Using the best available texts, Bible scholar, John Howard Reid, throws new light on the Gospels of Mark and John. Mark has been re-written from Saint Peter's point of view, while John is totally re-arranged to present the narrative in some semblance of order. It now accurately differentiates John, the Beloved Disciple, from both Saint John, the Galilean fisherman and John, the Greek Elder. As Peter was an actual eye-witness to the events Mark describes -- and indeed he supplied Mark with all this information -- it seems appropriate to restore the text to what Peter actually said, rather than to what Mark said he said! Mark's device robs Peter's narrative of a great deal of its immediacy. All the same, Mark's account does proceed in a straightforward, orderly manner. The same cannot be said for John's Gospel. Numerous editors and copyists have made a total hash of the text, yet -- aside from James Moffatt and more recently, Hugh J. Schonfield -- few commentators have even attempted to piece it together. Yet separating the Beloved Disciple's account from the interpolations of his editor, John, the Elder, is comparatively easy, as the Elder uses language and allusions that the Beloved Disciple would never employ.
