Giday, I'm Gary Stevens.

And welcome to the third season of the History in the Bible podcast.

In this final season, I explore how the Jews and the Christians constructed new religions when they were sent

spinning into the void after the destruction of the temple. All of the history, about all of the

books beyond the Bible.

Episode 3.11 Earliest Christians Part 3

John's Community and Revelation

In previous episodes

I presented three primitive Christian communities

The Jerusalem Jesus Club, the Gentile clubs, including those founded by Paul,

and the probably Gentile Thomassine communities.

In the late 20th century, scholars argued for the existence of a fourth group, the Joannine community.

This community believed it was founded by the disciple John, the beloved disciple.

Now that's Yoccanon in Hebrew, or Iwo'a'anis in Greek.

The Gospel of John is the standout and most popular of the Gospels.

Matthew, Mark and Luke are obviously related to each other.

John stands alone.

You can read almost anything you want into John's theological exposition.

The other Gospels have barely any theology. John is stuffed to the brim of intriguing notions. It opens with a beautiful poem about the word. The Jesus of John

stresses such cryptic ideas as the need to abide in him, walk in the light, be children of the light,

overcome the world, be born from above, and be of the truth. These expressions don't

appear in the other gospels, but they do emerge in the three letters attributed to John.

...