In the Gospel of John, the “Jews” are “Judeans”, Not all “Jews”
In the this article and the next article following I would like to propose that one of the main original audiences, perhaps even the main audience, of the Gospel of John were Greek speaking Hebrews. Most of these Greek speaking Hebrews lived in the Diaspora, that is, outside of the land of Israel. Ever since Israelites were exiled from the land of Israel by Assyria, Babylon and Rome, there has been a recognizable difference between Israelites who lived outside of the land of Israel (in the Diaspora) to those who lived in the land of Israel. To hear this teaching on a podcast, click here . My suggestion is that in the first century, as Diaspora Hebrews began to hear the extraordinary claims about Jesus being the Messiah, they wondered how this could be since Jesus had been rejected and put to death in the Messiah’s own city Jerusalem, by Messiah’s own people, Judeans. I suggest John wrote his Gospel to these Greek speaking Hebrews, recording the signs that Jesus did, in order...