As with the other apostles, John worked as a fisherman, had a modicum of education and was more than likely to have had some knowledge of Greek culture. He was also known to be a devout Jew.

Although John is mentioned infrequently in the Gospels it is known that, along with Peter and his brother, he was one of the chosen "inner circle".

Along with Peter, it is he that is sent by Jesus to make the preparations for the Last Supper. We also know that John is also present at Jesus' arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane and, along with Peter, followed Jesus to the palace of the High Priest where they could hear the proceedings of his trial from the courtyard.

It is recorded that John was the only one of the twelve who actually attended the Crucifixion and was also one of the first disciples to become aware of the Resurrection.

After the Resurrection it appears that John spent most of his time in Jerusalem or Palestine until the early AD60s when he travelled to Rome to see Peter.

When Nero's persecution of the Christians took place, John was both imprisoned and tortured by the Romans. Somehow he escaped in AD66 or AD67 and made his way to the city of Ephesus, in western Turkey on the Aegean sea, to take over the "Churches of Asia".

It was in Ephesus that John made his home for the rest of his life and used the city as a base to manage the Christian church throughout known Asia. He administered the faith in cities such as Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira and Sardis, ordaining bishops and priests.

Five writings in the New Testament are attributed to John: the Fourth Gospel, the Revelation and three epistles (but there is some doubt as to the veracity of two of the epistles attributed to him). There is no doubt that he wrote "St John's Apostle" which was then edited after his death. Clement of Alexandria calls it the "Spiritual Gospel" because it is seen as the most doctrinal and theological of the four. Written in Greek for gentile believers, it includes autobiographical touches to illustrate to the reader that John was at the events described.

In AD81 the Emperor Domitian came to power and initiated yet another series of attacks on the Christian faith. This time John was exiled to the small Aegean island of Patmos. It was here that John encountered visions, which ended up in written form as the Revelation and Apocalypse.

Fifteen years later on September 18 AD96 Domitian, was killed in a coup and replaced by Emperor Nerva. The persecution of the Christian church ceased and John was allowed to return to Ephesus. Reckoned by now to be 93, John picked up where he had left off and restarted the invigoration of the church throughout Asia.

Three contemporary writers, Eusebius, Iraneaus & Clement of Alexandria state that John lived into the reign of Trajan, which began in AD98 and is known to have died a natural death.

John is represented by a cup with a winged serpent flying out of it, in allusion to the tradition about Aristomedes, priest of Diana, who challenged John to drink a cup of poison. John made the sign of the cross on the cup and "Satan like a dragon flew from it." John then drank from the cup which was then quite innocuous.

According to tradition John was buried in Ephesus.

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