یوحنا رسول

یوحنای حواری که با نام‌های یوحنای الهی و یوحنا پسر زبدی نیز شناخته می‌شود، یکی از دوازده حواری عیسی بود. سنت مسیحی او را با نویسندگان چندین اثر عهد جدید، از جمله انجیل یوحنا، می شناسد.According to the New Testament, John came from a family of fisherman. He became part of the core group of three disciples who witnessed certain key events in Jesus' ministry. As "the disciple whom Jesus loved," John is noted for his faith and loyalty to Jesus. However, together with Peter and James, John failed to keep watch and protect Jesus at the Garden of Gethsemane at a crucial moment in Jesus' ministry. Nevertheless, he alone among the Twelve is believed to have stood by Jesus at the Cross.

According to the Book of Acts, John was a significant leader in the earliest church, but he drops out of the biblical record after Paul mentions him as a "pillar" of the Jerusalem church in Galatians 2. Tradition holds that he went to Ephesus with the Virgin Mary and founded several churches in Asia minor. He is recognized as a saint in all Christian traditions which venerate holy persons, and is believed to be buried at Ephesus.

The creator of the Gospel of John is usually known as John the Evangelist, John the Theologian, or John the Divine. This text contains references to the "disciple whom Jesus loved," traditionally taken as a self-reference by the author, and therefore a reference to John the Apostle.

John had a prominent position among the disciples as one of the three apparently most trusted by Jesus. Peter, James and John were the only witnesses to the raising of Jairus' daughter (Mark 5:37), to the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1), and to Jesus' agony in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:37). His position was such that his mother felt that it as appropriate to ask that he be considered to sit at Jesus' right hand after the messianic kingdom was established (Matthew 20:20). He and Peter were sent into the city to make the preparation for the final Passover meal, the Last Supper (Luke 22:8). At the meal itself—assuming John was indeed the same person as the "disciple whom Jesus loved"—his place was next to Jesus, on whose chest he leaned (John 13:23).

At Gethsemane, however, John is portrayed as failing in an important duty. There, he and the other two core disciples were commanded by Jesus to keep watch while Jesus prayed. All three of them tragically fell asleep, not once, but three times, failing to warn Jesus of the approach of Judas Iscariot with the Temple guards who came to arrest him. After this, Matthew reports that "all the disciples deserted him and fled." (Matthew 26:56)

The Gospel of John alone presents Peter and another disciple as not entirely deserting Jesus after this moment. According to tradition, John was the "other disciple" who, with Peter, followed Jesus after the arrest into the palace of the high priest (John 18:15). Though still unnamed, John's Gospel presents the beloved disciple as the only one of the Twelve who remained near Jesus at the foot of the cross on Calvary, along with Jesus’ mother, Mary Magdalene, and the other pious women. He was instructed by Jesus to take his mother into his care, as Jesus' last instruction on earth (John 19:25-27).

Some interpret the Book of Acts to indicate that a community of believers in Jesus was already in existence at Ephesus before Paul's first visit there (cf. "the brethren," Acts 18:27, in addition to Priscilla and Aquila). Some thus hold that John went to Asia Minor and was the first to exercise the apostolic office in various provinces there. Moreover, the fact that the Holy Spirit reportedly did not permit Paul, on his second missionary journey to proclaim the Gospel in Asia, Mysia and Bithynia (Acts 16:6 sq.), may refer to John's previous missionary activity there.

Of the other New Testament writings, it is only from the three epistles of John and the Book of Revelation that anything further is learned about John, and this information depends on whether one accepts him as the author of these works or not. If so he lived for a long time in Asia Minor, was thoroughly acquainted with the conditions existing in the various messianic communities there (called the "seven churches" in the Book of Revelation), and had a position of authority recognized by some, but apparently not all of the churches in this region. Both Revelation and the epistles speak of various schisms and heresies which had arisen, against which the author writes. In addition, the letter known as 3 John indicates that its author has been rejected by some of the leaders with whom he had communicated. Revelation adds that its author was on the island of Patmos "for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus," (Revelation 1:9), meaning that he had become the "confessor" who had apparently been exiled to Patmos on account of his faith.

Catholic and Orthodox tradition say that John, together with the the Virgin Mary, moved to Ephesus, where both eventually died. According to Tertullian, John was banished (presumably to Patmos) after being plunged into boiling oil in Rome and miraculously suffering nothing from it. Some believe his tomb is located at Selçuk, a small town in the vicinity of Ephesus.

John was the son of Zebedee and Salome, and the brother of James the Greater. In the Gospels the two brothers are often called after their father "the sons of Zebedee" and received from Christ the honourable title of Boanerges, i.e. "sons of thunder" (Mark 3:17). Originally they were fishermen and fished with their father in the Lake of Genesareth. According to the usual and entirely probable explanation they became, however, for a time disciples of John the Baptist, and were called by Christ from the circle of John's followers, together with Peter and Andrew, to become His disciples (John 1:35-42). The first disciples returned with their new Master from the Jordan to Galilee and apparently both John and the others remained for some time with Jesus (cf. John ii, 12, 22; iv, 2, 8, 27 sqq.). Yet after the second return from Judea, John and his companions went back again to their trade of fishing until he and they were called by Christ to definitive discipleship (Matthew 4:18-22; Mark 1:16-20). In the lists of the Apostles John has the second place (Acts 1:13), the third (Mark 3:17), and the fourth (Matthew 10:3; Luke 6:14), yet always after James with the exception of a few passages (Luke 8:51; 9:28 in the Greek text; Acts 1:13).