(2) The service of love. The rehabibtation of, and solemn charge given to, Simon Peter, 2116-19.
(3) Special manifestation to waiting love, 2120-23.
(4) Identification of the author by subsequent editors with the disciple whom Jesus loved, 21***-.
By whomsoever this marvellous document waa constructed, it is unique in literature. The con- centration and supernatural fulness of the subject- matter — sentence within sentence, hint within hint — reveals worlds of reality with the prodigality wherewith Nature surprises us. An immensely difficult task has been successfully finished by the simplest moans ; the Divine-Human Christ of tlie Ep. to Hebrews and the Christ of Ro 3 and 8 and 1 Co 1^ and 10-15, of Eph and Col, nay, the mysterious personality of Rev 1-3, is not incom- patible with the preaclier of the Sermon and the parables of the Sower, the Drag - net, and the Prodigal Son ; and here He lives before us, and there is no inconsistency. The Supreme Man re- veals Himself, still without comparison or analogy or rival, among the sons of men. He stands absolutely alone, yet infinitely near, the one who sums up but transcends all pnysical and physio- logical law. All attempts to account for the qocu- ment upon principles other than those we have contended for, every hypothesis made to bring it down to the middle of tne 2nd cent., and there to find an occasion or an author, must be pronounced to have failed, and we fall back upon the mem'<ile«
,10HN, GOSPEL OF
JOHN, GOSPEL OF
72\
and iDve of the first generation or t^yo after this «eat revelation had been made. It is bound by fX whU cannot be broken, to the history, the treoKraphy. the religion of the day. but tran- Bcen^s L yet^all mere human history or known ways of nature. VII LiTKRATUBit.-The translation by O. B. GrcKory of
wrilt«n on the ponilive and negative aide of thi. prolonfecd
£s5n'^" u ^c->^ts" t^'^j;^^^^
Pn ^^ , t? i" Mos-er-e Comm. on Jn ha« furnished an ample
«.-:,ri,i Those lists were coiniileted in lts<»- »aiKina iiu.ii^y 5^'"li<:(«rM have rarried oritVal and classilled enumeration to ^.WrS A digest of the most noteworthy literature and tnorh-making works is all that can be here ap(*nded. ••^van^n (Ipswich, 1792) with insufflcient evidence gave^^^^
bo a rising spirit of free-thinking among the E"K''"'' "'"r'.ul in earlier part of the century touching the • dissonance of the tour evangelisU,' etc.. and suggested that the '■""■■th "as 'he work of a ASist of the 2nd cent. Evanson waa rephed to by r^Ml?^r thlnJosenh Priestlev andby James Simpson, and again ^Sar^elnivrfn defence of his thesis. In 1^90 >ickennann JSSledtho genuineness of the Gospels on the gfo^nd of the
tSese views 1798^ Discussions prevailed between Schmidt and fel^nT'ti the original '--^-Hf",. «>l5- »' .'^'^^e'S v'S^a^r ^^ok^Khi'^c^fhrgl ra"nX^mat\"cirrltoThif nr.e„^^^
G5!:,',:°i^ ,! a'nd JtlTe'i^wrt'h^li.cover,. of a ^■-U.m of C.i.,r,;h
VOL, II. — a6
the one hand and Pauline universalism on the other, were in- ensifled bv Marcionitic anti-Judaisni on ""■ °"-= »'?,« """i,,"","; tenistic revolt against the Episcopate on tlie other In the writings of liauT the further speculation was haiu.r.lcrt tl^t towards the close of the 2n<l cent, a tendency towards co- op n on began ; that the Epp to Col, Eph.Ti and l^t He and the Bk of Ac, were tabrirjted to bnng about a fusion of the hostile parties': that this .>ospel was a part of the sysUm of forgeries bv which the Cath. Church was onginattd. It u Bumiosed that an unknown writer cunningly siig^-ested that he wTuie behoved friend of Jesus and knew "■« ■n"'"!,''?, ' • His belief in the theocracy, that ■ salvation was »' 'he J'ws but that Uod was 'a spirit'; that among Greeks i^ »•'> " •!£»» te buried com of wheat would bring forth much fruit. pii» extraordinary writer was ready to Justify the Mon am.t 0 rSlTz^tion of the grace of the Paraclete, and also, by a dehcata Jl^efof modincalions of the Synoptic tradilioii, to nmk« I'f uassover of the Jews reach its climax at Oie hour of the cnici- E- and he sought, moreover, to ""k the Chnst with the AOro'l of a popular philosophy. Every hne J-f the Gospel wa. searched for coiifinnition of some portion of the hypothesis I'ldXree element were cleverly =°."'rived W sprea^ out the occasion for the publication of the spiritual Gospel. The strife b^ween the Eas em and WesUm Churches as to the ceehration „l the Easter festival had broken out, and it was a masterslroke t show totoiie of the Jerus. apostles ^vho ^ tr'»l'J'"™N.L'n" I^rt«l to have followed the Jew sh celebration on the 14th N isan. rhe^fpi^eding the crucifixion, had actually si^t orth the identilicati'^ of the cmciaxion of Jesus with the sacnUce of the ,S aUamb. Baur fixed i.D. 170 as the date when this "tonish- fng (eat Tforgery, concealed polemic, and spiritual mamfesW, n™t saw the light The question of this dale w.is discussed with ereatTumIn Ebrard (Introd. to Comm.), Thiersch, Hilgenfeld Cwo sS in numerous articles in German journa s, with iSkmaS^reptos from Baur. who die4 in 18(i0, kept the con-
'TI"Le°lTady\hoCrea»on to believe that the date assigned bv liiur viz A D. 170, is quite untenable, and that step by step
theX^lSice it the Oosp"' T"^.''^ '","?,'i'''nif o Talen'^^ forty years and pushed bact to the time of Ba^ilides or \alen