Who Is the “Beloved Disciple” in the Gospel of John? - Hypothesis or Solution for the Johannine Paternity of the Gospel?
Who Is the “Beloved Disciple” in the Gospel of John? - Hypothesis or Solution for the Johannine Paternity of the Gospel?

Summary/Abstract: The present study deals with a delicate problem among the New Testament biblical scholars, namely, that of identifying the person who hides himself behind the phrase “The disciple whom Jesus loved”. In the examination of the hypotheses launched to solve the problem, we analysed, in particular, the so-called “Petrine circle” of Disciples, which appears in the Synoptic Gospels, the Acts and the Fourth Gospel. By comparing some episodes from John’s Gospel in which an Apostle appears in Peter’s entourage under the phrase “The Disciple whom Jesus loved”, with others recorded in the Synoptic Gospels and the Acts, in which Peter appears having around him the Apostle John, I tried to identify the one who in the Gospel according to John is defined as the “Beloved Disciple”. The importance of this possible identification for the authorship of the Fourth Gospel can be seen from the analysis offered by the present study.

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