Authorship of the Johannine works

The authorship of the Johannine works (the Gospel of John, the Johannine epistles, and the Book of Revelation) has been debated by biblical scholars since at least the 2nd century AD. The debate focuses mainly on the identity of the author(s), as well as the date and location of authorship of these writings.

Although authorship of all of these works has traditionally been attributed to John the Apostle, only a minority of contemporary scholars believe he wrote the gospel, and most conclude that he wrote none of them. Although some scholars conclude the author of the epistles was different from that of the gospel, most scholars agree that all three epistles are written by the same author or school of thought.

With respect to the date and location of authorship of these writings, there is general agreement that all four works probably originated from the same Johannine community. That community is traditionally and plausibly either attributed to Ephesus or Damascus, circa AD 90-110.

In the case of Revelation, many modern scholars agree that it was written by a separate author, John of Patmos, c. 95 with some parts possibly dating to Nero's reign in the early 60s.