vant, the vine. The same sayings occur, and verbal and other coincidences are frequent.*
The inner coincidences are still more striking. John’s por- trait of Jesus, for instance, is, in many particulars, unique. It is fuller, more subtile, and indicates a closer intimacy. John deals with His person, where Matthew and Luke deal with His offices. In Matthew He is the fulfiller of the law; in John Ie foreshadows the grander and richer economy of the Spirit. Nevertheless, John’s Christ is the same figure which appears in the lines of the Synoptists. In both He is the teacher, the meek and lowly one, the worker of miracles of power and mercy. In both He is plain of speech toward those who would become His disciples, the hater of hypocrisy, the reader of men’s hearts.
Similar coincidences appear in the portraits of prominent disciples, notably of Peter. Though appearing in some scenes not noted by the Synoptists, the Peter of their Gospels is easily recognized in the portrait by his fellow disciple. He is the same combination of impulsive boldness and cowardice; of af- fectionateness and brusqueness ; as quickly responsive to love as to anger ; as prompt to leap into the lake at the sight of his Lord, as to smite Malchus.
The inner coincidences are also to be discerned in John’s as- sumption of facts recorded by the other evangelists, so that the coincidence sometimes appears in what he does not record. Giving no details of the birth of Christ, like Matthew and Luke, he tells us that the Word became flesh. The childhood, with its subjection to parental authority appears in the story of the wedding at Cana. While the Synoptists dwell upon the event of the incarnation, he dwells upon the doctrine. The sacraments of Baptism and of the Eucharist, the institution of which he does not relate, are assumed as familiar in the con- versation with Nicodemus and in the discourse at Capernaum. The ascension is not described, but is predicted in Christ’s words to Mary. Similarly, the work of Jesus in Galilee, which
“ For a list of these coincidences see Westcott’s Introduction to his Com. mentary on the Gospel, in the Speaker's Commentary.