John was an impulsive man, but he was also extremely precise. Writing his Gospel at almost ninety years of age, he reported in meticulous detail the moment that changed his life. First, he named the place: Bethany, on the Jordan River. For a time scholars thought this was an error. John the Baptist, in fact, usually baptized in the Jordan just above the Dead Sea, at the point closest to Jerusalem. Moreover, Bethany was the name of a village located just outside the capital city. Was John confused? No. Bethany really existed. It was farther north, on the other side of the river, where there was a little bay and thus the current, in certain seasons, was less treacherous. The name means "house of the boat," precisely because it was easy to cross the river in that spot. Archaeologists have found the remains of ancient settlements there. He is precise about the time they met: four o'clock in the afternoon. At that time, John was about twenty years old, the son of a well-to-do boat owner, Zebedee, and of Mary Salome, and was a follower of John the Baptist, like Peter's brother Andrew. Like Andrew he came from Galilee, and his name, Yôhanan in Hebrew, means "God has been gracious."
These, then, are the facts. Jesus, whom John did not recognize at first, had come to be baptized. Then He withdrew into the desert, a short distance away, to a place that tradition identifies as a height that rises 500 meters over the valley of Jericho. Exactly when the Lord's forty days in the desert were about to end, the members of a commission of priests and Levites came to John from Jerusalem to question him: they wanted to know who he was and what he thought of the Messiah. The commission went away completely unsatisifed by their talk with John. The next day, in the meantime, Jesus came back from the desert. This time John the Baptist recognized Him immediately and pointed him out: "Look, there is the Lamb of God." (Jn 1:29) Certainly he had also talked about Jesus to his followers. Thus, the next day, when Jesus showed up again, he was waiting with two of them, John and Andrew. They, struck by their master's insistence and by the words of this man, decided to follow Him. "Rabbi, where do you live?" "Come and see," Jesus answered. This was a real, concrete invitation, given that the next day, John says, Jesus wanted to go back to Galilee. In the meantime, a third person had joined them, Peter, summoned by his brother.

Eyewitness
John says that he was an eyewitness to these events. He says it in his Gospel (Jn 19:35; 21:24); he says it at the beginning of Revelation ("John has borne witness to the Word of God and to the witness of Jesus Christ, everything that he saw"); and he says it in his letters ("That life was made visible; we saw it…").
As a witness, John is irreplaceably precise. He lists at least ten places that the synoptic gospels leave out and that have been shown, by evidence uncovered by archeologists and historians, to have really existed. Out of 100 situations described in his Gospel, a good 92 do not appear in the synoptics, so it is thanks to him that we are able to reconstruct a realistic chronology of Jesus' preaching. As John reports, Jesus' preaching covers three different Passover periods and thus lasted two years and a few months. From him we know that Jesus made at least four trips to Jerusalem. There is an emblematic example of John's fidelity to the facts that he lived and saw. This is the miracle of Jesus healing the crippled man by the Pool of Bethsaida. (Jn 5:1-9). John tells us that he was near the Sheep Pool that had five porticos. For centuries exegetes have thought that these five porticos symbolized something, since the idea of a five-sided pool seems strange. Instead, excavations have rewarded John's precision. The pool was surrounded by a portico 120 meters long and 60 meters wide, but a fifth portico crossed it in the middle, dividing it into two sections. The manner in which he transmitted his Gospel is fundamental as well; he wrote it "in corpore adhuc constituto" (still physically vigorous), as testified by Polycarp, whom he had named head of the church at Smyrna. Polycarp died in 155, but he passed the torch to Ireneus of Lyons, who as a boy had heard him in Smyrna. This extraordinary chain of direct witness is confirmed irrefutably by Ireneus himself around 180 in his Adversus haereses and in his letter to the Gnostic Philo: "I could still today indicate to you the place where Polycarp sat when he addressed his talks to the people, what he recounted about his familiarity with John and with the other people who had seen the Lord."

In Capernaum
But let's return to that trip back toward Galilee. John, the next day, was a witness to the extraordinary events in Capernaum, in a privileged position that was repeated on the occasion of the resurrection of Jairus's daughter (where he was with Peter and James), at the Transfiguration, and during the prayers in Gethsemane. All these events are narrated in the synoptic gospels-as Giuseppe Ricciotti underlined in his Life of Christ, John's Gospel is a complement to the others. The events that have already been narrated, to his mind, are already known and thus it is useless to repeat them. John returns to talking about himself, instead, during the other decisive moment in his life, the Last Supper. He was the apostle whom Jesus loved and who, while "recumbens erat in sinu Jesu" (leaning on Jesus' breast), received the revelation about the betrayal. John is "ho Epistethios," the one who put his head on Jesus' breast. Not the best, says Augustine, but the beloved. And St. Jerome sees in John's virginity the reason why Jesus preferred him even to Peter. John was the only apostle present at the Crucifixion, and from high on the cross Jesus entrusted his mother to him, "…and from that hour the disciple took her into his home." John, being a young man, ran much faster than Peter toward the tomb at the news of the Resurrection. But he then respectfully let Peter enter first. He was the one most ready to recognize the Lord when He appeared on the shore of the lake. John, too, is very often at Peter's side in the Acts of the Apostles, for the healing of the cripple, before the Jewish tribunal, on a mission to Samaria; and Paul, in his letter to the Galatians, said John was present at the council of Jerusalem when matters were settled between James the Lesser, Peter, and himself. (Gal 2:9)

The Cup of the Passion
And then? We have to interpret the passage from Matthew (20:22) in which Jesus prophesies to the brothers James and John that they too will drink with Him the cup of the Passion. We know that James was decapitated in Jerusalem, the first martyr among the apostles, in 44. But as for John, all the sources agree in saying that he died a natural death of old age in Ephesus (as according to St. Ireneus). And yet John too probably underwent martyrdom, miraculously coming through the trial unscathed. St. Ambrose testifies to this in his hymn written at the end of the fourth century in honor of the beloved disciple: "Bound then by the wicked/ It is told that in boiling oil/ he washed the dust of the world/ and rose victorious over the enemy." This event, supported by an ancient tradition, seems to have taken place in Rome. Here, on the Via Latina, there is still a little temple dedicated to San Giovanni in Oleo (St. John in the Oil) and a short distance away Pope Gelasius I built (in the fifth century) the beautiful Basilica of San Giovanni a Porta Latina. Passing through the trial untouched, John was then exiled to the island of Patmos, as he himself testifies at the beginning of Revelation. We are now more or less in the year 95. On the island, John wrote down what was revealed to him. Then, in 96, Domitian, the emperor who had ordered the persecution of the Christians, died and John's exile was probably revoked at that time. Ireneus writes, "John, the disciple of the Lord, the one who rested on his breast, published his Gospel too, while he was living at Ephesus in Asia." He died in Ephesus and was buried there. His Gospel spread quickly, if it is true that a fragment of eight verses, found in Egypt in 1935 (the so-called Egerton papyrus), dates to the year 130. In just a few years the Gospel in which the most frequently recurring word is "see" (after "love" and "believe") had already reached the most remote corners of the empire.

PROFILE
Name: John, "son of thunder"
Place of origin: Bethsaida, Galilee
Parents: Zebedee and Salome
Occupation: Fisherman
Identifying traits: The youngest, but also the most long-lived of the apostles; thus the most agile and quick. Generally shown beardless.
Feast day: December 27, but there is also an ancient tradition that celebrates him on May 6, to commemorate his failed martyrdom.
Places of special veneration: in Rome, San Giovanni a Porta Latina; Temple of San Giovannni in Oleo; and the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano (dedicated to the Savior at the request of Constantine, but also dedicated to St. John after the future pope Ilaro (461-468) who was saved in Ephesus from the fury of the heretics by hiding in the tomb of the apostle). In Ephesus, the Basilica of St. John. In Patmos.
Information in: the four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the three letters attributed to him, Revelation, St. Paul's letter to the Galatians, St. Ireneus of Lyon.

A fisherman, like so many who could be found in Galilee. This was James, the son of Zebedee and Salome and the brother of John, the author of the fourth Gospel. He is called "the Greater" to distinguish him from the other apostle with the same name, the son of Alpheus, and also because he was probably older than his brother John. In the list given in the Gospel of Mark, he occupies second place after Peter, and in Matthew and Luke he is third, after Peter and Andrew-this position indicates his importance as an apostle. He worked with his father and brother. His town was Bethsaida, where archaeologists have found numerous objects used by fishermen, such as lead sinkers, needles for repairing nets, hooks, anchors and even a gold earring. From the remains of the houses it appears evident that many of the inhabitants were well-to-do, with a flourishing, financially successful business.
The meeting with Jesus took place on the shores of Lake Tiberias, on a fishing day like so many others, while James was mending the nets with his brother and father. The Lord had just persuaded Peter and Andrew to follow Him and, a little further on, they met James and John, who did not hesitate. Jesus "called them. And at once, leaving the boat and their father, they followed Him." (Mt 4:21-22)

Among the favorites
James was a man with a fiery nature, so much so that Jesus nicknamed the two brothers "Boanèrghes," or "sons of thunder." The Gospel of Luke gives an example of this impetuousness: during a journey toward Jerusalem, Jesus sent James and Simon to prepare hospitality in a village in Samaria. After receiving a refusal from the Samaritans, the two became upset, saying, "'Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to burn them up?' But He turned and rebuked them, and they went on to another village." (Lk 9:54-55)
James was part of that small circle of apostles who were Jesus' favorites. On the occasion of the resurrection of Jairus's daughter, the Lord "allowed no one to go with Him except Peter and James and John the brother of James." (Mk 5:37) These were the only three apostles allowed to be present at the Transfiguration. When he arrived at Gethsemane, at the foot of the Mount of Olives, Jesus asked the disciples to sit while He prayed; "then He took Peter and James and John with Him. And He began to feel terror and anguish. And He said to them, 'My soul is sorrowful to the point of death. Wait here, and stay awake.'" (Mk 14:33-34) James, in short, was chosen to be a direct witness to the fundamental events in the life of His Master. This "son of thunder" was curious, sometimes even impudent. For example, when, walking along with his brother toward Jericho, he asked Jesus, "Master, we want you to do us a favor." Then he went on, "Allow us to sit one at your right hand and the other at your left in your glory." (Mk 10:37) To tell the whole story, according to Matthew it is their mother, instead, who asked this for them. They pursue Him even on the Mount of Olives; together with Peter and Andrew, they take Jesus aside and ask Him when the end of time will come, which He has just announced.
Another point in the Gospels seems once again to refer to James. After the arrest, John relates that "Simon Peter, with another disciple, followed Jesus. This disciple, who was known to the high priest, went with Jesus into the high priest's palace, but Peter stayed outside the door. So the other disciple, the one known to the high priest, went out, spoke to the doorkeeper, and brought Peter in." (Jn 18:15-16) This was an apostle who moved freely about the palace, one who was well known to the high priest's circle. For many scholars, this is John. Others have a different hypothesis: the disciple who enjoys these special privileges is James. His father Zebedee's firm was a supplier to the high priest. And James's mother Salome (who was present at Jesus' death; she is the one who procured the aromatic oils to embalm the Lord's body) belonged to a family of priests, with relatives who had held positions in the temple. This is why James would have been friendly with the employees in the high priest's palace, for example the doorkeeper from whom he requests Peter's admittance. After Jesus' death, what happened to James? According to a Syrian legend, he preached in Bethsaida and built a "church." This hypothesis takes on credibility after the discovery in Bethsaida of a shard from a jar that held a special kind of wine used in religious rites.

Apostle and martyr
He was the first martyr among the apostles. The man who wanted his death was Herod Agrippa I, called "king" of Judea to distinguish him from his uncle, the tetrarch Herod Antipa. Seeing that the arrest of James pleased the Judeans, the king arrested Peter as well, who was then freed miraculously. Herod Agrippa received the royal title from Caligula in 37, but took possession of Judea and Samaria only in 41, and governed until his death in 44. As soon as he came into Palestine, Herod Agrippa I tried to establish himself as the strong man of Rome. He vowed to stamp out the groups in the Jewish community who announced the death of the Son of God and tried to imprison and kill theirleaders. Herod Agrippa had James killed in 41. "By the sword," according to the Acts of the Apostles. Perhaps what "did him in" was his hot-headed nature that caused him to stand out. But the king had received erroneous information: he thought he had captured James the "brother" of Jesus, in an attempt to decapitate the high levels of command of the Jews who professed faith in Jesus. Clement Alexandrine and Eusebius maintain that James converted the man who was escorting him to his martyrdom.

Santiago de Compostela
According to the Syrian legend, James was buried in Akar, in Marmarika. A tradition dating to Isidore of Seville describes his evangelization of Spain: the disciple is said to have reached Caesar Augusta, now Saragossa, but after seeing the poor results of his preaching, returned to Judea where he met his martyrdom. This story seems hardly credible, considering his early death, and Paul in his letter to the Romans, when he announces his intention to set out for Spain, has just said that he will go to the places that have not yet been evangelized. Other more reliable witnesses (confirmed by archaeological excavations) affirm that James' body was taken to Spain and is now in Santiago de Compostela. According to this tradition, after the apostle's death, his disciples took possession of his body and, using a flimsy boat, reached Galicia. The casket containing the saint's remains was buried near Amaea. Here it was discovered one night in 813 by a hermit named Pelagius. The king of Asturias Alfonso II the Chaste, Pope Leo II, and Charlemagne heard of this discovery. Alfonso made a pilgrimage to the tomb and to the first churches. Around that core, Santiago (which means St. James) grew up.
The authenticity of the relics was decreed in 1884 by Leo XIII with his bull Omnipotens Deus. In the course of the centuries, the city has become one of the major pilgrimage sites of the Christian world. In the iconography, James is represented not only with the Gospel, but also with a pilgrim's hat and staff. His attribute is the shell.

PROFILE
Name: James
Place of origin: Bethsaida, Galilee
Parents: Zebedee and Salome
Occupation: Fisherman
Identifying traits: Sparse beard and dark hair parted in the middle. In the iconography he is dressed as a wayfarer, with a hat, staff, and shell.
Feast day: July 25. He is the patron saint of Spain, of pharmacists, and of spicevendors.
Places of special veneration: Santiago de Compostela and Saint Saturnin in Toulouse, which preserves relics of the saint. In Italy he is celebrated in Pistoia and Caltagirone.
Information in: the four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles. To these must be added numerous ancient sources, including a Syrian legend, Clement the Alexandrine, Eusebius, and the "Memoirs of Abdia."