[2] John was born in the province of Arabia (see Plerophoriae 22) around AD 450 and studied jurisprudence at the exclusive law school of Berytus (modern-day Beirut),[4] where his fellow student, Theodore of Ascalon, brought him into contact with his future spiritual master, Peter the Iberian.
[6] John became a monk and left for Antioch, where he was ordained as a priest by the city's anti-Chalcedonian patriarch, Peter the Fuller,[1][4] during the reign of Emperor Basiliscus (r. January 475 – August 476).
[11] Whether John Rufus did become the bishop of Maiuma, as mentioned in the title of the Plerophoriae, cannot be supported with other sources; he might have been consecrated as such by the anti-Chalcedonians after the death of Peter the Iberian.
[1] A collection of dreams and visions, anecdotes and brief episodes describing miracles, it had the purpose of promoting Monophysitism and proving that God Himself condemned the resolutions of the Council of Chalcedon.
[1][6][2] One topic touched upon is the dilemma of an anti-Chalcedonian believer after the quashing of the short-lived Monophysite revolt: can they stay attached to a holy site regained by the Chalcedonians without becoming collaborators of, and entering into and communion with the enemy of their true faith?
[16] Cornelia B. Horn and Robert R. Phenix are convinced, based on the treatment of the topic and style of the vita, that it has been put to paper at the first anniversary of Peter's death, that is: in 492.
[17] Peter's evolution goes from a young enthusiastic pilgrim, to a believer in the ideal of xeniteia, or disconnection from the physical, ephemeral world, even by detaching himself from relics and holy places.
[8] John Rufus presents Peter the Iberian as a more theologically uncompromising anti-Chalcedonian than does another one of his disciples, Zacharias Rhetor, who describes him as a more moderate Monophysite.