John

In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God” is how begins the gospel of St. John, the beloved of the disciples. And it may well be that Leonardo da Vinci’s “Last Supper” depicts that precise moment when Jesus whispers to John the name of the disciple who would betray him even before that fateful act was done. Which tells that Christ and the truth of him transcends even time itself.

John would go on to write the revelations, which book of the Bible gives us a cryptic description of future events, including even how this world will end. These are events which are now coming to pass. And so these writings preoccupy the attention of both believers and non-believers alike. Some say there are portents in the air.

John is symbolized always by the eagle. The eagle flies highest and sees clearer than most birds. Certainly it sees better than humans having a much higher count of nerve endings at the retina. And some say, It is John’s gospel which is the most historically accurate and detailed of all the gospels. But what is not common knowledge is that the authorship of John’s gospel is debated until this day. Wikipedia claims that this gospel leans towards anonymity, its author prone to identifying himself (or herself) only as the “beloved disciple”. And then there is an apparent discrepancy in grammar between John’s gospel and the Book of the Revelations. All these put to question only the veracity of authorship. They do not question the veracity of the books themselves. It is clear the books can be traced to a Johannine community and tradition which grew in Asia Minor.

It is argued how John himself died. But the common belief was that he was the only one of the apostles who was not martyred and died instead of old age and in peace in Ephesus. Which is not to say that he was not persecuted. Tradition tells of how he had been thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil and even so was miraculously preserved by God. According to Wikipedia he was banished to the isle of Patmos at a later time in his life and it was here that he had the visions which led him to write the Book of the Revelations. But even here there are debates.

Indeed, John would seem just as mysterious as the other evangelists whose books would later be compiled into the New Testament. This mystery which surrounds all these authors is only to be expected. One must not forget how even to this day the contents of these books, the words themselves, still draw debate and argumentation. But it must have been worse in the beginning of Christianity when early believers suffered through waves of both acceptance and persecution.

And they were spreading outwards over a large geographical space. Few know that St. Thomas went as far as India to preach and convert. And Christianity itself was surely not as centralized as it is now. Considering the sluggish spread of information at that time, one can only imagine how the ideas of Christianity must have simply gestated inside small Christian communities spread over the “known” world. Who can tell if these communities believed in only a single concept of what Christianity truly meant?

There must have been a diversity of different and disparate understandings and persuasions. But there was always a tradition of writing attached to the spreading of the religion itself. It is part of Christian tradition to believe how these writings are guided always by the Holy Spirit.

This belief should have led to a more liberal understanding of faith even in the Catholic Church. As one might observe from history the truth of Christ comes from many sources and many directions. And yet we often find how in contemporary times this diversity of views is often treated and reacted to as if it were inimical to the Church itself. Which might be the big tragedy of the religion in contemporary times. And this might be the reason why it is slowly losing ground in our day and age.

John, the beloved disciple is also the last evangelist. Tradition tells how disciples from everywhere still came to him in his old age asking for new messages from God. And always he would answer, “Love one another.” There is no reason at all to keep us from believing that the word of God is still being written even in our time.