of Christ and his Church. Much of his legacy would be passed on by two
future giants of the second century Church who personally knew and
conversed with him, Sts. Ignatius of Antioch and Polycarp of Smyrna.
St. John did not write his gospel simply to provide another account of
Christ’s life and teachings. These were readily available through the
circulation of the Synoptics. He wrote to meet the challenge of new
philosophical heresies and errors denying that Jesus Christ was God
incarnate, and that He possessed a real human nature while remaining the
eternal Son of God. He considered this denial to be of the Antichrist: “For
many deceivers have gone out into the world, men who will not
acknowledge the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh; such a one is the
deceiver and the antichrist” (2 John 1, 7). The chief propagator of such
errors was Cerinthus, a circumcised Jew possessing a mixture of Jewish,
Christian and Gnostic beliefs. St. John abhorred his teachings with the
utmost passion. One day he saw him in the baths of Ephesus, and rushed
out exclaiming: “Let us fly, lest even the bath-house fall down, because
Cerinthus, the enemy of truth is within.” The sublimity of St. John’s gospel
has caused him to be represented as an eagle, for he rose higher than any
other of the sacred writers.
With the death of St. John around the year 100 AD ended the apostolic age.
A number of ancient writers held the belief that St. John did not die, but
like Henoch and Elias, was translated to an earthly paradise from where he
would return to preach against the Antichrist. In this paradise he has the
special privilege of seeing and enjoying God. This conclusion is based on
Our Lord’s words to St. Peter: “If it is my will that he remain until I come,
what is that to you? Follow me!” (St. John 21, 22). The majority of other
writers, however, admit that St. John is dead and now reigns with Christ
and all the other saints in heaven.
Themes for study:
St. John’s status as one of the principal Apostles;
St. John’s work in Ephesus and Asia Minor;
St. John’s exile and his writing down of the Book of Revelation;
St. John’s purpose for, and writing of, the fourth Gospel.
Further reading:
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