One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining at table at Jesus’ side, so Simon Peter motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking.
John 13:23-24 (ESV)
A mysterious character is introduced in this passage—the disciple whom Jesus loved. He is mentioned several more times in the gospel of John. He is the disciple that Jesus entrusted his mother to (Jn. 19:26-27). He outraced Peter to the empty tomb (Jn. 20:1-10). He witnessed Jesus’ reinstatement of Peter (Jn. 21:20). He claims to be the author of the gospel attributed to John (Jn. 21:24). And he may be the disciple who was known to the high priest (Jn. 18:15-16).
So, just who is this mysterious disciple that Jesus loved? Clearly, he is not Peter since they are frequently mentioned together. He can’t be Judas since they are also mentioned together once, and Judas committed suicide long before this gospel was written. Nor could it be James, the brother of John, since he was killed early in church history (Acts 12:1-2).
Since the disciple whom Jesus loved seems to prefer to be anonymous, it may be that we can eliminate any of the disciples mentioned by name in this gospel. That would include Andrew (Jn. 1:40, 6:8, 12:22), Philip (Jn. 1:43, 6:5, 12:21, 14:8-9), Nathanael (Jn. 1:45, 21:2), Thomas (Jn. 11:16, 14:5, 20:24-28, 21:2), and Judas (not Judas Iscariot) (Jn. 14:22).
That eliminates eight of the twelve disciples. Another clue may be found in John 21:2, where the sons of Zebedee are mentioned. The other gospels identify these two as James and John. As mentioned earlier, James was killed early in church history. Could the author be John, preserving his anonymity by identifying himself simply as one of the sons of Zebedee?
No Certainty
That is probably as close as we can come using just the Scripture. However, every known copy of this gospel has the heading “According to John” connected to it. And, the writings of some of the church fathers of the second and third centuries identify John as the author of this gospel and, thus, the disciple whom Jesus loved.
