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theintrovertsbooks's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
steven_nobody's review against another edition
4.0
It's weird and mentally stimulating. I'm excited about the Jesus of The Gospel According to John but also annoyed. Is this right? He is a divine being made out of the sounds of god's words, and he came to the Earth to bring light into the darkness? If so, wow! That is an image to impress! He's quite an intense man who says continuously that "I am the Son of God; I am God." If I ever met some man radiating like that, I would follow him too.
Here are some highlights with commentary:
"Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them."
I love this image of eating him and becoming one with him. He is inside me, literally inside my body because I ate him. He is still alive, and has taken some of me into him as well. 103 in the shade! This is Dracula-Sexy!
"In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you."
Whoa!!! I am in my father, you are in me, I am inside you. It's a perpetual chain.
"I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd."
I LOVE this description of the good shepherd, but it is one small part of a much longer talk which made no sense, but just this part is magnificent.
"I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
This is Jesus' only advice for living in the whole of John. Everything else He says is only about His divinity, and that was boring. What I like about the other Gospels is that He has a lot more guidance for being a good person. According to John, you just have to have faith that He is God and to love one another. So that's actually two things.
"If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you. If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world—therefore the world hates you."
Honestly, John's Jesus goes on and on saying so often that He is God that I would get sick of Him as well. In fact, at one point a bunch of His followers do give up on Him. I would probably not like His followers any more than I do Him. I mean, I know that I do not like them today because they do not follow His one and only real good commandment to love.
This is from the Crucifixion:
When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.
I think this is very beautiful, but who is "the disciple whom he loved"? This anonymous person is mentioned three or four times but never named. At the end it is said the Beloved is the one testifying, and early Christians identified him as the disciple John because that particular disciple is never named in the book.
And one more thing about which I want to comment: When he hears his friend Lazarus is ill and at the point of death, Jesus specifically delays going to so that Lazarus will die so He can prove His divinity by resurrecting him. Is that sick? I mean, I think there's some twisted tragic story that can be made of this.
Here are some highlights with commentary:
"Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them."
I love this image of eating him and becoming one with him. He is inside me, literally inside my body because I ate him. He is still alive, and has taken some of me into him as well. 103 in the shade! This is Dracula-Sexy!
"In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you."
Whoa!!! I am in my father, you are in me, I am inside you. It's a perpetual chain.
"I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd."
I LOVE this description of the good shepherd, but it is one small part of a much longer talk which made no sense, but just this part is magnificent.
"I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
This is Jesus' only advice for living in the whole of John. Everything else He says is only about His divinity, and that was boring. What I like about the other Gospels is that He has a lot more guidance for being a good person. According to John, you just have to have faith that He is God and to love one another. So that's actually two things.
"If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you. If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world—therefore the world hates you."
Honestly, John's Jesus goes on and on saying so often that He is God that I would get sick of Him as well. In fact, at one point a bunch of His followers do give up on Him. I would probably not like His followers any more than I do Him. I mean, I know that I do not like them today because they do not follow His one and only real good commandment to love.
This is from the Crucifixion:
When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.
I think this is very beautiful, but who is "the disciple whom he loved"? This anonymous person is mentioned three or four times but never named. At the end it is said the Beloved is the one testifying, and early Christians identified him as the disciple John because that particular disciple is never named in the book.
And one more thing about which I want to comment: When he hears his friend Lazarus is ill and at the point of death, Jesus specifically delays going to so that Lazarus will die so He can prove His divinity by resurrecting him. Is that sick? I mean, I think there's some twisted tragic story that can be made of this.
_3matilda's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
fablesandwren's review against another edition
3.0
Sidenote: The reason for such vague and short and "eh" words on each of these books, is because I wasn't challenging the study of the Bible when I read these. I was challenging myself to read the whole Bible in a year because I knew it would be discipline to keep at it daily. I do, however, plan to pick up a book and study what it is saying. Those will be longer reads and more notes.
So here is my review from my "Read the Bible in a Year" challenge. Usually just snippets of thoughts and random things I liked about the book itself. Nothing in-depth.
So here is my review of John!!!
I love this gospel. I feel like he saw a whole different side of God than the other three. This just makes me strongly believe that even if you see the same thing as someone else, it may have looked, felt, and seemed different for them. Which leads to me believing that the Bible can be interpreted in many different ways because how do you know that you would have saw and believed the same thing as the person telling the story? Four people wrote the same story down and they all had the same ending, but did it all get there the same? Did it all feel the same?
So here is my review from my "Read the Bible in a Year" challenge. Usually just snippets of thoughts and random things I liked about the book itself. Nothing in-depth.
So here is my review of John!!!
I love this gospel. I feel like he saw a whole different side of God than the other three. This just makes me strongly believe that even if you see the same thing as someone else, it may have looked, felt, and seemed different for them. Which leads to me believing that the Bible can be interpreted in many different ways because how do you know that you would have saw and believed the same thing as the person telling the story? Four people wrote the same story down and they all had the same ending, but did it all get there the same? Did it all feel the same?
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