Tuesday 26 November 2019

The author (Lazarus) was a resurrected, hence divine, Man: another reason why the Fourth Gospel ought to be regarded as the primary and most authoritative source

A point about the Fourth Gospel which I have not sufficiently emphasised in my writings on the subject; is that the author - Lazarus - was, at the time of writing, a resurrected Man. That is, he was a fully divine person - albeit one who had not (at the time of writing) ascended to Heaven.

(This was, presumably, explicitly known to the intended contemporary audience of the Gospel - and we can infer it from the text itself.)

Of course the Fourth Gospel has not come down to us absolutely unscathed - there seem (from internal evidence backed by intuition) to be both additions and excisions, albeit not many - yet, it remains (I think) the only book we have that was written by an actual god; as well as being the only eye-witness account of Jesus's life and teachings, by his best and beloved friend, brother in law, and guardian of Jesus's mother.

All of which surely raises the status of the Fourth Gospel far above any other written source - yes?

2 comments:

Francis Berger said...

The mere notion that a resurrected man wrote the Fourth Gospel is wondrous indeed!

Bruce Charlton said...

@Frank - It strikes me that way too. But it would be consistent with the unique quality of the Gospel (Chapters 1-20).