7S7f. 1125 173).
Again, while the word ' Antichrist ' (1 Jn 2'"', etc.) is taken from Jewish apocalyptic, the idea is com- pletely 'spiritualized' — so much so that com- mentators have found it most difficult to be certain what the writer himself intended to signify by the term. Broadly, it appears here to designate the spirit of evil in its most dangerous form, and, in particular, the danger which came from perverted ideas concerning the Person of our Lord ( 1 Jn 2-^ 42^-, 2 Jn ''). Throughout, the writer makes us feel that, while he uses Jewish phraseology, he is not enslaved to it. He realizes the folly of idle speculations regarding the future (cf. Jn 21^^-) ; he feels the need for reverence and restraint ; yet he is sure that Heaven will not fall short of our deepest spiritual experiences, nor of the highest ideals we have known — ' Beloved, it is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know that, if he shall be manifested, we shall be like him ; for we shall see him even as he is.'
(c) Apparent paradoxes. — Hence the paradoxical nature of the Johannine eschatology ; the writer feels that the whole truth is beyond the grasp of the human mind, and he sets forth first one aspect, then another, prepared to appear inconsistent rather than one-sided. Our Lord's First Coming, e.g., was not for the Judgment (Jn 3^^), yet it was a judgment ( Jn 3^^ 9^* 12^') ; the hour of the general resurrection is still to come (Jn S-^'- 6*"), yet the resurrection is a fact of Christian experience in the past ( Jn 5^'- ^), and this latter is the more important of the two truths (Jn IP^-ss).
2. The place of the sacraments in the Johannine doctrine of salvation. — Schweitzer has recently maintained that in the Fourth Gospel the sacra- ments are regarded as the normal channel by which eternal life is bestowed on the believer [Paul and
his Interpreters, pp. 200-203). 'The elements of the Lord's Supper, . . . being the flesh and blood of the Son of Man, possess the capacity of being vehicles of the Spirit. As a combination of matter and Spirit which can be communicated to the corporeity of men, they execute judgment. The elect can in the sacrament l^ecome partakers of that spiritual substance, and can thus be prepared for the resurrection' (p. 200). And Christ, we are told, taught ' that in the future, water, in association with the Spirit, would be necessary to life and blessedness. . . . Jesus came into the world to introduce the era of effectual sacraments' (p. 202 f.). This theory, if true, would introduce into the scheme of Johannine eschatology a factor which has commonly been supposed to be of later origin in the history of the Church.
Certain passages may seem to lend themselves conveniently to this theory : e.g. Jn 3^ G^'"^**, 1 Jn 5^, and the use in the Johannine Epistles of phraseology suggestive of the Mysteries (e.g. xpt<T/,ta in 1 Jn 2-''- '^ ; ayvl^o} in 1 Jn 3^) ; but they are far from conclusive. On the other hand, we find many passages where the gift of ' eternal life ' is described simply as a free gift received by faith, without any mention of a sacramental medium (Jn I'^f. 336 O'*') ; and the idea that eternal life is normally bestowed by sacraments seems distinctly contrary to such passages as Jn 3^ : ' The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the voice there- of, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth ; so is every one that is born of the Spirit ' ; or Jn 6^^ : ' the words that I speak imto you are spirit and are life ' (cf. 1 Jn 1^ ' the word of life '). In these passages the gift of eternal life is con- veyed through the influence of Glwist's, personality upon the human mind, either by the spoken word or by some unseen method, not through a visible ceremonial act. And in the Johannine Epistles ' eternal life ' has a strong ethical content (1 Jn 3'*) ; it is ' in Christ ' (1 Jn S^^- ^o ; cf. 2-^), but no reference is made in this connexion to the sacraments.
Under the circumstances, it seems that Schweitz- er's theory of ' eschatological sacraments ' in the Fourth Gospel is not supported by the evidence.
3. The later history of the Johannine type of early Christian eschatology.— Just as there is no real parallel in the sub-apostolic literature to the Johannine books of the NT, so there is no real parallel to the Johannine eschatology — at least, none worthy to be compared with it for width of outlook and depth of feeling. Generally, the traditional eschatology is interpreted very literally, even prosaically. But the emphasis on the spiritual significance of eschatology recurs wherever the writers show signs of deep meditation on the problems of life. In the Pauline Epistles we shall meet with a similar tendency in places. In the Odes of Solomon it is very noticeable (see e.g. Odes iii. and xv.), and in the Alexandrian Fathers an allegorical interpretation of eschatology is found [e.g. Clement, Exhort, ad Gentes, 9), which, though widely different from the Johannine doctrine, re- sembles it in so far as it seeks to go behind the purely chronological aspect of eschatology.