Study Notes: 1 - 3 John, Apostle, Background
John describes himself five times as “the disciple whom Jesus Loved”:
- John 13:23: Described in v. 25 as “leaning back against Jesus” as well.
- John 19:26-27: Jesus gives the responsibilities of the oldest son (caring for his mother) to John. Tradition suggests that John cared for Jesus’ mother for the rest of her life, including bringing her to Ephesus with him, where she most likely died.
- John 20:2: Makes a point of noting he outran Peter to Jesus’ former tomb (the synoptics, however, make no note of any disciple being present at the crucifixion and Luke claims Peter ran alone to the tomb. Luke 24:12). Given John is an eyewitness while Luke is not, we would conclude John to be more reliable a witness.
- John 21:5-7: Post resurrection. John is the first to recognize Jesus.
- John 21:20-24: Jesus responds to Peter about John, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?” Some interesting notes:
- John is believed to be the last of the original twelve to die, sometime after AD 98. He is also believed to have been the youngest of the original twelve.
- John is the only one of the original twelve believed to have died from natural causes rather than being martyred, although Tertullian (The Prescription of Heretics) suggests that John was boiled in oil in Rome by either Nero or Domitian and emerged unharmed, converting everyone who witnessed the event. He is eventually banished to Patmos under the reign of Trajan.
John’s gospel is the latest of the four, written well after the three synoptics (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) have been in circulation, and well after the remaining eleven of the original twelve apostles have perished.
John is one of three major people in the Christian period (the other being Mary and Joseph, Jesus’ earthly parents) who left no bodily relics (no bones were found in John’s presumed burial place when it was opened during Constantine the Great’s reign), leading to a belief that his body, like Mary’s (according to the Catholic Church1), was assumed into heaven rather than “left to decay.”2
Established as dogma of the Catholic Church by Pius XII in the Apostolic Constitution “Munificentissimus Deus”, November 1, 1950. https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/en/apost_constitutions/documents/hf_p-xii_apc_19501101_munificentissimus-deus.html ↩
Zuzic, Marko. A Short History of St. John in Ephesus: The first and Greatest Metropolis of Asia The Cradle of the Hellenic Civilization A Nursery and Garden of Christianity The Second Province of God After Jerusalem with a precious Unique Common Christian-Moslem Shrine. Private Print: American Society of Ephesus 1st ed. Illustrated 96 pages Page 37-45. ↩