In the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke), none of the twelve disciples is mentioned as a witness to Jesus’ crucifixion. Mark, the earliest gospel, tells us that “All of them deserted him and fled” (Mark 14:50). While the Twelve are conspicuous by their absence, the female disciples, including Mary Magdalene, witnessed from afar (Mark 15:40, cf. Matthew 27:55–56). Luke seems to imply a wider group of witnesses: “All his acquaintances, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things” (Luke 23:49). Once more, however, no mention is made of the Twelve—not even of Peter, James and John. The account in the Fourth Gospel (John 19:25) simply confirms the impression that the Twelve were not there. Only three or four women are mentioned as witnesses: Jesus’ mother, Mary Magdalene, another Mary and, apparently, Jesus’ mother’s sister (if she is different from this third Mary).
In addition to this group of women, however, another witness is famously mentioned in the Fourth Gospel: “The disciple whom [Jesus] loved” (John 19:26). It is clear that this is a man, not only because he is distinguished from the three or four women who are mentioned by name, but also because Jesus calls him “son” in the directive to his mother—“Woman, here is your son” (John 19:26)—dispelling the notion that the Beloved Disciple was Mary Magdalene (sorry, Da Vinci Code fans). But then who is this “last man standing” near the cross?
Through the ages numerous conjectures have tried to identify this man. One of the earliest was the second-century notion that he is John, son of Zebedee. Several problems, however, make this unlikely. For one thing, John, son of Zebedee, is mentioned by name in the Fourth Gospel, if only by reference to his father (John 21:2). It seems unlikely that the Fourth Gospel would then call John simply by the obscure and mysterious designation “the disciple whom he [Jesus] loved.” For another thing, other gospels describe miracles to which the sons of Zebedee were key witnesses. For example, the raising of Jairus’s daughter is witnessed by “James and John, the brother of James [the sons of Zebedee]” (Mark 5:37), as is the Transfiguration (Mark 9:2). Yet these stories are entirely omitted in the Fourth Gospel. If the Beloved Disciple were John, son of Zebedee, it seems unlikely that these stories would have been omitted from John’s Gospel. This point is emphasized by the fact that the author of the Fourth Gospel seems keen on mentioning that the Beloved Disciple was an eyewitness to events in the life of Jesus. Not only is he a witness to the crucifixion (John 19:26), but at the end of the gospel we are told that he wrote an account of the events (John 21:24). It is therefore hard to imagine that if the Beloved Disciple were John, son of Zebedee, the Fourth Gospel would have omitted the other miracle stories in which the sons of Zebedee were important witnesses.
More detective work is in order to figure out who this last man standing at the cross might be.
Scholars have traditionally pointed to John 13:23 (at the Last Supper) as the gospel’s first mention of the Beloved Disciple: “One of his disciples—the one whom Jesus loved—was reclining next to him.” However, this very same kind of language comes a little earlier. In John 11:3, Mary and Martha urgently ask Jesus to come quickly because “he whom you love is ill,” referring to their brother Lazarus. This is confirmed in John 11:5: “Jesus loved Martha and her sister [Mary] and Lazarus.” Can this help us identify the last man standing?
Let us suppose for a moment that it was Lazarus. How does this information help us? First, it comports with the accounts of the other gospels that none of the Twelve was at the cross (Lazarus was not one of the Twelve).a
Second, it clears up another conundrum: Where was the Last Supper held? This takes some unpacking. Jesus tells a messenger that when he reaches the 076house where the supper is to be held, he is to “say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks, Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready” (Mark 14:14–15). The owner of the house clearly knows Jesus and even seems to be expecting the Teacher and his disciples. But the owner is not one of the Twelve who come with Jesus (“When it was evening, he came with the twelve” [Mark 14:17]).
As noted earlier, John 13:23 indicates that the Beloved Disciple was present at the Last Supper, reclining next to Jesus on a couch. Now it was customary for the owner of the house to recline with the chief guest, in this case Jesus. But who do we find on Jesus’ couch? The Beloved Disciple! In other words, the Last Supper was probably held in a house owned by Lazarus (a.k.a. the Beloved Disciple) in Bethany, a suburb of Jerusalem. That the Beloved Disciple had a home near Jerusalem is reflected in the notice that, after the crucifixion, the Beloved Disciple took his mother “into his own home” (John 19:27).
According to John 11, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead after he had been in the tomb for four days.b This story deliberately foreshadows the story of Jesus’ raising.
If miracles do indeed happen from time to time, and if Lazarus’ raising was one of them, it is understandable why the raised Lazarus was brave enough to stand at the cross, even though his master had undergone the ultimate form of ancient shaming: crucifixion. Why indeed would he not believe that a miracle would also happen to Jesus, if it had already happened to him?
In John 19:35 we are told that the Beloved Disciple witnessed the crucifixion. This Beloved Disciple was not just an eyewitness, but he also wrote these things down (John 21:24). Is it not plausible that the Fourth Gospel is the memoir of Lazarus, who was the Beloved Disciple, the last man raised by Jesus before his own death, the last man standing at the cross and, indeed, the last of the Evangelists to testify to these things?c
Scholars have often wondered why it is that the Fourth Gospel is so different from the other gospels. Perhaps being brought back from death changes a person’s worldview. Where others might see a void in the empty tomb, the Beloved Disciple saw it as pregnant with meaning. It meant that God’s “yes” to life was louder than death’s “no.” He had seen it on yet another occasion. What had already happened to him had now happened to Jesus as well.
In the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke), none of the twelve disciples is mentioned as a witness to Jesus’ crucifixion. Mark, the earliest gospel, tells us that “All of them deserted him and fled” (Mark 14:50). While the Twelve are conspicuous by their absence, the female disciples, including Mary Magdalene, witnessed from afar (Mark 15:40, cf. Matthew 27:55–56). Luke seems to imply a wider group of witnesses: “All his acquaintances, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things” (Luke 23:49). Once more, however, no mention is made of the Twelve—not […]
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Although the one whom Jesus loved is called a “disciple,” he was not necessarily one of the Twelve, who later came to be known as “the apostles.” The Twelve were his closest, but not his only, disciples.
2.
What is especially significant about this is that Jews in the first century believed that the spirit of the deceased departed after three days. After four days, there could be no doubt: Lazarus was dead.
3.
Scholars generally date the Fourth Gospel to the last decade of the first century C.E., thus the latest of the four canonical gospels.
