Mystery: Was John a Samaritan

See also: Mystery:Unsolved_Gospel_Mysteries

John the Apostle was most likely a Samaritan, in light of:

• John's unique description of Jesus as possibly coming from the Samaritans;
• John's sympathy towards Samaritans, including describing how Jesus first disclosed his divinity to a Samaritan woman at a well (which everyone else omitted);
• John's repeated references -- 10 times more than any other Gospel -- to "the Jews," meaning the Jewish people in and around Jerusalem, was how Samaritans would have referred to their rivals;
• only the Gospel of John contains a derogatory reference, as Samaritans would have felt, about the Jewish region of Nazareth: “Nathanael said to him, 'Can anything good come out of Nazareth?' Philip said to him, 'Come and see.'” John 1:46
• the Gospel of John emphasized the concept of the sacrificial lamb, which is a central part of Passover for Samaritans but not for Masoretic Jews.
• the Gospel of John contains only 27 quotations and allusions to books of the Old Testament, far less than "Matthew (124), Mark (70), and Luke (109)," and the Samaritans recognized only the Pentateuch in the Old Testament;
• among the few references by the Gospel of John to the Old Testament, many are Editorial Comments in the Gospel of John which may have been added later;
• the universality of the Gospel of John, as in John 3:16 ;
• his harsh language against Jewish leaders, whom Samaritans already disliked;
• the thriving "Johannine community" in the late 1st and 2nd century A.D. had ideological similiarities to Samaritan views, and probably included many Samaritans;
• the mysterious disappearance of most Samaritans, who perhaps converted to Christianity on the strength of John's teachings to them;
• John had a rivalry with Peter, suggesting they may have had different ethnicities;
• the lack of parables in the Gospel of John, which was a teaching style used 11 times in Old Testament books not recognized by Samaritans and by Jewish rabbis who opposed Samaritans;
• the Gospel of John has more references to "life" than all the other Gospels combined, and the Samaritan version of the Book of Exodus is more pro-life than the Jewish Masoretic translation; and
• the name "John" is Aramaic rather than Hebrew.