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 it seems to have just that imaginative cast which makes the Greek Liturgies, like so much else that is Greek, stand midway between the East and West; and because it apparently refers to St. John's Gospel. "Jesus! Thou who hast woven this coronal with Thy plaiting, who hast blended these many flowers into the flower of Thy presence, not blown through by the winds of any storm; Thou who hast scattered thickly abroad the seed of these words of Thine"--(_Acta Johannis_, 17).
[87] Apoc. xxi. 19, 20.
[88] 1 John i. 6, cf. John iii. 21. In the LXX. the phrase is only found once, and is then applied to God: αληθειαν εποιησας (Neh. ix. 33). It is characteristic of St. John's style that _doing a lie_ is found in Apoc. xxi. 27, xxii. 15.
[89] Apoc. xxii. 8.
[90] 1 John v. 18.
[91] Ibid. 19.
[92] ἡκει, "has come,--and is here."--Ibid. 20.
[93] _S. Joann. Chrysost., in Johan._, Homil. iii., Tom. viii., 25, 36, Edit. Migne.
[94] Huther, while rejecting with all impartial critics the interpolation (1 John v. 7), writes thus: "when we embrace in one survey the contents of the Epistle as a whole, it is certainly easy to _adapt the conception_ of the three Heavenly witnesses to one place after another in the document. But it does not follow that the mention of it just here would be in its right place." (_Handbuch über der drei Briefe des Johannes._ Dr. J. E. Huther.)
[95] 1 John ii. 20.
[96] 1 John i. 7, iii. 3.
[97] 1 John ii. 6.
[98] "Imitate not that which is evil, but that which is good" (3 John 12). A comparison of this verse with John xxi. 24 would lead to the supposition that the writer of the letter is quoting the Gospel, and assumes an intimate knowledge of it on the part of Caius. See Discourse XVII. Part ii. of this vol.
[99] See note A at the end of this discourse.
[100] 1 John iv. 9.
[101] απεσταλκεν.
[102] απεστειλεν.
[103] 1 John iv. 20.
[104] 1 John iv. 16.
[105] πεπιστευκαμεν την αγαπην, 1 John iv. 16.
[106] For the aor. conj. in this place as distinguished from the pres. conj. cf. John v. 20, 23, vi. 28, 29, 30. Professor Westcott's refined scholarship corrects the error of many commentators, "that the Apostle is simply warning us not to draw encouragement for license from the doctrine of forgiveness." The tense is decisive against this, the thought is of the single _act_ not of the _state_.
[107] εαν τις ἁμαρτη, 1 John ii. 1.
[108] _In Epist. Johann._, Tract. I.
[109] 1 John ii. 12, is, of course, an important exception.
[110] 1 John iii. 19, 20.
[111] See Prof. Westcott's valuable note on 1 John v. 15. The very things literally asked for would be τα αιτηθεντα, not τα αιτηματα.
[112] 2 John 11.
[113] 3 John 10.
[114] _Mart. Ignat._, i. _S. Hieron, de Script. Eccles._, xvii.
[115] ὁ λεγων, 1 John ii. 4, 6, 9.
[116] _Ignat. Epist. ad Ephes._, xv., cf. 1 John ii. 14, iv. 9, 17, iii. 2.
[117] _S. Ignat. Epist. ad Philad._, iv.; cf. _Epist. ad Smyrn._, vii.; _Epist. ad Ephes._, xx.
[118] The most elaborate passage in the Ignatian remains is probably this. "Your Presbytery is fitted together harmoniously with the Bishop as chords with the cithara. Hereby in your symphonious love Jesus Christ is sung in concord. Taking your part man by man become one choir, that being harmoniously accordant in your like-mindedness, having received in unity the chromatic music of God (χρωμα Θεου λαβοντες), ye may sing with one voice through Jesus Christ unto the Father."--_Epist. ad Ephes._, iv. The same image is differently applied, _Epist. ad Philad._, i.