Christians of S. John

CHRISTIANS OF S. JOHN. We have spoken of them under this title.

V. S. JOHN the Evangelist, was a native of Bethsaida in Galilee, and the son of Zebedee and Salome. He was by profession a Chrysost. in Joan. homil. 17. & Epiph. hæres. 51.fisherman. Some were of opinion that he had been a disciple of John the Baptist, before he was Jesus Christ’s: but there is no good proof of this opinion. He was brother to S. James Major, and both of them were called by our Saviour the sons of thunder, Boanerges, in all probability by reason of their vivacity, and the greatness of their faith. It is believed that S. John was the youngest of the Apostles. He might be five or six and Paulin.Ep. 386. Hieron. Ep.1. p. 4.twenty years of age, when he began to follow Jesus Christ in the year of J.C. 30. There are some who believe, that he was the bridegroom at the marriage of Cana¹, and that he always kept his virginity²: but this last opinion is better supported by Antiquity, than that which asserts him to have been the Bridegroom at the marriage of Cana.

John xxiii. 25.xxi.20. Matth. xx. 22. Mark x. 38,39.Our Saviour had always a particular tenderness and friendship for him; and S. John himself commonly describes himself by the name of the Disciple whom Jesus loved. Jesus Christ gave him peculiar marks of his affection, when he took him with him that he might be present at his Transfiguration; and at his last Supper he permitted him to lye in his bosom, and discovered to him, who it was that should betray him. The mother of S. John the Evangelist, encouraged probably by the friendship which Jesus expressed for her two sons, James and John, took the liberty to desire of him, that he would seat them in his kingdom, one on his right the other at his left hand: but our Saviour addressing himself to the two brothers, said to them, Are ye able to drink of the cup which I shall drink of? They answered, We are able. Jesus said to them, Ye shall indeed drink of my cup, but to bestow the places which ye ask in my kingdom, does not belong to me but to my Father.

Matth. xxvi. 37. John xix. 26.Jesus Christ chose only S. Peter, S. James, and S. John, to be witnesses of his agony, and voluntary sadness in the Olive -garden. The last of these did not withdraw himself when the Soldiers came to seize his Master; and it is believed, that he was the Disciple who followed him to Caiaphas’s house, where he went in, and some time after introduced S. Peter³. He attended our Saviour even to the Cross; and Jesus Christ observing him at the foot of it, said to his mother Mary, Woman, behold thy son; and afterwards to this Disciple, Behold thy mother. And from that time S. John looked upon the virgin as his mother, and took care of her till her death. After the Resurrection of our Saviour, S. John being employed in fishing upon the Sea of Tiberias with other Disciples, Jesus appeared upon the shore; S. John xxi. 1—7.John first discovered him, and told Peter of it. When they came ashore, they dined with Jesus Christ, and after dinner, as S. John was following him, Peter asked Jesus, What was to become of him? speaking of S. John; Jesus answered, If I will that he stay till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me. Hereupon the Disciples believed, that Jesus had said he should not die; the rumour whereof spread among the Faithful; and many still believed it at the time when S. John wrote his Gospel, and long after: many also have affirmed, that he did not die. But S. John himself destroys this opinion, which indeed contradicts the most authentick monuments of the Church. The Reader may consult our Dissertation upon the death of S. John the Evangelist, the Martyrology of Florentinus, and the 17th note of M. de Tillemont upon the Evangelist S. John, t. 1. p. 640.

We know very little concerning the life of S. John, till Domitian’s persecution. Within few days after the Apostle had received the Holy Ghost, S. Peter and S. John went to the Temple, and there cured a man, who had been lame from his mother’s Acts iii. 1—10.womb. This miracle was the occasion of their being put in prison. The next day they were set at liberty, and forbidden to Acts v. 18, &c.speak of Jesus Christ; but they continued preaching as before; whereupon they were again imprisoned with the rest of the Apostles. But God miraculously delivered them out of Jail. And as they did not cease to preach Jesus Christ, the Magistrates took them into custody, obliged them to appear before them, and reproved them for persisting still to discourse of Jesus, notwithstanding their prohibition. The Apostles, without shewing any consternation, answered them, that it was necessary rather to obey God than men. They were inclined to put them to death; but a Senator, whose name was Gamaliel, desiring that the Apostles might be ordered to withdraw, he discoursed with so much prudence to the other members of the Sanhedrim, that they commanded the Apostles to be scourged only, and so dismissed them.

Acts viii. 5——12.S. Peter and S. John were afterwards sent to Samaria, in order to confer the Holy Ghost on those whom Philip the Deacon had there converted and baptized. Gal. ii. 9. Acts xv. 7, &c.S. John was likewise of the Council of Jerusalem, where he behaved himself as became one of the pillars of the Church. It is believed that he went and preached to the Parthians, and his first Epistle has been sometimes cited under the name of the Aug. qu. in Evang. l. 2. c. 39. See Estius and our Comment upon this Epistle.Epistle to the Parthians. The Indians Hieronym. de viris illust. trib. c. 9. Tertull. contra Marcion. l. 4. c. 5.maintain, that he published the Gospel in their Country: but there is no question of his preaching in Asia, and of his abiding some time at Ephesus, and the places round about. Thither he carried the Blessed Virgin, who died there. We do not know in what year particularly he came into this country; but he could scarce arrive there, in order to make it his place of constant residence, before the year of J. C. 66. S. Jerom says, that he founded and governed all the Churches of Asia; and Tertullian writes, that he first established the episcopal order in this country. Which is not to be understood in so rigorous a manner as to believe, that S. Peter and S. Paul were not the founders of several Churches there, and that Timothy did not govern the Church of Ephesus, even while S. John was in this Province.

The Emperor Domitian having declared war against the Church, in the fifteenth year of his reign, and in that of J. C. 95. S. John the Evangelist was banished from Ephesus, and carried to Rome, where he was plunged into boiling oil, without being any way incommoded by it. When he was taken out he was more vigorous and clean than when he was put in. From Tertull. præscript. c. 36. Hieronym. inthence he was sent in exile to the Isle of Patmos, in the Egean sea. There he wrote his Apocalypse or Revelations, whereof we have spoken under a particular title. He did not continue two years in banishment. Domitian having been killed in the month of September, and the year 96, his successor Nerva recalled all the exiles who had been banished by his Predecessor; and S. John returned to Ephesus in the year of J. C. 97, being then about ninety years of age. The Bishops and Christians of Asia having pressed him earnestly to write the Gospel, containing what he had heard of our Saviour, Euseb. l. 6. c. 14. Hist. Eccl. Hieronym. in Matth. &c.he complied with their request; but did not begin till after a fast and publick prayers. His principal care in this undertaking was, to relate such things as might be of use in confirming the Divinity of the Son, in opposition to certain Hereticks of that time who denied it.

We have also three Epistles written by the same Apostle. The first, as we have observed already, is sometimes cited by the name of the Epistle to the Parthians, and was never contested. The style and sentiments of S. John are to be perceived in every period. The two others have been disputed⁴. The first of these two last is addressed to a Lady of quality, whose name was Electa; or otherwise Electa is a symbolical name to denote some Christian Church, to which another Church wrote. For I have some suspicion that this Epistle is only a Letter of recommendation, which was usually given to the Faithful, who went from one Church to another, and was sometimes necessarily written in an obscure manner, for fear of its falling into the hands of Unbelievers. The third Letter is directed to Caius, whom S. John praises for using hospitality towards the Faithful, and exhorts him to continue this pious practice towards such persons as are imployed in the service of the Church, and refused to receive any thing from the Gentiles.

S. John lived to a very great age, so that he could scarce go to the assembly of the Faithful without being carried by his Disciples; Hieronym. in Galat. vi.and as he was no more able to make any long discourses, his custom was to say in all assemblies, to the people, My dear children love one another. At last they grew weary of it; and when he was told so, his answer was, This is what the Lord commands you; and this, if you do it, is sufficient. Aug. Serm. 253. c. 4. Chronic. Euseb. Epiphan. hæres. 51.He died quietly at Ephesus, in the third year of Trajan, and the hundredth of Jesus Christ. He might be then, according to S. Epiphanius, ninety four years of age. He was older in the opinion of some, who say, he was ninety eight or ninety nine, or as others, an hundred and four, or an hundred and six, or an hundred and twenty. Hieronym. de Viris illust. trib. c. 9.He was buried near the city, and several of the Fathers have observed, that his Sepulchre was there⁵. The Council of Ephesus takes occasion to commend this city from Concil. Ephes. t. 3. Concil. p. 573. & 616.its possessing the body of this blessed Divine; and Pope Celestine exhorted the Fathers, who were there assembled, to follow the instructions of S. John, whose relicks they had the happiness to have in their keeping. S. Austin⁶, and after him Gregory of Tours, and Willebaldus, speak of a certain powder which was to be seen upon S. John’s tomb, and seemed to be produced afresh every day, in proportion as it was taken away. We do not repeat here what we have already remarked concerning their opinion, who maintain that S. John is not dead.

Besides the Gospel, Revelations, and the three Epistles of S. John, which the Church receives, there are some other apocryphal writings attributed to him; for example, a Book of his supposed travels, Acts xii. 12. Athanas. in Synopf. Epiphan. hæres. 47.another of Acts, which the Encratites, Manichees, and Priscillianists, made use of; a Book concerning the death and assumption of the Virgin, a Creed supposed to have been given by the Blessed Virgin and S. John to Gregory of Neocæsarca. This Creed was cited in the Aug. de Fide, c. 4. & 38.fifth Oecumenical council: but the acts and history just now mentioned, are acknowledged to be apocryphal, and not worthy of any credit. S. John is generally Nyssen. vita Thaumat. p. 545, 547. Vide Baron. an. 233. § 19. Apud Euseb. l. 5. c. 24. Hieronym. de viris illust. trib. c. 45.firnamed the Divine, by reason of the sublimity of his knowledge and Revelations, and particularly because of the begining of his Gospel. Polycrates Bishop of Ephesus affirms, that he wore a plate of gold upon his forehead, as a Priest and Apostle of Jesus Christ. He is painted with a cup and a serpent issuing out of it, because some Hereticks having given him poison in a glass, he made the sign of the cross over it, and all the venom was dispel’d under the form of a serpent. This miracle is related in the spurious Prochorus, who calls himself a Disciple of St. John.

Read this article in its place on the printed pages