Last week we discussed the behind-the-scenes debate over Revelation’s authorship.  If we go on the basis that the Book of Revelation was written by John the Apostle, then that allows us to query a veritable database of historical and biblical facts about him.

Wiki: According to Tertullian (in The Prescription of Heretics) John was banished (presumably to Patmos) after being plunged into boiling oil in Rome and suffering nothing from it. It is said that all in the audience of the Colosseum were converted to Christianity upon witnessing this miracle.¹

The implication is that thousands of heathens who had come to the Colosseum accepted Jesus.  In today’s lingo, these were people who paid $150 on TicketMaster for a ticket in the nosebleed section for what?  Their idea of entertainment in those days was watching a man (best case) thrown into a vat of boiling oil—or (worse case) experiencing excruciating/prolonged agony as Roman brutes “turned up the heat.”  That depraved type of weekend recreation really speaks to the crowd’s heart condition—and yet the miracle that they witnessed was so radical that they converted. I saw some commonality/ convergence with Nebuchadnezzar’s about-face in the Book of Daniel, after the fiery furnace experience.  So I wanted more specifics on the crowd conversion.  I was able to find a translation of The Prescription of Heretics with a deeper web probe.  However, it wasn’t very specific about “all in the audience were converted.”²

So we don’t know with certainty that people were universally converted; the only “knowns” in this equation are that John yielded to God’s plan 100%–God got all the glory—and God wants everyone to be saved. 2 Peter 3:9 (I also know that John’s miraculous deliverance would have been enough to convert me, ten times over. 😊)

And that sums us John’s relationship with God—he yielded and gave God the Glory.  John’s motivation was, without a doubt, love.  He experienced a radically transformational love that changed him irrevocably/eternally.  Early on, John perhaps had some maturation issues.  Jesus gave him and his brother, James, the nickname:  Boanergés or Sons of Thunder – an Aramaic term transliterated from two Semitic roots: bēn (“sons”) and regesh (“of thunder, tumult”; see Strong’s OT #1123, 7285); Boanergés (“sons of thunder”) is only used in Mk 3:17. We don’t know why Jesus named these brothers (James, John), “sons of tumult,” but their passion and boldness in the past no doubt aptly fit their future calling!

So were we having a little anger issue here? And didn’t James and John subsequently ask if they should call down fire:  And He sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for Him; but the people there did not welcome Him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them? Luke 9:52-54

The twelve had recently returned after being sent out two-by-two (at the beginning of Luke 9), and it seems that they had quickly forgotten that they were no better than Balaam’s talking donkey—and totally ineffective without Jesus’ Name and enabling power.

But let’s camp on Boanergés a little more—because it was a nickname.  And I think it showed that Jesus had a sense of humor, and feelings that bordered on fatherly pride for the brothers.  I watched an entertaining speaker from The Holy Land Institute on youtube:

“Mark has like a personal touch to it; you get these very warm, human glimpses of Yeshua and His apostles that you don’t get in the other gospels…a glimpse into the culture of Yeshua’s inner circle.  Why? (Because Peter may have collaborated with Mark on this gospel—and his “style” came through.  Boanergés in Strong’s Concordance) is a compound of “sons of”…get this…“commotion.” 😊 The speaker goes on to say that it was really cool to see this “guy culture” that developed between Yeshua and his inner circle.” ³  Then he breaks down the Hebrew and Aramaic and takes us back to Gen 45:24 to show us the root word—ragatz, which means to quarrel (the Hebrew derivatives also connote “noisy, tumultuous, trembling”).  So maybe James and John didn’t have an anger issue—they just got into lively debates.  Years ago, we had Israeli subcontractors, and I’ll never forget the live meetings that we conducted with them.  They would start out in English speaking calmly, but when we came to a sticking point, they would lapse into Hebrew; the dB level would go up and up until they were all shouting at each other.  They weren’t angry—it was just their communication style.  Eventually the dB level would drop, and they would lapse back into calm English.  So, is this what Jesus witnessed between James and John?  And perhaps they were more zealous in the debate than others, which Jesus rewarded with a special moniker.

But was this John’s personality/communication style of choice?  Did he just act that way around James, out of sibling loyalty?  And maybe it was a case of family loyalty when the brothers joined their mother in her political tactics to obtain a Kingdom promotion for them.  Matt 20:21  The mother herself sounds like a real character.  It would take a lot of chutzpah to approach the Messiah and ask Him to show such blatant favoritism.

Regardless, John refers to Himself six times in the gospel as the “disciple whom Jesus loved,” John 13:23, 19:26, 20:2, 21:7, and 21:24 as a direct reference to 21:20.  Also, at the last supper, Peter urged John to privately ask Jesus who the traitor was, implying that John might be more successful at getting Jesus to confide in him.

Legend has it that John was younger than the other apostles—perhaps naiveté contributed to John’s prideful behavior, as well as the apparent soft spot in Jesus’ heart for him.  However, when the going got tough, the weak got going—as far away from Gethsemane as possible.  Yet John remained tough. He would not abandon Jesus during His torturous ordeal.  John risked his life by staying close when they led Jesus to the High Priest’s palace.  And John was with the women at the foot of the cross.  We don’t know with certainty if Jesus had biological brothers.  But we do know that John was the only one whom Jesus trusted to take care of His mother.  Bottom line, John had a special relationship with Jesus.  He was the one who was after Jesus’ heartbeat.  The Kari Jobe song may make some inroads in capturing the dynamic:

I want to sit at your feet

Drink from the cup in your hand.

Lay back against you and breath, feel your heart beat

This love is so deep, it’s more than I can stand.

I melt in your peace, it’s overwhelming.

But we can’t forget that John was also all about giving God Glory!!  The Synoptic Gospels are beautiful in their harmony, still—as I said last week—the Gospel of John takes things to a whole new level in its unashamed proclamation of the Deity of Jesus.  And it was John whom Jesus took to a new level with a series of incredible visions on Patmos.  Daniel may have seen the movie trailer, however, John saw the full-length feature film.  He was elevated because John’s focus was on getting and staying close to Jesus.  Sounds like a good lifestyle for us in 2020.

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¹Wikipedia website: /wiki/John_the_Apostle

²New Advent website address: http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0311.htm

³Holy Language Institute youtube address:  /watch?v=bM0VhSh4VtM