Five Books of the New Testament bear the name John. But which John? That apparently simple question has puzzled readers and commentators since the earliest centuries of the Christian Church. Some insist they know the answer. Others are skeptical.

Some writers raise deep doubts about the author of the Fourth Gospel and dismiss it as the invention of a group of well-meaning disciples who really knew little of Jesus' life, or ministry. This Gospel's long discourses, they claim, are simply lovely theological make-believe.

Others wonder if the same man - or someone else - wrote the three letters of the one who calls himself the Presbyter.

Then there is The Apocalypse of John, known in translations as The Book of Revelation. Did the same man write this too?

In The Other John, John R. Spencer takes a fresh, comprehensive look at the actual evidence within the books themselves, and from some of the earliest writers of the Christian Church. His conclusions will surprise you.