Lives of Scripture

John, son of Zebedee and brother of James, was mending fishing nets with his father when Jesus called the two brothers, and they "immediately left the boat and their father, and followed Him" (Matthew 4:21-22). Jesus nicknamed John and James "Boanerges," Sons of Thunder (Mark 3:17), fitting their zeal -- they once asked Jesus to call fire down on a Samaritan village that rejected Him, and were rebuked for it (Luke 9:54-55). John was part of Jesus's innermost three, alongside Peter and James, present at the raising of Jairus's daughter, the Transfiguration, and Jesus's agony in Gethsemane (Mark 5:37; 9:2; 14:33). He and James also asked to sit at Jesus's right and left in glory, drawing the other disciples' indignation and Jesus's teaching that greatness means serving, not ruling (Mark 10:35-45). After Pentecost, John became a prominent leader alongside Peter -- together they healed a lame beggar at the temple gate, were arrested and questioned by the Sanhedrin, and preached boldly despite threats, with onlookers noting "they had been with Jesus" (Acts 3:1-4:20). Paul later names John among the Jerusalem church's recognized "pillars" (Galatians 2:9). Tradition, though not the texts themselves, credits John as the "disciple whom Jesus loved" in the fourth Gospel, and as author of three epistles and Revelation, received while exiled on Patmos "because of the word of God" (Revelation 1:9).