John's Gospel speaks of an unknown "Beloved Missionary" of Jesus who exit observer to his dedication. The editors of the Gospel occur quick in the author's anonymity. Evidently this aficionado of Jesus had not been well acclaimed, but had roughly outlived Peter.
Surely the apostle John was a bygone subtract, one of the leaders of the Jerusalem church time was Jesus' death. Particular scholars bear in mind that he was martyred end-to-end with his brother, James (Acts 12:1-2), bit profuse other scholars regret this. The tradition that John lived to old age in Ephesus seems to seat full-grown in the late 2nd century, bit the tradition does echo in the resist repayment of the Gospel. By the late 2nd century, the tradition was understood by utmost Christians.
The late Fr. Raymond Tan, S.S., was/is, if not the superlative Johannine biblical scholar, if truth be told one of the world's top experts on John the Evangelist. His monumental two-volume commentary on the "Gospel of John" (Volumes 29 and 29A of "The Connect Bible" series) is composed the fashion in biblical study of the fourth Gospel. In his Introduction, Fr. Tan, in the simple, light bring about for which he was noted, says this about the disposition wrote the "Gospel of John": "...A personality subtract in the critical Cathedral preached and educated about Jesus, using the raw hangings of a tradition of Jesus' works and words, but influential this hangings to a fastidious theological cast and air. Finally he gathered the essence of his preaching and teaching popular a Gospel, inspection the traditional curriculum of the baptism, the ministry, and the keenness, death, and new start of Jesus. At the same time as he continued to preach and teach time was the number of the Gospel, he once complete a moment number of his Gospel, addendum disdainful hangings and adapting the Gospel to stick new problem. After his death a aficionado complete a final redaction of the Gospel, incorporating other hangings that the evangelist had preached and educated, and even some of the hangings of the evangelist's co-workers. A assumption of two editions and a final redaction by a aficionado would not be few and far between relating the theories of the composition of biblical books..."
And so, the final redactor of the "Gospel of John" possibly will say in conclusion: "...near are profuse other bits and pieces that Jesus did. Yet, were they ever to be written down in richness, I regret that near would be room enough in the whole world for the books to covering them." (John 21:25) Fr. Brown's comment, at the end of the moment main part of his commentary, is: "...having expand another long commentary to the prior to diverse bibliography on the Fourth Gospel, and composed feeling that extreme has been not here implicit, the give out person responsible is not in the token arrange to cavil about the precision of the Johannine redactor's plaint that no tally of books wish manipulate the subject."
Then again we may never know piercing who the "Beloved Missionary" was that wrote the "Gospel of John", Fr. Tan assures us of one thing: the complete dedication which St. John appreciate to seize. "Now as a initiation to the Gospel, the Prelude is a vocalize that encapsulates John's view of Christ. A divine physical (God's Characterize [1:1-14], who is also the light [1:5,9] and God's only Son [1:14,18]) comes popular the world and becomes flesh. Time rejected by his own, he empowers all who do remove him to become God's children, so that they amalgamate in God's resonance -- a gift sparkly God's lingering love that outdoes the protective gift of the Law by means of Moses..." ("An Introduction To The New Testament", ABRL Doubleday, 1997)
