According to Christian tradition, John the Evangelist was one of the twelve original apostles who followed Christ.  In fact he was the only one who managed to make it into old age without being killed because of his faith.He has a very strong connection with the ancient city of Ephesus, which is in modern day Turkey.  He is said to have lived there for a long time and in fact it is supposedly where John the Evangelist is buried.

There are some who believe though that after a short life  he was exiled to the Greek Island of Patmos, where it is said that he wrote the Book of Revelation.This is only one theory though, as other people believe revelations was written by John of Patmos or even John the Presbyter.In fact there is even a lot of debate about whether St John the Evangelist and  John the Apostle are even the same person.

 

St John the Evangelist

John’s parents were Zebedee and Salome and he had one brother.  He was known as James the Greater.They are mentioned frequently in the Gospels often referred to as ‘the sons of Zebedee’.  Christ bestowed a honorable title on them of Boanerges – ‘The Sons of thunder’. “sons of thunder” (Mark 3:17).The brothers had simple beginnings, they grew up as fishermen – a skill they learnt from their father on Lake Genesareth (more commonly known as the Sea of Galilee).

The story is that they were initially followers of John the Baptist, before being called by Christ.  They together with Peter and Andrew who were also followers of John became Christ’s disciples (John 1:15-42).They were one of the first disciples and returned to Galilee from Jordan were they remained for a while with Jesus. John and his companions supposedly returned to their lives as fisherman before being called again to be disciples (Matthew 4:18-22; Mark 1:16-20).

In the bible John was usually listed behind his brother James – which has led to presumption that he was the younger brother.  There is little definitive proof of this however.There is no doubt that John was a very important Apostle though. John was sent along with Peter to make preparations for the Last Supper (Luke 22:8).He was traditionally pictured next to Jesus due to the reference in (John 13:23, 25).There is another theory or belief that John was the ‘other disciple’ who went with Peter after Jesus was arrested and taken before the High Priest (John 18:15).