Saint John

John the Evangelist (יוחנן Standard Hebrew Yoḥanan, Tiberian Hebrew Yôḥānān meaning "Yahweh is gracious", Greek: Εὐαγγελιστής Ἰωάννης) (c. AD 1 – c. 100)[citation needed][dubious – discuss] is the conventional name for the author of the Gospel of John. Traditionally he has been identified with the author of the other Johannine works in the New Testament—the three Epistles of John and the Book of Revelation, written by a John of Patmos—as well as with John the Apostle and the Beloved Disciple mentioned in the Gospel of John. However, at least some of these connections have been debated since about 200. The Gospel of John refers to an unnamed "Beloved Disciple" of Jesus who bore witness to the gospel's message.The composer of the Gospel of John seemed interested in maintaining the internal anonymity of the author's identity. The apostle John was a historical figure, one of the "pillars" of the Jerusalem church after Jesus' death. Some scholars believe that John was martyred along with his brother (Acts 12:1-2), although many other scholars doubt this.Harris believes that the tradition that John lived to old age in Ephesus developed in the late 2nd century, although the tradition does appear in the last chapter of the gospel, though this debatable tradition assumes that John the Evangelist, John the Apostle, the Beloved Disciple mentioned in John 21 and sometimes also John the Presbyter are the same person. By the late 2nd century, the tradition was held by most Christians. According to a tradition mentioned by St. Jerome, in the second general persecution, in the year 95, St. John was apprehended by the proconsul of Asia and sent to Rome, where he was miraculously preserved from death when thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil. On account of this trial, the title of martyr is given him by the fathers. The tyrant Domitian banished St. John into the isle of Patmos. It was during this period that John experienced those heavenly visions which he recorded in the book of the Revelations in the year 96. Upon the death of Domitian John returned to Ephesus in 97. According to Alban Butler, some think he wrote his gospel in the isle of Patmos; but it is the more general opinion that he composed it after his return to Ephesus, about the year 98. St. John died in peace at Ephesus, in the third year of Trajan (as seems to be gathered from Eusebius's chronicle), that is, the year 100, the saint being then about ninety-four years old, according to St. Epiphanius and was buried on a mountain without the town.