Although raised as a Christian, I have never had any good knowledge of the Faith and the texts essential to it. Recently, I have decided to change that. I had the feeling that, as a Christian, I was half-in-half-out. Also, I started to feel the urge to experience all those texts I had always been told about, but had never read.

I decided to start with the New Testament. Because of its Hellenistic influence, the New Testament is much closer to my Euro-American culture. This makes it much more pleasant to read. I choose to read the Gospel of John first. It is sometimes said that this text was authored by the John who was present as a disciple at the time.

So, what is this about ?

The book is mainly a sequence of events and dialogues which insist on Jesus' claim that he has a divine nature, with a special relationship to God. This is expressed as him being the Son of God (1:34), that he is one with God, equal to God (5:18), or that supernatural has become man (1:1-5,10,11).
The second theme in it, is that, for this reason, people should put faith in him and that those who do, will have eternal life and be raised to life on the last day (6:54, 1:29 and other places).

There is surprisingly little else in the text. The author's priority is clearly to convince us, that Jesus is really of a divine nature. Chapters 1 through 17 do nothing but that. The Jesus who speaks, is not modest in that respect. He has seen Heaven (3:13), God wants all people to honour the Son as much as they honour Him (5:23), and he is special "You will always have the poor with you, but you won't always have Me" (12:8). The miracles He performs are presented as proof of his godliness. There is no system in the miracles: The first one, when he turns water into wine, serves party-goers at a wedding, and is done on request of his Mother. As they could have gone to buy extra wine, also, we must suppose the hosts were out of money. The miracle is clearly for material gains, or, more probably, put there to proof His supernatural power.

So it is all about His godly nature, and that putting faith in Him will give people eternal life, or/and have their sins forgiven when they die.

Does the text say anything on what He wants us to do ? Not much.
He says 8:31 " If you keep on obeying what I have said, you truly are My disciples ". But there is not very much in this text on what to obey, except believe that He is God's Son. Specific points, which are mentioned, are:
- The text repeats a few times that we should prefer spiritual goals over material ones. Example in 6:27, or in 12:23-25 we can read ".. a grain of wheat that falls on the ground will never be more than one grain unless it dies. But if it dies, it will produce lots of wheat. If you love your life, you will lose it. If you give it up in this world; you will be given eternal life." As for the grain of wheat, Jesus talks about Himself: he is going to be executed. The second sentence may be more general.
- There is a "contents over appearance" theme: 7:24 "don't judge by appearances, judge by what is right", when Jesus does a miracle on the sabbath, which is supposed to be a day on which you do not work.
- There is a non-ethnicity motif: A Samaritan woman is invited by Jesus to follow.
- There are no frequent threats with punishment. Two of the few examples: 3:18 'But everyone who doesn't have faith in him has already been condemned for not having faith in God's only Son.' 5:35 The healed lame man is told not to sin any more or something worse would happen to him, Jesus says.
- Intolerance to sloppiness: 2:13-16: Jesus uses a whip to chase hawkers from a temple. Jesus says to the priests (7:19) "Didn't Moses give you the Law? Yet none of you obey it!". Also 8:7, where He states that only those who have not sinned themselves, can execute somebody who according to the law of Moses is to be stoned to death (nobody).
- Love. 13:34 " But I am giving you a new command. You must love each other, just as I have loved you."

The last part of the text is about is Jesus' death and His appearances afterwards. John does not intend to prove anything. Three men have been crucified, and their death is to be speeded up by breaking their legs. Soldiers however, do not break Jesus' legs, because they think He already died. The other two are still alive. Jesus is taken of the cross and put into a tomb. At first inspection, the next day already, He is not in there any more.
The end of the book has a nice twist: there is talk about Jesus' favourite disciple, who had been present at the last supper also, and, it is concluded, this disciple is the man who " told all this. He wrote it ... "(21:24).

The style makes the text look rather modern. There is a logical story with a clear, chronological sequence. A single thing makes you smile, like 12:28 " A voice from heaven then said, « I have already brought glory to myself, and I will do it again!» "

In the end, this is not a text to start with. The continuous insistence on the godliness of Jesus is the essential part of it. This could give you a good feeling when reading, that you are privileged to learn about this. Maybe, also, there is a technique for enlightenment here: John is very definite about the godlike quality of the man Jesus, but you know at the same time that this is something impossible. This means you must try to reconcile the irreconcilable, when you concentrate on it. This could force you to break through your rationality, and enter a different state. Or maybe not.