I. NEW TESTAMENT ACCOUNTS
John was the son of Zebedee and Salome, and the brother of James
the Greater. In the Gospels the two brothers are often called after
their father "the sons of Zebedee" and received from Christ the
honourable title of Boanerges, i.e. "sons of thunder" (Mark, iii,
17). Originally they were fishermen and fished with their father in the
Lake of Genesareth. According to the usual and entirely probable
explanation they became, however, for a time disciples of John the
Baptist, and were called by Christ from the circle of John's followers,
together with Peter and Andrew, to become His disciples (John, i,
35-42). The first disciples returned with their new Master from the
Jordan to Galilee and apparently both John and the others remained for
some time with Jesus (cf. John ii, 12, 22; iv, 2, 8, 27 sqq.). Yet after
the second return from Judea, John and his companions went back again
to their trade of fishing until he and they were called by Christ to
definitive discipleship (Matt., iv 18-22; Mark, i, 16-20). In the lists
of the Apostles John has the second place (Acts, i, 13), the third
(Mark, iii, 17), and the fourth (Matt., x, 3; Luke, vi, 14), yet always
after James with the exception of a few passages (Luke, viii, 51; ix, 28
in the Greek text; Acts, i, 13).
From James being thus placed first, the conclusion is drawn that
John was the younger of the two brothers. In any case John had a
prominent position in the Apostolic body. Peter, James, and he were the
only witnesses of the raising of Jairus's daughter (Mark, v, 37), of the
Transfiguration (Matt., xvii, 1), and of the Agony in Gethsemani
(Matt., xxvi, 37). Only he and Peter were sent into the city to make the
preparation for the Last Supper (Luke, xxii, 8). At the Supper itself
his place was next to Christ on Whose breast he leaned (John, xiii, 23,
25). According to the general interpretation John was also that "other
disciple" who with Peter followed Christ after the arrest into the
palace of the high-priest (John, xviii, 15). John alone remained near
his beloved Master at the foot of the Cross on Calvary with the Mother
of Jesus and the pious women, and took the desolate Mother into his care
as the last legacy of Christ (John, xix, 25-27). After the Resurrection
John with Peter was the first of the disciples to hasten to the grave
and he was the first to believe that Christ had truly risen (John, xx,
2-10). When later Christ appeared at the Lake of Genesareth John was
also the first of the seven disciples present who recognized his Master
standing on the shore (John, xxi, 7). The Fourth Evangelist has shown us
most clearly how close the relationship was in which he always stood to
his Lord and Master by the title with which he is accustomed to
indicate himself without giving his name: "the disciple whom Jesus
loved". After Christ's Ascension and the Descent of the Holy Spirit,
John took, together with Peter, a prominent part in the founding and
guidance of the Church. We see him in the company of Peter at the
healing of the lame man in the Temple (Acts, iii, 1 sqq.). With Peter he
is also thrown into prison (Acts, iv, 3). Again, we find him with the
prince of the Apostles visiting the newly converted in Samaria (Acts,
viii, 14).
We have no positive information concerning the duration of this
activity in Palestine. Apparently John in common with the other Apostles
remained some twelve years in this first field of labour, until the
persecution of Herod Agrippa I led to the scattering of the Apostles
through the various provinces of the Roman Empire (cf. Acts, xii, 1-17).
Notwithstanding the opinion to the contrary of many writers, it does
not appear improbable that John then went for the first time to Asia
Minor and exercised his Apostolic office in various provinces there. In
any case a Christian community was already in existence at Ephesus
before Paul's first labours there (cf. "the brethren", Acts, xviii, 27,
in addition to Priscilla and Aquila), and it is easy to connect a
sojourn of John in these provinces with the fact that the Holy Ghost did
not permit the Apostle Paul on his second missionary journey to
proclaim the Gospel in Asia, Mysia, and Bithynia (Acts, xvi, 6 sq.).
There is just as little against such an acceptation in the later account
in Acts of St. Paul's third missionary journey. But in any case such a
sojourn by John in Asia in this first period was neither long nor
uninterrupted. 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", and 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). When Paul came again to Jerusalem after the second and
after the third journey (Acts, xviii, 22; xxi, 17 sq.) he seems no
longer to have met John there. Some wish to draw the conclusion from
this that John left Palestine between the years 52 and 55.
Of the other New-Testament writings, it is only from the three
Epistles of John and the Apocalypse that anything further is learned
concerning the person of the Apostle. We may be permitted here to take
as proven the unity of the author of these three writings handed down
under the name of John and his identity with the Evangelist. Both the
Epistles and the Apocalypse, however, presuppose that their author John
belonged to the multitude of personal eyewitnesses of the life and work
of Christ (cf. especially I John, i, 1-5; iv, 14), that he had lived for
a long time in Asia Minor, was thoroughly acquainted with the
conditions existing in the various Christian communities there, and that
he had a position of authority recognized by all Christian communities
as leader of this part of the Church. Moreover, the Apocalypse tells us
that its author was on the island of Patmos "for the word of God and for
the testimony of Jesus", when he was honoured with the heavenly
Revelation contained in the Apocalypse (Apoc., i, 9).
II. THE ALLEGED PRESBYTER JOHN
The author of the Second and Third Epistles of John designates himself in the superscription of each by the name (ho presbyteros),
"the ancient", "the old". Papias, Bishop of Hierapolis, also uses the
same name to designate the "Presbyter John" as in addition to Aristion,
his particular authority, directly after he has named the presbyters
Andrew, Peter, Philip, Thomas, James, John, and Matthew (in Eusebius,
"Hist. eccl.", III, xxxix, 4). Eusebius was the first to draw, on
account of these words of Papias, the distinction between a Presbyter
John and the Apostle John, and this distinction was also spread in
Western Europe by St. Jerome on the authority of Eusebius. The opinion
of Eusebius has been frequently revived by modern writers, chiefly to
support the denial of the Apostolic origin of the Fourth Gospel. The
distinction, however, has no historical basis. First, the testimony of
Eusebius in this matter is not worthy of belief. He contradicts himself,
as in his "Chronicle" he expressly calls the Apostle John the teacher
of Papias ("ad annum Abrah 2114"), as does Jerome also in Ep. lxxv, "Ad
Theodoram", iii, and in "De viris illustribus", xviii. Eusebius was also
influenced by his erroneous doctrinal opinions as he denied the
Apostolic origin of the Apocalypse and ascribed this writing to an
author differing from St. John but of the same name. St. Irenaeus also
positively designates the Apostle and Evangelist John as the teacher of
Papias, and neither he nor any other writer before Eusebius had any idea
of a second John in Asia (Adv. haer., V, xxxiii, 4). In what Papias
himself says the connection plainly shows that in this passage by the
word presbyters only Apostles can be understood. If John is
mentioned twice the explanation lies in the peculiar relationship in
which Papias stood to this, his most eminent teacher. By inquiring of
others he had learned some things indirectly from John, just as he had
from the other Apostles referred to. In addition he had received
information concerning the teachings and acts of Jesus directly, without
the intervention of others, from the still living "Presbyter John", as
he also had from Aristion. Thus the teaching of Papias casts absolutely
no doubt upon what the New-Testament writings presuppose and expressly
mention concerning the residence of the Evangelist John in Asia.
III. THE LATER ACCOUNTS OF JOHN
The Christian writers of the second and third centuries testify
to us as a tradition universally recognized and doubted by no one that
the Apostle and Evangelist John lived in Asia Minor in the last decades
of the first century and from Ephesus had guided the Churches of that
province. In his "Dialogue with Tryphon" (Chapter 81) St. Justin Martyr
refers to "John, one of the Apostles of Christ" as a witness who had
lived "with us", that is, at Ephesus. St. Irenæus speaks in very many
places of the Apostle John and his residence in Asia and expressly
declares that he wrote his Gospel at Ephesus (Adv. haer., III, i, 1),
and that he had lived there until the reign of Trajan (loc. cit., II,
xxii, 5). With Eusebius (Hist. eccl., III, xiii, 1) and others we are
obliged to place the Apostle's banishment to Patmos in the reign of the
Emperor Domitian (81-96). Previous to this, according to Tertullian's
testimony (De praescript., xxxvi), John had been thrown into a cauldron
of boiling oil before the Porta Latina at Rome without suffering injury.
After Domitian's death the Apostle returned to Ephesus during the reign
of Trajan, and at Ephesus he died about A.D. 100 at a great age.
Tradition reports many beautiful traits of the last years of his life:
that he refused to remain under the same roof with Cerinthus (Irenaeus
"Ad. haer.", III, iii, 4); his touching anxiety about a youth who had
become a robber (Clemens Alex., "Quis dives salvetur", xiii); his
constantly repeated words of exhortation at the end of his life, "Little
children, love one another" (Jerome, "Comm. in ep. ad. Gal.", vi, 10).
On the other hand the stories told in the apocryphal Acts of John, which
appeared as early as the second century, are unhistorical invention.
IV. FEASTS OF ST. JOHN
St. John is commemorated on 27 December, which he originally
shared with St. James the Greater. At Rome the feast was reserved to St.
John alone at an early date, though both names are found in the
Carthage Calendar, the Hieronymian Martyrology, and the Gallican
liturgical books. The "departure" or "assumption" of the Apostle is
noted in the Menology of Constantinople and the Calendar of Naples (26
September), which seems to have been regarded as the date of his death.
The feast of St. John before the Latin Gate, supposed to commemorate the
dedication of the church near the Porta Latina, is first mentioned in
the Sacramentary of Adrian I (772-95).
V. ST. JOHN IN CHRISTIAN ART
Early Christian art usually represents St. John with an eagle,
symbolizing the heights to which he rises in the first chapter of his
Gospel. The chalice as symbolic of St. John, which, according to some
authorities, was not adopted until the thirteenth century, is sometimes
interpreted with reference to the Last Supper, again as connected with
the legend according to which St. John was handed a cup of poisoned
wine, from which, at his blessing, the poison rose in the shape of a
serpent. Perhaps the most natural explanation is to be found in the
words of Christ to John and James "My chalice indeed you shall drink"
(Matthew 20:23).
Leopold Fonck (Catholic Encyclopedia)_
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