The phrase "the disciple whom Jesus loved" ( grc, ὁ μαθητὴς ὃν ἠγάπα ὁ Ἰησοῦς, ho mathētēs hon ēgapā ho Iēsous, label=none) or, in John 20:2; "the other disciple whom Jesus loved" ( grc, τὸν ἄλλον μαθητὴν ὃν ἐφίλει ὁ Ἰησοῦς, ton allon mathētēn hon ephilei ho Iēsous, label=none), is used six times in the

Gospel of John The Gospel of John ( grc, Εὐαγγέλιον κατὰ Ἰωάννην, translit=Euangélion katà Iōánnēn) is the fourth of the four canonical gospels. It contains a highly schematic account of the ministry of Jesus, with seven "sig ...

, but in no other

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chri ...

accounts of

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religiou ...

. John 21:24 states that the Gospel of John is based on the written testimony of this disciple. Since the end of the first century, the beloved disciple has been commonly identified with

John the Evangelist John the Evangelist ( grc-gre, Ἰωάννης, Iōánnēs; Aramaic: ܝܘܚܢܢ; Ge'ez: ዮሐንስ; ar, يوحنا الإنجيلي, la, Ioannes, he, יוחנן cop, ⲓⲱⲁⲛⲛⲏⲥ or ⲓⲱ̅ⲁ) is the name traditionally given ...

. Scholars have debated the authorship of Johannine literature (the Gospel of John,

Epistles of John The Johannine epistles, the Epistles of John, or the Letters of John are three of the catholic epistles of the New Testament, thought to have been written between 85 and 100 AD. Most scholars agree that all three letters are written by the same a ...

, and the

Book of Revelation The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament (and consequently the final book of the Christian Bible). Its title is derived from the first word of the Koine Greek text: , meaning "unveiling" or "revelation". The Book of ...

) since at least the third century, but especially since the Enlightenment. The authorship by

John the Apostle John the Apostle ( grc, Ἰωάννης; la, Ioannes ; Ge'ez: ዮሐንስ;) or Saint John the Beloved was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus according to the New Testament. Generally listed as the youngest apostle, he was the son of Zebede ...

is rejected by many modern scholars, but not entirely. There is a consensus among Johannine scholars that the beloved disciple was a real historical person, but there is no consensus on who the beloved disciple was.

Sources

Brooklyn Museum - Saint Peter and Saint John Run to the Sepulchre (Saint Pierre et Saint Jean courent au sépulcre) - James Tissot

The disciple whom Jesus loved is referred to, specifically, six times in the Gospel of John: * It is this disciple who, while reclining beside Jesus at the

Last Supper Image:The Last Supper - Leonardo Da Vinci - High Resolution 32x16.jpg, 400px, alt=''The Last Supper'' by Leonardo da Vinci - Clickable Image, Depictions of the Last Supper in Christian art have been undertaken by artistic masters for centuries, ...

, asks Jesus who it is that will betray him, after being requested by

Peter Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

to do so. * Later at the

crucifixion Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross or beam and left to hang until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation. It was used as a punishment by the Persians, Carthagi ...

, Jesus tells his

mother ] A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of ges ...

, "Woman, here is your son", and to the beloved disciple he says, "Here is your mother." * When Mary Magdalene discovers the empty tomb, she runs to tell the beloved disciple and Peter. The two men rush to the empty tomb and the beloved disciple is the first to reach it. However, Peter is the first to enter. * In John 21, the last chapter of the

, the beloved disciple is one of seven fishermen involved in the miraculous catch of 153 fish. * Also in the book's final chapter, after Jesus implies the manner in which Peter will die, Peter sees the beloved disciple following them and asks, "What about him?" Jesus answers, "If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me." * Again in the Gospel's last chapter, it states that the very book itself is based on the written testimony of the disciple whom Jesus loved. The other Gospels do not mention anyone in parallel circumstances who could be directly linked to the beloved disciple. For example, in Luke 24:12, Peter runs to the tomb. Matthew, Mark, and Luke do not mention any one of the 12 disciples having witnessed the crucifixion. The New Testament also makes two references to an unnamed "other disciple" in John 1:35–40 and John 18:15–16, which may be to the same person based on the wording in John 20:2. Brown, Raymond E. 1970. "The Gospel According to John (xiii-xxi)". New York: Doubleday & Co. Pages 922, 955

Identity

John the Apostle

The closing words of the Gospel of John state explicitly concerning the beloved disciple that "It is this disciple who testifies to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true."

Eusebius Eusebius of Caesarea (; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος ; 260/265 – 30 May 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilus (from the grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος τοῦ Παμφίλου), was a Greek historian of Christianity, exegete, and Chris ...

, writing in the fourth century, recorded in his ''Church History'' a letter which he believed to have been written by

Polycrates of Ephesus Polycrates of Ephesus (; el, Πολυκράτης; fl. c. 130 – 196) was an Early Christian bishop at Ephesus. Polycrates convened a synod to establish Quartodecimanism as the official position on Easter. His letter was written between 186-195 ...

() in the second century. Polycrates believed that John was the one "who reclined upon the bosom of the Lord"; suggesting an identification with the beloved disciple: Augustine of Hippo (354–430 AD) also believed that John was the beloved disciple, in his ''Tractates on the Gospel of John''. The assumption that the beloved disciple was one of the Apostles is based on the observation that he was apparently present at the

, and Matthew and Mark state that Jesus ate with the Twelve. Thus, the most frequent identification is with

, who would then be the same as

. Merril F. Unger presents a case for this by a process of elimination. Nevertheless, while some modern academics continue to share the view of Augustine and Polycrates, a growing number do not believe that John the Apostle wrote the Gospel of John or indeed any of the other New Testament works traditionally ascribed to him, making this linkage of a 'John' to the beloved disciple difficult to sustain. Some scholars have additionally suggested a homoerotic interpretation of Jesus's relationship with the beloved disciple, although such a scriptural reading is disputed by others. Tilborg suggests that the portrait in the Gospel of John is "positively attuned to the development of possibly homosexual behaviour". However, he cautions that "in the code ..such imaginary homosexual behaviour is not an expression of homosexuality." Meanwhile, theologian Ismo Dunderberg has also explored the issue and argues that the absence of accepted Greek terms for "lover" and "beloved" discounts an erotic reading. The relationship between Jesus and John was certainly interpreted by some as being of a physical erotic nature as early as the 16th century (albeit in a heretical context) – documented, for example, in the trial for blasphemy of Christopher Marlowe, who was accused of claiming that "St. John the Evangelist was bedfellow to Christ and leaned always in his bosom, that he used him as the sinners of Sodoma". In accusing Marlowe of the "sinful nature" of homosexual acts,

James I of England James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until ...

inevitably invited comparisons to his own erotic relationship with the

Duke of Buckingham Duke of Buckingham held with Duke of Chandos, referring to Buckingham, is a title that has been created several times in the peerages of England, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom. There have also been earls and marquesses of Buckingham. ...

, which he also compared with that of the beloved disciple. Finally,

Francesco Calcagno Francesco Calcagno (1528–1550) was a young Franciscan friar executed for blasphemy and sodomy by the Venetian Inquisition. Calcagno and the Venetian Inquisition Initially laicized and expelled from the order of Franciscans for his rebellious att ...

, a friar of

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

faced trial and was executed in 1550 for claiming that "St. John was Christ's

catamite In ancient Greece and Rome, a catamite (Latin: ''catamitus'') was a pubescent boy who was the intimate companion of an older male, usually in a pederastic relationship. It was generally a term of affection and literally means " Ganymede" in ...

Wayne Dynes Wayne R. Dynes (August 23, 1934 – late July 2021) was an American art historian, encyclopedist, and bibliographer. He was professor emeritus in the Art Department at Hunter College, where he taught from 1972 to 2005. Dynes spent his early ye ...

also makes a link to the modern day where in 1970s New York a popular religious group was established called the "Church of the Beloved Disciple", with the intention of giving a positive reading of the relationship to support respect for same-sex love.

Lazarus

The beloved disciple has also been identified with

Lazarus of Bethany Lazarus of Bethany (Latinised from Lazar, ultimately from Hebrew Eleazar, "God helped"), also venerated as Righteous Lazarus, the Four-Days Dead in the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the subject of a prominent sign of Jesus in the Gospel of John, ...

, based on John 11:5: "Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus", and John 11:4, "Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick." Also relevant according to Ben Witherington III is the fact that the character of the beloved disciple is not mentioned before the raising of Lazarus (Lazarus being raised in

John 11 John 11 is the eleventh chapter of the Gospel of John in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It records the raising of Lazarus from the dead, a miracle of Jesus Christ, and the subsequent development of the chief priests' and Pharisees' p ...

, while the beloved disciple is first mentioned in

John 13 John 13 is the thirteenth chapter of the Gospel of John in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The "latter half" children of Boethus, known from

Josephus Flavius Josephus (; grc-gre, Ἰώσηπος, ; 37 – 100) was a first-century Romano-Jewish historian and military leader, best known for '' The Jewish War'', who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly ...

and rabbinic literature, is the same family in the 11th chapter of the Gospel: Lazarus, Martha, and Mary of Bethany. This is a beloved family, according to John 11:5. The historical Lazarus was Eleazar son of Boethus, who was once Israel's high priest, and from a clan that produced several high priests. The Gospel's traditionally-ascribed author, John, was not a member of the Twelve, but the son of Martha (Sukkah 52b). He closely matches the description given by Bishop Polycrates in his letter, a sacrificing priest who wore the petalon (i.e., emblem of the high priest). This John "the Elder" was a follower of Jesus referred to by

Papias of Hierapolis Papias ( el, Παπίας) was a Greek Apostolic Father, Bishop of Hierapolis (modern Pamukkale, Turkey), and author who lived c. 60 – c. 130 AD. He wrote the ''Exposition of the Sayings of the Lord'' ( el, Λογίων Κυριακῶν Ἐξ ...

, and an eyewitness to his ministry. He was the right age to have lived until the time of

Trajan Trajan ( ; la, Caesar Nerva Traianus; 18 September 539/11 August 117) was Roman emperor from 98 to 117. Officially declared ''optimus princeps'' ("best ruler") by the senate, Trajan is remembered as a successful soldier-emperor who presi ...

(according to Irenaeus). Baltz says John is probably the disciple , and Eleazar is the disciple in the Gospel.

Mary Magdalene

El Greco - The Penitent Magdalene - Google Art Project

Ramon K. Jusino (1998) proposed that the beloved disciple in the Gospel of John was originally Mary Magdalene. But as Matkin and others note, Mary and the beloved disciple appear in the same scene in John 20. To make this claim and maintain consistency with scripture, the theory is suggested that Mary's separate existence in the two common scenes with the beloved disciple, John 19:25–27 and John 20:1–11, is due to later modifications, hastily done to authorize the Gospel in the late 2nd century (John 19:25–27 in particular, as the beloved sisciple's presence at the foot of the cross is mentioned only immediately after Mary Magdalene is named among the list of women also present and not prior, nor is he listed accompanying Jesus's mother at the cross prior to the listed women; only upon being acknowledged and commissioned by Jesus to look after his mother is the beloved disciple's presence established). Both scenes are claimed to have inconsistencies both internally and in reference to the synoptic Gospels. This rough editing therefore might have been done to make Mary Magdalene and the beloved disciple appear as different persons. In the

Gospel of Mary The Gospel of Mary is a non-canonical text discovered in 1896 in a 5th-century papyrus codex written in Sahidic Coptic. This Berlin Codex was purchased in Cairo by German diplomat Carl Reinhardt. Although the work is popularly known as the Go ...

, part of the

New Testament apocrypha The New Testament apocrypha (singular apocryphon) are a number of writings by early Christians that give accounts of Jesus and his teachings, the nature of God, or the teachings of his apostles and of their lives. Some of these writings were cite ...

– specifically the

Nag Hammadi library The Nag Hammadi library (also known as the " Chenoboskion Manuscripts" and the "Gnostic Gospels") is a collection of early Christian and Gnostic texts discovered near the Upper Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi in 1945. Thirteen leather-bound papyr ...

– a certain Mary who is commonly identified as Mary Magdalene is constantly referred to as being loved by Jesus more than the others. In the

Gospel of Philip The Gospel of Philip is a non-canonical Gnostic Gospel dated to around the 3rd century but lost in medieval times until rediscovered by accident, buried with other texts near Nag Hammadi in Egypt, in 1945. The text is not closely related to the ...

, another Gnostic Nag Hammadi text, the same is specifically said about Mary Magdalene.

Unknown priest or disciple

Brian J. Capper argues that the beloved disciple was a priestly member of a quasimonastic, mystical, and ascetic Jewish aristocracy, located on Jerusalem's prestigious southwest hill, who had hosted Jesus's last supper in that location, citing the scholar D.E.H. Whiteley, who deduced that the Beloved Disciple was the host at the last supper. Capper suggests, to explain the largely distinctive designation of the beloved disciple as one loved by Jesus, that the language of 'love' was particularly related to Jewish groups which revealed the distinctive social characteristics of 'virtuoso religion' in ascetic communities. The British scholar

Richard Bauckham Richard John Bauckham (born 22 September 1946) is an English Anglican scholar in theology, historical theology and New Testament studies, specialising in New Testament Christology and the Gospel of John. He is a senior scholar at Ridley Hall, ...

Bauckham, Richard. ''Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels As Eyewitness Testimony''. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008. reaches the similar conclusion that the beloved disciple, who also authored the Gospel attributed to John, was probably a literarily sophisticated member of the surprisingly extensive high priestly family clan. Gerd Theissen and Annette Merz suggest the testimony may have come from a lesser known disciple, perhaps from Jerusalem.Theissen, Gerd and Annette Merz. The historical Jesus: a comprehensive guide. Fortress Press. 1998. translated from German (1996 edition). Chapter 2. Christian sources about Jesus.

James, brother of Jesus

James D. Tabor argues that the beloved disciple is

James, brother of Jesus James the Just, or a variation of James, brother of the Lord ( la, Iacobus from he, יעקב, and grc-gre, Ἰάκωβος, , can also be Anglicized as " Jacob"), was "a brother of Jesus", according to the New Testament. He was an early le ...

(the type of relative to Jesus, brother or cousin, depends on how one translates the word). One of several pieces of evidence Tabor offers is a literal interpretation of John 19:26: "Then when Jesus saw His mother and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, Woman, behold your son." However, elsewhere in the Gospel, the beloved disciple refers to the risen Jesus as "the Lord" rather than as "my brother". Tabor also cites a passage of Jesus referring to James as "my beloved" (twice) in the apocryphal Second Apocalypse of James as indicating James to be the beloved disciple. This passage reads:

Reasons for concealing the identity by name

Theories about the reference usually include an attempt to explain why this anonymizing idiom is used at all, rather than stating an identity. Suggestions accounting for this are numerous. One common proposal is that the author concealed his name due simply to modesty. Another is that concealment served political or security reasons, made necessary by the threat of persecution or embarrassment during the time of the Gospel's publication. The author may have been a highly placed person in Jerusalem who was hiding his affiliation with Christianity, or the anonymity may have been appropriate for one living the withdrawn life of an ascetic, and one of the many unnamed disciples in the Gospel may have been either the beloved disciple himself or others under his guidance, who out of the humility of their ascetic commitment hid their identity or subsumed their witness under that of their spiritual master. Martin L. Smith, a member of the Society of St. John the Evangelist, writes that the author of the Gospel of John may have deliberately obscured the identity of the beloved disciple so readers of the gospel may better identify with the disciple's relationship with Jesus:

Art

In art, the beloved disciple is often portrayed as a beardless youth, usually as one of the Twelve Apostles at the

or with Mary at the crucifixion. In some medieval art, the beloved disciple is portrayed with his head in Christ's lap. Many artists have given different interpretations of John 13:25, which has the disciple whom Jesus loved "reclining next to Jesus" (v. 23; more literally, "on/at his breast/bosom," ).Rodney A. Whitacre,"Jesus Predicts His Betrayal." IVP New Testament Commentaries, Intervarsity Press, 1999.