'l'here appears to ue ecarcely an idea or uU,erance for which some basis mi"ht not be foun<l in the utterances of the synoptists, O!' in the obvious and intense ~n- victione of the Apoetle Paul and those to whom he wrote. The point really raised is- Are these ideas presented to us in their primitive form as they veritably fell from the lips of Jesus? or have they been fashioned by the apostle, who mentally assimilated them, a1;1d new-wrought them out ?f the synoptic narrativ:e and the current theology of the ee.rhest Church? Buch quest10ns need not have ansen out of malice prepense.l There must be, there is, e. subtle aroma investingl alike both narrative and discourse which suggests a strongly subjective element in the arrangement of the material, and in the full-orbed splendour with which ideas, which undoubtedly existed when Paul wrote his Epistles, appear to have flashed from the consciousness of Jesus, and to have taken a sharply defined shape in bis words. Criticism under the teaching of evolution, or the law of continuity, may be compelled to admit the prevalence of the ideas, but it cannot rest content with the obvious explanation of their origin which the Gospel suggests. Consequently, it is supposed the author, rather than the Christ, originated the form of the great discourses. The following remarks are offered. (1) A large portion of the synoptic narrative is equally charged with a God-consciousness on the part of Jesus which is absolutely unique. In many cases, as we have seen, the language of the synoptists approaches that of the Johannine Gospel, and bis personal assumptions are equally dogmatic and august. (2) The fourth evangelist presupposes and supplements the earlier Gospels, not feeling called upon to review and recite the anthropological and ethical teachings of Galilee, but to dwell on those utterances of the Lord which revealed (theologically) the eternal basis on which the worship of his holy Name was justified. (3) "The synoptists, in the history as in the doctrine of Jesus, present the concrete phenomenon in time; John presents the eternity that has appeared in time. The synoptists do not deny the transcendental, and even allow it to be conjectured that infinite contents dwell in the concrete phenomenon; but they take their point of view on the side of the phenomenon. John does..not deny, but lays emphatic stress upon, the fact that the • eternal life' entered historic actuality, and became a phenomenon striking the senses, that 'the Word became flesh ; ' but be takes his point of view on the side of the infinity which forms the contents of the phenomenon" (Luthardt, lib. cit., p. 230). If we can believe that " the Word did become flesh" in Jesus, we cannot feel, or need not feel, that there is any psychological impossibility in the utterance by our Lord of the ipsissima verba that John attributed to him. (4) A subjective element cannot be denied, so far as the choice of subject-matter is concerned, and even the order, the sym- metry, the dramatic grandeur, and monotony of Divine substratum and ethical appeal; but it appears to us infinitely impossible that the subjectivity went so far as to create the form and substance of the Johannine Gospel. It is conceivable that the author, in: the longer discourses, may have introduced germane thoughts and words which belonged to different occasions-as it is commonly assumed that Matthew and Luke have also done (Matt. x., xiii., xxiii.; Luke xii., xv., xvi.)-11nd he may, moreover, have selected those more notable and impressive teach- ings which justified and created in bis own mind the sublime theodicy of the prologue ; but it is inconceivable that the author of the Gospel invented, rather than recited, marvellous utterances of the Christ, that he appealed to bis imagination rather than to his memory for the significant portraiture of him who was pre-eminently "Grace and Truth,n "the Truth," "the Life," and" Light of the world.n The Jews were accustomed, far more than we can now readily appreciate, to depend on the memory of the spoken words of their most honoured teachers. For hundreds of years the Mishnah and large portions of the Gemaras and of the Midrash on the sacred hooks must have been verbally retained in the memory of reverential disciples, and consequently the whole of these discourses would make a comparatively small demand 1 A defeat in Dr. Sa.J.mon'e most excellent 'Introduction to the New Testament' is tbe.t he repeatedly attributes the recent hostility to the Fourth Gospel to an arriere-pensee of the following kind: " If it be genuine and historical, then the supernatural order must be admitted, and the Divinity of the Son of God is proved. And, seeing that suoh conclusions e.s these can be drawn from its historicity, the Johannine authorship must be traversed al w.l h11zarde, and repudiated either by fair or by falBe mesne." cxxvlil INTRODUCTION TO
o~ the powers of st)c-h a disciple as we imagine St. John to have been. The prolonged discourse on the mght of the Passion may easily have been indelibly Impressed upon ~he mind of the more susceptible hearers. 'l'be history of the Ohurch BS it enacted J~elf at Jerus_al~':1 nnd el_sewhe_re would perpetually bring to light and tend to empha- size the specml mstruct1ons gl\'en on that memorable nicrht so eminently adapted to prepare their minds, not only for the great catl\Strophe, b~t for such scenes BS Pente- cost, and for the numerous conflicts which arose as the little baud went forth to face the world, and to become rapi?ly that illustrious society which spread from the upper chamber m Jerusalem to Antioch and Ephesus, to Babylon in the East, and to the metropolis of the world. If Jesus can be_ believed to be the_ "Word made ~esh,"the Head ofa new humanity, the Door opened mto heaven, the Giver of eternal life, the Dispenser and Baptizer with the Holy Ghost; if he were one with the Father, and continued after his departure to rule, teach, and save his disciples, and to blend them into a sacred and unique fellow- ship ;-it is not in the least degree abnormal that he should have uttered every one of these august and solemn words.