optics the disciples seem to growfrom small beginnings in their understanding of who Jesus is, with various high-pointsalong the way, such as Caesarea Philippi (Mk. 8:27-30), while in John the veryfirst chapter finds various individuals confessing Jesus not only as Rabbi, but asMessiah, Son of God, Son of Man, Lamb of God and King of Israel?Fourth, there are several chronological difficulties that must be addressed. Inaddition to the obvious questions, such as the relation between the cleansing of theTemple at the beginning (Jn. 2:14-22) and at the end (Mk. 11:15-17) of Jesus' publicministry, or the length of that ministry as attested by the number of Passovers itembraces (John reports at least three, the Synoptists only one); there are one or twoquestions of great difficulty that are precipitated in part by a knowledge ofbackground ritual and circumstance. In particular, the chronology of the Passion inthe Fourth Gospel, as compared with that of the Synoptics, seems so idiosyncraticthat it has generated complex theories about independent calendars, or about.Introduction Page 3theological motifs that John is self-consciously allowing to skew the naked chronol-ogy.Did Jesus and His disciples eat the Passover, so that He was arrested the eveningof Passover and crucified the next day, or was He crucified at the same time thePassover lambs were being slaughtered? And how does one account for the fact thatthe Synoptics picture Jesus being crucified about the third hour (9:00 a.m.), while inJohn Pilate's final decision is not reached until the sixth hour (19:14)?Fifth, students of Greek, perhaps more readily than those who read John'sGospel only in a translation, observe that the style of writing is quite different fromthat of the Synoptics. For instance, the vocabulary is smaller, there is frequentparataxis (the use of co-ordinate clauses instead of subordinating expressions, whichelegant Greek much prefers), peculiar uses of pronouns (e.g. ...
