I read that the beloved apostle of our Lord John rested peacefully. But it is written: “Peter, turning, sees the disciple following him, whom Jesus loved, and who at the supper, bowing to His breast, said: Lord! who will betray you? Seeing him, Peter says to Jesus: Lord! and what is he? Jesus says to him: if I want him to remain until I come, what do you care? you follow me. And this word flashed among the brethren that the disciple would not die. But Jesus did not tell him that he would not die, but: if I want him to remain until I come, what do you care? - This disciple also testifies of this, and wrote it; and we know that his testimony is true. Jesus did many other things; but if I could write about this in detail, then, I think, the world itself would not be able to accommodate the books written. Amen ”(John 21: 20-25). Does this mean that Saint John the Theologian is still alive and awaiting the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God? And where is it written about the peaceful end of the apostle?
Priest Afanasy Gumerov answers:
According to the holy martyr Hippolytus of Rome, Irenaeus of Lyons and Eusebius Pamphilus, the holy apostle and evangelist John the Theologian died under the emperor Trajan (98 - 117). According to the Alexandrian Chronicle of St. Apostle John the Theologian died in the 72nd year after the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ, being 100 years and 7 months old. All these testimonies by death mean the departure from earthly life. The circumstances surrounding this departure are rather mysterious. The apostle with 7 disciples left Ephesus and, reaching a certain place, ordered them to sit down. Then he left them and began to pray. Then he told them to dig a cruciform grave. “Take the earth, my mother, and cover me with it,” he told his disciples. They fulfilled and with great lamentation returned to Ephesus. When the Christians living in the city learned about this, they came and dug up the grave, but the body of the apostle was not found there.
Memorial days:
May 21 (May 8 old style)- the day of the annual procession at the place of his burial of thin pink dust, which healed from diseases;
July 13 (June 30) - on the day of the Council of the glorious and all-praised saints of the twelve apostles.
October 9 / September 26) - the day of the repose of the Apostle John
WHAT DOES THE HOLY APOSTLE AND EVANGELIST JOHN BOGOSLOV HELP
The Holy Apostle and Evangelist John is the patron saint of all those involved in the information sphere: publishers, writers, working on the Internet.
The saint also received the nickname the apostle of love, prayers in front of his icon help to find good friends, find a strong family and further protect it from quarrels, conflicts and the evil intentions of other people.
Fishermen pray to the Apostle John for protection from accidents on the water and for a good catch.
It must be remembered that icons or saints do not “specialize” in any particular area. It will be right when a person turns with faith in the power of God, and not in the power of this icon, this saint or prayer.
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THE LIFE OF THE APOSTLE JOHN THE BOGOSLOV
The Holy Apostle and Evangelist John, along with his brother James, followed the Lord Jesus Christ, when the Savior called them to follow him on Lake Gennesaret. The brothers left their ancestral home and became apostles, disciples of Christ, dedicating their lives to Him.
John did not part with the Teacher, he was one of the disciples close to Jesus, was a witness of many of His miracles. The Holy Apostle became one of three people who witnessed the Transfiguration of the Lord on Mount Tabor.
The disciple was with Jesus Christ, and when they seized Him and led him to the court of iniquity, he followed Him along His Way of the Cross. He was there when the judges questioned the Lord, all this time John's heart was full of sorrow. Weeping with the Mother of God at the foot of the Cross, John was told the words of the Crucified Lord about his Mother:
“Behold thy mother” (John 19, 26, 27).
After the ascension of Christ, the Apostle John the Theologian until the very Dormition, was in Jerusalem, caring for the Mother of God, as a faithful and loving son of Her.
After Saint Mary left her earthly life, the Apostle John had a lot, according to which he was to go to preach the Gospel in Ephesus and in other cities of Asia Minor.
Together with their student Prokhor, they boarded a ship that got caught in a storm and sank. All the travelers were saved except the apostle John. Prokhor was very worried, because he lost his mentor and spiritual father. He had to go to Ephesus alone. For about two weeks Prokhor walked along the seashore, and then one day, he found a man lying by the water, whom he recognized as his mentor. John spent fourteen whole days on the high seas, but he remained alive, God saved his life.
After all the adventures that ended happily, the teacher and disciple went together to Ephesus, where the apostle told the pagans about Jesus Christ. The number of people who began to believe in Christ increased, literally every day, because during these sermons miracles often happened, confirming his words about the Savior.
At the same time, by order of the emperor Nero (56 - 68 years), persecutions began against people who had adopted the Christian faith. The Apostle John was seized and taken to Rome for trial, where he was sentenced to death.
By order of the executioners, John was given a cup of poison to drink, having drunk a deadly drink, he remained alive - the Lord kept His disciple.
Then the apostle was thrown into a cauldron with boiling oil, but he continued to live.
After these atrocious ordeals, John was exiled to the island of Patmos (now a Greek island in the Aegean Sea), where he lived for many years.
On the island, the Apostle John continued to preach Christian teachings, which attracted local residents and again miracles happened in his sermons.
With God's help, he drove out demons from numerous idols' temples, healed many sick. Local sorcerers-sorcerers opposed the apostle in his teaching, but Saint John, with the help of God's grace sent down on him, destroyed all their demonic tricks.
Once, in order to pass a three-day fast, the Apostle John, together with Prokhor, went to a desert mountain. When they began to read prayers, thunder rumbled, the mountain trembled, and Prokhor fell to the ground in fright. The Apostle John helped him to get up, and ordered him to write down what he would say.
“I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, says the Lord, Who and Who is Be and Coming, the Almighty” (Rev. 1, 8).
In these words, the Holy Spirit of God spoke through the Apostle, about the mysteries of the fate of the Church and the end of the world, commanding that John should write the Book of what he had heard. So, around the year 67, the Book of Revelations (Apocalypse) was born.
The Apostle John was the fourth person to write the Holy Gospel; three Gospels had already been written before him. After reading the writings of other evangelists, he sees that they are preaching the gospel of Christ's incarnation, and they did not say anything clear and vivid about His eternal existence, therefore the Apostle John announces the heavenly birth of Christ. In his Gospel, he clarified and added what other evangelists said vaguely or generally kept silent.
For many years the Apostle John was in exile on the island, finally, having received the long-awaited freedom, he returns to Ephesus, where he continues to denounce the false teachers of Christianity and is engaged in enlightening people, calling to love the Lord and one another, thereby fulfilling Christ's commandments.
The three Epistles written by John talk about what love for their neighbors is, that without love people cannot become closer to God. For these labors, the Church spoke so about the Theologian John - “ apostle of love«.
REPRESENTATION OF JOHN THE BOGOSLOV
The Holy Apostle John died when he was almost one hundred and five years old, having significantly outlived almost all the contemporaries of Jesus Christ.
When the time came for the Apostle John to return to God, the elder with seven disciples went out of the city. He asked them to dig a grave for him in the form of a cross, in which he lay down and ordered to cover him with earth. The disciples cried, but fearing to disobey their teacher, they covered him with a cloth and complied with the request. Learning about this, the other disciples came to the burial place of John and began to excavate the grave, but they did not find anything in it.
Every year on May 21 (May 8, old style), fine dust appeared from the grave of the apostle and theologian John, healing people from diseases. In honor of this miracle, the Church also celebrates the memory of the holy apostle on this day. John the Evangelist.
"Sons of Thunder" - this is how Jesus Christ called his disciple John and his brother, pointing to their flaming and burning form of Christian love, which the apostle preached John the Evangelist.
GREAT
We magnify you, the apostle of Christ and the Evangelist John the Theologian, and we honor your sickness and your labors, you labored in the gospel of Christ in your image.
VIDEO
The Church calls Saint John the Apostle of Love, for he constantly taught that without love a person cannot approach God. Love is the main feature of his spiritual image. The entire life of the apostle is the service of Love.
Holy apostle and evangelist John the Evangelist, John Zebedee (Hebrew Yochanan), was the brother of Saint James, the son of Zebedee and Salome. The birthplace of John the Theologian was Bethsaida. Zavedei had some fortune, had workers, was engaged in fishing and was not an insignificant member of the Jewish community. Salome was the daughter of the first marriage of Saint Joseph the Betrothed; she is also mentioned among the wives who served the Lord with their property. Thus, John was the nephew of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He was originally a disciple of John the Baptist. He was the first to follow the Savior together with Andrew the First-Called. However, John the Theologian became a permanent disciple of the Lord after a miraculous catch of fish on Lake Gennesaret, when the Savior Himself called him along with his brother Jacob.
The Apostle John was especially loved by the Savior for sacrificial love and virgin purity. Together with Peter and his brother James, the Apostle John was honored with a special closeness to the Savior, he was with Him in the most important and solemn moments of His earthly life. The Apostle John was present at the resurrection of Jairus's daughter, saw the Transfiguration of the Lord, heard a conversation about the signs of His second coming, was a witness to His Gethsemane prayer. During the Last Supper, the apostle John fell to the breast of Jesus. Church tradition unanimously identifies John the Theologian with the disciple "whom Jesus loved." "Chest" in Church Slavonic - "persi", probably from here comes the name of John the Theologian confidant of the Savior, later this word becomes a household word for a person, especially someone close.
According to legend, John the Theologian, along with Peter, followed the Savior after his arrest and, using his old acquaintance, went himself and led Peter into the courtyard of the house of the high priest Anna. John the Theologian relentlessly followed the Teacher along the entire Way of the Cross, grieving with all his heart. Of all the apostles, only John the Theologian is said to have stood on Calvary at the cross of the Savior, not caring about his own safety. At the foot of the Cross, he wept with the Mother of God and heard the words of the Crucified Lord addressed to Her from the height of the Cross: “ Wife, behold thy son"And to him:" Behold your Mati". From that time on, the Apostle John, like a loving son, took care of the Blessed Virgin Mary and served Her until Her Dormition, never leaving Jerusalem.
He was characterized by calmness and depth of contemplation, combined with ardent fidelity, and tender and boundless love bordered with ardor and even some harshness. His heartfelt impulses sometimes reached such violent zeal that Christ was forced to temper them, as if they did not agree with the spirit of the new teaching. It is believed that for this fiery zeal, the Savior called the Apostle John and his brother James "sons of thunder" (Boanerges). For him, there was no duality. He believed that one can belong either to Christ or to the devil, there can be no middle state. At the same time, he displayed a rare modesty and, despite his special position as a beloved disciple, he did not stand out from the number of other disciples of the Savior.
According to legend, after the Dormition of the Mother of God, the Apostle John, according to the lot that fell to him, went to Ephesus and other cities of Asia Minor to preach the Gospel, taking with him his disciple Prokhor. They set off in a ship that was wrecked in a violent storm. After a while, all participants in the voyage, except for John the Theologian, were thrown ashore by waves, and he, having spent about two weeks in the depths of the sea, was miraculously found by Prokhor on the shore not far from the city of Ephesus, alive and well.
While in the city of Ephesus, the Apostle John unceasingly preached the teachings of Christ to the pagans. His preaching was accompanied by numerous and great miracles, so that the number of those who believed increased every day.
In Ephesus, the apostles John and Prokhor were hired to work in a public bathhouse, owned by an angry and rude woman named Romana. According to pagan custom, a young man and a girl were buried in the base of this bath. Since then, a devil has lived in it, and every year he drowned someone. That year a lad named Domn was drowned. The father could not bear the death of his son and died of grief. Romana, out of her malice, accused John of everything, who worked as a stoker. She began to shout that the young man had died from the intoxication, and in the end declared that if John did not resurrect Domnus, he would die himself. The horror of Romana was indescribable when John, having prayed, resurrected not only the young man, but also his father. Then he tied the demon in the name of Christ and drove him out of the city. This miracle shocked Romana and the inhabitants of Ephesus so much that many of the townspeople immediately turned to Christ.
Under the emperor Domitian (81-96), the Apostle John was summoned to Rome as the only surviving apostle, and by order of this persecutor of Christians he was sentenced to death. The apostle drank the cup with deadly poison offered to him and remained alive according to the word of Christ: “and if they drink anything deadly, it will not harm them” (Mark 16:18), then he was thrown into boiling oil, but the power of God here kept him unharmed.
After that, the Apostle John was exiled to prison on the semi-desert island of Patmos in the Aegean Sea. On the ship were royal nobles, the son of one of them, playing, fell into the sea and drowned. The nobles began to ask John for help, but he refused them, having learned that they honor the pagan gods. But in the morning, out of pity, John prayed to God, and the wave threw the young man onto the ship.
Apostle John the Evangelist preaching on the island of Patmos during the Bacchanalia (F. Moller. 1856)
On the island of Patmos, the sorcerer Kynops lived, who communicated with unclean spirits. The locals revered Kynops as a god. When the apostle John began to preach Christ, the inhabitants of the island called the sorcerer Kinops to take revenge on John. The apostle exposed the devilry of Kynops, and through the prayer of John, the sea wave swallowed the sorcerer. The people who worshiped Kinops waited three days for him by the sea, exhausted from hunger and thirst, and three children died. The Apostle John, having prayed, healed the sick and raised the dead. His preaching, accompanied by many miracles, attracted all local residents who received holy baptism to him.
Once on Patmos, while praying in a secluded cave, he received a revelation about the fate of the world. Tradition describes this event as follows: “The mountain shook, thunder rumbled, Prokhor fell to the ground in fear. The Apostle John lifted him up and ordered him to write down what he would say. “I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, says the Lord, Who is and Who is Be and Coming, the Almighty,” the Spirit of God proclaimed through the holy apostle. So, around the year 67, the Book of Revelation (Apocalypse) of the holy Apostle John the Theologian was written, symbolically describing the events that should occur at the end of times. This is a special book full of mystical depth, power and imagery. Of all the books of the New Testament, one is not read aloud at Orthodox services. The text of the Revelation of John the Theologian is not included in the annual circle of worship. People have been pondering over the symbols of the Apocalypse for centuries, and yet its meaning will be fully revealed only during the Second Coming of Christ.
Four horsemen of the Apocalypse
The cave in which the Apostle received the Revelation is now located under the buildings of the monastery of the Apocalypse and is a temple in honor of the Apostle John the Theologian. To this day, in the cave, pilgrims are shown the place where the Apostle's head rested during sleep, as well as the place where his hand usually lay. In the ceiling of the cave, one can see the same triple crevice through which he heard a "loud voice, like a trumpet," announcing the revelation.
Monastery of St. John the Theologian on Patmos
The walls of the monastery of St. Apostle John the Theologian on the island of Patmos
Inside the monastery of St. John the Theologian
Cave of the apocalypse
After Domitian's death, the Apostle John returned from exile to Ephesus, where he wrote the Gospel. This was important because by the end of the first century, several active religious movements had spread in the Christian world that denied the divine essence of the Savior.
Since ancient times, the Gospel of John has been called spiritual, it mainly contains the Lord's conversations about the deepest truths of faith - about the incarnation of the Son of God, about the Trinity, about the redemption of mankind, about spiritual rebirth, about the grace of the Holy Spirit and about Communion. From the first words of the Gospel, John raises the believer's thought to the height of the divine origin of the Son of God from God the Father: "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was to God and God was the Word." (John 1: 1) The apostle John expresses the purpose of writing his Gospel as follows: “This is written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and, by believing, have life in His name (John 20:31).
In addition to the Gospel and the Apocalypse, the Apostle John wrote three Epistles, which were included in the New Testament books, as Cathedrals (that is, district letters). In them, he preaches love for God and neighbors, himself being an example of love for those around him.
Church Tradition has preserved a touching story that shows with what love his heart was filled. When visiting one of the churches of Asia Minor, the Apostle John, among those listening to his word, noticed a young man distinguished by extraordinary talents, and entrusted him with the special care of the local bishop. Subsequently, this young man became close to bad comrades, became corrupted and became the leader of a gang of robbers. The apostle of love, having learned about this from the bishop, went to the mountains, where robbers were raging, and was captured by them. He did not try to free himself and only said: “Take me to your leader. I came to see him. " At the sight of the Apostle John, he was extremely embarrassed and rushed to flee from him. John rushed after him: "Son, son, that you are running from your father!" With words of love, he encouraged him, he himself brought him to church, shared with him the labors of repentance and did not calm down until he completely reconciled him with God.
In the last years of his life, the Apostle spoke only one admonition: "Children, love one another." The disciples asked him: "Why do you repeat the same thing?" The apostle replied: “This is the most essential commandment. If you fulfill it, then you will fulfill all of Christ's law. "
But Saint John's love for people turned into ardent jealousy when he met false teachers who corrupted the faithful. Once in a public bath, he met the heretic Kerinth, who rejected the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. "Let's get out of here as soon as possible," the apostle said to a disciple who was with him, "I'm afraid this building might collapse on us."
The Apostle John the Theologian died in Ephesus at the beginning of the 2nd century, presumably at the age of one hundred and five years. The circumstances of the death of the Apostle John are unusual and even mysterious. At the insistence of the Apostle John, seven of his closest disciples buried him in a cruciform grave, and alive, covering his face with a cloth: "... attract my mother, cover me!" They did not dare to violate the teacher's request. However, after a while, when the grave was opened, John's body was not there. Prokhor writes: “Then we remembered the words of the Lord, spoken to the Apostle Peter:“ If I want him to abide until I come, what do you [until that]? ” (John 21, 22) This event, as it were, confirmed the assumption of some Christians that the Apostle John will not die, but will remain alive until the Second Coming of Christ and will expose the Antichrist. Corruption did not touch the body of the apostle - only the Theotokos, Elijah and Enoch were rewarded with this.
Liturgy at the burial place of John the Theologian (Turkey)
Prokhor also reports that every year on May 8, for many years, the tomb exuded myrrh - a thin layer of dust (or "manna") - and people were healed of diseases through the prayers of the holy Evangelist John.
The eagle is a symbol of the high soaring of theological thought - an iconographic sign of the evangelist John the Theologian. Of the disciples of Christ, only to him the Holy Church gave the name of the Theologian, as a secret bearer of the fate of God.
Apostle John the Theologian. Full-height sketch for the painting of the XXS
Troparion, voice 2
Beloved to the Apostle Christ God, / hasten to deliver the unrequited people, / accepts thee who is falling, / Who fell on the Persian who was received; / Pray for him, the Theologian, / and the impending darkness of the tongues to drive away, asking us for peace and great mercy.
Kontakion, voice 2
Your majesty, virgin, who is the story? / Quench miracles, and pour out healings, / and pray for our souls, / as a theologian and friend of Christ.
PATMOS (2006)
Year of issue: 2006
Genre: Documentary
Country: Russia
Duration: 00:33:06
Director: Alexander Bogatyrev
About the film:
The film is a pilgrimage. Patmos is a small Greek island in the Aegean Sea, one of the South Sporades. In ancient times, Patmos was a place of exile among the Romans. According to legend, the Apostle John the Theologian was exiled here and in one of the caves he had a revelation that made up the content of the Apocalypse.
On Patmos there is one of the largest in Greece monastery of St. John the Evangelist, founded by Saint Christodulus in 1088. It contains a rich collection of manuscripts, a description of which was published by the monk Sakkelion in Athens.
In the monasteries of Patmos there is the head of the Apostle Thomas and the relics of many saints. Those who come to Patmos for the first time leave with tears in their eyes from the cave of the Apocalyse and the monastery of St. John the Evangelist. Many remain to live on the island forever, having converted to Orthodoxy. This is what this film is about. An extraordinary atmosphere of spirituality and at the same time the feeling that it is here on Patmos, where the Apostle John the Theologian lived and wrote the Apocalypse, that they are at the origins of faith. The film tells about the architecture of the monasteries of this island, its history and sights.
Recently, the publishing house "Nicaea" published the first volume of the new series "Saints in History. Lives of the Saints in a New Format ”. The author of the book, Olga Klyukina, made an attempt to recreate the biographies of saints from different eras on the basis of their own writings, preserved historical documents and testimonies of contemporaries. The first book of the series covers the 1st – 3rd centuries and is devoted to the era of persecution of Christians and the formation of the Church. Today, on the day of remembrance, with the kind permission of the Nicaea publishing house, we are publishing an excerpt dedicated to the beloved disciple of Christ.
Let us love not in word or language, but in deed and truth.
(1 John 3:18)
There are people who are gifted from birth with a special mentality and soul. They are called differently: sublime natures, poets, dreamers, "out of this world" - the main thing does not change from this.
Like everyone else, they walk the earth, go about their daily activities, but at the same time their soul hovers somewhere far away, closer to heaven, and does not want to belong to the earthly. These people more often than others see unusual dreams, their inner life is filled with symbols and secret signs, they only hear the call they know ...
Such a person was the apostle and evangelist.
But while in Jerusalem his name was simply John Zebedee, and no one was surprised that it was he who walked in front of the unusual funeral procession with a white lily in his hand. The faces of the others were also not so much sad as joyful and bright, as if everyone had gathered for a holiday.
And the Jerusalem Christians knew why: on the last earthly journey, or rather, to heaven, to eternal life, they escorted Mary, the Mother of Christ. And the lily in the hand of John Zebedee was not an ordinary flower, but a message from the Garden of Eden.
According to legend, the Mother of God was walking in the garden, when the Archangel Gabriel again appeared to Her and announced that the time had come to meet the Son. And in confirmation that they were waiting for Her in the heavenly palaces, he presented a lily from the Garden of Eden. And Mary ordered that on the day of Her birth for the sky this lily was carried by John Zebedee ...
John was the youngest of Christ's disciples, younger than the other eleven apostles. Exalted, pure youth, beloved disciple of Jesus.
In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we hardly hear the voice of young John. Other apostles asked questions, doubted something, did rash acts and then tried to explain them. We will not hear a shocked sigh from John's lips even on Mount Tabor, at the moment of the Transfiguration of Christ - Peter will speak for everyone, as usual.
John Zebedee was more silent, listening to the Teacher adoringly, but at the same time he remembered everything, everything. And in his Gospel he gave us such details that cannot be found in other testimonies about Christ.
Only from time to time did John enter into a conversation - and even then, mainly, together with his older brother James.
There are different opinions as to why Jesus gave the Zebedee brothers this nickname: sons of thunder(Mark 3:17). Undoubtedly, first of all, they were children of thunder in strength of mind. And on the way, the brothers talked a lot and loudly among themselves. Like all disciples of Christ, they were very different in character, and in age too.
The active, determined Jacob Zebedee was the first of the twelve apostles to be martyred in Jerusalem. All out loud, contemplative John will give the world the Gospel and the great revelation from God - the Apocalypse. The Evangelist Matthew told us such an interesting episode. Once the mother of James and John - Salome, who also walked with them, approached Jesus, and, bowing, made a request, which she could not even clearly explain right away. As the Gospel says about it, asking for something from Him(Matthew 20:20).
- What do you want?(Matthew 20:21) - Christ asked the woman.
Then Salome pointed to her sons and asked that in the Kingdom of Heaven they sit closest to Jesus: one on His right hand, and the other on His left. A loving mother decided to take care in advance so that her sons would feel good there too.
In the Gospel of Mark, this conversation is described in a slightly different way. Not Salome, but the brothers themselves turn to Jesus, approaching from afar their, as they themselves understand, not quite an ordinary request:
- Teacher! We want you to do for us what we ask(Mark 10:35), they say.
So children often turn to kind, loving parents, knowing that they will not be punished for this: they say, first you promise that you will do, and then we will say ...
- What do you want me to do to you?(Mark 10: 36) - Christ asked the "sons of thunder".
- Let us sit with You, one on the right hand, and the other on the left in Your glory.(Mark 10:37).
- Don't know what you are asking... (Mark 10:38) - Jesus said and explained that the places in the Kingdom of Heaven do not depend on Him: there everyone will sit, who is destined(Mark 10:40).
Hearing about this request, ten other disciples, as the Evangelist Mark writes, murmured against the Zebedee brothers. It was then that the words of Jesus sounded that the one who wants to be the main one - let him become a servant to everyone, and the one striving for primacy - let him be a slave to everyone.
In this scene, not only the warm, trusting relationship of Christ with the disciples is striking, but also the fact that on the way to Jerusalem the Zebedee brothers had a lively conversation (and perhaps even argued among themselves if the mother intervened) not about something else, but about Kingdom of Heaven! For them, this is the same reality as for other travelers - a home at the end of the journey, where food and lodging await them. This simple, unmistakable faith is precisely what distinguished the disciples of Christ - be it a fisherman or a tax collector - from the many skeptics and clever people.
Or maybe the brothers' question was generally needed in order for Christ to make the most important confession about His mission on earth:
- The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His soul for the redemption of many(Mark 10:45).
Another time, the Zebedee brothers were outraged that the inhabitants of a Samaritan village had closed the gates when Christ wanted to stay with them for the night. This attitude towards the Master shocked John so much that he asked Jesus to allow him to bring down fire from heaven on the ungrateful Samaritans. Like the other eleven disciples, he also received the gift of miracles from Christ. But the Teacher forbade him to do this, saying: You don't know what kind of spirit you are; for the Son of Man came not to destroy the souls of men, but to save... (Luke 9: 55-56).
John's impulse coming from his heart shows his boundless love for Christ, as well as his youthful maximalism - suddenly his age somehow immediately betrays ...
In the Gospel of Luke, another conversation between Jesus and John Zebedee is described. Once the apostles on the way met a stranger who did not walk with them, but on his own, but also in the name of Jesus was casting out demons. The apostles forbade him and went on. But this meeting did not give rest to the young, impressionable John, and on the way he asked Christ: did they do the right thing with that person? As it turned out, John doubted not in vain.
Jesus said: do not forbid, because whoever is not against you is for you(Luke 9: 50).
Thus, all the apostles learned another lesson, this time through the sensitivity of John.
And here is how the very first meeting of Christ with John Zebedee took place.
Once, together with his fellow countryman and friend Andrew (apparently a little older in age), John went to the Jordan River to see the prophet who appeared from the desert, about whom everyone around was talking.
John the Baptist called the people to repentance, baptized with water and spoke mysterious words: after him the One who will baptize with the Holy Spirit(Mark 1: 8).
We do not know if John was present at the time of Jesus' baptism, but he could hear a lot about it from others. People who came to be baptized by John in Jordan entered the river and stood for a long time up to their chests in the water, confessing their sins, after which they took a cleansing rite. Jesus, as the Gospel says, “immediately came out of the water” - He was completely clean from all sin! So the prophet John the Forerunner, when Jesus passed by, pointed at Him and said the same: behold the Lamb of God(John 1: 36) - that is, pure and sinless. Andrew and John, who were standing next to him at that moment, heard this and followed Jesus.
Probably, they themselves did not fully understand then why and where they were going - this is how they move at night, from darkness to light, and this was such a Light that not everyone could see, but only the pure in heart. The young men followed Christ in silence, not knowing how to turn to Him or call out to Him.
Then Christ Himself turned to them and asked:
- What do you want?
- Rabbi, where do you live?(John 1: 38) - asked the less timid Andrew, who is now called the First-Called, since Jesus was the first to call him. And the very appeal “rabbi” (which means “teacher”) indicates that the young men have already chosen a mentor for themselves.
- Go and see(John 1: 39), Jesus told them.
He brought Andrew and John to the house, where they talked for a long time: from noon to the very night.
Probably, it was an amazing conversation if Andrei immediately ran to his older brother, Simon, and announced: We found the Messiah(John 1: 41).
“They found the Messiah” - it means that they immediately and unconditionally recognized in Jesus that very King, the Deliverer from slavery. And they were not at all embarrassed that the Messiah met them without a royal retinue, in simple clothes and brought them to an ordinary house on the banks of the Jordan ... “We found” means that John was of the same opinion.
To him, according to tradition, Jesus Christ was a relative on the maternal side. It is believed that the mother of James and John - Salome - was the daughter of Joseph the Betrothed from Nazareth, who, being a widow, took the Virgin Mary as his wife. It is about such as Andrew and John Zebedee that Jesus Christ will say in the Sermon on the Mount: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God... (Matthew 5: 8).
When the prophet John the Baptist was arrested, his disciples and the curious were forced to go home. At that time Jesus retired into the wilderness, where, by fasting for forty days and struggling with temptations, he was preparing to go out to preach.
One can imagine with what impatience John Zebedee was waiting for a new meeting with the Messiah. Born into a fisherman's family, he, as usual, helped his father Zebedee and his older brother fish in the Sea of Galilee, while he himself waited, waited ...
And one day Jesus Christ really appeared on the shore. Only now the "rabbi" was walking not alone, but surrounded by a large crowd of people - everyone was pushing, shouting, trying to touch at least the hem of His clothes, asking Him to heal them, to perform a miracle.
Jesus noticed on the shore an empty boat belonging to Simon, Andrew's older brother, and entered it. Fishermen had just recently landed and were shaking out empty nets. Christ asked Simon to help him to shake off the shore a little - at a distance He could at least speak with the people. And the one who readily put on the oars did not yet know how far away he was going - this was none other than the Apostle Peter.
Among those who listened to Christ speaking from the boat were the fisherman Zebedee and his two sons, James and John, who were dismantling and mending nets on the shore.
But then the people began to disperse on the sly, and then Christ performed a purely "fishing" miracle for Simon. He showed where to cast the seine in order to catch a lot of fish. Indeed, the catch turned out to be so large that the nets could not stand it. The astonished Simon called other fishermen for help, and Zebedee's boat was also filled to the brim with fish.
After that, Jesus called Simon and his brother Andrew to follow Him - and they became His first disciples.
Then Christ went to the boat, where John and his brother were mending their nets, and said the mysterious words: I will make you fishers of people... (Matthew 4:19). And both brothers of Zebedee, leaving their nets, their catch, and all their former lives, also followed Jesus.
From that moment on, John Zebedev will follow his beloved "rabbi" everywhere for three years. He, too, was among His chosen twelve disciples, forever choosing for himself a virgin way of life. And perhaps, for him, whose soul was little attached to the ordinary, it was even easier for others to understand that Christ came in order to bind the earthly and heavenly, to show people the way to the Kingdom of Heaven.
It is no coincidence that the eagle became a symbolic image of the evangelist John the Theologian - a symbol of the high soaring of his feelings and thoughts.
A mysterious face is often found in the Gospel of John: one of the disciples ... whom Jesus loved(John 13:23), and another disciple that Jesus loved(John 20: 2). There were many discussions about this, but now almost no one doubts: the apostle and evangelist John, out of modesty, wrote about himself in this way.
And it turns out that the one who wrote this(John 21:24) The Gospel was the only one who remained in the Garden of Gethsemane when Christ was taken into custody and all the other apostles fled in fear. Three more times the cock did not crow - as the Apostle Peter denied Christ, saying that he was not familiar with Him, of which he would repent until the end of his life. But in the courtyard of the high priest there was another silent disciple. Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus; This disciple was familiar to the high priest and entered with Jesus into the high priest's court. And Peter stood outside the door. Then another disciple, who was familiar to the high priest, went out and spoke to the door of the door, and brought Peter in. Here the servant of the doorkeeper says to Peter: Are you not one of the disciples of this Man? He said no(John 18: 15-17).
Probably, in the same silence, John walked among those who accompanied Christ to the place of execution on Calvary, watched how the Teacher was nailed to the cross and hoisted between two robbers, how the soldiers divided His clothes - he heard every heavy sigh of Christ - but even then not in than he doubted.
And when Christ said, pointing with his eyes to the Mother of God, he must be very quiet, because any word for the one nailed to the cross was given a terrible pain: Behold, your mother(John 19:27) - of course, John immediately understood this command. Until the last day of the earthly life of the Most Holy Theotokos, he will take care of Her as his own son.
Later, when the Risen Christ appeared on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, the disciple Jesus loved(John 21: 7), he was the first to recognize his "rabbi" and said to Peter: it's lord(John 21: 7). During that meal on the beach, when the Apostle Peter was forgiven and heard about his future, he asked Jesus: what awaits John?
If I want him to remain until I come, what do you care?(John 21:22) - sounded in response.
These words were interpreted in such a way that Christ gave John immortality, and His beloved disciple will never die. But John himself did not share this opinion, uploading his Gospel with these words:
And this word flashed among the brethren that the disciple would not die. But Jesus did not tell him that he would not die, but: if I want him to remain until I come, what do you care? This disciple testifies of this and wrote it; and we know that his testimony is true. Jesus did many other things; but if I wrote about it in detail, then, I think, the world itself would not be able to accommodate the books written(John 21: 23-25).
After the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles, John, along with others, took an active part in the organization of the Jerusalem Church. At this time, he became the right hand of the active, often speaking before the people of the Apostle Peter: together they walked to the place of preaching, together they appeared before the court, together they sat in prison. Together with Peter, they went to Samaria to lay hands on the new converts. Jerusalem Christians will respectfully refer to John as "the pillar of the Church."
A few years after the Ascension of Christ, the Apostle Matthew wrote the first Gospel. Many will rewrite and distribute this text, but the authorship of its first translation from Hebrew into Greek is attributed to John Zebedee as well.
Over the years, in Jerusalem, at the behest of King Herod Agrippa, his elder brother, the Apostle James, was executed, convicted on the basis of a false witness's denunciation.
According to legend, Jacob Zebedee calmly listened to the verdict and continued to testify about Christ. His courage struck the false witness so much that he repented of his deed at the trial, although this did not help the defendant. And when the apostle was taken to execution, the accuser fell at his feet and began to beg to forgive him. Jacob embraced him and said: “Peace be with you, my son; peace and forgiveness to you. "
The accuser announced that he also believed in Christ, and was executed along with the apostle. He did not even have time to accept the rite of baptism, but received "baptism in blood" - and there will be thousands of such Christians in the first centuries.
After the Dormition of the Mother of God, John Zebedee will leave Jerusalem forever.
When Christ's disciples were just getting ready to go with missionary preaching to different parts of the world and drew lots, the Apostle John got Asia Minor. And now the time has come for him to fulfill his mission. Taking Prokhor's disciple with him, the Apostle John boarded a ship, and they set off for the shores of Asia Minor.
During the sea voyage, they faced serious trials, which John, who had the gift of clairvoyance, had foreseen in advance. He immediately told Prokhor that misfortune awaited them at sea. And so it happened: not far from the southern shores of Asia Minor, the ship was caught in a storm and was wrecked. The passengers managed to escape on the ship's boards and reach the coast near Seleucia. And only one of them remained in the depths of the sea - it was John ...
An interesting detail has been preserved in the Greek version of the life of the Apostle John. Learning that he got Asia Minor by lot, John received the news with a heavy heart, as he felt a strong fear of sea voyages. Falling to his knees before the apostles, he confessed to them his cowardice. The apostles asked James, the first bishop of Jerusalem, to pray for John's forgiveness, after which everyone dispersed in peace. But then John did not have to leave Jerusalem, because he was entrusted with an equally important mission - taking care of Mary, the Mother of Christ.
Prokhor shed many tears about the Apostle John who disappeared into the sea. But he did not lose hope and continued to pray for his salvation. All this time, Prokhor did not leave the coast, slowly moving from Seleucia to the west and stopping for the night in coastal villages. And one morning, an exhausted man on the board was carried ashore by a huge wave. It was John, who had been at sea for almost two weeks, but by the will of God remained alive.
Prokhor fled to the nearest village, brought bread and water, and when John gained a little strength, they set off together and walked through the whole of Asia Minor.
The Apostle John with Prokhor settled in the western port city of Ephesus, where the Apostle Paul had lived shortly before, and, therefore, by that time there was a Christian community.
According to the life, in Ephesus, John and Prokhor were hired as workers for the maintainer of public baths named Romana. John had to heat the stove, and Prokhor had to carry water. In this house, they had to endure a lot from the evil disposition of Romana, but John through prayer performed the miracle of raising from the dead the young man Domnus and his father Dioscorides, the city elder, who died of grief. After that, both father and son, and Romana herself believed in Christ and were baptized.
Another case is described, how on the feast of the goddess Diana (or Artemis of Ephesus) revered in Ephesus, the Apostle John admonished the pagans. When the people gathered in the temple, he stood near the statue of Artemis and began to talk about the fact that people should not worship idols. The Ephesians flew into a rage, began throwing stones at John, but not one hit him - everyone flew away from the statue and fell into the throwers themselves. Then the apostle John raised his hands to heaven and began to pray. And soon such unbearable heat came that the majority of those who had gathered in the square in front of the temple hastened to disperse to their homes.
Some researchers believe that from Ephesus the apostles soon moved to Rome, from where, during the persecution of Nero, the Apostle John was exiled to the island of Patmos.
Others - and they are still the majority - adhere to the version that the Apostle John was sent into exile to Patmos much later, during the reign of the Roman emperor Domitian, which means that before that he had lived peacefully in Ephesus for almost thirty years.
The life of Christian communities in the first centuries was built according to their own rules, which in many respects differed from those of today.
If a person expressed a desire to become a Christian, he was introduced to the teacher (he could be both a priest and a layman), who talked with him in detail: he asked about the person's lifestyle, the reasons that prompted him to believe in Christ, etc. recognized as worthy, accepted among the catechumens, a special group preparing to be baptized and enter the Church.
The catechumens were not allowed to participate in the common worship and the Eucharist, since they had not yet received baptism. Typically, the announcement time lasted two or three years, allowing everyone to make a final and informed choice. Those worthy of baptism were called differently - the elect, or the enlightened. For some time they were in this rank, and at last they were solemnly baptized on the night of Easter or on the night of Pentecost - usually on these two holidays. Baptism was also combined with the anointing with a special oil (myrrh), consecrated on the throne.
For the first week, the new converts wore white robes, and everyone in the community treated them like birthday people.
Every Sunday Christians gathered together for divine services - celebrating the day on which Jesus Christ was resurrected. At the liturgy, the Holy Scriptures were read and interpreted, then the believers prayed together and sang psalms. It happened that during the divine service someone began to prophesy or “speak in tongues,” and such events were given great importance - they were signs of the real presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church.
Finally, the believers received communion. The sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ - the Eucharist - has always been and remains the main and most solemn moment of worship. In the first centuries, the Eucharist, or "breaking of bread", was carried out at a common table, as a remembrance of the Last Supper, during which Christ taught this sacrament to his disciples.
Since early Christian times, each local church has had its own treasury for helping the poor, receiving pilgrims, burying the homeless, and other charitable purposes. During times of persecution, Christians sent donations to neighboring ruined churches or to brothers sentenced to mines or exile. As a rule, at the end of each Sunday meeting, a collection was made in favor of the needy - everyone gave as much as they could.
An important event in the life of the community was a meeting with apostles or brothers from other cities who brought messages from bishops or stories about martyrs who suffered for the faith. Christians gathered together to listen to them and pray together, pass on testimonies about the venerated martyrs to other churches. In this way, the traditions and unity of the Church were maintained, no matter where the communities were located.
In the midst of such events and daily concerns, the Apostle John lived at Ephesus. As the closest disciple and witness of the earthly life of Christ, he enjoyed great respect and love not only among the Ephesian Christians, but also took care of churches in other cities of Asia Minor - in Smyrna, Pergamum, Laodicea, Sardis, Thyatira, Philadelphia.
According to legend, during one of his travels, he met with the Apostle Philip - also a disciple of Christ from the twelve. This happened when the apostle Philip was preaching through the cities of Asia Minor with his sister, the maiden Mariamne. One can imagine how much joy this unexpected meeting brought them!
In Ephesus, the Apostle John experienced an event that did not leave indifferent any Jew, no matter where he was in the world: the uprising in Judea and the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple. The prophecy of Christ came true: the shrine of the Jews was destroyed by the Romans, charred ruins remained on the site of the temple.
The Jerusalem temple burned down on August 10, 70 - the same day as several centuries ago, when the first Jerusalem temple was destroyed, captured by Nebuchadnezzar. And this, too, was the mysterious symbolism of numbers, which will be so much present in the "Apocalypse" of John the Theologian.
Ephesus was the main port city in the west of Asia Minor, the "gateway" through which the Roman legions were ferried to the peninsula and returned. This means that the Ephesians also watched the sad end of the Jewish war.
Titus, the son of the emperor Vespasian, who led the suppression of the Jewish uprising, removed from the Jerusalem temple all the utensils left after the fire, and these were huge treasures, considering that the Jews, wherever they lived, paid a tribute to the maintenance and decoration of the temple every year.
During the celebration of his triumph, Titus drove carts loaded with silver pipes, golden seven-branched candlesticks, and precious temple vessels through the streets of Rome. Almost all of this was later melted down and went to the construction of the Colosseum, or, as it was then called, the Vespasian circus. At the construction site, begun by the father of Titus, thirty thousand Jewish captives were now working, specially brought for this from Palestine to Rome. The famous Jewish writer Josephus Flavius, who described the Jewish war in detail and was very far from Christian beliefs, wrote in his book: “All this happened to them for the death of James the Righteous, the brother of Jesus, called Christ. The Jews killed him, although he was a holy man. ”In 81 AD the emperor Domitian (son of Vespasian and brother of Titus), the last of the Flavian dynasty, another insane tyrant suffering from persecution mania, reigned on the Roman throne. For this Caesar, who was popularly called "bald Nero", neither his contemporaries, nor historians almost said a kind word.
"Having become emperor, Domitian at first loved, in seclusion, to catch flies and pierce them with sticks," Suetonius says sarcastically ("The Life of the Twelve Caesars").
Domitian's fear of dying at the hands of assassins reached the point that in his palace he ordered the walls of the portico, where the emperor usually walked, to be lined with a sparkling stone, like mica, in order to always see if someone was hiding behind him.
One typical case is known from the time of his reign. Once Domitian invited the most influential people of Rome to his palace for a feast. The guests were ushered into a room, decorated from floor to ceiling in black, and they saw in horror that in front of each bed there was a tombstone and on each of them his name was written. The guests took their places according to the inscriptions and waited only for the executioner's arrival. Instead, several naked boys, painted black, entered the room and slowly performed a solemn dance. Then a memorial cake and other dishes were served, which are usually "offered" to the spirits of the dead. And all this time the voice of Domitian, who was hiding behind a screen, told the guests terrible stories of murders and bloody crimes, in order to intimidate them ...
This palace "joke" gives an idea of the atmosphere of maniacal suspicion in the empire during the reign of Domitian, who became the new enemy of Christians. Spies and informers were everywhere, the prisons did not hold "suspicious persons", everyone was afraid of everyone and reported everyone. Christians, too, began to be searched for, seized and imprisoned everywhere.
The Apostle John was arrested and brought to trial in Rome, and during the trial he was beaten and tortured. According to legend, he was sentenced to death through poisoning, but drank the poison and remained unharmed. And everyone immediately remembered the legend of his immortality ...
That is why he was sentenced to "eternal exile" to the remote deserted island of Patmos.
By that time, all the other closest disciples of Christ had already completed their earthly journey. The apostles Peter and Paul were executed in Rome, Andrew suffered on the cross in the Greek city of Patras, Thomas in distant India. Only the apostle John survived, and many thought that death would never really touch him.
And although the Apostle John did not like sea voyages, he again had to set sail on a ship - this time to the Greek island of Patmos, which at that time was a Roman colony.
On the way again, there were some incidents. The son of one of the rich passengers accidentally fell into the sea - and was pulled out of the water through the prayers of the Apostle John. While sailing, he even performed the miracle of turning salt water into fresh water when all supplies ran out.
How can you not remember that only in the Gospel of John is told about the miracle in Cana of Galilee, when Christ Jesus turned water into wine at a wedding feast ...
Everyone who sailed with the Apostle John on the ship loved him so much and believed in the holy man that they offered to disembark them with Prokhor in any place they wanted. But John ordered them to be taken to Patmos, anticipating that something more awaited him than a simple exile.
At that time, the small rocky island of Patmos - the northernmost island of the Greek Dodecanese archipelago - was sparsely populated and even more enlightened: hardly anyone here had heard of Christianity before.
John was exiled to a large quarry, where he, along with the rest of the prisoners, chopped a stone. The Apostle lived in an ordinary cave, slept on a stone floor - and yet at that time he was already a deep old man!
The ruler of the island soon became aware of the unusual convict. The Life tells how in the house of Myron, the ruler's father-in-law, the apostle performed miracles of healing, as a result of which Myron, his wife, children, and then the ruler himself were baptized and accepted Christianity.
The inhabitants of Patmos have worshiped idols since antiquity, especially here they revered Apollo. The Apostle John competed with a certain local sorcerer Kinops and won a victory - probably not with him alone. It is known that by the end of his exile, most of the inhabitants of the island already believed in Christ.
Once, when the Apostle John was in his cave, he heard a Voice addressing him from heaven. The apostle recognized him immediately and readily asked: "What, Lord?" John was ordered to spend another ten days in the cave, after which many secrets would be revealed to him. And on Sunday, the Apostle John heard a loud voice, as it were a trumpet, which said: I am Alpha and Omega, First and Last(Rev. 1: 10). A great and terrible vision opened before him, and an Angel of God appeared, explaining everything that was shown. The apostle called the disciple to write down everything that he would dictate, and, according to legend, Prokhor wrote dictation for two days and six more hours. However, time has stopped ...
This is how the Book of Revelation, or the Apocalypse, of John the Theologian appeared, where for the first time the secrets of the future fate of the Church and the end of the world were revealed to mankind. The Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian is also called the "Seer" or "Seer".
"Revelation" begins with John the Evangelist seeing the open doors leading to heaven.
And immediately I was in the spirit; and, behold, the throne was in heaven, and on the throne was one who sat(Rev. 4: 2).
The Apocalypse (Greek "revelation") is a special, mystical book that is impossible to retell. It is full of mysterious symbols and images - in such a language the Lord spoke with prophets and patriarchs in ancient times. These symbols can be interpreted in different ways, but each time only a small part of the great mystery that God communicated to mankind through the Apocalypse will be revealed.
For example, the image of the harlot Babylon, sitting on a seven-headed serpent, is read by many as Rome, located on seven hills. Or not just Rome anymore?
The apostle John saw in the middle of the throne and around the throne are four animals full of eyes in front and behind. And the first animal was like a lion, and the second animal was like a calf, and the third animal had a face like a man, and the fourth animal was like a flying eagle.(Rev. 4: 6-7).
Subsequently, these images became symbols of the four evangelists: the lion is the symbol of Mark, the calf is the symbol of Luke, the angel is Matthew, and the eagle is John himself.
The image of the Church appears beautiful and majestic in the Revelation of John.
And a great sign appeared in Heaven: a woman clothed with the sun; the moon is under her feet, and on her head is a crown of twelve stars(Rev. 12: 1). In the Apocalypse, Christ, through the Apostle John, also addresses seven specific churches in Asia (the Roman province in Asia Minor) - Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laokidia. It is believed that these seven churches are the personification of the entire Ecumenical Church at different stages of its development, right up to the present day.
“Seven is a symbol of the fullness of the world, and John the Theologian refers to the seven Churches, that is, to the fullness of the entire Church,” priest Daniel Sysoev wrote in his “Interpretation of the Apocalypse”.
The last church is Laodicean, the only one about which nothing good is said, is the church of the time of the end of the world.
I know your deeds; you are neither cold nor hot; oh, if you were cold, or hot! But as you are warm, and not hot and not cold, I will eject you from My mouth. For you say: I am rich, I have become rich and have no need of anything; but you do not know that you are unhappy, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked(Rev. 3: 15-17).
We are accustomed to perceiving the Apocalypse as a terrible story about a great universal catastrophe before the end of the world, talking about apocalyptic moods, keeping in mind the darkest premonitions. This is a Hollywood favorite about the end of our civilization. And the four horsemen of the Apocalypse (plague, war, famine and death) are still hovering over the earth - albeit in a different embodiment than that depicted by Dürer, Böcklin, Viktor Vasnetsov and other artists.
Yes, all this is true, but the Christians of the first centuries perceived the Apocalypse of John the Theologian also as a great revelation about the long-awaited victory of good over evil.
And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more; no crying, no outcry, no sickness will be there, for the former has passed(Rev. 21: 4). This book announced to believers about the coming victory of Christianity, gave hope, inspired martyrdom in the name of faith. And I heard, as it were, the voice of a large people, as it were the sound of many waters, as it were the voice of mighty thunders, saying: Hallelujah! For the Lord God Almighty reigns(Rev. 19: 6). Here, for example, is a "short retelling" of the Apocalypse by the apologist of the second century Meliton, Bishop of Sardis:
“In the same way, in the last time there will be a flood of fire, and the earth with its mountains will burn up, people will burn up together with the idols they have made, and with the statues they worshiped, and the sea and its islands will burn up, but the righteous are kept from wrath, how the righteous were preserved in the ark from the waters of the flood. "
At the turn of the 2nd-3rd centuries, a list of books recognized by the Church as sacred (the so-called Muratori canon) was compiled, which included the Apocalypse of John the Theologian.
Numerous imitations began to appear, which we call apocrypha. For example, in the Apocalypse of Peter, sinners in hell are punished by Angels in dark clothes - according to the author, there is too much smoke and soot, and the angels can get dirty during work. But can you compare all these human fabrications with the grandiose visions of the Apostle John?
In 96, the emperor Domitian was killed by conspirators in his bedroom. Neither the mirrored halls nor the crowds of informants helped ... Immediately after Domitian's death, the senators ordered to remove his monuments in Rome and knock down all the inscriptions with his name from public buildings. Nerva ascended the throne, and prisoners under the previous ruler began to be returned from prisons and exile.
The Apostle John and Prokhor also returned to Ephesus, where they were greeted with joy by Christians. At this time, the bishop of the Ephesian Church was Timothy, a beloved disciple of Paul, who with great reverence was whom Jesus loved(John 13:23). In Ephesus, the Apostle John settled in the same house where he lived before exile, and lived there until his death. During this period, he will write another great work - the Gospel of John.
The further the evangelical events went into the past, the more speculation arose about the Person of Jesus Christ. There will be a lot of all kinds of heresies, and the most stable of them will subsequently become the subject of discussion at local and ecumenical councils.
The Ephesian Christians persuaded the Apostle John to present the Christian teaching as he received it from the Teacher, and to tell the whole truth about Christ himself.
According to legend, John imposed a strict fast on everyone, and he and Prokhor went to the mountain. On about the fourth day, a strong thunder suddenly thundered, lightning flashed in the sky, and the Apostle John dictated the first lines to Prokhor:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. It was in the beginning with God. Everything through Him began to be, and without Him nothing began to be that began to be. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not embrace it... (John 1: 1-5).
The Gospel of John is truly unique! On the one hand, it contains the deepest secrets over which great theological minds have been wrestling for two millennia. The Word was God ... On the other hand, the Gospel of John, more than the other three - from Matthew, Mark and Luke, in some ways can be compared with modern reporting. If you want to know which of the disciples asked Christ this or that question or other details, then first of all you should turn to the Gospel of John - it was written by an undoubted eyewitness of the events.
Only from the Gospel of John, for example, can we learn that at the moment Jesus saturating five thousand people with bread, it was the Apostle Philip who asked in perplexity: where can we buy bread to feed so many people, and the Apostle Andrew remembered that one boy has five barley loaves and only two fish. After all, John was also there. In the Gospel of John - and only in it - it is told about the miracle of transforming water into wine at a feast in Cana of Galilee, about the resurrection of Lazarus and his sisters - Martha and Mary, a conversation between Jesus and the Pharisee Nicodemus, during which at least one more attentive listener.
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.
Nicodemus says to him: How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born?
Jesus answered: truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Do not be surprised that I told you: you must be born again. The spirit breathes where it wants, and you hear its voice, but you do not know where it comes from and where it goes, so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.(John 3: 3–8), - says Christ to Nicodemus.
Surprised Nicodemus asks: how can it be?(John 3: 9).
If I told you about the earthly and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you about the heavenly?(John 3: 12) - Jesus will ask him bitterly.
But these words least of all refer to John, who is just close to "heavenly": he was given to understand the language of heavenly revelations and contemplate spiritual visions.
Many researchers write that at the time of writing, the Apostle John was well aware of the other Gospels, and he deliberately sought to fill in the missing details. And with every line of his gospel, the Apostle John proves that Christ is God and the Son of Man, that is, the God-man, and not just one of the prophets or great teachers of morality.
Three conciliar epistles of the Apostle John the Theologian have survived, and all of them are imbued with a truly unearthly love that Christ taught him.
...We know love in that He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. And whoever has prosperity in the world, but seeing his brother in need, closes his heart from him - how does the love of God abide in him? My children! let us love not in word or language, but in deed and truth(1 John 3: 16-18), - the apostle John calls upon Christians.
I have a lot to write to you, but I don’t want ink on paper, but I hope to come to you and speak mouth to mouth, so that your joy may be full"(2 John 1: 12), - he will write an unknown the chosen lady and her children(2 John 1: 1), and this is so characteristic of him: to rush to someone in order to bring full and perfect joy, forgetting about his own weakness and years.
Saint Clement of Alexandria, in his sermon "Which of the rich will be saved," told a touching story about the Apostle John. Once the apostle John met a handsome young man with an inclination towards good deeds and the study of spiritual subjects. The apostle left him in the care of the local bishop, so that he would accept him among the catechumens, and he himself went to the next city.
At first, the bishop studied the young man, taught him, finally honored him with baptism, after which he ceased to take special care of him. The young man got into the society of vicious people and soon sunk to the point that he became the leader of a gang of robbers and even surpassed others in cruelty.
After some time, the apostle John happened to be in this city again, and he immediately asked the bishop about the young man. "The young man died," he said, "he died for God and eternal life." This news deeply saddened John.
“Should you have taken care of your brother's soul entrusted to you? he said to the bishop. "Give me a horse and a guide, I will follow him." Indeed, the elder himself went to the mountains, finding out where the gang was raging. The robbers seized him and brought him to their boss, which is what the apostle John wanted. At the sight of the holy elder, the young man was so embarrassed that he jumped from his place and ran away. John ran after him, loudly shouting after him: “My son, why are you running from your father? Have pity on me, my child; do not be afraid, there is still the hope of life; I will be responsible for you to Christ; I am ready to give my life for you. Stop and listen to me ... "
Finally, the young man could not stand it, stopped, threw down his weapon and, with tears, threw himself at John's feet. The apostle took him to the city and only then released him from himself, until the repentant was again accepted into the Christian community.
This story reflects the entire loving soul of the Apostle John. It was about such boundless healing love that he wrote in his First Council Epistle:
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because in fear there is anguish. The one who fears is imperfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us. He who says, “I love God,” but hates his brother is a liar: for he who does not love his brother, whom he sees, how can he love God, whom he does not see? And we have from Him such a commandment that he who loves God should also love his brother.(1 John 4: 18-21). John the Theologian lived to a ripe old age. According to historians, the apostle ended his earthly days about 68 years after the Crucifixion of Christ, about 100 AD.
Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea, wrote about the Apostle John in his Church History: “Upon his return from exile from the island after the death of Domitian, he took care of the Churches there. That he lived up to this time, this is sufficiently attested by two most faithful witnesses, the leaders of the Church Orthodoxy: Irenaeus and Clement of Alexandria. The first of them, in his second book “Against Heresies”, narrates literally as follows: “All the Asian elders who communicated with John, the disciple of the Lord, testify that he spoke about it; he was with them until the time of Trajan ”. In the third book of the same work, he writes: “And the Church founded by Paul in Ephesus - John lived there until the time of Trajan - is a true witness of the apostolic story”. The reign of Emperor Trajan began in 98 and lasted nineteen years.
At the end of his life, John could no longer walk. The disciples in their arms brought him into the congregation, and the apostle kept repeating: “My children, love each other! " (John 13:34)
Someone asked why he was repeating the same thing, and the Apostle John said: "This is the commandment of the Lord, all His teaching is contained in it."
Sensing the approach of death, the Apostle John, accompanied by seven disciples, went out of the city and ordered to dig a cruciform grave according to his height, and he, stepping aside, began to pray. When the grave was ready, he went into it, as if on a bed, stretched out his arms and ordered the disciples to cover it with earth.
The disciples first covered him with earth up to his knees, then up to his neck, and when they saw that the holy elder was no longer breathing, they covered his face with a handkerchief and, kissing, covered everything with earth.
The Ephesian Christians, having learned about such an unusual burial of the Apostle John, came in the morning and dug up the grave. They must have wanted to bury him in a better, more honorable place. But the grave was empty!
According to legend, the believers found only the sandals of the Apostle John at the burial place. And of course, they immediately remembered what Jesus said: If I want him to remain until I come, what do you care?(John 21:23). So in the Apocalypse he wrote about himself: And he said to me: You must prophesy again about peoples and nations and languages and kings of many.(Rev. 10:11).
One of the interpretations of this prophecy is as follows: the Lord in the body took him out of this world, as once the Old Testament Enoch and Elijah the prophet, and at the right time will return him to earth.
Thus, John the Theologian left us another great secret - the mystery of his death.
For many centuries, memorial services have been served over the grave of the holy apostle, and it was noticed that it was on May 8 that a clearly distinguishable plaque appeared on the ground, something like fine dust. The believers began to collect it and receive healings from many diseases. In memory of this miracle, another day of the memory of the holy apostle was established, along with September 26, the celebration of the repose of the apostle.
The cave on Patmos, where John the Theologian received the Revelation, has survived to this day: a monastery was founded next to it in honor of the Apostle. The pilgrims are shown the crevice through which the loud voice, as if trumpet(Rev. 1: 10), in front of the entrance to the cave, the words are written: "This place, which makes an indelible impression, is the house of God and the gates of Heaven."
Among the numerous icons of the Apostle John, there is one, an ancient one, which is called "John the Theologian in silence." On it, the apostle raised his finger to his lips and seemed to say: shh, hush ... After all, the Angel who appeared in Revelation told him to be silent about the latest mysteries.
Memory of the holy glorious and all valiant apostle and evangelist John the Evangelist The church honors October 9 (September 26 old style). This day is referred to, numbered among the twelve. The Apostle John occupies a special place among the disciples of Christ. It is no coincidence that the Church calls John the apostle of love, because he taught that without love a person cannot come close to the Lord. The Apostle John is the author of the Gospel of John, the three conciliar epistles and the Revelation of John the Theologian (Apocalypse). John the Evangelist- the only one of the twelve apostles who died a natural death.
The life and preaching of the apostle and evangelist John the Theologian
Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian was the son of Zebedee and Salome (daughter of the righteous Joseph the Betrothed). John, along with his elder brother the Apostle James, who was a fisherman, was called by Jesus Christ among his disciples, it happened on the lake of Gennesaret. And they, leaving their father Zebedee, followed the Savior. (Matthew 4:21; Mark 1:19). John was one of the Savior's favorite disciples. According to the Gospel of Mark, Christ called the brothers James and John "sons of thunder" (Boanerges), probably because of their impetuous character. John always followed the Lord. He witnessed the resurrection by the Lord of the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue Jairus (Mark 5:37; Luke 8:51) and a witness on Mount Tabor (Matthew 17: 1; Mark 9: 2; Luke 9:28). During the Last Supper, he reclined next to the Lord and, at the sign of the Apostle Peter, leaning against the Savior's chest, asked about the name of the traitor.
The Apostle John followed Christ when He, bound, was led to the judgment of the wicked high priests Anna and Caiaphas, he was also in the bishop's court during the interrogation of the Savior and followed Him along the Way of the Cross. At the foot of the Cross, he grieved along with the Mother of God and heard the words of the Lord addressed to Her: “Woman, behold thy son” and to him: “Behold thy mother” (John 19, 26, 27). From this period, the Apostle John took care of the Most Holy Theotokos until Her Dormition. After that, the Apostle John went with his disciple Prochorus to preach in Ephesus. The ship they were sailing on was wrecked. All, except the apostle John, were thrown ashore by the wave. On the fortieth day, the wave also carried him ashore. In Ephesus, the apostle's preaching was accompanied by numerous signs, so the number of those who believed increased significantly.
During the reign of the emperor Nero, John was seized and taken to Rome, where they gave him poison to drink, then threw him into a cauldron of boiling oil, but the Lord saved him. Then the apostle was exiled to Fr. Patmos. During his stay on the island, John converted all residents to the Christian faith, expelled many demons from idol temples and healed the sick. The sorcerer Kynops especially strongly resisted the preaching of the Apostle John, but with the help of prayer, the power of the grace of God acting through him, John destroyed all the demonic tricks of Kinops, and the proud sorcerer perished in the depths of the sea. On about. The Apostle John Patmos wrote the book "Revelation" (Apocalypse), in which he figuratively announced the secrets of the fate of the Church and the end of the world. After the end of the exile, the Apostle John returned to Ephesus, where he continued his work on evangelism, teaching Christians to beware of false teachings. Here he wrote the Gospel and three conciliar epistles, which speak of the meaning of love for God and neighbor, without which salvation is impossible.
John the Theologian on Patmos, 17th century, Nizhny Novgorod It is no coincidence that the Church calls John apostle of love because he taught that without love a person cannot approach the Lord. Already an old man, John learned that one young man had gone astray and became the leader of the robbers. The apostle went into the wilderness in search of him. Seeing John, the young man began to hide from him, but the apostle rushed after him, begging him to stop, promising to take upon himself the sin of the young man, if only he would repent and leave the soul-destroying path. The young man was touched by the kindness and love of the apostle, repented and began to correct his life.
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The repose of the Apostle John the Divine
The Apostle John finished his earthly journey at the age of over a hundred years. He lay down alive in the grave and ordered his disciples to cover him with earth, which they did, grieving for him. Upon learning of this, the rest of the disciples of the apostle came to the burial place and dug up the grave, but it turned out to be empty.
The repose of the Apostle John the Theologian. Miniature Minology of Vasily II. Constantinople, 985 Vatican Library. Rome In the IV century, a small church was built on the site of the grave of John the Theologian, and under the Emperor Justinian, a huge basilica with six domes (each 30 m high) was erected here. Currently, only the floor slabs and columns remain of it.
Ruins of the Basilica of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian Veneration of the holy apostle and evangelist John the Theologian
Every year, fine dust in the form of manna emerged from the grave of the Apostle John, with the help of which Christians were healed of diseases. In memory of this miracle, it was established on May 21 to celebrate memory of the holy apostle and evangelist John... Also, the memory of the holy apostle is celebrated on July 13 - on the day of the council of the glorious and all-honorable twelve apostles, and on October 9 - on the day of the repose of the apostle John the Theologian.
Troparion and kontakion to the holy apostle and evangelist John the Theologian
Troparion, voice 2:
Beloved to the Apostle Christ God, beloved, trying to deliver unrequited people, I accept the bot I leaning down, like lying on the Persian receptions. Pray to him the Theologian, the impending pagan rebuke, like a cloud to disperse, asking us for peace and great mercy.
Kontakion, voice 2:
Who confesses your majesty virgin; exude miracles, and pour out healings, and pray for our soul, as the theologian and friend of Christ.
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Saint Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian. Icons
The Holy Church gave only to the holy Apostle John, as a secret bearer of the fate of God, the title of the Theologian. The iconographic symbol of the Apostle and Evangelist John is the eagle. Also, the Apostle John is portrayed with an Angel who gives him the Divine Word. In early Christian art, the Apostle John the Theologian was often portrayed as a young man, in particular, as he is depicted in mosaics in Ravenna: in the dome of the Orthodox Baptistery (mid-5th century) and in a medallion on the western arch of the Church of San Vitale (546-547).
However, there are also the most ancient depictions of the apostle in the form of an old man in the church of San Vitale in Ravenna.
Apostle John the Theologian. Mosaic of the Church of San Vitale in Ravenna. 546-547 In later icons, the Apostle John is depicted as an old man with an inkwell, a pen, a book in his hands and in the presence of an angel or an eagle.
Apostle John, 1408, the Monk Andrei Rublev. Fragment of the Last Judgment fresco from the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir 
Apostle John. Icon. Russia. XVI century Ryazan 
Apostle John with life. Icon. Russia. The beginning of the XVI century. Tretyakov Gallery. Moscow
Temples and monasteries in the name of John the Theologian in Russia
In the name of the holy apostle and evangelist John the Theologian was consecrated temple in Varyazhki in Smolensk, built between 1160 and 1180.
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Church of St. John the Evangelist on Varyazhki. Smolensk In 1547 in Pskov, in the town of Misharina Gora, a church was built in the name of John the Theologian.
Church of the Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian on Misharina Gora. Pskov In 1455, in the Pskov land, the Monk Savoy Krypetsky (died 1495) was founded John the Theologian monastery.
Krypetsky St. John the Theological Monastery In 1462, Saint Jonah (died 1470), Bishop of Perm, on the banks of the Kolva River, the Cherdyn Ioanno-Theological Monastery was founded.
Church of St. John the Theologian at Cherdyn St. John the Theological Monastery In 1478, the Cheremenets Ioanno-Theological Monastery was founded, located on a peninsula on Lake Cheremenets in the Luga district of the Leningrad region in the town of Cheremenets of the Skreblovsky rural settlement. The first mention of the monastery dates back to 1498. According to legend, during the reign of John III (1440-1505) in 1478, on the island where the monastery is located, the peasant Mokiy appeared icon of the holy apostle and evangelist John the Theologian... The prince, having learned about this phenomenon, ordered the founding of a monastery on the island in the name of the apostle.
Cheremenets Ioanno-Theological Monastery. Photo of the early XX century Old Believer churches in the name of John the Theologian
In the Old Believers, there are currently several churches in the name of the Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian. In the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church today, the throne is in and in (the region of Tatarstan), as well as in the Odessa region; in the Russian Ancient Orthodox Church - in the village of the Nizhny Novgorod region.
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Church of the Apostle John the Theologian. Old Nekrasovka 
Church of the Apostle John the Theologian. Tonkino
The image of the apostle and evangelist John the Theologian in painting
Among the artists depicting the Apostle and Evangelist John the Evangelist, famous world painters: El Greco "John the Evangelist" (1595-1605, Prado Museum, Madrid); Hieronymus Bosch "St. John on Patmos" (1504-1505, Berlin Picture Gallery, Berlin), "Scenes of the Passion of Christ and a pelican with chicks (Reverse side of the board" St. John on Patmos "; Hans Memling" Apostle John "(c. . 1468); Domenichino "St. John the Theologian" and others.
El Greco "John the Evangelist", 1595-1605 Prado Museum, Madrid 
Hieronymus Bosch "St. John on Patmos", 1504-1505, Berlin Picture Gallery, Berlin
Psychic teaching
A word about the young man saved by John the Theologian
When the great disciple of Christ, John the Theologian, came to the city of Asia, he met a young man there, of a kind family, and tall, and handsome in face, and wished to save his soul so that he would become faithful. Having taught him enough of the commandments of God, he brought him to the bishop of that city and said: "Bishop, this youth I commit to you, with the testimony of the Holy Spirit, that you may keep him from all evil." And having said this, John departed to other countries to teach them the faith of Christ.
The bishop, having received the young man, taught and preserved him and instructed diligently. And soon he baptized him, thinking that he would confirm him with baptism. The young man began to relax a little and get closer to other young men and crazy men, go with them to feasts, and drunkenness, and all-night fornication. Then on robbery, and in the end his evil friends took him with them to the mountains. And, since he was great in body, the robbers made him an elder for themselves and made him in everything unmerciful and ungodly, bitter and fierce.
Then, after a year had passed, John came to Ephesus and in front of everyone said to the bishop: "Bring me the young man whom you have entrusted." The bishop, however, sighed deeply, shed tears and answered John: "a young man has died." John asked: how and how? Mental death or bodily death? And the bishop said: “to her, sincerely. The great destroyer is also the ultimate cruel robber. " And John said to the bishop: “Have I not made you the guardian of the soul of this young man, as a good shepherd for the sheep of Christ? But now bring me a horse, and I will go to the place where the young man is hiding. "
Sitting on a horse, John soon drove him, looking for the lost sheep of Christ. When he reached the mountain where the robbers were hiding, he was captured by the robber watchmen. And John begged them to take him to their elder, but they, taking him, led him. The young man stood armed, and when he saw John walking towards him, he ran away from shame. But John, forgetting his old age, quickly chased after the young man and shouted to him: “Why are you running from me, child, from your father? And why do you bother me so, my son? Become, do not be afraid, you have the hope of salvation. I will lay down my life for you, as the Lord Jesus Christ is for us. Do not be afraid, child, stop, do not be terrified. Christ sent me to give you the remission of sins. I will suffer for you, and I will have the blood that you shed on me. On my neck will be the burden of your sins, child! "
Hearing all this, the young man stopped and threw down his weapon, shuddering and crying a lot. With tears he went up to John and kissed him. He hid his right hand, because it was still covered in blood. Taking him from the robbers, John returned to Ephesus. There he introduced him to the church, giving all of us a well-known example of repentance, so that none of us, having fallen into many sins, would not despair of our salvation. But, coming to repentance, I would receive God's mercy. The Lord wants to save all of us and bring us to the true mind.
Word about Saint John the Theologian, as he taught man to paint icons
Near Constantinople there was a small town in which a young orphan named Husar lived. He earned money by hiring geese. There was on the gates of that city the image of John the Theologian, painted with paints. And always, when the geese grazed in front of the city gates, the Hussar wrote with his finger on the sand, looking at the image of John the Theologian. At the same time, he said: "Lord, give me, in order to learn how to write this image, for my soul desires this." When he did not succeed in portraying the hands, or the head, or the eyes, he smoothed out his drawing and wrote again.
He did this for three years. And once, when he was writing, John the Theologian came to him in the form of a gray-haired old man, as he was depicted on the gate. And he asked him: "What are you doing, Hussar, drawing in the sand?" The Hussar answered: “Look at the gate, where is the image of John the Theologian. I have been learning to paint this image in the sand for three years. " Saint John said to him: "Do you want to study icon writing?" The Hussar said: "So, sir, I wish that." Then John took a cane and ink and wrote a letter: "I, John the Theologian, lying down on the honest Lord's Persians and drinking His secret cup, I send this youth Hussar to you, Khinar, so that you can teach him better to paint icons yourself." And, having sealed the letter with a ring, he gave it to the Hussar, saying: “Go to Constantinople, there is a royal icon painter named Khinar. He writes in the golden royal chambers and goes to matins to the church of St. Sophia. After waiting for him, give him this letter. Tell me that John the Theologian gave it to me, and then go with him. " Having said all this, John became invisible.
The hussar soon went into the city, and when it was morning, he saw this royal icon painter there, returning from the church of St. Sophia, gave him a letter and followed him. The icon painter, having read the letter, marveled at what was written in it. The hussar told him everything that happened. Then envy seized the heart of the icon painter, so as not to teach the Hussar.
At that time, a certain tsar's husband erected a stone church and ordered Hinary to paint an icon of St. John the Theologian. The icon painter, having gone away on some business, ordered the Hussar to grind the paints. According to God's judgment, Khinar slowed down until lunchtime, then John the Theologian came to the Hussar and asked him what he was doing. Hussar answered: "I rub the paints so that my master could paint the icon of John the Theologian." John said to him: "Get up and write." The hussar, frightened, replied: "I, sir, did not learn to hold a brush." John said, "Look at me and write." Taking the cane and putting it in his hand, he began to write the image on the board. And, having written, departed from him. Then the entire chamber was enlightened from the icon, as from the sun.
The hussar began to cry, thinking what would happen to him now from the master. Returning, the master was surprised by what had happened. And since then the Hussar has become more skillful than the master. They also announced to the tsar that the icon painter had his pupil, who had come to study for the third day, and yesterday he painted the icon of John the Theologian in such a way that the chamber shines from it as from the sun, just as it cannot come to a person's mind. Taking the icon, they carried it to the king. The tsar was seized with fear from the light emanating from the icon, and this was a gap for the tsar's icon painter among the tsarevs' men. Some said that a disciple is more skillful than a master, others that a master is more skillful. The king said: “I can truly judge who is more skillful than whom. Let them write two eagles in my chambers and put them on the wall. I'll take and let the hawk go. And which the hawk will grab the eagle, that master will be more skillful. " And they all answered: "Really, king, you say."
But they, coming soon, wrote two eagles, each his own, and they all marveled, looking at both. Looking at the master's writing, they said that there is no other such in the world. Approaching the disciple's writing, they marveled and marveled at his great art. The king, taking the hawk, let him go. And the hawk began to grab the pupil's bird on the wall. From that time the king took the Hussar to his chambers to paint icons, and his writing was more skillful than his teacher Khinar. There are those two birds to this day in those royal chambers where they were written. And the icon of St. John the Theologian was taken to the church and this church was consecrated in the name of St. John the Theologian, and celebrated with joy in Christ Jesus our Lord. Glory to Him, now and forever, and forever and ever.