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.Salome ministered to Jesus, and John seems tohave had his own house (John 19:27).He was, apparently, one of thedisciples of John the Baptist; and while engaged in his father s craft, wasfound and called by Jesus (Matthew 4:21; Mark 1:19).Of the twomentioned in John 1:35, only one, Andrew, is named (John 1:40); theother is commonly supposed to have been John, who suppresses his ownname, as in other instances where he refers to himself (John 14:23; 18:15;19:26; 20:2, 4, 8; 21:20).1As soon as Jesus was made known to him, he became His enthusiasticdisciple.His peculiar intimacy with our Lord is marked by the phrase thedisciple whom Jesus loved, and also by the fact that he was one of thethree chosen to be with Him at certain special and momentous crises.Hewas admitted to the death-chamber of the ruler s daughter (Mark 5:37) andwitnessed her restoration to life; he was present at the Transfiguration(Luke 9:28), and with Peter and James was chosen by the Master to bearHim company during His agony in Gethsemane (Mark 14:33).Heaccompanied Jesus, after His arrest, into the palace of the High Priest, andsecured entrance for Peter (John 18:15, 16).He stood by the cross withthe mother of Jesus, and to his care Jesus committed her (John 19:25-27).With Peter he ran to the sepulchre on the morning of the Resurrection atthe summons of Mary Magdalene, entered the empty tomb, and saw andbelieved (John 20:2-8).After the Resurrection he appears engaged in hisformer employment on the Lake of Galilee.He is the first to recognize the 827risen Lord standing upon the shore (John 21:7), and is the subject ofPeter s inquiry, Lord, what shall this man do? when he is seen by Peterto be following Jesus (John 21:20).His apostolic activity was in the first thirty years after the Ascension.InJerusalem his position among the apostles was not exceptionallyprominent.At the time of the Stephanic persecution he remained with theother apostles at Jerusalem (Acts 8:1); but when Paul, three years after hisconversion, came to that city (Galatians 1:18), he met there only Peter,and James the Lord s brother.From this, however, it does not follow thatthe remaining apostles had permanently departed from Jerusalem andsettled elsewhere.In Galatians 2:9, Paul alludes to John as having beenpresent in Jerusalem at the time of the council (Acts 15.).The narrative inActs does not mention him in connection with the council, but Paul, in theGalatian letter, refers to him as one of the pillars of the church with Jamesand Cephas.The commonly received tradition represents him as closing his apostoliccareer in Asia and at Ephesus.An old tradition affirms that he leftJerusalem twelve years after the death of Christ.In no case, therefore, didhe go immediately to Ephesus.Definite notices as to his abode in theinterval are wholly wanting.It is a noteworthy fact that the lives of somany of the world s leaders include spaces which remain a blank to themost careful biographer, and into which the world s curiosity can neverpenetrate.Such is the period of Paul s retirement in Arabia, of Dante sexile, and, to some extent, of Jesus temptation in the wilderness.Somelater traditions assert that he visited Parthia, and Jerome groundlesslyconjectures that he had preached in Judaea.There is some plausibility inthe supposition that he may have betaken himself to Antioch at the timeof Paul s first missionary journey.It is certain that, much later, John was asuccessor of Paul at Ephesus.Neither at the departure of Paul to Miletus(Acts 20.) nor during the composition of the Ephesian letter is there atrace of John s presence at Ephesus.Tradition is also agreed that John was banished to the isle of Patmos bythe Roman authority.Irenaeus says that he was banished in the reign ofDomitian: another tradition assigns the exile to the reign of Nero.Fromthis exile he was permitted to return, it is said, under Nerva (A.D.96-98).The date of his death is unknown.Jerome places it sixty-eight years after 828the death of Christ.The dominant characteristic of John s nature is contemplative receptivity.Every word of his Lord is taken into his deepest heart, held fast andpondered. He does not ask, What shall I do? but What does he do? Hence it is clear why the finest and subtlest flavor of Jesus personalityhas been caught by him.With this receptiveness goes a power ofimpartation. Every man, says Ebrard, can see the sunset-glow on anAlp, but not everyone can paint it. John, like a mirror, not only receivedbut reflected.While the other Evangelists perceived that element of Jesusteaching and work which produced the most immediate and strikingoutward results, as the Sermon on the Mount, for instance, John discernedthe meaning and the bearing of less prominent incidents, such as theconversation at Jacob s well.Paul, like John, has the quality ofinwardness, but Paul reasons where John contemplates.John is tenaciousand intense; Paul equally so, but more deft than John.John broods overhis thought; Paul thrusts and parries with it.Yet John is no sentimentalist.He is not the lovely, effeminate youth ofpicture.His mental and moral fiber is strong
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