(3) Peculiarities. It must be granted that the peculiarities of John's Gospel more especially con sist in the four following doctrines : (t ) That of the mystical relation of the Son to the Father.
(2) That of the mystical relation of the Re deemer to believers.
(3) The announcement of the Holy Ghost as the Comforter.
(4) The peculiar importance ascribed to Love.
Although there can be shown in the writings of the other evangelists some isolated dicta of the Lord, which seem to bear the impress of John, it can also be shown that they contain thoughts not originating with that disciple, but with the Lord himself. Matthew (xi :27) speaks of the relation of the Son to the Father so entirely in the style of John that persons not sufficiently versed in Holy Writ arc apt to search for this passage in the Gospel of John. The mystical union of the Son with believers is expressed in Matt. xxviii :2o. The promise of the effusion of the Holy Ghost in order to perfect the disciples is found in Luke xxiv :49. The doctrine of Paul with respect to love, in t Cor. xiii, entirely resembles what, ac cording to John, Christ taught on the same sub ject. Paul here deserves our particular attention. In the writings of Paul are found Christian truths which have their points of coalescence only in John, viz., that Christ is Etta's, rot') Ocog Teti clopd7ou, the image of the invisible God, by whom all things are created (Col. i:15, 16). Paul considers the Spirit of God in the church, the sfiiritual Christ, as Jesus himself does (John xiv:16), frequently using the words erval iv XplcritP, ei-nay en Chris-to', to be in Christ.
That the speeches of Christ have been faithfully reported may be seen by a comparison of the speeches of the Baptist in the Gospel of John. The Baptist speeches bear an entirely Old Testament character; they are full of gnomes, allusions to the Old Testament, and sententious expressions (John iii:27-3o; i :26-36).
(4) Place, Time, and Language. The Fath ers supposed that the Gospel of John was written at Ephesus. The author of a synopsis annexed to the works of Athanasius makes an observation which deserves to be noticed on account of the as surance with which it is advanced. It is, that John wrote the Gospel which bears his name in Patmos, but that it was edited by the same Gaius whom Paul in the epistle to the Romans calls 6 Elvos p.ov, mine host (Athanasii Ofiera, vol. ii, p 155, Venet.). One might be inclined to explain by this circumstance the postscript contained in John xxi :24, 25.
There is some internal evidence in favor of the statement that this Gospel was written at Ephesus —namely, that the author sometimes alludes to the tenets of Hellenistic theosophy, and that he has in view readers who do not live in Palestine (John ii :6, 13; iv :9; v :1, 2). In addition to this must be mentioned the command of the Hellenistic Greek evinced by the writer. It is, however, not unlikely that John acquired his knowledge of Greek in his native country. The researches of Dr. Paulus, Hug, and Credner, have rendered it highly probable that the knowledge of Greek was then widely spread in Palestine. Even James, the
brother of our Lord, although he never left his native country, writes in his epistle tolerably good Greek.
The language of John's Gospel is not very peri odic, but moves uniformly on between the particles ai, but ; and oar, moreover. This defect of style may, however, be explained by the mental charac teristics of the disciple. John's mind was deficient in the dialectic element ; he wanted the logical acuteness of Paul. Even where he reports the speeches of Christ, we often find a want of pre cision in his representation. The simplicity of John's character is also evinced by the repetition of certain leading thoughts, reproduced in the same words both in the Gospel and in the Epistles; such as paprupla, testi2nony ; Obta, glory ; dX2)8cla, truth 42C2s, 1441; crK6ros, darkness ; ;In) aluivsos, eternal life pdvetr, to abide.
(5) Interpreters. Among the ancient commen tators upon John's Gospel, Chrysostom deserves the first place. The two compilers, Theophylact, who died A. D. 11(37, and Euthymius Zigabenus, who died after A. D. 1118, are also worthy of notice. Among the Roman Catholic interpreters, Maldo flatus, who died in 1583, is distinguished by orig inality and accuracy. Calvin is distinguished above the other Reformers for the originality and ease of his interpretation, but his commentary on the Epistles is more carefully worked out than that on the Gospel. Beza is characterized by philological and critical learning. The most complete com mentary on the Gospel of John is that of Lampe, (Commentarius Exegetico-Anolytirus in Evange lism: Johannis, Amstelodami, 1637, 3 vols. 4to). The style of this commentary is tasteless and stiff, but in learning the author has not been surpassed by any other interpreter. Liicke (3d cd. 1840) is the most comprehensive of the modern commenta tors. Shorter commentaries have been written by Tholuck (5th ed.), by Olshausen (3d ed. 1832), and hy De Wette (2d ed. 1839).
As introductions to the study of the writings of John, we may mention Frommann's Johannerscher Lehrbegriff , 1831, and Neander's Abriss der Jo hanneischen Lehre in his Geschiehte der Pfianzung der Christlichen Kirche (3d ed. 1841, p. 75, sq.).
Against its Genuineness. See J. J. Taylor, At tempt to ascertain the Character of the Fourth Gospel, Lond., 1867; Davidson, lntrod. to the N. T., Land., 1868; Was John the Author of the Fourth Gospel/ by a layman, Lond., tS68.
For the Genuineness. See Fisher, The uineness of the Fourth Gospel, in Essays on the Supernatural Origin of Christianity, N. Y. 1866; Thenius, Das Evangelium der Evangelien, 1865 ; Gage's trans]. of The Origin of the Four Gos pels, by Tischendorf, Am. Tract. Soc. 1868; Row. Hist. Character of the GosPels tested, Journal of Sacr. Lit. Oct., 1865, July, 1866; Mombert, Origin of the dospels, in Bibl. Sacra, Oct., 1866; F. Clarke, The Fourth Gospel and its Author, in Christian Exam., Jan., t868. On doctrine see Westcott, Introd. to the Study of the Gospels, Boston, 1862; Scholten, Das Ev. ;tacit Johannes, Berl., 1867; Neander, und Leitung, Eng. trans]. by Robinson, N. Y., 1865.