RLGN 301 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY Research Project Final Draft Assignment _2025.pdf

Research Project: Final Draft Assignment

Joseph Marks

RLGN 301: Research and Writing for Religious Disciplines

September 30, 2024

It is generally accepted that the Gospel of John proclaims Jesus as Lord and God, One

with the Father. There are, however, those who challenge this view. Recently, Peter Nagel

(2019) pointed out that, “Jesus is not regarded as Theos in the Gospel of John”. He refutes the

classical understanding of the texts that Jesus is One with God. He does not regard both the

this argument because the author of John is clearly a Jew writing to monotheistic Jewish

Christians for whom there is only one Lord and God, namely, Yahweh.2 Jesus's "I am"

statements identify Him as God and connect to Old Testament themes.

An appropriate starting point for this study is the major confession in John by Thomas in

John 20:28 noted above: Άκου, Ισραήλ, ο Κύριος ο Θεός μας, ο Κύριος είναι έ (“my Lord and

my God”). Two things are striking in this confession. First, it is a distinct confession of Jesus’

divine identity from the more typical confession found in the Synoptic Gospels where Jesus is

confessed to be “the Christ” by Jews like Peter (Matt 16:16; Mark 8:29; Luke 9:20) and “the Son

of God” by Gentiles like the centurion (Matt 27:54; Mark 15:39). The evangelist John is familiar

with this more traditional confession and includes both “Christ” and “Son of God” in his

Lazarus (John 11:27); and also in the summary of the purpose of his Gospel (John 31). This

confession—especially Jesus as “the Son of God”—which is featured so prominently in the

Synoptic Gospels, however, plays a relatively minor role in John’s Gospel. The climactic

confessions in this Gospel are by Peter (“You are the Holy One of God” in John 6:69) and

be emphasized that the Divine Name Hin? (Yahweh) is used twice here in the Hebrew text, along

with the title For a Jew to use the language: Άκου, Ισραήλ, ο Κύριος ο Θεός μας, ο Κύριος είναι

ένα for Jesus is typically to confess Jesus as Yahweh.4

The Fourth Gospel shows the stark contrast of response between true belief and rejection

of truth, between the kingdoms of light and darkness. In John’s Gospel, knowing this “Word”

that “became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14) is more than mental assent—rather, it is a

knowing trust that leads to greater life in and with God.5 For the Scripture states, “So the Word

became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And

we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son” (Holy Bible, New Living

Translation, John 1:14). Differences, however, exist among those who emphasize that an early

high Christology is being reflected in the Gospel of John. For example, Richard Bauckham

3 “Charles A Gieschen, “The YHWH Christology of the Gospel of John,” Concordia Theological

Quarterly, 85 No 1 Jan 2021, p 3-22, January 1, 2021.

4 Ibid.

argues, “that writers like John are seeking to identify Jesus within the mystery of the one God

Yahweh, so they have a Divine Identity Christology that includes Jesus within the mystery of

Yahweh.”

Unique to John’s Gospel is Jesus’s use of the I AM statements, drawing his audience

life” (6:35), “I am the light of the world” (8:12; 9:5), “I am the gate” (10:9), “I am the good

shepherd” (10:11, 14), “I am the resurrection and the life” (11:25), “I am the way, the truth, and

the life” (14:6), and “I am the vine” (15:5). These statements invite the modern reader into a

reflection of how they are walking in discipleship with Jesus, the great I AM, who through his

incarnation has become “flesh and dwelt among us” (1:14).6 Where the synoptic gospels of

Matthew, Mark and Luke are detailed testimonies of the facts surrounding Jesus' ministry,

John concentrates on the theology surrounding those events. This may make it the most

important book ever written. It tells who Jesus is, what He did on the cross, how He can be

known personally, and how a person can receive eternal life through Him.7

Jesus’ claim of being the Way, the Truth, and the Life in John 14:6 point directly to His

deity and has direct correlation to the Old Testament. This statement of fact by Jesus is a

6 Cara L. T. Murphy, “John,” in Approaching the New Testament: A Guide for Students (Nashville, TN:

B&H Academic, 2022), 75.

7 John W Carter, “The Prolegomena of the Fourth Gospel: Jesus, LORD and YAHWEH.,” Journal of

cumulative proclamation of all seven “I Am” statements in John’s Gospel: Bread of Life, Light

of the World, the Door/Gate, the Good Shepherd, the Resurrection, and the True Vine. There is

no shortage of self-references made by Jesus claiming to be the “I am.”

Before identifying the “I” in all these statements, the significance of “I Am (egô eimi)”

shall know in that day that I am He who speaks: ‘behold, it is I.’” Even more indicative is, “the

occasion when Yahweh offers this definitive self-designation to Moses as divine authorization

for his rescue mission: ‘I am who I am [egô eimi ho ôn]’ (Exodus 3:14).”9 It is not by

happenstance Jesus uses the same phrase in the New Testament claiming to be the “I Am” as

Yahweh does in the Old Testament Septuagint. There is deliberate reasoning to the words Jesus

spoke and John captured in his Gospel.

Additionally, Jesus’ baptism, recorded by John, has profound correlation to Yahweh and

the Old Testament scripture in Exodus. Though Jesus’ baptism is not explicitly defined in John’s

Gospel, Wallis states, “it clearly identifies Jesus’ baptism as the definitive moment in his

spiritual transformation with the emergence of a filial consciousness, a sense of sonship, in line

with the Synoptics.”10 It is also highly recognized among scholars and theologians that Jesus’s

mentioned by Wallis. Evidence supporting such a claim is, “found in Yahweh’s indwelling of the

Tabernacle or tent of witness as narrated in the second half of the book of Exodus.”11 First,

understand notice the resemblance from John 1:14. For the Scripture states, “And the

Word^became^flesh and dwelt among us, and^we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only

consecrated then God dwelt amongst them, so was Jesus baptized (consecrated) and anointed

then the Holy Spirit came down like a dove and rested upon Jesus.

John’s main purpose is stated near the end of his Gospel, rounding out his narrative

pointing out that Jesus is, in fact, the Christ, He is also the Son of God, and those who believe in

Him will have life. Jesus’s divinity is evident and pronounced throughout John’s Gospel, and

“Nowhere is this more evident than in the ‘I AM’ statements of Jesus.”12 In these statements,

Jesus is not simply proclaiming His divinity, rather, He is equating Himself with Yahweh. He is

putting Himself on a level playing field as Elohim, the creator of the universe. These

proclamations by Jesus, “give reference to the names of God given to Moses in the Old

Testament” and “would have been clear statements of divinity to the Jews of Jesus’ day.13 This

deistic, self-proclamation is made evident by John 8:58-59. For the Scripture states, “Jesus said

12 Fr Vasilios Avramidis. “I AM: Jesus’ Claim to be Jehovah the God of the Israelites in the Old

throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple” (Holy Bible, English Standard

Version, John 8:58-59). Which is followed in verse fifty-nine by the crowd of Jews Jesus is

speaking to picking up stones to stone Him. Jesus’ proclamation of being God, the “I AM,” was

clear to the Jews of His day.

it is through Himself that one finds sustaining life. John’s Gospel narrates the Christology of

Jesus more abundantly than the other Synoptic Gospels. John, “chooses events from Jesus’ life

that best demonstrate that He is God, the Messiah foretold by the prophets, the New Moses that

was prophesied in Deuteronomy chapter eighteen.”15 Clearly, Jesus’ declaration of being the

Bread of Life paired with the miracle of feeding the five thousand wasn’t just for show, rather, it

was solidifying Jesus’ deity as being God and the promised Messiah from Old Testament

Scripture.

Compared to the other three Synoptic Gospels, John begins his account of Jesus from the

very beginning. Where Mark began his Gospel when Jesus was thirty years of age, Matthew

went further to Jesus’ birth and even used genealogy tracing Jesus’ roots back to Abraham. Then,

in Luke’s Gospel, he took it a step further and took Jesus’ title as the Son of Man and used

14 Ibid.

by, “emphasizing that Jesus existed before creation.”16 John starts his Gospel by taking the words

from Genesis 1:1, “as the basis for his opening to the Gospel: ‘In the beginning was the Word,

and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”17

Now, to understand the significance to the opening line of Johns’ Gospel, one must

Ephesus, there lived a man by the name of Heraclitus, who was, “acknowledged as the founder

of science.”18 He believed in inquiring about the science of the natural world, asking why things

were the way they were? He even, “looked for patterns or ‘laws’ to see if he could deduce some

logic behind the operation of the natural world.”19 Heraclitus used logos to stand for, “the

purpose behind what took place.”20 When he would look to life (bios), he would look for the

logos of life; he did the same with weather (meteor).This concept is plainly seen in our world

today in different fields of study such as biology, psychology, meteorology, geology, sociology,

etc.21

Publishing, Inc., 2007, 552.

19 Ibid.

With this line of thought and understanding of logos, John realized that “Jesus is the

ultimate reason ‘why’ everything happened.”22 With this, John took this idea and entitled Jesus as

the Logos, the Word. John realized Jesus is the “reason why” behind everything. The world was

made for Him. He was the Logos before anything or one existed. John understood Jesus is why