Who were John's primary audience?

Many scholars are now convinced that the Gospel of John emerged from an intense debate over who Jesus was. Its purpose was to defend certain views and oppose others. The Gospel appears to have been written during the early years of the second century by an anonymous author, but around 180 CE, Irenaeus identified the author of this gospel as John, son of Zebedee. Irenaeus says that John wrote this gospel in response to the heretical teaching of Cerinthus.

The Gospel of John and the Epistles of John are believed to have been written within a Christian community now known as the Johannine community, although there was probably no formal connection with the apostle John. Burton L Mack (Who Wrote the New Testament) believes that a split took place in the Johannine community shortly after the turn of the second century. One faction thought it best to merge with other Christian groups of a more centrist leaning. Another party refused, holding to the enlightenment tradition of the community and developed in the direction of a Christian gnosticism. On this view, John was written for an early Gnostic community, but was subsequently amended by the breakaway group to remove some of the more obvious Gnostic content.

Stephan A. Hoeller (Gnosticism: New Light on the Ancient Tradition of Inner Knowing) regards John's Gospel as similar in its poetic and visionary style to the writings of the Gnostics. At the very least, the gnostics probably had access to this gospel from the time of its composition, and were attracted to it more than any other canonical gospel.

Raymond E. Brown (An Introduction to the New Testament) believes that 1 John makes more sense if understood as written in a period following the appearance of the Gospel, at least after the initial edition and before redaction, but points out quite clear differences in theology. Most scholars think that the same author composed all three epistles attributed to John. The epistles were probably written for the Gnostic community that remained after the community split.