John the Apostle

==Extrabiblical traditions==
[[File:Heilige Johannes.jpg|left|thumb|200px|Print of John the Apostle made at ca. the end of the 16th c. – the beginning of the 17th c.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Heilige Johannes|url=https://lib.ugent.be/viewer/archive.ugent.be:6BCB9538-A6A8-11E6-B1A4-293ED43445F2#?c=&m=&s=&cv=&xywh=-2028,-185,6614,3693|access-date=28 September 2020|website=lib.ugent.be}}</ref>]]
[[File:Byzantinischer Maler um 1100 001.jpg|thumb|upright|Byzantine [[illuminated manuscript|illumination]] depicting John dictating to his disciple, [[Prochorus]] (''c.'' 1100)]]
[[File:Tomb of Saint John the Apostle.jpg|thumb|Tomb of Saint John the Apostle, [[Basilica of St. John|Saint John's Basilica]], [[Ephesus]], Turkey]]
{{see also|Apocryphon of John}}

There is no information in the Bible concerning the duration of John's activity in [[Iudaea Province|Judea]]. According to tradition, John and the other Apostles remained some 12 years in this first field of labour. The [[persecution of Christians]] under [[Herod Agrippa I]] (r. 41–44 AD) led to the scattering of the Apostles through the [[Roman Empire]]'s [[Roman provinces|provinces]].<ref>{{bibleverse|Acts|12:1–17||cf. Ac 12:1–17}}</ref>

A messianic community existed at [[Ephesus]] before [[Paul the Apostle|Paul's]] first labors there (cf. "the brethren"),<ref>{{bibleverse|Acts|18:27}}</ref> in addition to [[Priscilla and Aquila]]. The original community was under the leadership of [[Apollos]] (1 Corinthians 1:12). They were disciples of John the Baptist and were converted by Aquila and Priscilla.<ref name="vailhe">{{cite encyclopedia | last = Vailhé | first = Siméon |url= http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05490a.htm |title= Ephesus | encyclopedia = [[The Catholic Encyclopedia]] | volume = 5 | orig-year = New York: Robert Appleton Co., 1 May 1909 | date = 6 February 2013 |publisher= New advent |access-date= 3 May 2013}}</ref> According to tradition, after the [[Assumption of Mary]], John went to Ephesus. [[Irenaeus]] writes of "the church of Ephesus, founded by Paul, with John continuing with them until the times of [[Trajan]]."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Irenaeus of Lyons|last=Grant|first=Robert M.|publisher=Routledge|year=1997|location=London|pages=2}}</ref> From Ephesus he wrote the three epistles attributed to him. John was banished by the Roman authorities to the Greek island of [[Patmos]], where, according to tradition, he wrote the [[Book of Revelation]]. According to [[Tertullian]] (in ''The Prescription of Heretics'') John was banished (presumably to Patmos) after being plunged into boiling oil in Rome and suffering nothing from it. It is said that all in the audience of [[Colosseum]] were converted to Christianity upon witnessing this miracle. This event would have occurred in the late 1st century, during the reign of the Emperor [[Domitian]], who was known for his persecution of Christians.

When John was aged, he trained [[Polycarp]] who later became [[Bishop of Smyrna]]. This was important because Polycarp was able to carry John's message to future generations. Polycarp taught [[Irenaeus]], passing on to him stories about John. Similarly, [[Ignatius of Antioch]] was a student of John. In ''[[On the Detection and Overthrow of the So-Called Gnosis|Against Heresies]]'', Irenaeus relates how Polycarp told a story of 
{{blockquote |John, the disciple of the Lord, going to bathe at Ephesus, and perceiving [[Cerinthus]] within, rushed out of the [[Thermae|bath-house]] without bathing, exclaiming, "Let us fly, lest even the bath-house fall down, because [[Cerinthus]], the enemy of the truth, is within."<ref>Irenaeus, ''[[On the Detection and Overthrow of the So-Called Gnosis|Against Heresies]]'', III.3.4.</ref>}}

It is traditionally believed that John was the youngest of the apostles and survived all of them. He is said to have lived to old age, dying of natural causes at Ephesus sometime after AD 98, during the reign of [[Trajan]], thus becoming the only apostle who did not die as a [[Christian martyr|martyr]].<ref name="zahn">{{Cite web |url= http://www.ccel.org/s/schaff/encyc/encyc06/htm/iii.lvii.lviii.htm |title=John the Apostle|website= CCEL}}</ref>

An alternative account of John's death, ascribed by later Christian writers to the early second-century bishop [[Papias of Hierapolis]], claims that he was slain by the Jews.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Cheyne|first = Thomas Kelly | title= John, Son of Zebedee | encyclopedia = [[Encyclopaedia Biblica]] | volume = 2|publisher= Adam & Charles Black|year=1901 |url= https://archive.org/details/encyclopaediabib02cheyuoft/page/n711/mode/1up |pages=2509–11}} Although Papias' works are no longer extant, the fifth-century ecclesiastical historian [[Philip of Side]] and the ninth-century monk [[George Hamartolos]] both stated that Papias had written that John was "slain by the Jews."</ref><ref>{{cite book|last= Rasimus |first =Tuomas|title = The Legacy of John: Second-Century Reception of the Fourth Gospel|publisher=Brill|year = 2010|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=pN07vMoBsokC&pg=PA5|page=5 |isbn=978-9-00417633-1}}  Rasimus finds corroborating evidence for this tradition in "two martyrologies from Edessa and Carthage" and writes that "Mark 10:35–40//Matt. 20:20–23 can be taken to portray Jesus predicting the martyrdom of both the sons of Zebedee."</ref> Most Johannine scholars doubt the reliability of its ascription to Papias, but a minority, including [[B.W. Bacon]], [[Martin Hengel]] and [[Henry Barclay Swete]], maintain that these references to Papias are credible.<ref>{{cite book|last= Culpepper|first=R. Alan|title= John, the Son of Zebedee: The Life of A Legend|publisher= Continuum International Publishing Group|year=2000|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y-HE2VXzCd4C&pg=PA172|page=172|isbn=9780567087423}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Swete|first=Henry Barclay|title=The Apocalypse of St. John|publisher=Macmillan|edition=3|year=1911|url=https://archive.org/stream/2apocalypseofstj00swetuoft#page/n192/mode/1up|pages=179–180}}</ref> Zahn argues that this reference is actually to [[John the Baptist]].<ref name=zahn/> John's tomb is thought to be located in the former [[Basilica of St. John]] at [[Selçuk]], a small town in the vicinity of Ephesus.<ref>[[Procopius of Caesarea]], ''On Buildings'' General Index, trans. H. B. Dewing and Glanville Downey, vol. 7, [[Loeb Classical Library]] 343 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1940), 319</ref>

John is also associated with the [[pseudepigrapha]]l [[New Testament apocrypha|apocrypha]]l text of the [[Acts of John]], which is traditionally viewed as written by John himself or his disciple, [[Leucius Charinus]]. It was widely circulated by the second century CE but deemed heretical at the [[Second Council of Nicaea]] (787 CE). Varying fragments survived in Greek and Latin within monastic libraries. It contains strong [[Docetism|docetic]] themes, but is not considered in modern scholarship to be [[Gnosticism|Gnostic.]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://gnosis.org/library/actjohn.htm|title=The Acts of John|website=gnosis.org|access-date=11 February 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/lostscripturesbo00ehrm|title=Lost scriptures : books that did not make it into the New Testament|date=2003|publisher=Oxford University Press|others=Ehrman, Bart D.|isbn=0195141822|location=New York|oclc=51886442|url-access=registration}}</ref>