Early witnesses of the 4 Gospels
- On the Composition and Order of all Four Gospels, again citing Clement of Alexandria:Again, in the same books [the Hypotyposes], Clement gives the tradition of the earliest presbyters, as to the order of the Gospels, in the following manner: "The Gospels containing the genealogies [i.e. Matthew and Luke], he says, were written first. The Gospel according to MARK had this occasion. As Peter had preached the Word publicly at Rome, and declared the Gospel by the Spirit, many who were present requested that Mark, who had followed him for a long time and remembered his sayings, should write them out. And having composed the Gospel he gave it to those who had requested it. When Peter learned of this, he neither directly forbade nor encouraged it. But, last of all, JOHN, perceiving that the external facts had been made plain in the Gospel, being urged by his friends, and inspired by the Spirit, composed a spiritual Gospel." This is the account of Clement. (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 6.14.5-7).
Your article does not state that John didn't write the Gospel - they are agnostic on the point but ignore the witness of history
The early witnesses do attest that he did, including Irenaeus who was directly in line generationally to the Apostle. Orthodox tradition attributes all the books to John the Apostle -any dispersions creating doubt had their genesis in the 6th century or later.
Irenaeus and the Gospel according to Matthew
Irenaeus writes in
Adversus Haereses:
Now the Gospels, in which Christ is enthroned, are like these. For that according to John expounds his princely and mighty and glorious birth from the Father, saying, 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,' and, 'All things were made by him, and without him nothing was nothing made' . Therefore this Gospel is deserving of all confidence, for such indeed is his person. (3.11.8)
That the Apostle John lived to old age in Ephesus, citing Irenaeus
[Bishop of Lyon in Southern France; lived c. 130 - c. 200)
At this time, while
Anicetus was at the head of the church of Rome (ca. 155-66), IRENAEUS relates that
Polycarp, who was still alive, was at Rome, and that he had a conference with Anicetus on a question concerning the day of the paschal feast. And the same writer gives another account of Polycarp which I feel constrained to add to that which has been already related in regard to him. The account is taken from the third book of Irenaeus' work
Against Heresies, and is as follows: "But
Polycarp also was not only instructed by apostles, and acquainted with many that had seen Christ, but was also appointed by apostles in Asia bishop of the church of Smyrna. We too saw him in our early youth; for he lived a long time, and died, when a very old man, a glorious and most illustrious martyr's death, having always taught the things which he had learned from the apostles, which the Church also hands down, and which alone are true. To these things all the Asiatic churches testify, as do also those who, down to the present time, have succeeded Polycarp, who was a much more trustworthy and certain witness of truth than Valentinus and Marcion and the rest of the heretics. He also was in Rome in the time of Anicetus and caused many to turn away from the above-mentioned heretics to the Church of God, proclaiming that he had received from the apostles this one and only system of truth which has been transmitted by the Church. And there are those that heard from him (Polycarp) that
John, the disciple of the Lord, going to bathe
in Ephesus and seeing Cerinthus within, ran out of the bath-house without bathing, crying, 'Let us flee, lest even the bath fall, because Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is within.' And Polycarp himself, when Marcion once met him and said, 'Knowest thou us?' replied, 'I know the first born of Satan.'
The Authorship of the Gospel of John
The universal testimony of the early church fathers is that John the Apostle, the beloved disciple, wrote the Gospel of John.
Craig Keener states the position of the early church fathers,
“Consonant with what we find from the internal evidence, church tradition identifies the author of the Fourth Gospel with the Apostle John.”1
D.A. Carson concurs,
“We have already traced the principal 'external evidence' (i.e. evidence outside the Fourth Gospel itself) that maintains the Evangelist was none other than the apostle John, the son of Zebedee. That evidence, such as it is, is virtually unanimous. Even if Irenaeus, toward the end of the second century, is amongst the strongest, totally unambiguous witnesses, his personal connection with Polycarp, who knew John, means the distance in terms of personal memories is not very great. Even Dodd, who discounts the view that the apostle John wrote the Fourth Gospel, considers the external evidence 'formidable', adding, 'Of any external evidence to the contrary that could be called cogent I am not aware' (HTFG, p. 2; cf. also Robinson, John, pp. 99-104).2
The following church fathers clearly state this.3
Their testimony begins with the earliest and moves to the later ones.
John, who was an apostle and the “disciple whom Jesus loved” wrote the Gospel of John at Ephesus in Asia (Minor).
Irenaeus makes a general statement of the origins of the four gospels including the Gospel of John in his Against Heresies (3.1.1).
“Matthew also issued a written Gospel among the Hebrews in their own dialect, while Peter and Paul were preaching at Rome, and laying the foundations of the Church. After their departure, Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, did also hand down to us in writing what had been preached by Peter. Luke also, the companion of Paul, recorded in a book the Gospel preached by him. Afterwards, John, the disciple of the Lord, who also had leaned upon His breast, did himself publish a Gospel during his residence at Ephesus in Asia.”
In this passage, Irenaeus tells us several important points about the author of the Fourth Gospel. First, it was John the Apostle. The description “the disciple of the Lord who leaned on Jesus’ breast” comes from John 13:23-25 where the apostles were with Jesus at the last supper. Although the Fourth Gospel does not identify this particular apostle, Irenaeus does. He says this was John and this John wrote the Gospel. This is important because some scholars try to say that John the Apostle did not write the Fourth Gospel, but that this “disciple who leaned on Jesus’ breast” who was not John did. Irenaeus says clearly they were one and the same person. Irenaeus’ testimony is very important because he was a person who was in a position to know who the author of the fourth gospel was.
Thiessen explains the significance of Irenaeus’ testimony,
“From Irenaeus on the evidence becomes clear and full. He himself frequently quotes the Gospel of John, and he does it in such a way as to show that it had long been known and used in the Church. His testimony is perhaps the most important of all the testimonies, for he was a pupil of Polycarp, and Polycarp was a friend of the Apostle John.…
Eusebius has preserved a part of a letter of Irenaeus to Florinus, in which the writer tells of his vivid recollection of the account that Polycarp gave of his intercourse with John who had seen the Lord. He has also preserved a statement from a letter of Irenaeus to Victor the Bishop of Rome, to the effect that ‘Anicetus could not persuade Polycarp not to observe what he had always observed with John the disciple of our Lord and the other Apostles with whom he had associated.’
It is thus evident that Polycarp was a disciple of John the Apostle and that Irenaeus had heard Polycarp tell of his intercourse with him. The testimony of Irenaeus may, therefore, be taken as the testimony of Polycarp, and of the Apostle himself.”4
Tertullian also asserts John’s authorship of the gospel in his work, Against Marcion (4.2),
PAPIAS
