John was one of the twelve apostles. He and James (called the Greater) were the sons of Zebedee and his wife Salome, who was sister to Mary, the mother of our Lord. Zebedee was a well-to-do fisherman, owning boats and nets and hired servants. Of him we hear little, whereas his wife is often mentioned. John, who was thus nearly related to Jesus, had been a fisherman, and he and his brother were surnamed by Him “sons of thunder” — they were fearless, impulsive characters.
A good deal may be learned of the daily life of John. Let us take Mark’s account of him. It was from the shores of the Sea of Galilee, from mending nets, that John was called to follow Jesus, and then his name appears in the list of the apostles. He was one of the three who were called to follow Jesus when He raised the twelve-year-old daughter of the ruler; and he was of the same three when they beheld a very different scene the Lord’s transfiguration, a sample of the kingdom of God coming with power. “We were eye witnesses of His majesty,” one of them wrote later on.
It was John who told the Master that they had seen one casting out devils in His name, and had forbidden him so to do; and again, John and his brother came asking to sit on either side of Him in glory. Both these occasions called forth memorable words from the Lord, but James and John earned the displeasure of the other disciples the last time. John was of the four who asked Jesus in private the question to which Matthew 24 and 25 give us so interesting an answer as to future events.
The rest of John’s history may be filled up with his own gospel, where we learn that during the last supper, which he had been sent with Peter to prepare (Luke 22), he was lying on Jesus’ breast, and near enough to inquire who it was that should betray Him. We also learn that John was an acquaintance of Caiaphas, and thus gained entrance into the palace of the high priest where Jesus was; he brought in Peter, too. The touching scene on the cross when the Lord committed His mother to John will never be forgotten, nor that after the resurrection he was the first disciple who arrived at the sepulcher, though Peter entered it before him.
At the Sea of Tiberias, whence John had been called to follow the Master, he is betrayed into following Peter “a fishing” again. But John first recognized the Lord on the shore, and was then a witness of His closing hours on earth. He was one of the 120 who awaited the coming of the Holy Ghost in an upper room at Jerusalem (Acts 1), and later on with Peter he cured the lame man, and was imprisoned in consequence. Then when Samaria received the word, he was sent thither with Peter to ensure for Gentiles the gift of the Holy Ghost.
In Revelation John describes visions at Patmos, an island in the Grecian Archipelago, whither he was banished “for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ,” and where it is believed that that book was written. His three epistles may have been sent from Ephesus, which again became his abode after his exile, and was possibly the place of his death, A.D. 100.
ML-09/19/1976