Apostle living at the time of the New Testament

John the apostle

Mark 1:19–20; John 13:23; 19:26–27; 21:20–24; Revelation 1:9

The son of Zebedee, a fisherman, called with his brother James; one of the inner three with Peter and James, and the disciple named in John’s Gospel as the one “whom he loved,” who leaned on Jesus at the Last Supper and stood by the cross, where Jesus entrusted his mother to him (Matthew 4:21–22; John 13:23; 19:26–27). Jesus called the brothers Sons of Thunder (Mark 3:17). He ran with Peter to the empty tomb (John 20:1–8).

Church tradition, from early times, holds that he wrote the Gospel of John, three letters, and Revelation, which he says he wrote on the island of Patmos “because of God’s Word and the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 1:9). This timeline places his last writings about AD 90–98.

Traditionally the youngest of the Twelve, the disciple whom Jesus loved, and the author of the Gospel of John, three letters, and Revelation, which he wrote in exile on Patmos (Revelation 1:9). Irenaeus says he lived at Ephesus into the reign of Trajan, which began in AD 98. His birth year isn't recorded; about AD 6 is a common estimate, and both ends of the bar are approximate.

Family

Father

Zebedee

Mother

Salome

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