His life in relation to his writ. ings. 14). He thus stamps with his approval the first movement of the Church in its liberal progress. From the silence of both St Paul and St Luke it may be inferred that he took no very prominent part in the disputes about the Mosaic law. Only at the close of the conferences we find him together with St Peter and St James recognising the authority and work of St Paul, and thus giving another guarantee of his desire to advance the liberties of the Church. This is the only passage where he is mentioned in St Paul's Epistles. Yet it seems probable that though he did not actually participate in the public discussions, his unseen influence was exerted to promote the result. As in the earliest days of the Church, so now we may imagine him ever at St Peter's side, his faithful colleague and wise counsellor, not forward and demonstrative, but most powerful in private, pouring into the receptive heart of the elder Apostle the lessons of his own inward experience, drawn from close personal intercourse and constant spiritual communion with his Lord. At length the hidden fires of his nature burst out into flame. When St Peter and St Paul have ended their labours, the more active career of St John is just beginning. If it had been their task to organize and extend the Church, to remove her barriers and to advance her liberties, it is his special province to build up and complete her theology. The most probable chronology makes his withdrawal from Palestine to Asia Minor coincide very nearly with the martyrdom of these two Apostles, who have guided the Church through her first storms and led her to her earliest victories. This epoch divides his life into two distinct periods: hitherto he has lived as a Jew among Jews; henceforth he will be as a Gentile among Gentiles. The writings of St John in the Canon probably mark the close of each period. The Apocalypse winds up his career in the Church of the Circumcision; the Gospel and the Epistles are the crowning result of a long residence in the heart of Gentile Christendom. Both the one and the other contrast strongly with the leading features of Ebionite doctrine; and this fact alone would deter the Judaizers from claiming the sanction of a name so revered. Of all the writings of the New Testament the APOCALYPSE is its ima gery, most thoroughly Jewish in its language and imagery. The whole The Apocalypse book is saturated with illustrations from the Old Testament. It Hebrew in speaks not the language of Paul, but of Isaiah and Ezekiel and Daniel. Its tone may be well described by an expression borrowed from the book itself; 'the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy (xix. 10).' The doctrine of Balaam, the whoredoms of Jezebel, the song of Moses, the lion of Judah, the key of David, the great river Euphrates, the great city Babylon, Sodom and Egypt, Gog and Magog, these and similar expressions are but the more striking instances of an imagery with which the Apocalypse teems. Nor are the symbols derived solely from the canonical Scriptures; in the picture of the New Jerusalem the inspired Apostle has borrowed many touches from the creations of rabbinical fancy. Up to this point the Apocalypse is completely Jewish and might have been Ebionite. But the same framing serves only to bring out more but not Ebionite strongly the contrast between the pictures themselves. The two in docdistinctive features of Ebionism, its mean estimate of the person trine. of Christ and its extravagant exaltation of the Mosaic law, are opposed alike to the spirit and language of St John. It might have The been expected that the beloved disciple, who had leaned on his Master's bosom, would have dwelt with fond preference on the humanity of our Lord: yet in none of the New Testament writings, not even in the Epistles of St Paul, do we find a more express recognition of His divine power and majesty. He is 'the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning (the source) of the creation of God (iii. 14).' 'Blessing, honour, glory, and power' are ascribed not 'to Him that sitteth on the throne' only, but 'to the Lamb for ever and ever (v. 13).' His name is 'the Word of God (xix. 13).' Therefore he claims the titles and attributes of Deity. He declares himself 'the Alpha and Omega, the first and last, the beginning and the end (xxii. 13; comp. i. 8).' He is 'the Lord of lords and the King of kings (xvii. 14, xix. 16).' And so too the Ebionite reverence for the law as still binding has no place in the Apocalypse. The law. The word does not occur from beginning to end, nor is there a single allusion to its ceremonial as an abiding ordinance. The Paschal Christ. Lamb indeed is ever present to St John's thought; but with him it signifies not the sacrifice offered in every Jewish home year by year, but the Christ who once was slain, and hath redeemed us to God by his blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation (vii. 9). All this is very remarkable, since there is every reason to believe that up to this time St John had in practice observed the Jewish law'. To him however it was only a national custom 1 Certain traditions of St John's residence at Ephesus, illustrating his relation to the Mosaic law, deserve notice here. They are given by Polycrates who was himself bishop of Ephesus (Euseb. H. E. v. 24). Writing to pope Victor, probably in the last decade of the second century, he mentions that he numbers (Exwv) sixty-five years in the Lord' (whether he refers to the date of his birth or of his conversion, is uncertain, but the former seems more probable), and that he has had seven relations bishops, whose tradition he follows. We are thus carried back to a very early date. The two statements with which we are concerned are these. (1) St John celebrated the Paschal day on the 14th of the month, coinciding with the Jewish passover. It seems to me, as I have said already (see p. 343), that there is no good ground for questioning this tradition. The institution of such an annual celebration by this Apostle derives light from the many references to the Paschal Lamb in the Apocalypse; and in the first instance it would seem most natural to celebrate it on the exact anniversary of the Passover. It is more questionable whether the Roman and other Churches, whose usage has passed into the law of Christendom, had really the apostolic sanction which they vaguely asserted for celebrating it always on the Friday. This usage, if not quite so obvious as the other, was not unnatural and probably was found much more convenient. (2) Polycrates says incidentally of St John that he was 'a priest wearing the mitre and a martyr and teacher (ös ἐγενήθη ἱερεὺς τὸ πέταλον πεφορεκὼς καὶ μάρτυς καὶ διδάσκαλος). The reference in the wéraλov is doubtless to the metal plate on the high-priest's mitre (Exod. xxviii. 36 πέταλον χρυσοῦν καθαρόν, comp. Protevang. c. 5 rò wéraλOV TOÛ iepéws); but the meaning of Polycrates is far from clear. He has perhaps mistaken metaphor for matter of fact (see Stanley Apostolical Age p. 285); in like manner as the name Theophorus assumed by Ignatius gave rise to the later story that he was the child whom our Lord took in his arms and blessed. I think it probable however that the words as they stand in Polycrates are intended for a metaphor, since the short fragment which contains them has several figurative expressions almost, if not quite, as violent; e.g. μeyáλa σтоixeîa κεκοίμηται (where στοιχεία means 'luminaries,' being used of the heavenly bodies); Μελίτωνα τὸν εὐνοῦχον (probably a metaphor, as Rufinus translates it, 'propter regnum dei eunuchum'; see Matt. xix. 12 and comp. Athenag. Suppl. 33, 34, Clem. Alex. Paed. iii. 4, p. 269, Strom. iii. 1. p. 509 sq); тd μirpov pov aveрwnov ('my insignificance'; comp. Rom. vi. 6 ὁ παλαιὸς ἡμῶν ἄνθρωπος, 2 Cor. iv. 16 ὁ ἔξω ἡμῶν ἄνθρωπος, ο Pet. iii. 4 ὁ κρυπτὸς τῆς καρδίας ἄνθρωπος). The whole passage is a very rude specimen of the florid 'Asiatic' style, which even in its higher forms Cicero condemns as suited only to the ears of a people wanting in polish and good taste (minime politaeminimeque elegantes,' Orator, 25) and which is described by another writer as κομπώδης καὶ φρύαγματίας καὶ κενοῦ γαυριάματος καὶ φιλοτιμίας ȧvwμáλov μeσtós, Plut. Vit. Anton. 2; see Bernhardy Griech. Litt. 1. p. 465. On the other hand it is possible-I think not probable that St John did wear I and not an universal obligation, only one of the many garbs in which religious worship might clothe itself, and not the essence of religious life. In itself circumcision is nothing, as uncircumcision also is nothing; and therefore he passes it over as if it were not. The distinction between Jew and Gentile has ceased; the middle wall of partition is broken down in Christ. If preserving the Jewish imagery which pervades the book, he records the sealing of twelve thousand from each tribe of Israel, his range of vision expands at once, and he sees before the throne ‘a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations and kindreds and peoples and tongues (vii. 9).' If he denounces the errors of heathen speculation, taking up their own watchword 'knowledge (yvŵois)' and retorting upon them that they know only 'the depths of Satan (ii. 24)',' on the other hand he condemns in similar language the bigotry of Jewish prejudice, denouncing the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan' (ii. 9; comp. iii. 9). and com A lapse of more than thirty years spent in the midst of a The Gospel and Gentile population will explain the contrast of language and imagery Epistles between the Apocalypse and the later writings of St John, due allow- contrasted ance being made for the difference of subject. The language and pared with the Apocacolouring of the Gospel and Epistles are no longer Hebrew; but so lypse. far as a Hebrew mind was capable of the transformation, Greek or this decoration as an emblem of his Christian privileges; nor ought this view to cause any offence, as inconsistent with the spirituality of his character. If in Christ the use of external symbols is nothing, the avoidance of them is nothing also. But whether the statement of Polycrates be metaphor or matter of fact, its significance, as in the case of the Paschal celebration, is to be learnt from the Apostle's own language in the Apocalypse, where not only is great stress laid on the priesthood of the believers generally (i. 6, v. 10, xx. 6), but even the special privileges of the highpriest are bestowed on the victorious Christian (Rev. ii. 17, as explained by Züllig, Trench, and others: see Stanley 1. c. p. 285; comp. Justin Dial. 116 ἀρχιερατικὸν τὸ ἀληθινὸν γένος ἐσμὲν τοῦ Ocoû, and see Philippians p. 252). The 1 See above, p. 309, note 3. 2 Owing to the difference of style, many critics have seen only the alternative of denying the apostolic authorship either of the Apocalypse or of the Gospel and Epistles. The considerations urged in the text seem sufficient to meet the difficulties, which are greatly increased if a late date is assigned to the Apocalypse. Writers of the Tübingen school reject the Gospel and Epistles but accept the Apocalypse. This book alone, if its apostolical authorship is conceded, seems to me to furnish an ample refutation of their peculiar views. ST JAMES holds a On rather Greco-Asiatic. The teaching of these latter writings it will 3. ST JAMES Occupies a position very different from St Peter local office. or St John. If his importance to the brotherhood of Jerusalem was greater than theirs, it was far less to the world at large. In a foregoing essay I have attempted to show that he was not one of the Twelve. This result seems to me to have much more than a critical interest. Only when we have learnt to regard his office as purely local, shall we appreciate the traditional notices of his life or estimate truly his position in the conflict between Jewish and Gentile Christians. Reasons for his ment. A disbeliever in the Lord's mission to the very close of His appoint- earthly life, he was convinced, it would seem, by the appearance of the risen Jesus'. This interposition marked him out for some special work. Among a people who set a high value on advantages of race 1 See above, p. 265. |