In his scholarly work entitled, Truth on Trial: the Lawsuit Motif in the Fourth Gospel, Andrew Lincoln thoroughly explores the courtroom trial motif found in John. Here are a few quotes from his book:
“On reading the Fourth Gospel, one encounters again and again the two notions of testimony (or witness) and judgment. Their dominance and the distinctiveness they contribute to John's narrative can be highlighted by a statistical observation. The noun witness or testimony occurs fourteen times in this Gospel in comparison with four times in the three Synoptics together, and the verb to witness or to testify thirty three times in comparison with the Synoptics. Again in connection with judgment, the verb to judge is employed nineteen times in the Fourth Gospel as compared with six times in Matthew and six times in Luke. It is not, however, just a matter of vocabulary. Both these concepts, which have, of course, strong juridical or legal connotations, form part of a larger motif, that of the lawsuit or trial, which shapes much of the narrative of the Fourth Gospel...Both the pervasiveness and the positioning of the motif encourages readers to view the narrative, as a whole, from the perspective of a trial.” p. 2, 22
“It has long been recognized that the themes of witness, judgment and trial play a significant role in the Fourth Gospel.” p. 4.
“Perhaps second only to the narrative’s unique Christology, this metaphor of a lawsuit on a cosmic scale is the most distinctive characteristic holding many of the elements of its plot and discourse together.” p. 13.
“Not only does the motif occur in each of the five main sections of the narrative…it does so in highly significant ways.” p. 21.
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