of solecisms arises from the avoidance of idiomatic expres- sions.” *
John’s style in the Gospel and Epistles is marked by simplic- ity and ease. It is plain without elegance, and the diction is comparatively pure so far as words and grammar are con- cerned, but animated with a Hebrew genius. Godet describes the style as characterized by “a childlike simplicity and trans- parent depth, a holy melancholy, and a vivacity not less holy ; above all, the sweetness of a pure and gentle love.”
The vocabulary is meagre. The same expressions continu- ally recur. Thus we find ¢ds (light), 23 times ; S0&a, So&dLec- Jax (glory, to be glorified), 42; Sw, Sp (life, to live), 52; pap- Tupeiv, paptupia (to witness, testimony), 47 ; yuv@oxevv (to know), 55 ; xoopos (world), 78; muctevew (to believe), 98 ; épyov (work), 23 ; dvowa (name), and adndJeca (truth), each 25 ; onpetov (sign), ive
The meagreness of the vocabulary, however, is compen- sated by its richness. The few constantly recurring words are symbols of fundamental and eternal ideas. “They are not purely abstract notions, but powerful spiritual realities, which may be studied under a multitude of aspects. If the author has only a few terms in his vocabulary, these terms may be compared to pieces of gold with which great lords make pay- ment ” (Godet).
A similar sameness is apparent in the constructions. These are usually simple, plain, and direct. The sentences are short and are co-ordinated, following each other by a kind of paral- lelism as in Hebrew poetry. Thus where other writers would employ particles of logical connection, he uses the simple con- nective xai (and). For example in ch. i. 10, John means to say that though Jesus was in the world, ye¢ the world knew
* It is, of course, foreign to the scope of this work to discuss this, wits other Johannine questions, critically. Such a discussion must assume the reader's acquaintance with Greek. The discussion concerning the differences in language will be found in Professor Milligan’s excellent Lectures on the Revelation of St. John, Appendix II.