Expositor's Bible: The Epistles of St. John

Footnote_31_31

Bengel, on Acts xix. 19, 20, finds a reference to manuscripts of some of the synoptical Gospels and of the Epistles in 2 Tim. iv. 13, and conjectures that, after St. Paul's martyrdom, Timothy carried them with him to Ephesus.

Footnote_32_32

Renan's curious theory that Rom. xvi. 1-16 is a sheet of the Epistle to the Ephesians accidentally misplaced, rests upon a supposed prevalence of Ephesian names in the case of those who are greeted. Archdeacon Gifford's refutation, and his solution of an unquestionable difficulty, seems entirely satisfactory. (Speaker's Commentary, in loc., vol. iii., New Testament.)

Footnote_33_33

It has become usual to say that the Epistle does not advert to John iii. or John vi. To us it seems that every mention of the Birth of God is a reference to John iii. (1 John ii. 23, iii. 9, iv. 7, v. 1-4.) The word αιμα occurs once only in the fourth Gospel outside the sixth chapter (xix. 34; for i. 13 belongs to physiology). Four times we find it in that chapter – vi. 53, 54, 55, 56. Each mention of the "Blood" in connection with our Lord does advert to John vi.

Footnote_34_34

The masc. part. οι μαρτυρουντες is surely very remarkable with the three neuters (το πνευμα, το ὑδωρ, το αιμα) 1 John v. 7, 8.

Footnote_35_35

1 John i. 7, v. 6, 8.

Footnote_36_36

See note A. at the end of this Discourse, which shows that there are, in truth, four such summaries.

Footnote_37_37

ὁ ακηκοαμεν.

Footnote_38_38

ὁ εωρακαμεν τοις οφθαλμοις ἡμων.

Footnote_39_39

John xx. 20.

Footnote_40_40

ὁ εθεασαμεθα, 1 John i. 1. The same word is used in John i. 14.

Footnote_41_41

John xix. 27 would express this in the most palpable form. But it is constantly understood through the Gospel. The tenacity of Doketic error is evident from the fact that Chrysostom, preaching at Antioch, speaks of it as a popular error in his day. A little later, orthodox ears were somewhat offended by some beautiful lines of a Greek sacred poet, too little known among us, who combines in a singular degree Roman gravity with Greek grace. St. Romanus (A.D. 491) represents our Lord as saying of the sinful woman who became a penitent,

Footnote_42_42

1 John i. 2. The Life with the Father = John i. 1, 14. The Life manifested = John i. 14 to end.

Footnote_43_43

The A.V. (1 John v. 6-12) obscures this by a too great sensitiveness to monotony. The language of the verses is varied unfortunately by "bear record" (ver. 7), "hath testified" (ver. 9), "believeth not the record" (ver. 10), "this is the record" (ver. 11).

Footnote_44_44

1 John ii. 2-29, iii. 7, iv. 3, v. 20.

Footnote_45_45

John xv. 26.

Footnote_46_46

John xiv., xv., xvi., Cf. vii. 39. The witness of the Spirit in the Apostolic ministry will be found John xx. 22.

Footnote_47_47

John i. 19.

Footnote_48_48

John i. 16, 31, 33.

Footnote_49_49

John ii. 9, iv. 46.

Footnote_50_50

John iii. 5.

Footnote_51_51

John iv. 5, 7, 11, 12, v. 1, 8, vi. 19, vii. 35, 37, ix. 7, xiii. 1, 14, xix. 34, xxi. 1, 8. In the other great Johannic book water is constantly mentioned. Apoc. vii. 7, xiv. 7, xvi. 5, xxi. 6, xxii. 1, xxii. 17. (Cf. the το ὑδωρ, Acts x. 47.)

Footnote_52_52

John i. 19, 29, 32, 34, 35, 36, 41, 45, 47, xix. 27.

Footnote_53_53

John xv. 27.

Footnote_54_54

John iii. 2. The Baptist's final witness (iii. 25, 33, iv. 39, 42, v. 15, vi. 68, 69, vii. 46, xix. 4, 6). Note, too, the accentuation of the idea of witness (John v. 31, 39). It is to be regretted that the R.V. also has sometimes obscured this important term by substituting a different English word, e. g., "the word of the woman who testified" (John iv. 39).

Footnote_55_55

John viii. 18, xii. 28.

Footnote_56_56

Ibid. viii. 17, 18.

Footnote_57_57

Ibid. xv. 26.

Footnote_58_58

Ibid. v. 39, 46, xix. 35, 36, 37.

Footnote_59_59

Ibid. v. 36.

Footnote_60_60

This sixth witness (1 John v. 10) exactly answers to John xx. 30, 31.

Footnote_61_61

ὁ πιστευων εις τον υιον, κτλ (v. 10). The construction is different in the words which immediately follow (ὁ μη πιστευων τω θεγ), not even giving Him credence, not believing Him, much less believing on Him.

Footnote_62_62

The view here advocated of the relation of the Epistle to the Gospel of St. John, and of the brief but complete analytical synopsis in the opening words of the Epistle, appears to us to represent the earliest known interpretation as given by the author of the famous fragment of the Muratorian Canon, the first catalogue of the books of the N. T. (written between the middle and close of the second century). After his statement of the circumstances which led to the composition of the fourth Gospel, and an assertion of the perfect internal unity of the Evangelical narratives, the author of the fragment proceeds. "What wonder then if John brings forward each matter, point by point, with such consecutive order (tam constanter singula), even in his Epistles saying, when he comes to write in his own person (dicens in semetipso), 'what we have seen with our eyes, and heard with our ears, and our hands have handled, these things have we written.' For thus, in orderly arrangement and consecutive language he professes himself not only an eye-witness, but a hearer, and yet further a writer of the wonderful things of the Lord." [So we understand the writer. "Sic enim non solum visorem, sed et auditorem, sed et scriptorem omnium mirabilium Domini, per ordinem profitetur." The fragment, with copious annotations, may be found in Reliquæ Sacræ, Routh, Tom. i., 394, 434.]

Footnote_63_63

For whatever reason, four classical terms (if we may so call them) of the Christian religion are excluded, or nearly excluded, from the Gospel of St. John, and from its companion document. Church, gospel, repentance, occur nowhere. Grace only once (John i. 14; see, however, 2 John 3; Apoc. i. 4; xxii. 21), faith as a substantive only once. (1 John v. 4, but in Apoc. ii. 13-19; xiii. 10; xiv. 123.)

Footnote_64_64

ἡν δε νυξ. John xiii. 30.

Footnote_65_65

John xix. 5.

Footnote_66_66

Canon. Murator. (apud Routh., Reliq. Sacræ, Tom. i., 394).

Footnote_67_67

εν τοπω ἡσυχω λεγομενω καταπαυσις.

Footnote_68_68

This passage is translated from the Greek text of the manuscript of Patmos, attributed to Prochorus, as given by M. Guérin. (Description de l'Isle de Patmos, pp. 25-29.)

Footnote_69_69

"Proprium est credentis ut cum assensu cogitet." "The intellect of him who believes assents to the thing believed, not because he sees that thing either in itself or by logical reference to first self-evident principles; but because it is so far convinced by Divine authority as to assent to things which it does not see, and on account of the dominance of the will in setting the intellect in motion." This sentence is taken from a passage of Aquinas which appears to be of great and permanent value. Summa Theolog. 2a, 2æ quæst. i. art. 4. quæst. v. art. 2.

Footnote_70_70

Acts xx. 30.

Footnote_71_71

τας βεβηλους κενοφωνιας, και αντιθεσεις της ψευδωνυμου γνωσεως. 1 Tim. vi. 20. The "antitheses" may either touch with slight sarcasm upon pompous pretensions to scientific logical method; or may denote the really self-contradictory character of these elaborate compositions; or again, their polemical opposition to the Christian creed.

Footnote_72_72

μυθοις και γενεαλογιαις απεραντοις. 1 Tim. i. 3, 4.

Footnote_73_73

Irenæus quotes 1 Tim. i. 4, and interprets it of the Gnostic 'æons.' Adv. Hæres., i. Proœm.

Footnote_74_74

Few phenomena of criticism are more unaccountable than the desire to evade any acknowledgment of the historical existence of these singular heresies. Not long after St. John's death, Polycarp, in writing to the Philippians, quotes 1 John iv. 3, and proceeds to show that doketism had consummated its work down to the last fibres of the root of the creed, by two negations – no resurrection of the body, no judgment. (Polycarp, Epist. ad Philip., vii.) Ignatius twice deals with the Doketæ at length. To the Trallians he delivers what may be called an antidoketic creed, concluding in the tone of one who was wounded by what he was daily hearing. "Be deaf then when any man speaks unto you without Jesus Christ, who is of Mary, who truly was born, truly suffered under Pontius Pilate, truly was crucified and died, truly also was raised from the dead. But if some who are unbelieving say that He suffered apparently, as if in vision, being visionary themselves, why am I a prisoner? why do I choose to fight with wild beasts?" (Ignat., Ep. ad Trall., iv. x.) The play upon the name doketæ cannot be mistaken (λεγουσιν το δοκειν πεπονθεναι αυτον, αυτοι οντες το δοκειν). Ignatius writes to another Church – "What profited it me if one praiseth me but blasphemeth my Lord, not confessing that He bears true human flesh. They abstain from Eucharist and prayer, because they confess not that the Eucharist is flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ." (Ep. ad Smyrn., v. vi. vii.)

Footnote_75_75

The elder Mr. Mill, however, appears to have seriously leaned to this as a conceivable solution of the contradictory phenomena of existence.

Footnote_76_76

Life vol. ii., 359, 360.

Footnote_77_77

Much use has here been made of a truly remarkable article in the Spectator, Jan. 31st, 1885.

Footnote_78_78

2 Cor. v. 13-15.

Footnote_79_79

John i. 43.

Footnote_80_80

1 John iv. 19.

Footnote_81_81

1 John ii. 3.

Footnote_82_82

1 John iii. 4, v. 17.

Footnote_83_83

Every one who reads Greek should refer to the magnificent passage, S. Joann. Chrysos., in Joann., Homil. ii. 4.

Footnote_84_84

1 John iv. 2; 2 John v. 7. See notes on the passages.

Footnote_85_85

Psalm lviii. 18.

Footnote_86_86

John vi. 53.

Footnote_87_87

Apoc. xxi. 19, 20.

Footnote_88_88

1 John i. 6, cf. John iii. 21. In the LXX. the phrase is only found once, and is then applied to God: αληθειαν εποιησας (Neh. ix. 33). It is characteristic of St. John's style that doing a lie is found in Apoc. xxi. 27, xxii. 15.

Footnote_89_89

Apoc. xxii. 8.

Footnote_90_90

1 John v. 18.

Footnote_91_91

Ibid. 19.

Footnote_92_92

ἡκει, "has come, – and is here." – Ibid. 20.

Footnote_93_93

S. Joann. Chrysost., in Johan., Homil. iii., Tom. viii., 25, 36, Edit. Migne.

Footnote_94_94

Huther, while rejecting with all impartial critics the interpolation (1 John v. 7), writes thus: "when we embrace in one survey the contents of the Epistle as a whole, it is certainly easy to adapt the conception of the three Heavenly witnesses to one place after another in the document. But it does not follow that the mention of it just here would be in its right place." (Handbuch über der drei Briefe des Johannes. Dr. J. E. Huther.)

Footnote_95_95

1 John ii. 20.

Footnote_96_96

1 John i. 7, iii. 3.

Footnote_97_97

1 John ii. 6.

Footnote_98_98

"Imitate not that which is evil, but that which is good" (3 John 12). A comparison of this verse with John xxi. 24 would lead to the supposition that the writer of the letter is quoting the Gospel, and assumes an intimate knowledge of it on the part of Caius. See Discourse XVII. Part ii. of this vol.

Footnote_99_99

See note A at the end of this discourse.

Footnote_100_100

1 John iv. 9.

Footnote_101_101

απεσταλκεν.

Footnote_102_102

απεστειλεν.

Footnote_103_103

1 John iv. 20.

Footnote_104_104

1 John iv. 16.

Footnote_105_105

πεπιστευκαμεν την αγαπην, 1 John iv. 16.

Footnote_106_106

For the aor. conj. in this place as distinguished from the pres. conj. cf. John v. 20, 23, vi. 28, 29, 30. Professor Westcott's refined scholarship corrects the error of many commentators, "that the Apostle is simply warning us not to draw encouragement for license from the doctrine of forgiveness." The tense is decisive against this, the thought is of the single act not of the state.

Footnote_107_107

εαν τις ἁμαρτη, 1 John ii. 1.

Footnote_108_108

In Epist. Johann., Tract. I.

Footnote_109_109

1 John ii. 12, is, of course, an important exception.

Footnote_110_110

1 John iii. 19, 20.

Footnote_111_111

See Prof. Westcott's valuable note on 1 John v. 15. The very things literally asked for would be τα αιτηθεντα, not τα αιτηματα.

Footnote_112_112

2 John 11.

Footnote_113_113

3 John 10.

Footnote_114_114

Mart. Ignat., i. S. Hieron, de Script. Eccles., xvii.

Footnote_115_115

ὁ λεγων, 1 John ii. 4, 6, 9.

Footnote_116_116

Ignat. Epist. ad Ephes., xv., cf. 1 John ii. 14, iv. 9, 17, iii. 2.

Footnote_117_117

S. Ignat. Epist. ad Philad., iv.; cf. Epist. ad Smyrn., vii.; Epist. ad Ephes., xx.

Footnote_118_118

The most elaborate passage in the Ignatian remains is probably this. "Your Presbytery is fitted together harmoniously with the Bishop as chords with the cithara. Hereby in your symphonious love Jesus Christ is sung in concord. Taking your part man by man become one choir, that being harmoniously accordant in your like-mindedness, having received in unity the chromatic music of God (χρωμα Θεου λαβοντες), ye may sing with one voice through Jesus Christ unto the Father." —Epist. ad Ephes., iv. The same image is differently applied, Epist. ad Philad., i.

Footnote_119_119

The story is given by Socrates. (H. E., vi. 8.)

Footnote_120_120

1 John iv. 7, 12.

Footnote_121_121

1 John ii. 6, 9, i. 7-10, ii. 1, 2.

Footnote_122_122

1 John i. 7, ii. 2, iv. 3, 6; 2 John 7-11; 3 John 9, 10.

Footnote_123_123

1 John iii. 19, v. 14, 15, iv. 2, 3, v. 4, 5, 18.

Footnote_124_124

These sentences do not go so far as the mischievous and antiscriptural legend of later ascetic heretics, who marred the beauty and the purpose of the miracle at Cana, by asserting that John was the bridegroom, and that our Lord took him away from his bride. Acta Johannis, XXI. Act. Apost. Apoc., Tisch., 275).

Footnote_125_125

This legend no doubt arose from the promise – "if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them" (Mark xvi. 18).

Footnote_126_126

"Aurum hic de frondibus,Gemmas de silicibus,Fractis de fragminibus,Fecit firmas." —Ibid.

There is something interesting in the persistency of legends about St. John's power over gems, when connected with the passage, flashing all over with the light of precious stones, whose exquisite disposition is the wonder of lapidaries. Apoc. xxi, 18, 22.

Footnote_127_127

See note B at the end of the Discourse.

Footnote_128_128

1 John v. 18.

Footnote_129_129

Ibid. v. 19.

Footnote_130_130

Ibid. v. 20.

Footnote_131_131

Said by Luther of Psalm xxii. 1.