John Dekker's Day

10:56AM - Bethlehem, ironically.

When they heard these words, some of the people said, "This really is the Prophet." Others said, "This is the Christ." But some said, "Is the Christ to come from Galilee? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?" So there was a division among the people over him. (John 7:40-43)

I hadn't noticed this before this week. This passage in John 7 is deeply ironic – people are saying that Jesus can't be the Messiah because the Messiah is supposed to come from Bethelehem, and Jesus came from Galilee. It's ironic because the reader knows that Jesus was actually born in Bethlehem.

The thing is, that's not in John's Gospel. John doesn't tell us anything about Jesus' birth – we have to read Matthew or Luke to know that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. And yet John relies on that knowledge for the irony to work.

So does that mean John's Gospel was written after Matthew or Luke? Not necessarily – Jesus' birth in Bethlehem must have been common knowledge among Christians. It may suggest that Christians constitute John's intended audience, but it also says something about how we read the gospels – John is meant to be read last. Its position as the Fourth Gospel is appropriate – it is, I think, the most theological of the gospels.

So whereas Mark 1:1 talks about the beginning of the gospel narrative as being the commencement of Jesus' public ministry, John 1:1 goes further back – "in the beginning was the Word". This doesn't mean that John had read Mark's gospel – no doubt they are both based on Genesis 1:1 – but it does mean that our Bibles have the gospels in suitable reading order.