John (lu>avvr,c,thc Greek form o{ Jehohanan; comp. i^^TiSr-theSity^''^^"'"'"""'""^^'"""^^''^ renderingin &.' : "" '"""""^ """' ""'^^ ""^^
1. The father of Matathias, of the Maccabtean family (1 Mace, ii, 1). See Macc.ujeks.
2. The son of Accos, and father of Eupolemus, which latter was one of the envoys sent by Judas Maccabasus to Rome (1 Mace, viii, 17 ; 2 Mace, iv, 11).
3. Surnamed Caddis (q. v.), the eldest son of the same Matathias, and one of the Maccabasan brothers (1 Mace, ii, 2, Johanan ; less correctly Joseph in 2 IMacc. viii, 22). He had been sent by his brother Jonathan on a message to the Nabathieans, when he was taken prisoner by '• the children of Jambri" (q. v.), from ]Medeba, and appears to have been put to death by them (1 Mace, ix, 35, 36, 38).
4. One of the persons sent by the Jews with a petition to the Syrian general Lysias (2 Mace, xi, 17).
5. The son of Simon Maccabeus (1 Mace, xiii, 53 ; xvi, 1, 2, 9, 19, 21, 23), better known by the epithet Hyrcanus (q. v.).
IL In the New Testament the following are all that are mentioned, besides John the Apostle and John the Baptist, who are noticed separately below :
1. One of the high-priest's family, who, with Annas and Caiaphas, sat in judgment upon the apostles Peter and John for their cure of the lame man and preaching in the Temple (Acts iv, 6), A.D. 29. Lightfoot identities him with R. Johanan Ben-Zachai, who lived forty years before the destruction of the Temple, and was president ot the great synagogue after its removal to Jabne, or Jamnia (\Ag\iX.ioot, Cent. Char. Matth.praef.ch.lb ; see also Selden, De Synedriis, ii, ch. xv). Grotius merely says he was known to Rabbinical ^vriters as " John the priest" (Comm. in A ct. iv). — Smith.
2. The Hebrew name of the evangelist Mark (q. v.), who throughout the narrative of the Acts is designated by the name by which he was known among his coun- trymen (Acts xii, 12, 25 ; xiii, 5, 13 ; xv, 37).
in. In Josephus the following are the most notewor- thy of this name, besides the above and John of Gis- CHALA, whom we notice separately below :
1. A high-priest (son of Judas, and grandson of Elia- shib), who slew his brother Jesus in the Temple, thereby provoking the vengeance of Bagoses, the Persian vice- roj' under .\rtaxerxes (^Ant. xi, 7, 1). He corresponds to the Jonathan (q. v.), son of Joiada, of Neh. xii, 10, 11. See High-priest.
2. Son of Dorcas, sent by the Sicarii with ten execu- tioners to murder the persons taken into custody by John of Gischala on his arrival in Jerusalem (Josephus, War, iv, 3, 5).
3. Son of Sosas, one of the four popular generals of the Idumoeans who marched to Jerusalem in aid of the zeal- ots at the instance of John of Gischala (Josephus, War, iv, 4, 2). He was possibly the same with John the Es- sene, spoken of as commander of the toparchy of Sham- ma at an earlier stage of the war (ih. ii, 20,4: comp. iii, 2, 1). He was mortallj' wounded by a dart during the final siege {ih. v, 6, 5).
John (Iwavvric) the Apostle, and brother of the apostle James " the greater" (Matt, iv, 21 ; x, 2 ; Mark i, 19 ; iii, 17 ; x, 35 ; Luke v, 10 ; viii, 3 ; etc.).
I. Personal History. — 1. Eai-ly Life. — It is probable that he was born at Bethsaida, on the Lake of GalUee. The general impression left on us by the Gospel narra- tive is that he was younger than the brother whose name commonly precedes his (Matt, iv, 21 ; x, 3; xvii, 1, etc. ; but compare Luke ix, 28, where the order is in- verted in most codices), younger than his friend Peter, possibly also than his Master. The fife which was pro- tracted to the time of Trajan (Eusebius, H. E. iii, 23, following Ircna?ns) can hardly have begun before the j-ear B.C. 4 of the Dionysian a;ra. The Gospels give us the name of his father Zebedasus (Matt, iv, 21) and his mother Salome (comp. INIatt. xxvii, 56 with Mark XV, 40; xvi, 1). Of the former we know nothing more. See Zebedee. The traditions of the fourth century (Epiphan. iii, Hcer. 78) make the latter the daughter of Joseiih by his first wife, and consequently half-sister to our Lord. By some recent critics she has been iden-
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tified with the sister of Marj', the mother of Jesus, in John xix, 25 (Wieseler, in Stud. u. Krit. 1840, p. 648). Ewald {Gesch. Israels, V. 171) adopts Wieseler's conjec- ture, and connects it with his own hypothesis, that the sons of Zebedee, and our Lord, as well as the Baptist, were of the tribe of Levi. On the other hand, more so- ber critics, like Meander (^PJianz. u. Leit. p. 609 [4th ed.]) and Lucke {Johanms, i, 9), reject both the tradition and the conjecture. See Salojie. Thej' lived, it may be inferred from John i, 44, in or near the same town as those who were afterwards the companions and part- ners of their children. See Bethsaida. There, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, the apostle and his brother grew up. The mention of the " liired servants" (Mark i, 20), of his mother's " substance" (aTro tmv vTrapxov- riov, Luke viii, 3), of " his own house" {to. Wui, John xix, 27), implies a position removed by at least some steps from absolute poverty. The fact that the apostle was known to the high-priest Caiaphas, as that knowl- edge was hardly likely to have begun after he had avowed himself the disciple of Jesus of Nazareth, sug- gests the probability of some early intimacy between the two men or their famiUes. The name which the parents gave to their younger child was too common to serve as the ground of any special inference; but it de- serves notice (1) that the name appears among the kin- dred of Caiaphas (Acts iyj6); (2) that it was given to a priestly child, the son of Zacharias (Luke i, 13), as the embodiment and symbol of Messianic hopes. The fre- quent occurrence of the name at this period, unconnect- ed as it was with any of the great deeds of the old heroic days of Israel, is indeed in itself signiticant as a sign of that yearning and expectation which then characterized not only the more faithful and devout (Luke ii, 25, 38), but the whole people. The prominence given to it by the wonders connected with the birth of the future Baptist may have imparted a meaning to it for the parents of the future evangelist which it would not otherwise have had. Of the character of Zebedasus we have hardly the slightest trace. He interposes no refusal when his sons are called on to leave him (Matt, iv, 21). After this he disappears from the scene of the Gospel history, and we are led to infer that he had died before his wife followed her chiktren in their work of ministration. Her char- acter meets us as presenting the same marked features as those which were conspicuous in her son. From her, Avho followed Jesus and ministered to liim of her sub- stance (Luke viii, 3), who sought for her two sons that they might sit, one on his right hand, the other on his left, in his kingdom (Matt, xx, 20), he might well derive his strong affections, his capacity for giving and receiv- ing love, his eagerness for the speedy manifestation of the Messiah's kingdom. The earlj' years of the apostle we may believe to have passed under this influence. He would be trained in all that constituted the ordinary education of Jewish boyhood. Though not taught in the schools of Jerusalem, and therefore, in later life, lia- ble to the reproach of having no recognised position as a teacher, no Rabbinical education (Acts iv, 13), he would yet be taught to read the Law and observe its precepts, to feed on the writings of the prophets with the feeling that their accomplishment was not far off.