Who was John?
Notes by Thomas Madron
John, also called Saint John the Evangelist, or Saint John the Divine, in Christian tradition,
may have been the author of three letters, the Fourth Gospel, and the Revelation of John in the
New Testament. He played a leading role in the early church at Jerusalem, although many
contemporary scholars doubt some or all the attributions of authorship of the New Testament
writings that bear his name.
The son of Zebedee, a Galilean fisherman, and Salome, John and his brother James were among the first disciples called by Jesus. In the Gospel According to Mark he is always mentioned after James and was no doubt the younger brother. His mother, Salome, was among those women who ministered to the circle of disciples. James and John were called by Jesus "Boanerges," or "sons of thunder," perhaps because of some character trait such as the zeal exemplified in Mark 9:38 and Luke 9:54 when John and James wanted to call down fire from heaven to punish the Samaritan towns that did not accept Jesus. Both James and John may have been cousins of Jesus. John and his brother, together with Simon Peter, formed an inner nucleus of intimate disciples.
John's authoritative position in the church after the Resurrection is shown by his visit with Peter to Samaria to lay hands on the new converts there. He returned with the other disciples to Jerusalem for the Apostolic Council (about A.D. 51). St. Paul in opposing his enemies in Galatia names John explicitly along with Peter and James the Less as a "pillar of the Church." It is to Peter, James (not the brother of John but "the brother of Jesus"), and John that Paul successfully submitted his mission to the Gentiles for recognition. Paul refers to the recognition which his Apostolic preaching of a Gospel free from the law received from these three, the most prominent men of the old Mother-Church at Jerusalem (Gal., ii, 9).
At the end of the 2nd century, Polycrates, bishop of Ephesus, identified the Apostle with the "beloved disciple." If the Apostle John was the "beloved disciple," then he was the person Jesus made guardian of Mary (Jesus' mother) and if so, John took her into his home. If the Apostle and the "beloved disciple" were one and the same, then John was the only one of the Twelve not to forsake the Jesus in the hour of his Passion, standing at the foot of the cross. Upon hearing of the Resurrection, John was the first to reach the tomb; when he met the risen Lord at the lake of Tiberias, he was the first to recognize Him.
John's subsequent history is obscure and passes into the uncertain mists of legend. If we assume that John wrote the Gospel of John, the Letters of John, and Revelation, then he may have died c.101 at Ephesus (modern Turkey). At the end of the 2nd century, Polycrates, bishop of Ephesus, claimed that John's tomb is at Ephesus. That John died in Ephesus is also stated by Irenaeus, bishop of Lyon c. AD 180, who says John wrote his Gospel and letters at Ephesus and Revelation at Patmos. Legend was also active in the West, being especially stimulated by the passage in Mark 10:39, with its hints of John's martyrdom. Tertullian, the 2nd-century North African theologian, reports that John was plunged into boiling oil from which he miraculously escaped unscathed. In the original form of the apocryphal Acts of John (second half of the 2nd century) the Apostle dies; but in later traditions he is assumed to have ascended to heaven like Enoch and Elijah.