John the Apostle

==New Testament author==
{{John}}
[[File:Pietro Perugino 040.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|St. John at the [[Crucifixion of Jesus]] in a ''[[Stabat Mater (art)|Stabat Mater]]'' by [[Pietro Perugino]], c. 1482]]
[[File:Lamentation of the Virgin Rohan.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Lamentation of the Virgin. John the Apostle trying to console [[Mary, mother of Jesus|Mary]], 1435]]

Church tradition has held that John is the author of the [[Gospel of John]] and four other books of the New Testament – the three [[Epistles of John]] and the [[Book of Revelation]]. In the Gospel, authorship is internally credited to the "[[disciple whom Jesus loved]]" ({{lang|grc|ὁ μαθητὴς ὃν ἠγάπα ὁ Ἰησοῦς}}, ''o mathētēs on ēgapa o Iēsous'') in {{bibleref2|John|20:2}}. {{bibleref2|John|21:24}} claims that the Gospel of John is based on the written testimony of the "Beloved Disciple". The authorship of some [[Johannine literature]] has been debated since about the year 200.<ref>[[Eusebius|Eusebius of Caesarea]], ''Ecclesiastical History'' Book vi. Chapter xxv.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01594b.htm|title=CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Apocalypse}}</ref>

In his 4th century ''[[Church History (Eusebius)|Ecclesiastical History]]'', [[Eusebius]] says that the [[First Epistle of John]] and the [[Gospel of John]] are widely agreed upon as his. However, Eusebius mentions that the consensus is that the second and third epistles of John are not his but were written by some other John. Eusebius also goes to some length to establish with the reader that there is no general consensus regarding the revelation of John. The revelation of John could only be what is now called the Book of Revelation.<ref>The History of the Church by Eusibius. Book three, point 24.</ref> The Gospel according to John differs considerably from the [[Synoptic Gospels]], which were likely written decades earlier. The [[Early centers of Christianity#Anatolia|bishops of Asia Minor]] supposedly requested him to write his gospel to deal with the heresy of the [[Ebionites]], who asserted that Christ did not exist before Mary. John probably knew of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, but these gospels spoke of Jesus primarily in the year following the imprisonment and death of [[John the Baptist]].<ref>Thomas Patrick Halton, ''On illustrious men'', Volume 100 of The Fathers of the Church, CUA Press, 1999. P. 19.</ref> Around 600, however, [[Sophronius of Jerusalem]] noted that "two epistles bearing his name ... are considered by some to be the work of a certain John the Elder" and, while stating that Revelation was written by John of Patmos, it was "later translated by Justin Martyr and Irenaeus,"<ref name="Theophylact">{{Citation|author=Saint [[Sophronius of Jerusalem]]|orig-year=c. 600|year=2007|title=The Explanation of the Holy Gospel According to John|chapter=The Life of the Evangelist John|publisher=Chrysostom Press|location=[[House Springs, Missouri]], United States|isbn=978-1-889814-09-4|pages=2–3}}</ref> presumably in an attempt to reconcile tradition with the obvious differences in Greek style.

Until the 19th century, the authorship of the Gospel of John had been attributed to the Apostle John. However, most modern critical scholars have their doubts.<ref name="John">[[Stephen L. Harris|Harris, Stephen L.]], ''Understanding the Bible'' (Palo Alto: Mayfield, 1985) p. 355</ref> Some scholars place the Gospel of John somewhere between AD 65 and 85;<ref>Harris, Stephen L., ''Understanding the Bible.'' McGraw-Hill, 2006. {{ISBN|978-0-07-296548-3}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=March 2012}} [[John Robinson (bishop of Woolwich)|John Robinson]] proposes an initial edition by 50–55 and then a final edition by 65 due to narrative similarities with Paul.<ref name="Robinson">{{cite book|last=Robinson|first=John A.T.|title=Redating the New Testament|publisher=SCM Press|year=1977|isbn=978-0-334-02300-5}}</ref>{{Rp|pp.284,307|date=May 2009}} Other scholars are of the opinion that the Gospel of John was composed in two or three stages.<ref>Mark Allan Powell. ''Jesus as a figure in history.'' Westminster John Knox Press, 1998. {{ISBN|0-664-25703-8}} / 978-0664257033</ref>{{rp|p.43}} Most contemporary scholars consider that the Gospel was not written until the latter third of the first century AD, and with the earliest possible date of AD 75–80: "...a date of AD 75–80 as the earliest possible date of composition for this Gospel."<ref>[[Gail R. O'Day]],  introduction to the Gospel of John in ''New Revised Standard Translation of the Bible'', Abingdon Press, Nashville, 2003, p.1906</ref> Other scholars think that an even later date, perhaps even the last decade of the first century AD right up to the start of the 2nd century (i.e. 90 – 100), is applicable.<ref>Reading John, Francis J. Moloney, SDB, Dove Press, 1995</ref>

Nonetheless, today many theological scholars continue to accept the traditional authorship. Colin G. Kruse states that since John the Evangelist has been named consistently in the writings of early Church Fathers, "it is hard to pass by this conclusion, despite widespread reluctance to accept it by many, but by no means all, modern scholars."<ref name="Kruse">Kruse, Colin G.''The Gospel According to John: An Introduction and Commentary'', Eerdmans, 2004, {{ISBN|0-8028-2771-3}}, p. 28.</ref>

Modern, mainstream Bible scholars generally assert that the Gospel of John has been  written by an anonymous author.<ref name="sanders">E P Sanders, ''The Historical Figure of Jesus'', (Penguin, 1995) page 63 – 64.</ref><ref name="ehrman">Bart D. Ehrman (2000:43) ''The New Testament: a historical introduction to early Christian writings.'' Oxford University Press.</ref><ref name=lost/>

Regarding whether the author of the Gospel of John was an eyewitness, according to Paul N. Anderson, the gospel "contains more direct claims to eyewitness origins than any of the other Gospel traditions."<ref>Paul N. Anderson, [https://books.google.com/books?id=keBlpFgg4fAC&pg=PA48 The Riddles of the Fourth Gospel], p. 48.</ref> [[F. F. Bruce]] argues that 19:35 contains an "emphatic and explicit claim to eyewitness authority."<ref>F. F. Bruce, [https://books.google.com/books?id=0MzO2GD62JUC&pg=PA3 The Gospel of John], p. 3.</ref> The gospel nowhere claims to have been written by direct witnesses to the reported events.<ref name="lost">Bart D. Ehrman (2005:235) ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=URdACxKubDIC&pg=PA235 Lost Christianities: the battles for scripture and the faiths we never knew]'' Oxford University Press, New York.</ref><ref>Bart D. Ehrman (2004:110) ''[https://archive.org/details/truthfictionin00ehrm/page/110 Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code: A Historian Reveals What We Really Know about Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and Constantine.]'' Oxford University Press.</ref><ref name="iuda">Bart D. Ehrman(2006:143) ''[https://archive.org/details/lostgospelofjuda00ehrm/page/143 The lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot: a new look at betrayer and betrayed.]'' Oxford University Press.</ref>

Mainstream Bible scholars assert that all four gospels from the New Testament are fundamentally anonymous and most of mainstream scholars agree that these gospels have not been written by eyewitnesses.<ref name="Millard 2006">{{Cite book|last=Millard|first=Alan|chapter=Authors, Books, and Readers in the Ancient World|editor1-last=Rogerson|editor1-first=J.W.|editor2-last=Lieu|editor2-first=Judith M.|title=The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Studies|publisher=Oxford University Press|year= 2006|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eKZYMifS1fAC&dq=%22written+virtually+entirely+in+a+form+of+ancient+Greek%22&pg=PA558|isbn=978-0199254255|page=558|quote=The historical narratives, the Gospels and Acts, are anonymous, the attributions to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John being first reported in the mid-second century by Irenaeus}}</ref>{{sfn|Reddish|2011|pp=13, 42}}{{sfn|Perkins|Coogan|2010|p=1380}}{{sfn|Coogan|Brettler|Newsom|Perkins|2018|p=1380}} As ''The New Oxford Annotated Bible'' (2018) has put it, "Scholars generally agree that the Gospels were written forty to sixty years after the death of Jesus."{{sfn|Coogan|Brettler|Newsom|Perkins|2018|p=1380}}

===Book of Revelation===
According to the [[Book of Revelation]], its author was on the [[Patmos|island of Patmos]] "for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus", when he was honoured with the [[vision (religion)|vision]] contained in Revelation.<ref>{{bibleverse|Rev.|1:9}}</ref>

The author of the [[Book of Revelation]] identifies himself as "Ἰωάννης" ("John" in standard English translation).<ref name="ODCC Revelation, Book of">"Revelation, Book of." Cross, F. L., ed. ''The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church''. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005</ref> The early 2nd-century writer [[Justin Martyr]] was the first to equate the author of Revelation with ''John the Apostle''.<ref name="Justin">Justin Martyr, ''Dialogue with Trypho'', 81.4</ref> However, most biblical scholars now contend that these were separate individuals since the text was written around 100 AD, after the death of John the Apostle,<ref name="John"/><ref>{{cite book |last=Ehrman |first=Bart D.|author-link=Bart D. Ehrman|title=The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings |year=2004 |publisher=Oxford |location=New York |isbn=0-19-515462-2 |page=468 }}</ref><ref name=CHistoryIII39 /> although many historians have defended the identification of the Author of the Gospel of John with that of the Book of Revelation based on the similarity of the two texts.<ref>{{cite book|quote=other contemporary scholars have vigorously defended the traditional view of apostolic authorship.|page=26|title=The Book of Revelation For Dummies|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|year=2011|isbn=9781118050866|first1=Richard|last1=Wagner|first2= Larry R.|last2=Helyer}}</ref>

[[John the Presbyter]], an obscure figure in the early church, has also been identified with the seer of the Book of Revelation by such authors as [[Eusebius]] in his ''Church History'' (Book III, 39)<ref name="CHistoryIII39">{{cite web|url= https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/250103.htm |title=Church History, Book III, Chapter 39 |work=The Fathers of the Church |publisher=NewAdvent.org |access-date=22 June 2020}}</ref> and [[Saint Jerome|Jerome]].<ref>{{cite web|last1=saint|first1=Jerome|title=De Viris Illustribus (On Illustrious Men) Chapter 9 & 18|url=http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/2708.htm|publisher=newadvent.org|access-date=2 June 2015}}</ref>

John is considered to have been exiled to [[Patmos]], during the persecutions under Emperor [[Domitian]]. Revelation 1:9 says that the author wrote the book on Patmos: "I, John, both your brother and companion in tribulation, ... was on the island that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ." [[Adela Yarbro Collins]], a biblical scholar at [[Yale Divinity School]], writes:
{{blockquote|Early tradition says that John was banished to Patmos by the Roman authorities. This tradition is credible because banishment was a common punishment used during the Imperial period for a number of offenses. Among such offenses were the practices of magic and astrology. Prophecy was viewed by the Romans as belonging to the same category, whether Pagan, Jewish, or Christian. Prophecy with political implications, like that expressed by John in the book of Revelation, would have been perceived as a threat to Roman political power and order. Three of the islands in the [[Sporades]] were places where political offenders were banished. (Pliny ''Natural History'' 4.69–70; Tacitus ''Annals'' 4.30)<ref>Adela Collins. "Patmos". ''Harper's Bible Dictionary''. Paul J. Achtemeier, gen. ed. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1985. p755.</ref>}}

Some modern critical scholars have raised the possibility that John the Apostle, John the Evangelist, and John of Patmos were three separate individuals.<ref>[[C. Wilfred Griggs|Griggs, C. Wilfred]]. "John the Beloved" in [[Daniel H. Ludlow|Ludlow, Daniel H.]], ed. ''Selections from the Encyclopedia of Mormonism: Scriptures of the Church'' (Salt Lake City, Utah: [[Deseret Book]], 1992) p. 379. Griggs favors the "one John" theory but mentions that some modern scholars have hypothesized that there are multiple Johns.</ref> These scholars assert that John of Patmos wrote Revelation but neither the Gospel of John nor the Epistles of John. The author of Revelation identifies himself as "John" several times, but the author of the Gospel of John never identifies himself directly. Some Catholic scholars state that "vocabulary, grammar, and style make it doubtful that the book could have been put into its present form by the same person(s) responsible for the fourth gospel."<ref>Introduction. Saint Joseph Edition of the New American Bible: Translated from the Original Languages with Critical Use of All the Ancient Sources: including the Revised New Testament and the Revised Psalms. New York: Catholic Book Pub., 1992. 386. Print.</ref>