Was John closest to Christ

Answer 1

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John's Gospel talks of a 'disciple whom Jesus loved' but does not identify that disciple. The second-century Church Fathers noticed that whenever the book talks about the disciple, it does not mention John and, on this evidence alone, decided that this disciple must therefore be John. Like all the New Testament Gospels, John's Gospel was written anonymously, but the Church Fathers came to the conclusion that the author must be the 'disciple whom Jesus loved' and, since they had decided this disciple to be John, the Gospel author was the disciple John.

The second century reasoning was merely conjecture and is not accepted by modern biblical scholars. If the 'disciple whom Jesus loved' was closest to Jesus, we still do not know who that disciple was.