CHAP. IV. We shall rise upwards from the perception of individuality to that of variety; from variety to catholicity. The various outward forms of Evangelic teaching, recognized by the Apostles and ratified by the Church, will teach us to look for some higher harmony in faith than simple unison. We shall acknowledge that it is now as in days of old, when the same unchanging scheme of redemption proceeding from one God, 'seeking the weal of men through divers ways by one Lord,' was seen under changeful varieties of external shape1. The lesson of experience and history, the lesson of reason and life, will be found written on the very titles of the Gospels, where we shall read with growing hope and love that 'God fulfils Himself in many ways. 1 Clem. Alex. Strom. VI. 13, § 106: μία γὰρ τῷ ὄντι διαθήκη ἡ σωτήριος ἀπὸ μεταβολῆς κόσμου εἰς ἡμᾶς διήκουσα κατὰ διαφόρους γενέας τε καὶ χρόνους διάφορος εἶναι τὴν δόσιν ὑπο ληφθεῖσα. ἀκόλουθον γὰρ εἶναι μίας ἀμετάθετον σωτηρίας δόσιν παρ' ἑνὸς Θεοῦ δι ̓ ἑνὸς κυρίου πολυτρόπως ὠφε Aoûoav... Cf. Lib. VII. 17, § 107. CHAPTER V. THE GOSPEL OF ST JOHN. Two worlds are ours: 'tis only Sin Forbids us to descry The mystic heaven and earth within, KEBLE. It is impossible to pass from the Synoptic Gospels to that contrast be and the Synop CHAP. V. of St John without feeling that the transition involves the The general passage from one world of thought to another. No fami- tween St John liarity with the general teaching of the Gospels, no wide tists. conception of the character of the Saviour, is sufficient to destroy the contrast which exists in form and spirit between he earlier and later narratives; and a full recognition of this contrast is the first requisite for the understanding of their essential harmony. The Synoptic Gospels contain the Gospel of the infant Church: that of St John the Gospel of its maturity. The first combine to give the wide experience of the many: the last embraces the deep mysteries treasured up by the one. All alike are conciously based on the same great facts, but yet it is posible, in a more limited sense, to describe the first as hisorical, and the last as ideal; though the history necessarily points to truths which lie beyond all human experience, nd the 'ideas' only connect that which was once for all ealized on earth with the eternal of which it was the evelation. This broad distinction renders it necessary to CHAP. V. notice several points in the Gospel of St John, both in itself Characteris and in its relation to the Synoptic Gospels, which seem to tics of St John. be of the greatest importance towards the right study of it. i. The Gospel in itself. No writing, perhaps, if we view it simply as a writing, combines greater simplicity with more profound depths. At first all seems clear in the child-like language which is so often the chosen vehicle of the treasures of Eastern meditation; and then again the utmost subtlety of Western thought is found to lie under abrupt and apparently fragmentary utterances. The combination was as natural in the case of St John, as it was needful to complete the cycle of the Gospels. The special character of the Gospel was at once the result and the cause of its special history; and when we have gained a general conception of the Gospel in itself, the relations of difference or agreement in which it stands to the other narratives will at once become intelligible. The facts bearing on the life of St (a) Its history. recorded in the Gospels are soon told. 1. The life of St John. John which are apparently the younger son', of Zebedee and Salome?. His father was a Galilæan fisherman, sufficiently prosperous to have hired servants3, and at a later time his mother was one of the women who followed the Lord and 'ministered to Him of their substance.' Nothing is recorded which throws any light upon the character of Zebedee, except the simple fact that he interposed no obstacle to his sons' apo 1 That he was the younger son appears to follow from the order in which the names James and John the brother of James' are generally given in the Gospels: Matt. iv. 21, &c.; Mark i. 21, &c.; Luke v. 10, &c. The names occur in the other order, 'Peter, John and James,' in Luke viii. 51; ix. 28, though the reading is doubtful. In Acts xii. 2, James is styled the brother of John.' Mark xv. 40; xvi. 1, compared with Matt. xxvii. 56. From the comparison of the last passage with John xix. 26, it has been concluded that Salome was the sister of the mother of the Lord,' but the interpretation of the passage is uncertain. Later traditions suppose various other relationships between the families of Joseph and Mary and Zebedee. Cf. Winer, RWB Salome; Thilo, Cod. Apocr. 362 ££. 3 Mark i. 20. Cf. John xix. 27. 4 Mark xvi. 1, compared with Luke viii. 3. stleship; but Salome herself went with Christ even to His death, and the very greatness of her request1 is the sign of a faith living and fervent, however unchastened. St John, influenced it may be by his mother's hopes, and sharing them, although 'simple and unlettered?,' first attached himself to the Baptist, and was one of those to whom Jesus was revealed by him as 'the Lamb of God3.' Henceforth he accompanied his new Master, and together with his brother and St Peter was admitted into a closer relationship with Him than the other Apostles. In this nearer connexion St John was still nearest 5, and as he followed Christ to judgment and death, he received from the Cross the charge to receive the mother of the Lord as her own son. After the Ascension St John remained at Jerusalem with the other Apostles. He was with St Peter at the working of his first miracle; and afterwards he went with him to Samaria. At the time of St Paul's first visit to Jerusalem he was absent from the city; but on a later occasion St Paul describes him as one of the pillars of the Church'.' At what time and under what circumstances he left Jerusalem is wholly unknown; but tradition is unanimous in placing the scene of his after-labours at Ephesus 10. His residence there must have taken place after St Paul's departure, but this is all that can be affirmed with certainty. It is generally agreed that he was banished to Patmos during his stay at Ephesus, but the time of his exile is very variously given". The legend of his sufferings at 1 Matt. xx. 20 ff. Cf. Mark x. 35 ff. The same characteristic appears under a different form in the wish of her two sons: Luke ix. 54; and in spite of other interpretations, it is best to refer the surname Boanerges (Mark iii. 16), which is applied to them, to a natural warmth of temperament. Acts iv. 13. 3 John i. 35 ff. 4 Luke viii. 51 (at the house of 6 John xviii. 15; xix. 26. 9 Gal. i. 18 ff. ; ii. 9. viii. 14. 10 Iren. adv. Hær. III. I, I. 11 Iren. v. 30, 3 (Euseb. H. E. v. CHAP. V. CHAP. V. Rome, which was soon embellished and widely circulated, Later legends. is quite untrustworthy1; and the details of his death at Ephesus are equally fabulous, though it is allowed on all hands that he lived to extreme old age 2. But while no sufficient materials remain for constructing a life of the Apostle, the most authentic traditions which are connected with his name contribute something to the distinctness of his portraiture3. The lessons of his Epistles and Gospel are embodied in legends which characterize him as the zealous champion of purity of faith and practice within the Christian body, and in one legend, at least, the symbolism of the Jewish dispensation is transferred to the service of Christianity, as in the visions of the Apocalypse. On the one hand St John proclaims with startling severity the claims of doctrinal truth, and the duties of the teacher5: on the other he stands out in the majesty of a sacred office, clothed in something of the dress of the old theocracy. The two views involve no contradiction, but rather exhibit the wide range of that divine love which cherishes every element of truth with the most watchful care, because 8) (Domitian): Epiph. Hær. 51, 33 1 Tertull. de Præscr. Hær, 36:... 23. 2 Iren. II. 22, 5 : μέχρι τῶν Τραϊάvou Xpóvwv. Hieron. ad Galat. VI. 10. For the traditions which describe him as still living in his tomb at Ephesus compare Credner, Einl. 220 f. The passage of Augustine (In Ev. Johann. Tract. 124, 2) is perhaps the most interesting notice of the belief. 3 These traditions have been collected and discussed by Stanley, Sermons and Essays on the Apostolic Age, pp. 275 ff. 4 Iren. III. 3, 4 (on the authority of Polycarp. Euseb. H. E. IV. 14)... Ἰωάννης, ὁ τοῦ κυρίου μαθητής, ἐν τῇ |