Category:John (subject)

• This page is edited by James E. West, Quartz Hill School of Theology, United States of America.

John son of Zebedee (1st century CE) was, according to Christian tradition, one of the Twelve apostles of Jesus of Nazareth and one of the leaders of the early Church as well as one of the four evangelists.

Overview

John, son of Zebedee and brother of James, is mentioned in the Synoptic Gospels as one of the earliest disciples of Jesus, one of the Twelve, and his role is singled out in a few episodes of the Ministry of Jesus.

John in the Gospels of Mark, Matthew and Luke

Mark's mention of John the son of Zebedee is mimicked by Matthew and Luke, since, by all accounts and according to most scholars, Mark was the earliest of the Gospels written and Matthew and Luke made use of Mark and Q and added their own special material. The Synoptics, however, offer few details beyond the fact that John is the brother of James and that both are the sons of Zebedee. In Mark 3:17 Jesus calls James and John the 'sons of thunder' (Boanerges). This is a Hebrew or Aramaic phrase 'beney regesh' which the Gospel of Mark's author translates 'sons of thunder'. It is used in other contexts describing the striking of a house by lightning. But this solution is disputed. The phrase may also stem from 'beney ragaz' which means 'sons of wrath' or hot-tempered.

Act of the Apostles

Galatians 2:9 is the only evidence outside of the Gospels and Acts for the existence of and importance of 'John' in the New Testament. Since he is here linked with James we are doubtless meant to assume that Paul has in mind Peter, and James and John the sons of Zebedee. Paul, however, offers no further information. Hence, the reference to John in Galatians is supplementary and confirmatory, but that's all.

John the son of Zebedee is traditionally identified with the Beloved Disciple of the Fourth Gospel and the John of Patmos of the book of Revelation. However, there is no reliable corroboration of these notions from extra-biblical sources and even the Bible itself never identifies either the Beloved Disciple nor the author of the Fourth Gospel. John of Patmos, the author of Revelation, also may, or may not be the son of Zebedee. Since our sources are not very specific about the patrimony of this author, suppositions concerning any putative connection to John son of Zebedee are speculative and nothing more. Therefore, it is unsafe to equate the author of Revelation with John the son of Zebedee, or the author of the Gospel of John or the Johannine epistles. More likely, it seems, is the belief that the Gospel and the Epistles and the Revelation all flow from a 'Johannine School' of theology. R. Alan Culpepepper is perhaps the best known representative of this line of thought.

From the late second century comes the tradition that John miraculously escaped martyrdom and lived to old age in Ephesus. More than that cannot be known or asserted from available sources.

John in ancient sources

Galatians

Galatians 2:9 -- and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised...

Gospel of Mark

Mark 1:19 -- And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets.

Mark 1:29 -- And immediately he left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John...

Mark 3:17 -- James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder)...

Mark 5:37 -- And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John the brother of James...

Mark 9:2 -- And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them...

Mark 9:38 -- John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.”

Mark 10:35.41 -- And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you”... And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John.

Mark 13:3 -- And as he sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately...

Mark 14:33 -- And he took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be greatly distressed and troubled.

Gospel of Matthew

Matthew 4:21 -- And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them.

Matthew 10:2 -- The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother...

Matthew 17:1 -- And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.

Gospel of Luke

Luke 5:10 -- and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”...

Luke 6:14 -- Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew,

Luke 8:51 -- And when he came to the house, he allowed no one to enter with him, except Peter and John and James, and the father and mother of the child.

Luke 9:28 -- Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray.

Luke 9:49 -- John answered, “Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he does not follow with us.”

Luke 9:54 -- And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”

Luke 22:8 -- So Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat it.”

Acts of Apostles

Acts 1:13 -- And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James.

Acts 3:1 -- Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour.

Acts 3:3 -- Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms.

Acts 3:4 -- And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.”

Acts 3:11 -- While he clung to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the portico called Solomon’s, astounded.

Acts 4:13 -- Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.

Acts 4:19 -- But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge,

Acts.8.14 -- Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John...

Acts 12:2 -- He killed James the brother of John with the sword...

Cf. Gospel of John

John in scholarship

The identification of John with the beloved disciple, and even more with John of Patmos, is openly disputed in modern scholarship. Indeed, it is scarcely accepted. Yet one of the most outspoken supporters of Johannine authorship of the Fourth Gospel, Richard Bauckham, has recently suggested that John, the son of Zebedee, was in fact the author of that Gospel. In his 'Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony' (Eerdmans, 2006) Bauckham evaluates every bit of relevant evidence he can muster and concludes by asserting that, in the case of John's Gospel, the author was in fact that very John who was the son of Zebedee.

Bauckham's work has tended to convince more conservatively oriented scholars but others have been less than impressed not to say remain unpersuaded. Nevertheless, on the question of Johannine authorship, no one has looked into the question more deeply than Bauckham.

Similarly interested in the authorship of the Gospel and, more importantly, on the historical reliability of that Gospel, is the Society of Biblical Literature Section 'John, Jesus and History', - http://johannine.org/JJH.html - led by Tom Thatcher and Paul Anderson. Thatcher and Anderson and others have focused attention recently on the historical usefulness of John's Gospel. A herculean task, given the fact that most New Testament scholars have ignored John in favor of the Synoptics in their historical reconstructions of the life of Jesus of Nazareth.

On the other end of the spectrum rests the work of Ben Witherington III, who has asserted in numerous publications that the author of the Fourth Gospel, and the 'Beloved Disciple', is Lazarus. The man whom Jesus raised from the dead. His views are available online here- http://benwitherington.blogspot.com/2007/01/was-lazarus-beloved-disciple.html Few have followed Witherington down this rather idiosyncratic path and so refuse to identify the 'Beloved Disciple' with Lazarus.

John in Fiction

The iconography of John developed into a narrative cycle, that went beyond the "biblical" data, including episodes from his old age. The same legendary elements are present in the novels and movies devoted to John the evangelist in modern times.

One characteristically 'devotional' modern representation of the Apostle is found in The Gospel of John (2003 Saville), film. Per usual, the 'biography' of John follows traditional lines.

Related categories

• Jesus of Nazareth (subject) / Twelve Apostles (subject) / James son of Zebedee

External links

• Wikipedia