About the Author

Michael J. Kok is a Sessional Lecturer in Theology at The King's University in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He is the author of The Gospel on the Margins: The Reception of Mark in the Second Century.

Reviews

"In this compelling volume, Michael Kok enters a conversation fraught with centuries of complications--the identity of John's beloved disciple. How did it happen that the beloved disciple became synonymous both with John, the son of Zebedee, and the author of the fourth gospel? Kok's treatment carefully walks the reader through the various traditions, connecting them to the acceptance of John's Gospel within early expressions of Christian orthodoxy. This is a substantive and worthwhile read!"
--Christopher W. Skinner, Associate Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at Loyola University Chicago

"In The Beloved Apostle? Michael Kok does for the question of the authorship of the Gospel of John what he had previously done for Mark, namely offer an impressively even-handed treatment of both the traditions of the ancient church, and the internal evidence, neither uncritically embracing nor uncritically dismissing the traditional attribution to John the son of Zebedee. I only hope that Kok will go on to provide similar treatments for Matthew and Luke!"
--James McGrath, Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University