John 13.21-30: 21 After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, “Very truly I tell you, one of you is going to betray me.” 22 His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant. 23 One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. 24 Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, “Ask him which one he means.” 25 Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, “Lord, who is it?” 26 Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.” Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. 27 As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. So Jesus told him, “What you are about to do, do quickly.” 28 But no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him. 29 Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the festival, or to give something to the poor. 30 As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.
John 19.25-27: 25 Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” 27 and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
John 20.1-10: 1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” 3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.
John 21.4-8: 4 But when the day was now breaking, Jesus stood on the beach; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. 5 So Jesus says to them, "Children, you do not have any fish, do you?" They answered Him, "No." 6 And He said to them, "Cast the net on the right hand side of the boat and you will find a catch." So they cast, and then they were not able to haul it in because of the great number of fish. 7 Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved says to Peter, "It is the Lord." So when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put his outer garment on (for he was stripped for work), and threw himself into the sea. 8 But the other disciples came in the little boat, for they were not far from the land, but about one hundred yards away, dragging the net full of fish.
John 21.20-25: 20 Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. (This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and had said, “Lord, who is going to betray you?”) 21 When Peter saw him, he asked, “Lord, what about him?” 22 Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.” 23 Because of this, the rumor spread among the believers that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die; he only said, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?” 24 This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true. 25 Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.
John 19.25-27: 25 Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” 27 and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
John 20.1-10: 1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” 3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.
John 21.4-8: 4 But when the day was now breaking, Jesus stood on the beach; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. 5 So Jesus says to them, "Children, you do not have any fish, do you?" They answered Him, "No." 6 And He said to them, "Cast the net on the right hand side of the boat and you will find a catch." So they cast, and then they were not able to haul it in because of the great number of fish. 7 Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved says to Peter, "It is the Lord." So when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put his outer garment on (for he was stripped for work), and threw himself into the sea. 8 But the other disciples came in the little boat, for they were not far from the land, but about one hundred yards away, dragging the net full of fish.
John 21.20-25: 20 Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. (This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and had said, “Lord, who is going to betray you?”) 21 When Peter saw him, he asked, “Lord, what about him?” 22 Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.” 23 Because of this, the rumor spread among the believers that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die; he only said, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?” 24 This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true. 25 Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.
And here are the secondary (possible or probable) references to the beloved disciple in the gospel of John:
John 1.35-42: 35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. 36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” 37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. 38 Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?” They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?” 39 “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.” So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon. 40 Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. 41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter). [If one of these two was Andrew, who was the other disciple?]
John 18.15-16: 15 Simon Peter and another disciple were following Jesus. Because this disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the high priest’s courtyard, 16 but Peter had to wait outside at the door. The other disciple, who was known to the high priest, came back, spoke to the servant girl on duty there and brought Peter in. [Is this other disciple the one whom Jesus loved?]
John 19.32-35: 32 The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. 33 But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34 Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. 35 The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. [Is this also the beloved disciple?]
John 20.30-31: 30 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. [These are written... by whom?]
John 21.1-3: 1 Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way: 2 Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. 3 “I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. [Since the beloved disciple is on scene later in this chapter, it stands to reason that one of these two disciples is he, although he does seem to pop up out of nowhere in 19.26.]
John 18.15-16: 15 Simon Peter and another disciple were following Jesus. Because this disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the high priest’s courtyard, 16 but Peter had to wait outside at the door. The other disciple, who was known to the high priest, came back, spoke to the servant girl on duty there and brought Peter in. [Is this other disciple the one whom Jesus loved?]
John 19.32-35: 32 The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. 33 But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34 Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. 35 The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. [Is this also the beloved disciple?]
John 20.30-31: 30 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. [These are written... by whom?]
John 21.1-3: 1 Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way: 2 Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. 3 “I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. [Since the beloved disciple is on scene later in this chapter, it stands to reason that one of these two disciples is he, although he does seem to pop up out of nowhere in 19.26.]
I have given much thought to these references to the beloved disciple over the years, and would like to make a somewhat simple suggestion concerning him. Two ideas stand in conflict for me. First, most if not all of the references feel so very artificial; it is as if somebody read Mark and perhaps another gospel or two and simply pasted this figure into the plot in the style of personalized fan fiction. The last supper, the crucifixion, and Peter at the fire are all episodes in Mark in which the beloved disciple plays no part at all; he does not even make the initial list of witnesses to the crucifixion in John 19.25, appearing out of nowhere in 19.26 (unless one of the women is this disciple, who is always described with masculine pronouns). Peter visiting the tomb is an episode in many (but not all) manuscripts of Luke, in which, again, the beloved disciple plays no part. So is this figure made up? Second, however, it makes no sense to me to fret over the death of a fictional character in the manner implied in the Johannine appendix. So is this figure real?
A somewhat common opinion concerning the beloved disciple is that he represents the ideal disciple or even the reader, who can interject himself or herself into the story in the guise of this shadowy figure. But I tend to resist these sorts of interpretation almost on a gut level. As a proxy for the reader he comes across as anachronistic, and as the ideal disciple (who despite being ideal still did not understand the scripture in 20.9) he comes across as an attempt to avoid the obvious option that somebody just plain lied.
Which brings me to my suggestion. Let us imagine that the only two accurate data about this figure that we can discern from the text are (A) that this person lived and died and (B) that his death caused some alarm to those who were aware of an eschatological expectation that he would not die before the coming of the son. Everything else is simply made up. My suspicion, if this is true, is that this person lived in Judea, perhaps even in Jerusalem, as is implied in the text (so perhaps another accurate datum, but not one that is necessary or constitutive of my suggestion), but the community which produced the gospel of John was actually a cult which lay at some distance from Judea, probably in Asia Minor.
And I potentially mean a cult in the creepiest sense of the word, with information control and a strong sense of "us versus them" and concentric leadership circles and the works. I cannot say whether the beloved disciple himself somewhat encouraged matters, as
Haile Selassie wound up encouraging (or at least not discouraging) the Rastafari, or whether he actually discouraged matters, but to no avail, as I think Menachem Mendel Schneerson tended to discourage Chabad messianism. In either case, access to this figure was limited, probably geographically (as was certainly the case with Selassie in Ethiopia and the Rastafari in Jamaica), to only the elites of the cult; possibly they gleaned some of those accurate details about Palestine found in the gospel of John from personal visits to Judea to visit this figure.The gospel of John presumes that the readership already knows certain things. For example, Andrew is introduced as the brother of Simon Peter in 1.40, implying that readers/hearers already know who Peter is, and Mary the sister of Martha is introduced as the person who will later (in chapter 12) anoint the Lord with expensive perfume, implying that readers/hearers already know this story and are being thrown a carrot to tide them over until they get there. I suggest that members of this cult were fed a diet of Marcan gospel text, in the main, but with authoritative additions to the story, mediated through the teacher(s), both about the cult's beliefs (those tedious monologues and dialogues) and about the beloved disciple (and the cult would have been told at some point that he himself had written them, as per 21.24), who served as this community's personal, albeit nearly totally fictitious, connection to the life of Jesus. Members probably thoroughly enjoyed getting what they were being told was "the real story" behind the gospel(s) that other communities were using, straight from the mouth of the disciple whom Jesus had loved the most, or so they thought; but their leader was (or leaders were) simply lying; hence the artificiality of the stories about this disciple, so evident to us but easy to overlook in an atmosphere of intense, cultish faith. They were special snowflakes, one and all.
And honestly: read ten verses of the monologue or dialogue sections of the gospel and tell me they do not sound like the words of a cult leader: the rhythmic repetition ("a new command I give you: love one another; as I have loved you, so you must love one another; by this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another"); the insider mentality ("the world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you"); the circular logic ("if I testify about myself, my testimony is not true; there is another who testifies in my favor, and I know that his testimony about me is true").
This suggestion is not entirely original, of course, since in its essence it amounts to what a lot of people instinctively suspect about the beloved disciple's presence in the text, but it does explain how this figure could actually be an historical, flesh-and-blood human being, as implied in chapter 21, while still being either partly or (in my better judgment) totally a fabrication in the earlier episodes. The part that is probably the most novel is the idea that this figure was not part of the community who revered him; it was his very distance that allowed the lies to flourish.
Alternately, the beloved disciple himself was the leader of this cult, using the gospel of Mark as a script and writing himself into the proceedings. I tend to shirk away from this option because somebody had to have been around to write the parts of the gospel that followed his death; if, however, the involvement of that somebody is already necessary, then the direct involvement of the beloved disciple himself is not, and would have to be asserted without grounds. Also, the parts about the beloved disciple are in the third person, while the only verse which tells us that the beloved disciple wrote anything is in the appendix at 21.24, whereas 19.35 says no more than that this disciple testified to these things, leading me to suspect that the notion that the disciple actually wrote the gospel only grew over time; it was not part of the original layer of the lie.
What do you think? Have I drunk the Kool-Aid?
Ben.