Mark 10:39-40

‘And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink, you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptised, you will be baptised. But to sit on my right hand or on my left hand is not mine to give, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” ’

Fortunately for them Jesus knew their hearts. He knew that in spite of their dull apprehension and their desire for pre-eminence they would soon show their mettle. So He gently let them down. Now He would speak of a lesser cup and a lesser baptism of suffering which they too would be called on to share.

‘The cup that I drink, you will drink.’ Not the cup of the wine of the wrath of God, for that was for Jesus only, but the cup of suffering. Both would drink it to the full.

‘The baptism with which I am baptised, you will be baptised.’ They would not necessarily suffer the agonies of crucifixion, and certainly they would not die with the weight of sin on their shoulders, but in one way or another they would find themselves ‘partakers of Christ’s sufferings’ (1 Peter 4:13, compare Colossians 1:24), at times overwhelmed, by persecution, hatred, imprisonment and even possibly, but not necessarily, martyrdom. James would be dead fairly early on, having triumphed in the name of Christ, when he was executed by the sword under Herod Agrippa (Acts 12:2). Of John there are conflicting accounts. One refers to his martyrdom, others to his working in the mines on Patmos (see Revelation 1:9) and dying in Ephesus an old man, having undergone the travails which inevitably faced all the Apostles, as they had those before them (Hebrews 11:35-38 compare 2 Corinthians 11:23-28).

‘But to sit on my right hand or on my left hand is not mine to give, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.’ Jesus did not dispense favours. He did not have favourites. He dealt with all according to God’s purposes. Whatever He did was in line with what His father willed. Indeed, He pointed out, the ‘prime positions’ in heaven were already allotted in the foreknowledge of God (and were settled on a basis that as yet they had not begun to conceive). It was not therefore possible for them to be changed. They would go to those chosen from the beginning, for whom they had been ‘prepared’. We have here a warning against taking the twelve thrones of Matthew 19:28 too literally. Others too have a right to those thrones, for they are spiritual not literal.

Note on the Apostle John.

Jesus’ words did not necessarily mean that John would be martyred. It was a baptism of suffering that He spoke of rather than a baptism of death. He was saying that both would have to endure overwhelming trial and tribulation for His sake.

In fact the evidence suggesting that John was martyred is relatively slight. A 9th century chronicler George Hamartolos reproduced a statement contained in the History of Philip of Side (c450 AD) to the effect that Papias (mid-2nd century AD) asserted that both the sons of Zebedee met a violent death in fulfilment of the Lord’s prediction. But most scholars regard Philip of Side as an unreliable witness to Papias, and neither Acts nor the historian Eusebius mention the fact, which would be surprising if it were true.

The only supporting evidence is a Syriac martyrology written c.400 AD in which the entry on 27th December is ‘John and James the Apostles at Jerusalem’. But a calendar from Carthage dated 505 AD reads for 27th December ‘John the Baptist and James the Apostle whom Herod killed’. However as the calendar also commemorates John the Baptist on 24th June those who argue for the Apostle John’s martyrdom suggest that the calendar made a mistake on 27th December and should have read John the Apostle. But there is no reason why the calendar should not preserve two old traditions concerning the death of John the Baptist, and while a switch from John the Baptist to John the Apostle, when being paired with James, is easily understandable, a switch the other way seems very unlikely.

And, however we read the above doubtful evidence, none fix a date for John’s supposed martyrdom, only saying it was in Jerusalem. Had it been at the same time as James, Acts would have mentioned it.

But the far stronger evidence says that John died in old age in Ephesus. Polycrates, bishop of Ephesus (190 AD) said that John ‘who reclined on the Lord’s breast’, after being ‘a witness (martus) and a teacher’, ‘fell asleep at Ephesus’. Irenaeus also, who knew Polycarp who was born in 70 AD, who used to tell him what he had heard from John’s lips and from the lips of the other disciples, writing around the same time as Polycrates said that John ‘issued the Gospel’ in Ephesus and confuted the heretics, refusing to remain under the same roof as that enemy of truth, Cerinthus, and that he lingered on until the days of Trajan (98-117 AD). Jerome also repeated the tradition that John remained at Ephesus into extreme old age. Other evidence is known which also linked John with Papias and with Ephesus e.g. the second prologue to John’s Gospel found in a tenth century AD manuscript of the Latin vulgate which was clearly based on much earlier evidence. It is possibly a little surprising that Ignatius of Antioch (110 AD) does not mention the fact of his residence at Ephesus but an argument from silence is dangerous, especially as he may have favoured Paul.

End of note.