E05668: John Malalas in his Chronographia mentions the unexplained disappearance, in c. AD 100, of *John (Apostle and Evangelist, S00042) from Ephesus (western Asia Minor), where he had been living as a bishop. Written in Greek at Antioch (Syria) or Constantinople, in the mid-6th c.

John Malalas, Chronographia, 11.2

Ἕως δὲ τοῦ δευτέρου ἔτους τῆς βασιλείας αὐτοῦ ἦν φαινόμενος καὶ διδάσκων ἐν Ἐφέσῳ, ἐπίσκοπος καὶ πατριάρχης ὤν, ὁ ἅγιος Ἰωάννης ὁ ἀπόστολος καὶ θεολόγος· καὶ ἀφανῆ ἑαυτὸν ποιήσας οὐκέτι ὤφθη τινὶ καὶ οὐδεὶς ἔγνω, τί ἐγένετο, ἕως τῆς νῦν, καθὼς Ἀφρικανὸς καὶ Εἰρηναῖος οἱ σοφώτατοι χρονογράφοι συνεγράψαντο.

‘Until the second year of his [Trajan’s] reign, Saint John the apostle and theologian was alive and teaching in Ephesos, being a bishop and patriarch. Then he disappeared by himself and has not been seen by anyone ever since, and no one knows to the present day what happened to him, as Africanus and Irenaeus, the most learned chroniclers wrote.’

Text: Thurn 2000. Translation Jeffreys, Jeffreys, and Scott 1986, modified.