John the Evangelist

Christian tradition assigns him a life spanning most of the first century, from around 6 AD to 100 AD, and credits him with writing the Gospel of John. Over the centuries he's been folded together with three figures: John the Apostle, who walked with Jesus; John of Patmos, who saw visions; and John the Presbyter, an elder of the early church. No consensus exists on whether all three were one man or several who shared a name. The gospel attributed to him reads differently than the other three — more theological, more cosmic in its framing — and that distinctiveness has kept scribes and scholars…