Fourth Witness

I have tried to tell the story of Jesus as told in St John's Gospel, but for 21st-century English readers. Modern scholars have written vast amounts about this short gospel, much of it important and stimulating, and I have taken account of their insights, as many of them as I have encountered, as well as trying to be faithful to the original. John's Jesus is usually seen against the background of the Jesus of Mark, Matthew and Luke, and this has meant that his strange originality can be concealed. I have tried to tell the story strictly in John's terms, forgetting, as far as one can, the stories of Jesus told by the other three. Hence, for example, the virtual ignoring of an exclusive group called 'the Twelve', an idea that John is aware of, but goes to some lengths to play down. Like my hero, the hidden writer of the fourth Gospel, I have trusted to imagination and intuition, but also like him, I have not introduced anything that does not seem to be hinted at by the tradition. A case in point would be the restoration of his understanding of disciples to be both women and men, and an honouring of the central part played by women in the fourth Gospel.;I said that my hero was the writer of John, but in truth, the hero is Jesus. I want him to escape the quaint strait jacket that has been placed on him by much Christian worship and pious Bible reading, and for us to see him again as his friends and opponents saw him. If this Jesus offends you, then I am sorry for it, but then again, it won't be the first time he has done that. - Kit Widdows, June 2004