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John’s circle
Reading John’s Gospel in its entirety for the first time, rather than hearing it in disjointed fragments on successive Sunday mornings interspersed with readings from the other three Gospels, may produce some surprises. We may find ourselves re-evaluating what we thought we knew about the group of disciples who followed Jesus. We realise that John records the words of a number of people who are silent in the other Gospels, and gives prominence to the deeds and words of others who are not mentioned in the other Gospels at all. His circle is very different. Maybe that itself provokes some questions about this fourth Gospel-writer. This Chapter seeks to tease out more about the people he describes and the connections between them, before considering in Chapter 2 who John the Evangelist was.
The apostles in the Synoptic Gospels
Very often, on the basis of an overall familiarity with the four Gospels, it’s easy to assume that it is Peter and Andrew, James and John – the two pairs of fisherman brothers – who are in the centre of the Gospel action, and who form the inner core of the twelve disciples. Mark’s Gospel certainly begins its narrative of Jesus’ ministry by describing Him watching the four fishermen by the lake as they go about their daily business, and then calling them to fish for people and become His first disciples (Mark 1:16-19). In his Gospel, also, it is Peter – interestingly, without his brother Andrew – James and John who accompany Jesus at times when He wants only His closest followers with Him. We see this as He heals the little daughter of Jairus (Mark 5:37); at the Transfiguration on the mountaintop (Mark 9:2); and in the Garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14:33). We also hear about Judas, of course, who was to betray Him (Mark 3:19 and throughout chapter 14), and about Matthew, or Levi (Mark 2:13-15). But although Mark tells us the names of all the twelve chosen by Jesus to be apostles (Mark 3:13-19), we hear nothing more about the other six. Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus and Simon the Cananaean are all conspicuous by their silence: we assume that they are simply included in the responses attributed to ‘the disciples’ collectively.
Look at Matthew’s Gospel, and at Luke’s, and you will find exactly the same: twelve apostles listed by name (except that Luke names Judas, son of James, rather than Thaddeus, but the scholarly consensus is that they were the same person), but only the same few given any part in the action.
Luke does, however, tell us more than either Matthew or Mark about the women surrounding Jesus. Mary, the mother of Jesus, is the focus of his nativity narratives (Luke 1-2), and he also names the women who accompanied Jesus with the Twelve: Mary Magdalene, Joanna the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, Susanna, ‘and many others, who provided for them out of their resources’ (Luke 8:2-3). At the crucifixion, Luke describes how ‘the women who had followed him from Galilee’ (Luke 23:49) watch from some distance, see where the body of Jesus is laid, and go to anoint it on the day after the Sabbath; and he names them as ‘Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them’ (Luke 24:10).
The apostles named in John’s Gospel
But when we open John’s Gospel, we meet a range of different personalities. We now hear the voices of some of the apostles who are silent in the Synoptics, as they talk with Jesus and ask Him questions. And there are others beyond the Twelve, significant players in this Gospel, of whom we know nothing from Matthew, Mark or Luke.
In John’s Gospel, it is John the Baptist who first introduces Jesus to two of his own disciples who quickly become followers of Jesus Himself. One of them is Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother – and it is Andrew, the brother often missing in the Synoptic Gospels, who goes to bring Peter to Jesus. The next day Jesus searches out Philip, who in his turn finds Nathanael[1] and brings him to join the growing circle (1:35-51).
Nathanael is only mentioned once more by name, at the breakfast after the resurrection (21:1-2), but Andrew and Philip are there at other key points in the narrative. It is Philip who articulates what a huge task it is to feed the crowd of five thousand, and Andrew who brings over the young lad with the five loaves and two fish (6:5-9). Later on, when Jesus has entered Jerusalem at the beginning of the climactic week leading to His crucifixion, it is Andrew and Philip who try to act as intermediaries between Jesus and the Greeks who wish to see Him (12:20-22).
Next, it is in John’s Gospel alone that we hear the other Judas – the second apostle named Judas, not the Iscariot who would betray His Master – speak, during Jesus’ long discourses which John records on the evening of the Last Supper. This Judas questions Jesus, saying, ‘Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?’ His part in the Gospel may be small: but he is listening (14:22).[2]
Then there is Thomas. We remember him, unfairly, as ‘Doubting Thomas’, but there is far more to him than that. When Jesus hears that Lazarus is ill and sets out to go to Judea, and the disciples try to dissuade Him because the Jews are trying to stone Him, it is Thomas who says stoutly to the others, ‘Let us also go, that we may die with him’ (11:16). We hear no more of any dissent: they go off to Bethany, and Lazarus is raised from the dead. Later, at the Last Supper, when Jesus tells His disciples that He is leaving them, it is not just Peter, but also Thomas and Philip, who try to probe what He means. ‘Lord, where are you going?’[3] asks Peter. ‘Why can I not follow you now?’
‘Lord, we do not know where you are going’, says Thomas. ‘How can we know the way?’
And Philip urges, ‘Show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.’ Each of them presses Jesus to unfold a little more of the mystery of the incarnation: Jesus as the Way, the Truth and the Life, who is in the Father and the Father in Him (13:36 – 14:8).
Later, when Jesus appears to the disciples after His resurrection, and Thomas is not there, it’s easy to focus on his apparent scepticism: unless I see and touch the mark of the nails, he says, I am not going to believe that this has happened. But when his doubt is overcome by seeing the risen Jesus for himself a week later, his response is overwhelming: ‘My Lord and my God!’ (20:24-29). The others have often called Jesus ‘Lord’: some have acknowledged Him as Messiah, or Christ, the Lord’s Anointed. Nathanael has even called Him ‘Son of God’ (1:49). But this is the first time any of them have taken the step of calling Jesus ‘God’.
Finally, note which of the disciples appear at that beautiful breakfast on the beach, John’s description of Jesus’ final appearance. Simon Peter, Thomas, Nathanael, James and John ‘the sons of Zebedee’, and two other unnamed disciples (21:1-2). It almost seems as though the central disciples from the other three Gospels are coming together with some of those who are so significant in John’s.
We will look at that breakfast in more detail in Chapter 12, but for now I just want to pick out one detail.
Nathanael is here described as ‘Nathanael of Cana in Galilee’. When we first meet Nathanael in John chapter 1, we are not told where he is from. But of course we know about Cana – it was the setting for Jesus’ first miracle, when He and His disciples were invited to a wedding and He turned the water into wine (2:1-11). Was Nathanael perhaps the link between Jesus and that unknown family, so enabling that first showing of Jesus’ glory to the world?
John’s wider circle
Then there is another category of personalities mentioned by John alone: several key believers, all of whom are outside the recognised inner circle of disciples.
Early on, there is Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews who came by night to speak to Jesus (3:1-21). No other Gospel mentions him: and perhaps we are even surprised to hear that one of Jesus’ disciples knew such a leader of the Jewish establishment, or knew of this secret encounter. Yet he appears twice more. When the Temple police have been sent to arrest Jesus, fail to do so and the Pharisees question why they have failed, it is Nicodemus who stands up for the right of the accused to be heard: ‘Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out what they are doing, does it?’ (7:51). And, poignantly, it is Nicodemus who comes in person with great quantities of spices to anoint the body of Jesus when Pilate permits Joseph of Arimathea to take the body and bury it in the tomb (19:39).
Later, there is the Samaritan woman by Jacob’s well (4:1-42), with whom Jesus engages in lengthy conversation, making it clear that He knows all about her life. She then goes back to her community to spread the word – so that they too come out to hear Him, and many believe in Him. The disciples are obviously travelling with Him – they have simply gone to buy food, we are told, while Jesus has this encounter – but it does not feature in the other Gospels.[4]
Then there is the family group of Mary, her sister Martha, and Lazarus. Mary Magdalene appears in the other three Gospels, and Luke also mentions the dinner at home with Mary and her sister Martha who became famously so caught up with all the busyness of the catering that she could not simply enjoy the presence of Jesus – although in Luke’s version Lazarus is not named and Martha is the host (Luke 10:38-42). As we’ve noted, it is also Luke (8:2) who identifies Mary Magdalene as the woman who had been possessed by seven demons, though he does not say that Mary the sister of Martha is the same woman.
Nor, indeed, does John, who does not use the name Mary Magdalene until he mentions her standing in the little faithful group close to the cross at Jesus’ crucifixion (19:25), as discussed below. But there are marked resemblances between the actions of these two Marys and I wonder whether John intends us to infer any link. There are strong parallels between Mary weeping at Jesus’ feet by Lazarus’s tomb (John 11) and Mary Magdalene weeping in the Easter garden (John 20). See also the parallel between Mary the sister of Martha anointing Jesus’ feet with nard – in preparation for His burial, Jesus says (John 12), and Mary Magdalene coming alone to the tomb on the first day of the week – without spices to anoint the body (John 20). Moreover, the very detailed account of Jesus’ resurrection appearance to Mary Magdalene suggests that John knew her well.
But John alone introduces us to Mary’s brother Lazarus and describes the miracle of Jesus raising him from the dead.
Much scholarly ink has been spent on the story of Lazarus. Was it, as some have argued, not a historical event, but an example of John speaking metaphorically about the life-giving power of Jesus? I have no problem with arguing for the historical truth of Lazarus being raised from the dead. This is a tipping point in John’s narrative: from this point, the Jewish establishment were determined to kill Jesus (11:45-53), and indeed to kill Lazarus also because many were following Jesus because of him (12:9-11). Richard Bauckham[5] interestingly suggests that the other Gospel writers might not have mentioned Lazarus because they did not want to turn the spotlight on him: he had become a wanted man.
Yet I wonder whether in the case of Lazarus we have an unusual example of a Synoptic writer taking a historical event and turning it into parable – rather than, as many scholars suggest in relation to both this and other points in his Gospel, John taking a metaphorical truth and turning it into narrative. The only other Lazarus mentioned in the New Testament appears in Luke, when Jesus tells the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the poor man covered in sores who dies and is carried into Abraham’s bosom. The rich man then dies and is in torment, and begs Abraham to send Lazarus to moisten his tongue – or at least to go and tell his brothers who are still on earth to repent. Abraham’s reply is chilling: ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead’ (Luke 16:19-31).
Lazarus, or its Jewish form Eleazar, was apparently not an unusual name in first-century Judaea,[6] but it appears nowhere else in the New Testament. The context of death and resurrection is central to both Luke’s and John’s passages. Is it possible that Luke is giving a coded message that, even before Jesus himself was raised from death, that very resurrection had happened – to the real Lazarus himself – and it had not been enough to convince those who did not wish to believe?
Each of these figures who appear only in John’s Gospel plays a unique part in his narrative. Jesus responds with equal directness and openness both to Nicodemus, the highly educated member of the Council, and to the woman by the well in Samaria, whose lifestyle is well outside the polite social conventions. His discussions with them open our eyes, as well as theirs, to the profundity of His mission and the gifts of rebirth in the Spirit and the water of life. Lazarus, undergoing his own death and resurrection, becomes a telling witness to Jesus’ own divinity and the power of God the Father.
Finally, let us note John’s relationship with two other personalities in the Gospel, who play important parts in the other Gospels too: Mary the mother of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. John never refers to Jesus’ mother by her name, but she is there at His first miracle at Cana (2:1-11) – nudging Jesus to act and encouraging the servants to do ‘whatever he tells you’. She makes her second and final appearance in John’s Gospel at the crucifixion, standing by the cross – with the disciple whom Jesus loved – as the dying Jesus entrusts them to each other’s care (19:25-27). We can only speculate how much time the mother and this Beloved Disciple had shared together during the years of Jesus’ ministry; how much they may have talked about their beloved Son and Lord. But we can believe from Jesus’ commission to them both that there was a mutual understanding and a specialness which would sustain them together after He left this earthly life.
Mary Magdalene, although she plays such a crucial part in John’s account of the resurrection, does not appear in his Gospel until she too stands by the cross (19:25). We noted above the resonances between Mary Magdalene and Mary the sister of Lazarus but, whether or not there was any connection, Mary Magdalene is certainly a significant person in her own right in these last chapters.
She is mentioned without introduction. This is unusual – when John speaks of someone for the first time he usually gives them a short introduction to place them in context: see his introductions of, for example, ‘Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother’ (1:40); ‘a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews’ (3:1); ‘A certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha’ (11:1), and so on. The fact that he simply mentions Mary Magdalene without any explanation to put her in context perhaps suggests that John can assume she is already known to his readers, either from the other Gospels or from tradition among the Christian community.
She appears again – for the last time – on Easter morning, in perhaps the most moving personal encounter in the whole of John’s Gospel, as her desperate weeping at the tomb turns to overwhelming joy as she recognises the resurrected Jesus (20:1-18). Death is conquered: her Teacher, our Lord, lives, now and for ever.
Over to you…
Some questions to ponder:
- 1. Which of Jesus’ disciples do you feel you know most about from reading the Gospels?
- 2. Read John 20:1-18. Do any of the details in the text help you visualise the events on that resurrection morning?
- 3. Read John 20:24-29. Does the experience of Thomas contribute to your understanding of the resurrection? How might you have reacted, if you were him?
A prayer
Dear Lord Jesus, be present in our lives. As You so intimately understood the needs of all the many people You encountered in Your earthly life, we know and trust that You understand us too. Help us to trust Your love and draw closer to You, day by day. Amen.
[1] Traditionally considered to be an alternative name for Bartholomew.
[2] Luke lists ‘Judas son of James’ among the twelve apostles (Luke 6:16): Matthew (10:3) and Mark (3:18) both list him as Thaddaeus, generally considered to be an alternative name for him.
[3] Emphasis mine.
[4] John’s is also the only Gospel to describe the woman taken in adultery (7:53 – 8:11). I am leaving that aside for present purposes: the consensus of scholarly opinion seems to consider it as a later interpolation, not found in the earliest manuscripts.
[5] Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, pp 195-196.
[6] See Bauckham, ibid, Chapter 4 for a fascinating analysis of Palestinian Jewish names.
