THE BELOVED DISCIPLE AS IDEAL AUTHOR* Richard Bauckham I This article presupposes Martin Hengel’s solution to ‘the Johannine question’ in his recent book.1 For this solution Hengel has made a very impressive case, argued with a characteristic wealth of relevant learning and a characteristically sound historical judgment. In essence the solution is that John the Elder, to whom Papias refers in the famous fragment of his prologue (ap. Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 3.39.4), was both the beloved disciple and