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Author Topic: St. John most bothered by Judas treachery  (Read 196 times)

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Offline Matthew

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St. John most bothered by Judas treachery
« on: March 24, 2026, 06:45:40 PM »
Have you ever noticed that St. John mentions the traitor Judas earlier than any of the other Evangelists?
St. John starts mentioning Judas future treachery in Chapter 6.

It's almost as if it especially bothered him (more than the others), or he just couldn't get over the enormity of that crime. Perhaps because he was so faithful, the youngest, the Beloved Disciple, and the only apostle who was unmarried/virgin?

(Except when the apostles are listed -- Judas is always mentioned last by all 4 of them, and is called "the traitor".)

I mean, it seems very "squeezed in", to use a modern term "very random" -- to throw that "dig" in about Judas in that verse. At least to me.

But I think it was actually very "human" -- from a disciple who dearly loved his Master, and was stung by Judas' betrayal.


65 But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning, who they were that did not believe, and who he was, that would betray him.

71 Jesus answered them: Have not I chosen you twelve; and one of you is a devil? 72 Now he meant Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon: for this same was about to betray him, whereas he was one of the twelve.
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Offline Giovanni Berto

Re: St. John most bothered by Judas treachery
« Reply #1 on: March 24, 2026, 09:23:00 PM »
There is something special about St. John. He was the only one who was not married, the only one who was not martyred and the only one who was at the foot of the cross. There is also that very interesting apparition at Knock, Ireland, on which he is present with the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph.

I am glad that he is my namesake.
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Offline Matthew

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Re: St. John most bothered by Judas treachery
« Reply #2 on: March 24, 2026, 09:24:00 PM »
Quote from: Giovanni Berto on March 24, 2026, 09:23:00 PM
There is something special about St. John. He was the only one who was not married, the only one who was not martyred and the only one who was at the foot of the cross. There is also that very interesting apparition at Knock, Ireland, on which he is present with the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph.

I am glad that he is my namesake.

Yes, there is a lot for us to meditate upon. Especially male priests/religious who are celibate. Interesting how only the celibate Apostle was able to have no fear and stand by the Cross. It's almost like St. John's heart was not divided; he could live only for Our Lord.

Tradition says St. John miraculously survived being boiled in oil. So even he got to suffer martyrdom, even though he had to live on afterward.

And why did he live on afterward? The world needed his future writings, especially the Gospel of St. John and the Apocalypse.
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Offline Giovanni Berto

Re: St. John most bothered by Judas treachery
« Reply #3 on: March 24, 2026, 09:56:21 PM »
There was even a feast in the Roman Calendar for the attempted martyrdom of St. John.

It was erased by Bugnini et al. in the 1960 revision of the calendar, so it is absent from the 1962 Missal.

https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2016/05/the-feast-of-st-john-at-latin-gate.html

Gregory DiPippo


John was an Apostle, an Evangelist, and a Prophet: an Apostle, because he wrote to the churches as a teacher; an Evangelist, because he wrote a book of the Gospels, which the other twelve Apostles did not do, apart from Matthew; and a Prophet, for on the island of Patmos, whither he had been banished by Domitian because of his testimony to the Lord, he beheld the Apocalypse, which contains such infinite mysteries of the future. And Tertullian says (De praescript. 36, ca. 200 A.D.) that at Rome, he was put into a vessel of boiling oil, but he came out cleaner and healthier than he went in.” (St Jerome in his treatise against Jovinian, the fifth lesson of Matins of the feast. In the homily on the day’s Gospel, St Matthew 20, 20-23, St Jerome explains the Lord’s prophecy to the sons of Zebedee that they will drink the cup of His Passion.)


The Martyrdom of St John the Evangelist, by Charles le Brun, 1641-42, from the church of St Nicholas du Chardonnet in Paris.
“The question arises how the sons of Zebedee, namely, James and John, drank the cup of martyrdom, since Scripture tells that only that James the Apostle was beheaded by Herod, but John died a natural death. But if we read the history of the Church, in which it is told that he also for the sake of his witness (to Christ) was cast into a vessel of boiling oil, and thence went forth as a champion of Christ to receive his crown, and was at once exiled to the island of Patmos, we see that his spirit did not fail at the prospect of martyrdom, and that John did drink the cup of confession that the three children in the fiery furnace also drank, although the persecutor did not shed their blood.” (Commentary on Matthew, book 3, chap. 20)


The right wing of the St John Altarpiece, by Hans Memling, ca. 1479, showing the Apostle John and his vision of the Trinity.
From the lessons at Matins cited above, one would reasonably assume that the principle object of the feast is the Apostle’s martyrdom. However, in the Pre-Tridentine Roman Breviary, different lessons were read which make no mention of it, although it is spoken of in the Magnificat antiphon, which carried over into the Breviary of St Pius V: “In ferventis olei dolium missus beatus Joannes Apostolus, divina se protegente gratia, illaesus exivit, alleluia. - Cast into a pot of boiling oil, the blessed Apostle John, protected by divine grace, came out unharmed, alleluia.” From its first appearance in the late 8th-century, it is known as the feast of St John “before the Latin Gate”, even though the walls of which the Latin Gate are a part were built 200 years after St John’s time. The feast therefore most likely originates, like many secondary feasts, as the dedication feast of the small church built in St John’s honor near the Latin Gate, and was only later associated with the episode of the pot of oil.


The church of St John at the Latin Gate is the station church of the Saturday before Palm Sunday, here photographed by our Roman pilgrim friend Agnese on that occasion in 2014. (interior below)
Next door to the main church is the small oratory known as “Saint John in oleo”, said to be on the very spot where the pot of oil was set up; it is attributed to Donatello Bramante, the original architect in charge of rebuilding St Peter’s Basilica in the early 16th-century.
It is also unlikely a mere coincidence that the Byzantine Rite also keeps a secondary feast of St John only two days later. His principal feast is on September 26; since the Byzantine liturgical year begins on September 1st, he is the first in the year among the Twelve Apostles. On May 8th, a commemoration is made of a miracle whereby a manna-like substance came forth from his tomb in the city of Ephesus, which healed the faithful both physically and spiritually. This day was already occupied in the West, from very ancient times, by the feast of the Apparition of St Michael, and this might explain the slight discrepancy in the dates.


An icon of St John the Evangelist “in Silence.” This manner of representing St John indicates that it is only though profound silence and meditation that he was able to understand the mysteries revealed to him by God though the angel shown speaking directly into his ear, and in turn speak of the divinity of Christ, for which he is known as “the Theologian.” Made by Nektarius Kulyuksin in 1679; from the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. (Public domain image form Wikipedia.)


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Offline Giovanni Berto

Re: St. John most bothered by Judas treachery
« Reply #4 on: March 24, 2026, 09:58:51 PM »
From the Matutinum of May 6th, Divino Afflatu 1954 calendar.

Homily by St. Jerome, Priest at Bethlehem.

Whence had the mother of Zebedee's children gotten her idea of the Lord's kingdom He had but just said “The Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn Him to death, and shall deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify Him.” He had told His trembling disciples of the outrages that awaited Him in His Passion and yet that mother came to Him to ask for her sons a share in the glory of His Triumph. I think it was because the Lord, after He had said all the rest, had said also “And the third day He shall rise again.” The woman supposed that after His resurrection His kingdom would immediately be established, and that that would be fulfilled at His first coming which is promised at His second. And so, with womanly haste, she forgetteth the future, and catcheth at the present.


It was the mother who asked, but the Lord addressed His answer to the disciples, understanding that she had made her prayer in obedience to their wishes. “Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of?” From God's written Word we gather that by this cup, He meant the Passion, touching the which we read that He said “O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me!” Likewise is it written in the hundred-and-fifteenth Psalm “I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the Name of the Lord,” and what that life-giving cup was, the words which soon follow tell us “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His Saints.”

The question ariseth, how the two sons of Zebedee, James namely and John, drank of the cup of contention even unto blood against sin, seeing that though we know by the Scriptures that “Herod the king killed James the brother of John with the sword,” yet John ended his earthly life by a natural death. But if we read the Records of the Church, we shall find there told how that John, on account of his testifying to the truth, was cast into a vessel of boiling oil, and although the holy champion came out unhurt and continued his pilgrimage here for a while longer, before he received his crown from Christ's hand, being straightway banished into the isle of Patmos, yet we see that he had the soul of a martyr, and drank the same cup of martyrdom that was drunk by the three children in the burning fiery furnace, albeit the persecutor did not actually shed his blood.

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