The Beloved
The find of lost gospel passages that had been preserved by a letter written by Clement of Alexandria throws new light on the Lazarus story and it's implications. That story is told only in the Gospel of John and the previously lost fragments are from the Gospel of Mark. However, they do indicate that an early form of the story of Lazarus was once present in Mark. One implication that becomes a candidate for reconsideration concerns the identification of the "Beloved Disciple" in John, who is traditionally considered to be John himself.
This painting is basically an illustration of the Lazarus story, in which a man is raised from the dead. The bloody palm print is that of Christ, and the dove is naturally the Spirit. The act of shedding off his clothes returns to the symbolism of burial clothes as a representation of the physical body. Again, the snake and sun symbol, indicating time, is present on the coffin lid. But my choice of title, "the Beloved," was made due to my belief that the moniker of the "Beloved Disciple" was originally an indication of Lazarus, and not the disciple John.