Nanotheology

The gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke were most likely written by these three authors, and up until the nineteenth century almost all theologians believed that the so-called Fourth Gospel was written by the apostle John. Since then, liberal theologians have insisted that it was written by a “Johannine community” in Asia Minor. This book argues that neither of these hypotheses are correct, and that the author of the “Fourth Gospel” was not an apostle, but a disciple. And this disciple had a very good reason for wanting to stay anonymous.

Tradition has also attributed the so-called “Johannine epistles” to the apostle John, because they share some similarities with the “Gospel of John”, but since it can be proven that the apostle did not write this gospel, we need to look elsewhere for the elusive author. Two ancient sources and one verse in the Bible is all it takes to bring this man out of the shadows of early church history and into the light. The question is why this man’s work should be included in the Scriptures.

A single commentator in the late second century is responsible for the traditional belief that the apostle John died of old age at the end of the first century, after having written the Book of Revelation on the island of Patmos. The location is undoubtedly correct, but the apostle John did not die of old age; he was martyred. Jesus’ prophecy concerning John’s fate is supported by an ancient source who says that the apostle was killed by the Jews, probably in Ephesus in the late 60s.