In comparing the various ways in which the New Testament gospels portray Jesus as healer, scarcely any reference has been made so far to the Gospel of John. There are good reasons for this. While the figure of Jesus as healer in the first three gospels is distinct in each, it is clear that the authors nonetheless drew on common sources. Even when they turn to other Jesus traditions, as do the authors of Matthew and Luke, these traditions are generally similar to one another. The result is three writings that are closely related, often very closely, in language and structure, as becomes evident when they are laid out side by side in what is called a “synopsis” (literally a “together view,” for which reason scholars refer to them as “the Synoptic gospels” or, simply, “the Synoptics”).

Turning to the Gospel of John, one sees that, at its most basic, the portrait of Jesus as healer is, to be sure, the same as in the Synoptic gospels: Jesus the powerful one meets death as Jesus the powerless crucified one. Beyond that, however, even a cursory reading of John reveals how significantly it differs from the Synoptics. The sentences flow easily, and the language is uncomplicated (students learning New Testament Greek commonly begin their reading of the New Testament with John, once they have acquired the rudiments of the language). The apparent simplicity dissipates, however, the more one delves into the gospel. As someone aptly put it, the Gospel of John is shallow enough to wade through and deep enough to drown in.

Some problems in interpretation are quite obvious. For example, the author places Jesus’ cleansing of the Jerusalem temple at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry (John 2:13-22) rather than at the end, where the Synoptics have it. Whereas the other three evangelists show Jesus moving in his ministry from Galilee to Jerusalem within the space of a year, the author of John has him moving back and forth between Galilee and Judea over the course of three years.