":While at first glance, John appears to be gnostic, on careful examination it is the very opposite - extremely anti-gnostic presenting a counter-argument to gnosticism couched and other non-orthodoxies in their own language. For example, ""In the beginning there was the Word"" specifically refutes the doctrine of Arius (Arianism) which was significant in the second century - that central dogma seperating that doctrine from orthodoxy was ""there was a time when Jesus was not"".  

"