Today, while we contemplate this episode, we consider the origin of the Fourth Gospel, which peculiarity has led the modern critical investigation to doubt its “historical” character, considering it as a late “theological reconstruction” (posterior to the Apostles). However, some papyri of the 2nd century, found in Egypt, proved that it must have been written already in the 1st century…

Some authors (Bultman…) declared that the guidelines of the fourth Gospel came from the “Gnosticism”. But historically “gnosis” appeared as a spiritual movement not before the end of the 1st Century. Finally, the investigation about John confirmed that this Gospel: 1. Is based in an extraordinary accurate knowledge of places and times (characteristic of someone who is perfectly familiar with the Palestine of Jesus’ time); 2. His argumentation is based on the Old Testament and is profoundly rooted in the Judaism of that time.

—John’s Gospel explicitly tells us that it dates back to an eyewitness of the Crucified: "He who saw it has borne witness… and he knows that he tells the truth, that you also may believe" (Jn 19,35).