JOHN, GOSPEL OF
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•Jmost absent froin Eji]!. and Apocalypse. The same Gr. tr. of Zee 1'2'", dillerent from LXX, is found in tlie Gospel, 19**"", and A])oc. 1'. These corio- spondences ini",'lit begreatlj' niuUipIied. Weissaud Walking give lists of more than 100 words or phrases common to the three documents. The im- pression made upon some opponents of the authen- ticity of the Gosjiel is that the 2nd cent, writer who is supposed to have written it, studied the vocabulary, etc., of the Apoc, with the intention of producing the impression of Johannino author- ship. This hypothesis neutralizes the hypothesis ba.sed upon their conspicuous di.ssimilarity.
(4) The plan, sco/ie, and structure o/ the two boo/cs. — ^lany insist on the extreme contrast between tlie two writings in these resj)ects, e.g. tlie absence in theGo.ipel of climax, the quiet How of the stream of narrative and discourse, the movement from Jems, to Galilee and back to the metropolis, with nearly imperceptible chronology, the lack of imaginative background, the omi-sion of trans- figuration and ascension, and only the quiet gathering intensity of conviction that the victory over evil must lie for all time with the Man of infinite capacity, boundless sympathy, and measure- less allliction — so that at leiii;tli the most sceptical of the Twelve admits His supreme claims. On the other hand, 'tlie revelation of Jesus Christ to His servant John' is an impressive series of tableaux, arranged in climacteric form, and with verj' marked septenary arrangements. After the first visions, come the letters to the Seven Churches, a special aspect and title of the Lord being presented in each. Next we have the vision of the seven seals of the Divine Hook ; the sejiarate issues of the opening of the six seals ; the inter- mezzo of the four angels and other angel ; and then the new septenary group of trumpets intro- duced by the loosing of the seventh seal. Further, after the twofold revelation of the temple and the beasts, come the seven last plagues following on the pouring out of the seven vials. Then apjiear the closing contrasts of liabjlon and the New Jerus. ; the victory of the Logos of God over all His foes, the destruction of the Beast, the False Prophet, and the Evil One for ever and ever j and the renewal of all things in the light of the Lord. This scries of magnificent images seems strangely diverse from the meditative, gentle flow of the river of life, of which we catch lucent gleams in the Fourth Gosjiel.
An examination of the Gospel reveals, however, a dee[)ly pondered plan. One thing readily a|)pears : the seiiteuary arrangement. Seven great signs precede the Passion. These constitute a climax, and a revelation not only of divine realities but of the mind of the writer. The first sign (Jn 2") shows the mastery of the Word made flesh over the material of nature; the second (4") His mas- tery over one of the most cruel troubles of human nature, even when the Lord was not visibly pre- sent with the .sufl'erer ; the third (5') shows His power to restore the forces which have been lost by sin ; the fourth and fifth (6"- ") are great signs of power and pity, both on earth and sea, with mastery over the forces of nature ; the sixth (9'") is a double proof of His being the 'Light of the World'; the .seventh (11") is a concrete conflic*. with the moat terrible evil of humanity, and a ncfory over it. In addition to this, a singular parallel to the throbbing suspense or postponement of climax in the Apoc, e.if. at the loosing of the seventh seal, at the sounding of the seventh trumpet, and in the intercalated scenes before the final vicloiy and glory, may be traced also in the structure of the tJospel. 'I bus the ' hour' of the highest mani- festation seems always at hiinil, but is again and again iiO('ti>oned. W ithout euumcraling details.
cf. Jn 2* 4«'=» 5=»=» 7" 8=» 12", foUowed by nc« and wonderful departures. In the midst of the valedictory discourse, ' Arise, let us go hence, seems to strike the hour ; but even now the moment comes for still higher teaching and the Eternal Prayer. This overlapping and renewal of 8us])ense in striking interlineation are continued throughout the story of the Passion to the con- fession of Thomas and the hyperbole of the closing verses. Observe, further, the presence in both documents of prologue, rehearsal, conflict, victory, epilogue, which curiously correspond with each other and which almost bind them together. In each alike the prologue is an anticipation of the successive arguments of the visions or oracles, as the case may be. As the letters to the Seven Churches give a compendious forecast of the seals, trumpets, and vials, so Gosp. chs. ii.-iv. or v. give most vivid rehearsals of characteristic specimens of the Lord's method and teaching. The sublime kej'-word of the Gospel, ' The Word became flesh,' rises over the entire Go.spel as ' an awful rosi' of dawn,' just as the vision of the Di^-ine Chri>i in Kev 1 dominates every subsequent paragraph in the Apocalypse.
(.5) This leads ns to a brief treatment of the reU''ious teaching of these two documents. Many modern critics, Strauss, llaur, H.arnack, Wendt, Weis.s, Kitschl, put into forcible antithesis the earlier and later Johannine teaching. There is no necessity for these distinctions. Gebhardt and others have given all the CTOlence needed to prove that no two books of Holy Scripture are so coin- cident in tcachin" e%'en to special peculiarities, as the Gospel and Apocalypse. In one, the author is calmly meditating upon the concrete facts, the peerless life, the transcendent teaching, the unirjue ending on earth of a ministry which was beginning to exert widespread spiritual influence upon individuals, and to procluce political and even cosmic ellei^ts upon luim.anity and the world. In the other, the vision of the place which Jesus had taken in the spliere of providential rule flashes upon him. In the one, he is sweetl}' dreaming over the potent, procreant fact ; in the other, fancy and even grotesque imagination forecast the future. The visions of Heb. seers, by their nature, follow one another, but do not grow from less to more — they are architectural rather than spontaneous. Kememberin^ these dillerent con- ditions, it is nothing short of unique that the ideas of the tiro documents should have been so similar, if not coincident. The same writer w.as able to see more deeply than any other into the heart of Jesus, and was also permitted to see more accur- atelj' than other apocjilyptic writers into the fer- ments wrought in liunianity by the leaven of the kingdom. [Gebhardt's Doct. nf the Apoc, Eng. tr. pp. 305, 424 ; Keynolds' Intruil. in Pulpit Cumin. pp. Ixxx-lxxxv].