The Beloved Disciple’s Gospel

The Beloved Disciple

I would like for you to imagine with me two different scenarios. First, imagine that you are 80 years old. Yes, some of you don’t have to imagine. You are sitting in your home, reminiscing about 80 years of life. You would likely experience various emotions – delight and maybe even pride as you remembered some of the best moments of your life but also grief in that those moments are past, and those people are gone. I remember with great clarity the moment of my conversion experience. I would probably recall highlights through high school and college, my wedding, my first ministry, the birth of my children, etc. As you recall these moments you begin to write in a journal your many experiences. I would imagine that those moments, those journal entries, would reveal the loves and passions of your heart throughout your life.

John writes in Ephesus. Now, imagine with me. 80 AD. Within the church of Ephesus sits the apostle John. At the writing of the Gospel of John, nearly all the apostles had died. There is great indication that John died in Ephesus due to the writings of Eusebius, who wrote in his Ecclesiastical History that of the great lights that had fallen asleep in Asia, “John, who was both a witness and a teacher, who reclined upon the bosom of the Lord . . . fell asleep at Ephesus.”[1]

The early church father Irenaeus (who died about AD 200) was a disciple of Polycarp, who was a disciple of the apostle John, and he testified on Polycarp’s authority that John wrote the gospel during his residence at Ephesus in Asia Minor when he was advanced in age.

We have learned from none others the plan of our salvation, than from those through whom the Gospel has come down to us . . . by the will of God . . . to be the ground and pillar of our faith. . . . [After acknowledging the authors of the other three gospels, Irenaues writes] Afterwards, John, the disciple of the Lord, who also had leaned upon His breast, did himself publish a Gospel during his residence at Ephesus in Asia.[2]

According to Eusebius, Clement wrote the following. “But, last of all, John . . . being urged by his friends, and inspired by the Spirit, composed a spiritual Gospel.”[3] The Muratorian Canon, from the 2nd century and the oldest lists of the canonical books of the N.T., offers a similar description.

Muratorian Canon[4]. The fourth Gospel is that of John, one of the disciples. When his fellow-disciples and bishops entreated him, he said, “Fast ye now with me for the space of three days, and let us recount to each other whatever may be revealed to each of us.” On the same night it was revealed to Andrew, one of the apostles, that John should narrate all things in his own name as they called them to mind.[5]

So then, from the beginning of the 2nd century, this Gospel was strongly attached to the apostle John. “Indeed, by the end of the second century the only people who denied Johannine authorship to the Fourth Gospel were the so-called Alogoi . . . meaning ‘witless ones’”[6]

John, the last of the apostles, was surrounded by fellow believers who dearly loved him. They desired for him to write down all that he remembered of Jesus. He began to write, “In the beginning was the Word . . .” It was likely this same group of believers that he would later write his first epistle.

1 John 1:1 ESV

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—

Imagine the memories that John would have had. He vividly remembers the taste of the wine that had moments before been water. He still remembers the blind man as mud is placed on his eyes and he then sees. He could still smell the aroma that Mary put on Jesus feet. His body weakens as he hears the voice of Christ. “I am the light of the world, I will come back and take you to be with me, Those who believe in my will have eternal life.”

Most liberal scholarship denies that the apostle John was the author of this gospel, but we will study this gospel under the premise that the apostle John was indeed the author. Therefore, my purpose in engaging the discussion about authorship is more to learn about John than it is to prove that he is the author. The challenge in determining authorship is that the author is never named within the gospel, except for a title that he gives himself.

Internal evidence, the Beloved Disciple. The author refers to himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” The last occurrence of this title is in . “Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who also had leaned back against him during the supper . . .” ( ESV). We know that this is as well the author because four verses later he writes, “This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true” ( ESV). Therefore, we can be certain that the author of this gospel is “the disciple whom Jesus Loved,” or as is more commonly termed “the beloved disciple.”

We first encounter this phrase in as the disciples share their last meal with Jesus. We are told that “One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining at table at Jesus’ side” ( ESV). A few chapters later, at the foot of the cross, “Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” ( ESV). One chapter later – or three days later – Mary Magdelene races to tell two disciples about the empty tomb. “So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him” ( ESV). Only a short time goes by as we encounter this title once again. In , the disciples went back fishing and as they were out in their boats, they saw a figure walking along the shore calling out to them. “That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, ‘It is the Lord!’” (). It is within this narrative that Jesus restores broken Peter and the “disciple that Jesus loves” is mentioned again as Peter and Jesus walk along the shore (21:20).

Therefore, the disciple whom Jesus loved was present at the last supper, the crucifixion, the resurrection, and Peter’s restoration along the Sea of Tiberias. He must have been part of a group that was intimate with Jesus.

While we can be certain that “the disciple whom Jesus loved” is the author, we have yet to determine, from the context, the name of the author. In a scan of the gospel the name of one very significant disciple is missing – John. The synoptic gospels mention the apostle John by name approximately 20 times, but his name is not directly mentioned even once in the gospel of John. The beloved disciple can be narrowed down to likely one of the twelve disciples based on his proximity to Jesus at major events. In 21:2 he is mentioned alongside seven of the disciples and must be one of the last four unnamed disciples. So then, the author seems oddly unaware of the apostle John, who was clearly in Jesus’ inner circle or the author is John the disciple. [7]

So then, John is the author. But why this title? Why not just use his name? D.A. Carson offers a helpful viewpoint. This title does not communicate arrogance as if John were communicating “I am more loved than others,” but instead a great deal of humility with “a profound sense of indebtedness to grace,” as if to say, “what wonder – that I should be loved by the incarnate Word!” John had no desire to give any “impression of sharing the platform with Jesus.” The author, John, does not matter, only the one to whom he offers a witness.[8]

I would agree with Theodore Woolsey who wrote, “the love manifested by our Lord in his last moments towards John must have made the disciple happy all his lifetime. And . . . must have led those who had heard of it to understand how the disciple came to be known abroad as the beloved disciple.”[9]

John appears to be one of the first to follow Jesus as a disciple. John had been chosen by Christ to be numbered among the twelve disciples. John may not have been as vocal as Peter, but he had a great deal of strength. He was the strong and silent type. He was also one of the “inner three” disciples of the Lord. He was sent to set up for the Last Supper. He was one of those closest to Christ when he agonized in the garden prior to his death. He stood at the foot of the cross and received Christ’s command to care for his mother. John was one of the first to see the resurrected Christ. He was present at the transfiguration. John’s presence does not come to an end at the end of the Gospels. He is one of the primary characters throughout the book of Acts. Paul writes of John in his epistle to the Galatians and refers to him as one of the “reputed pillars” of the church. And it is John, who once leaned on Jesus chest, that we see “fall as a dead man” at the feet of his resurrected and glorified Lord in the book of Revelation (1:17).[10]

I have always wondered why John waits until the end of the book to tell us what his purpose was. I suppose he thought it would be self-evident. Whatever the reason, we find a very clear statement as to the purpose of the Gospel in chapter 20.

ESV).

John 20:30–31 ESV

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Believers or unbelievers? There is quite a bit of debate concerning whether this gospel is written to believers encouraging them to continue in their faith (compare the purpose of John’s first epistle[11]) or written to unbelievers for evangelism. There seems to be little need to draw a concrete conclusion in this matter. Those evidences which draw people to Christ are the same things which encourage them to stay. Therefore, as an unbeliever reads this gospel he is encouraged to accept Christ and in accepting Christ he receives life. As a believer reads this gospel, his faith is reinforced by viewing the magnificence of Christ. Therefore, while the primary audience may have initially been Jewish unbelievers, its’ intended modern recipients has grown from primarily Jewish to all who need to acknowledge Christ and believe in Him.

Seven’s in John’s Gospel. John accomplishes his purpose by means of three groups of seven: seven signs, seven witnesses, and seven “I Am” statements.

The Seven signs. (1) Turning water into wine in Cana (2:1-11). (2) Healing an official’s son in Capernaum (4:46-54). (3) Healing an invalid at the Pool of Bethesda (or Bethsaida) in Jerusalem (5:1-18). (4) Feeding the 5,000 near the Sea of Galilee (6:5-14). (5) Walking on the water of the Sea of Galilee (6:16-21). (6) Healing a blind man in Jerusalem (9:1-7). (7) Raising dead Lazarus in Bethany (11:1-45)

The Seven Witnesses. (1) John the Baptist, “This is the Chosen One [literally, “Son”] of God” (1:34). (2) Nathaniel, “You are the Son of God” (1:49). (3) Peter, “You are the Holy One of God!” (6:69). (4) Martha, “You are the Christ, the Son of God” (11:27). (5) Thomas, “My Lord and my God!” (20:28). (6) John, “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God” (20:31). (7) Jesus, “I am the Son of God” (10:36; see also 4:26; 8:58).

The Seven “I Am” Statements. (1) “I am the bread of life” (6:35). (2) “I am the light of the world” (8:12). (3) “I am the door for the sheep” (10:7; cf. v. 9). (4) “I am the good shepherd” (10:11, 14). (5) “I am the resurrection and the life” (11:25). (6) “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (14:6). (7) “I am the true vine” (15:1; cf. v. 5).

The form of the gospels. The Gospels can at times be neglected due to the form of their writing. We are used to the form of the epistles because we still write in a similar fashion. It is not likely that any one has received a gospel in the mail lately. Because of this, we may at times struggle knowing how to approach the reading of a gospel.

The gospels are written in a similar form to that of the Greco-Roman biographies. These biographies were written in narrative form portraying the whole life of a particular, important individual. They would often include in them the following: ancestry, birth, boyhood and education, great works and words, virtues (particularly seen through their treatment of others), their death, and the consequences of their life.

Each author would have a purpose in their writing and the material that they chose would undergird their primary purpose. Therefore, we see much material in John that is not in the synoptics and vice versa. John includes material that he believes is pertinent to accomplishing his purpose.

Therefore, it is helpful to study the narratives one at a time and ask why particular information is being used. Specifically, in John’s gospel we must ask, “what is this telling me about Jesus and how does knowing this information about Jesus result in believing in Him and believing that He is God?”

Since Jesus is the focus of every passage, we need to carefully examine, not only His words but His actions. We will learn as much from what He does as we do from what He says.

Too intense a focus on application. An intense focus on application can draw one away from the primary purpose of the book. We must be attentive to the potential danger of looking so earnestly for a specific application to our moment of time that we skip the primary question concerning the revelation of Jesus in the passage. The whole purpose of the book is to see Jesus and any diversion that pulls away from such must be acknowledged as secondary.

Feeling of redundancy. Due to John’s simple application to believe, there may be a struggle at times feeling that the study is redundant. For this reason, we will strive to study larger passages instead of focusing on one or two verses. “It can have the unwitting effect of so focusing on the tree, indeed on the third knot of the fourth branch from the bottom of the sixth tree from the left, that the entire forest remains unseen, except perhaps as a vague and ominous challenge.”[12]

[1] Eusebius of Caesaria, “The Church History of Eusebius,” in Eusebius: Church History, Life of Constantine the Great, and Oration in Praise of Constantine, ed. Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, trans. Arthur Cushman McGiffert, vol. 1, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Second Series (New York: Christian Literature Company, 1890), 242.

[2] Irenaeus of Lyons, “Irenaues against Heresies,” Alexander Roberts et al., Ante-Nicene Fathers 1: The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, vol. 1, Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885), 414.

[3] Eusebius of Caesaria, “The Church History of Eusebius,” 261.

[4] According to the Lexham Bible Dictionary, the Muratorian Canon contains one of the oldest canonical lists of the N.T. It was discovered by Ludovico Muratori in the Ambrosian Library in Milan. The fragment is a portion of a Latin manuscript thought to have been written in the 7th or 8th century. He concluded that the fragment was based on a canonical list first written around AD 196. Today many scholars date the origin of this list to approximately AD 170-200.

One curiosity for me is that Andrew the apostle is mentioned. This should weigh into the discussion on the books dating.

[5] Presbyter of Rome Caius, “Fragments of Caius,” in Fathers of the Third Century: Hippolytus, Cyprian, Novatian, Appendix, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, trans. S. D. F. Salmond, vol. 5, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1886), 603.

[6] D. A. Carson, The Gospel according to John, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans, 1991), 28.

[7] Brooke Foss Westcott and Arthur Westcott, The Gospel According to St. John, Classic Commentaries on the Greek New Testament (London: J. Murray, 1908), v–xxv. [Below is a summary by Daniel Wallace of Westcott’s Concentric Proofs.]

(1) The Author was a Jew. He quotes occasionally from the Hebrew text (cf. 12:40; 13:18; 19:37); he was acquainted with the Jewish feasts such as the Passover (2:13; [5:1]; 6:4; 11:55), Tabernacles (7:37), and Dedication/Hanukkah (10:22); he was acquainted with Jewish customs such as the arranging of water pots (ch. 2) and burial customs (11:38-44). (2) The Author was a Jew from Palestine. He knows that Jacob’s well is deep (4:11); he states that there is a descent from Canaan to Caperm; and he distinguishes between Bethany and Bethany beyond the Jordan; in short, he is intimately acquainted with Palestinian topography. (3) The Author was an eyewitness of what he wrote. He stated that he had beheld Christ’s glory (1:14) using a verb which in NT Greek always bears the meaning of at least physical examination; there are incidental comments about his being there (Judas slipped out at night [13:16] 4:6 [the sixth hour], etc.). (4) The author was an apostle. He has an intimate knowledge of what happened among the disciples—cf. 2:11; 4:27; 6:19, etc. (5) The author was the Apostle John. He is exact in mentioning names of characters in the book. If he is so careful, why does he omit the name of John unless he is John? Further, his mention of John the Baptist merely as “John” (1:6) implies that if he is to show up in the narrative another name must be given him—such as “the beloved disciple”—or else confusion would result.

[8] D. A. Carson, The Gospel according to John, 473. “If we wonder why the beloved disciple chooses this form of anonymity, two answers are suggested by the emphases of the Fourth Gospel. Just as ‘the beloved disciple’, if a self-designation, implies not arrogance (as if to say ‘I am more loved than others’) but a profound sense of indebtedness to grace (‘What a wonder—that I should be loved by the incarnate Word!’), so the silence as to the identity of the beloved disciple may be a quiet way of refusing to give even the impression of sharing a platform with Jesus. ‘Like the other John at the very beginning of the Gospel, the first witness to Jesus, he is only a voice. The identity of the speaker does not matter: what matters is the witness that he gives’ (Newbigin, p. xiii). At the same time, the author thus serves as a model for his readers: becoming a Christian means a transforming relationship with Jesus Christ, such that he receives the glory.”

[9] Theodore Dwight Woolsey, “The Disciple Whom Jesus Loved: With Some Remarks on the Passages Where These Words Are Used,” Andover Review (Boston, Mass.) 4, no. 20 (August 1885): 175.

[10] Background summary. (1) The Muratorian Canon tells us that his fellow disciples, the disciple Andrew being one of them, urged him to write the gospel. (2) It is possible that the gospel was written over a period of time: personal journal while walking with Christ, additions added following the death of Peter in mid 60’s A.D., and the final draft finished in the late part of the century. Some think this final part was the inclusion of the first and last chapter of the gospel. (3) Probably the gospel was written in the late first century. Probably a significant period of time lapsed following the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D. (4) Based on the early church fathers, John probably wrote from Ephesus. (5) John potentially wrote this gospel as an elderly man and the last living apostle.

[11] I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. ( ESV).

[12] D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1991), 101.

The Beloved Disciple’s Gospel

The Beloved Disciple

The Beloved Disciple

Purpose of the Gospel of John

Challenges in Studying John