A Note on ‘The Jews’ of St John's Gospel

Extract

Recent studies (cf. in particular The Destination and Purpose of St John's Gospel, by J. A. T. Robinson, in New Testament Studies, 6, i960, 117-113) have radically questioned certain common assumptions about the fourth gospel. It is too often taken for granted that the evangelist is addressing his message to gentile Christians, and that he considers the Jewish nation—the Judaei—as lost to God, and as rejected by him because they have rejected Christ. But it is surely significant that in his gospel, alone among the books of the new testament, the word ‘gentiles’ never occurs. The dramatic narrative centres almost exclusively on what the author regards as the crisis of Judaism.