All the gospel accounts of the Lord Jesus Christ are utterly reliable. This is because they were inspired by the Holy Spirit Himself. He took 4 different men, and inspired them each to write an account of some aspects of the life and teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. He did not dictate the words they had to write. They were not secretaries, nor were they robots! However, He did help them to remember the most important features of the ministry of the Lord Jesus (see 2 Tim 3:16 and 2 Peter 1:20,21).

The Gospel accounts themselves can be divided into two sorts. One one side there are Matthew, Mark and Luke. On the other side there is John.

The group of three are called the synoptic gospels (from the Greek word meaning “seeing together”) and the tell, more or less, the same story although the do differ in emphasis. This results from the audiences they were writing for: Matthew was writing for a Jewish audience, Mark was writing for a Roman Christian audience, and Luke, the only non-Jew writing in the New Testament, was writing for a non-Jewish audience. On the other hand, John was writing after the others, and knew of their existence. He was probably an old man when he wrote this gospel, when he was the pastor of the church in Ephesus.

His gospel contains the precise statement as to why he wrote it – “these things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:31).

He probably wrote this as late a A.D. 80-90, and it contains eye-witness accounts of the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was one of the closest companions that Jesus had when He was here on earth. John was a witness to some of the most important incidents in the life of Jesus. These included the raising from the dead of Lazarus, the first miracle – the changing of the water into wine at the wedding at Cana, and the triumphal entry into Jerusalem on a donkey.

We also know that he was the only disciple to be at the crucifixion of Jesus (all the others had fled), where he took over the care of Jesus’ mother, Mary. John was one of those who came to the empty tomb, when Jesus was raised from the dead. He was also a witness when Jesus ascended into heaven.

John does not identify himself directly as the author of his gospel, but rather hides himself behind the description of “the disciple whom Jesus loved”. However, it is clear that, right from the time of the early Christian Church, everyone knew who he was, and his gospel was of immediate acceptance. Afterwards, John went on to write three short Epistles, and the last book in the Bible, the Revelation.

If you are a bit dissatisfied with the amount of material which is contained in the gospel accounts, then turn to the end of John’s Gospel – “This is the disciple who testifies to these things, and wrote these things; and we know that his testimony is true. And there are many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that not even the world itself could contain the books that would be written.” (John 21:24,25)