CONTENTS. I. INTRODUCTION. PAGES Chapter I. The training of the Disciple......... 5-33 33-53 53-59 *** The Text adopted in this Edition is that of Dr Scrivener's Cambridge Paragraph Bible. A few variations from the ordinary Text, chiefly in the spelling of certain words, and in the use of italics, will be noticed. For the principles adopted by Dr Scrivener as regards the printing of the Text see his Introduction to the Paragraph Bible, published by the Cambridge University Press. I. THE TRAINING OF THE DISCIPLE. THE early years of the Apostle whose writings are now before us appear to have been passed in the village of Bethsaida (=Fishtown, or more literally Home of Fish), on the West coast of the Sea of Galilee, not far from Chorazin and Capernaum (John i. 44). Its exact position cannot be determined with any certainty, but it has been identified with the modern 'Ain et Tabigah, and must be distinguished from the town of the same name on the North-Eastern shore of the Lake, which, after it had been enlarged and rebuilt by Philip the Tetrarch, was known as Bethsaida Julias, the latter name having been1 given to it in honour of the daughter of the Emperor Augustus. Among the fishermen from whose occupation the town derived its name was one who bore the name either of Jona (John i. 42; Matt. xvi. 17) or Joannes (in the best MSS. of John xxi. 15—17), as being a Grecised reproduction of the old Hebrew Jochanan, or Jehohanan (1 Chron. vi. 9, 10), and conveying, like its Greek equivalents, Theodorus or Dorotheus, the meaning of "the gift of God." An uncertain tradition (Coteler, Constt. Apost. II. 63) gives his mother's name also as Joanna. It is probable, but not certain, from the priority given to his name in all lists of the 1 The distinctness of the two places is seen in the record of the feeding of the Five Thousand, which took place near the Eastern Bethsaida (Luke ix. 10—17), and was followed by the passage of the disciples across the lake to that on the Western shore. (Mark vi. 45.) disciples, that the Apostle was their first-born son. The name which they gave him, Symeon (Acts xv. 14; 2 Pet. i. 1), commonly appearing, like his father's, in an abbreviated form, as Simon, had been made popular by the achievements of the captain of the Maccabean house who had borne it (1 Macc. v. 17), and by the virtues of Simon the Priest (Ecclus. 1. 1—20), and not to go further than the records of the New Testament, appears there as borne by Simon, or Symeon, the brother of the Lord (Matt. xiii. 55; Mark vi. 3), Simon the Canaanite (Matt. x. 4; Mark iii. 18), known also by the Greek equivalent of that name, Zelotes (Luke vi. 15; Acts i. 13), Simon of Cyrene (Matt. xxvii. 32; Mark xv. 21; Luke xxiii. 26), Simon the leper (Matt. xxvi. 6; Mark xiv. 3; John xii. 1), Simon the Pharisee (Luke vii. 40), Simon the Tanner (Acts x. 6—32), and Simon the Sorcerer of Samaria (Acts viii. 9). The fact that his brother, probably his younger brother, bore the Greek name of Andreas, is significant, like that of Philippos, borne by another native of Bethsaida (John i. 44), as indicating the prevalence of that language along the shores of the Sea of Galilée, and as making it probable that a certain colloquial familiarity with it was common both to the sons of Jona and the other disciples as to our Lord Himself. The date of the Apostle's birth cannot be fixed with certainty, but as we find him married and probably with children (comp. Matt. xix. 29), about the year A.D. 27 or 28, we may fairly assume that his life ran parallel in its earlier years to that of our Lord and the Baptist. He was not sent to study the law or the traditions of the elders at the feet of Gamaliel or any other Rabbi of the Schools of Jerusalem, and when he appeared before the Sanhedrin was looked on as an "unlettered layman" (idiárηs kai ȧypáμμaros, Acts iv. 13). This did not imply, however, an entire absence of education. Well-nigh every Jewish Synagogue had a school attached to it, and there, as well as in the Sabbath services, the young Symeon may have learnt, like Timotheus, to know the Holy Writings daily (2 Tim. iii. 15). He was destined, however, to follow what had probably been his father's calling. The absence of any mention of that father in the Gospel history suggests the inference that the two brothers had been left orphans at a comparatively early age, and had begun their career as fishermen under the protection of Zebedæus and his wife Salome (Matt. xxvii. 56; Mark xv. 40, xvi. 1), with whose sons, James and John (Joannes and Facôbus), we find them in partnership, himself also probably of Bethsaida or of some neighbouring village. Zebedæus appears to have been a man of some wealth. He had his "hired servants" to assist his sons and their partners (Mark i. 20). His wife ministered to the Lord out of her "substance" (Luke viii. 3). One of their sons was known (if we adopt the commonly received identification of the "other disciple" of John xviii. 15) to the high-priest Caiaphas. We cannot think, looking back from the standpoint of their later history, without a deep interest, of the companionship thus brought about, the interchange of devout hopes, the union in fervent prayers, which bound together the sons of Zebedee and those of Jona in a life-long friendship. In their early youth they must have felt the influence of the agitation caused by the revolt of Judas of Galilee (A.D. 6), waking, as it did, Messianic expectations which it could not satisfy, and have been thus led to study the writings of Moses and the prophets for the outlines of a truer and nobler ideal (John i. 41). If the child is "father of the man" we cannot doubt that they were even then, before the preaching of the Baptist, among those who "looked for the consolation of Israel" and "waited" for its "redemption" (Luke ii. 25—38). John was apparently the youngest of the three friends, and, as will be seen in many instances as we proceed, the affection which bound him to Simon, each with elements of character that were complementary of those possessed by the other, was of a singularly enduring and endearing nature. When the Gospel history opens Peter was living not at Bethsaida but at Capernaum, with his wife and his wife's mother (Matt. viii. 14; Mark i. 29; Luke iv. 38). That he had children is, perhaps, implied in the language addressed to him by our Lord in Matt. xix. 29, but if so, nothing is known of them. Of his wife too but little is known, but there are traces of her living with him during his work as an Apostle (1 Cor. ix. |