his relation to the Lord Jesus. No mention of John’s name was necessary because the original readers clearly understood that he was the gospel’s author. Also, through a process of elimination based primarily on analyzing the material in chapters 20 and 21, this disciple “whom Jesus loved” narrows down to the Apostle John (for example, 21:2, 24). The Gospel’s author is exacting in mentioning the names of other characters in the book; thus, if the author had been someone other than John the apostle,
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