PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
Expositor's Bible: The Epistles of St. John
Alexander, William · 110,912 words · 190 reading sections
Fourth Series, 1890-1.
Produced by Douglas L. Alley, III, Marcia Brooks, Colin Bell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) _Editor of "The Expositor," etc._ LONDON HODDER AND STOUGHTON 27, PATERNOSTER ROW…
278 wordsSECTION 2_Twenty-One Discourses_
The Psalms. By A. MACLAREN, D.D. Vol. I. 1 and 2 Thessalonians. By JAMES DENNEY, D.D. The Book of Job. By R. A. WATSON, M.A., D.D. Ephesians. By Prof. G. G. FINDLAY, B.A. The Gospel of St. John. By Prof. M. DODS, D.D. Vol. II. The Acts of the Apostles. By Prof. STOKES, D.D. Vol. II. 1 Kings. By Very Rev. t…
266 wordsSECTION 3Preface.
London HODDER AND STOUGHTON 27, PATERNOSTER ROW Hujus scriptis illustratur, Illustrata solidatur Unitas Ecclesiæ. ADAM OF ST. VICTOR _Seq._ xxxi. (_S. Johannes Evangelista_). It is now many years ago since I entered upon a study of the Epistles of St. John, as serious and prolonged as was consistent with the of…
999 wordsSECTION 4Preface.
I have ventured with much hesitation to add upon another column in each section a translation drawn up by myself for my own private use; the greater portion of which was made a year or two before the publication of the R.V. Its right to be here is this, that it affords the best key to my meaning in any place where the …
484 wordsSECTION 5Discourse Ii.
THE PALACE, LONDONDERRY, _February 6th, 1889_. MERCIFUL GOD, we beseech Thee to cast Thy bright beams of light upon Thy Church, that it being enlightened by the doctrine of Thy blessed Apostle and Evangelist St. John, may so walk in the light of Thy truth, that it may at length attain to the light of everlasting life…
261 wordsSECTION 6_The Surroundings Of The First Epistle Of St. John._
THE POLEMICAL ELEMENT IN THE FIRST EPISTLE OF ST. JOHN 39 SOME GENERAL RULES FOR THE INTERPRETATION OF THE FIRST EPISTLE OF ST. JOHN 75 MISSIONARY APPLICATION OF THE EXTENT OF THE ATONEMENT 106 THE INFLUENCE OF THE GREAT LIFE WALK A PERSONAL INFLUENCE 118 USE AND ABUSE OF THE SENSE OF THE VANITY OF THE WORLD 1…
712 wordsSECTION 7_The Surroundings Of The First Epistle Of St. John._
Our simplest plan will be, in the first instance, to trace in the briefest outline the career of St. John after the Ascension of our Lord, so far as it can be followed certainly by Scripture, or with the highest probability from early Church history. We shall then be better able to estimate the degree in which the Epis…
930 wordsSECTION 8_The Surroundings Of The First Epistle Of St. John._
It is in the context of this passage that we read most fully and truly the contrast of our Apostle's nature with that of St. Peter. St. John, as Chrysostom has told us in deathless words, was loftier, saw more deeply, pierced right into and through spiritual truths,[17] was more the lover of Jesus than of Christ, as Pe…
689 wordsSECTION 9_The Surroundings Of The First Epistle Of St. John._
The Epistle then, like the Gospel, and contemporaneously with it, saw the light in Ephesus, or in its vicinity. This is proved by three pieces of evidence of the most unquestionable solidity. (1) The opening chapters of the Apocalypse contain an argument, which cannot be explained away, for the connection of St. John …
1,120 wordsSECTION 10_The Surroundings Of The First Epistle Of St. John._
Let us now consider what ideas or allusions in the Epistles of St. John coincide with, and fit into, this Ephesian contexture of life and thought. We shall have occasion in the third discourse to refer to forms of Christian heresy or of semi-Christian speculation indisputably pointed to by St. John, and prevalent in A…
753 wordsSECTION 11_The Surroundings Of The First Epistle Of St. John._
On the whole, we have in favour of assigning these Epistles to Ionian and Ephesian surroundings a considerable amount of external evidence. The general characteristics of the First Epistle consonant with the view of their origin which we have advocated are briefly these. (1) It is addressed to readers who were encompas…
319 wordsSECTION 12Footnotes:
[2] Cary's _Dante_, _Paradiso_, xxv. 117. Stanley's _Sermons and Essays on the Apostolic Age_, 242. [3] Apoc. ii. 24. [4] John xiii. 30 cf. 1 John ii, 11. [5] εσκηνωσεν εν ἡμιν. [6] This characteristic of St. John's style is powerfully expressed by the great hymn-writer of the Latin Church. "Hebet sensus exors sty…
704 wordsSECTION 13Footnotes:
[29] Acts xviii. 18-21. To these general links connecting our Epistles with Ephesus, a few of less importance, yet not without significance, may be added. (1) The name of Demetrius (3 John 12) is certainly suggestive of the holy city of the earth-mother (Acts xix. 24, 38). Vitruvius assigns the completion of the temple…
312 wordsSECTION 14_The Connection Of The Epistle With The Gospel Of St. John._
Συναδυσι μεν γαρ αλληλοις το ευαγγελιον και ἡ επιστολη. _Dionys. Alexandr. ap Euseb., H. E., vii., 25._ "And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full."--1 JOHN i. 4. From the wholesale burning of books at Ephesus, as a consequence of awakened convictions, the most pregnant of all commentators upon …
849 wordsSECTION 15_The Connection Of The Epistle With The Gospel Of St. John._
We have in the First Epistle two synopses of the Gospel which correspond with a perfect precision to these claims.[36] We have: (1) a synopsis of the _contents_ of the Gospel; (2) a synoptical view of the _conception_ from which it was written. 1. We find in the Epistle at the very outset a synopsis of the contents of…
1,474 wordsSECTION 16_The Connection Of The Epistle With The Gospel Of St. John._
It would be easy to enlarge upon the verbal connection between the Epistle before us and the Gospel which it accompanied. We might draw out (as has often been done) a list of quotations from the Gospel, a whole common treasury of mystic language; but we prefer to leave an undivided impression upon the mind. A document …
1,012 wordsSECTION 17_The Connection Of The Epistle With The Gospel Of St. John._
The feeling of the Church has always been that the Gospel of St. John was a solemn work of faith and prayer. The oldest extant fragment upon the canon of the New Testament tells us that the Gospel was undertaken after earnest invitations from the brethren and the bishops, with solemn united fasting; not without special…
592 wordsSECTION 18A.
The thorough connection of the Epistle with the Gospel may be made more clear by the following tabulated analysis:-- The (A) _beginning_ and (B) the _close_ of the Epistle contain _two_ abstracts, longer and shorter, of the contents and bearing of the Gospel. _i._--1 John i. 1. 1. "That which was from the beginning-…
288 wordsSECTION 19B.
_i._--1 John v. 6-10. Summary of the Gospel as a Gospel of _witness_. 1. "The Spirit beareth witness" = John i. 32, xiv., xv., xx. 22. 2. "The water beareth witness" = John i. 28, ii. 9, iii. 5, iv. 13, 14, v. 1, 9, vi. 19, vii. 37, ix. 7, xiii. 5, xix. 34, xxi. 1. 3. "The blood beareth witness" = John vi. 53, 54, …
329 wordsSECTION 20Footnotes:
[31] Bengel, on Acts xix. 19, 20, finds a reference to manuscripts of some of the synoptical Gospels and of the Epistles in 2 Tim. iv. 13, and conjectures that, after St. Paul's martyrdom, Timothy carried them with him to Ephesus. [32] Renan's curious theory that Rom. xvi. 1-16 is a sheet of the Epistle to the Ephesia…
683 wordsSECTION 21Footnotes:
[55] John viii. 18, xii. 28. [56] Ibid. viii. 17, 18. [57] Ibid. xv. 26. [58] Ibid. v. 39, 46, xix. 35, 36, 37. [59] Ibid. v. 36. [60] This sixth witness (1 John v. 10) exactly answers to John xx. 30, 31. [61] ὁ πιστευων εις τον υιον, κτλ (v. 10). The construction is different in the words which immediately follo…
442 wordsSECTION 22_The Polemical Element In The First Epistle Of St. John._
"Dum Magistri super pectus Fontem haurit intellectûs Et doctrinæ flumina, Fiunt, ipso situ loci, Verbo fides, auris voci, Mens Deo contermina. "Unde mentis per excessus, Carnis, sensûs super gressus, _Errorumque nubila_, Contra veri solis lumen Visum cordis et acumen Figit velut aquila." _Adam of St. Victor…
836 wordsSECTION 23_The Polemical Element In The First Epistle Of St. John._
There are then _polemics_ in the Epistle and in the Gospel of St. John. But we refuse to hunt down some obscure heresy in every sentence. It will be enough to indicate the master heresy of Asia Minor, to which St. John undoubtedly refers, with its intellectual and moral perils. In so doing, we shall find the very truth…
658 wordsSECTION 24_The Polemical Element In The First Epistle Of St. John._
What is this doketism? Let us refer to the history and to the language of a mind of singular subtlety and power. In George Eliot's early career she was induced to prepare for the press a translation of Strauss's mythical explanation of _the Life of Jesus_. It is no disrespect to so great a memory to say, that at that…
861 wordsSECTION 25_The Polemical Element In The First Epistle Of St. John._
(2) We address ourselves next to those who look at Christ simply as an ideal. We venture to put to them a definite question. You believe that there is no solid basis for the history of the man Jesus; that His life as an historical reality is lost in a dazzling mist of legend and adoration. Has the idea of a Christ, div…
865 wordsSECTION 26Note.
* * * * * The two following extracts, in addition to what has been already said in this discourse, will supply the reader with that which it is most necessary for him to know upon the heresies of Asia Minor. 1. "Two principal heresies upon the nature of Christ then prevailed, each diametrically opposite to the other, …
762 wordsSECTION 27Footnotes:
[This passage is from a _Dissertation--les Trois Témoins Célestes_, in a collection of religious and literary papers by French scholars (Tom. ii., Sept. 1868, pp. 388-392). The author, since deceased, was the Abbé Le Hir, M. Renan's instructor in Hebrew at Saint Sulpice, and pronounced by his pupil one of the first of …
616 wordsSECTION 28_The Image Of St. John'S Soul In His Epistle._
"He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips the king shall be his friend."--PROV. xxii. 11. ὁ θεμελιος.... ὁ δευτερος σαπφειρος.--APOC. xxi. 19. "We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not. And we know tha…
652 wordsSECTION 29I.
In studying the Epistles of St. John we may well ask what we see and hear therein of St. John's character, (1) as a sacred writer, (2) as a saintly soul. We consider first the indications in the Epistle of the Apostle's character as a sacred writer. For help in this direction we do not turn with much satisfaction to …
673 wordsSECTION 30I.
Here also "he is full of dogmas," here again he is the theologian of the Church. But we are not to estimate the amount of dogma merely by the number of words in which it is expressed. Dogma, indeed, is not really composed of isolated texts--as pollen showered from conifers and germs scattered from mosses, accidentally …
780 wordsSECTION 31Ii.
Such are the chief characteristics of St. John as a sacred writer, which may be traced in his Epistle. These characteristics of the author imply corresponding characteristics of the man. He who states with such inevitable precision, with such noble and self-contained enthusiasm, the great dogmas of the Christian faith,…
690 wordsSECTION 32Ii.
This humility may be traced incidentally in other regions of the Christian life. Thus he speaks of the possibility at least of his being among those who might "shrink with shame from Christ in His coming." He does not disdain to write as if, in hours of spiritual depression, there were tests by which he too might need …
1,011 wordsSECTION 33Ii.
"things which shed upon the outward frame Of worship glory and grace--which who shall blame That ever look'd to heaven for final rest?" The third book in this group of writings supplies the sweet and quiet spirituality which is the foundation of every regenerate nature. Such is the image of the soul which is presen…
676 wordsSECTION 34Note A.
May we so look upon this image of the Apostle's soul in his Epistle that we may reflect something of its brightness! May we be able to think, as we turn to this threefold assertion of knowledge--"_I_ know something of the security of this keeping.[128] _I_ know something of the sweetness of being in the Church, that is…
399 wordsSECTION 35Footnotes:
ἡ ῥιζα της αθανασιας και ἡ πηγη της αφθαρσιας· ὁ την ερημον και αγριωθεισαν φυσιν ἡμων ηρεμον και ἡσυχιον ποιησας, ὁ της προσκαιρου φαντασιας ῥυσαμενος με και εις την αει μενουσαν φρουρησας (_Acta Johannis_, 21). These sentences are surely not without freshness and power. One other passage is worth translating, because…
699 wordsSECTION 36Part Ii.
[119] The story is given by Socrates. (_H. E._, vi. 8.) [120] 1 John iv. 7, 12. [121] 1 John ii. 6, 9, i. 7-10, ii. 1, 2. [122] 1 John i. 7, ii. 2, iv. 3, 6; 2 John 7-11; 3 John 9, 10. [123] 1 John iii. 19, v. 14, 15, iv. 2, 3, v. 4, 5, 18. [124] These sentences do not go so far as the mischievous and antiscriptur…
250 wordsSECTION 37I. Subject Matter.
(1) The _Epistle_ is to be read through with constant reference to the _Gospel_. In what _precise form_ the former is related to the latter (whether as a preface or as an appendix, as a spiritual commentary or an encyclical) critics may decide. But there is a vital and constant connection. The two documents not only to…
315 wordsSECTION 38Ii. Language.
1. _Tenses._ In the New Testament generally tenses are employed very much in the same sense, and with the same general accuracy, as in other Greek authors. The so-called "enallage temporum," or perpetual and convenient Hebraism, has been proved by the greatest Hebrew scholars to be no Hebraism at all. But it is one of…
615 wordsSECTION 39Authorised Version. Revised Version.
Ὁ ἩΝ απ' αρχης, ὁ Quod fuit ab initio, ακηκοαμεν, ὁ ἑωρακαμεν quod audivimus, et τοις οφθαλμοις ἡμων, vidimus oculis nostris, ὁ εθεασαμεθα, και αι quod perspeximus, et χειρες ἡμων εψηλαφησαν manus nostræ temtaverunt, περι του λογου της ζωης· de Verbo vitæ; και ἡ ζωη εφανερωθη, et vita manifestata και ἑωρακαμεν, …
373 wordsSECTION 40_Analysis And Theory Of St. John'S Gospel._
That which was ever from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we gazed upon, and our hands handled--_I speak_ concerning the Word who is the Life--and the Life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare unto you the life, the eter…
656 wordsSECTION 41_Analysis And Theory Of St. John'S Gospel._
We conclude then that when St. John here speaks of the Word of Life, he refers to something higher again than the preaching of life, and that he has in view both the manifestation of the life which has taken place in our humanity, and Him who is personally at once the Word and the Life.[133] The proœmium may be thus pa…
703 wordsSECTION 42_Analysis And Theory Of St. John'S Gospel._
One too well knows that such teaching as this runs the risk of appearing uselessly subtle and technical, but its practical value will appear upon reflection. Because it gives us possession of the point of view from which St. John himself surveys, and from which he would have the Church contemplate, the history of the l…
633 wordsSECTION 43Footnotes:
[132] See the noble and enthusiastic preface to the washing of the disciples' feet (John xiii. 1, 2, 3). [133] The phrase probably means the Logos, the Personal "Word who is at once both the Word and the Life." For the double genitive, the second almost appositional to the first, conf. John ii. 21, xi. 13. This interp…
381 wordsSECTION 44_St. John'S Gospel Historical Not Ideological._
"That which we have heard."--1 JOHN i. 1. Our argument so far has been that St. John's Gospel is dominated by a central idea and by a theory which harmonises the great and many-sided life which it contains, and which is repeated again at the beginning of the Epistle in a form analogous to that in which it had been cas…
681 wordsSECTION 45_St. John'S Gospel Historical Not Ideological._
A few of the stories of the earliest ages of Christianity have ever been repeated, and rightly so, as affording the most beautiful illustrations of St. John's character, the most simple and truthful idea of the impression left by his character and his work. His tender love for souls, his deathless desire to promote mut…
804 wordsSECTION 46_St. John'S Gospel Historical Not Ideological._
This may be exemplified by an illustration from modern literature. Victor Hugo, in his _Légende des Siècles_, has in one passage only placed in our Lord's lips a few words which are not found in the Evangelist.[147] Every one will at once feel that these words ring hollow, that there is in them something exaggerated an…
768 wordsSECTION 47Notes.
He stands with spell-bound delight before his work without the disappointment which ever attends upon men of genius; because that work is not drawn from himself, because he can say three words--which we have _heard_, which we have _seen_ with our eyes, which we have _gazed_ upon. Ch. i. 2, 4. Ver. 2. _Us_, _we_.] "Th…
659 wordsSECTION 48Footnotes:
[141] The appeal to the senses of _seeing_ and _hearing_ is a trait common to _all_ the group of St. John's writings (John i. 14, xix. 35; 1 John i. 1, 2, iv. 14; Apoc. i. 2). The true reading (καγω Ιωαννης ὁ ακουων και βλεπων ταυτα. Apoc. xxi. 8, where _hearing_ stands before _seeing_) is indicative of John's style. …
720 wordsSECTION 49Greek. Latin.
[149] Preface to _Ivanhoe_. [150] _How_ the great sayings were accurately collected has not been the question before us in this discourse. But it presents little difficulty. It is not absurd to suppose (if we are required to postulate no divine assistance) that notes may have been taken in some form by certain members…
532 wordsSECTION 50Authorised Version. Revised Version.
This then is the message And this is the message which we have which we have heard of Him, and declare heard from Him, and unto you, that announce unto you, God is light, and in that God is light, and Him is no darkness at _in_ Him is _no darkness_ all. If we say that we at all. If we say that have fellowship wi…
378 wordsSECTION 51_Extent Of The Atonement._
And this is the message which we have heard from Him and are announcing unto you that God is light, and darkness in Him there is none. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and are walking in the darkness, we lie and are not doing the truth; but if we walk in the light as He is in the light we have f…
701 wordsSECTION 52_Extent Of The Atonement._
It is implied then in this passage, that Christ was _intended_ as a propitiation for the whole world; and that He is _fitted_ for satisfying all human wants. (1) Christ was intended for the whole world. Let us see the Divine intention in one incident of the crucifixion. In that are mingling lines of glory and of humil…
373 wordsSECTION 53Footnotes:
[153] Observe in the Greek the μη ἁμαρτητε, which refers to single acts, not to a continuous state--"that _ye may not sin_." [154] 1 John ii. 2. As a translation, "towards" seems too pedantic; yet προς is _ad-versus_ rather than _apud_, and with the accusative signifies either the direction of motion, or the relation …
332 wordsSECTION 54_Missionary Application Of The Extent Of The Atonement._
"For the whole world."--1 JOHN ii. 2. Let us now consider the universal and ineradicable wants of man. Such a consideration is substantially unaffected by speculation as to the theory of man's origin. Whether the first men are to be looked for by the banks of some icy river feebly shaping their arrowheads of flint, o…
1,094 wordsSECTION 55_Missionary Application Of The Extent Of The Atonement._
We shall better understand the fulness of St. John's thought if we proceed to consider that this fitness in Christ for meeting the spiritual wants of humanity is _exclusive_. Three great religions of the world are more or less _Missionary_. Hinduism, which embraces at least a hundred and ninety millions of souls, is c…
706 wordsSECTION 56_Missionary Application Of The Extent Of The Atonement._
Towards the close of this Epistle St. John oracularly utters three great canons of universal Christian consciousness--"we know," "we know," "we know." Of these three canons the second is--"we know that we are from God, and the world lieth wholly in the wicked one." "A characteristic Johannic exaggeration"! some critic …
250 wordsSECTION 57Notes.
Ch. i. 5 to ii. 2. Ver. 5. The Word, the Life, the Light, are connected in the first chapter as in John i. 3, 4, 5. Upon earth, behind all life is light; in the spiritual world, behind all light is life. _Darkness._] The schoolmen well said that there is a fourfold darkness--of nature, of ignorance, of misery, of sin…
671 wordsSECTION 58Notes.
"Behold, O sinner, the exceeding love of thy Saviour, who, that He might cleanse thee when polluted in thy blood, was pleased to shed His own blood. Indeed, the pouring out of Christ's blood was a super-excellent work of charity; hence it is that these two are joined together; and when the Scripture speaketh of His lov…
678 wordsSECTION 59Footnotes:
Ver. 2. _Not for ours only._] This large-hearted afterthought reminds one of St. Paul's "corrective and ampliative" addition; of his chivalrous abstinence from exclusiveness in thought or word, when having dictated "Jesus Christ our Lord," his voice falters, and he feels constrained to say--"both theirs, and ours" (1 C…
265 wordsSECTION 60Authorised Version. Revised Version.
Και εν τουτω Et in hoc scimus γινωσκομεν ὁτι εγνωκαμεν quoniam cognovimus αυτον, εαν τας εντολας eum, si mandata eius αυτου τηρωμεν. ὁ λεγων, observemus. Qui dicit ὁτι "Εγνωκα αυτον," se nosse eum et mandata και τας εντολας αυτου eius non custodit, μη τηρων, ψευστης εστιν, mendax est, et και εν τουτω ἡ αληθεια i…
275 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.