We have referred to the statement of Irenaeus that John, the disciple of the Lord who leaned against him at the Last Supper, wrote a gospel while living at Ephesus. In addition, Irenaeus said that when he was a young man, he had known a much older Christian called Polycarp who had talked with John and others who had seen the Lord. As Irenaeus was a bishop between A.D. 180-200, a long time after the gospel was written, what he said is not undeniable proof by itself that the gospel was written by John the apostle, but some evidence from the gospel itself could support Irenaeus' claim. In 21 :20 the unnamed disciple who leaned against Jesus (13 :3-5) is also described as the disciple whom Jesus loved (13 :23, 19:26-27, 20:2-5, 21 :7); in 21 :24 it is stated that this same disciple spoke of the things in the gospel and wrote them down; in 19:35 there is also reference to an eye-witness. Nowhere in the gospel is the unnamed disciple actually identified with John the disciple, but it is not unreasonable to put together what Irenaeus said and what 20:24- says about the apostolic witness in the gospel. If, as is now suggested by recent study of the gospel, it was not necessarily written later than the other gospels and so was in circulation before the end of the first century A.D., this would make the witness of John the apostle in the writing of the gospel much more probable. He would have been old but not so very old; some of the very important world leaders of the twentieth century have continued to lead their nations after they had reached the age of seventy five or more years.

A suggestion which accepts the witness of John the apostle in the gospel but allows for an explanation of what seems to be the original ending of the gospel at the end of chapter 20, is that John the apostle' wrote a 'first edition' of the gospel which ended at 20:31 and then rather later, a second edition was prepared to which Chapter 21 was added. Another Christian bears witness to the truth of what has been written, in 21:24. 'He is the disciple who spoke of these things, the one who wrote them down; and we know that what he said is true.' This is obviously not written by the disciple himself but by someone who knew him; this applies also to 19:35. With reference to Irenaeus' statement that John the disciple went to Ephesus, it is said by Paul in Galatians 2:9 that it was agreed among the apostles that he and Barnabas should preach to the Gentiles while Peter, James and John should preach to the Jews. We accept the tradition that Peter went to Rome, sometime after A.D. 50, and there is no reason which would make it impossible for John to go to Ephesus at about the same time to preach to the Jewish communities in Asia Minor. So we reach the conclusion that the ancient tradition that the witness of John the apostle is in this gospel, may be maintained, although another Christian may have been responsible for the final written form.

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