Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 6 days ago
Today begins a series on the authorship of the Fourth Gospel. In this introduction I explore what one might mean by authorship and what assumptions you shouldn't make when hearing that someone affirms traditional authorship. And just how important is authorship, anyway?
Get more content on the Gospel of John in _The Eye of the Beholder: The Gospel of John as Historical Reportage_:
amazon.com/Eye-Beholder-Gospel-Historical-Reportage/dp/1947929151
The blog post on independence and the resurrection, which I mention at the beginning, is here:
lydiaswebpage.blogspot.com/2025/12/the-resurrection-independence-and.html
Thumbnail: _Saint John and the Eagle_ by Vladamir Borovikovsky
Today begins a series on the authorship of the Fourth Gospel. In this introduction I explore what one might mean by authorship and what assumptions you shouldn't make when hearing that someone affirms traditional authorship. And just how important is authorship, anyway?
Get more content on the Gospel of John in _The Eye of the Beholder: The Gospel of John as Historical Reportage_:
amazon.com/Eye-Beholder-Gospel-Historical-Reportage/dp/1947929151
The blog post on independence and the resurrection, which I mention at the beginning, is here:
lydiaswebpage.blogspot.com/2025/12/the-resurrection-independence-and.html
Thumbnail: _Saint John and the Eagle_ by Vladamir Borovikovsky
![Unstated Gospel symbolism: Its too easy!
What do I mean by saying that its too easy to come up with theories of unstated symbolism in the details of the Gospels? And why does the fact that its too easy create a problem for those theories?
A song from an operetta by Gilbert and Sullivan says, If everybodys somebody, then no ones anybody.
If youre willing to go far enough to come up with an unstated symbolism theory for the details of the Gospels (such as the view that John is symbolizing some particular theological idea by dyschronologically moving the Temple cleansing), then there is virtually no limit to the additional theories you can come up with. The choice among them is arbitrary. And thats a Gilbert and Sullivan problem.
Thumbnail by Studio Ellis & Walery:[1] Alfred Ellis (1854-1930)[2] & Walery (Stanislas Julian, Count Ostrorog, either senior (1830 - 1890) or junior (1863 - 1935).)[3] - Scanned from the 1914 edition of François Cellier & Cunningham Bridgemans Gilbert and Sullivan and Their Operas., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3987877 Unstated Gospel symbolism: Its too easy!](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/QuOwEA8I1Bs/mqdefault.jpg)









