The Expositor’s Bible
Edited by
Rev. W. Robertson Nicoll, M.A., LL.D.
Crown 8vo, 7s. 6d. Each Volume
The New Testament
ST. MATTHEW. Rev. J. Monro Gibson, D.D.
ST. MARK. Very Rev. Dean Chadwick, D.D.
ST. LUKE. Rev. Henry Burton, M.A.
ST. JOHN. Rev. Professor Marcus Dods, D.D. 2 Vols.
THE ACTS. Rev. Professor G. T. Stokes, D.D. 2 Vols.
ROMANS. Rev. H. C. G. Moule, M.A., D.D.
1 CORINTHIANS. Rev. Professor Marcus Dods, D.D.
2 CORINTHIANS. Rev. James Denney, D.D.
GALATIANS. Rev. Professor G. G. Findlay, B.A.
EPHESIANS. By the same Author.
PHILIPPIANS. Rev. Principal Rainy, D.D.
COLOSSIANS. Rev. A. Maclaren, D.D.
THESSALONIANS. Rev. J. Denney, D.D.
PASTORAL EPISTLES. Rev. A. Plummer, D.D.
HEBREWS. Rev. Principal T. C. Edwards, D.D.
SS. JAMES AND JUDE. Rev. A. Plummer, D.D.
EPISTLES OF ST. PETER. Rev. Professor Lumby, D.D.
EPISTLES OF ST. JOHN. The Right Rev. W. Alexander, D.D.
REVELATION. Rev. Professor W. Milligan, D.D.
THE CLERICAL LIBRARY. Complete in Twelve Volumes.
Crown 8vo, cloth, 6s. each.
1. Three Hundred Outlines of Sermons on the New Testament.
2. Outlines of Sermons on the Old Testament.
3. Pulpit Prayers. By Eminent Preachers.
4. Outline Sermons to Children. With numerous Anecdotes.
5. Anecdotes Illustrative of New Testament Texts.
6. Expository Sermons and Outlines on the Old Testament.
7. Expository Sermons on the New Testament.
8. Platform Aids.
9. New Outlines of Sermons on the New Testament.
By Eminent Preachers. Hitherto unpublished.
10. Anecdotes Illustrative of the Old Testament Texts.
11. New Outlines of Sermons on the Old Testament
By Eminent Preachers. Hitherto unpublished.
12. Outlines of Sermons for Special Occasions.
ST. PAUL THE TRAVELLER AND THE ROMAN
CITIZEN. By W. M. Ramsay, D.C.L., LL.D., Professor
of Humanity, Aberdeen; Author of “The Church in the
Roman Empire,” etc. Second Thousand. 8vo, cloth, with
Map, 10s. 6d.
“Professor Ramsay brings not only his great experience as a traveller and archæologist, but the resources of an ingenious mind, and a lively style. The book is, like everything Professor Ramsay does, extraordinarily alive. It shows everywhere personal learning, personal impression; it has the sharp touch of the traveller and the eye-witness.”—Times.
“His book is at once a critical reconstruction of the narrative in ‘Acts.’ A new reading of the life of the Apostle of the Gentiles, a fresh explanation of the relation between first-century Christianity and the social and political conditions amid which it developed, and an announcement of the discovery of an historical star of the first magnitude. The light thrown by Professor Ramsay on the career of the Apostle Paul is often startling in its freshness. There is, indeed, scarcely a single incident in the Apostle’s life upon which he has not something new to say.”—Glasgow Herald.
THE CHURCH IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE BEFORE
A.D. 170. By W. M. Ramsay, M.A., D.C.L., Professor of
Humanity in the University of Aberdeen. Fourth Edition.
With Maps and Illustrations, 8vo, cloth, 12s.
“This volume is the most important contribution to the study of early Church history which has bean published in this country since the great work of Bishop Lightfoot on the Apostolic fathers. It is, too, unless our memory fails us, without a rival in any foreign country.”—Guardian.
THE HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE HOLY
LAND. By George Adam Smith, D.D., Professor of
Hebrew and Old Testament Exegesis, Free Church College,
Glasgow. With Six Maps, specially prepared. Fifth Thousand.
8vo, cloth, 15s.
“Professor Smith is well equipped at all points for this work. He is abreast of the latest findings of Scripture exegesis, and of geographical survey, and of archæological exploration; and he has himself travelled widely over Palestine. The value of the work is incalculably increased by the series of geographical maps, the first of the kind representing the whole lift and the of the land by gradations of colour.”—Scotsman.
“A very noteworthy contribution to the study of sacred history, based upon the three indispensable conditions of personal acquaintance with the land, a study of the explorations, discoveries, and decipherments... and the employment of the results of Biblical criticism.”—Times.
THE ASCENT OF MAN. By Henry Drummond.
Twenty-first Thousand. Net, 7s. 6d.
“Worked out with characteristic ardour and courage. The technical quality of the book is of a high order. In none of his works is Mr. Drummond’s literary skill more strikingly manifested. The style—metaphorical, allusive, picturesque—has even more of the writer’s wonted grace and facility, and his command of analogy has never been employed with better effect, and productive of more varied and suggestive illustrations.”—Saturday Review.
“We have no hesitation in saying that this is one of the most able and interesting books on the relations which exist between natural science and spiritual life that has appeared. Mr. Drummond writes perfect English; his ideas are fresh, and expressed with admirable felicity. His book is one to fertilise the mind, to open it to fresh fields of thought, and to stimulate its activity.”—Literary Churchman.
“Professor Drummond is a clear and accurate observer, and as he has had a sound scientific training, and has a real interest in the human side of African life, he is able to present us with pictures of a distinctness and originality not often met with in books of African travel.”—Times.
“The discourses are of a high order; their author is evidently a man thoroughly in earnest, pulsing with a life which he is eager to communicate. Fresh, fervent, and eloquent, full of interesting information and suggestive statement, they must have produced a deep impression when they were delivered, though for their true appreciation they require quiet, careful, and thoughtful perusal.”
—Scotsman.
“He puts the main broad arguments in favour of belief in God and Christianity with admirable lucidity, and generally in a terse and telling fashion. The book is well calculated to serve the purpose with which it has been written, and contains in a handy form a great many modern arguments and evidences which can be got at only by a rather extended course of reading.”—Glasgow Herald.
“Sir William Dawson, in his exalted position as one of the ablest of our modern scientific teachers, is a devout believer in Holy Scripture, and a fearless student of evidence. In these chapters he stands resolutely by the validity of the earlier books of the Hebrew Scriptures.... We need scarcely say that these chapters are enriched by a great deal of special knowledge, both scientific and antiquarian.”
—Methodist Recorder.
“It is full of valuable and trustworthy information, and copiously illustrated with maps and drawings, thus constituting a useful part of a Biblical student’s equipment.”—Church Times.
“All that Sir J. William Dawson writes is interesting and forcible, but this, his last work, is by far the most forcible that he has written.”—Athenæum.
“It will be especially acceptable to those who refuse to accept the high estimate of man’s antiquity which modern science has brought forth, for they will find here their case stated with much ability, and illustrated by a wealth of material drawn from sources not sufficiently known in this country.”—Athenæum.
“Any one who will study Dr. Dawson’s three recent volumes will not only gain much trustworthy information on matters of romantic interest, but will make the acquaintance of a writer who is as vigorous as he is modest, and as modest as he is vigorous; who knows how to throw the air of genius around even the minuter facts and details of philosophical inquiry; and who combines a true scientific independence of thought with a reverent faith in the Scriptures and the Gospel.”—London Quarterly Review.
“A geological treatise has rarely, if ever, been put into a more readable and popular form. General readers, who have been puzzled and perplexed by elementary text-books, and who have found little satisfaction in the vague generalisation and unmethodical picturesqueness of other popular expositions, will obtain in these pages a clear, trustworthy, and sufficiently panoramic version of the story of the earth and man.”—Glasgow Herald.
“There is, we think, a sense in which the new volume is not merely an addition but a supplement to its predecessor. In ‘Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush’ were passages, and indeed whole stories, which were masterstrokes or masterpieces of a fine poignant pathos, or a dry yet genial humour, but the former preponderated, and gave tone and expression to the book. It may be doubted whether the humorous quality of that Scots canniness which stands out most conspicuously in a difficult negotiation has ever been rendered with happier fineness of observation or intimacy of touch than in the opening study, ‘A Triumph in Diplomacy.’”—Daily Chronicle.
“As an artist in Scotch character of the sort that is found at its best in country villages he has no superior among his contemporaries, ambitious and able as several of these are.”—Spectator.
“In ‘Strangers at Lisconnel’ Miss Barlow returns to her early love, and has produced a second series of ‘Irish Idylls’ which are in every way as delightful as the sketches of peasant life that at one bound brought her into the very front rank of delineators of Irish character. The sketches possess in a high degree all the charm, simplicity, and tenderness of the original series, while revealing the same fidelity to nature as well as the rich humour and pathos characteristic of the people which Miss Barlow so admirably describes.”—Scotsman.
“Only the nature of a genuine artist, combined with the skill of a master of language, could lend so powerful and vivid an interest to the section of barren Irish bogland where the scenes are laid, and only one who had a tender interest and affection for the people could weave such a truthful yet fascinating web of romance around their simple lives.”—Derry Standard.
“We are not surprised that this new and dainty edition, in one handsome volume, is demanded.... Some of the most exquisite verses in this book are by singers whose praise is certainly not in all the churches, but there is, nevertheless, a deep and impressive unison in all the music.”—The Speaker.
“We think that this is the very best of the many good sketches of Scottish peasant life which we have ever read”
—Standard.
“This remarkable little book. We follow the homely record with an interest which the most sensational drama could not surpass.”—Blackwood’s Magazine.
“In ‘London Idylls’ W. J. Dawson has written a book that will be treasured. The poem, in which the author seeks to express the indefinable poetry of London, could only have been written by one very nearly attuned to the spirit, to the loves and passions, joys and sorrows of the world’s greatest centre of romance. Of the idylls themselves little may be written to convey any real sense of their charm. The themes on which they turn are such as only London could have supplied. Than the first exquisitely rendered story—infinitely simple and tender—it is not too much to say that nothing more heartsearching has been written since the historian of Joe, the crossing-sweeper, laid down his pen. Dickens himself might have wept over it.”—Dundee Advertiser.
“A peculiar charm undoubtedly characterises these letters. They were written for members of Mrs. Paton’s family and personal friends, without any thought of publication; and their literary grace is evidently natural and of the uncommon kind. They abound in homely touches and in hearty humour, while the unrestrained personal and domestic allusions afford valuable illustrations of a side of missionary life the existence of which is sometimes strangely ignored, and the value of which to the work is by some utterly denied.”—Church Missionary Intelligencer.
“One of the best autobiographies we have ever read. It is candour itself, and bears the impress of truth on every page. It would take a very incorrigible Agnostic all his time not to fall in love with Dr. Paton and his noble work.”—Daily Chronicle.
THE STORY OF JOHN G. PATON. Told for Young
Folks. By the Rev. James Paton, B.A. With Forty-five
Full-page Illustrations by J. Finnemore. With Map. Fifteenth
Thousand. 8vo, cloth, 5s.
“In the record of thirty years’ good work amongst the South Sea cannibals, we have before us one of those missionary enterprises which read almost more strangely than fiction itself.... There are enough hairbreadth escapes and deeds of cool, if unostentatious, courage in these pages to stock half-a-dozen ordinary books, and the forty-five graphic illustrations add much to the attraction of the text.”—Daily Telegraph.
“M. Paul Sabatier is one of those men of letters, unhappily rare in France, in whom ripe learning and fine critical sagacity are not divorced from a reasonable Christian faith. Trained in the ‘Faculté de Théologie Protestante de Paris,’ he has grown into the most brilliant scholar of his Church. No commentary on the Didache, for instance, is more illuminating than the edition of that treasure-trove which he published in 1885. And now he has given us a ‘Life of St. Francis’ which may stand on the same shelf with Villari’s ‘Life of Savonarola.’”—The Expositor.
“We may cordially commend this translation. It is thoroughly well done, fluent and accurate, and nowhere betraying by idiomatic faultiness or even stiffness, that insufficient mastery of one or the other language which mars too many versions.”—Glasgow Herald.
THE OLD TESTAMENT.
| Vol. | I. | Genesis. |
| Vol. | II. | Exodus. |
| Vol. | III. | Leviticus—Numbers xxvi.. |
| Vol. | IV. | Numbers xxvi.—Deuteronomy. |
| Vol. | V. | Joshua—Judges v. |
| Vol. | VI. | Judges vi.—1 Samuel xviii. |
| Vol. | VII. | 1 Samuel xviii.—1 Kings xiii. |
| Vol. | VIII. | 1 Kings xv.—1 Chronicles ix. |
| Vol. | IX. | 1 Chronicles x.—2 Chronicles xx. |
| Vol. | X. | 2 Chronicles xxi.—Esther. |
| Vol. | XI. | The Book of Job. |
| Vol. | XII. | The Book of Psalms. |
| Vol. | XIII. | The Book of Proverbs. |
| Vol. | XIV. | Ecclesiastes—Isaiah xxvi. |
| Vol. | XV. | Isaiah xxvii.—Jeremiah xix. |
| Vol. | XVI. | Jeremiah xx.—Daniel. |
| Vol. | XVII. | Hosea—Malachi. |
THE NEW TESTAMENT.
| Vol. | XVIII. | St. Matthew. |
| Vol. | XIX. | ″ ″ |
| Vol. | XX. | St. Mark and St. Luke. |
| Vol. | XXI. | St. John. |
| Vol. | XXII. | The Acts of the Apostles. |
| Vol. | XXIII. | ″ ″ ″ |
| Vol. | XXIV. | Romans—Galatians. |
| Vol. | XXV. | Ephesians—Revelation. |
THE UNKNOWN GOD; Or, Inspiration Among Pre-Christian
Races. By C. Loring Brace. In 8vo, cloth, 12s.
“The story tells of a war between the Brownies and the spiders, and will interest a child by the oddity and strangeness (greater than a purely imaginative writer could conceive) of the devices of strategy and warfare to which the spiders resort. The illustrations to the book are partly fanciful, partly true to the nature of spider life.... A story so fresh in its idea, and so well worked out, is sure to please a young reader, and to lend a peculiar attraction to the study of natural history.”—Scotsman.
“Dr. McCook deals with friends of mine—with insects, and particularly ants, to which I have paid special attention. I have much pleasure in bearing testimony to the fidelity and skill which Dr. McCook has devoted to the study of these interesting atoms; and those who read his work may safely depend on the accuracy of what he says.”—From the Introduction by Sir John Lubbock, M.P., D.C.L., F.R.S.
THE VISIONS OF A PROPHET. Studies in Zechariah.
By the Rev. Professor Marcus Dods, M.A., D.D. Third
Thousand. Elegantly bound in cloth, price 1s. 6d.
“Books which are confessedly and designedly ‘improving’ without being dull, are not very common. Such books Dr. Davidson has already proved his capacity to write, and these ‘homely talks’ with young men are not inferior to his previous efforts. Earnest and plain, and strictly adapted to the understanding of the ordinary man, they are never careless or meaningless.”—Academy.
“An excellent present for a youth just going into business or coming up to London. It consists of twenty pithy and practical lectures to young men.”—Record.
“Weighty counsels. Dr. Davidson is remarkably at home in talks with young men. His words glow with an intense earnestness which demands and obtains attention from his readers.”—Sword and Trowel.
“A volume well worthy to rank with his previous works on kindred subjects. Dr. Davidson’s matter and manner are alike excellent. About the former there is no suspicion of what hasty people might call cant, while the latter is serious but not heavy. Dr. Davidson aims at no impossible standard; he is as sympathetic as he is acute, as kind as he is firm.”—Globe.
“For sterling common-sense combined with true spiritual feeling, they have not been surpassed for many a day. The addresses bristle with telling metaphors and illustrations, and the book can be read from cover to cover with profitable interest.”—Literary World.
“Mr. Withrow’s account of the catacombs of Rome is an exceedingly painstaking and thorough-going work, and whether or not the writer may be correct in all his inferences, they have evidently been founded upon diligent information. He could not have very much that was absolutely new to tell on the subject; but as a convenient account of the most remarkable and interesting monuments of primitive Christianity, of those excavations which furnished the persecuted Church with refuges during life and in death, which formed her places of worship in times of peril, and received the remains of martyrs, the present volume is perhaps inferior to none of its predecessors.”—Saturday Review.
THE HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
By George P. Fisher, D.D., LL.D. With Seven Coloured
Maps. New Edition. Fifteenth Thousand. 8vo, 712 pp.,
12s.
“We are sincerely thankful to Dr. Fisher for having collected with so much labour, and sifted with so much clearness, a perfectly overwhelming mass of facts, and we are certain that his book will be frequently referred to by students of Church History, as a trustworthy compendium and outline of the main events in the history of the Church.”—Guardian.
“The book, which we have frequently recommended, is an able defence of both natural and supernatural religion, and forms practically a modern appendix to Butler’s ‘Analogy.’ The work is not merely an ‘apology’; it pursues the attack with considerable vigour, and hence it provides an ample armoury whence to draw weapons for use against the arguments of unbelieving scientists and philosophers.”—Church Times.
“Dr. Stokes’s brilliant lectures.”
—Athenæum.
“His narrative, enlivened by anecdotes, and by information of a most recondite sort, is throughout brimful of interest.”—Academy.
“A beautiful little work, from a pen which has been blessed to many. Each page is headed by a text of Scripture, and following this are illustrative remarks, and words designed to press home the Divine message. In many cases poetical selections complete the helpful page.”—Christian.
DR. J. R. MILLER’S NEW YEAR BOOKLETS.
Suitable for General Circulation.
1. SECRETS OF A HAPPY HOME LIFE. Thirteenth
Thousand. 6d.
“Its counsels, if heeded, will heal many a sore, and cement the bonds of family affection.”—The Christian.
2. THE BLESSING OF CHEERFULNESS. Eleventh
Thousand. 6d.
“It can do nothing but good wherever it penetrates.”—The Record.
Dr. Miller’s “Silent Times” Series
1. MAKING THE MOST OF LIFE. Seventh Edition.
“They contain an abundance of pithy sentiment, and the winning manner in which it is conveyed, together with the tenderness of appeal which underlies all that is said, rivets attention. The many short stories and episodes which give point to the writer’s observations are introduced with much skill and effect.”—Rock.
2. THE EVERY-DAY OF LIFE. Fifth Edition.
“Rich in suggestion and full of truth.”—Dundee Advertiser.
“Dr. Miller very fitly dedicates his new book to ‘those who want to grow better.’ By such his pages will be read with mingled delight and profit, for they are full of apt quotation, striking and abundant illustration, and great knowledge of human nature.”—Literary World.
3. SECRETS OF A BEAUTIFUL LIFE. Third Edition.
“This charming and helpful book.”—Church Times.
“He has a rare and sympathetic spirit, he has also had singularly wide experience in the wants and workings of the human heart, and is singularly gifted with the power of expression and happy illustration.”—Presbyterian.
4. SILENT TIMES. Fifth Edition.
“It overflows with useful and suggestive counsel, illustrated by apt quotation and striking facts.”—Methodist Times.
“The contents of the book well deserve their beautiful setting. Dr. Miller writes both sweetly and tenderly on a great variety of topics germane to the object he has in view. ‘Silent Times’ deserves a welcome, for it is a book of sunbeams.”—Sword and Trowel.
5. WEEK-DAY RELIGION. Fourth Edition.
“A series of bright, sensible, tender, and interesting chapters on just the difficulties which beset all who are trying to be Christians every day.”—Glasgow Herald.
“We do not hesitate to place it in the very front of the little group of volumes which are the best examples of this carefully edited work. It would be pleasant to linger upon this commentary, upon the clearness with which the great evangelical doctrines of the Epistle are explained and enforced, upon the earnestness of its personal appeal, and the charm which often marks its language; but the judicious student of the New Testament will obtain the book for himself.”—Record.
A NEW CHRISTOLOGY.
“For the rest we have little to say that is not in praise of a volume which is modelled somewhat on the lines of Dr. Smiles’ ‘Self-Help.’ There is so much pernicious literature in circulation that it is always a pleasure to meet with books which confront the young ideas with golden deeds. Happily, Mr. Thayer writes with vivacity, and knows how to select the picturesque and salient incidents, and in the majority of instances he has likewise the good sense to let it speak for itself.”—Speaker.
The Theological Educator
A MANUAL OF CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES. By the
Rev. Prebendary C. A. Row, M.A. Thirteenth Thousand.
“A veritable multum in parvo, clear, cogent, and concise, without being sketchy or superficial.”—Saturday Review.
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE TEXTUAL CRITICISM
OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. By the Rev.
Professor B. B. Warfield, D.D. Fifth Thousand.
“A masterly survey of the whole subject.”—Expositor.
A HEBREW GRAMMAR. By the Rev. W. H. Lowe, M.A.
Second Thousand.
“A brief and masterly sketch of the Hebrew grammar.”—Literary Churchman.
A MANUAL OF CHURCH HISTORY. By the Rev.
A. C. Jennings, M.A. In Two Volumes.
Vol. I.—From the First to the Tenth Century. Third
Thousand.
Vol. II.—From the Eleventh to the Nineteenth Century.
Third Thousand.
The Theological Editor-continued
AN EXPOSITION OF THE APOSTLES’ CREED.
By the Rev. J. E. Yonge, M.A. Second Thousand.
“An able treatise.”—Church Times.
THE PRAYER BOOK. By the Rev. Charles Hole, B.A.,
Professor at King’s College, London. Third Thousand.
“It is not overloaded with detail, and yet supplies in an admirably compact shape all essential information.”—British Weekly.
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE NEW TESTAMENT.
By the Rev. Professor Marcus Dods, D.D. Thirteenth
Thousand.
“Dr. Marcus Dods has packed away an immense amount of information in a very small space.”—Methodist Recorder.
THE WRITERS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT: Their
Style and Characteristics. By the Rev. W. H. Simcox, M.A.
Second Thousand.
“One of the choicest productions of English scholarship in recent years.”—Manchester Examiner.
THE LANGUAGE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. By
the Same Author. Third Thousand.
“A book which deserves and will well repay the attention of all students of the New Testament.”—Athenæum.
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE OLD TESTAMENT.
By the Rev. C. H. H. Wright, D.D. Sixth Thousand.
“The work is of brief compass, and covers a vast field of study, but the necessary compression has been done with the skill of one experienced in the needs of students.”—Scotsman.
OUTLINES OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE. By the
Rev. H. C. G. Moule, M.A., D.D., Principal of Ridley Hall,
Cambridge. Thirteenth Thousand.
“A compendium of Christian doctrine of the very highest excellence.”—Sword and Trowel.
THE THEOLOGY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.
By the Rev. Professor Walter F. Adeney, M.A. Third
Thousand.
“The salient points of the subject are for the most part well seized, and simply and effectively presented.”—Methodist Recorder.
EVOLUTION AND CHRISTIANITY. By James Iverach,
D.D., Author of “Is God Knowable?” etc. Fourth Thousand.
“A thoughtfully acute and well-reasoned little book.”—Glasgow Herald.
THE THEOLOGY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. By
the Rev Professor W. H. Bennett, M.A.
The Household Library of Exposition
“There is certainly no better volume on the subject in our language.”
—Glasgow Mail.
“It maintains the level of careful scholarship, critical sagacity, and practical piety on which all the writer’s work stands. The mature and careful expression of his views on matters of such central importance, by one of the most highly and justly respected of living orthodox exegetes, will have great value for the theological student.”—Glasgow Herald.
“These addresses are short, full of force, and effectual in the lessons they convey.... He is no waster of words: he points a truth, in a few brief, incisive phrases, and preaches a sermon in a paragraph. Above all, they are manly in tone, and have the sterling ring of sincerity.”—Dundee Advertiser.
DAVID LIVINGSTONE. The Story of his Life and Labours;
or, The Weaver Boy who became a Missionary. By H. G.
Adams. With Portrait and numerous Illustrations. Seventy-fourth
Thousand. 8vo, cloth, 5s.
A.L.O.E.—A LADY OF ENGLAND; or, Life and Letters
of Charlotte Maria Tucker. By Agnes Giberne. With
Illustrations. Third Thousand. Crown 8vo, gilt top, 7s. 6d.
CHRONICLES OF UGANDA. By the Rev. R. P. Ashe,
M.A., Author of “Two Kings of Uganda.” With Portrait
and Twenty-six Illustrations. Second Thousand. 8vo, cloth,
7s. 6d.
REMINISCENCES OF ANDREW A. BONAR, D.D.
Edited by his Daughter, Marjory Bonar. With Photogravure
Portrait, Fac-simile, and Illustration. Third Thousand.
Crown 8vo, cloth, 6s.
ANDREW A. BONAR, D.D. DIARY & LETTERS.
Transcribed and Edited by his Daughter, Marjory Bonar.
With Portrait. Third Edition. Seventh Thousand. 6s.
LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN CAIRNS, D.D.,
LL.D., Principal of the U. P. College, Edinburgh. By
Alexander R. MacEwen, D.D. With Portrait. Second
Edition. 8vo, cloth, 14s.
CHRIST, THE MORNING STAR, AND OTHER
SERMONS. By John Cairns, D.D., LL.D., Principal of
the U. P. College, Edinburgh. Crown 8vo, cloth, 6s.
GREAT MISSIONARIES. By the Rev. C. C. Creegan,
D.D. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d.
HOLY MEN OF GOD. From St. Augustine to Yesterday.
By the Rev. J. Elder Cumming, D.D. Crown 8vo, cloth, 5s.
EDWARD HOARE, M.A. A Record of His Life based upon
a Brief Autobiography. By the Rev. J. H. Townsend, D.D.,
Vicar of Broadwater Down, Tunbridge Wells. Second Edition.
Crown 8vo, cloth, 5s.
SPIRAL STAIRS; or, The Heavenward Course of the Church
Seasons. Devotional Studies on the Christian Life. By the
same Author. Crown 8vo, 3s. 6d.
THE BOOK OF KOHELETH, commonly called ECCLESIASTES,
considered in Relation to Modern Criticism, and
to the Doctrines of Modern Pessimism, with a Critical and
Grammatical Commentary and a Revised Translation. By the
Rev. C. H. H. Wright, D.D., Ph.D. 8vo, cloth, 12s.
EASTERN CUSTOMS IN BIBLE LANDS. By H. B.
Tristram, LL.D., D.D., F.R.S., Canon of Durham, Author of
“The Great Sahara,” etc. Second Edition. Crown 8vo,
cloth, 5s.
STUDIES IN ORIENTAL SOCIAL LIFE, and Gleams
from the East on the Sacred Page. By the Rev. H. Clay
Trumbull, D.D., Author of “Kadesh-Barnea,” “Teaching
and Teachers,” etc. With Thirty Illustrations from Photographs.
Large crown 8vo, cloth, 6s.
The Expositor’s Bible
Edited by The
Rev. W. Robertson Nicoll, M.A., LL.D.
Separate Volumes, 7/6. Price to subscribers for any single series, 24/- net,
except the Eighth (7 volumes), the subscription price of which is 28/- net.
FIRST SERIES.
Colossians and Philemon. By Alexander Maclaren, D.D.
The Gospel according to St. Mark.
By the Very Rev. G. A. Chadwick, D.D., Dean of Armagh.
The Book of Genesis. By the Rev. Professor Marcus Dods, D.D.
The First Book of Samuel. By Professor W. G. Blaikie, D.D., LL.D.
The Second Book of Samuel. By the same Author.
The Epistle to the Hebrews. By Principal T. C. Edwards, D.D.
SECOND SERIES.
The Epistle to the Galatians. By Professor G. G. Findlay, B.A.
The Pastoral Epistles. By the Rev. A. Plummer, D.D.
The Book of Isaiah i.-xxxix. Vol. I.
By Professor George Adam Smith, D.D.
The Book of Revelation. By Professor W. Milligan, D.D.
The First Epistle to the Corinthians.
By Professor Marcus Dods, D.D.
The Epistles of St. John.
By the Right Rev. W. Alexander, D.D., D.C.L., Lord Bishop of
Derry and Raphoe.
THIRD SERIES.
Judges and Ruth. By the Rev. R. A. Watson, D.D.
The Prophecies of Jeremiah. By the Rev. C. J. Ball, M.A.
The Book of Isaiah. Chaps. xl. to lxvi. Vol. II.
By Professor George Adam Smith, D.D.
The Gospel of St. Matthew. By J. Monro Gibson, D.D.
The Book of Exodus.
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Footnotes:
1 I venture to call attention to the rendering “very.” It enables the translator to mark the important distinction between two words: αληθης, factually true and real, as opposed to that which in point of fact is mendacious; αληθινος, ideally true and real, that which alone realizes the idea imperfectly expressed by something else. This is one of St. John’s favourite words. In regard to αγαπη I have not had the courage of my convictions. The word “charity” seems to me almost providentially preserved for the rendering of that term. It is not without a purpose that ερως is so rigorously excluded from the New Testament. [So also from the Epp. of Ignatius.] The objection that “charity” conveys to ordinary English people the notion of mere material alms is of little weight. If “charity” is sometimes a little metallic, is not “love” sometimes a little maundering? I agree with Canon Evans that the word, strictly speaking, should be always translated “charity” when alone, “love” when in regimen. Yet I have not been bold enough to put “God is charity” for “God is love.”
2 Cary’s Dante, Paradiso, xxv. 117. Stanley’s Sermons and Essays on the Apostolic Age, 242.
3 Apoc. ii. 24.
4 John xiii. 30 cf. 1 John ii, 11.
5 εσκηνωσεν εν ἡμιν.
6 This characteristic of St. John’s style is powerfully expressed by the great hymn-writer of the Latin Church.
“Hebet sensus exors styli;
Stylo scribit tam subtili,
Fide tam catholicâ,
Ne de Verbo salutari
Posset quicquam refragari
Pravitas hæretica.”
Adam of St. Victor, Seq. xxxii.
7 John xii. 20-34, especially ver. 24.
8 Acts i. 13.
9 Acts iii. 4, v. 13, viii. 14.
10 Gal. ii. 9.
11 Acts iii. 4, iv. 13, viii. 14. The singular and interesting manuscript of Patmos (Αι περιοδοι του θεολογου) attributed to St. John’s disciple, Prochorus, seems to recognise that St. John’s chief mission was not that of working miracles. Even in a kind of duel of prodigies between him and the sinister magician of Patmos, the following occurs. “Kynops asked a young man in the multitude where his father then was. ‘My father is dead,’ he replied, ‘he went down yonder in a storm.’ Turning to John, the magician said,—‘Now then, bring up this young man’s father from the dead.’ ‘I have not come here,’ answered the Apostle, ‘to raise the dead, but to deliver the living from their errors.’”
12 Gal. ii. 9; Acts xxi. 17, sqq.
13 John xxi. 7.
14 Ibid., vers. 17, 18, 19.
15 The beginning of old age would account sufficiently for the anticipation of death in 2 Peter i. 13, 14, 15.
16 δοξασει ver. 19. The lifelike shall (not should) is part of the many minute but vivid touches which make the whole of this scene so full of motion and reality—“I go a fishing” (ver. 3); “about two hundred cubits” (ver. 8); the accurate αιγιαλος (ver. 4. See Trench, On Parables, 57; Stanley, Apostolic Age, 135).
17 διορατικωτερος. S. Joann. Chrysost.—Hom. in Joann.
18 Euseb. H. E., iii. 23. See other quotations in Bilson, Government of Christ’s Church, p. 365.
19 Ap. Euseb. H. E., v. 20.
20 Adv. Hæres., lib. iii., ch. 1.
21 ἱερευς το πεταλον πεφορεκως—“Pontifex ejus (sc. Domini) auream laminam in fronte habens.” So translated by S. Hieron. Lib. de Vir. Illust., xlv. The πεταλον is the LXX. rendering of צִיץ, the projecting leaf or plate of radiant gold (Exod. xxviii. 26, xxxix. 30), associated with the “mitre” (Lev. viii. 9). Whether Polycrates speaks literally, or wishes to convey by a metaphor the impression of holiness radiating from St. John’s face, we probably cannot decide.
22 Acts xix. 20, 21. In this description of Ephesus the writer has constantly had in view the passages to which he referred in the Speakers Commentary, N.T., iv., 274, 276. He has also studied M. Renan’s Saint Paul, chap, xii., and the authorities cited in the notes, pp. 329, 350.
23 St. John ii. 2, iv. 14.
24 “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against,” etc. Eph. vi. 12-17.
25 Saint Paul, Renan, 318, 319.
26 For the almost certain reference here to the Chaldean Sybil Sambethe, see Apoc ii. 20, Archdeacon Lee’s note in Speaker’s Commentary, N.T., iv. 527, 534, 535, and Dean Blakesley (art. Thyatira, Dict. of the Bible).
27 1 John iv. 1, 3.
28 1 John ii. 7, ii. 24, iii. 11; 2 John vv. 5, 6. The passage in ii. 24 is a specimen of that simple emphasis, that presentation of a truth or duty under two aspects, which St. John often produces merely by an inversion of the order of the words. “Ye—what ye heard from the beginning let it abide in you. If what from the beginning ye heard abide in you” (ὁ ηκουσατε απ’ αρχης... ὁ απ’ αρχης ηκουσατε). The emphasis in the first clause is upon the fact of their having heard the message; in the second upon this feature of the message—that it was given in the beginning of Christianity amongst them, and kept unchanged until the present time. Cf. εντολη παλαια (ii. 7) with αρχαιος = “of the early Christian time,” in Polycarp, Ep. ad Philipp., i.
29 Acts xviii. 18-21. To these general links connecting our Epistles with Ephesus, a few of less importance, yet not without significance, may be added. (1) The name of Demetrius (3 John 12) is certainly suggestive of the holy city of the earth-mother (Acts xix. 24, 38). Vitruvius assigns the completion of the temple of Ephesus to an architect of the name, and calls him “servus Dianæ.” (2) St. John in his Gospel adopts, as if instinctively, the computation of time which was used in Asia Minor (John iv. 6, xix. 4—Hefel. Martyrium S. Polycarp. xxi.). On the same principle he speaks in the Apocalypse of “day and night” (Apoc. iv. 8, vii. 15, xii. 10, xiv. 11, xx. 10); St. Paul, on the other hand, speaks of “night and day” (1 Tim. v. 5). It is a very real indication of the accuracy of the report of words in the Acts that, while St. Luke himself uses either form indifferently (Luke ii. 37, xviii. 2), St. Paul, as quoted by him, always says “night and day” (Acts xx. 31, xxvi. 7). (3) Is it merely fanciful to conjecture that the unusual αγαθοποιων (3 John 11) may be an allusion to the astrological language in which alone the term is ever used outside a very few instances in the sacred writers? “He only is under a good star, and has beneficent omens for his life.” Balbillus, one of the most famous astrologers of antiquity, the confidant of Nero and Vespasian, was an Ephesian, and almost supreme in Ephesus, not long before St. John’s arrival there. Sueton., Neron., 36.
30 Aïa-so-Louk, a corruption of ἁγιος θεολογος, holy theologian (or ἁγια θεολογου, holy city of the theologian). Some scholars, however, assert that the word is often pronounced and written aiaslyk, with the common Turkish termination lyk. See S. Paul (Renan, 342, note 2).
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.
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.)
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.
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.
35 1 John i. 7, v. 6, 8.
36 See note A. at the end of this Discourse, which shows that there are, in truth, four such summaries.
37 ὁ ακηκοαμεν.
38 ὁ εωρακαμεν τοις οφθαλμοις ἡμων.
39 John xx. 20.
40 ὁ εθεασαμεθα, 1 John i. 1. The same word is used in John i. 14.
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,
την βρεξασαν ιχνη
ἁ ουκ ἑβρεξε βυθος
ψιλοις τοτε τοις δακρυσιν.
“Which with her tears, then pure,
Wetted the feet the sea-depth wetted not.”
(Spicil. Solesmen. Edidit T. B. Pitra, S. Romanus, xvi. 13, Cant. de Passione. 120.)
42 1 John i. 2. The Life with the Father = John i. 1, 14. The Life manifested = John i. 14 to end.
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).
44 1 John ii. 2-29, iii. 7, iv. 3, v. 20.
45 John xv. 26.
46 John xiv., xv., xvi., Cf. vii. 39. The witness of the Spirit in the Apostolic ministry will be found John xx. 22.
47 John i. 19.
48 John i. 16, 31, 33.
49 John ii. 9, iv. 46.
50 John iii. 5.
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.)
52 John i. 19, 29, 32, 34, 35, 36, 41, 45, 47, xix. 27.
53 John xv. 27.
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).
55 John viii. 18, xii. 28.
56 Ibid. viii. 17, 18.
57 Ibid. xv. 26.
58 Ibid. v. 39, 46, xix. 35, 36, 37.
59 Ibid. v. 36.
60 This sixth witness (1 John v. 10) exactly answers to John xx. 30, 31.
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.
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.]
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.)
64 ἡν δε νυξ. John xiii. 30.
65 John xix. 5.
66 Canon. Murator. (apud Routh., Reliq. Sacræ, Tom. i., 394).
67 εν τοπω ἡσυχω λεγομενω καταπαυσις.
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.)
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.
70 Acts xx. 30.
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.
72 μυθοις και γενεαλογιαις απεραντοις. 1 Tim. i. 3, 4.
73 Irenæus quotes 1 Tim. i. 4, and interprets it of the Gnostic ‘æons.’ Adv. Hæres., i. Proœm.
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.)
75 The elder Mr. Mill, however, appears to have seriously leaned to this as a conceivable solution of the contradictory phenomena of existence.
76 Life vol. ii., 359, 360.
77 Much use has here been made of a truly remarkable article in the Spectator, Jan. 31st, 1885.
78 2 Cor. v. 13-15.
79 John i. 43.
80 1 John iv. 19.
81 1 John ii. 3.
82 1 John iii. 4, v. 17.
83 Every one who reads Greek should refer to the magnificent passage, S. Joann. Chrysos., in Joann., Homil. ii. 4.
84 1 John iv. 2; 2 John v. 7. See notes on the passages.
85 Psalm lviii. 18.
86 John vi. 53.
87 Apoc. xxi. 19, 20.
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.
89 Apoc. xxii. 8.
90 1 John v. 18.
91 Ibid. 19.
92 ἡκει, “has come,—and is here.”—Ibid. 20.
93 S. Joann. Chrysost., in Johan., Homil. iii., Tom. viii., 25, 36, Edit. Migne.
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.)
95 1 John ii. 20.
96 1 John i. 7, iii. 3.
97 1 John ii. 6.
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.
[99] See note A at the end of this discourse.
100 1 John iv. 9.
101 απεσταλκεν.
102 απεστειλεν.
103 1 John iv. 20.
104 1 John iv. 16.
105 πεπιστευκαμεν την αγαπην, 1 John iv. 16.
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.
107 εαν τις ἁμαρτη, 1 John ii. 1.
108 In Epist. Johann., Tract. I.
109 1 John ii. 12, is, of course, an important exception.
110 1 John iii. 19, 20.
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.
112 2 John 11.
113 3 John 10.
114 Mart. Ignat., i. S. Hieron, de Script. Eccles., xvii.
115 ὁ λεγων, 1 John ii. 4, 6, 9.
116 Ignat. Epist. ad Ephes., xv., cf. 1 John ii. 14, iv. 9, 17, iii. 2.
117 S. Ignat. Epist. ad Philad., iv.; cf. Epist. ad Smyrn., vii.; Epist. ad Ephes., xx.
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.
119 The story is given by Socrates. (H. E., vi. 8.)
120 1 John iv. 7, 12.
121 1 John ii. 6, 9, i. 7-10, ii. 1, 2.
122 1 John i. 7, ii. 2, iv. 3, 6; 2 John 7-11; 3 John 9, 10.
123 1 John iii. 19, v. 14, 15, iv. 2, 3, v. 4, 5, 18.
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).
125 This legend no doubt arose from the promise—“if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them” (Mark xvi. 18).
“Virus fidens sorbuit.” Adam of St. Victor, Seq. XXXIII.
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.
127 See note B at the end of the Discourse.
128 1 John v. 18.
129 Ibid. v. 19.
130 Ibid. v. 20.
131 Said by Luther of Psalm xxii. 1.
132 See the noble and enthusiastic preface to the washing of the disciples’ feet (John xiii. 1, 2, 3).
133 The phrase probably means the Logos, the Personal “Word who is at once both the Word and the Life.” For the double genitive, the second almost appositional to the first, conf. John ii. 21, xi. 13. This interpretation would seem to be that of Chrysostom. “If then the Word is the Life; and if this Christ who is at once the Word and the Life became flesh; then the Life became flesh.” (In Joan. Evang. v.)
134 Gen. i. 1; Prov. viii. 23; Micah v. 2.
135 Cf. John vi. 36, 40. The word is applied by the angel to the disciples gazing on the Ascension, Acts i. 11. The Transfiguration may be here referred to. Such an incident as that in John vii. 37 attests a vivid delighted remembrance of the Saviour’s very attitude.
136 Luke xxiv. 39; John xx. 27.
137 Gospel i. 1-14; 1 John i. 1; Apoc. i. 9.
138 “He hath a name written which no one knoweth but He Himself,—and His name is called The Word of God” (Apoc. xix. 12, 13). Gibbons’ adroit italics may here be noted. “The Logos, TAUGHT in the school of Alexandria BEFORE Christ 100—REVEALED to the Apostle St. John, Anno Domini, 97” (Decline and Fall, ch. xxi.). Just so very probably—though whether St. John ever read a page of Philo or Plato we have no means of knowing.
139 The following table may be found useful:—
| THE WORD IN ST. JOHN IS OPPOSED. | ||
| (A) To the Gnostic Word, created and temporal | as | (A) Uncreated and Eternal. “In the beginning was the Word.” |
| (B) To the Platonic Word, ideal and abstract | as | (B) Personal and Divine. “The Word was God.” “He”—“His.” |
| (C) To the Judaistic and Philonic Word—the type and idea of God in creation... | as | (C) Creative and First Cause. “All things were made by Him.” |
| (D) To the Dualistic Word— limitedly and partially instrumental in creation. | as | (D) Unique and Universally Creative. “Without Him was not anything made that hath been made.” |
| (E) To the Doketic Word—impalpable and visionary | as | (E) Real and Permanent. “The Word became flesh.” |
140 Vie de Jesus, Int. 4.
141 The appeal to the senses of seeing and hearing is a trait common to all the group of St. John’s writings (John i. 14, xix. 35; 1 John i. 1, 2, iv. 14; Apoc. i. 2). The true reading (καγω Ιωαννης ὁ ακουων και βλεπων ταυτα. Apoc. xxi. 8, where hearing stands before seeing) is indicative of John’s style.
142 1 John v. 6-12.
143 That the “Acts of Paul and Thecla” are of high antiquity there can be no rational doubt. Tertullian writes: “But if those who read St. Paul’s writings rashly use the example of Thecla, to give licence to women to teach and baptize publicly, let them know that a presbyter of Asia Minor, who put together that piece, crowning it with the authority of a Pauline title, convicted by his own confession of doing this from love of St. Paul, was deprived of his orders.” (Tertullian, De Baptismo, xvii.) On which St. Jerome remarks—“We therefore relegate to the class of apocryphal writings, the περιοδος of Paul and Thecla, and the whole fable of the baptized lion. For how could it be that the sole real companion of the Apostle” (Luke) “while so well acquainted with the rest of the history, should have known nothing of this? And further, Tertullian, who touched so nearly upon those times, records that a certain presbyter in Asia Minor, convicted before John of being the author of that book, and confessing that as a σπουδαστης of the Apostle Paul he had done this from loving devotion to that great memory, was deposed from his ministry.” (St. Hieron., de Script. Eccles., VII.) See the mass of authority for the antiquity of this document, which gives a considerable degree of probability to the statement about St. John, in Acta Apost. Apoc., Edit. Tischendorf.—Proleg. xxi., xxvi.
144 John iii, 24, 25.
145 Those who are perplexed by the identity in style and turn of language between the Epistle and the discourse of our Lord in St. John’s Gospel may be referred to the writer’s remarks in The Speakers Commentary (N. T. iv. 286-89). It should be added that the Epp. to the Seven Churches (Apoc. ii., iii.)—especially to Sardis—interweave sayings of Jesus recorded by the Synoptical evangelists, e.g., “as a thief,” Apoc. iii. 3, cf. Mark xiii. 37; “book of life,” Apoc. iii. 5, cf. Luke x. 20; “confessing a name,” Apoc. iii. 5, cf. Matt. x. 32; “He that hath an ear,” Apoc. iii. 6, 13, 22, and ii. 7, 11, 17, 29. This phrase, found in each of the seven Epp., occurs nowhere in the fourth Gospel, but constantly in the Synoptics. Cf. Matt. x. 27, xi. 15, xiii. 19, 43; Mark iv. 9, 23, vii. 16; Luke viii. 8, xiv. 35; cf. also “giving power over the nations,” Apoc. ii. 26—with the conception in Matt. xix. 28; Luke xxii. 29, 30. The word repentance is nowhere in the fourth Gospel, nor given as part of our Lord’s teaching; but we find it Apoc. ii. 5, 16, iii. 3, 19. If the author of the fourth Gospel was also the author of the Apocalypse, his choice of the style which he attributes to the Saviour was at least decided by no lack of knowledge of the Synoptical type of expression, and by no incapacity to use it with freedom and power.
146 John xi. 16.
147 “Qui me suit, aux anges est pareil.
Quand un homme a marché tout le jour au soleil
Dans un chemin sans puits et sans hôtellerie,
S’il ne croit pas quand vient le soir il pleure, il crie,
Il est las; sur la terre il tombe haletant.
S’il croit en moi, qu’il prie, il peut au même instant.
Continuer sa route avec des forces triples.”
(Le Christ et le Tombeau.) Tom. i. 44.
148 King Henry VIII., Act 2, Sc. 1. Contrast again our Lord before the council with St. Paul before that tribunal. In the case of one of the chief of saints there is the touch of human infirmity, the “something spoken in choler, ill and hasty,” the angry and contemptuous “whited wall”—the confession of hasty inconsiderateness (ουκ ἡδειν—ὁτι εστιν αρχιερευς) which led to a violation of a precept of the law (Exod. xxii. 28).
149 Preface to Ivanhoe.
150 How the great sayings were accurately collected has not been the question before us in this discourse. But it presents little difficulty. It is not absurd to suppose (if we are required to postulate no divine assistance) that notes may have been taken in some form by certain members of the company of disciples. The profoundly thoughtful remark of Irenæus upon his own unfailing recollection of early lessons from Polycarp, would apply with indefinitely greater force to such a pupil as John, of such a teacher as Jesus. “I can thoroughly recollect things so far back better than those which have lately occurred; for lessons which have grown with us since boyhood are compacted into a unity with the very soul itself.” (τη ψυχη ἑνουνται αυτη) Euseb., v. 29. But above all, whatever subordinate agency may have been employed in the preservation of those precious words, every Christian reverently acknowledges the fulfilment of the Saviour’s promise—“The Comforter, the Holy Ghost, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you” (John xiv. 26).
151 Duc de Broglie. Revue des deux Mondes. 15 Jan. 1882. Coxe, House of Austria, vol. iii., chap. xcix., p. 415, sqq.
152 John xiii. 30, xi. 35, xix. 5, xxii. 29-35.
153 Observe in the Greek the μη ἁμαρτητε, which refers to single acts, not to a continuous state—“that ye may not sin.”
154 1 John ii. 2. As a translation, “towards” seems too pedantic; yet προς is ad-versus rather than apud, and with the accusative signifies either the direction of motion, or the relation between two objects. (Donaldson, Greek Grammar, 524). We may fittingly call the preposition here προς pictorial.
155 The various meanings of κοσμος are fully traced below on 1 John ii. 17. There is one point in which the notions of κοσμος and αιων intersect. But they may be thus distinguished. The first signifies the world projected in space, the second in time. The supposition that the form of expression at the close of our verse is elliptical, and to be filled up by the repetition of “for the sins of the whole world” “is not justified by usage, and weakens the force of the passage.” (Epistles of St. John, Westcott, p. 44.)
156 As to doctrine. There are three “grand circles” or “families of images” whereby Scripture approaches from different quarters, or surveys from different sides, the benefits of our Lord’s meritorious death. These are represented by, are summed up in, three words—απολυτρωσις, καταλλαγη, ιλασμος. The last is found in the text and in iv. 10; nowhere else precisely in that form in the New Testament. “Ιλασμος (expiation or propitiation) and απολυτρωσις (redemption) is fundamentally one single benefit, i.e., the restitution of the lost sinner. Απολυτρωσις is in respect of enemies; καταλλαγη in respect of God. And here again the words ἱλασμ. and καταλλ. differ. Propitiation takes away offences as against God. Reconciliation has two sides. It takes away (a) God’s indignation against us, 2 Cor. v. 18, 19; (b) our alienation from God, 2 Cor. v. 20.” (Bengel on Rom. iii. 24. Whoever would rightly understand all that we can know on these great words must study New Testament Synonyms, Archbp. Trench, pp. 276-82.)
157 Acts xvii. 27.
158 Jonah i. 5.
159 1 John ii. 28.
160 2 John 9.
161 Matt. xxiii. 15.
162 Bouddhism, it is now said, appears to be on the wane, and the period for its disappearance is gradually approaching, according to the Boden Professor of Sanscrit at Oxford. In his opinion this creed is “one of rapidly increasing disintegration and decline,” and “as a form of popular religion Bouddhism is gradually losing its vitality and hold on the vast populations once loyal to its rule.” He computes the number of Bouddhists at 100,000,000; not 400,000,000 as hitherto estimated; and places Christianity numerically at the head of all religions—next Confucianism, thirdly Hinduism, then Bouddhism, and last Mohammedanism. He affirms that the capacity of Bouddhism for resistance must give way before the “mighty forces which are destined to sweep the earth.”
163 That modern English writers have been more than just to Mohammed is proved overwhelmingly by the living Missionary who knows Mohammedanism best.—Mohammed and Mohammedans. Dr. Koelle.
164 The inner meaning of 1 John i. 8 exactly = ὑπακοη και ῥαντισμος (1 Peter i. 2). It is the obedient who are sprinkled.
165 John xiv. 16, 26, xv. 26, xvi. 7.
166 Aug. in loc.
167 “Nomen facile supplent credentes, plenum pectus habentes memoriâ Domini.”—Bengel.
168 Εκεινος in our Epistle belongs to Christ in every place but one where it occurs (1 John ii. 6, iii. 3, 5, 7, 16, iv. 17; cf. John i. 18, ii. 21). It is very much equivalent to our reverent usage of printing the pronoun which refers to Christ with a capital letter.
169 Matt. vi. 45.
170 δοξας βλασφημουντες (2 Peter ii. 10; Jude v. 8).
171 Poems by Matthew Arnold (“Rugby Chapel,” Nov. 1857), vol. ii., pp. 251, 255.
172 ὁς μονος συνεπαθησεν πλανωμενω κοσμω. Acta Paul. et Thec. 16, Acta. Apost. Apoc. 47. Edit. Tischendorf.
173 On Liberty. John Stuart Mill (chap. iii.).
174 John viii. 12-35. For Apostolic usage of the word, see Acts i. 21; Rom. vi. 4; Ephes. ii. 10; Col. iii. 7.
175 John vii. 1.
176 “Ambulando docebat.”—Bretschneider.
177 John xiii. 1-6.
178 Ἱνα ποιω... και τελειωσω (John iv. 34).
179 After all deductions for the lack of accurate and searching textual exegesis, perhaps Bossuet’s “Traité de la concupiscence, ou Exposition de ces Paroles de Saint Jean, 1 John ii. 15-17” (Œuvres de Bossuet, Tom. vii., 380-420), remains unrivalled.
180 The word κοσμος originally signified ornament (chiefly perhaps of dress); figuratively it came to denote order. It was first applied by Pythagoras to the universe, from the conception of the order, which reigns in it (Plut., de Plac. Phil., ii. 1). From schools of philosophy it passed into the language of poets and writers of elevated prose. It is somewhat singular that the Romans, possibly from Greek influence, came to apply “mundus” by the same process to the world, as it had also originally signified ornament, especially of female dress (See Richard Bentley against Boyle, Opera Philol., 347-445, and Notes, Humboldt’s Cosmos, xiii.). In the LXX. κοσμος does not appear as the translation of שׂלָם its spiritual equivalent in Hebrew; but very often in the sense of “ornament” and “order.” (See Tromm., Concord. Gr. in LXX., 1, 913), but it is found as world several times in the Apocrypha (Wisdom vi. 26, vii. 18, ix. 3, xi. 18, xv. 14; 2 Mac. iii. 12, vii. 9-23, viii. 18, xiii. 14).
181 John xvii. 24.
182 In Hebrew תֵּבֵל habitable globe; translated οικουμενη in LXX. (see Psalm lxxxix. 11).
183 John v. 11.
184 John vi. 31; 1 John ii. 2.
185 John iii. 16. It may be added that these are passages where the world as humanity generally passes into the darker meaning of that portion of it which is actively hostile to God. John xv. 18, 19.
186 See note on ver. 16 at the end of the next Discourse.
187 Gen. i. 31.
188 John i. 3.
189 The writer does not happen to remember any commentator who has pointed out this subtle but powerful thought, παν το εν τω κοσμω—εκ του κοσμου εστιν (1 John ii. 16).
190 1 John v. 19.
191 John xiv. 1; 1 John iv. 2, 3; 2 John 7.
192 John vi. 51, 53-56; 1 John iv. 2, 3; 2 John 7.
193 ἡ αλαζονια του βιου.
194 Gen. iii. 5.
195 Gen. iii. 6.
196 Gen. iii. 7.
197 S. Augustin., Tract. in Joann. Epist.
198 Mark vii. 21.
199 1 John ii. 15, 16.
200 Ibid. ver. 17.
201 No portion of Prof. Westcott’s Commentary is more thorough or more exquisite than his exposition here. (Epistles of St. John, 66.)
202 “Extirpantia verba.” St. August (in loc.).
203 παραγεται. It has been said that this is not the real point; that what St. John here describes is not the general attribute of the world as transitory, but its condition at the moment when the Epistle was written, in presence of the manifestation of “the kingdom of God, which was daily shining forth.” But surely the world can scarcely be so completely identified with the temporary framework of the Roman Empire; and the universality of the antithesis (ὁ δε ποιων κ.τ.λ.) and its intensely individual form, lead us to take κοσμος in that universal and inclusive signification which alone is of abiding interest to every age.
204 Job xiv. 1, 2. Cf. x. 20-22.
205 Such seems to be the meaning of אַבְלִינָה (Ps. xxxix. 14).
206 Ps. xc. 9.
207 James iv. 13-17. The passage 1 Pet. i. 25 is taken from the magnificent prophecy in which the fragility of all flesh, transitory as the falling away of the flowers of grass into impalpable dust, is contrasted with the eternity of the word of God. Isa. xl. 6, 7, LXX.
208 “Possessa onerant, amata inquinant, amissa cruciant.”—St. Bernard.
209 The view here taken of Bouddhism follows that of M. J. Barthelemy St. Hilaire. Le Bouddha et sa Réligion. Prémière partie, chap. v., pp. 141-182.
210 “These populations neither deny nor affirm God. They simply ignore Him. To assert that they are atheists would be very much the same thing as to assert that they are anti-Cartesians. As they are neither for nor against Descartes, so they are neither for nor against God. They are just children. A child is neither atheist nor deist. He is nothing.”—Voltaire, Dict. Phil., Art. Athêisme.
211 It is noteworthy that in the collects in the English Prayer-Book, and indeed in its public formularies generally (outside the Funeral Service, and that for the Visitation of the Sick), there are but two places in which the note of the “world passeth away” is very prominently struck, viz., the Collect for the Fourth Sunday after Easter, and one portion of the prayer for “The Church Militant.” One of the most wholesome and beautiful expressions of the salutary convictions arising from Christian perception of this melancholy truth is to be found in Dr. Johnson’s “Prayer for the Last Day in the Year,” as given in Mr. Stobart’s Daily Services for Christian Households, pp. 99, 100.
212 The old “Memento Mori” timepiece of Mary, Queen of Scots, is a watch in the interior of a death’s-head, which opens to disclose it. Surely not a symbol likely to make any soul happier or better!
213 The ουν in ver. 24 is not recognised by the R. V. nor adopted in Professor Westcott’s text. One uncial (A), however, inserts it in 1 John iv. 19. It occurs in 3 John 8. This inferential particle is found with unusual frequency in St. John’s Gospel. It does not seem satisfactory to account for this by calling it “one of the beginnings of modern Greek.” (B. de Xivrey.) By St. John as an historian, the frequent therefore is the spontaneous recognition of a Divine logic of events; of the necessary yet natural sequence of every incident in the life of the “Word made Flesh.” The ουν expresses something more than continuity of narrative. It indicates a connection of events so interlinked that each springs from, and is joined with, the preceding, as if it were a conclusion which followed from the premiss of the Divine argument. Now a mind which views history in this light is just the mind which will be dogmatic in theology. The inspired dogmatic theologian will necessarily write in a style different from that of the theologian of the Schools. The style of the former will be oracular; that of the latter will be scholastic, i.e., inferential, a concatenation of syllogisms. The syllogistic ουν is then naturally absent from St. John’s Epistles. The one undoubted exception is 3 John 8, where a practical inference is drawn from an historical statement in ver. 7. The writer may be allowed to refer to The Speaker’s Commentary, iv., 381.
214 Jer. xxxi. 34.
215 Vers. 18, 22.
216 The last hour is not a date arbitrarily chosen and written down as a man might mark a day for an engagement in a calendar. It is determined by history—by the sum-total of the product of the actions of men who are not the slaves of fatality, who possess free-will, and are not forced to act in a particular way. It is supposed to derogate from the Divine mission of the Apostles if we admit that they might be mistaken as to the chronology of the closing hour of time. But to know that supreme instant would involve a knowledge of the whole plan of God and the whole predetermining motives in the appointment of that day, i.e., it would constructively involve omniscience. Cf. Mark xiii. 32, and our Lord’s profound saying, Acts i. 7.
217 John v. 43.
218 1 John ii. 22, iv. 2, 3; 2 John 7-9.
219 Ver. 19.
220 Bingham’s Antiquities, i., 462-524, 565.
221 For other instances of this characteristic, see a subject introduced ii. 29, expanded iii. 9—another subject introduced iii. 21, expanded v. 14.
222 το αυτου χρισμα, ver. 27, not το αυτο (“the same anointing,” A. V.) “This most unusual order throws a strong emphasis on the pronoun.” (Prof. Westcott.) The writer thankfully quotes this as it seems to him to bring out the dogmatic significance of the word, emphasised as it is by this unusual order—the chrism, the Spirit of Him.
223 1 John iii. 24.
224 The reading of the A. V. is received into Tischendorf’s text and adopted by the R. V. Another reading omits και and substitutes παντες for παντα so that the passage would run thus, “Ye have an unction from the Holy One. Ye all know (I have not written unto you because ye know not) the truth.” As far as the difficulty of παντα is concerned, nothing is gained by the change, as the statement recurs in a slightly varied form in ver. 27.
225 John xiv. 26.
226 “Let that abide in you which ye heard from the beginning,” 1 John ii. 24. Cf. “Testifying that this is the true grace of God wherein ye stand,” 1 Pet. v. 12. “Even as our beloved brother Paul has written unto you,” 2 Pet. iii. 15. St. Paul has thus the attestation of St. John as well as of St. Peter.
227 Ver. 27
228 διδασκει—εδιδαξεν.
229 1 Cor. xi. 29.
230 Ver. 11.
231 John xv. 12-17. See also the stress laid upon the unity of believers; surely including love as well as doctrine in the great High-Priestly prayer, John xvii. 21-23.
232 “The message that ye heard from the beginning,” conf. 1 John ii. 24.
233 “Contrariorum eadem est scientia.”
234 This is one of the few references to the Old Testament history in St. John’s Epistle (Gen. iv. 1-8). To the theology of the Old Testament there are many references; e.g., light and life. 1 John i. 1-5; John i. 4; Ps. xxxvi. 9. There is, however, another historical reference a few verses above (1 John iii. 8)—a passage of primary importance because it recognises the whole narrative of the Fall in Genesis, and affords a commentary upon the words of Christ (John viii. 44). The writer has somewhere seen an interesting suggestion that ver. 12 may contain some allusion to the visit of Apollonius of Tyana to Ephesus. Apollonius incited the mob to kill a beggar-man for the purpose of placing himself on a level with Chalcas and others who caused the sacrifice of human victims. The date of this incident would apparently coincide with the closing years of St. John’s life (Philostrat. vita Apollon., Act. ii., S. 5).
235 Ver. 14.
236 Vers. 14, 15.
237 Ver. 12.
238 Ver. 16.
239 Ver. 17.
240 Vers. 18, 19.
241 Vers. 20, 21.
242 “For The Love I rather beseech thee” (Phil. v. 9). The addition in the A.V. (of God) rather impairs the sweetness and power, the reverential reserve of the original.
243 Of Prof. Westcott.
244 Ver. 17.
245 It is suggestive that on Quinquagesima Sunday, when 1 Cor. xiii. is the Epistle, St. Luke xviii. 31 sqq., is the Gospel. The lyric of love is joined with a fragment of its epic. That fragment tells us of a love which not only proclaimed itself ready to be sacrificed (Luke xviii. 31-33), but condescended individually to the blind importunate mendicant who sat by the wayside begging (vers. 35-43).
246 The word here is βιος not ζωη. “Βιος period of life; hence the means by which it is sustained, means of life.” (Archbp. Trench.) It is to be wished that the R. V. had either kept “the good” of the A. V., or adopted the word “living”—the translation of βιος in Mark xii. 44; Luke xxi. 4.
247 2 John 3.
248 1 John i. 4, ii. 28, iii. 21, iv. 17, v. 14, iii. 19.
249 1 John i. 4.
250 τα σπλαγχνα (ver. 17). This however is the only occurrence of the word in St. John’s writings. The substantive σπλαγχνα = emotions, is found in classical poets. But the verb σπλαγχνιζομαι occurs only in LXX. and New Testament—and thus, like αγαπη, is almost born within the circle of revealed truth. The new dispensation so rich in the mercy of God (Luke i. 78), so fruitful in mercy from man to man, may well claim a new vocabulary in the department of tenderness and pity.
251 1 John v. 6, conf. John xix. 34.
252 θεωρη, ver. 17.
253 “The love of which God is at once the object, and the author, and the pattern.” (Prof. Westcott.)
254 1 John iv. 19.
255 Lord Meath.
256 Apoc. xx. 12, 13.
257 1 John ii. 28.
258 αισχυνθωμεν απ’ αυτου, see Jerem. xii. 13 (for בּושׁ מִן). Prof. Westcott happily quotes, “as a guilty thing surprised.”
259 Coming, εν τη παρουσια αυτου. The word is not found elsewhere in the Johannic group of writings. But by his use of it here, St. John falls into line with the whole array of apostolic witnesses—with St. Matthew (xxiv. 3-27, 37, 39); with St. Paul (passim); with St. James (v. 7, 8); with St. Peter (2 Peter i. 16, iii. 4-12). This fact may well warn critics of the precarious character of theories founded upon “the negative phenomena of the books of the New Testament.” (See Professor Westcott’s excellent note, The Epistles of St. John, 80.)
260 (εν τη ἡμερα της κρισεως)—“in the Day of the Judgment”—cf. Apoc. xiv. 7. We have “in THE Judgment” (Matt. xii. 41, 42; Luke x. 14, xi. 31, 32)—the indefinite “day of judgment” (Matt. x. 15, xi. 22, 24; Mark vi. 11).
261 2 Pet. ii. 9, iii. 7—but “The Day of The Judgment,” here only.
262 Cf. our Lord’s words—“henceforth (απ’ αρτι) ye shall see the Son of Man coming.” (Matt. xxvi. 64.)
263 John v. 21, 29.
264 Ver. 21.
265 Ver. 26.
266 Ver. 24.
267 Ver. 28, 29.
268 The writer ventures to lament the substitution of “judgment” for “condemnation,” ver. 24. R.V. It is a verbal consistency, or minute accuracy, purchased at the heavy price of a false thought, suggested to many readers who are not scholars. “In John’s language κρισις is, (a) that judgment which came in pain and misery to those who rejected the salvation offered to mankind by Christ, iii. 19, κ.τ.λ., ερχεσθαι εις κρισιν, to fall into the state of one thus condemned, v. 24. (b) Judgment of condemnation to the wicked, with ensuing rejection, v. 29.” Grimm. Lex. N.T. 247. Between this passage of the fourth Gospel and Apoc. xx., there is a marvellous inner harmony of thought. “The first resurrection” (ver. 6) = John v. 21, 26; then vv. 11, 12, 13 = John v. 28, 29.
269 Heb. ix. 27; 2 Cor. v. 10, cf. Rom. xiv. 10; Apoc. xx. 11, 12, 13.
270 μεθ’ ἡμων—God’s love in itself is perfected. It might be made as perfect as man’s nature will admit by an instantaneous act; but God works jointly, in companionship with us. The grace of God “preventing us that we may will, works with us when we will.” The essential idea of μετα is companionship or connexion. (See Donaldson, Gr. Gr., 50, 52 a.)
271 ελευθεριας ἡ πολις μεστη και παρρησιας γιγνεται. (Plat., Rep., 557 B). The word is derived from παν and ῥησις.
272 Ephes. i. 18.
273 Cf. Matt. v. 48.
274 Ver. 18.
275 Bengel. The writer must acknowledge his obligation to Professor Westcott, whose exposition gives us a peculiar conception of the depth of St. John’s teaching here. (The Epistles of St. John, 149-153).
276 This is expressed, after St. John’s fashion, by the neuter, παν το γεγεννημενον εκ του Θεου. ver. 4.
277 ἡ πιστις ἡμων, ver. 4.
278 ὁ νικων τον κοσμον, ὁ πιστευων, ver. 5.
279 1 John ii. 29.
280 1 John iv. 7.
281 John iii. 5.
282 σφοδρα αινιγματωδης και σκοτεινως ειρημενος. Euseb.
| וֶה יֻלָּר־שָׁם. | Ver. 4. |
| אִישׁ וְאִישׁ יֻלַּר־בָּהּ. | Ver. 5. |
| וֶה יֻלָּר־שָׁם. | Ver. 6. Psalm lxxxvii. |
284 “Both they who sing and they who dance,
With sacred song are there;
In thee fresh brooks and soft streams glance,
And all my fountains clear.”
Milton, Paraphrase Ps. lxxxvii. 7.
This, on the whole, seems to be considered the most tenable interpretation.
285 Συ ει ὁ διδασκαλος του Ισραηλ; John iii. 10.
286 John i. 26, ii. 6, 9, iii. 5-22, iv. 6-16, v. 3, vii. 37, 39, ix. 7, xiii. 1-5, xix. 34.
287 Hooker, E. P., V. lix. (4).
288 So the perfect is used throughout. γεγεννηται. ii. 29, iii. 9, iv. 7. παν το γεγεννημενον. v. 4. Very remarkably below, πας ὁ γεγεννημενος—αλλα ὁ γεννηθεις εκ του Θεου; the first of the regenerate man who continues in that condition of grace, the second of the Begotten Son of God who keeps His servant. 1 John v. 18.
289 Training of children; or How to Make the Children into Saints and Soldiers of Jesus Christ. By the General of the Salvation Army. London: Salvation Army Book Stores, pp. 162, 163.
290 Not quite, cf. Rom. viii. 37, xii, 21; 1 Cor. xv. 55, 57. The substantive νικη occurs only 1 John v. 4. A slightly different form (νικος) is in Matt. xii. 20; 1 Cor. xv. 54, 55, 57.
291 John xvi. 33.
292 John ii. 13, 14.
293 1 John iv. 4.
294 It does not seem possible to convey to the English reader the fourfold harping upon the word (1 John v. 4, 5) by any other rendering. “The victory that hath overcome the world” (R.V.) fails in this. The noble translation of ὑπερνικωμεν (Rom. viii. 37), happily retained by the Revisers, is rendered consistent by the translation here proposed.
295 Apoc. ii. 13, xiv. 12.
296 Fides quæ creditur, not quâ creditur.
297 “Thou who art victory!” Wordsworth, Ode to Duty.
298 ὑπερνικωμεν. Rom. viii. 37.
299 δεδωκεν ἡμιν διανοιαν ἱνα γινωσκομεν κ.τ.λ. 1 John v. 20. N. T. lexicographers give as its meaning intelligentia (einsicht). See Grimm. Bretschn., s.v. Prof. Westcott remarks that “generally nouns which express intellectual powers are rare in St. John’s writings.” But διανοια is the word by which the LXX. translate the Hebrew לֵב, and has thus a moral and emotional tinge imparted to it. We may compare the sense in which Aristotle uses it in his Poetics for the cast of thought, or general sentiment. (Poet., vi.)
300 ει την μαρτυριαν των ανθρωπων λαμβανομεν. 1 John v. 9.
301 The A. V. (very unhappily) tried to minimise this reiteration by the introduction of synonyms in four places—“bear record,” “record” (vv. 7, 10, 11), “hath testified” (ver. 9).
302 ὁ ελθων.
303 δι ὑδατος και αιματος.
304 ουκ εν τω ὑδατι μονον, αλλ’ εν τω ὑδατι και εν τω αιματι.
305 τρεις εισιν οι μαρτυρουντες, ver. 7.
306 The Water, John iii. 5, cf. i. 26-33, ii. 9, iii. 23, iv. 13, v. 4, ix. 7. The Blood, vi. 53, 54, 56, xix. 34. The Spirit, vii. 39, xiv., xv., xvi., xx. 22. The water centres in Baptism (iii. 5); the blood is symbolised, exhibited, in Holy Communion (vi.); the Spirit is perpetually making them effective, and especially by the appointed ministry (xx. 22).
307 ὁτι αυτη εστιν ἡ μαρτυρια του Θεου, ὁτι μεμαρτυρηκεν περι του υιου αυτου, ver. 9.
308 v. 39, 46, etc.
309 viii. 18.
310 viii. 17, 18.
311 ver. 36, x. 25.
312 ὁ πιστευων εις τον υιον του Θεου, ver. 10. (See Bihs Ellicott on the force of various prepositions with πιστευω. Comment, on Pastoral Epistles.)
313 Bentley. Letter of January 1st, 1717.
314 The writer is entirely persuaded that St. John in chap. xx. 30, 31, refers to the Resurrection “signs,” and not to miracles generally.
315 Acts x. 41, 42. It is to be regretted that the R. V. has not boldly given us such an arrangement of the words in this important passage as would at once connect “made manifest” with “after He rose again from the dead,” and avoid making the Apostle state that the chosen witnesses ate and drank with Christ after the Resurrection. St. Peter mentions that particular characteristic of the Apostles which made them judges not to be gainsayed of the identity of the Risen One with Him with whom they used to eat and drink.
316 John xiv. 19-21.
317 Τις τουτο ειδεν; γυνη παροιστρος, και ει τις αλλος των εκ της αυτης γοητειας. Ὁτε μεν ηπιστειτο εν σωματι πασιν ανιδην (freely, without restraint) εκηρυττεν, ὁτε δε πιστιν αν ισχυραν παρειχεν εκ νεκρων αναστας ἑνι μονω γυναιω και τοις ἑαυτου θεασιωταις (adepts, initiated) κρυβδην παρεφαινετω... εχρην ειπερ οντως θειαν δυναμιν εκφηναι ηθελεν ὁ Ιησους αυτοις τοις επηρεασι και τω καταδικασαντι και ὁλως πασιν οφθηναι. [Celsus, ap. Orig., 2, 55, 59, 70, 63.] The passage is given in Rudolph Anger’s invaluable Synopsis Evang. cum locis qui supersunt parallelis litterarum et traditionum Evang. Irenæo. antiquiorum. p. 254.
318 γυνη παροιστρος, Celsus. “Moments sacrés ou la passion d’une hallucinée donne au monde un Dieu ressuscité.” Renan, Vie de Jesus, 434.
319 “Post Resurrectionem... Dominus quum dedisset sindonem servo sacerdotis”—Evang. ad Heb.—Matt. xxvii. 59.—R. Anger, Synopsis Evang., 288.
320 Mark xvi. 8.
321 Luke xxiv. 37.
322 Luke xxiv. 41; John xx. 20.
323 Ps. xxxiv. 15.
324 John xxi. 12, cf. 7.
325 Matt. xxviii. 13.
326 1 Peter i. 3, 4; Apoc. i. 17, 18.
327 See The Destiny of Man, viewed in the light of his origin, by John Fiske, especially the three remarkable chapters pp. 96-119.
328 John xx. 10, 11.
329 The word Ἑβραιστι had unfortunately dropped out of the T. R. John xx. 16.
330 John xiv. 19.
331 εν ἑαυτω, ver. 10.
332 ὁ μη πιστευων τω Θεω, Ibid.
333 ου πεπιστευκεν, Ibid.
334 εις την μαρτυριαν ἡν μεμαρτυρηκεν ὁ Θεος περι του υιου αυτου. Ibid.
335 παν το γεγεννημενον εκ του Θεου νικα τον κοσμον. ver. 4.
336 With the neuter in ver. 4, contrast the individualising masculine in ver. 5, τις εστιν ὁ νικων.
337 Mr. Matthew Arnold.
338 This is true as a general rule; but there were exceptions.
339 See Ps. xv. Cf. Ps. xxiv. 3-7.
340 1 John v. 15.
341 1 John v. 14, 18.
342 Vv. 14, 15.
343 Historical and Critical Commentary on Leviticus. By M. M. Kalisch. Part 1. Theology of the Past and Future, 431, 438.
344 This is denied by De Wette (Ueber die Religion, Vorlesungen, 106).
345 The form of expression indicates not necessarily the very things asked, but the spiritual essence and substance.
346 Ἡ γαρ επαγγελια του λουτρου ουκ αλλη τις εστι κατ’ αυτους, ἡ το εισαγαγειν εις την αμαραντον ἡδονην τον λουομενον κατ’ αυτους ζωντ ὑδατι και χριομενον αλαλω χρισματι.—(Philosoph., p. 140, de Naassenis.)
347 Moyer Lecture, vi.
348 John i. 18.
349 There is no doubt a large amount of authority for this view that St. John addresses a Church personified. It has the support of sacred critics so different as Bishop Wordsworth and Bishop Lightfoot. (Ep. to Colossians and Philemon, 305), and Professor Westcott seems (with some hesitation) to lean to it. But there is also a great body of support, ancient and modern, for the literal view. (Clem. Alex., Adunbr. ad ii. Joan., Op., iii. 1011.) So Athanasius, or the author of “Synopsis S.S.” in Athanasius, Opp., iv. 410. See also the heading of the A. V. (“He exhorteth a certain honourable matron, with her children.”) For reasons for accepting Kyria rather than Electa as the name, see Speaker’s Commentary, iv. 335.
350 Ver. 12.
351 ευρηκα, ver. 4.
352 “James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars.” Gal. ii. 9.
353 Luke ii. 36.
354 1 Tim. v. 3, 5, 10.
355 1 Tim, v. 6-11, 12, 13.
356 2 John 2.
357 Ver. 1.
358 δια την αληθειαν την μενουσαν εν ἡμιν, και μεθ’ ἡμων εσται εις τον αιωνα. 2 John ver. 2.
359 Irenæus, Hær., iii. 4.
360 Ver. 7.
361 Ver. 9.
362 Ver. 5.
363 “Commandments and commandment—Love strives to realise in detail every separate expression of the will of God.” (Prof. Westcott, Epistles of St. John, 217).
364 Ver. 6.
365 It is, probably, the existence of these verses (vv. 10, 11) which acts as a stimulus to many liberal Christian commentators in favour of the ultra-mystical view, that the lady addressed in this Epistle is a Church personified. It should be carefully noted that St. John speaks of a formal summons, so to speak, from an emissary of antichrist as such. (ει τις ερχεται προς ὑμας, ver. 10). St. John, also, must have detected a danger in the very gentleness of Kyria’s character, or in the disposition of some of her children. So much, indeed, might seem implied in the sudden, solemn, and rather startling warning, which entreated constant continuous care (βλεπετε ἑαυτους), so that they should not in some momentary impulse, under the charm of some deceiver, lose what they had wrought, and with it reward in fulness (ἱνα μη απολεσητε, ver. 10).
366 Titus iii. 4.
367 1 Tim. i. 1; 2 Tim. i. 2.
368 The construction altered to bring out the meaning more strikingly than a uniform structure could have done.—Winer, Gr. Gr., Part III., § 3.
369 Εσται μεθ’ ὑμων χαρις, ελεος, ειρηνη, κ.τ.λ. 2 John ver. 3.
370 Ιησουν Χριστον ερχομενον εν σαρκι. 2 John ver. 7.
371 Ιησουν Χριστον εν σαρκι εληλυθοτα. 1 John iv. 2.
372 Caius, a Macedonian (Acts xix. 29); Caius of Derbe (Acts xx. 4); Caius of Corinth (Rom. xvi. 23; 1 Cor. i. 14).
373 Rom. xvi. 23.
374 No doubt ver. 10 presents some difficulty. Voyages between Corinth were regularly and easily performed. Still it is scarcely probable that the aged Apostle should have contemplated such a voyage. But the form (εαν ελθω) purposely expresses possibility rather than probability—the smallest amount of presumption—if I shall come, which is not quite impossible. (Donaldson, Gr. Gr., “Conditional Propositions.” 501.) The hope of seeing Caius “face to face” (ver. 14) contains no objection, as it may refer to a visit of Caius to Ephesus.
375 “Synopsis S.S.” ’76. (S. Athanas., Opp., iv. 433. Edit. Migne.)
376 Read together 3 John 12, and John xxi. 24.
377 The writer had worked out his conclusions about Caius independently before he happened to read Bengel’s note. “Caius Corinthi de quo Rom. xvi. 23, vel huic Caio, Johannis amico, fuit simillimus in hospitalite—vel idem;—si idem, ex Achaia in Asiam migravit, vel Corinthum Johannes hanc epistolam misit.”
378 Acts xix. 23-41.
379 “Almost throughout all Asia this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people, saying, that they be no gods, which are made with hands.”—Acts xix. 26.
380 vii. 46.
381 Apoc. iii. 7, 8, 12.
382 “All men.”
383 Και ὑπ’ αυτης της αληθειας i.e., Jesus (Apoc. iii. 7, 12). This type of expression marks the “Asiatic school.” So Papias; απ’ αυτης της αληθειας (Ap. Euseb. H. E., iii. 39). Cf. John xiv. 6.
384 “And we also bear witness.” 3 John 12.
385 3 John 5, 6, 7.
386 2 John 9.
387 3 John 9, 10.
388 See authorities quoted by Archdeacon Lee (Speaker’s Commentary, Tom. ii., N.T., p. 512).
389 μιμου... το αγαθον, 3 John 11.
390 3 John 13.
391 The verb αγαθοποιειν is found in a few places in the LXX and New Testament. “Amongst profane writers, astrologers only used this verb. They signified by it, I offer a good omen. So in Proclus and others.” See Bretsch. and Grimm, s. v. αγαθοποιεω.
392 “Worthily of God” ver. 6; “is of God—hath not seen God” ver. 11.
393 Ver. 7.
394 “The friends salute thee: salute the friends by name,” ver. 14 The mention of friendship is not common in the New Testament. Beautiful exceptions will be found in Luke xii. 4; John xi. 11, xv. 14, 15; cf. Acts xxvii. 3.
395 As indicated by breathing—from ψυχω