John, son of Zebedee

John and his brother James, sons of the fisherman Zebedee, were among the first disciples called by Jesus, and with Peter they form an inner circle in Mark’s Gospel. Paul met John in Jerusalem and named him, with James and Cephas, as one of the ‘pillars’ of the community there.

From the late second century, Irenaeus identified him with the ‘disciple whom Jesus loved’, the author of the Fourth Gospel, and said that he lived at Ephesus into the reign of Trajan. Modern scholars debate this: many think of a Johannine circle, and Papias seems to distinguish John the apostle from a ‘John the Elder’. Revelation’s author, John of Patmos, is usually thought to be another man.