Names of John

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John the Baptist, simply called "John" in the New Testament, is a distinct person, thus his identity will not be discussed in this article.

A series of articles on
"John" in the Bible
Johannine literature Gospel of John · First Epistle of John · Second Epistle of John · Third Epistle of John · Revelation · Authorship
Names John the Apostle · Disciple whom Jesus loved · John the Presbyter · John the Evangelist · John of Patmos
Communities Twelve Apostles · The Early Church
Related Literature Apocryphon of John · Egerton Gospel · Homosexual reading · Logos · Signs Gospel This box: view • talk • edit

Christians have given John the Apostle many names and attributed many books of the Bible to him. The different names refers to different aspects of his personality and different books attributed to him. The names emphasize those aspects in the mind of the listener. The names are often used in icons. Some historians consider the books attributed to John to have been written by more than one person, none of them John the Apostle (see John the Presbyter, John of Patmos, authorship of Johannine literature).

יוחנן	Hebrew for The LORD is Merciful
Yoḥanan	Transliteration from Hebrew into Tiberian Hebrew
Ιωάννης, that is, Iohannes	Translation from Hebrew to Koine Greek
John the Apostle	John as one of Jesus' twelve close friends, first disciples, and a leader in the early Church
John, son of Zebedee	Name used in Mark to show his relation to his brother James (Mark 3:17)
Boanerges, Greek for Sons of Thunder	Together with his brother James, probably a reference to their zeal (Mark 3:17)
The disciple whom Jesus loved	John's repeated and only reference to himself in his Gospel
Saint John	John as officially canonized and a righteous person
John the Evangelist	From the Greek euangelion meaning gospel; John as the writer of a Gospel, a testament of Jesus' life
John the Theologian	A reference to the deep insight of John's gospel^[1]
The Eagle	According to some Christian traditions, the four evangelists are connected to the four living creatures of the Apocalypse, with John represented by an eagle. It is possibly also a reference to the height that John achieved when writing John 1.
John the Divine	Old reference to John as the receiver of a divine revelation, The Book of Revelation
John of Patmos	John as a prisoner on the island of Patmos where he wrote Revelation
Eagle of Patmos	Combination of The Eagle and John of Patmos
John the Revelator	John as the writer of Revelation
John the Seer	John as the one who has seen the future through the vision in Revelation
John the Presbyter	An obscure reference by Eusebius to the writer of 2 John and 3 John.