In John 21:20-25 we read about the “disciple whom Jesus loved.” He is credited with being the author of the Gospel, but he is never identified by name. This struck me as an odd attribution for two reasons. First, it is an odd way for an author to self identify. Jesus loved me the most. Secondly, it seems like an attribution designed to conceal the identity from outsiders. However, the author seems to be assuming that insiders would know who this disciple is since he’s using his identity to give authority to the writing. The trouble is, insiders don’t seem to know. The attribution to John is the result of attrition. It can’t be Peter or James, hence John.
Right there in chapter 21 Peter runs to the tomb with the disciple whom Jesus loved, eliminating him. James is martyred in Acts 12, so it can’t be him. I was unsatisfied with accepting John as the author via this process. But Google searches only offered the same result, plus the attribution of some late 2nd century church fathers who wouldn’t know any more than we would. Hence, I decided to read John looking for the answer. It wasn’t hard to find.
Who was the disciple whom Jesus loved?
In John 11 a man named Lazarus falls ill. His sisters send word to Jesus to inform him. Verse 3 contains the message that was sent to Jesus.
So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.”
Jesus delays for some reason (we’ll get to that) then heads to Bethany to see him. When he arrives, Lazarus is dead, resulting in the shortest verse in the Bible. Jesus wept. But verse 36 is of particular interest.
So the Jews said, “see hoe he loved him.”
Thus, it was fairly easy to conclude that Lazarus is in fact the disciple whom Jesus loved. No such attribution is made of any other follower of Jesus. But there’s more evidence to consider.
Who reclined next to the Lord?
John 21;20 tells us that the disciple whom Jesus loved reclined next to the Lord at the supper. However, the supper being referenced doesn’t identify the disciple reclining next to the Lord. However, there is one occasion where one man is described as reclining next to the Lord.
John 12:2 So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table.
So here is another internal clue from John as to the identity of the disciple whom Jesus loved. But this is also the point where Lazarus ceases to be identified by name in the Gospel of John. Is there some reason for the author to cease identifying Lazarus by name at this particular point and begin using the moniker “the disciple whom Jesus loved?”
The plot to kill Lazarus.
As it turns out, there is. John 12 tells us that the chief priests began plotting to kill Lazarus because he was causing too many people to convert due to his resurrection. So it stands to reason that the author would want to conceal the identity of the author Lazarus to outsiders. They are already plotting to kill him. However, he gives enough evidence to insiders to be able to identify the author, thus gaining the authority of his special status for his Gospel.
There is one more piece of evidence, but before I address that, let’s get to the problems with my theory. The first problem is insignificant. Lazarus is nowhere identified as a disciple. However, this isn’t actually a problem. John 19:38 tells us that Joseph of Arimathea was a secret disciple. Luke has 2 other disciples (not the twelve) on the road to Emmaus. Thus, one doesn’t need to be one of the twelve to be a disciple. However, the next challenge is more problematic.
Lazarus is a fictional character.
To see this, we need to look at what Jesus says before raising Lazarus from the dead. We find this information in John 11:41-42.
So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said that for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.
So Jesus is performing this miracle as a sign to those standing there, that they may believe. And it worked, remember? This is why they plotted to kill Lazarus. Moreover, Jesus delayed to go to Bethany to allow Lazarus to die specifically so that he could raise him as a sign of who he was. We see this in verses 14 and 15 of the same chapter.
Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
Not only did Jesus raise Lazarus as a sign of who he was, he waited to go there to allow him to die so that he could raise a man from the dead to show his followers who he was. The only problem? Jesus doesn’t believe that a man coming back from the dead will convince people. Only the law and the prophets will.
One Lazarus, or two?
In Luke 16 starting in verse 19, Jesus tells a parable of the rich man and Lazarus. Is this a different Lazarus, or the same guy? Let’s look at points of comparison between these two men named Lazarus.
- Both die. Luke 16:22, John 11:21
- Resurrection of both is discussed. Luke 16:27, John 11:23-26
- Both recline at the side of someone. Abraham, Luke 16:22, Jesus John 12:2
- The resurrection is discussed as a sign. Luke 16:31, John 11:42.
And this is the precise moment where the two stories part ways. Consider each of these two verses against the other.
Luke 16:31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’
John 11:42 “I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.”
There’s only one Lazarus.
These aren’t two different men. In Luke, Lazarus is a fictional character who dies, reclines at the side of Abraham, and is denied resurrection because faith should come from the law and the prophets. However, time has passed and the return of Jesus is looking less and less imminent. More and more people will be required to believe with less and less evidence as time passes. So John exports Lazarus out of the parable, and gives him a real life and a real death to correct the error of Luke. His resurrection is precisely why you should believe in Jesus. Moreover, it is exactly why people do believe in Jesus. Thus, the resurrected life of Lazarus is in danger and John is forced to hide his identity. This leads us to our last two pieces of evidence.
“I’ve been there before.”
In John 20, Peter and the beloved disciple rush to the empty tomb of Jesus. Peter goes in and looks around, but we’re not told what he makes of it. The beloved disciple goes in, and (v. 8) “saw and believed.” Why? Because it’s Lazarus. He knows from experience what the inside of an empty tomb looks like after a resurrection.
Furthermore, in John 21:20-23 we learn that there was a rumor that the disciple whom Jesus loved would live forever. However, he appears to be dead at the time of writing (or a fictional character). So the author informs us that this misconception was based on a misunderstanding of what Jesus said. However, it makes more sense that early Christians, believing that Jesus was resurrected to eternal life, would expect that the same was true for Lazarus, the beloved disciple. So the author includes this note in case anyone goes looking for his fictional “author” in real life. Lazarus is unavailable for comment. He died twice.
Lazarus is the author of the Fourth Gospel.
Not really, of course. But this is what the author intended for us to believe. Lazarus wasn’t some fictional character in a story spun by Jesus. On the contrary, Lazarus was the real life disciple whom Jesus loved. Moreover, as the people of his day believed because of his resurrection, you could believe based on the testimony of the disciples as to the resurrection of Jesus. Remember the words of Jesus to Thomas?
John 20:29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
Which returns us to the parabolic Lazarus. We now have the law, the prophets, and the witness of the disciples. So while we, like the rich man’s brothers, will not see one raised from the dead, we unlike Thomas, should believe the words of the disciples who did see Jesus raised. Thus the disciple whom Jesus loved becomes a witness to Jesus in both of his deaths, the parabolic and the actual. And he wrote us perhaps the most important Gopsel in the New Testament, the fourth Gospel. The Gospel according to Lazarus. Moreover, he did all of this without ever having existed.
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