St. John the Apostle and Evangelist was the son of Zebedee and Salome,
brother to James the Greater. He was called the Beloved disciple of
Christ and stood by at his Crucifixion. He wrote the Gospel after the
other Evangelists, about sixty-three years after our Lord's Ascension.
Many things that they had omitted were supplied by him. The original was
written in Greek; and by the Greeks he is titled: The Divine, St. Jerome
relates that, when he was earnestly requested by the brethren to write
the Gospel, he answered he would do it, if by ordering a common fast,
they would all put up their prayers together to the Almighty God; which
being ended replenished with the clearest and fullest revelation coming
from Heaven, he burst forth into that preface: IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE
WORD.