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The Beloved Disciple as Eyewitness and the Fourth Gospel as Witness

School of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Gloucestershire, Swindon Road, Cheltenham GL50 4AZ

There has been a recent revival of claims that taking Jn 21.24 seriously entails holding the Fourth Gospel to be the end product of the actual eyewitness accounting of the Beloved Disciple. After reviewing some of these claims, this article revisits aspects of the discussion. It sets the interpretation of the Beloved Disciple’s witness in the context of the Gospel’s overall treatment of seeing and testifying, reflects on the juxtaposition of metaphorical and literal language, and examines some of the main options for explaining what turns out to be a more complex phenomenon than is often allowed. It concludes that the view that the Beloved Disciple’s eyewitness is a literary device on the part of the narrator remains the most satisfactory explanation of the data and that, contrary to what has been alleged, this view need not be thought to have negative implications for issues surrounding the integrity of the Fourth Gospel’s witness.

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