Enoch Seminar – Sept 17, 2025 | Session Theme: John within Judaism

Day 3 Takeaway

John’s gospel is a Jewish text, yet also one of the most challenging for Jewish-Christian relations. Its use of Jewish symbols, festivals, and Scriptures makes clear that it was born from within the Jewish world of the late Second Temple period. At the same time, John’s harsh rhetoric against “the Jews” and its unprecedented Christo-centrism have generated deep tensions. Some elements of John belong squarely within Judaism; others helped shape the emergence of nascent Christianity. Holding this tension is key. To frame John exclusively in Hellenistic or Christian terms ignores his Jewish grounding. However, for many scholars, to place John entirely “within Judaism” risks overlooking the unique dynamics that fueled Christian identity. For Jewish-Christian relations today, John must be read with balance: as a Jewish-rooted text whose complexity warns us against both antisemitism and oversimplification.

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