Eosition of liigh priest, whicli had been made ereditary in the family of Simon B.C. 135 (1 Mac le"-", cf. 14«). See Maccabees.
H. A. White. JOHN (Ac 4'). — A meeting of the Sanhedrin ia mentioned, at which there are said to have been gathered together ' the rulers, the elders, and the scribes, with Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and all who were of the high priestly famUy.' Nothing further is known of eitlier John or Alexander (wh. see), and the attempts made to connect the names with other historical characters (such as Johanan ben-Sakkai) are more than improbable. A. C. Headlam.
JOHN, Father of Simon Peter.— In Jn 1** the true reading is ZfMux i vlis'ladvov, in 21"' "• " Zlnuv 'ludvov. The Vetus Interpretatio LtUina of Origen (in Mntth. torn. xv. 14, >ligne, Pat. Or. xiii. 1295) quotes a passage from the Gospel according to the Hebrews in which the words occur, ' Simon, fli Joanne, facilius e.st camelum intrare per foramen acus quani divitem in regnum cielorum ' (cf. Hil- genfeld, Evang. secundum Ilcbrmos, pp. 16, 25), a passage, however, which has no place in the Greek text. Further, a cursive MS (Alatt. Mk ) of the 9th rentury (Tisch. Not. Cod. Sin p. 58) has
JOHN THE BAPTIST
JOHN THE BAPTIST
677
four marginal glosses, in wliich tA loiiSaiK6v [sc. tiay- ffKiou] is referred to. One of tliese agrees witli a Iragtiient quoted by Jerome from the Gospel accord- iitq to the Hehreivs, so tliat it appears tliat these scholia repro<luce nmtter from tliat Gospel. On Mt 16" (Mapiuva) there is the note: rb tovoaiKbv vli '\iiiiuvov (see Handmann, Das Jlebriierevang., 'Texte n. Untersuch.,' v. pp. 65, 85). There is sutiicient evidence, therefore, that John was found in the GosjkI according to the Hebrews as the name of the apostle's father.
In Mt 16" the father's name is given as Jona.s — ^t/iMv Bapiwya.' In the LXX we find that not only is ijrii' represented in B by "lui'd in 2 K 25-^ ami by 'luifif in Jer 47 (40)'', but even |:ni.T (1 Ch 26^) is repre.sented in B by 'lui-os, in A bj' 'Iwi-di' ; cf. 1 Ch 12" ('ludi'), Ezr 8'^ Neh G'*, 1 Es 9', Jer 43 (50)* (K*). There is ground, therefore, for the con- clusion in the case in question that 'luyas is a contraction of 'Iud;'ijs (so Keim, Geschickte Jesu von Na:arn, ii. p. 213 [iii. p. 201, Eng. tr.]; see esp. Lightfoot, On a Fresh Revision, p. 159 n.).
It is possible, however, that we have here an instance of a double name. Such double names were not uncommon ; see Zunz, ' Namen der Juden,' in his Gesammclte Schri/ten, ii. p. 15, who among instances of double Hebrew or Aramaic names adduces Jochanan-Joscph {Gittin, f. 34i). More common were the cases in which to a Hebrew or Aramaic name was added a Greek or Roman name — the latter being often chosen so as to make an assonance with the former. Familiar instances are Saull'aulus (see Doissmann, Bibclstudien, p. 181 fl'.), Joseph-Justus (Ac 1^). It seems there- furo not imiio.ssible that the name of St. Peter's father v/a.s Juna-Jochanan or Jona-Jo/uinnes. The latter name was so common (see e.g. the Index to Josephus, or Pape, Wbrterbuch) that it must have been familiar to Gentiles (cf. inscription at Ancyra, CIG 4045), and in intercourse with them would have something of the convenience of a Greek or Koman name.
A curious specimen of the harmonizing expedient Is found in a note of the Paris MSS. Keg. 1780, 1026, n^Tpoj KQ.i' \vbp4a.i aSeXtpoi, iK iraTpbs 'Iwfd, fi-V^pb^ 'lucLffa, or (as it is otherwise read) iK iraTpbs'ladi'i'ov, ItriTpbt 'lufas (see Lightfoot, ubi supra).
F. H. Chase.
JOHN THE BAPTIST {'luivyr,i i BairTiffT/js).—
1. Sources of Information. U. The Facts of John's Life and Ministry. Iii. John's Work and Teaching. tv. John's ligation to Christ.
L SotmcKS.— In regard to John the Baptist we have practically no sources of first-hand informa- tion outside the NT besides the passage in .Josephus {Ant. XVlll. V. 2), referred to by E\is. [J/E i. 11). The fullest account is that of St. Luke, witli which that of St. Matthew agrees closely, so far a.s the time after the beginning of his public ministrj' is concerned. St. fliark's notices are very brief. The Fourth Gospel seems to ditl'er from the others in recording only the ' witness' of .John the Baptist after our Lord's baptism, while Mt and Lk give his ^)n)phetic teaching be/ore that event. The relation of the Fourth Gospel to the others, in this connexion, has been made the subject of ejiecial monographs, such as that of Bois-souaa, mentioned at the end of this article.
ii. LlFiOANii Ml.visTHV. — John the Baptist was the son of Zacharia-s and Elisabeth. The latter was 'of the daughters of Aaron' (l,k 1"), while Zacharia.H belonged to the course of Abiali (wb. sec), one of the sons of Eleazar, who gave his name to the ei^htli of the twenty-four courses into which the priests were divided. His priestly de-sient on both
* In the IJCX of Jonah the ooine la declined— 'U>ar, laiai. l».i (4«).
sides brings into stronger contrast the prophetic character of his work. "We cannot determine exactly either the time or the place of his birth. Dates varying from B.C. 6 to B.C. 3 have been assigned to it, and Lk l" would lead us to infer that it was three months before that of our Lord. In regard to the place, it is argued that Zacharias must have lived in one of the priestly towns ; but it is possible to prove that priests often lived else- where. It is still more arbitrary to pick out one of the priestly towns and fix on Hebron (Othon, Lex. linhbin. 324). Nor is there sufficient evidence for reading Juttah in Lk 1*", though this place, which lay a little S. of Hebron, is mentioned (Jos 15" 21'") as a priestly towTi. A tradition, restiu"; on the evidence of the Russian abbot Daniel (c. A.D. 1113), who quotes as his authority a monk of St. Sabas (Didon, Life of Christ, Eng. tr. App. D), fixes the residence of Zacharias at 'Ain harim, a village to the N.W. of Bethlehem. We cannot go behind the vague statement of St. Luke, who mentions (1™) 'a city of Judah in the hill country.' Of John's early life and training St. Luke, our sole authority, tells us very little. It is summed up in the two verses which state that ' the hand of the Lord was with him ' (1*), and that ' the child grew and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his showing unto Israel' (1*"). To these may be added the words of the angel Gabriel (Lk 1'°), 'He .shall drink no wine nor strong drink, and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb.'