However, some attribute the authorship of Revelation to another man, called John the Presbyter, or to other writers of the late first century AD.

Nunn,[14] Reza Aslan[15] and Bart Ehrman,[16] believe with most modern scholars that the apostle John wrote none of these works.

[17][18] Some scholars, though, such as John Robinson, F. F. Bruce, Leon Morris, and Martin Hengel,[19] still hold the apostle to be behind at least some of the works in question, particularly the gospel.

[20][21] The Book of Revelation is today generally agreed to have a separate author, John of Patmos, c. 95 with some parts possibly dating to Nero's reign in the early 60s.

[27] John is traditionally depicted in one of two distinct ways: either as an aged man with a white or gray beard, or alternatively as a beardless youth.

[29] In medieval works of painting, sculpture and literature, Saint John is often presented in an androgynous or feminized manner.

[33] Likewise, Sarah McNamer argues that because of John's androgynous status, he could function as an 'image of a third or mixed gender'[34] and 'a crucial figure with whom to identify'[35] for male believers who sought to cultivate an attitude of affective piety, a highly emotional style of devotion that, in late-medieval culture, was thought to be poorly compatible with masculinity.

[37] John the Evangelist is symbolically represented by an eagle, one of the creatures envisioned by Ezekiel (1:10)[43] and in the Book of Revelation (4:7).