won’t have much to say, but I look forward to learning from everyone else. Besides, I needed to read John again anyway. 🙂
Great topic @His-Instrument! I haven’t read John in a while, but I do remember he did a great job of sticking to his ‘theme’— Jesus as the Son of God. All the ‘proof’, if you will, of Christ being the Messiah. John chose the stories (plot threads 😀 ) that illustrated and played into his chosen theme, though he acknowledged that there was so much to say the world couldn’t hold all the books that could be written. He stuck to the point he wanted to make, and thus made it very strongly.
@sarah-h @kate-flournoy, How does it sound to take a week for each chapter? I realized that the chapters are kind of long and we might get more out of discussion if we take longer on each chapter. If we spend the first week on John 1 that will also give more people time to jump in if they want to. I’ll call some more people over. @bluejay @corrisa-maiden-of-praise @gretald @daeus @everyone-else
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Find me at hisinstrumentblog.wordpress.comAnd I’ll start with a comment on what I consider “section 1” of John 1: verses 1-17.
He starts with “In the beginning.” (“We start at the very beginning, a very good place to start!” ~Maria, The Sound of Music ) There are quite a few “echoes” from Genesis in John 1. And it begins with “In the beginning.”
Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
So John is telling us that The Word was with God in the beginning. Jesus is not explicitly mentioned in Genesis apart from “Let us make man in our own image,” from which we infer that he was there. But this is proof. There he was, in the beginning.
The next thing John talks about was that Jesus created. “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” And then he echoes “Let there be light” from Genesis– “In him was life, and his life was the light of men, and the light shines in the darkness.”
The beginning of the book of John is fascinating. John withholds his own name, he withholds information about his characters– it’s almost like a riddle. “Let me tell you about this Word, and make you really interested, and then I’ll tell you who he is.” “Jesus” is not mentioned until verse 16. He keeps you reading!
Someone else’s turn. What did you find in John 1:1-18? Spiritual, historical or literary, we’d love to hear it!YA Fantasy Writer
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Find me at hisinstrumentblog.wordpress.com@His-Instrument I love the book of John, but unfortunately I won’t be able to do this cause I’m doing this thing called the bible bee and it’s enough bible study I can hardly handle any more.
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@daeus that’s fine. Bible bee sounds like a lot of work! But if you learn anything John-related that you want to share you’re welcome to jump in at any point.
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Find me at hisinstrumentblog.wordpress.com@His-Instrument I’ll try to do this as much as I can because it’s fascinating and I love this kind of stuff, but I have to tell you I probably won’t be able to do it all at all times because we’re just getting back into school, AND getting ready for a family vacation out west. I’ll chime in whenever I can, but that mightn’t be frequently.
Totally agree with your analysis of the first part, though. I love the mysterious poetry of John’s ‘style’. 😀
@His-Instrument I’ll read through John with you! I’m not sure how often I’ll be on here, it might be regularly and it might not be. I have quite a busy schedule right now. 😛 😉 John is one of my favorite books though, and a literary study will be good for all of us I think!
I’ll be back later (probably tomorrow since I have class tonight) with thoughts on the first part of John. 😀"Courage is action in spite of fear."
@kate-flournoy @sarah-h @corissa-maiden-of-praise Glad you could join us! I’m hoping this study will be the sort of thing that’s easy to pick up on even if you’ve missed a few weeks. I think that doing one chapter per week instead of per day should make it even easier to catch up, even if it will take us longer to complete. I feel like there’s a lot to be gleaned in the book of John– too much to just fly through it quickly.
To everyone involved in the study so far: Check out the characterization of John the Baptist, Philip, and Nathanael in chapter 1. What can we learn about their characters from the brief clues given? John doesn’t spend much time on them but I feel like the details he gives tell a lot about their personalities. I’d love to hear your thoughts.YA Fantasy Writer
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Find me at hisinstrumentblog.wordpress.comI noticed that when John is introducing Jesus’s first disciples, one of the first two is only barely mentioned and neither named nor referred to again, which struck me as a little odd. I thought maybe it was John himself, since throughout the book he seems to avoid talking about himself. Do any of you know if that’s true?
I don’t know whether or not that’s true, @sarah-h, but it sounds like an excellent theory. You’re right about how John almost hides his identity.
I love the scene where Philip and Nathanael are introduced. The dialogue exchanged by them sort of carries across their characters. Nathanael obviously has some prejudices (“Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?”) and is very quick to take a leap of faith (“Rabbi, you are the Christ; you are the Son of God!”) Like, that’s blasphemy right off the bat. Where did that kind of faith come from?
In chapter 2, John’s still setting things up a little bit. The first miracle is performed. This could be viewed as further characterization for Jesus–showing his character through action rather than through description.YA Fantasy Writer
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