The personality of the Fourth Evangelist

Abstract

The technique of personality-critical analysis (PCA) has been applied to the Fourth Gospel, identifying its major author as INFJ. The author is shown to have the personality type for developing both the high Christology of the preface and the meditations which characterise this Gospel. The bitter arguments with the Jews would have been particularly debilitating for him, but his faith would have helped him to win through this period so that he could then promote a time of renewal for the community. Many of the striking, and yet puzzling, features of this Gospel can be explained through a knowledge of the author's personality, together with an understanding of his view of the validity of that part of Jesus’ teaching which came through the Paraclete. The study also explains the widely differing reactions (ranging from inspiration to confusion) exhibited by different readers. Finally, it shows that the Elder (the author of the Johannine letters) could have written the final chapter of the Gospel as a Redactor.

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