Who Was John?

The search for the author of Revelation

On a hill about a mile northwest of the city walls of Ephesus stand the reconstructed remains of a great basilica church dedicated to the author of the Book of Revelation, identified in Revelation 1:1 simply as John. As early as the end of the second century C.E., this hill, called Ayasoluk Hill, was considered to be John’s burial place. In the fourth century, a wooden church was built on the site over an earlier memorial. The reconstructed buildings that can now be visited, however, come from the sixth century when the Christian emperor Justinian (527–65 C.E.) underwrote a major expansion of the church (photo at right). Justinian’s church features six domes over the nave and transepts, and a large colonnaded courtyard at the entrance. The nave and transepts intersect over John’s tomb.

In the Byzantine period, the church became a major pilgrimage site. Miraculous cures were attributed to the sacred dust from the tomb. Whether John was actually hurled here, however, has never been established by the standards of modern historical investigation.