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This essay is an appendix to an article I published in 1998 entitled --
Mary Magdalene: Author of the Fourth Gospel? It can be accessed free of charge at www.BelovedDisciple.org In that article, I make a case for ascribing authorship of the Fourth Gospel (the Gospel of John) in the New Testament to Mary Magdalene. I therefore posit that she is the Beloved Disciple of the Fourth Gospel. For a full account of my thesis, please visit my website and download the 1998 article. This essay is a continuation of that research. It is assumed that the reader is familiar with the thesis.

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Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple. As this disciple was known to the high priest, he entered the court of the high priest along with Jesus, while Peter stood outside at the door. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out and spoke to the maid who kept the door, and brought Peter in. The maid who kept the door said to Peter, "Are not you also one of this man's disciples?" He said, "I am not." Now the servants and officers had made a charcoal fire, because it was cold, and they were standing and warming themselves; Peter also was with them, standing and warming himself (John 18:15-18 RSV).

Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. They said to him, "Are not you also one of his disciples?" He denied it and said, "I am not." One of the servants of the high priest, a kinsman of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, "Did I not see you in the garden with him?" Peter again denied it; and at once the cock crowed
(John 18:25-27 RSV).

In this passage, according to my thesis, we have a scenario in which Mary Magdalene accompanies Jesus into the home of the Jewish high priest, Caiaphas, after the arrest of Jesus. Caiaphas knows Mary Magdalene to be a follower of Jesus. He does not seem to know Peter as a disciple of Jesus. Peter goes on to deny that he even knows Jesus at all.

Mary Magdalene is allowed to accompany Jesus as he is brought in to the home of Caiaphas by the arresting officers. Peter waits outside. After a while, Mary Magdalene comes out, speaks to the woman who is guarding the door, and Peter is invited in. Peter then refuses to enter after the woman at the door asks him if he is a disciple of Jesus. He denies it. Peter is obviously afraid of being arrested. He waits outside where he is questioned further about whether he is a disciple of Jesus by Caiaphas' staff.

Is it likely that this is what happened? Upon further examination we'll see that this interpretation is more plausible than the ways that this passage is usually interpreted.

John 18:15-18 raises some very interesting questions indeed about the identity of the Beloved Disciple. It should be noted first that the disciple is referred to three times in this passage -- once as "another disciple," once as "this disciple," and once as "the other disciple." As is the case throughout the Gospel, the disciple is never explicitly identified. Some scholars maintain that the disciple in this passage is not necessarily the same person who is referred to elsewhere in the Gospel as the disciple whom Jesus loved. This is a possibility. But I side with the scholars who say that this disciple is the same as the Beloved Disciple.

After carefully scrutinizing this passage anew for this essay, I hope to establish that this portion of the text makes little sense if the disciple were, indeed, St. John of Zebedee, or any other male disciple. Let's take a look at it from various angles to see if my thesis about it has any merit. Verse 15 starts out by telling us that Simon Peter was with Jesus along with "another disciple." According to my thesis, Peter would have been following Jesus along with Mary Magdalene. Jesus had just been arrested by a band of soldiers in the Garden of Gethsemane. We are told that the disciple was known to the high priest. This probably means that the high priest already knew the disciple to be a follower of Jesus. He probably did not know Peter to be one of Jesus' followers. So, he therefore would have known Mary Magdalene to be a follower and companion of Jesus. She goes in to the home of the high priest with Jesus while Peter waits outside. Mary Magdalene comes out, talks to the woman who was the gatekeeper, and identifies Peter as one who should be allowed in.

However, something very important happens here. It appears that Peter does not, in fact, go in at all. As Peter is walking in, the female gatekeeper asks Peter if he is one of Jesus' followers (John 18:17). Peter, overcome with fear, denies knowing Jesus at all. As a result of the gatekeeper's question, he apparently got "cold feet" about going in to be with Jesus. Peter instead decides to stay outside where some of the high priest's staff are warming themselves over a fire (John 18:18). The people outside also ask him whether he is a follower of Jesus (John 18:25-27). He continues to deny it.

The Gospel of Mark tells us that Peter followed "at a distance"(Mark 14:54). Perhaps we can infer, then, that Mary Magdalene accompanied Jesus as he was being arrested while Peter followed along at a distance.

Mark also tells us something very important. Peter did not simply deny knowing Jesus in a matter-of- fact way. He was terrified of being identified as a follower of Jesus. Mark tells us that Peter "began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear" that he did not know Jesus (Mark 14:71). Peter was saying something to this effect: "No! As God is my witness, I do not know this man!! May God strike me dead and condemn me forever if I am lying to you!!" It was at this point that the cock crowed; a reminder to Peter that Jesus already knew that Peter would let him down. Can you imagine how torn up inside Peter must have felt about this? He wanted to do the right thing but, at the same time, he knew he was too afraid to do it. He could do nothing more than run home and face his own cowardice.

Why was Peter so terrified? Peter had good reason to be afraid. He knew that, as a follower of Jesus, he would also be arrested and probably crucified along with Jesus as a co-conspirator. Neither he, nor any of the other male disciples were safe. The soldiers wanted to arrest all of the male disciples along with Jesus in the garden. However, Jesus gave himself up to arrest and told the soldiers, "...if you seek me, let these men go."(John 18:8). This heroic gesture by Jesus bought the disciples some time to get away and hide. As Matthew tells us: "Then all the disciples forsook him and fled"(Matthew 26:56). All of the disciples forsook Jesus and ran away in fear. Peter himself followed Jesus surreptitiously because he was afraid of being arrested.

How do we, then, explain the fact that this "other" male disciple was not afraid to walk in alongside Jesus into the home of the high priest? Was this disciple the only man among Jesus' followers willing to face the high priest? If so, why do we not know this hero's name? Why was he not the leader of the disciples then, instead of Peter? And, perhaps most significantly, why do the other three New Testament Gospels make no mention of this man whatsoever? The answer may be very simple. The female followers of Jesus were not subject to arrest in this case. As a rule, women were not crucified or ever charged as revolutionaries or dissidents. Sometimes the Romans did, indeed, crucify women. But, as is still the case today, a woman who got the death penalty was the rare exception rather than the rule. It is for this reason that it was the women who were by the Cross with Jesus while the men were hiding in fear. It is also for this reason that it was the women who went to the Tomb on Sunday morning while the men were still hiding in fear. Remember, Jesus said to the soldiers, "...if you seek me, let these men go."(John 18:8 emphasis added). It was the men who were being arrested. Only the male disciples needed to be afraid of arrest and/or execution. I submit, then, that the reason the "other disciple" had no fear of arrest and execution was that, being a woman, she knew that it probably would not happen. She was admitted to accompany Jesus as would, perhaps, a member of his family.

The strength of my thesis is that it provides very plausible motives for otherwise unexplained or mysterious behavior on the part of some key figures described in the Fourth Gospel (and the other Gospels as well). This passage is no different. Most Bible scholars seem to gloss over this passage without asking some very important questions. Asking the right questions is crucial if one ever hopes to get the right answers. It's simply a matter of establishing motive. When we see actions within these texts that seem a bit peculiar, we should usually begin by asking ourselves, "Why would anyone do that?"

After researching the various theories about the identity of the Beloved Disciple, I found that none of them provided a convincing reason for the anonymity of the disciple within the Gospel text. I asked myself, "Why would the final redactor(s) of the Gospel be so intent on concealing the name of this disciple while, at the same time, lauding the disciple's prominent role in the ministry of Jesus?" Some scholars suggested the modesty of the Beloved Disciple as a reason. Others have suggested that the identity of the disciple was concealed to protect him, and possibly his family, from persecution. But these reasons, and others that have been suggested, do not really provide us with a plausible motivational hypothesis.

The theory that the Beloved Disciple was Mary Magdalene, on the other hand, provides very convincing explanations for many of the odd and inconsistent accounts about the disciple. This passage describes one of several examples of the Beloved Disciple upstaging Peter in a very significant way. The Beloved Disciple was probably a follower of John the Baptist before Jesus began his public ministry. Many scholars contend that the Beloved Disciple was probably the anonymous disciple who was called to follow Jesus before Peter was called (John 1:35-42). So, the Beloved Disciple probably knew Jesus longer than Peter did and became a disciple before he did. The Beloved Disciple sat next to Jesus at the Last Supper while Peter did not (John 13:23). The Beloved Disciple was by the Cross of Jesus while Peter was not (John 19:26). The Beloved Disciple believed in the Risen Jesus before Peter did (John 20:8). And, in this passage, the Beloved Disciple has the courage to stand by Jesus in his hour of need by going boldly into the home of the high priest with Jesus while Peter waits outside.

It is worth pointing out here that none of the four canonical New Testament Gospels names any of the male disciples as having the courage to stand with Jesus as he was being arrested and crucified. By all accounts, they were in hiding even after Jesus had Risen from the dead on the Sunday morning following his death. It stands to reason then that, if any of the Apostles had stood by Jesus when he was being arrested or crucified, the Gospel texts would have lauded their heroism. They would have been named.

If St. John of Zebedee was the disciple who went into the home of Caiaphas with Jesus -- and was also standing by the Cross with Jesus -- why then does the Gospel not clearly identify him as doing so? Some say that John was just being modest and wrote the Gospel in such a way as to minimize his own heroic role. However, the other three New Testament Gospels (the "Synoptics") do not mention John as being with Jesus during those dangerous days either. Neither do they mention any mysterious "beloved disciple."

In fact, the four New Testament Gospels are very clear in pointing out that it was the female disciples, not the men, who stood by Jesus. The Fourth Gospel does seem, at a glance, to say that a male disciple stood by the Cross of Jesus and was with him when Jesus went in to the home of the high priest. But, interestingly enough, this "male disciple" remains anonymous in the Fourth Gospel? ...Why? The Fourth Gospel obscures the identity and gender of the Beloved Disciple because the disciple was a woman. This scene from the Fourth Gospel definitely deserves further investigation.

We've all heard the story of how Peter denied Jesus before the cock crowed. But, not many people realize that Mary Magdalene may have played a pivotal role in this important Bible story.