John the Apostle

John, son of Zebedee, known in Christian tradition as John the Apostle, John the Evangelist, and John the Theologian, was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus of Nazareth. The Synoptic Gospels present him as a Galilean fisherman who, together with his brother James, was called by Jesus from the family boat on the Sea of Galilee; Jesus gave the pair the Aramaic nickname Boanerges, sons of thunder. Their father Zebedee employed hired men, suggesting a household of some means, and their mother, often identified with Salome, appears among the women who followed Jesus. John, James, and Simon Peter formed an inner trio who were taken apart to witness the raising of Jairus's daughter, the Transfiguration on the mountain, and Jesus's prayer in Gethsemane. The Fourth Gospel never names its author but repeatedly refers to the disciple whom Jesus loved, who reclined close to Jesus at the Last Supper, asked who would betray him, stood with Mary at the crucifixion and received her into his care, ran with Peter to the empty tomb, and recognized the risen Lord at the Sea of Tiberias. From the later second century, writers such as Irenaeus of Lyons, who appealed to the memory of Polycarp of Smyrna, identified this Beloved Disciple with the Apostle John, an identification that became standard in the Great Church, though it remains debated among modern scholars.

In the Acts of the Apostles, John appears as a leading figure in the earliest Jerusalem community. He is found with Peter at the Temple's Beautiful Gate, before the Sanhedrin, and on the mission that confirmed the conversion of the Samaritans. Paul, writing to the Galatians, names James, Cephas, and John as the pillars who extended fellowship to his Gentile mission. Beyond the New Testament narrative, second-century tradition localizes John's later life in the Roman province of Asia, especially Ephesus. Irenaeus states that John remained there until the times of Trajan, who reigned from 98 to 117, and that he published a Gospel during his residence in Asia. Polycrates of Ephesus, writing near the end of the second century, describes John as a priest who wore the sacerdotal plate and as a witness and teacher who fell asleep at Ephesus. The Book of Revelation is written in the name of a servant John who was on the island of Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. Early ecclesiastical authors commonly equated this seer with the Apostle, while some ancient and many modern critics have distinguished the author of Revelation from the author of the Gospel and the Johannine Letters. A Latin tradition, already known to Tertullian, relates that John was brought to Rome, plunged unharmed into a cauldron of boiling oil before the Latin Gate, and then banished to Patmos; the Western church long kept a feast of St. John before the Latin Gate on 6 May in memory of that legend.

No contemporary source records a precise year of John's birth or death. Hagiographical estimates commonly place his birth in Galilee in the opening years of the first century, often at Bethsaida, the town associated with Peter, Andrew, and Philip, and his death at Ephesus around the close of that century or the beginning of the next. Christian tradition, East and West, has consistently portrayed him as remaining unmarried and without children, and later writers celebrated him as a virgin disciple. He was never Bishop of Rome, nor did he occupy any of the later patriarchal thrones of the Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Coptic, or East Syriac churches, although Ephesian memory treated him as the apostolic founder of that see. His grave was shown at Ephesus; in the sixth century the emperor Justinian built a great basilica over the site on Ayasuluk Hill at modern Selcuk, Turkey, which became a major pilgrimage church until it fell into ruin after the medieval period.

In the Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran calendars the principal feast of Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist, is 27 December, in the octave of Christmas; some older Roman calendars also marked 6 May. The Eastern Orthodox Church keeps the Repose of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian on 26 September and a further commemoration on 8 May. Because of his association with the Fourth Gospel and the Johannine Letters, he is invoked as patron of theologians, writers, authors, editors, publishers, booksellers, scribes, and related trades such as papermakers, typesetters, engravers, lithographers, painters, and art dealers. Legends of the poisoned cup, which he drank unharmed after blessing it, and of the boiling oil made him a patron of those suffering from poison or burns. He is also invoked for friendship, love, and loyalty. The body of literature traditionally bearing his name, the Gospel according to John, the three Johannine Epistles, and the Apocalypse, has shaped Christian doctrine on the incarnation of the Word, the theology of love, sacramental life, and eschatological hope, even as historical-critical study continues to examine questions of authorship, community, and the relationship among these works.