(St John the Evangelist, by El Greco (1541–1614), [Public Domain] via
Creative Commons)
The Acts of John
According to Christian
teachings, after the crucifixion of their Savior, many of the apostles of Jesus
dispersed into the known world to spread their religion to the masses. They
traveled in all directions from Jerusalem, venturing downward toward Ethiopia,
northwest to Turkey and Greece, and west through North Africa, Rome and Spain.
The adventures of the apostles were immortalized in Christian texts featuring
mystical healings, exorcisms and all sorts of miracles. One of the most
dramatic accounts of one such apostle, however, is less well known. Despite its
unique story and its vivid descriptions of miracles, the Acts of John was left out of the New Testament cannon for its hints
of Docetism, which described Jesus as more divine and less human than the
proto-orthodox (pre-Catholic) church could condone. Though the Docetic elements
in the text were mainly at the end of the work, those latter passages tarnished
the entirety of the Acts of John in
the eyes of the church.
