The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 1 — Section 33

problem&tical reference, though not impossible (p. 274; see e.lso Westcott on the Ce.non, p. 211; e.nd 'Introduction to the Gospel,' xxxii.). Davidson does not e.dmit e.ny resemble.nee. (4) The so-rolled SEooNn EPISTLE OF CLEMENT. The recent discovery of Drycnnioe (see Bishop Lightfoot'e edition,• Apostolic Fathers,' vol. i.) proves this document to be the "e.ncient homily of e.n unknown author," about the year A.D. 140 at the latest, but it betrays no positive acquaintance with the writings of either Paul or John, yet there are interesting traces of the Gospel. That in c. xvii. is very precarious, and turns simply on rii is, "Thou wast he;" but reminds Lightfoot of John viii. 24 and xiii. 19. But in o. ix. there is a stronger reference, " If Christ the Lord who saved us, being first spirit, then became flesh (fyu,fro a-dpU, and so called us; in like manner iu this flesh we shall receive our reward; let us therefore love one another," This reminds us of John i. 14 and of the spirit of the valedictory discourse (see also c. iii.). "We through him have known the Father of truth" (cf. John i. 18; xiv. 9). (5) The EPISTLES OF IGNATIUS, Of course, the vast question of the authenticity of the lgnatian Epistles cannot here be axe.mined further than to sa.v that, after the publication of the Syriac translation (edited by Cureton), criticism for a while settled into the conviction that the three epistles-to the Romans, to Polycarp, and Ephesians, of which we possess in Syriac apparently the shortest version-are the sole portions which represent the authentic correspondence of the martyred Father on his way from Antioch to Rome ; that the Vossian shorter Greek form of the seven epistles are, like the still longer form of the thirteen epistles which long went under the same name, spurious additions to the original text. Many of the 'lubingen critics, however, rejected even the Cnretonia.n Syriac, as well as both the shorter and longer forms of the Greek epistles. But since Zahn's work, 'Ignatius von Antiochien,' Lightfoot's article on "The Ignatian Letters," Contemporary Review (1877), and the exhaustive treatment of the authenticity of the middle form of the epistles,·.by Bishop Lightfoot, 'Apostolic Fathers,' voL ii., it is becoming more clear to candid minds that the Syriac translation is nothing but an extract from the seven epistles for purposes of edification, that a complete Syrian text existed in the fourth century, and that it had been translated into the Armenian language from the Syriac in the sixth century. Petermann published (1849) this Armenian version, corresponding with the three Curetonian, but containing all seven Vossian, and even the six spurious ones as well. It would be wrong to place absolute dependence upon these seven, or even the three in their shortest form, because it is more than probable that even they have been manipulated in the direction of an ecclesiastical system, certainly profoundly dissimilar from that in Clement of Rome, or the pastoral Epistles of St. Paul. Dr. Lightfoot shows that the Martyr recognizes and enforces the distinction between presbyter and bishop in Asia minor, but reveals the fact that, both in the Philippian and the Roman Church, the distinction on which he elsewhere insists so much had not established itself. Still, they are immensely valuable in every way, if they represent the thought of a writer who cannot have been martyred later than A.D. 116 in Trajan's time, and must have been contemporary with the aged apostle himself. , There are many references and quotations of the kind that, though loosely made in those days, reveal the antecedent existence of the Gospel. I choose the more remark- able-that to • Magnesians,' c. 8. 2 : "There is one God, who manifested himself through 'l11a-oi,s Xpurros, his Son, who is his Ao-yos, proceeding from l•;/4 "-a term showing how Gnosticism had already made its appearance-" who in all respects was well pleasing to him that sent him" (eh. viiL 29). Volumes have been written on this one word ~ occurring in the Ignatian Letters. The old and common tex:t is, " One, God who h.a,s manifested hi1Ill18lf by Jesus Christ, his Son, who is his [eternal) Word, [not) proceeding from [l•~J silence, and who in all things pleased him who sent him." This has the appearance of a reply to the Valentinian speculation with reference to "silence • as the source of the Logos, and hence has been regarded as proof of the late origin of the whole epistle. It has been definitely proved that the mysterious term is much older than Valentinus, and was much used in the first century. Bishop Lightfoot h.a.s endeavoured to establish a different form of the text, as given above, and appears to solve the difficulty by showing that the veritable Ignatius had a certain leaning to some of the pre-Valentinia.n speculations, which were sufficiently rife. On ejther !  THFl GOSPEL ACCORDING 'IO wr . .JOHN. xxxvii