John, The Son of Zebedee: The Life of a Legend

by R. Alan Culpepper

Beginning with New Testament reports of John as fisherman and extending through the most recent Johannine scholarship, Culpepper gathers stories from church fathers, the apocryphal acts of John, medieval sources, Victorian poets, and nineteenth-and twentieth-century historians of earliest Christianity about the exploits and the death of this apostle. Culpepper's sweeping study examines a multitude of sources, many of which are widely dispersed and not previously available in English. Culpepper reveals images of John that suggest the power of historical tradition and legend. The resulting study is one of the most important sources of information about the development of Johannine legends, as well as one of the most successful efforts to overcome barriers that have traditionally separated New Testament exegesis from the study of the history of Christianity.

398 pages, Paperback

First published December 28, 1993

About the author

Dean of the McAfee School of Theology at Mercer University in Atlanta, Georgia. He is the author of numerous works including Anatomy of the Fourth Gospel: A Study in Literary Design (Fortress)

Reviews

[Jon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm something of a traditionalist in terms of who wrote what in the New Testament (it's the simplest answer); Culpepper, like so many modern scholars is not. He believes that John the apostle wrote none of the books attributed to him; rather, a community of early Christians wrote the works that were later associated with the apostle. Culpepper includes his arguments for why he believes this is so in his biography of John and raises a number of good questions for those who would take other positions. What makes this work so great, however, is that it isn't just an expression of Culpepper's views. Rather, it's an exploration of how the “myth” of John came to be. As such, it's a compendium of all the writing (alongside some other creative works) that has been done about John and that has been credited to John. It's probably the most complete and encyclopedic source on this subject around.

In discrete chapters, Culpepper explores who John actually was (What does Sons of Thunder mean? How was he a pillar of the church? Was he a priest or related to one? Did he know Greek?); who the Beloved Disciple, the author of the gospel of John, was (the apostle? the elder? Lazarus?); who the authors of the apocalypse and letters were (the apostle? the elder? a seer? the beloved disciple? a community?); how traditions in the second through fifth centuries tied or did not tie John to these writings; how John's reputation was burnished in various largely fictional Acts about his life and how much we can know about his life outside scripture (did he die a martyr? did he go to Ephesus? travel through Parthia?); the art and poetry about John; nineteenth-century scholarship on John; and twentieth-century scholarship on John (which scholars fall into which of three basic camps: John the apostle as author, John the Elder as author, or a Johannine community as author)?

For me, the chapter about the various mythic Acts was a slog. Culpepper provides a lengthy summary of many of them. That said, the summary is extremely useful as a reference and likely one I will return to. The chapter on art of poetry did not, for me, not all that useful, but it fits well with Culpepper's main goal, which is to provide a summary how John has been seen across the ages, even if these works never even purport to be accurate.

What in the end makes this such a great work is that while Culpepper has his own views on the subject, he provides full summaries of the points of views others have had. As such, one learns why some people claim the Beloved Disciple is John, why some claim the Elder never existed, why some claim John the apostle died early, and so on, even as one learns the views Culpepper himself holds. There really is so much that can be argued, and it's nice to have it all in one place.

[Spencer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Covers many of the trends and developments in Johannine scholarship as well as the early data about John and authorship. A great tool for anyone interested in the authorship and composition of the Gospel.