John the Apostle

Concise Bible Dictionary:

Son of Zebedee, and brother of James. James and John were fishermen, but when the Lord called them, they forsook all and followed Him. The Lord surnamed them BOANERGES, “sons of thunder.”
John, Peter, and James were the three selected to be with the Lord on the mount of transfiguration, and in the garden of Gethsemane. In the Acts of the Apostles John was with Peter when the lame man was healed, and they were both cast into prison. They boldly declared that they could not but speak the things they had seen and heard. John was associated with Peter in visiting the Samaritans, who had received the word preached by Philip, and through the laying on of their hands the Holy Spirit was given (Acts 8).
John was one of the apostles at Jerusalem who, when Paul went there, gave to him and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that they should go to the heathen (Gal. 2:99And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision. (Galatians 2:9)). He was afterward banished to the Isle of Patmos, probably under the emperor Nero or Domitian; it is not known with certainty which, nor at what date. There he had the visions recorded in the Revelation. He also wrote the Gospel and the three Epistles bearing his name, which are generally judged to have been written after the other Gospels and Epistles.
John in his gospel calls himself “the disciple whom Jesus loved”; at the last Passover he leaned upon the bosom of Jesus, and to his care did the Lord when on the cross commend His mother.

Related Books and Articles:

The Apostle John and His Ministry: April 2009
Peter and John
The Servant as Illustrated in John