Lay, replying here and to what you wrote to me above. Bart D. Ehrman points out that John of Zebedee was a Galilean fisherman and would likely not have had the necessary skill in Greek to write the Book of John. I'll add that perhaps John 21:24 means that the author has been informed by the testimony of someone who wrote earlier (perhaps John or Lazarus). Scholars often date the Book of John to a time (90 CE) when Apostle John would have been like age 90 (but maybe by then he had learned to write Greek?) I am not the least perturbed that women stand apart in the Synoptics and women stand by the cross in John. Maybe the women walked from one location to the other! Apostle John could possibly be the beloved disciple, but Lazarus is a better bet as the beloved and the original contributor to John, because Lazarus lived in Bethany and may have been more cosmopolitan than the sons of Zebedee, and also for reasons above. Who was the first scholar to propose John was the beloved at the cross?