John

Son of Zebedee, brother of the James whom Herod kills. Fisherman. Inner circle, with Peter and James. He and Peter are sent to prepare the Passover (Luke 22:8). He is known to the high priest in John's telling of the courtyard, if this is the same man the Gospel leaves unnamed (John 18:15). At the cross, the disciple whom Jesus loved is given the mother of Jesus (John 19:26-27). The Gospel does not write the name in that sentence. The church has long read him as John.

After Pentecost he is beside Peter: the temple gate, the council, Samaria (Acts 3:1, Acts 4:13, Acts 8:14). Paul, on his second visit up to Jerusalem, says that James, Cephas, and John, reputed to be pillars, gave him the right hand of fellowship (Galatians 2:9). That is the last place the letters and Acts put him. No further road is drawn. Patmos belongs only if Revelation's John is this John.

The Gospel does not say "I, John, wrote this." The last chapter points at the disciple whom Jesus loved as the one who wrote these things (John 21:24). 1 John does not sign a name. 2 John and 3 John say "the elder." Revelation says "his servant John," a brother on Patmos (Revelation 1:1, Revelation 1:9). The church received the Gospel and the letters and the Revelation under John's name. Whether one man wrote all five is a real argument, especially for Revelation and the two short letters. This lesson reports the names on the books. It does not pretend the argument is nothing, and it does not teach the books.

His death is not in the New Testament. John 21 corrects a rumor that the beloved disciple would not die (John 21:22-23). Irenaeus, late in the second century, says John remained at Ephesus into the reign of Trajan. That is early church memory, stronger than the travel legends of the other apostles, and still not a verse. A story that he was boiled in oil and survived is later still. The New Testament does not say he was killed. It also does not say he died in his bed. It says not to turn a word of Jesus into a promise that this disciple would not die.