The Apostle John was the most venerated Christian leader throughout Asia Minor, particularly around Ephesus, where he had been the pastor for much of the last half of the first century. He outlived all the other apostles, in fulfillment of Jesus' prophecy in John 21 v.20-24. The gospel that bore his name (written about 85 AD) was an instant success among late first-century Christians so that a book by him about ten years later, given almost totally to prophecy and graphically different, was nonetheless accepted and used in the churches for over 300 years.