At first reading, the Gospel of John feels a world apart from the other gospels. The language is different, there are new stories (see our episode on "the woman taken in adultery") and Jesus speaks about himself in bolder terms ("I am the resurrection and the life." "I am the light of the world.") That has led some scholars to argue that the author of John didn't know the synoptic gospels and was instead working from other sources, probably oral traditions about Jesus circulating in the 1st century CE.

Our guest doesn't buy it. Mark Goodacre, creator of the pioneering biblical studies podcast NT Pod, argues convincingly that the author of John not only knew the other gospels, but wrote his version in direct response to them.

Mark is hard at work on a book about John, but in the meantime you can check out some of his other groundbreaking work: The Case Against Q: Studies in Markan Priority and the Synoptic Problem, and The Synoptic Problem: A Way Through the Maze.

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Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson.

Did the Author of John Know the Other Gospels?

Biblical Time Machine