John’s Gospel: An Eyewitness Account?

We use the name “John” as shorthand for the gospel itself. But who is the person behind the name? None of the Gospels is signed. Today’s gospel titles—the Gospel According to John (or Matthew or Mark or Luke)—are late additions. The closest we come to an author’s signature in any of the Gospels appears near the end of John’s text:

“And there stood by Jesus’ cross his mother and his mother’s sister…So Jesus, seeing his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing by, said, ‘Woman, look: here is your son.’ Then he said to the disciple: ‘Look, here is your mother.’ And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home” (John 19:25–27). The story continues: Jesus dies. He and the other crucified men must be removed before the sun sets and the Sabbath begins. To hasten the victims’ deaths, the soldiers break the legs of the men on either side of Jesus. The soldiers see that Jesus is already dead. One of them drives a spear into his side; blood and water gush out. Then we read: “He who saw this has testified to it, and his testimony is truthful, and that man knows that he speaks the truth, so that you too might believe” (John 19:35).

The author is emphatic: This is an eyewitness account. Clearly, the writer wanted his readers to believe his account of the death was accurate and should be believed. But who was this eyewitness?