If you want to cause Biblical scholars to get their knickers in a knot there are two sure fire ways to accomplish that end: 1) you can skewer a sacred cow whether a liberal or conservative one; 2) you can propose a theory that requires one to believe in the possibility of the miraculous to even entertain the thesis. If you can accomplish both with one theory, well, you’ve created a Mallox moment! I seem to accomplished this at the last SBL meeting in November when I gave the following lecture. I’ll let you decide whether you find it illuminating or inflammatory. Flame On!
Source: Ben Witherington: Was Lazarus the Beloved Disciple?
I was browsing Ben’s blog when I ran accross this interesting theory that Lazarus was the Beloved Disciple. This theory still believes that John wrote the Gospel but that Lazarus was probably a major source to John’s Gospel. John’s Gospel has always been a bit of a puzzle and this theory explains how Lazarus could be the missing piece. A commentor mentioned another online source, The Name of the Beloved Disciple, who also makes the same arguement. Both of these links are worth reading!