He was so eager after the resurrection of Christ, that in running to his grave with his fellow-apostle Peter, he outran the latter, thus showing his affection for his Lord, who had died an ignominious death, and was entirely forsaken by his other friends. John 20:4. Some years afterwards, in order to refute the errors of Ebion and Cerinthus, who denied the divinity of Christ, he wrote his Gospel, to the honor and magnifying of his Savior, commencing thus: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.” “_And the Word was made flesh_,” etc., John 1:1–14. In these words he gives us to understand the true incarnation of the Son of God, to whom be praise and glory forever. Amen. John is called throughout the Gospel the beloved of the Lord, or the disciple “whom Jesus loved;” because the Lord so especially loved him. John 13:23; 20:2; 21:20. But since it is the will of God to bring his children to glory through much tribulation and distress, this beloved friend of God, John, also could not escape, but was tried throughout his life, with manifold tribulations, according to what the Lord had told him and his brother James: “Ye shall indeed drink of the cup that I drink of; and with the baptism that I am baptized withal shall ye be baptized,” that is, ye shall also be subjected to my suffering and distress. Mark 10:39. This was afterwards fulfilled in him in manifold ways; for, besides what ancient writers have recorded concerning it, namely, that at Rome he was put into a vat full of boiling oil, but was miraculously delivered out of it, the merits of which account we leave unquestioned; this much, according to the Scriptures, is certain, namely that he spent a long time on the desert island of Patmos, whither he had been banished for the testimony of Jesus Christ. Concerning this, John himself makes this declaration, Rev. 1:9: “I, John, who also am your brother and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.” But by whom, and in what manner he was banished to that desert island, is not stated in the Scriptures, except that he was in tribulation for the word of God. Some of the ancient writers, however, state that he was banished by Emperor Domitian, about A. D. 97; who, in his wrath and displeasure, because he preached the word of God, and confessed Christ as the Son of God, had him sentenced and banished thither.