The Story of Prestor John

 Prestor John was a largely medieval invention, a figure taken from Biblical beginnings and then elevated beyond proportions to a mythic hero that would save Christendom.

The story of Prestor John takes place in two parts.

The first part begins in the Apostolic age, in the Gospel of John.  In John 21, Jesus has been telling Peter that he should prepare for a martyr's death.  Peter then asked about John, who was the author relating the story. In verse 22, Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain until I return, what is that to you? You follow Me!” 23Because of this, the rumor spread among the brothers that this disciple would not die. However, Jesus did not say that he would not die, but only, “If I want him to remain until I return, what is that to you?”

 The apostle John seems to write to dispel a rumor that Jesus told him he would not die until Jesus returned.  In fact, though many of the apostles were martyred for Christianity, John himself was not a martyr and in fact was a leader in the church for many decades, taking on the title of John the Elder, which he used in his own letters.  John 2:1 from "The Elder to the lady chosen by God and to her children, whom I love in the truth."  John 3:1 from "The Elder, To my dear friend Gaius, whom I love in the truth."  In Greek, John the Elder is translated John the Presbyter.   

Jesus' actual wording leaves some ambiguity,  completely separate from the apostle's attempts at clarification.   As recorded, Jesus said, "If I want him to remain until I return, what is that to you?"  The suggestion is that if Jesus wanted that for John, it was completely within his power.  And Jesus himself did not at that time rule out the possibility at all, or even address it at that time.

 In fact, the disciples initially took the statement to mean that John would live until Jesus' second coming.  The story that emerged from the early medieval period is that John the Presbyter, or John Prester, as it was shortened to, did not die after a normal life span, but was instead blessed by Jesus to live an unnaturally long life.  After writing his Gospel, three Epistles, and finally the Revelation in exile on Patmos, John was released and went to live in Ephesus.  As a leader of that church, John the Elder regularly would embark on missionary endeavors eastward into Asia Minor.  The story continues that eventually, John left on one such missionary trip and never returned, but simply continued to journey to the East, spreading the gospel and planting churches as he went.  

Longinus 

This story captured the same energy as that of another Medieval tale.  This story focused on a Roman centurion named Longinus whose spear pierced the side of Jesus as he hung on the cross. This is a narrative element from the Gospel of John, where a Roman soldier was ordered to stab Jesus in the side to ensure his death. 

John 19:34 "One of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe." 

 A key to this passage is that 'the man who saw it' is actually the writer of the gospel, John himself.

Splashed by Jesus' blood, Longinus was then doomed to never die and instead walks the earth for eternity, always fated to be present on some Earthly battlefield, enduring the suffering but never able to be killed or die of old age.  

As an interesting aside, the apostle John was the only one of Jesus' disciples to be recorded as present at the foot of the cross with Mary during the crucifixion. So John and Longinus are present in the same scene in both tales.  There is even a fanciful idea that John disguised himself as a soldier in order to approach the site of crucifixion without being arrested by the Romans, since he was a known disciple of Jesus. The other of Jesus' followers observed the crucifixion "from a distance," and were too afraid to approach.

Guided by the Jewish principle of

Kavod HaMet (honoring the dead), when confronted by the indignity of the soldiers breaking the legs of the prisoners to hasten their death, John caught up a spear and pierced Jesus' body to demonstrate that he was already dead and did not need to suffer such trauma. In this telling, John and Longinus were, in fact, the same person.  The story blends these two characters together to make the 1st century apostle mystic and the Roman military man into a single Philosopher/General with the extremes of both archtypes.

Prester John of the East 

The third part of the story jumps ahead in time to the 12th century. The medieval political scene was embroiled in the vagaries of the Crusades as an attempt to liberate the Holy Land from the Muslims.  This second story became popular that a Christian kingdom existed far to the east, ruled by a Priest-Philosopher-King named Prester John.  This was a figure of mythical stature, possessing great wisdom, commanding immense, powerful armies, ruling over vast kingdoms beyond the lands of the Muslim aggressors.  

The legend was that one day, Prester John would marshal his forces and drive west against the Saracens, and liberate the Holy Land from the occupying forces and bring relief and aid to the besieged Western forces.  Prester John, like the apostle John, was fabled to never die and would continue to rule his kingdom in the east, perpetually poised to aid travelers and crusaders heading to Jerusalem.

This story blends tales Prester John, with that of Longinus,who shares the same fate, but instead has turned his age and experience into wisdom, and like King Solomon, uses that wisdom to preside over his kingdom and turn it into an idyllic Eden on Earth.  The conclusion of these three intertwinings is that the apostle John, traveling east on his missionary journey and planting churches, became Longinus the Centurion, having taken up the identity and armament of a Roman soldier.  After centuries of wandering in the east, John/Longinus eventually founded a Christian nation that flourished under his beneficent leadership.  John the Elder, Longinus, and Prester John are all the same person in various guises and stages of life.

 

The Eastern Kingdom 

There were historic churches in the east, including Nestorianism that existed in India and China.  Tradition teaches that Saint Thomas the Apostle undertook a missionary journey, preaching the gospel to India.  It was from one of these churches that a delegation supposedly visited Pope Calixtus in AD 1122.  A narrative contained the visit of the delegation.  The members described a idyllic kingdom served by one of the rivers flowing from the Garden of Eden, ruled by a capital city so large that it would take 4 days to walk around its outer wall.  The delegation promised that it would come to the aid of the Western church in times of need.

Twenty two years later there were communications between bishops that said that this Christian nation had indeed struck the Persian ruler and delivered a weakening blow. Historically, Persia was attacked by a Mongol group at about that time, so there is historical ambiguity about the claim.

In 1165, another letter appeared from this vaguely identified eastern kingdom, bearing the name of Prester John and pledging support to the west.  This letter captured the imaginations of medieval Europe and was copied and distributed throughout the Christian world.  This letter described the kingdom of Prester John, including such wonders as fish that swam through rivers of sand, and the remnant of the Ten lost tribes of Israel.  The letter was similar to other travel writing that described wonders of the world, some real and some entirely fictitious.  Modern interpretations of this letter are that it was entirely manufactured to support the Papacy over the Byzantines, or to support a Third Crusade.