The Fourth Gospel Is a Theological After-Thought

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky · Blavatsky Speaks Series · 12 pages

Twelve pages of textual argument, and one of the few places in the library where the method is straightforwardly the one a nineteenth-century biblical critic would use. The claim is that the Fourth Gospel was written by an unknown author, probably a Greek Platonist — not by a Jew, not even a Palestinian — and that for well over a century and a half after the death of Jesus there is not one shred of evidence connecting it with the disciple whom Jesus loved, meaning the author of Revelation.

The evidence offered is stylistic and is stated in terms a reader can test. The contrast of thought between the two books, and the harsh Hebraistic Greek of Revelation set against the polished elegance of the Fourth Gospel, are called too glaring to be denied. What she finds in the latter instead is the style of Alexandrian philosophy and the mysticism of the Christian Platonists, skilfully interwoven with Pauline Christianity and put into the mouth of Jesus — which is why she describes the Gospel as revelation in reverse, upside-down. The second half turns the same tools on the miracles, and on what the text can and cannot be made to establish.

Read the full text (PDF, 0.8 MB, 12 pages)