John’s Identity
By Félix Cassand and Cécile Pommier
by Diego Velazquez.
John or “Yohanan” was an old man living on the island of Patmos on the Aegean Sea. He ran away from the conflicts and particularly the Roman emperor, Domitian. Domitian was known for being a megalomaniac who wanted to be worshiped like a god. The catholic community refusing to worship someone else than Jesus had two choices : run or face the bad treatments. We actually are not sure who is the writer of the “Book of revelation” as he might be Jesus’ beloved apostle, the author of the 4th Gospel or someone else. The latest studies during the previous century demonstrated that the different texts belonging to the Johannine Corpus in the New Testament are from multiple individuals. John from Patmos wouldn’t be John The Evangelist but would be someone part of the Johannine community.
“Guess Who” but John’s Version
Exegetes, people working on the interpretation of the Bible, worked hard to decipher who were the persons mentioned, the important “historical figures”. They studied to know the relation between John the Apostle, author of the 4th Gospel and Jesus’ beloved apostle, which said text tells us he was the author. This Jesus’ beloved apostle we dont know much, not even his full name. But he is a strong figure : at the Cross where Jesus tells him he is his spiritual brother and his heir, entrusting him to take care of His Mom.
Irenee de Lyon, in the 2nd century, associated the two as the same person. Because it was a necessity to give an apostolic authority to the 4th Gospel, whom was differing from other apostles.
With the advent of contemporary biblical criticism, many secular and Christian academics came to conclude that John the Evangelist (author of the Gospel of John) and John of Patmos were two distinct men. They cite various lines of evidence to support their claim that John of Patmos penned only Revelation, not the Gospel of John or the John Epistles. For example, the author of Revelation refers to himself as “John” multiple times, although the author of the Gospel of John and the writer of the epistles of “John” never do. In the Gospel of John and the Book of Revelation, Jesus is compared to a lamb, although the terms are used differently: amnos in the Gospel and arnion in the Book.
The Gospel of John is written in virtually faultless Greek, but Revelation contains grammatical and stylistic faults, indicating a lack of familiarity with the language.
We can only be certain that they they were concerned with the fate of a handful of churches in Asia minor. But a question still remains : Who hides behind the identity of John of Patmos ?
For further reading, we recommend you visit these links as they provide more information that might be useful for your search:
