I. The background of the writer. In the strict sense of the term, the Fourth Gospel is anonymous. No name of its author is given in the text. This is not surprising because a Gospel differs in literary form from and epistle or letter. The letters of Paul each begin with his name, which was the normal custom of letter writers in the ancient world. None of the authors of the four Gospels identified himself by name. That doesn't mean that one cannot know who the authors were. An author may have indirectly revealed himself within the writing, or his work may be recognizable as coming from him.
Internal evidence shows the following connections regarding the Fourth Gospel. (1) In John 21:24 the word "them" refers to the whole Gospel, not to just the last chapter. (2) "The disciple" in 21:24 was "the disciple whom Jesus loved" (21:7). From 21:7 it is certain that the disciple whom Jesus loved was one of the seven persons mentioned in 21:2 (Simon, Peter, Thomas, Nathanael, the......
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