Life of St. John the Evangelist
There is extant in MS. a Greek life of St. John the Evangelist, professedly written by
Prochorus, one of the seventy disciples, and also one of the seven deacons. (Luke, x. I;
Acts, 6.5.) The work is professedly spurious, but critics are not determined as to its age.
Vossius and others are disposed to identify the work with the
Circuitus
Joannis, mentioned in the
Synopsis S. Scripture ascribed to
Athanasius. Le Nourry and Ittigius assign to it a later date; and Tillemont regards it as
comparatively recent, a forgery of the Middle Ages. It bears the title
Προχόρου τοῦ ἐπὶ ταῖς χρειαῖς τῶν ἑπτὰ κατασταθέντος, ἀνεψιοῦ
Στεφάνου τοῦ πρωτυμάρτυρος, περὶ Ἰωάννου τοῦ θεολόγου καὶ εὐαγγελιστοῦ
ἱστορία.
Prochori qui fuit unus de septem ministerio praefectis, consobrunis
Steptauni protomurtyris, de Joanne theologo et evangelista historia.
Editions
A portion of the Greek text, with a Latin version by Sebastian Castalio, was
published in the third edition of the Graeco-Latin version, by Michael Neander, of
Luther's Catechism, 8vo, Basel, 1567, p. 526; and again in vol. i. of the
Monumenta Orthodoxographa of Grynaeus, fol. Basel, 1569.
A larger portion has been published, but in a Latin version only, in various
editions of the Bibliotheca Patrum (e. g. vol. ii. ed. Paris, 1575;
vol. vii. ed. Paris, 1579 and 1654; vol. i. ed. Cologn. 1618,
and vol. ii. ed. Lyon, 1677); also in the Historia Christian.
Veterum Patrum of René Laurent de la Barre, fol. Paris, 1583.