tude in using the pronouns is common in every language. Mt. and Mr. say that the malefactors who suffered with Jesus reproached him on the cross. From L. we learn that it was only one of them who acted thus. 36. "Peace be unto you," siońvn vμïv. Vul. “"Pax vobis: ego sum, nolite timere." Two Gr. MSS. agreeably to this translation, add yų siuì• μn goßɛîode. Both the Sy. the Cop. the Sax. and the Arm. versions, are conformable to this reading. 43. "Which he took and ate in their presence," xai laßav ἐνώπιον αὐτῶν ἔφαγεν. Vul. "Et cum manducasset coram eis, sumens reliquias dedit eis." With this agree the Cop. and Sax. versions, and three Gr. MSS. which add xai za inihoina edwne avrois. There are some other variations on this verse, which it is not necessary here to specify. 44. "In the Law of Moses, and the Prophets, and the Psalms," ἐν τῷ νόμῳ Μωσέως και Προφήταις καὶ Ψαλμοῖς. Under these three the Jews were wont to comprehend all the books of the O. T. Under the name Law, the five books called the Pentateuch were included; the chief historical books were joined with the Prophets; and all the rest with the Psalms. 49. "I send you that which my Father hath promised." Diss. XII. Part i. sect. 14. 2 The name of Jerusalem is omitted in the Vul. and Sax. versions. It is wanting also in three noted MSS. 52." Having worshipped him," poo×vvýσavres avτov; that is, having thrown themselves prostrate before him,' as the words strictly interpreted imply. Mt. 2: 2. 2 N. THAT the apostle John, a fisherman of Bethsaida in Galilee, the beloved disciple, the younger brother of James called the greater or elder, (there being two apostles of the name), and son of Zebedee by Salome* his wife, one of the three most favored apostles, and who, with his brother James, on account of their zeal in their Master's service, were honored with the title Boanerges, or Sons of Thunder, was, in the order of time, the last of the evangelists, is manifest from the uniform voice of christian antiquity. There are evident references to this Gospel, though without naming the author, in some epistles of Ignatius, the authenticity of which is strenuously maintained by bishop Pearson, and other critics of name. 2. The precise time when this Gospel was written has not been ascertained. The most probable opinion seems to be, that it was after John's return from exile in the isle of Patmos, whither, as we learn from himself, he had been banished, "for the word of God and testimony of Jesus," Rev. 1: 9. This probably happened in the persecution under the emperor Domitian. It was in that island where God made those revelations to him, which were collected by him into a book, thence called the Apocalypse or Revelation. The last of his works is thought to have been his Gospel, which the entreaties of the christian people and pastors of Ephesus, and of other parts of Asia Minor, where he had his residence in the latter part of his life, prevailed on him to undertake. If so, it must have been towards the close of the first century when this Gospel first appeared in the church, and it was in the beginning of the second when the above-mentioned Ignatius wrote his Epistles. There are also, in Justin Martyr, both references to this Gospel and quotations from it, though without naming the author. Tatian took notice of this evangelist by name, and used his Gospel along with the rest in composing his Diatessaron. I need scarcely mention the notice that is Compare Matt. 27: 55, with Mark 15: 40. taken of it in the epistle of the churches of Vienne and Lyons, or by Irenæus, who names all the evangelists, specifying something peculiar to every one of them, whereby he may be distinguished from the rest. I might add Athenagoras, Theophilus of Antioch, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, and the whole current of succeeding ecclesiastical writers. 3. The account which Irenæus gives of the occasion of writing this Gospel is as follows: "John, desirous to extirpate the errors sown in the minds of men by Cerinthus, and some time before by those called Nicolaitans, published his Gospel, wherein he acquaints us, that there is one God who made all things by his word; and not, as they say, one who is the Creator of the world, and another who is the Father of the Lord; one the Son of the Creator, and another the Christ from the supercelestial abodes, who descended upon Jesus the Son of the Creator, but remained impassible, and afterwards flew back into his own pleroma or fulness."Again, "This disciple, therefore, willing at once to cut off these errors, and establish a rule of truth in the church, declares that there is one God Almighty, who, by his word, made all things visible and invisible; and that, by the same word by which God finished the work of creation, he bestowed salvation upon men who inhabit the creation. With this doctrine he ushers in his Gospel, 'In the beginning was the word,'" etc. This testimony is of great antiquity, having been given in less than a century after the publication of the Gospel. As Irenæus, however, names no authority, and quotes no preceding writer in support of what he has advanced in relation to the design of the evangelist, it can only be considered by us as the footing of ancient tradition. 4. Clement of Alexandria, who wrote not long after Irenæus, has, as we learn from Eusebius added† some particulars, as what in his opinion, together with the entreaties of the Asiatic churches, contributed not a little to induce John to compose his Gospel. The first he mentions is, that the evangelists who had preceded him had taken little notice of our Lord's teaching and actions soon after the commencement of his ministry, and before the imprisonment of John the Baptist. One consideration, therefore, which induced him, though late, to publish a Gospel, was to supply what seemed to have been omitted by those who had gone before him. For this reason he avoided as much as possible recurring to those passages of our Lord's history of which the preceding evangelists had given an account. There was no occasion, therefore, for him to give the genealogy of our Saviour's flesh, as the historian expresses it, which had been done by Matthew and Luke before him. The † Lib. iii. cap. 24. Advers. Hæres. lib. iii. cap. 11. † Lib. iii. cap. 24. Εικοτως οὖν τὴν μὲν τῆς σαρκὸς τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν VOL. II. 53 same Eusebius says in another place, quoting Clement, "John, who is the last of the evangelists, having seen that in the three former Gospels corporeal things had been explained, and been urged by his acquaintance, and inspired of God, composed a spiritual Gospel." Thus it appears to have been a very early tradition in the church, that this Gospel was composed not only to supply what had not been fully communicated in the former Gospels, but also to serve for refuting the errors of Cerinthus and the Gnostics. 5. Yet in the time of Epiphanius, about the middle of the fourth century, an opinion much the reverse of the former was inaintained by a few sectaries whom he calls Alogians,t because they rejected the Logos, that is the word. Their opinion was, that Cerinthus himself was the author of this Gospel, an opinion, as Epiphanius clearly shows, quite improbable in itself, and unsupported by evidence ;-improbable in itself, because the words employed by the evangelist, so far from confirming, contradict the sentiments of the heresiarch unsupported by evidence, because there is nothing to counterbalance the contrary evidence above-mentioned, the ancient tradition and uniform testimony both of the friends and of the foes of Christianity, who had all concurred in affirming that this Gospel was written by John. In all the controversies maintained with Celsus, with Porphyry, and with the emperor Julian, who strained every nerve to undermine the authority of the Gospels, they never thought of controverting that they were written by those whose names they bear. So clear was this point accounted for ages, even by the most acute adversaries of the christian name. 6. It deserves our particular attention, that this Gospel carries in its bosom strong internal evidences of the truth of some of those accounts which have been transmitted to us from the primitive ages. At the same time that it bears marks more signal than any of them, that it is the work of an illiterate Jew; the whole strain of the writing shows that it must have been published at a time, and in a country the people whereof in general knew very little of the Jewish rites and manners. Thus, those who in the other Gospels are called simply the people or the multitude, are here denominated the Jews; a method which would not be natural in their own land, or even in the neighborhood, where the nation itself, and its peculiariγενεαλογιάν ἅτε Ματθαιῷ καὶ Λουκά προγράφεισαν ἀποσιωπήσαι τὸν ̓Ιωάν * Lib. vi. cap. 14. Τον μέντοι Ιωάννην ἔσχατον συνιδόντα, ὅτι τὰ σωμα τικά ἐν τοῖς Ευαγγέλιοις δεδηλώται, προτράπεντα ὑπὸ τῶν γνώριμων, πνεύ ματι θεοφορηθέντα, πνευμάτικον ποιῆσαι Ευαγγελίον.—τοσαῦτα ὁ Κλήμης. + Hær, 51. Επει οὖν τὸν λόγον οὐ δέχονται, τὸν παρὰ ̓Ιωάννου κεκηρυ γμένον, ἄλογοι κληθήσονται. This ancient controvertist does not disdain the humble aid of a pun. Móyos means reason as well as word; äloyos, unreasonable, or against the word. ~ ties, were perfectly well known. As it was customary in the east, both with Jews and others, to use proper names independently significant, which, when they went abroad, were translated into the language of the country, this author, that there might be no mistake of the persons meant, was careful, when the Greek name had any currency, to mention both names, Syriac and Greek. Thus Cephas, which denoteth the same as Peter, John 1: 43; Thomas, that is Didymus, ch. 11: 16. The same may be said of some titles in current use: Rabbi, which signifieth doctor, ch. 1: 38; Messiah, a term equivalent to Christ, ch. 1: 41. In like manner, when there is occasion to mention any of the religious ceremonies used in Judea, as their purifications or their festivals, it is almost invariably signified that the ceremony or custom spoken of is Jewish. Thus the waterpots are said to be placed for the Jewish rites of cleansing, ch. 2: 6, κατὰ τὸν καθαρισμὸν τῶν ̓Ιουδαίων. The passover is once and again (ch. 2: 13. 6: 4. 11: 55,) denominated the Jewish passover, ý náoχα των Ιουδαίων, a phrase used only by this evangelist; and even any other religious feast is called by him ἑορτὴ τῶν ̓Ιουδαίων, a Jewish festival; ch. 5: 1. 7: 2. This style runs through the whole. The writer every where speaks as to people who knew little or nothing about the Jews. Thus, in the conversation between our Lord and the woman of Samaria, the historian interrupts his narrative by inserting a clause to account to the Asiatic Gentile readers for that strange question put by the women, ch. 4: 9, "How is it that thou, who art a Jew, askest drink of me who am a Samaritan?" The clause inserted for explanation is, " for the Jews have no friendly intercourse with the Samaritans." Again, for the information of the same readers, after acquainting us that the Galileans had seen our Lord's miracles at Jerusalem during the festival, he adds, "for they likewise attended the festival," ch. 4: 45. Neither of these explanatory clauses would ever have been thought of in Palestine, or perhaps even in Syria, where the enmity betwixt the Jews and the Samaritans, and the connexion of Galilee with Judea, were better known. 7. It may be objected against the use I make of this observation, that as Mark and Luke are thought not to have published their Gospels in Palestine, it might have been expected that they also should have adopted the same manner. This in part I admit. I have accordingly pointed out* a few examples of a similar nature in the Gospel by Mark. And as to the Evangelist Luke, if his Gospel was, as I have supposed,† published at Antioch, or in any part of Syria, there was not the same occasion. But, in answer to the objection, it may further be observed, that those published soon after our Lord's ascension, in whatever part of the world it was, * Pref. to Mark, sect. 5. + Pref. to Luke, sect. 8. |