The authorship of the Johannine works (the Gospel of John, the Johannine epistles, and the Book of Revelation) has been debated by biblical scholars since at least the 2nd century AD.F. L. Cross, The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 45 The debate focuses mainly on the identity of the author(s), as well as the date and location of authorship of these writings.
Although authorship of all of these works has traditionally been attributed to John the Apostle, most scholars theorize that he wrote none of them, though the tradition still has many modern defenders. Although some scholars conclude the author of the epistles was different from that of the gospel, most scholars agree that all three epistles are expressed by the same author or school of thought.
A growing number of scholars have challenged the idea of a Johannine community, citing the lack of evidence for such a community, and there is no consensus among scholars today.Ehrman, pp. 178–9.
John's Gospel was likely written in Ephesus, AD. In the case of Revelation, many modern scholars theorize that it was composed by a separate author, John of Patmos, , with some parts possibly dating to Nero's reign in the early 60s.
Early use and attribution of the Johannine works
Attestation The first supposed witness to Johannine theology among the Fathers of the Church is in Ignatius of Antioch, whose Letter to the Philippians some claim references John 3:8 and alludes to John 10:7-9 and John 14:6, but none of these are direct quotations or contain information exclusive to John. Polycarp of Smyrna quotes about the "antichrist" in his Epistle to the Phillipians 7:1, a sure reference from the letters of John because the antichrist doctrine is not found in the textual record before the Johannine letters. Justin Martyr also alludes to ideas in John, though this reference is not certain, so the dating of John is not settled.Polycarp at NTCanon.orgJustin Martyr at NTCanon.org
The earliest testimony to the author was that of Papias, preserved in fragmentary quotes in Eusebius's history of the Church. This text is consequently rather obscure. Eusebius says that two different Johns must be distinguished, John the Apostle, and John the Presbyter, with the Gospel assigned to the Apostle and the Book of Revelation to the Presbyter.Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 3.39.4-6
Irenaeus's witness based on Papias represents the tradition in Ephesus, where John the Apostle is reputed to have lived.Irenaeus Adversus haereses 3.11 = Eusebius Historia ecclesiastica 5.8.4 Irenaeus was a disciple of Polycarp, thus in the second generation after the apostle. According to many scholars, he states unequivocally that the apostle is the author of the Gospel. (Other scholars note, however, that Irenaeus consistently refers to the author of the gospel, as well as of Revelation, as "the disciple of the Lord", whereas he refers to the others as "apostles". And so Irenaeus appears to distinguish John, the author of the fourth gospel, from John the Apostle.) Koester rejects the reference of Ignatius of Antioch as referring to the Gospel and cites Irenaeus as the first to use it.Helmut Koester. Ancient Christian Gospels. Harrisburg, PA.: Trinity Press. 1990. p. 246
For some time it was common practice to assert that the Rylands Library Papyrus P52, which contains a small portion of chapter 18 of the Gospel of John, demonstrated that the text of the gospel spread rapidly through Egypt in the second century. However, more recent scholarship has shown the fragment may date from as late as the third or fourth century, rather than the second century, as was previously supposed.Don Barker, "The Dating of New Testament Papyri," New Testament Studies 57 (2011), 571-582.
Clement of Alexandria mentions John the Apostle's missionary activity in Asia Minor, and continues, "As for John, the last, upon seeing that in the Gospels they had told the corporal matters, supported by his disciples and inspired by the Holy Spirit, he wrote a spiritual Gospel."Eusebius Pamphilius, Church History 14.2 http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf201.iii.xi.xiv.html Origen, when asked how John had placed the cleansing of the Temple first rather than last, responded, "John does not always tell the truth literally, he always tells the truth spiritually."Origen, Commentary on John 10.4.6. In Alexandria, the authorship of the Gospel and the first epistle were never questioned. Bruce Metzger stated "One finds in Clement's work citations of all the books of the New Testament with the exception of Philemon, James, 2 Peter, and 2 and 3 John."Metzger, Bruce M. The Canon of the New Testament: Its Origin, Development, and Significance. Clarendon Press. Oxford. 1987: p. 131.
Rome was the home to the only early rejection of the fourth Gospel. The adversaries of Montanism were responsible. Irenaeus says that these persons tried to suppress the teaching about the Holy Spirit in order to put down Montanism, and as a result denied the authorship of the Gospel and its authority. Later Epiphanius called this group, who were followers of the priest Caius, the Alogi in a wordplay between "without the Word" and "without reason".
Quotations The gospel was not widely quoted until late in the 2nd century.Craig Keener, A Gospel of John: A Commentary Volume 1, (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, 2003), 93. Justin Martyr is probably the first Church Father to quote the Gospel of John.Craig Keener, A Gospel of John: A Commentary Volume 1, (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, 2003), 93 notes that, "Earliest Christian tradition seems to have exercised some ambivalence towards this Gospel, however; it is not recognized in the Roman fathers until the late second century." Keener also notes that "it is possible that he [Justin Martyr] cites instead an agraphon from pre-Johannine tradition or a subsequent tradition based on John." Some scholars conclude that in antiquity John was probably considered less important than the synoptics.C.H. Dodd, Historical tradition in the Fourth Gospel, (Cambridge: University Press, 1963), 13; J.W. Pryor, "Justin Martyr and the Fourth Gospel," Second Cent 9, no. 3 (1992): 153–169; Keener, The Gospel of John, 94 notes in one of the footnotes something quite interesting, "Although the analogy carries little weight, my first book cited Matthew over 150 times, Luke 13 times, 1 Peter 9 times, and John twice, though John was my dissertation area." Walter Bauer suggests:
One reason for this 'orthodox ambivalence' was gnostic acceptance of the fourth gospel.Keener, The Gospel of John, 94; see also John Kysar, "The Gospel of John," in Anchor Bible Commentary David Noel Freedman eds., (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 912 notes that, "In its defense against Gnosticism the Church embraced the Gospel of John and attempted to demonstrate that the gospel affirmed the 'Orthodox Christian faith.' The affiliation of the gospel with gnostic Christian beliefs led some, however, to reject it along with Revelation, as Irenaeus witnesses (haer. 3.2.12 The early Gnostic use is referred to by Irenaeus, Hippolytus and Origen in quoted commentary made on John by the Gnostics Ptolemy, Basilides and Heracleon. In the quote below Irenaeus argues against the gnostic heresy from his book Against Heresies:
Several church fathers of the 2nd century never quoted John, but the earliest extant written commentary on any book of the New Testament was that written on John by Heracleon, a disciple of the gnostic Valentinus.
The following table shows the number of times various church fathers cited John compared to the synoptic gospels.Taken from
Gospel Barn. Did. Ign. Poly. Herm. II Clem. Papias Basilides Synoptics 1? 1? 7(+4?) 1 0 1(+3?) 2 1 John or Epistles 0 0 2? 1 0 0 ? 1
Gospel Marcion Justin Valentinus Hegesip. Ptolem. Melito Apollin. Athenag. Synoptics Luke 170 1 3? 4 4 1 13 John or Epistles 0 1 0 0 1 4 1 0
Gospel of John
Dating The Gospel of John is considered to be the last of the four canonical Gospels to be written. Most modern scholars date it to between 90 and 100AD, although a minority suggest an even later date.Robert M. Grant, The Fourth Gospel and the Church, The Harvard Theological Review 35, no. 2 (April 1942): 94 suggests that, "John's very divergence from the synoptics had already led to is relatively slower reception in the broader church until it could be explained in relation to them." Both early Christian traditions and the majority of scholars place its composition in Ephesus. However, claims of authorship that date much later than 100AD have been called into question due to the Rylands Library Papyrus P52, a fragment of the gospel found in Egypt that was probably written around 125AD.Robert M. Grant, The Fourth Gospel and the Church, The Harvard Theological Review 35, no. 2 (April 1942): 94 Nevertheless, most biblical scholars continue to favour the earlier dating, though the possibility of a later date is not entirely discounted; John Rylands Library continues to maintain Roberts's assessment of the date of 52, that it "may with some confidence be dated in the first half of the second century A.D."The date is given as in standard reference works.
Authorship The authorship of the Gospel of John, the Fourth Gospel, is widely contested. Scholars have debated the authorship of Johannine literature since at least the third century, but especially since the Enlightenment.
Overview A summary of the proposed candidates is as follows: The apostle John, son of Zebedee – traditionally the author was identified as John the Apostle, but his authorship is mostly rejected especially by continental scholarship, though it still has many modern defenders. John of Patmos, the author of the Book of Revelation (alias the Apocalypse of John) – mainstream scholars conclude that John of Patmos did not write the Gospel of John due to a wide range of differences in eschatology, language, and tone between the two texts. John the Presbyter – an obscure early church figure mentioned in the writings of Papias of Hierapolis. John the Evangelist – apart from being a potential nickname for any of the figures mentioned above, he could be an otherwise unknown person called John who wrote the Fourth Gospel. The Disciple whom Jesus loved (or Beloved Disciple) – an unnamed person referenced several times in the Fourth Gospel itself. Some theologians and scholars have, by way of elimination, identified this disciple as one of the Twelve Disciples of Jesus, usually John, son of Zebedee, though other scholars question the attribution to John the Apostle. A hypothetical "Johannine community" – a number of different authors who wrote the Fourth Gospel together, none of whom were necessarily named 'John'. An unknown author – some scholars have concluded that, since the Fourth Gospel is anonymous, none of the proposed candidates are plausible (there is no reason to assume he was actually named 'John'), and that because no new evidence is likely to emerge, the real author will remain unknown and unnamed. At most, the author is merely referred to as 'John' (and the Fourth Gospel as 'Gospel of John') for the sake of convention, a placeholder name for an otherwise unknown person. Cerinthus – A group of Christians, referred to as Alogi by Epiphanius, credit Cerinthus with writing the Gospel of John and rejected this Gospel, while also accepting the Synoptic Gospels and maintaining a more-or-less standard Christology and Orthodox form of worship. According to Dionysius bar Salibi citing a lost work by Hippolytus of Rome, the Alogi were led by a man named Caius. The name Alogi was applied to them by their enemies, and what little is known about them comes from those who considered them heretics. The name Alogi is a play on words, meaning illogical in Biblical Greek and referring both to their beliefs as being illogical and a rejection of the Logos of John's Gospel. Lazarus of Bethany