Christians and want to know more. In short, John's Gospel is not onlyevangelistic in its purpose (which was a dominant view until this century, when onlya few have defended it), but aims in particular to evangelize Jews and Jewishproselytes. This view has not been popular, but is gradually gaining influence, andmuch can be said for it. It may even receive indirect support from some recent studiesThe Purpose and Audience of the GospelThe proper place to begin when we discuss John's purpose for writing his Gospelis with his own statement: "Many other signs therefore Jesus also performed in thepresence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have beenwritten that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and thatbelieving you may have life in His name" (20:30-31). The words rendered "that youmay believe" hide a textual variant: either hina pisteuete (present subjunctive) orhina pisteusete (aorist subjunctive). Some have argued that the latter expression.Introduction Page 7that try to interpret the Fourth Gospel as a piece of mission literature.The commentary that follows occasionally pauses to show how one passage oranother fits nicely into this purpose. Some have argued, for instance, that Johnchapters 14--17 cannot possibly be viewed as primarily evangelistic. Such judgmentis premature, for at least two reasons. First, the evangelism of the early church wasnot merely existential. It had to explain, as it were, "how we got from there to here,"especially if the targeted audience was Jewish. Second, the best evangelisticliterature not only explains why one should become a Christian, but what it meansto be a Christian. John chapters 14--17 addresses those concerns rather pointedly,and numerous details within those chapters likewise suggest an evangelistic thrust(e.g. 14:6).In addition, the Gospel seems to be polemic. But who would need suchwarnings, refutations, encouragement, and strengthening? We com...
