John the Evangelist

Description

John the Evangelist[a] (c. 6 AD – c. 100 AD) is the name traditionally given to the author of the Gospel of John. Christians have traditionally identified him with John the Apostle, John of Patmos, and John the Presbyter,[2] although there is no consensus on how many of these may actually be the same individual.
The exact identity of John – and the extent to which his identification with John the Apostle, John of Patmos and John the Presbyter is historical – is disputed between Christian tradition and scholars.
The Gospel of John refers to an otherwise unnamed “disciple whom Jesus loved”, who “bore witness to and wrote” the Gospel’s message. The author of the Gospel of John seemed interested in maintaining the internal anonymity of the author’s identity, although interpreting the Gospel in the light of the Synoptic Gospels and considering that the author names (and therefore is not claiming to be) Peter, and that James was martyred as early as AD 44, Christian tradition has widely believed that the author was the Apostle John, though modern scholars believe the work to be pseudepigrapha.Christian tradition says that John the Evangelist was John the Apostle. John, Peter and James the Just were the three pillars of the Jerusalem church after Jesus’ death.[8] He was one of the original twelve apostles and is thought to be the only one to escape martyrdom. It had been believed that he was exiled (around AD 95) to the Aegean island of Patmos, where he wrote the Book of Revelation. However, some attribute the authorship of Revelation to another man, called John the Presbyter, or to other writers of the late first century AD. Bauckham argues that the early Christians identified John the Evangelist with John the Presbyter.
The feast day of Saint John in the Catholic Church, Anglican Communion, and the Lutheran Calendar, is on 27 December, the third day of Christmastide. In the Tridentine calendar he was commemorated also on each of the following days up to and including 3 January, the Octave of the 27 December feast. This Octave was abolished by Pope Pius XII in 1955. The traditional liturgical color is white.
Freemasons celebrate this feast day, dating back to the 18th century when the Feast Day was used for the installation of Grand Masters.