John
John (Ι᾿ωάννη, the Greek form of Jehohanan; comp. Josephus, Ant. 8, 15, 2), a common name among the Jews after the captivity.
I. In the Apocrypha the following occur under this rendering in the A.V.:
1. The father of Matathias, of the Maccabean family (1 Macc. 2:1). SEE MACCABEES.
2. The son of Accos, and father of Eupolemus, which latter was one of the envoys sent by Judas Maccabaeus to Rome (1 Macc. 8:17; 2 Macc. 4:11).
3. Surnamed Caddis (q.v.), the eldest son of the same Matathias, and one of the Maccabean brothers (1 Macc. 2:2, Johanan; less correctly Joseph in 2 Macc. 8:22). He had been sent by his brother Jonathan on a message to the Nabathaeans, when he was taken prisoner by "the children of Jambri" (q.v.), from Medeba, and appears to have been put to death by them (1 Macc. 9:35, 36, 38)
4. One of the persons sent by the Jews with a petition to the Syrian general Lysias (2 Macc. 11:17).
5. The son of Simon Maccabaeus (1 Macc. 13:53; 16:1, 2, 9, 19, 21, 23), better known by the epithet HYRCANUS SEE HYRCANUS (q.v.).
II. In the New Testament the following are all that are mentioned, besides JOHN THE APOSTLE and JOHN THE BAPTIST, who are noticed separately below:
1. One of the high priest's family, who, with Annas and Caiaphas, sat in judgment upon the apostles Peter and John for their cure of the lame man and preaching in the Temple (Ac 4:6), A.D. 29. Lightfoot identifies him with R. Johanan Ben-Zachai, who lived forty years before the destruction of the Temple, and was president of the great synagogue after its removal to Jabne, or Jamnia (Lightfoot, Cent. Chor. Matth. praef. ch. 15; see also Selden, De Synedriis, 2, ch. 15). Grotius merely says he was known to Rabbinical writers as "John the priest" (Comm. in Act. 4). — Smith.
2. The Hebrew name of the evangelist MARK SEE MARK (q.v.), who throughout the narrative of the Acts is designated by the name by which he was known among his countrymen (Ac 12:12,25; Ac 13:5,13; Ac 15:37).
III. In Josephus the following are the most noteworthy of this name, besides the above and JOHN OF GISCHALA, whom we notice separately below:
1. A high priest (son of Judas, and grandson of Eliashib), who slew his brother Jesus in the Temple, thereby provoking the vengeance of Bagoses, the Persian viceroy under Artaxerxes (Ant. 11, 7, 1). He corresponds to the Jonathan (q.v.), son of Joiada, of Ne 12:10-11. SEE HIGH PRIEST.
2. Son of Dorcas, sent by the Sicarii with ten executioners to murder the persons taken into custody by John of Gischala on his arrival in Jerusalem (Josephus, War, 4, 3, 5).
3. Son of Sosas, one of the four popular generals of the Idumaeans who marched to Jerusalem in aid of the zealots at the instance of John of Gischala (Josephus. War, 4, 4, 2). He was possibly the same with John the Essene, spoken of as commander of the toparchy of Shamma at an earlier stage of the war (ib. 2, 20, 4; comp. 3, 2, 1). He was mortally wounded by a dart during the final siege (ib. 5, 6, 5).
