{"id":4852,"date":"2005-11-06T21:59:57","date_gmt":"2005-11-06T21:59:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=4852"},"modified":"2025-09-24T00:20:02","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T00:20:02","slug":"latest_read","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/?p=4852","title":{"rendered":"Latest read – “The Secret Identity of the Beloved Disciple”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is actually a re-read of a book by the title of \u201cThe Secret Identity of the Beloved Disciple.\u201d It is about the identity of the author, or at least the source of the fourth Gospel, the Gospel of John. It was written in 1992 by Joseph A. Grassi , and I probably first read it about ten years ago.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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I took more time reading the second time around – it\u2019s only 127 pages \u2013 and it is a very good book. It does not require any great knowledge of the bible or the New Testament. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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The authority behind the fourth Gospel is the mysterious figure of the \u201cBeloved Disciple\u201d and nowhere in the Gospel is he referred to as John. This was a hypothesis offered in later centuries, partially to put the fourth Gospel in the apostolic tradition. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Grassi builds a painstaking case, as he ID\u2019s the \u201cBeloved Disciple\u201d not by name, but rather by his background. The 14 short chapters have titles like \u201cThe Role and Community of the Beloved Disciple, The Mother of Jesus and the Beloved Disciple, Disciple of Love and Model of Relationships (this chapter also a fascinating analysis of the role of Mary Magdelene), A Mystical and Creative Genius\u201d. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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While coming up with a reasonable case for the Beloved Disciple\u2019s background – and of course that is all it is, a reasonable case, it cannot be proved \u2013 Grassi of course is also touching on the importance of the fourth Gospel.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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It\u2019s really a fine, fine, short book, which unfortunately is very difficult to get Amazon.com Used and New The Secret Identity of the Beloved Disciple Joseph A<\/a>. I give it four stars out of five (I am a very<\/u> tough marker). The original cost was labeled $7.95, and I suspect I got the book off a discount table for only a couple of bucks! <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is actually a re-read of a book by the title of \u201cThe Secret Identity of the Beloved Disciple.\u201d It is about the identity of the author, or at least the source of the fourth Gospel, the Gospel of John. It was written in 1992 by Joseph A. Grassi , and I probably first read it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4852"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9889,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4852\/revisions\/9889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}