The Historical Character of the Fourth Gospel

Many exegetes accept without discussion that the Fourth Gospel was written in the last decade of the first century and is only a witness of the Johannine community’s history. The purpose of this research was to examine the historicity of the Fourth Gospel: is it a real Gospel? Different approaches are made here. Is the Birkat ha Minim alluded to in the Gospel? Is the high Christology late? Is the Gospel dependent on the Synoptics? Are the quotations of Scripture relying on the LXX or on another version? What does the Jewishness of Jesus mean? Why did the Gospel underline the importance of the Jewish Feasts? Do the Johannine discourses contain some historical traditions? Has archaeology something to say concerning historicity? All these questions must be tackled before giving an answer regarding the historicity of the Fourth Gospel.