Feast of St. John the Divine, December 27, 2020

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Today is, according to the Prayer Book, the feast of Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist. This John was one of the twelve apostles, a son of Zebedee and brother to Saint James. Our Lord gave these brothers the name ‘Boanerges’, the ‘sons of thunder’ (Mark iii.17), because of their impetuosity. John and James, together with Saint Peter, were our Lord’s closest disciples. This inner group of three were the only ones present for several events in our Lord’s life, such as the Transfiguration and the agony in the garden of Gethsemane. St. John tradi­tionally is considered the author of the fourth gospel, the three epistles called by his name, and the Book of Revelation.

In the 19th century radical German scholars began to doubt the…