Did John write any books in the Bible?

Answer 1

A:

Ian Wilson (Jesus: The Evidence) says that it can come as quite a shock to discover that no-one can even be sure who wrote the gospels. Despite the versions printed in our Bibles long having borne the names Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, these names are mere attributions, and even as such are rather less reliable than attributions given to unsigned works of art.

The Church Fathers of the second century noticed that one gospel does not mention the disciple John, and so assumed that its 'disciple whon Jesus loved' must be John. They then decided that this disciple was also the author and that it was out of modesty that he did not tell us his name, thus arriving at the decision that the gospel now known as John's Gospel was written by John. As three epistles appear to have been written by the same author as the fourth gospel, the Church Fatherstherefore attributed these to the disciple John. The Book of Revelation was eventually attributed to the apostle John simply because it is signed by an otherwise unknown author called John.

Modern scholars say that the gospel now known as John's Gospel could not have been written by an eyewitness to the events portrayed, which thus means that John was certainly not the author. And if John did not write the gospel that bears his name, he did not write the Johannine epistles. The author of the Book of Revelation is now commonly called 'John of Patmos' to distinguish him both from the apostle John and the anonymous author of John's Gospel.

Research has shown that St. John the apostle did not write any books in the New Testament.