Last Updated on September 21, 2024 by Kittredge Cherry

John the Evangelist and Apostle is commonly considered to be Jesus’ “Beloved Disciple” — and possibly his lover. His feast day is Dec. 27 in Catholic and Protestant churches. He has two feast days, May 8 and Sept. 26, in the Orthodox tradition.

[Update on Sept. 2, 2024: This article is a major rewrite with lots of new info and ideas, plus a new artwork. Queer Mexican artist Medusczka Gorgona expands on the gospel story by showing a kiss between John with a rainbow halo and Jesus with a crown of thorns in the art pictured above.]

Shrouded in both mystery and reverence, t unnamed Beloved Disciple is popular with LGBTQ Christians because he had a close, loving relationship directly with Jesus. A centuries-old tradition links them as a same-sex couple. The love between Jesus and John has been celebrated at least since medieval times. For example, medieval English abbot Aelred of Rievaulx commended their “heavenly marriage” as an example to guide others. And the idea that they were lovers has been inspiring queer people and causing controversy for centuries. The possibility of John as genderfluid or genderqueer is also being explored because John is often portrayed as younger and beardless, which is more “feminine” by traditional standards. LGBTQ interpretations of the Beloved Disciple can open up space for dialogue about the nature of love and faith.

This article follows the traditional and still most common view by identifying the Beloved Disciple as John, but there is a wide range of alternate theories. Other identities proposed for the Beloved Disciple include Lazarus, Mary Magdalene, Thomas and even Judas, the disciple who betrayed Jesus. Because the Beloved Disciple is left unnamed, each believer is free to imagine or become the Beloved Disciple in their own way.

Jesus and John lean on each other in a rainbow image from “Heavenly Homos, Etc.: Queer Icons from LGBTQ Life, Religion, and History” by Jan Haen.

Whoever he or she was, the Beloved Disciple reclined close to Jesus at the Last Supper, resting their head on Jesus’ chest near his heart. From the cross, Jesus entrusted the Beloved Disciple and his mother, Mary, into each other’s care as parent and child. Some see this as Jesus affirming same-sex marriage because in effect he established John as Mary’s son-in-law. No other male disciples were present at the crucifixion. In John’s gospel, the Beloved Disciple was the first to reach the empty tomb of Jesus, the first to believe in his resurrection and the first to recognize the risen Christ at the miraculous catch of fish.

John is believed to be the youngest of the 12 apostles — about five years younger than Jesus — and is the presumed author of the gospel of John, the Book of Revelation and the three Epistles of John. He participated in many of the main events in Christ’s ministry and helped build the church in Jerusalem after Jesus died. The gospel of John is the most mystical of the four gospels, filled with themes of love, light and life.

About the Beloved Disciple

The unnamed “disciple whom Jesus loved” is referenced five times in John’s gospel: In John 13:23 (Last Supper), John 19:26 (crucifixion), John 20:2 (empty tomb), John 21:7 (miraculous catch of fish), John 21:20 (future predicted), and John 21:24 (authorship). None of the other three gospels even mention the Beloved Disciple.

John is never mentioned in the gospel that bears his name, but at the end of the final chapter, the writer claims to be the Beloved Disciple. Early church tradition ascribes authorship directly to John. None of the other gospels include the Beloved Disciple in parallel scenes.

Some imagine John as a self-serving braggart for calling to himself “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” Other interpreters say that he avoided using his own name as a modest way to put the focus on Jesus and prevent self-promotion.

While the earliest translations emphasize the closeness between Jesus and the Beloved Disciple, many modern translations have put more distance between them. The “the disciple whom Jesus loved” was “leaning on Jesus’ bosom” in the17th-century King James Version, but newer translations simply say that he is “reclining next” to Jesus.

About John

Even apart from his intimacy with Jesus, John is an inspiring spiritual role model because of his theological depth and leadership in early church. The gospels are contradictory, with many interpretations and legends and scant historical evidence, but a picture of the historical John does emerge.

John’s parents were Zebedee, a fisherman, and Salome, who also became an important follower of Jesus. Salome was among the group of women who supported Jesus financially, attended his crucifixion and discovered his empty tomb. Some medieval traditions identify her as the Mary’s own biological sister, which would mean that John was Jesus’ cousin.

John and his older brother James are sometimes called the “sons of Zebedee” in the gospels. Together with Peter, the three men formed the inner core of Jesus’ disciples. The trio witnessed the raising of Jairus’ daughter, the transfiguration, and Jesus’ agony in Gethsemane. Later Paul describes these three as “pillars” of the early church who welcomed him with “the right hand of fellowship” (Galatians 2:9).

According to tradition, John was one of the first two disciples called to join Jesus. In John’s gospel, Jesus begins his ministry by inviting two followers of the Baptist to spend the day with him: Andrew and an unnamed man who is presumed to be John. The gospel first mentions John by name when Jesus finds him and his brother mending their fishing nets on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus invites them to follow him, and they do so immediately, leaving their father behind in the fishing boat.

The Bible notes the brothers’ close relationship with Jesus on multiple occasions. Jesus nicknames them “Sons of Thunder” (Boanerges in Aramaic), probably due to their zealous faith or bold personalities. Their passionate reactions cause Jesus to calm them down on several occasions. He rebukes them for wanting to call down heavenly fire to punish a Samaritan town that rejected him and for trying to stop an outsider from casting out demons in Jesus’ name.

John the Apostle mosaic from in the Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna, 6th century (Wikimedia Commons)

After Jesus’ death, John and others overcome persecution as they build the early church as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. The account ends with John still in Jerusalem. Early hagiographies fill in the blanks, reporting that John later moved to the Turkish city of Ephesus, one of the largest cities in the Mediterranean world at the time. And he did not necessarily travel alone. Some sources report that John moved there after Mary died, but others say that John was accompanied by Mary — and/or a new male partner named Prochorus.

Yes, the bereaved Beloved Disciple may have found new love with a younger man. Prochorus was one of the first seven deacons appointed to distribute food to widows in Acts 6:5. Hagiographies describe Prochorus as John’s “companion.” John probably knew Prochorus for a long time because, according to a later tradition, he was among the 70 disciples sent to preach the good news in Luke 10. Prochorus became bishop of the city of Nicomedia in what is now Turkey. His adventures with John are recounted in the apocryphal Acts of John, which is attributed to Prochorus.

Ephesus had a long history of worshipping the divine feminine, including and one of the first churches dedicated to Mary and a temple to Mary’s forerunner, the goddess Artemis. Some hagiographies say that John led Christian converts to destroy Artemis’ temple, but this could not be true because it stood for centuries after his death.

As part of anti-Christian persecution by Roman emperor Domitian, John and Prochorus were banished together to island of Patmos. The small Greek island was a rocky and desolate place about 65 miles from Ephesus on the Aegean Sea. In this barren spot, John received mind-boggling visions packed with powerful, esoteric symbols such as the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, the Beast, the Lamb, the Bride, and the Woman Clothed with the Sun. Prochorus served as John’s scribe, and they worked as a team to write the book of Revelation during and after their exile. It begins by stating that it was written by John on Patmos (Revelation 1:9). Scholars say that he may or may not be the same John, but according to church tradition, it was John the Apostle wrote Revelation, the Bible’s final and most apocalyptic book. In his role as author of Revelation, he is known as John the Theologian or John the Divine.

John died peacefully of natural causes as an old man in Ephesus around 100 AD. Later Prochorus was killed for his faith as a martyr.

John’s gospel often proclaims that death is not the end. This vital message is conveyed in the world’s most popular Bible verse, which was spoken by Jesus and transcribed by his Beloved Disciple: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Many LGBTQ Christians have found a lifeline in the radical inclusivity of the promise to “whoever” believes, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.

About John’s gospel

The gospel of John is queer in many ways, not just because it is the only gospel to mention the Beloved Disciple. Its style and stories are significantly different from the synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Scholars estimate that the gospel of John was written later than the others, perhaps 15 to 30 years after the synoptic gospels and 70 years after the death of Jesus. It was probably written in John’s name a community of his followers, a common historical practice.

John’s gospel stands alone in presenting several other narratives with special meaning for the LGBTQ community. Lazarus of Bethany is absent from the other gospels, but John provides an extensive chronicle of their relationship, culminating when Jesus raises him from the dead. Lazarus and his “sisters” Mary and Martha may have been Christ’s queer chosen family. His gospel is also noted for its gender inclusivity because it portrays the importance of women such as Mary and Martha, Mary Magdalene and the Samaritan woman at the well.

Only John tells about the wedding at Cana (possibly a same-sex wedding) and the washing of the disciples’ feet, with its man-to-man sensuality. And John’s gospel is suffused with love. For John, the bond with Jesus was as close as a vine and a branch. No one else reports Jesus’ love commandment, but John repeats it three times, in John 13:34, 15:12, and 15:17: “Love each other as I have loved you.”

John’s writings helped lay the foundation for the Christian tradition of “mystical marriage” or “bridal mysticism,” a form of devotion where love unites the believer and Christ like a married couple, including erotic rapture. While all four gospels use the metaphor of Christ the bridegroom, the concept is expressed more fully and frequently in the writings attributed to John. The theme is woven throughout John’s gospel. As Revelation 21:2 says, “I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” With Christ as a bridegroom, the church or an individual member becomes his bride, regardless of gender.

Medieval mystics are particularly known for fleshing out their visions of mystical marriage with Jesus. The union became a same-sex marriage for devout men honored by the church for their holiness, such as Bernard of Clairvaux, John of the Cross, John of La Verna and Bernardo de Hoyos. John’s writings had a profound impact on how these male brides of Christ wrote about their intimate, loving bonds with Jesus.

Did Jesus and John share an erotic relationship?

It’s impossible to know if the historical Jesus and John were lovers, but it’s worthwhile to consider as a metaphor for how a believer, queer or otherwise, can experience love with the Christ of faith.

A medieval European tradition asserts that John and Jesus were the bridal couple at the Cana wedding feast. Jesus performed his first miracle at Cana by turning water into wine. The wedding at Cana is unique to the gospel of John. It occurs shortly after the call of John without ever naming who is getting married (John 2:1-11). But the apocryphal Acts of John states that John broke off his engagement to a woman to “bind himself” to Jesus. The idea that Jesus wed John at Cana is discussed by Gerard Loughlin in the introduction to “Queer Theology: Rethinking the Western Body.”

One of the earliest images of John and Jesus together is a little-known 12th-century miniature, “The Calling of St. John.” It depicts two scenes: Christ coaxing the disciple John to leave his female bride and follow him, and John resting his head on Jesus’ chest. Jesus cups the chin of his beloved, an artistic convention used to indicate romantic intimacy. The Latin text means, “Get up, leave the breast of your bride, and rest on the breast of the Lord Jesus.”

“The Calling of Saint. John,” a 12th-century miniature

This scenario is also illustrated in the 1865 drawing “The Bride, Bridegroom and Sad Love” by Solomon Simeon, a Jewish British painter whose art career was cut short when he was arrested for homosexual acts.  It can be viewed at this link (warning: nudity).  It portrays a melancholy trio where a Christ figure or male angel holds hands with a groom kissing a bride.  Subtle and not-so-subtle homoerotic themes underlie much of Simeon’s artwork.  Oscar Wilde, another 19th-century Briton whose creative career was ruined by an arrest for homosexuality, lamented when he was forced to sell his collection of Simeon art.

An entire chapter is dedicated to John as the bride of Christ in the 2013 book “Saintly Brides and Bridegrooms: The Mystic Marriage in Renaissance Art” by Carolyn D. Muir, art professor at the University of Hong Kong.

Some historical sources took a positive view of the intense male bond between Jesus and the Beloved Disciple. King James I, who commissioned the famed King James Version of the Bible, used it to justify his rumored gay relationship with the Earl of Buckingham. “Christ had his John, and I have my George,” he said in a 1617 speech. The 12th-century abbot Aelred of Rievaulx, who is considered a patron saint of LGBTQ people, recommended the love between Jesus and John as a model for monks to follow. His treatise “On Spiritual Friendship,” includes these lines:

“Some are joined to us more intimately and passionately than others in the lovely bond of spiritual friendship. And lest this sort of sacred love should seem improper to anyone, Jesus himself, in everything like us, patient and compassionate with us in every matter, transfigured it through the expression of his own love: for he allowed only one, not all, to recline on his breast as a sign of his special love, so that the virgin head was supported in the flowers of the virgin breast, and the closer they were, the more copiously did the fragrant secrets of the heavenly marriage impart the sweet smell of spiritual chrism to their virgin love. Although all the disciples were blessed with the sweetness of the great love of the most holy master, nonetheless he conceded as a privilege to one alone this symbol of a more intimate love, that he should be called the ‘disciple whom Jesus loved.’”

[As quoted by John Boswell in “Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century,” p. 225-226]

When acceptance of same-sex love waned after the 12th century, Aelred’s work was locked up in Cistercian monasteries, never to appear again outside monastic circles until their rediscovery in the more tolerant times of the 1970s.

[Marlowe paragraph] The idea that Jesus and his Beloved Disciple had a sexual relationship was publicly discussed as early at the 16th century, when English playwright Christopher Marlowe was tried for blasphemy on the charge of claiming that “St. John the Evangelist was bedfellow to Christ and leaned always in his bosom, that he used him as the sinners of Sodoma.” In 1550 Francesco Calcagno, a citizen of Venice, was investigated by the Inquisition for making the heretical claim that “St. John was Christ’s catamite,” which means a boy or young man in a pederastic sexual relationship with an older man.

Frederick the Great, king of Prussia, expressed the same idea in his comedic poem La Palladion, published in a very limited edition in 1749-50: “This good Jesus, how do you think/He got John to sleep in his bed?/Can’t you see he was his Ganymede?” The handsome young Greek hero Ganymede is a symbol of homoerotic desire because Zeus fell in love with him. His Latine name was Catamitus, the basis for the English word catamite.

Many modern scholars have expressed belief that Jesus and his Beloved Disciple shared a an erotic physical relationship. They include Hugh Montefiore, Robert Williams, Sjef van Tilborg, John McNeill, Rollan McCleary, Robert E. Shore-Goss and James Neill. A thorough analysis is included in “The Man Jesus Loved: Homoerotic Narratives from the New Testament” by the late Theodore Jennings, who served as Biblical theology professor at Chicago Theological Seminary. He finds the evidence “inconclusive” as to whether the beloved disciple was John, but it leaves no doubt that Jesus had a male lover.

“A close reading of the texts in which the beloved disciple appears supports the hypothesis that the relationship between him and Jesus may be understood as that of lovers. As it happens, both Jesus and the beloved are male, meaning that their relationship may be said to be, in modern terms, a ‘homosexual’ relationship,” Jennings writes (p. 34).

Religion professor Tat-siong Benny Liew sparked controversy by suggesting that Jesus was a genderfluid drag king with queer desires.  Conservatives attacked his chapter “Queering Closets and Perverting Desires: Cross-Examining John’s Engendering and Transgendering Word across Different Worlds” in the 2009 book “They Were All Together in One Place? Toward Minority Biblical Criticism.”

The homoeroticism of the relationship is also explored in the chapter on the Beloved Disciple in
“The Double: Male Eros, Friendships, and Mentoring–from Gilgamesh to Kerouac” by Edward Sellner.

This statue of Jesus and the Beloved Disciple comes from the collection of author Edward Sellner. He commissioned it from a wood carver in Brittany, France.

The queer history of their relationship is presented in the video “Before Stonewall, Episode 5: The Myth of the Beloved Disciple” by historian Chad Denton.

Jesus embraces the Beloved Disciple in historical art

A newly discovered painting of Jesus and his Beloved Disciple was displayed  to the public in 2019 for the first time in 450 years.  They appear in the Last Supper by Italian nun Plautilla Nelli.

John and Jesus in Last Supper by Plautilla Nelli, 1658 (Wikipedia)

It is the world’s first known depiction of the Last Supper by a woman. Nelli was a Dominican nun and the first woman painter of Renaissance Florence. Her life-size Last Supper is about 23 feet long, almost as big as Da Vinci’s famous version. The Dominican nun was a self-taught artist with many patrons, including women.

A 15th-century Ethiopian diptych showing a kiss between Christ and his beloved was on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York as part of the “Africa & Byzantium” exhibit through March 3, 2024. Then it moved to the Cleveland Museum of Art in Ohio from April 14 to July 21, 2024.

Screenshot of “Diptych with the Kiss of John” on the Metropolitan Museum of Art website

Museum materials give it alternate titles as either “Diptych with the Kiss of Christ to His Beloved” or “Diptych with the Kiss of St. John.” The hinged wooden panels include a painting of their kiss next to an inscription that reads, “Picture of Our Lord, how he kissed his beloved John.” On Jesus’ lap is a book open to the first words of John’s gospel “In the beginning was the Word…”

Now-iconic images of the loving embrace between John and Christ apparently originated during the early 1300s in German convents in the Rhineland and Swabia. These were devotional images intended to help viewers deepen their connection to Christ. Prolific artists created many versions. Today one of them is housed in the Cleveland Museum of Art in Ohio.

“Christus Johannes Gruppe” (Christ John Group) by the unknown Master of Oberschwaben, oak sculpture, 1320.

The subject is known as “Christus Johannes Gruppe” (Christ John Group) or Johannesminne (love of John), with minne being a Middle High German word for erotic-emotional love. Many of these images were actually created for women, not men, to contemplate. Most if not all of the Johannesminne statues were altarpieces for Dominican convents and nunneries.

For example, “Christus Johannes Gruppe” (Christ John Group) by the unknown Master of Oberschwaben spent many centuries in an Augustinian convent in Inzigkofen, a town in the region of Sigmaringen in southwestern Germany. A museum in Berlin acquired in it the early 20th century, and it is now housed in the Bode Museum of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation.

Jesus embraces the Beloved Disciple at the Last Supper in a 13th-century stained-glass window from Cathedral of Saint Etienne in Bourges, France. (Wikipedia)

The history, eroticism, appeal and impact of these devotional images is explored in “The Late Medieval Andachtsbild,” an unpublished essay by Daniel G. Conklin, a retired Anglican priest in Berlin. He writes,

“One common characteristic of the Johannesminne is that the figure of John seems a bit gender-ambiguous, i.e. it looks like he might be a “she.” Considering the place where these images arose and were beheld, it takes no great stretch of the imagination to envision the effect of the Johannesminne on a cloistered young woman who was well versed in the Cistercian “bridal” mysticism of St. Bernard of Clairvaux…. The Johannesminne is an image of profound tenderness embued with a kind of gentle eroticism. As an altarpiece it must have been a constant reminder of the connection between the Lord’s Last Supper and the celebration of the Mass and it surely reinforced the pious conviction that in the Eucharistic bread and wine the risen Christ “dwells in us and we in him” in a profound and intimate way.”

Conklin goes on to identify homoeroticism as one source of the image’s enduring power:

“The popularity of the Johannesminne – then and now – may also stem from the fact that this is an image involving love and tenderness between two adult males. The fact that this Andachtsbild arose in monasteries, communities of same-sex individuals, probably comes as no surprise. Its power to awaken faith and delight in close communion with Christ is perhaps not its only appeal. The Johannesminne has become perhaps even more appealing in our day in which people of the same gender in committed relationships seek some form(s) of faith confirmation of who they are and whose they are. The Johannesminne may very well serve as a mirror as well as a model for many, not only same-sex oriented persons.”

In Germany the Johannesminne image remains so important that it has even been made into a postage stamp. Its influence may also live on in today’s popular “Sacred Heart of Jesus” icons, which show the physical heart of Jesus in his chest. Conklin explains:

The Johannesminne as an altarpiece not only visualized the intimate communion of the Eucharist, but also seems to have been one of the essential sources for the unfolding of the “Sacred Heart of Jesus” mysticism which developed later, but had its beginnings in this Andachtsbild. The beholder could imagine John, i.e. the beholder him/herself, hearing the heartbeat of Jesus while leaning on his chest. The communion is that “close.”

Another early sculpture in this style is “St. John Resting on Jesus’ Chest,” circa 1320, which is housed at the Museum Mayer van den Bergh in Antwerp. It can be seen online at the Web Gallery of Art. The sculpture was created by Master Heinrich of Constance for the the Dominican convent of St. Catherine’s valley in Switzerland. Wikimedia Commons displays a set of 15 statues of Johannesminne in Germany at this link.

Jesus and Apostle John in stained-glass window at Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (Eglise du Sacre-Coeur) in Lille, France, 1890 (Wikipedia)

Antique French religious medals feature some rare and beautiful images of Jesus and his Beloved Disciple. It is unusual to find a medallion with an image of Christ other than the crucifixion.

Jesus tenderly kisses John’s forehead before giving him communion bread in a vintage French religious medal from the 1930s. It was available from the Fred’s Prayer shop on Etsy.

 

Jesus and his Beloved Disciple John gaze lovingly into each other’s eyes in this antique French religious medal. It is available from the Religious shop on Etsy.

Contemporary icons show the Beloved Disciple

Artists continue to make new icons of Jesus and John in traditional style.  One of the newest is a contemporary Byzantine icon available at the Angelicon Etsy shop.  It was painted in egg tempera by the mother-daughter team of Eka and Ari in their small workshop in Crete, Greece.

Contemporary Byzantine icon of the Beloved Disciple. The original was available from the Angelicon Etsy shop.

 

Another contemporary icon is “Christ the Bridegroom” by Robert Lentz, a Franciscan friar known for his innovative icons. Author-priest Henri Nouwen, famous but struggling with a secret gay identity, commissioned it in 1983. He asked for an icon that symbolized the act of offering his own sexuality and affection to Christ. Research and reflection led Lentz to paint Christ being embraced by his beloved disciple John, based on an icon from medieval Crete.

“Henri used it to come to grips with his own homosexuality,” Lentz said in an interview for my book “Art That Dares,” which includes this icon and the story behind it. “I was told he carried it with him everywhere and it was one of the most precious things in his life.” Nouwen’s goal was celibacy and he did not come out publicly as gay before his death in 1996. The icon takes the Biblical theme of Christ as bridegroom and joins it to the medieval motif of Christ with John. The resulting image expresses their intimate friendship with exquisite subtlety.

John the Beloved Disciple in contemporary art

Over the centuries many artworks have illustrated the deep love between Jesus and his Beloved Disciple. A variety of contemporary artists have als odone new interpretations of John and Jesus together. Many of the historic images appear to show John as much younger than Jesus, but their age difference is de-emphasized and they both look like grown men in most of the newer images. Perhaps the reason for the change is growing awareness of the church’s complicity with pedophile priests, combined with the with the need for modern gay couples for find religious affirmation.

“Bridegroom and the Beloved” by Matthew of Queer Catholic Icons

The men’s halos appear to be linked rings in “Bridegroom and the Beloved” by Matthew, a practicing Roman Catholic who shares his artwork at Queer Catholic Icons on Instagram as @queer.catholic.icons. He adapts the traditional iconography by making both figures look youthful, so there is little or no age gap between the Bridegroom and the Beloved.

One of the newer images is “Beloved Disciple” by James Day. He studied liturgical art and queer theology at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, earning a Master of Arts degree in theology before returning home to central Maine. When not caring for care for his aging mother and disabled partner, he puts his hands to a variety of visual and fiber arts, primarily focused on queer spirituality.”  Day’s painting of the “Beloved Disciple” hung in the EDS Chapel in fall 2016.

“Beloved Disciple” by James Day

The wedding between Jesus and his beloved disciple is one of the LGBT Christian themes explored in monumental nude paintings by gay New Zealand artist Christopher Olwage. He gives a sacred gay interpretation to the wedding feast at Cana. Olwage is an LGBTQ activist and gender-bending ballet dancer who reigned as Mr. Gay World in 2013.

“Crucifixion” by Christopher Olwage

“Jesus and the Beloved Disciple” by Laurie Gudim

Another recent work is the 2012 icon “Jesus and the Beloved Disciple” by Laurie Gudim. Based in Colorado, Gudim is an artist, Jungian psychotherapist and progressive Episcopalian. Her work uses a motif dating back at least to the 13th century.The long artistic tradition depicts John as the Beloved Disciple resting his head on the breast of Jesus.

This sculpture spent many centuries in an Augustinian convent in Inzigkofen, a town in the region of Sigmaringen in southwestern Germany. A museum in Berlin acquired in it the early 20th century, and it is now housed in the Bode Museum of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation.

Atlanta artist Becki Jayne Harrelson painted another especially loving version of Jesus and the Beloved at the center of her “Last Supper.” Unlike the classic icons of Jesus and the Beloved Disciple, her painting shows the two obviously adult men gazing at each other and holding hands. She is a contemporary lesbian artist who uses LGBT people as models in her religious art. Raised in a fundamentalist Christian family, she uses art to express her passion for justice. Her story is also told in “Art That Dares.”

Detail from study for the Last Supper by Becki Jayne Harrelson

Another icon celebrating the love between Jesus and the beloved disciple was painted by Jim Ru (below). It was displayed in his show “Transcendent Faith: Gay, Lesbian and Transgendered Saints” in Bisbee Arizona in the 1990s.

“Jesus and the Beloved Disciple” by Jim Ru

In recent years some artists have adapted the classic iconography to other racial and ethnic groups. For example, John Giuliani’s “Jesus and the Beloved Disciple” shows the figures in the native dress of the Aymara Indians, descendants of the Incas who still live in the Andean regions of Chile, Peru and Bolivia. Giuliani is an Italian-American artist and Catholic priest who is known for making Christian icons with Native American symbols. He studied icon painting under a master in the Russian Orthodox style, but chose to expand the concept of holiness to include Native Americans, the original inhabitants of the Americas.

“Jesus and the Beloved Disciple” by John Giuliani, 1996

One more picture of Jesus and his beloved must be mentioned, even though permission was not granted to display it here on the Jesus in Love Blog (yet) at Q Spirit. It is well worthwhile to click the title to see this stunningly beautiful photo of Jesus and his Beloved Disciple as black Africans:

 

“Every Moment Counts” (from “Ecstatic Antibodies”) by Rotimi Fani-Kayode

 

Fani-Kayode (1955-1989) was a Nigerian photographer who explored themes of sexual and cultural difference, homoerotic desire, spirituality and the black male body, often in collaboration with his late partner Alex Hirst. Their last joint work was “Every Moment Counts” from 1989. In it a beloved disciple leans against black Christ figure who wears pearls over his dreadlocks as he gazes toward heaven. “The hero points the way forward for the lost boys of the world – the young street-dreads, the nightclub-chickens, the junkies and the doomed,” Hirst explains on their website.

Beloved Disciple in poetry and music

Various poets have written about the love between Jesus and John from a gay or queer viewpoint. A gay man prays, wondering if Jesus felt sexual attraction to John, in a poem by longtime LGBTQ church activist and poet Louie Clay (né Louie Crew).

What did you feel when your beloved John
lay across your lap casually?

He wrote these lines raising the possibility of a queer Christ in his 1980 poem “Lutibelle Prays: William Werc’s Prayer.” In 1974 Clay founded Integrity USA, the national Episcopal LGBTQ organization.  The whole poem is posted at this link.

Another poem that addresses the homoerotic love between Jesus and John as is “The Third Dance of Christmas: A Fiddle Dance for St. John’s Day” by a poet who wants to be known only as Joe. It begins:

Sweet John was a dancer

on the shore of old Capernaum

a lovely boy not fit for fishing

or carpentry, or marrying.

They tell he left his empty boat

for the sake of the bold young fellow

who looked at him that April morn

and said, my love, come follow.

The whole poem is posted at this link.

The interplay of humanity, divinity and the “honeyed warmth of love, of starlight” between Jesus and John is explored in the poem “A Portrait of John at the Last Supper” by trans gay poet Keaton St. James.  The full poem is available at this link.

Queer poet Jim Wise references John in “Seminarians,” an unpublished poem from his “Queer Psalter” collection:

After a long day of
watching him preach
his gospel, which was
nothing more than
begging people to
actually give a damn
about one another,
we wanted to be his
Beloved John, his Lazarus,
his place to lay his head.

For more poetry by Wise, click here.

Contemporary America singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens merges homoerotic desire and spiritual longing in the song “John My Beloved.” Many listeners hear references in the song to the love between Jesus and his disciple John as well as to modern gay sexual encounters. The song is available on a YouTube video and the album from his album “Carrie and Lowell.”

Beloved Disciple in religious fiction

LGBTQ interpretations of the Beloved Disciple in religious fiction include:

BESTSELLER AT Q SPIRIT
“Dayspring” by Anthony Oliveira.
Christ’s beloved disciple comes alive in a queer literary retelling from a major publisher. The Beloved Disciple never reveals his name, but his story has elements of both Lazarus and John the Evangelist. The first page says, “And the word became flesh: coarse hair. crooked smile. the taste of salt on his clavicle. i am the disciple whom he loved.” Billed as a debut novel, “Dayspring” blends prose, poetry and memoir, switching between 21st-century Canada and first-century Nazareth. Jesus’ words as imagined by the author are printed in red like a red-letter Bible. Both sacred and profane, the book is loaded with literary references. The GLAAD award-winning author grew up queer in a Portuguese Catholic family in Canada and earned a PhD in English literature from the University of Toronto. Published by Strange Light, an imprint of Penguin Random House, 2024.

“The Gay Disciple: Jesus’ Friend Tells It His Own Way” by John Henson. Starting with the gay Beloved Disciple, various Bible characters tell their experiences with Jesus in their own words.  The author believes that the Beloved Disciple was Lazarus. “Maybe for my lifetime, maybe for many hundreds or even thousands of years, my story would be taboo, until that day came when Christians would no longer be afraid of love,” he writes.  The author is a retired Baptist minister who graduated in history and theology from Southampton and Oxford Universities in the United Kingdom. Brenner is a San Francisco author who served as a parish pastor for 10 years and in the hospice field for 25 years.  Published in 2006 by John Hunt Publishing.

“Abominations: A Novel” by Paul R. Brenner. “Abominations: A Novel” by Paul R. Brenner. A man describes his struggles in the years after the death of his lover, a radical young rabbi named Jesus. As leader of a sacred community in Jerusalem, the Beloved Disciple faces danger when fanatics try to cleanse Judaea of all impurities and foreign influences, including Greek love. Mary Magdalene and Last Supper host Joanna are also caught in the conflict. The He flees to become a visiting scholar at the Temple of the Muses and great library in Alexandria, but his life continues to be disrupted by ethnic conflict and fascinating relationships with people such as Markos, the sexy, wealthy young Greek who pursues him. The narrator never reveals his name, but this Beloved Disciple comes from a wealthy, Hellenized family. Published in 2008 by Xlibris.

Beloved Disciple excerpt from Jesus in Love: A Novel

I also wrote about John as the beloved disciple in my novels “Jesus in Love” and “At the Cross.” In honor of John’s feast day, I post this scene from “Jesus in Love: A Novel.” Jesus, the narrator, remembers the day he met John:

I became distracted by the not unwelcome presence of somebody standing close behind me, closer than necessary in the loosely packed crowd. I sensed that it was John, and spun around to see him planted there like a tall cedar tree. He leaned against me, eyes flashing. “I can’t wait for the Messiah to come. I’ve seen him in visions.”

“Really? Tell me what you remember.” It was exciting to find someone who was aware of God’s efforts to communicate.

“The Messiah is like a gentle lamb who sits on a throne with a rainbow around it. And yet his eyes flame with fire, and a sharp sword comes out of his mouth to strike down evildoers.”

“The truth is large,” I said.

“Are you saying my vision isn’t true?” he challenged.

“No, I’m not saying that. I expect that you will see more.”

When John smiled, his faced crinkled into a fascinating landscape of wrinkles. His eyes felt black and mysterious like the midnight sky as they roamed over me. “Do you want a prayer partner tonight?” he asked.

If anyone else had asked, I would have said no, but I looked again at John’s handsome, bejeweled soul and his long, sinewy body.

“Sure,” I agreed impulsively.

Only then did I notice that the Baptist had finished preaching. John steered me toward the caves where the Baptist and his inner circle of disciples lived. Lower-ranking disciples were ready with water vessels and towels to assist everyone with ritual purification before we ate a spartan meal of locusts and wild honey. One of them approached me.

“Wash up, and we’ll get together after supper,” John said as we parted.

Beloved Disciple prayers

Q Spirit’s Litany of Queer Saints includes these lines:

Saint John, Beloved Disciple who reclined next to Jesus at the Last Supper and wrote a gospel full of love and light, pray for us.

Links related to the Beloved Disciple

Disciple whom Jesus loved (Wikipedia)

St John the Evangelist and Prochorus” (Queer Saints and Martyrs)

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Kittredge Cherry

Founder at Q Spirit

Kittredge Cherry is a lesbian Christian author who writes regularly about LGBTQ spirituality.She holds degrees in religion, journalism and art history.She was ordained by Metropolitan Community Churches and served as its national ecumenical officer, advocating for LGBTQ rights at the National Council of Churches and World Council of Churches.

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