In the past half century a great deal of interest has been shown by scholars in fresh study of John's gospel. Several developments have led to this new look at this gospel:

(i)                       modern understanding of how the early kerygma and teaching was passed on and how New Testament writers drew upon common Church traditions, both oral and written;

(ii)                   important archeological discoveries since the second World War which have thrown new light on Judaism and Jewish life in the first century A.D. until A.D. 70;

(iii) The discovery of the oldest papyrus fragments of a gospel, written around A.D. 130, containing verses from John's gospel.

Early this century scholars had made various suggestions about the origin and date of John's gospel, to try to account for its distinctive characteristics. It was suggested that the gospel had been written after the others, at the end of the first century A.D. or later, to interpret, supplement or even correct what was in them. There was an assumption that the writer knew and used the other written gospels. If John's gospel had been written so long after the events it recorded, it could hardly have been written by John the apostle and so the ancient Church tradition which came from Bishop Irenaeus towards the end of the second century A.D. was discounted by some. Irenaeus said that 'John the disciple of the Lord, who also leaned against Jesus, he too set out the Gospel while staying at Ephesus in Asia'. The reference to the disciple leaning against Jesus comes from John 21 :20 and 13 :23-25, John's gospel was said to show considerable influence from popular Greek philosophy; it presented a very distinctive spiritual interpretation of Jesus Christ but did little to illuminate the contemporary setting jn which Jesus did his work.

§