John was the youngest man to be selected by the LORD to be one of His twelve Apostles, yet, he was also the longest living of the twelve. When John picked up his pen to write this Gospel, all the other Apostles were with the LORD in heaven; all the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, Peter, Paul, and Jude were completed and circulating as Scripture among all the Churches.
Shortly before his death, in the last decade of his life, John wrote this Gospel, his three small letters, and the Revelation.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called the synoptic Gospels because they basically tell the same information about the same events. Matthew writes for himself, Mark writes the eyewitness account of Peter, and Luke writes the eyewitness account of Paul. Each brings different memories of the same events in the LORD's life.
We are thankful for John's Gospel because he brings memories of the LORD's life that are not found in the three other Gospels and are important to the Church. John fills in the gaps between all the stories in the synoptic Gospels. Besides providing enlightening commentary to the Scriptures found in the Gospel of John, where John jumps over material found in synoptic Gospels, Dr. Hastings includes 36 charts to show all the events found in the synoptics, but not included in this Gospel. By harmonizing the four Gospels in this way, we have a complete story of the LORD's ministry chronologically and can trace the LORD's footsteps across the Promised Land.
The chapters in this commentary match the chapters in your Bible. Think of this commentary as a Study Bible for the Gospel of John.
