Question: Which is the only apostle thought not to have been martyred?
Answer: John.
Comments: Though church tradition dictates that John was the only of the twelve apostles not martyred, it also notes that this was not due to a lack of trying. Tradition has held that the Roman Emperor Domitian (reigned 81-96) ordered John be executed via being boiled alive in a cauldron. The story claims that not only was he unharmed but that he continued preaching from the vat. Rather than being convinced of John's innocence, his enemies accused him of having been delivered by sorcery and they exiled him to Patmos, a prison colony off the coast of Turkey. From where he penned the canonical book of Revelation. Tertullian (160-225), a second century North African theologian, may have been the first to describe this narrative. (De praescriptione haereticorum, chapter 36)
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