his displeasure was incurred. The angel who appears to the women after
the resurrection desires them to tell his disciples "and Peter" that
Jesus will meet them in Galilee,(1) but there is no message for any
"disciple whom he loved." If Peter, James, and John accompany the Master
to the mount of transfiguration, and are witnesses of his agony in the
garden, regarding which, however, the fourth Gospel is totally silent,
the two brethren remain in the back ground, and Peter alone acts a
prominent part. If we turn to the Epistles of Paul, we do not find a
single trace of acquaintance with the fact that Jesus honoured John
with any special affection, and the opportunity of referring to such a
distinction was not wanting when he writes to the Galatians of his visit
to the "Pillar" Apostles in Jerusalem. Here again, however, we find
no prominence given to John, but the contrary, his name still being
mentioned last and without any special comment. In none of the Pauline
or other Epistles is there any allusion, however distant, to any
disciple whom Jesus specially loved. The Apocalypse, which, if any
book of the New Testament can be traced to him, must be ascribed to the
Apostle John, makes no claim whatever to such a distinction. In none of
the Apocryphal Gospels is there the slightest indication of knowledge
of the fact, and if we come to the Fathers even, it is a striking
circumstance that there is not a trace of it in any early work, and
not the most remote indication of any independent tradition that Jesus
distinguished John or any other individual disciple with peculiar
friendship. The Roman Clement, in referring to the example of the
Apostles, only mentions Peter and Paul.(2) Polycarp, who is described as
a disciple of the
{432}
Apostle John, apparently knows nothing of his having been especially
loved by Jesus. Pseudo-Ignatius does not refer to him at all in the
Syriac Epistles, or in either version of the seven Epistles.(1) Papias,
in describing his interest in hearing what the Apostles said, gives John
no prominence: "I inquired minutely after the words of the Presbyters:
What Andrew, or what Peter said, or what Philip or what Thomas or James,
or what John or Matthew, or what any other of the disciples of the Lord,
and what Aristion and the Presbyter John, the disciples of the Lord,
say,"(2) &c.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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