Group 7 — The Gospel of John

N=1 book-group distillation. Source: WEB, Gutenberg #8294. Quotes pending Phase 7 audit. Tags: ../00-methodology.md. Per-pericope depth is Stage-B.

Group role

John is treated as its own group because it carries the canon's most explicit Christology: the eternal Logos who "became flesh." It grounds love in God's prior love ("God so loved the world…"), gives the disciples a "new commandment" to love one another, presents Jesus as "the way, the truth, and the life," and names self-giving as the height of love.

Atomic statements

G7-C1: The Word (Logos) is eternal, divine, and became flesh among us, full of grace and truth. (FOUNDATIONAL / INCARNATION+GOD)

John 1:1: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
John 1:14: "The Word became flesh, and lived among us… full of grace and truth."
Stance: assert · Importance: core · Untranslatable: logos, charis (grace)

G7-C2: God's love is the origin of salvation — he "gave his one and only Son" for the world. (FOUNDATIONAL / LOVE+REDEMPTION)

John 3:16: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life."
Stance: assert · Importance: core · Untranslatable: agapē

G7-C3: Jesus gives a new commandment — love one another as he has loved; this is the mark of his disciples. (OPERATIONAL / LOVE+CHURCH)

John 13:34–35: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, just like I have loved you… By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
Stance: assert · Importance: core

G7-C4: Jesus is "the way, the truth, and the life." (FOUNDATIONAL / INCARNATION+REDEMPTION)

John 14:6: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me."
Stance: assert · Importance: core

G7-C5: The greatest love is to lay down one's life for one's friends. (FOUNDATIONAL / LOVE)

John 15:13: "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends."
Stance: assert · Importance: core

Step 4 — Clusters

Cluster	Atomic statements	Intent
Incarnation	G7-C1, C4	The eternal Word became flesh; Christ is the way to the Father
Love as origin and command	G7-C2, C3, C5	God's love gives the Son; the disciples are to love as loved; self-giving is love's height

Step 5 — Internal tensions

The exclusivist claim (G7-C4, "no one comes to the Father except through me") sits beside the universal love of G7-C2 ("God so loved the world"). Handled descriptively per the README standpoint; the tension between particularity and universality is a recognized feature, not resolved here.

Step 6 — Synthesized group principles

G7-P1: The Word became flesh (the incarnation)

The eternal Logos, who "was God," "became flesh and lived among us, full of grace and truth"; Christ is "the way, the truth, and the life." God enters human finitude bodily — the central distinctive of the Christian canon.

Tier: FOUNDATIONAL · Domain: INCARNATION+GOD · Covers: G7-C1, C4 · Evidence: John 1:1, 1:14, 14:6 · Untranslatable: logos, charis

G7-P2: God's love is the origin of salvation, given freely

"God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son" — salvation originates in God's prior, self-giving love (agapē) and grace (charis), received by faith, not earned.

Tier: FOUNDATIONAL · Domain: LOVE+REDEMPTION · Covers: G7-C2 · Evidence: John 3:16 · Untranslatable: agapē, charis

G7-P3: Love one another as Christ has loved — even unto self-giving

Jesus' "new commandment" is to love one another as he loved; the mark of his disciples is this love; and its height is to "lay down one's life for one's friends."

Tier: OPERATIONAL · Domain: LOVE+CHURCH · Covers: G7-C3, C5 · Evidence: John 13:34–35, 15:13

Step 7 — Traceability

Principle	Atomic statements	Verses
G7-P1	C1, C4	John 1:1, 1:14, 14:6
G7-P2	C2	John 3:16
G7-P3	C3, C5	John 13:34–35, 15:13

Step 8 — Quality

Coverage: John's Christological and love-centred core is captured; the seven signs, the "I am" discourses, and the passion narrative are orphaned at this granularity (Stage-B).
Principles: 3.
Traceability: 100%.

Step 9 — Validation

Frame-independent: G7-P3 (love one another, self-giving love) reads as an intelligible ethical ideal to any reader and is a strong convergence candidate. G7-P1 (incarnation) and G7-P2 (salvation by God's free love/grace) are frame-specific warrant — among the sharpest Christian distinctives.
Claim-vs-warrant flag for the Atlas: the incarnation (G7-P1) is a WEAK-distinctive of Christianity — no other major tradition holds that the transcendent God becomes a finite human; it directly grounds the corpus's anthropology ("the Word became flesh… the human face remains the center of history"). G7-P2 (charis/grace, salvation as gift not achievement) is the central input to the Atlas grace-vs-self-effort axis. Self-giving love (G7-P3, "lay down one's life") converges in claim with sacrificial ideals elsewhere; warrant (imitation of the incarnate God's kenōsis) is distinctive.