The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 1 — Section 113

must go further, ond any that in no cnse can we suppose that he preserved totidem verbis tho whole of the discourso or conversations. The interview with Nicodemus lasted longer thnn five minutes; the debate in the fifth chapter more than ten minntes; tho sharp controversies of eh. vi.-x. can only be given in outline. Doubtless the salient points were preserved in each case, the ideas and words that left the deepest impression on the writer's memory were recited; but the putting together of the whole, the brilliant dra.mntic scenes of cbs. vi.-viii., record the gist of lengthened and animated controversy. The sublime converse in the upper chamber must have been curtailed 1tnd arranged so as to conserve the vital elements of this unique teaching. No critic ca.n escape from a certain subjective clement in the representation. Even if we could unreservedly accept the theory of Hug, Diodati, and Roberts, that onr Lord spake the Greek tongue in Galilee, or to Pilate, or when in presence of the Greeks, yet it is difficult to suppose that the Baptist spake Greek, that the conversation with Nicodemus or in the upper chnmber was not carried on in the familiar vernacular. In the extent, therefore, that our Lord used Aramaic at all, the evangelist must have translated into his own Hellenistic dialect the Aramaic words. This circumstance is enough to explain & large amount of sameness in the Gospel, even in reporting the ministry and teaching either of John or Jesus. The synoptic Gospels do, without much doubt, reveal the existence of an oral or written Greek nucleus from which, while supplementing it by special details, their authors drew their main material. Now, the writer of this Gospel acted independently of that source, and drew more immediately upon bis own special memories and the ideas which he had himself widely diffused by his preaching before he penned the Gospel. The question arises-Is there any distinction to be perceived between the Greek diction used by John in the composition of his Gospel and of his Epistles, and that which, by some sure instinct of reverence and deep memory, he has uaed when recording the words and discourses of our Lord? Numerous tables prepared for me by the Rev. William Henry Beckett, of Stabbing, reveal some facts which are worthy of special attenlion. I regret that I have not space to present them in extenso, and hope that he may be induced to publish them, with the important conclusions deducible from them. List A, as below, shows that more than a hundred and forty-five words are put by the evangelist into the lips of our Lord, but never used by himself; of which thirty- eight are found in the synoptic records of our Lord's words, a.nd of which fourteen are peculiar to the Johannine writings. List B shows the expansion of the same investigation, where the dominance of a certain phraseology in the words of our Lord is contrasted with the use of the same language by the evangelist elsewhere, in narrative portions and in the Epistles. List C enumerates the phrases which are peculiar to the utterances of our Lord in the ~'ourth Gospel. They are nine in number, of which the most remarkable are the reduplicated 'A,,.~11, d,,_~", which occurs twenty-five times; 'E-yw .i,,_, six times; 'E-yw .:,,_, 6 thirteen times. List D contains nearly five hundred words (a not inconsiderable vocabulary) which are used by the writer when pursuing his narrative or recording the words of others, not our Lord's, or developing in hortatory form his own persons.I conceptions of doctrine or duty. Of course, much is necessarily ccmmon to the whole diction, but the facts here adduced demonstrate a distinct character in our Lord's speech, which did not pass over into the style of the beloved disciple, nnd a large element of personal style adopted by himself, which, nevertheless, he never attributed to the Lord. This, I submit, cannot be the result of accident, and is best explained by recognizing the existence of the distinct nucleus of historic and reported speech. LisT A.- Worda found only in discourses and sayings aUn"buted to our Lord by St. John. 1 il-yllAA1it"', eh. v. 36; viii. 56. A-yu!("', eh. x. 36; xvii. 17, 19; I M11.tt. xxiii.18, 19 of the gold and the girt; does not occur used in the Lord's Prayer, elsewhere in the Gospek Matthew and Luke, and in B. A-yo111l(o,,.11i, eh. xviii. 36. 1 The letter J indiootes that the word ia peouliar to the Fourth Gospel; S, that the word la confined, in the synoptic Gospela, to the limgimge of our Lord. cxxlv INTRODUOTION TO