The family of the apostle John (Hebrew name meaning “The Lord gives his grace”) is known in the Gospels: his father was Zebedee, his brother the apostle James; he was a fisherman by profession, or perhaps a member of a family fishing company in which two other brothers, the apostles Simon Peter and Andrew, probably also collaborated. His vocation had precisely taken place in the work environment and from that moment John had been co-opted by Jesus into the restricted group of three privileged witnesses which also included Peter and James. They are the ones who exclusively witness the resurrection of Jairus’ daughter, the transfiguration, the Gethsemane prayer.
Christ will also impose a nickname on the two brothers, John and James, Boanerghes, “sons of thunder”, usually connected to their vehement character but perhaps to be considered in a positive sense, thunder being in the Bible the symbol of the powerful voice of God: they, then, they would have the task of attesting the divine word with strength and authority. John reappears in the Acts of the Apostles, often in connection with Peter, and with the mission of evangelization. Paul places him, however, among the “pillars” of the mother Church of Jerusalem, together with Peter and James “brother of the Lord”. In summary we can say that John constitutes one of the most prominent figures within the apostolic college of the Twelve. The mysterious figure of the “disciple whom Jesus loved” deserves separate consideration: it enters the scene in the fourth Gospel only at the end, when the “hour” of the passion, death and paschal glorification of Christ is about to take place. It is a traditional belief that it is a self-portrait of the apostle John himself. There is, however, a difficulty: this “beloved disciple”, also called “the other disciple” (with respect to Peter), according to the same Gospel story, “was known to the high priest”. How was it possible for this to happen to a fisherman from Galilee, even if he owned his own fishing company? However, other attempts at identification are substantially impractical. For this reason we are still stuck with the traditional line that tries to superimpose the face of John on that of the “beloved disciple” who “had rested on the chest of Jesus”. Perhaps a further clarification could be imagined by referring to the complex history of the drafting of the fourth Gospel.
Let us focus, then, on this writing assigned to John and marked by the symbol of the eagle, on the basis of the traditional attribution of the four living beings of the Apocalypse to the four evangelists. Consisting of 15,416 Greek words and 879 verses (the third longest after Luke and Matthew), this Gospel is characterized by a very refined theological language, so much so that it has deserved the definition of “spiritual Gospel”. In fact, terms with specific meanings are used in its pages. Thus, “truth” is the revelation that Christ offers; “signs” and “works” are miracles (and the fourth evangelist selects seven very original and emblematic ones); the “hour” par excellence is, as has been said, the death and resurrection of Christ, also defined as “exaltation” and “glorification”. The procedural vocabulary used to describe the clash between Christ and evil is also dense: “testimony, justice, judgement, Paraclete (i.e. defender)” and so on. Terms dear to John are also “love, loving, knowing, life, world, abiding-remaining, light, I am (divine biblical title attributed to Christ)”. It seems, therefore, that this work is the result of a careful elaboration, subsequent to that of the other Gospels, to be placed at the end of the 1st century, perhaps in the area of Asia Minor, where communities that referred to the preaching of the apostle John had flourished.
Scholars have tried to delve deeper into the genesis of the writing, proposing very complex reconstructions. What is certain is that at the basis of the fourth Gospel there is the testimony of the apostle himself who had shared the public life of Jesus from a privileged point of view. It is he who initiated, through his words, a writing that perhaps had the help of a qualified editor who composed the Gospel on the basis of that oral testimony, but also with his experience, his spiritual and cultural preparation, his literary ability. For some scholars he could be the “beloved disciple”, associated with John. Whatever the case may be, there is no doubt that the fourth Gospel reveals a work of progressive formation, so much so that we encounter two different endings, a sign at least of a further “re-edition”. However, the Gospel as a whole reveals its compactness and a very clear theological identity. For this reason, it was particularly loved by the tradition that exalted the grandiose speeches of Jesus contained in those pages; miracles, “signs” of the profound mystery of Christ; the grandiose narrative of the Passion which sees the cross as the throne of the glory of the Redeemer; the unforgettable and stupendous prologue where the Incarnation of the Word is celebrated; Jesus’ encounters with characters who represent equally models of life, such as Nicodemus or the Samaritan woman; the reiterated theme of love and so on.
It is not for nothing that a great Christian writer of the third century, Origen, stated: “The flower of all Sacred Scripture is the Gospel and the flower of the Gospel is the Gospel transmitted to us by John, whose profound and hidden meaning no one can ever fully understand. seize.” Precisely because John, the apostle, was considered the source of an ecclesial, pastoral and theological tradition; other works of the New Testament are also traced back to him. On the one hand, there are the three Letters of John (the first is, in reality, a splendid treatise on faith and love, while the other two are a sort of short notes); on the other hand, here is the masterpiece that is the Apocalypse, which however reflects its own characteristics that make it autonomous.
But A very lively popular tradition also flourished around John which was based on apocryphal texts and real legends. According to these memoirs, during Domitian’s persecution, John was taken from Ephesus to Rome where, at Porta Latina, he was immersed in a cauldron of boiling oil, from which he emerged unharmed. He would then have been relegated to the prison island of Patmos in the Aegean, where he would have written the Apocalypse. From there, transferred to Ephesus, he would have converted a philosopher and, forced by the goldsmiths of that city – who produced votive offerings for the goddess Artemis – to drink a cup of poison, with a sign of the cross he would have purified it by letting a snake come out of it . Resurrections of the dead, miracles and speeches will be attributed to him and his figure will triumphantly enter the history of theology and popular piety, exalted as a “virgin” and “theologian”. A long iconographic sequence will accompany him over the centuries: while the East represents him as old, bald and bearded, the medieval West prefers him young and beardless. His Gospel will, however, remain the guiding star of his presence in the history of Christianity which will celebrate it on 27 December, in connection with Christmas which he exalted in the meditation on the Incarnation which emerges in his pages. The Greek Orthodox Patriarch Athenagoras declared: “John is at the origin of our highest spirituality. Like him, the ‘silent’ know that mysterious exchange of hearts, they invoke the presence of John, and their hearts are set on fire”.
