Thank you for being open enough to consider the Biblical evidence presented in the book for many are so blinded by their allegiance to the man-made John tradition that they won’t allow themselves to even consider the question, Who was the disciple whom Jesus loved?

However I notice that it seems you are still wanting to find an excuse for the John tradition beyond a simple case of mistaken identity because you raise the idea that the one whom “Jesus loved” (whoever he was) might have written a “document that was used later by John.” But since there the evidence in scripture proves that John cannot possibly be the unnamed “other disciple whom Jesus loved” there is no Biblical reason to remotely suggest that he had anything at all to do with the fourth gospel.

Whether or not this unnamed “other disciple” was Lazarus that does not in any way take away from the fact that the Bible completely disproves that the hand-me-down, non-Bible based, man-made tradition which claims that John was the unnamed “other disciple whom Jesus loved”. That tradition is false and it is incumbent on those who love the truth to respond to the Biblical evidence when the Lord sees fit to open their eyes to the facts in scripture that make this clear.

Regarding the possibility that this anonymous author was Lazarus, if you’ve read the book (free online at TheDiscipleWhomJesusLoved.com) then you know that Lazarus was the only person in the Bible, other than Jesus, who was the object of a murder plot by those “chief priests” — “the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death” (Jn. 12:10). So he certainly was a key figure at least as far as the enemies of Jesus were concerned.

But as for your thoughts about how the other disciples would have related to Lazarus (“If I was one of Jesus’s disciples, how would I treat Lazarus?” It had to be very frustrating for the disciples.) any such speculation requires us to go beyond the bounds of scripture – because Lazarus as such is mentioned in none of the other gospels and in the fourth gospel (the only book that refers to him as such) Jesus does refer to him as “our friend Lazarus” but we aren’t told much more about his relationship to the disciples.

J.

I am still unsure whether the evidence leads one to conclude that Lazarus wrote the Gospel. One option is that Lazarus wrote a Quelle-like document that was used later by John. I think that the one question I will continue to ponder over is, “If I was one of Jesus’s disciples, how would I treat Lazarus?” It had to be very frustrating for the disciples. On one hand Lazarus has a very powerful and personal testimony of God’s power. His testimony was bound to attract many who were curious about finding the real story of Jesus. On the other hand the continued presence of Lazarus walking the streets was a serious problem for the safety of the disciples. They had to suspect that the Jewish council would try to resolve their political problems by murdering Lazarus and the disciples as quickly as possible. It looks like the disciples would have had quite a test of faith.