John the Beloved is seen in this beautiful icon. He is the author of the fourth gospel, the only one written by an eye witness. The other gospels scripture scholars tell us, were written by persons who knew persons and in some cases person who knew persons who knew person who knew Jesus. The first three gospels are written copying the pattern of Mark the first to be written even though Matthew and Luke add some material particular to their own versions of the gospel. John the Beloved’s gospel is written from an entirely different perspective. Most likely he was a teenage disciple who accompanied Jesus and the disciples during parts of Jesus’ ministry. A very close bonding happened between him and Jesus. He wrote his gospel, the last to be written in his old age after a lifetime of reflection on the experiences he had with Jesus. He wrote for his own community for their liturgical life and needs. John is the only one to give us the story of Jesus turning water into wine. The comment about the wine is that “you have saved the best wine until now.” Wine grows better as it ages. We are at a tremendous advantage with John’s gospel, the aged wine in that he wrote it in his old age after a life time of reflection on his experiences with Jesus. His understanding of Christ has a breadth and depth unequaled by any other New Testament writer even Paul. Some of the best scripture scholars who have written about John are: John Gerhard S.J., who first outlined the poetic structure of the gospel in his doctoral thesis; Peter Ellis, CSsR, who built tremendously on Gerhard’s work and further elaborated it; Bruno Barnhart OSB Cam., who in turn opened up the relationship of John’s gospel to the biblical creation stories in The Good Wine, Reading John from the Center, and Joseph Grassi who wrote about the identity of the Beloved Disciple. A good current scholar devoted to the patterning of John’s gospel is Felix Just, SJ.