Which John Wrote New Testament Books? Even Church Fathers Didn't Know

Five books, nearly a fifth of the New Testament, have the name John attached to them. Many Christians might think this is John the fisherman, the son of Zebedee, and that perhaps he was the "Disciple who Jesus loved." But the evidence is surprisingly murky. The Gospel never names its author. The letters are signed by someone calling himself only "the Elder." And the author of Revelation says he's John without once claiming to be an apostle. In fact, early Christian writers couldn't agree on who this John or the Johns were either. And they might have even invented a John or two along the way.

Bart joins host Megan Lewis to work out how many people named John we're actually dealing with. Why more Johns may have been invented to solve the problem. Why the claim that the Beloved Disciple wrote the Gospel rests on an appendix somebody else appears to have added. And how can we even discover an author when that author may have held one of the most common Jewish names from the period.