The first chapter of John’s gospel is a brilliantly planned invitation.

John wanted to invite both Jews and Gentiles (non-Jewish groups) to read his account of Jesus’ life and ministry. To do this, he literarily connected Jesus to concepts from both cultures. In this way, the beginning of John’s gospel is a unique invitation to read beyond the introduction into the heart of the story.

How did John invite a Jewish audience to read his gospel? Here are some examples from the first chapter.

• John 1:1 – “In the beginning…” 
  • this wording has obvious ties with the Old Testament story of Creation in Genesis 1:1 that opens with the same phrase.
• John 1:14 – “… the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
  • The Greek word translated as “dwelt” is literally “tabernacled” (lived temporarily). The tabernacle/temple was the center of Jewish worship.
• John 1:29, 36  – “Behold, the Lamb of God.”
  • Lambs were often used as offerings in Jewish worship ceremonies.
• John 1:51 – “Truly, Truly I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” 
  • This recalls a dream that Jacob (a father of the Jewish faith) had in Genesis 28:10-13.

In the movie, The Magnificent Seven, a selection of otherwise unrelated mercenaries  prove to be more effective as a group when defending a village against a gang of thieves. These seven people were able to accomplish far more by working together than they would have as individuals. The movie had a promotional tagline, “Justice has a number.” And that number was seven!

In a similar way John, Jesus’ disciple and author of the gospel, organized information into groups of seven. He knew that information grouped into categories accomplishes more working together than the same information randomly presented on its own. For instance, readers may notice that, in his gospel, John includes seven miracles of Jesus. He organizes these into a related group by referring to each of them as “signs” or “attesting miracles”.

• John 2:1-11 – turning water to wine
• John 4:46-54 – healing of a royal official’s son
• John 5:1-15 – healing at the pool of Bethesda
• John 6:5-14 – feeding of the 5,000
• John 6:16-24 – walking on water
• John 9:1-7 – healing of a blind man
• John 11:1-45 – resuscitation of Lazarus from the dead

These are not the only miracles Jesus performed during his ministry. We know from the other gospels that there were many other miracles John doesn’t mention. John mentions only seven… and six of them are unique to his gospel. His decision to cap the miracles at seven is calculated.