When theology overwhelms story telling
Once upon a time—a very long time ago—four guys who had written stories about Jesus submitted their works to the Bible Screening Committee. They each received a notice to be near the screening committee’s headquarters on a certain day. By unhappy coincidence, they all chose to wait at the same bar, about a block away. They really didn’t like each other, but managed to be polite as they waited for word from the BS Committee. They each got a text message on their phones at the same time: “Congratulations! Your story has been approved for inclusion in the New Testament we’re putting together.” Each author was about to gloat—until they realized that all four versions had been given the okay, and even worse than that: the BS Committee was planning to print the four versions of the Jesus story together. They all knew that would be a disaster. At least there was potential for disaster. They had no clue that many centuries later, when lay people finally had access to the New Testament, reading the gospels carefully—comparing them carefully—would not become a habit.
But the BS Committee—we now know for sure—was incompetent. It accepted quite a few forgeries into their collection, and they overlooked blatant plagiarism. Years later, the four anonymous authors were given names by Christian tradition: Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John. For anyone who was paying attention, it was obvious that Matthew and Luke had copied most of Mark’s gospel, without telling anyone they had done so. Moreover, anyone who reads Mark’s gospel carefully will be shocked at just how different John’s portrait of Jesus is. They couldn’t both be right!
Where in the world—how in the world—did the author of John come up with his version of Jesus? Charles Guignebert, professor of the history of Christianity at the Sorbonne, in his epic 1935 book (538 pages), titled simply, Jesus stated his opinion:
“… it is certain that on the whole Gospel of John seems further removed from historical probability than the other three. The plan of it is entirely dictated by dialectical considerations. Its interest is wholly mystical and theological, and its arrangement is based on the current rules for this species of rhetoric.” (page 28)
Wholly mystical and theological. For a long time I have pointed out that John’s gospel is an example of theological inflation. This is apparent from the very beginning. The opening of the gospel makes this declaration:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being…And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth” (v. 1-3 & 14).
In Mark’s gospel, we see Jesus first when he shows up to be baptized by John—for the remission of sins. Matthew added that Jesus had been virgin-born. In Luke’s enormous chapter 1, he claims that the angel Gabriel appeared to Zechariah in the Temple, to announce that he would be the father of John the Baptist; then Gabriel visited Mary to announce that she would give birth to Jesus, who would inherit the throne of David.
John couldn’t be bothered to mention a virgin birth or baptism; both might have seemed absurd to him. He claimed that Jesus had been present at the creation of the world—was indeed The Word by which everything had been created. John the Baptist appears in his chapter 1—not to baptize Jesus—but to make absolutely clear who Jesus was:
“Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’” (vv. 29-30)
“…but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Chosen One.” (vv. 33-34)
There are so many things that make us highly suspicious about John’s theology inflation. Here are a few of them.
No parables
John’s Jesus did not teach in parables, yet Mark said that Jesus taught only in parables! This author created major sections of Jesus-script not found in the other gospels—how could it be that the other gospel writers were unaware of these teachings? As one would expect of a verbose theologian, his long patches of Jesus-script are often tedious.
Miracles reported nowhere else
The belief that the Bible is divinely inspired has convinced so many of the devout that it can be trusted totally. This concept survives because of ignorance of the context in which the early Jesus sect arose. There is so much in the gospels that reflects the magic folklore of the time. The gospel authors were determined to show that their holy hero was as good as others.
The Greek god Dionysus was credited with changing water into wine, hence it’s no surprise that John depicted Jesus doing the same thing at the wedding in Cana. The other gospels know nothing of this.
Nor do they report the raising of Lazarus from the dead. How could they have been unaware of this dramatic event? But, in fact, the Lazarus story in John 11 is contrived—a stunt that John invented to enable him to add this Jesus-script: “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:25-26).
But the author fails to mention that Lazarus—his physical body—must have died again at some point. It makes no sense to revive a physical body that will die again, and cite this as proof that “those who believe in Jesus will never die.” John’s theological inflation blocked logical thinking.
More differences from the other gospels
The Last Supper
At the Last Supper, there is no Eucharist; instead Jesus washes the feet of the disciples. Yet John adds grotesque Jesus-script in chapter 6, after Jesus feeds the 5,000, about eating his flesh and drinking his blood to gain eternal life. Thus his flesh and blood become magic potions; this also reflects pagan beliefs, and this text no doubt gave a boost to the Catholic belief in transubstantiation—truly a belief in magic potions.
No Sermon on the Mount
The gospel of Mark contains little ethical teaching, which prompted Matthew to add The Sermon on the Mount. Luke modified it, and changed the wording here and there. The author of John saw no need for it.
It is worth noting that John’s version of Jesus has done considerable damage. The case for this is well presented in Louis A. Ruprecht, Jr.’s 2008 book, This Tragic Gospel: How John Corrupted the Heart of Christianity.
He makes the case that John’s theological inflation erased the human Jesus portrayed in Mark’s gospel. In Mark’s story, Jesus is baptized “for the remission of sins,” his family tries to stop him from preaching because people were saying that he “was out of his mind.” Jesus agonizes about his fate while he prays in the Garden of Gethsemane, and his last words on the cross were, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:24). John’s author would have none of this. In John, as Jesus dies on the cross, he says, “It is finished.” (John 19:30)
The Biggest Sin in John’s Gospel
This horrible Jesus-script is found in John 8:44, as John’s hero is arguing with Jewish leaders: “You are from your father the devil, and you choose to do your father’s desires.” This fueled Martin Luther’s virulent anti-Semitism, as Ruprecht points out:
“Luther’s evolving anti-Semitism is legendary and assuredly represents one of the darkest chapters in this polemicist’s long career. Luther argues against the Jews precisely as John’s Jesus did… As his life and thought continued to mature and to harden, however, Luther’s hostility toward the Jewish people grew fiercer. Jews became, in Luther’s later years, symbolic of everyone who has ever been given the chance to accept the evangel and then rejected it. This is precisely how John saw the Jews, we will recall, most notably in the ninth chapter of his evangel, when followers of Jesus are expelled from the synagogues. Luther’s rhetoric of damnation intensifies until it becomes almost hard to hear.” (pages 166 & 167, This Tragic Gospel)
In the Epilogue of this book, Ruprecht offers this conclusion:
“One generation after Mark, a very different kind of Christian wrote a very different kind of story, one designed to replace Mark’s version, not to supplement or enhance it… John’s Jesus lacks all doubt and all fear, and for this very reason, he is terrifying to those around him. He simply is not human. And this inhumanity creates a very harsh and inhuman version of Mark story.” (p. 186)
It is no exaggeration to say that the author of John’s gospel was a cult fanatic, determined to convince his readers that the cult he pushed was the only right one. This is stressed especially in story of Doubting Thomas, who was skeptical of the disciples’ claim that they had been visited by the resurrected Jesus. Later, Jesus shows up when Thomas is there, and invited him to touch the wound in his side. Thomas is finally convinced, and is scolded by Jesus: “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” (John 20:29)
And there we have the formula for the success of cults, sects, and religions: Please don’t ask for evidence: just believe what we claim to know about god(s).
David Madison was a pastor in the Methodist Church for nine years, and has a PhD in Biblical Studies from Boston University. He is the author of Ten Tough Problems in Christian Thought and Belief: a Minister-Turned-Atheist Shows Why You Should Ditch the Faith, now being reissued in several volumes:
· Guessing About God (2023),
· Ten Things Christians Wish Jesus Hadn’t Taught: And Other Reasons to Question His Words (2021). The Spanish translation of this book is also available.
· Everything You Need to Know About Prayer But May Not Want to Admit (2025)
His YouTube channel is here. At the invitation of John Loftus, he has written for the Debunking Christianity Blog since 2016.
The Cure-for-Christianity Library©, now with more than 500 titles, is here. A brief video explanation of the Library is here.
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