Since at least the late second century ce, tradition has attributed the authorship of the Gospel to Jesus's disciple, John the son of Zebedee, who purportedly wrote the Gospel in Ephesus. Doubts about the accuracy of this tradition have existed since antiquity. Eusebius mentions a different figure, John “the Elder,” living in Ephesus (Hist. eccl. 3.39.3). The conclusion to the Gospel (21.24) points to the memories of the “disciple whom Jesus loved” as a source of its traditions. But the narrative never identifies this figure, although if the “other disciple” in 18.16 is a reference to this
...more
