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Christopher M. Tuckett
Born 1948
The picture of Jesus in John is in many respects
very different from the picture in the other three, so-called 'synoptic', Gospels.
Furthermore, most would agree that, in general terms, the synoptic picture is more likely to reflect the realities of Jesus' own time, and the Johannine account represents an (at times) extensive rewriting of the Jesus tradition by a later Christian, profoundly
influenced by his own ideas and circumstances.
Thus in reading all the Gospels, we have to be aware of the fact that we are reading accounts of
Jesus' life as mediated by later Christians, and hence we may learn much, if not more, about the latter as about Jesus himself in studying the Gospel texts.
Christopher M Tuckett, Christology and the New Testament: Jesus and His Earliest Followers, (Edinburgh University Press 2001) pp.105-106
When we turn from the synoptic Gospels [Matthew, Mark and Luke] to the Fourth Gospel [John], we move in some respects into
a different world.
The differences between John and the synoptics have long been recognised, reference often being made in this context to the famous statement of Clement of Alexandria (early 3rd century) that, whereas the other Gospel writers gave the 'bodily' facts about Jesus, '
John wrote a spiritual Gospel' (cited by Eusebius, HE. 6.14.7).
Although the differences between John and the synoptics can perhaps be exaggerated,
there can be no denying that at many levels John presents a
radically different
presentation of the life and ministry of Jesus.
In general terms, the synoptic Jesus says very little explicitly about himself: his preaching is about God, the kingdom of God, the nature of God's demands, etc.
John thus presents Jesus explicitly in
far more exalted terms than anything we find in the synoptic Gospels.
In terms simply of historical reliability or 'authenticity', it
seems impossible to maintain that both John and the synoptics can be presenting us with equally 'authentic' accounts of Jesus' own life.
If there is a choice, it is almost certainly to be made
in favour of the synoptic picture, at least in broadly general terms.
Christopher Tuckett, Christology and the New Testament pp.151-152
Professor of New Testament Studies. University of Oxford.