The Gospel of John presents itself as rooted in the testimony of 'the disciple whom Jesus loved'. But who was this disciple? Over the centuries, scholars have proposed a baffling range of explanations, from John the son of Zebedee or a 'John the Elder' to Lazarus and Mary Magdalene. Joining Helen and Lloyd in the Time Machine, Dr Hugo Mendez has a different theory: that John is a work of disguised authorship. The beloved disciple was not a real person, but is an idealised literary creation.

Hugo Méndez is Associate Professor of Religious Studies in Ancient Mediterranean Religions, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. with particular focus on Johannine literature. He is the author of The Cult of Stephen in Jerusalem: Inventing a Patron Martyr and, most recently, The Gospel of John: A New History (Oxford University Press, 2025), a provocative reassessment that argues the Gospel is a work of disguised authorship rather than eyewitness testimony.

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Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson.

Did the Beloved Disciple Exist?

Biblical Time Machine