I cannot disguise from myself that if the elder John really perished at
an earlier stage in the history, the position of the younger becomes
much clearer. There would then be no difficulty in the way of
identifying him at once with the beloved disciple and with the author of
the Gospel and Epistles. We should indeed have all the advantages of
Harnack’s theory without its disadvantages. We should not be compelled
to attribute to the Ephesian Church any fraudulent intention or
practice. We should only have to regard the younger John as succeeding
in a manner to the place of the elder, much (as I said) in the way that
James the brother of the Lord succeeded to the place of the elder James.
I do not wish to prejudge the question. But those who are familiar with
its intricacies will, I think, agree with me that it would be a real
gain to have only one claimant to the Ephesian tradition[84].