What St. John Never Told Us

While it is not listed last, the Gospel of John was probably the last book of the Bible to be written. Hidden inside is a code. That’s right, a Bible code.

The code that is hidden inside of the Gospel of John is called…Tradition!!! That is right, Tradition. And you thought it was going to be something boring. Now, what do I mean when I say that Tradition is the code for the Gospel of John?

I mean that John presupposes that you have already heard the Gospel message or have at least read one of the other Gospels. Inside the Gospel of John, if you pay close attention, you can see that John figures the reader already knows what is going on.

So, John’s audience has already heard the Good News, he is just giving this Gospel to fill in the gaps.

Where is the evidence of this inside the Gospel?

There are really four verses that suggest this:

Let’s begin in John 3:24. For John had not yet been put in prison.

Now, this sounds innocent enough except that it only makes sense if you already knew that at some time John the Baptist would be thrown into prison. How did the readers know? John or someone else would have had to have told them.

John 6:70 Jesus answered them, "Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?"

What are you trying to point out here? Seems pretty innocent. If this is the first book of the Bible that you have ever read, at this point you should be asking a question. “Who are the twelve? When did Jesus choose twelve?”

This is the first time that the apostles by number have been named. It is only in the other Gospels that Jesus actually chooses them.

The next verse is John 7:42. Has not the scripture said that the Christ is descended from David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?

Now, the Gospel of John NEVER says where Jesus is from. It says that He is from Heaven, but it never says that He was born in Bethlehem. You either have to have read Matthew, Luke, or heard that is where he was born. So John opens up a controversy that he never answers in his Gospel, yet the readers would have already had the answer.

One last verse.

In the Gospel of John chapter 11 it talks about the death of Lazarus and mentions Mary and Martha.

Then John clarifies in verse 2.
John 11:2 It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill.

The reader at this point would be saying, okay, that’s who it was. That is the woman that anointed Jesus’ head.

John is referring to the story in Mark.
Mark 14:3 And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head.

So, the woman is Mary. Now a funny thing about this is that while John mentions that this is the Mary in John 11, he actually then goes on to record the event in the next chapter. John knows that you already know the story, but he wil add a few more details.

John 12:1-3 Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. There they made him a supper; Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at table with him. Mary took a pound of costly ointment of pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment.

In conclusion, John is writting this to Christians who have already heard the Gospel. When you come to see this, you also understand why he is more explicite in matters of doctrine; to solitify the faith of believers.