The Gospel of John stands out widely from the first three Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. These three gospels, which are called the synoptic gospels, are very similar to one another compared to the Gospel of John. The themes in John stand out in contrast to those in other early Christian writings. John says that Jesus is the word of God, which is not found in any other Gospel, along with calling him the creator of the universe. Majority of the stories found in John are unique to John and cannot be found anywhere else. The words and deeds recorded in John only occur in John. For example, the story of Jesus turning water into wine only occurs in the Gospel of John, along with Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. Long discourses and dialogue, including the dialogue with Nicodemus are unique to John. There are not as many miracles found in John, but the ones that are in it are much more spectacular than the ones in any other gospel. There is also no messianic secret. Jesus does not hide his abilities. He wants to demonstrate who he is.

John portrays Jesus as “a God striding over the face of the earth.” He does this by highlighting his divine qualities which can be seen in many of the gospels stories. John portrays Jesus’ relationship with Judas much differently than in the gospel of Mark.  In the gospel of John, Jesus and his disciples go up to a garden to pray and Judas knew of the place. Jesus was aware of what was going to take place. In John’s Gospel, Jesus is portrayed as being much more accepting of his fate than in Mark’s Gospel. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus is described as being distressed and agitated. He was deeply grieved by what was going to take place. When the disciples fell asleep while Jesus was praying, Jesus got upset with them. He is a lot less understanding in Mark’s Gospel. The next part is Jesus’ march to the place of his death. In John’s Gospel Jesus carried the cross by himself to Golgotha, but in Mark’s Gospel Jesus had help from Simon of Cyrene. The next section is Jesus on the cross. In John, Jesus says it is finished and bows his head and dies. In Mark, Jesus cries out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.” Jesus does not accept his fate in Mark like he does in John. The last section I looked at is the empty tomb. In John, when Mary Magadalene, Simon Peter, and the beloved disciple find the empty tomb, there were angles sitting in the place where Jesus was and they did not fear what they saw. In Mark, Mary Magadalene, Mary mother of James, and Salome find the empty tomb. They did not tell anyone what they saw because they were afraid.

John’s version conforms more closely to the genre of an ancient biography because an ancient biography must contain a part about death and afterlife. In John, those who find Jesus’ empty tomb and who Jesus appears to do not fear him like they do in Mark. It would be much more difficult to convince people of Jesus’ resurrection if those who saw him were afraid.