Acts of John by Prochorus Not to be confused with the Acts of John. The Acts of John by Prochurus is a noncanonical, fifth-century work that claims to contain an account of John’s activity in Ephesus and Patmos. This work was never widely authoritative in the early church period.

The Acts of John by Prochorus claims to narrate the miraculous deeds of the Apostle John in Asia Minor and Patmos from the perspective of a person named Prochorus, whom the text pseudonymously claims is its narrator. Prochorus is one of the deacons mentioned in Acts 6:5. However, the text was actually written around the fifth century ad (de Santos Otero, “Later Acts,” 430–31).

The nature of the miracles in the Acts of John by Prochorus parallel that of other apocryphal acts: encounters with Gentile and Jewish opponents and conflicts with demons and magicians. In the text, John also deals with other obstacles, including shipwrecks, imprisonments, and earthquakes; he is even killed by an angry mob but returns to life (Boxall, “Patmos,” 108). Also, like other apocryphal Acts, the narrative depicts sexual immorality as a threat to the purity of new Christian converts. All of John’s miraculous feats, as well as his proclamation of the gospel, lead to the conversions and baptisms of many people.