 The majority of John's direct quotations do not agree exactly with any known version of the Jewish scriptures.For much of the 20th century scholars interpreted John within the paradigm of a Johannine community, meaning that the gospel sprang from a late 1st century Christian community excommunicated from the Jewish synagogue (probably meaning the Jewish community) on account of its belief in Jesus as the promised Jewish messiah.This interpretation, which saw the community as essentially sectarian and standing outside the mainstream of early Christianity, has been increasingly challenged in the first decades of the 21st century, and there is currently considerable debate over the social, religious and historical context of the gospel.