GIOVANNI il PRESBITERO. — Supposed disciple of the Apostles, who lived at Ephesus. s. Dionysius of Alexandria (ca. 255) mentions him: he conjectures his existence on the basis of internal criteria (B. Allo [V. BIBLICA.], pp. cxciii ff., cc ff.) from the Apocalypse, which he attributes to him; and speaks, only by hearsay, of the double tomb at Ephesus of the Apostle and of this man (Eusebius, Hist. eccl., VII, 25). Eusebius (ibid., III, 39: PG 20, 296 ff.) asserts his existence.
He deduces it from the fragment in which Papias testifies to his care in seeking information about the living teaching of the Apostles: τοῦ τῶν πρεσβυτέρων... λόγους, τί Ἀνδρέας... εἶπεν... ἢ τι Ἰωάννης ἢ Ματθαῖος ἢ τις ἕτερος τῶν τοῦ Κυρίου μαθητῶν, ἃ τε Ἀριστῶν καὶ ὁ πρεσβύτερος Ἰωάννης, τοῦ Κυρίου μαθηταί, λέγουσιν. G. is named twice: first with the group of six Apostles, in the past tense (εἶπεν), and is certainly the apostle G.; then with Aristion in the present tense (λέγουσιν), and would be that G. mentioned by s. Dionysius, the probable author of the Apocalypse. Apart from this last point, s. Jerome (De vir. ill., 18 ff.) accepted Eusebius’s opinion; an opinion shared by several Catholics (E. Jacquier, M.-J. Lagrange, B. B. Allo, etc.) and by very many non-Catholics who attribute the Apocalypse to G. the P. and sometimes also the Fourth Gospel. But Eusebius’s argument does not stand; it is the fruit of a prejudice: he wishes to deny the Apostle the Apocalypse. Since the latter was still alive, Papias, after the past testimony (εἶπεν), recalls the present one; he calls him ὁ πρεσβύτερος, just as shortly before he had called the Apostles; in the fragment, πρεσβύτερος is unquestionably equivalent to “apostle” (A. Casamassa [V. BIBLICA.], p. 186). The entire tradition, beginning with the exceptionally well-informed Irenaeus, knows nothing of this G. the P.; who, in any case, would have absolutely nothing to do with the Apocalypse and the Fourth Gospel (J. Chapman, O. Bardenhewer, F. X. Funk, M. Lepin, A. Casamassa, etc.; among non-Catholics, Th. Zahn, F. Büchsel, etc.).