That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched — this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us.
(1 John 1:1-3)
First, John the Elder, though not one of the 12, was a "disciple" and therefore had personal contact with Jesus.
Second, in any case, The "we" in 1:1-3 need imply no more than that this epistles stems from the community of the eyewitnesses.
Sipsey: "You may wish to believe the reference of elder and run with it as others, but the whole case for “another” John is very weak. I am not blind as to the history of our book, but neither am I blind to the conspiracy to tilt its credibility."
On the contrary, rejection of authorship by John the son of Zebedee is now the virtually unanimous scholarly consensus. True, conservative NT scholar, Raymond Brown, identified the Beloved Disciple as John the son of Zebedee in his massive 2 volume commentary on John. But even he later recants that identification in a later book on the Fourth Gospel. For example, the Beloved Disciple is always distinguished from named disciples in the same Johannine context. So in John 21:1-2 the Beloved Disciple is distinguished from the sons of Zebedee and is therefore to be identified as 1 of the 2 unnamed disciples.
Modern Bible scholars have good reason to reject the testimony of Church Fathers from the end of the 2nd century an later.
(1) They live beyond the time of surviving members of the 12. Papias is from the apostolic age and his witness that the son of Zebedee had been martyred should be accepted and finds confirmation in Mark 10:34, 38-39). But John the Elder, "a disciple of Jesus," is still alive and in circulation in Papias's day.
(2) The Church Fathers are famous for their conflation errors. Philip the Apostle is conflated with Philip the Evangelist in Acts. Mary Magdalene is conflated with both Martha's sister Mary and the prostitute of Luke 7:36-50, who also anoints Jesus with expensive perfume like Martha's sister. Thus, the myth of Mary Magdalene the prostitute is created! John the son of Zebedee, John the Elder, and John the Seer of Revelation are 3 different men who are conflated into one. No modern scholar now believes that John the son of Zebedee wrote the Book of Revelation.