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Introduction
Amongst scholars there has been considerable debate over the purpose of John writing his gospel. Numerous different suggestions have been made, including: being a supplement to the Synoptic Gospels, opposing those who believed John the Baptist was the Messiah, re-interpreting the Gospel into the Greek world, and as a polemic against unbelieving Jews, Gnosticism or Docetism.
Gnosticism
Gnosticism was a constantly developing philosophy with many competing schools. It was highly syncrestic, drawing on a mixture of Greek ideas, as well as elements from Judaism, Christianity and mystery religions. Its main characteristic was a radical dualism between spirit and matter. The spiritual realm was considered good and worthy, and the physical world, including the body, was considered inherently evil as the creation of a lesser God. They believed that there were a complex series of emanations from the real God, each one further removed from him, until there was one so distant that it could touch physical matter and create the world. This was the inferior creator God of the Old Testament named the Demiurge, who was hostile to the real God. Salvation came by secret knowledge (gnosis) only given to a select few (the spiritual ones), which allowed them to escape the body into the realm of pure spirit.
During the second and third centuries Gnosticism became one of the greatest threats to the Christian faith, as the Gnostics used many of the same words and concepts as the Christians, including, salvation, knowing God, spirit and truth. However, it had the positive effect of stimulating the church to develop its statement of faith in the creeds, and to define the canon of the New Testament to exclude the Gnostic writings such as the Gospel of Thomas.
The development of Gnosticism
The full development of gnostic teaching did not come until the middle of the second century, after which time all the gnostic texts that have been discovered so far were written. So if we hold to apostolic authorship for John’s Gospel, then combatting Gnosticism cannot possibly be the main reason for him writing his gospel. However, Gnosticism appears to have developed amongst Jewish scholars in Alexandria during the first century from a mixture of distorted Hellenistic Judaism and elements of Platonic thought. This is sometimes called ‘incipient Gnosticism’ by scholars. Aspects of their teaching, especially the dualism between spirit and matter, had widespread influence in the church during in the first century, and a number of NT documents, including John’s gospel, interact with it.
Docetism
As soon as the Gospel was taken from its original Palestinian environment into the Graeco-Roman world it came under the influence of the Greek distaste of the physical world. Many believed that it was impossible for the Son of God, who was pure spirit, to take on an evil physical body. To answer this problem, Docetic teaching was developed by Cerinthus and others - belief in a phantom Jesus. The name of this heresy is taken from the Greek word 'dokein' (to seem or appear).
Among the writer of the Early Church, Docetism had quite a wide range of meanings and its usage today is a matter of debate among scholars. They all agreed in their separation of the divine Christ from the human Jesus, making the incarnation impossible. Cerinthus believed that Christ did not really take on human flesh, but only appeared to do so, as any contact with the physical world would have defiled him. The Christ was immune from suffering as he was a pure spiritual being. Jesus was merely a man upon whom the spiritual power descended. Cerinthus was different from other Docetists in that he said that the man Jesus rose again. He also claimed that the Christ descended onto the human Jesus in the form of a dove at his baptism and left him before he died. Cerinthus also lived in Ephesus, and was known personally by John, who would therefore be familiar with the content of his teaching, and could have had this in mind as he wrote his gospel. Irenaeus recalls that John ran out of the bath-house in Ephesus, saying, "Let us fly, lest even the bath-house fall down, because Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is within". Another form of Docetism claimed that Jesus’ humanity was completely phantom, so Jesus was like a ghost that left no shadow and could not be touched, so those who crucified him were completely deceived, or otherwise it was Simon of Cyrene who was crucified in his place.
John’s emphasis on the humanity of Christ
John’s Gospel is characteristically recognised as the Gospel which above all proclaims the deity of Christ, particularly through his miraculous ‘signs’, and through his ‘I am’ statements. However, there is also a strong emphasis on the humanity of Christ. The statement, “The Word became flesh and lived among us” (Jn 1:14) would be shocking to anyone with a dualistic world-view, and would completely counter the teaching of the Docetists. This also made a strong claim to the unity between the divine Word and the human Jesus.
John also gives particular emphasis on Christ’s human nature, showing that he experienced the same human needs as all other men. He was tired and so sat down by the well (4:6), and was thirsty, asking the Samaritan woman for a drink (4:7). By the grave of Lazarus, he wept (11:35), and stated that he was thirsty just before he died (18:28). Supremely, when his dead body was pierced with a sword, blood and water came out (19:34). John significantly even adds a testimony to the truth of this event as an eye-witness (19:35). Even after the resurrection, Jesus told Thomas to touch his hands and to put his hand into his side (20:27), showing that he truly had a physical body.
However, even if John’s presentation of Jesus effectively proves his humanity and therefore counters the Docetic heresy, this does not necessarily imply that this was John’s main purpose of writing his gospel. It is also possible that John reaffirmed both the deity and humanity of Christ in order to teach believers the truth about Jesus, in order to protect them from error when they heard the teaching of Docetists, and to avoid confusion. It is the duty of Christian teachers both to teach sound doctrine to the churches, as well as to refute false teachers (Titus 1:9).
Evidence from Irenaeus
The earliest support for the anti-Gnostic purpose of John’s writing comes from Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, writing in the later part of the second century. He stated that John wrote his gospel to remove the error spread by the gnostic teacher, Cerinthus, and previously by the Nicolaitans. Irenaeus claimed that in his youth he knew the aged Polycarp, who in turn claimed to have been a disciple of the apostle John himself. This would give a direct connection between Irenaeus and John. This concept of 'apostolic succession' was important evidence to Irenaeus, that the gospel had been correctly preserved and handed down the generations from the original apostles. This would give strong evidence for John’s anti-Docetic purpose in writing his gospel.
John’s stated purpose
However, combatting Gnosticism can at most only be a secondary purpose of John’s writing of the gospel, as he clearly stated his purpose towards the end of his gospel, that: “these (signs) were written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name” (Jn 20:31). John’s intention is to proclaim that Jesus is the Son of God, the expected Messiah (Christ), and to challenge his readers to come to faith, so they may receive eternal life. Consistently through his book John does exactly this, both showing the deity of Jesus, and showing that people had to decide between making a commitment of faith leading them into life, or rejecting Jesus and remaining in darkness . John’s statement has been interpreted either to mean that his purpose was evangelistic - to bring people to faith for the first time, or otherwise to encourage believers to persevere in their faith.
It should also be noted that in his Gospel John makes no direct references to false teachers. This is very different from his letters, in which he makes some very strong statements against specific people who deny that Jesus Christ came in the flesh (the Docetists), including accusing them of being antichrists (1 Jn 4:2ff, 2 Jn 7).
Conclusion
In the light of John’s clear statement of purpose for the writing of his gospel, it is not likely that his main purpose was to fight against Gnosticism, and Docetism in particular. However, varieties of Docetic belief were popular in the later first century, particularly in the area of the province of Asia and its main city, Ephesus. For this reason it is important to be aware of widespread influence of Docetism as the setting for John’s writings, especially his letters, but including his gospel.
Bibliography
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Douglas, J.D. Who’s Who in Christian History. Tyndale 1992.
Eusebius. Ecclesiastical History. Baker 1991.
Guthrie, D. New Testament Introduction. IVP 1985.
Irenaeus. Against Heresies. http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-01/TOC.htm
Latourette, K.S. A History of Christianity. Harper Collins 1975.
Morris, L. The Gospel According to John. New International Commentary on the New Testament (NICNT). Eerdmans 1995.
Niswonger, R.L. New Testament History. Zondervan 1992
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Thompson, M.M. 'John, Gospel of', in Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels. ed. J.B. Green, S.. McKnight & I.H. Marshall, IVP 1992.
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