The biblical Gospel of John casts itself as a memoir of “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” a mysterious figure who allegedly watched Jesus die on the cross and who stepped into his empty tomb. But in this groundbreaking study, Hugo Méndez argues that the text is something else: a falsely authored gospel that inspired a rich tradition of disguised writing.

The author of John believed that Jesus was a divine being who came to earth to transform humans into divine beings. To encourage others to embrace this startling vision, he composed a gospel filled with invented materials—one in which Jesus communicates the author’s views through cryptic words and symbolic gestures left for readers to decipher. Finally, to make this revisionary portrait of Jesus plausible, the author concealed his identity, attributing his narrative to an invented, shadowy disciple of Jesus gifted with supernatural insight and able to retrieve lost memories of Jesus’ life. In these respects, the Gospel of John is similar to the so-called apocryphal gospels produced in the second century, including the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Judas.

The invention of this eyewitness was not a self-contained event, however. It was the genesis of a new and vibrant literary tradition. As the enigmatic disciple of the Gospel was folded into the same collective memory as Peter and Paul, he became a viable mask for other authors. In time, many such writers—among them, the authors of 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, Revelation, the Apocryphon of John, and the Epistula Apostolorum—co-opted this figure, repurposing him for new agendas and weaving countless afterlives for him. The Gospel of John: A New History traces this arc, showing how a single act of dis­guised authorship ignited new literary trajectories and dramatically shaped twenty centuries of Christian culture.

Endorsements

“The riddles of John’s Gospel are many, and the answers provided by scholars are seldom convincing. Do the Fourth Gospel and the epistles of John share an author, and is he an eyewitness? Were these works written to a ‘Johannine community?’ Hugo Méndez has written a fascinating new history of this enigmatic Gospel, in which the community disappears, and the author moves onto center stage, one who uses the construct of an invented literary figure, a fictional disciple of Jesus, to put forward his bold new take on the tradition. A compelling account, beautifully written, which should change the field.”

—Mark S. Goodacre, Professor of Religious Studies, Duke University

“In this provocative work, Méndez presents the case for John’s Gospel as a falsely authored book by an invented author with a revisionary view of Jesus. Highly readable, lively and compelling, this is a must-read for biblical scholars and students alike.”

—Helen Bond, Professor of Christian Origins, University of Edinburgh

“What is remarkable about The Gospel of John: A New History is that it takes nothing for granted. Through his reevaluation of John’s purpose and composition, Méndez offers an innovative perspective on literary production and ancient authorship that has far-reaching implications for the field. Free from the familiar claims of community and tradition, readers are invited to reconsider the entire Johannine corpus―and, indeed, early Christian history―on new terms.”

—Robyn Faith Walsh, Associate Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity, University of Miami