Who was John the Apostle and what made him significant among the Twelve?
John the Apostle was the son of Zebedee and Salome and the younger brother of James the Great, traditionally regarded as the youngest of Jesus's Twelve Apostles. He belonged to an inner circle of three, alongside James and Peter, who were the only apostles present at the Raising of Jairus's daughter, the Transfiguration, and the Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. Church tradition holds that he outlived all the other apostles and was the only one to die of natural causes, dying at Ephesus sometime after AD 98.
Did John the Apostle write the Gospel of John?
Church tradition has attributed the Gospel of John to John the Apostle since antiquity, but most modern critical scholars doubt that he authored it. The scholarly consensus dates the gospel's composition to between AD 90 and 100, after the likely death of John the Apostle. The New Oxford Annotated Bible (2018) concludes the gospel was more probably written by a disciple of John son of Zebedee, possibly the Beloved Disciple or someone who recorded his dictation.
Who is the Beloved Disciple in the Gospel of John?
The phrase "the disciple whom Jesus loved" appears six times in the Gospel of John but in no other New Testament Gospel. Tradition identifies this figure as John the Apostle. This disciple sat beside Jesus at the Last Supper, stood at the foot of the cross during the crucifixion, and outran Peter to the empty tomb after the resurrection. The Gospel's final chapter states that the entire text is based on the written testimony of this disciple.
Why was John the Apostle exiled to Patmos?
John is traditionally held to have been banished to the Greek island of Patmos by Roman authorities during the reign of Emperor Domitian. Adela Yarbro Collins of Yale Divinity School has written that this tradition is credible because Roman authorities classified prophecy alongside magic and astrology as punishable offenses, and the politically charged prophecy in Revelation would have been seen as a threat to Roman order. Patmos was one of several islands in the Sporades used by Rome as places of exile for political offenders.
Where did John the Apostle live after leaving Jerusalem?
According to church tradition, John moved to Ephesus on the Aegean coast of Asia Minor after the Assumption of Mary. Irenaeus recorded that John continued with the church at Ephesus until the reign of the Emperor Trajan. John is said to have died of natural causes there sometime after AD 98. His tomb is thought to be located in the former Basilica of St. John at Selçuk, a small town near the ancient site of Ephesus.
What is the feast day of Saint John the Apostle in the Catholic Church?
The feast day of Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist, in the Roman Catholic Church falls on the 27th of December. An older feast, "Saint John Before the Latin Gate," was observed on the 6th of May and commemorated the tradition that John survived immersion in boiling oil in Rome; this feast appeared in the General Roman Calendar until Pope Pius XII abolished it in 1955.