As early as Clement of Alexandria's statement that “John wrote a spiritual gospel” (Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 6.14.7) readers have tended to assume that the Gospel is less historical than the Synoptic Gospels. While assessing the historicity of any Gospel tradition is always complicated, at least some details in John may be closer to the historical context of Jesus than those in the Synoptic accounts.
