Gospel Doctrine: The Translation of the Apostle John

The Translation of the Apostle John
By John A. Tvedtnes

[Supplement to Gospel Doctrine New Testament lesson 27]

And he said unto them: Behold, I know your thoughts, and ye have desired the thing which John, my beloved, who was with me in my ministry, before that I was lifted up by the Jews, desired of me.

Therefore, more blessed are ye, for ye shall never taste of death; but ye shall live to behold all the doings of the Father unto the children of men, even until all things shall be fulfilled according to the will of the Father, when I shall come in my glory with the powers of heaven.

And ye shall never endure the pains of death; but when I shall come in my glory ye shall be changed in the twinkling of an eye from mortality to immortality; and then shall ye be blessed in the kingdom of my Father.

And again, ye shall not have pain while ye shall dwell in the flesh, neither sorrow save it be for the sins of the world; and all this will I do because of the thing which ye have desired of me, for ye have desired that ye might bring the souls of men unto me, while the world shall stand. (3 Nephi 28:6-9) [1]

From the resurrected Savior’s words to the three Nephite disciples who were not to die until his second coming, we learn that they “desired the thing which John,” the beloved apostle of Jesus, desired. That John may have been spared death is merely hinted in John 21:20-23:

Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following; which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said,

Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee?

Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do?

Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.

Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die: yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die; but, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?

The Bible passage is unclear about whether John was actually translated, and at least some Christians came to believe that he was not. John corrected this misimpression by noting that Jesus did not tell him he would not die, only that he would “tarry” or remain.

Joseph Smith explained that “translated bodies cannot enter into rest until they have undergone a change equivalent to death. Translated bodies are designed for future missions” (History of the Church 4:425). The early Christian theologian Tertullian (born probably ca. A.D. 160) gave partial support for this when he wrote,

Enoch no doubt was translated, and so was Elijah; nor did they experience death: it was postponed, (and only postponed) most certainly: they are reserved for the suffering of death, that by their blood they may extinguish Antichrist. Even John underwent death, although concerning him there had prevailed an ungrounded expectation that he would remain alive until the coming of the Lord. (Treatise on the Soul 50) [2]

Several early Christian writers noted that John died at an advanced age in the city of Ephesus. [3] Perhaps because of the words of Christ to the three Nephites, Joseph Smith was intrigued about the subject while he was engaged in his revision of the Bible and came to the passage in John 21. Inquiring of the Lord, he learned that John had written an account on parchment that had been buried. The contents of a portion of that record were revealed to Joseph in these words:

And the Lord said unto me: John, my beloved, what desirest thou? For if you shall ask what you will, it shall be granted unto you.

And I said unto him: Lord, give unto me power over death, that I may live and bring souls unto thee.

And the Lord said unto me: Verily, verily, I say unto thee, because thou desirest this thou shalt tarry until I come in my glory, and shalt prophesy before nations, kindreds, tongues and people.

And for this cause the Lord said unto Peter: If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? For he desired of me that he might bring souls unto me, but thou desiredst that thou mightest speedily come unto me in my kingdom.

I say unto thee, Peter, this was a good desire; but my beloved has desired that he might do more, or a greater work yet among men than what he has before done.

Yea, he has undertaken a greater work; therefore I will make him as flaming fire and a ministering angel; he shall minister for those who shall be heirs of salvation who dwell on the earth. (D&C 7:1-6) [4]

The revelation makes it clear that John was, in fact, translated, in order that he might continue to serve the Lord in the flesh. This was partially confirmed at the general conference held in the forepart of June, 1831, when “the Spirit of the Lord fell upon Joseph in an unusual manner, and he prophesied that John the Revelator was then among the Ten Tribes of Israel who had been led away by Shalmaneser king of Assyria to prepare them for their return from their long dispersion to again possess the land of their fathers.” [5]

That this is his role was subsequently confirmed in a revelation given in March 1832 (D&C 77:9, 14).

Early Christian Traditions

In the standard Christian belief, as reflected by Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History, the apostle John is said to have died at Ephesus. But there are other early Christian documents that tell a different story. The Epistle to the Tarsians 3, attributed to Ignatius (died A.D. 107), [6] notes how Peter, James, Paul, and Stephen were killed, but merely notes that “John was banished to Patmos.” Evidently, the writer had no information on the death of the apostle John.

The Acts of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian: About His Exile and Departure has the apostle mysteriously disappearing, leaving the brethren at Ephesus to reflect on Jesus’ words to Peter concerning him. [7] Introducing some of John’s writings in his own work, Hilary of Poitiers wrote, “Let John speak to us, while he is waiting, just as he is, for the coming of the Lord; John, who was left behind and appointed to a destiny hidden in the counsel of God, for he is not told that he shall not die, but only that he shall tarry” (On the Trinity 6.39). [8]

In the fourth century, St. Augustine, commenting on John 21:19-25, wrote,

Who can readily believe that anything else was meant than what the brethren who lived at the time believed, namely, that that disciple was not to die, but to abide in this life till Jesus came? But John himself removed such an idea, by giving a flat contradiction to the report that the Lord had said so.

For why should he add, “Jesus saith not, He dieth not,” save to prevent what was false from taking hold of the hearts of men? But let any one who so listeth still refuse his assent, and declare that what John asserts is true enough, that the Lord said not that that disciple dieth not, and yet that this is the meaning of such words as He is here recorded to have used; and further assert that the Apostle John is still living, and maintain that he is sleeping rather than lying dead in his tomb at Ephesus.

Let him employ as an argument the current report that there the earth is in sensible commotion, and presents a kind of heaving appearance, and assert whether it be steadfastly or obstinately that this is occasioned by his breathing. For we cannot fail to have some who so believe, if there is no want of those also who affirm that Moses is alive. (Tractates on the Gospel According to John 124.1-2) [9]

By denying reports that John was still alive, Augustine confirmed that some Christians believed that he was. He continued:

But still, as I began to say, if some deny the death of Moses, whom Scripture itself, in the very passage where we read that his sepulcher could nowhere be found, explicitly declares to have died; how much more may occasion be taken from these words where the Lord says, “Thus do I wish him to stay till I come,” to believe that John is sleeping, but still alive, beneath the ground?

Of whom we have also the tradition (which is found in certain apocryphal scriptures), that he was present, in good health, when he ordered a sepulcher to be made for him; and that, when it was dug and prepared with all possible care, he laid himself down there as in a bed, and became immediately defunct: yet as those think who so understand these words of the Lord, not really defunct, but only lying like one in such a condition; and, while accounted dead, was actually buried when asleep, and that he will so remain till the coming of Christ, making known meanwhile the fact of his life by the bubbling up of the dust, which is believed to be forced by the breath of the sleeper to ascend from the depths to the surface of the grave.

I think it quite superfluous to contend with such an opinion. For those may see for themselves who know the locality whether the ground there does or suffers what is said regarding it, because, in truth, we too have heard of it from those who are not altogether unreliable witnesses. (Tractates on the Gospel According to John 124.2) [10]

In addition to the story of surviving being buried alive, several early Christian texts indicate that John was both imprisoned and given poison to drink but that these did him no harm. [11] One tradition, reported by Tertullian, has him being whipped in Rome, then cast into boiling oil, from which he emerged unscathed (Against the Heretics 36). [12]

We can compare these accounts with the trials endured by the three translated Nephite disciples, who also could not be harmed by imprisonment, burial in the ground, the furnace of fire, or wild beasts (3 Nephi 28:19-22; 4 Nephi 1:30-33).

An Irish pseudepigraphic text preserves the tradition that John lay down in a deep grave prepared for him and prayed, whereupon a brilliant light blinded those who stood by and when they could see again, the apostle had passed on. The text concludes by saying, “As for the body of John, it is in a beautiful golden tomb, and at the end of each year, the best youth, who is without defilement or sin, is chosen, and he goes to cut John’s hair and pare his nails, and when he has completed that task, he partakes of the body and sacrifice of Christ, and he himself ascends to heaven on that day. Thus John’s body remains without putrefaction or corruption. Indeed, it is as if it were in a deep sleep, and it will be thus until Doomsday.” [13]

The text hints that John is not really dead and that those who come into contact with his body are taken to heaven.

A fourth-century Christian document from Egypt, the Discourse on Abbaton, confirms that John had been translated. The preface speaks of “the Holy Apostle Saint John, theologian and virgin, who is not to taste death until the thrones are set in the Valley of Jehoasaphat.” [14]

The text itself has the resurrected Jesus saying, “And as for thee, O My beloved John, thou shalt not die until the thrones have been prepared on the Day of the Resurrection ... I will command Abbaton, [15] the Angel of Death, to come unto thee on that day ... Thou shalt be dead for three and a half hours, lying upon thy throne, and all creation shall see thee. I will make thy soul to return to thy body, and thou shalt rise up and array thyself in apparel of glory.”[16]

A Syriac Christian text includes a vision given to the apostle John in which “our Lord sent to him a man in white raiment,” who told him, “John, behold thou hast been set by our Lord to preach the Gospel of Salvation, along with the three that perform the truth; but ye also shall not be deprived of this gift.” [17] The text does not explain who these three others were, but because the word “ye” denotes plural, it suggests that the four were to be allowed to continue preaching. Latter-day Saints would readily understand the passage to refer to the three Nephites.

Conclusions

While the Bible is unclear about whether the apostle John was translated, the fact is established in both the Book of Mormon and in a revelation to Joseph Smith. Though some early Christian documents support the view that John died, an important text from Egypt clearly supports the Book of Mormon view.

Notes:

[1] See also verses 25, 36-40.

[2] Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, eds., Anti-Nicene Fathers (reprint Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1994), 3:227-8.

[3] Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 3.1.1; 3.31.1-3; 3.30.3; 5.24.3. Irenaeus (second century A.D.), in Against Heresies 2.22.5 and 3.3.4, wrote that John remained among the people at Ephesus until the time of Trajan, the Roman emperor whose reign began in A.D. Polycrates, in his Epistle to Victor and the Roman Church, wrote that John became a martyr and that “he rests at Ephesus.”

[4] Some readers may be aware of the fact that the earliest version of this revelation did not include as much information. However, since the published version given here is clearly what Joseph Smith intended to be given to the Saints, we can rely on it as an accurate reflection of the account.

[5] John Whitmer’s unpublished History of the Church, chapter 5. John Whitmer had been called as the Church’s first historian (D&C 69:2-3). When excommunicated from the Church in 1838, he refused to turn over the history, which only later came into the hands of the Church. B. H. Roberts included the relevant passage in a footnote to History of the Church 1:176.

[6] The epistle is thought to be spurious, but is sufficiently early (sixth century A.D.) to make the point stressed herein.

[7] Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, Anti-Nicene Fathers, 8:563-4. Like some of the other accounts, this one notes that John had the brethren dig a pit, presumably for his burial (though the text never says so). He then sent them away and when they returned the following day, “they did not find him, but his sandals, and a fountain welling up. And after that they remembered what had been said to Peter by the Lord about him: For what does it concern thee if I should wish him to remain until I come? And they glorified God for the miracle that had happened” (ibid., 8:564). Hippolytus, an early third-century A.D. Christian historian, wrote that “John, again in Asia, was banished by Domitian to the isle of Patmos, in which also he wrote his Gospel and saw the apocalyptic vision; and in Trajan’s time he fell asleep at Ephesus, where his remains were sought for, but could not be found” (ibid., 8:255).

[8] Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, eds., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series (reprint, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1994), 9:112.

[9] Philip Schaff, ed., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series (reprint, Peabody, Ma: Hendrickson, 1994), 7:447-8. Various ancient texts, including the Book of Mormon (Alma 45:19) indicate that Moses, like Elijah and Enoch, was translated.

[10] Ibid., 7:448. Augustine continues, “Meanwhile let us yield to the opinion, which we are unable to refute by any certain evidence, lest we stir up still another question that may be put to us, Why the very ground should seem in a kind of way to live and breathe upon the interred corpse? But can so great a question as the one before us be settled on such grounds as these, if by a great miracle, such as can be wrought by the Almighty, the living body lies so long asleep beneath the ground, till the coming of the end of the world? Nay, rather, does there not arise a wider and more difficult one, why Jesus bestowed on the disciple, whom He loved beyond the others to such an extent that he was counted worthy to recline on His breast, the gift of a protracted sleep in the body, when He delivered the blessed Peter, by the eminent glory of martyrdom, from the burden of the body itself, and vouchsafed to him what the Apostle Paul said that he desired, and committed to writing, namely, “to be let loose, and to be with Christ”? But if, what is rather to be believed, Saint John declared that the Lord said not, “He dieth not,” for the very purpose that no such meaning might be attached to the words which He used; and his body lieth in its sepulcher lifeless like those of others deceased; it remains, if that really takes place which report has spread abroad regarding the soil, which grows up anew, though continually carried away, that it is either so done for the purpose of commending the preciousness of his death, seeing it wants the commendation of martyrdom (for he suffered not death at a persecutor's hand for the faith of Christ), or on some other account that is concealed from our knowledge. Still there remains the question, why the Lord said of one who was destined to die, ‘Thus I wish him to remain till I come’” (Tractates on the Gospel According to John 124.3, ibid.).

[11] Acts of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian: About His Exile and Departure, in Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, eds., Anti-Nicene Fathers, 8:561. The story is also known from an Irish (Gaelic) text; see Maíre Herbert and Martin McNamara, Irish Biblical Apocrypha (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1989), 89-91.

[12] In his Against Jovianus 1.26, Jerome cited the passage from Tertullian.

[13] Maíre Herbert and Martin McNamara, Irish Biblical Apocrypha, 96-8.

[14] E. A. Wallis Budge, Coptic Martyrdoms (London: British Museum, 1914), 475. The “valley of Jehoshaphat” is mentioned in Joel 3:2, 12 and its name, shared by one of the ki ngs of Judah, means “Jehovah judges.”

[15] The term Abbaton derives from Hebrew Abbadon, meaning “perdition, loss.” In Revelation 9:11, the Hebrew is paired with its Greek equivalent, which has the same meaning.

[16] E. A. Wallis Budge, Coptic Martyrdoms, 492-3.

[17] J. Rendel Harris, The Gospel of the Twelve Apostles Together with The Apocalypses of Each One of Them (Cambridge University, 1900), 34.