The Bible does NOT mention this at all. The last time we read of the Apostle John is in the book of Revelation, “I, John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ. I was on the island that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ” (1:9-10). He was imprisoned there for his faithful preaching of the Word of God. If the Romans had tried to kill him in a boiling pot of oil one would think the Spirit of God would have inspired John to tell us. I say this because we read, in some detail, of the sufferings of various saints as they were persecuted by unbelievers for their faith in Jesus Christ (see Acts 4:1-22; 5:17-33; 6:8-8:1; 12:1-4; etc.).

The story of John being put in a pot of boiling oil is simply a LEGEND and we have no way of proving if it is genuine. Here is what we read of this account on Britannica.com: “Legend was also active in the West, being especially stimulated by the passage in Mark 10:39, with its hints of John’s martyrdom. Tertullian, the 2nd-century North African theologian, reports that John was plunged into boiling oil from which he miraculously escaped unscathed. During the 7th century this scene was portrayed in the Lateran basilica and located in Rome by the Latin Gate, and the miracle is still celebrated in some traditions. In the original form of the apocryphal Acts of John (second half of the 2nd century) the apostle dies, but in later traditions he is assumed to have ascended to heaven like Enoch and Elijah. The work was condemned as a gnostic heresy in 787 ce. Another popular tradition, known to St. Augustine, declared that the earth over John’s grave heaved as if the apostle were still breathing.”

Notice, how in this account there is a reference to one passage which is used by some to give credence to the story. Let’s read Mark 10:35-39, “Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Him saying, ‘Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask.’ And He said to them, ‘What do you want Me to do for you?’ They said to Him, ‘Grant us that we may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on Your left, in Your glory.’ But Jesus said to them, ‘You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?’ They said to Him, ‘We are able.’ So Jesus said to them, ‘You will indeed drink the cup that I drink, and with the baptism that I am baptized with you will be baptized.” When Jesus spoke of the cup He would drink and the baptism He would experience, He was speaking of the cross where He would suffer from the hands of wicked men. In other words, He was foretelling His own martyrdom. James and John then said they too were willing to be martyred and Jesus replied with words that teach us they would indeed suffer, as He did, from the hands of unbelieving men. We know from Acts 12:1-2 that James died by the sword of King Herod: “Now about that time Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass some from the church. Then HE KILLED JAMES THE BROTHER OF JOHN WITH THE SWORD.” Yet we have no scripture which indicates that John died from the hands of men but as we have seen he surely “suffered from the hands of men when he was exiled to the Isle of Patmos (where he supposedly died of old age).

Before I close, it’s important to note that though the Lord linked the sufferings of James and John with the words “cup” and “baptism,” these were not “atoning sufferings for sin.” They did “share in the Lord’s sufferings from the hands of ungodly men,” but the words “cup” and “baptism” in relation to Christ also included what He would suffer “from the hand of a holy and righteous God because of our sins being laid upon Him” (see Isaiah 53:5-6, 10 with 1 Peter 2:24; 3:18). It was having to “drink the cup of God’s wrath that caused Jesus the most anguish as He anticipated the cross” (see Matthew 26:36-42; Luke 22:39-44 and John 18:10-11).  (DO)  (642.5)