John the Apostle
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- This article concerns John, the Disciple of Jesus. For other uses of John, see John (disambiguation).
Saint John the Apostle (Greek: Ιωάννης), son of Zebedee, brother of James, was a fisherman by trade. John and James were disciples of John the Baptist, who responded to the call to become disciples of Jesus Christ.
Life
John was the son of Zebedee, and the brother of James. One tradition gives his mother's name as Salome. They originally were fishermen and fished with their father in the Lake of Genesareth. He was first a disciple of John the Baptist and later one of the twelve disciples of Jesus. He is revered as a saint by most of Christianity. The Roman Catholic Church commemorates him on December 27. He is also remembered in the liturgy on January 3. The Eastern Orthodox Church commemorates him on September 26, and also remembers him on May 8, on which date Christians used to draw forth from his grave fine ashes which were believed to be effective for healing the sick.
Even among the select twelve Disciples of Jesus, John was one of the "inner circle" of Apostles; John, along with Peter and James, were sometimes given special assignments or allowed to witness miracles of Jesus when the other disciples were not present. In his eponymous Gospel, John only refers to himself as the "disciple whom Jesus loved".
John also wrote three New Testament epistles, I John, II John, and III John. He was eventually arrested by Roman authorities and imprisoned on the island of Patmos. While in prison, he received a prophetic vision of the Second Coming of Christ, the Day of Judgement, and the establishment of the Kingdom of God; he recorded the vision as the book of Revelation (sometimes called the "Revelation of John" or the "Apocalypse of John").
The Bible does not record the death of any of Jesus' disciples, but according to extra-Biblical tradition, all of them were martyred, except John, who died in prison.
Note: there is some scholarly dispute over the authorship of II John, III John, and Revelation.
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