5. Characteristies.—There is something peculiar in the Evangelist's manner of writing. His lan guage betrays traces of that Hebraistic character which belongs generally to the N. T. writers, and the author shews his Jewish descent by various incidental indications. But he writes purer Greek than most of the otbers, micl his freedom from Judaic narrowness is so marked that some have founded on this an argument against the genuine ness of the book, forgetting that the experiences of the apostle in his more advanced years would materially tend to correct the prejudices and party leanings of his earlier career. The apostle's style is marked by ease, simplicity, and vividness ; his sentences are linked together rather by inner affinity in the thoughts than by outward forms of composition or dialectic concatenation ; they move on one after the other, generally with the help of an orw, sometimes of a Kai, and occasionally of a 6-e; and favourite terms or phrases are repeated without regard to rhetorical art. The author wrote evidently for Hellenist readers ; but he makes no atte:npt at Greek elegance or that wisdom of words which with many in his day constituted the perfection of Greek art.
6. Time and place of writing.— Ecclesiastical tradition is constant and uniform in affirming that this Gospel was written in the later part of the apostle's life, and at Ephesus ; and with this the internal evidence fully accords. The Gospel bears traces having been written at a distance from Palestine, and by- one who had been a considerable time out of it ; and as John probably did not take up his residence at Ephesus till the destruction of Jerusalem, if we accept the tradition which makes Ephesus the place of his writing, we cannot fix the time earlier than in the last decade of the ist century. A later tradition makes Patmos the place
where the Gospel was written, but to this no re gard is due. The date and place assigned by the earlier tradition fall in with the fact above noticed as characteristic of this Gospel, viz., the purer Greek in which it is written and the freedom from Jewish narrowness which the author exhibits.
7. Commentaries. —Of patristic commentaries the most valuable are the Exposition of Augustine and thc Homilies of Chrysostom ; and next to these the compilations of Theophylact and Euthymius Zigabenus. Among the reformers those of Calvin and Beza are chiefly deserving of notice. That of the Roman Catholic Maldonatus is distinguished by originality, accuracy, and penetration. The most copious is that of Lampe, 1637, 3 vols. 4to, which in respect of learning leaves little to be de siderated. More recent works are those of Sem ler, 1771; Mosheim, 1777 ; Morns, 2d ed. IS0S ; Tittrnann, 1816, tmnslated in the Edinburgh Bib lical Cabinet ; Lucke, 1820, 3d ed. 1840 ; Tho luck, 1827, 6th ed. 1844, translated by Krauth ; Klee, 1829 ; Mattlizei, 1837 ; Baunigarten-Crusius, 1843 ; Luthardt, 1853 ; Ewald, 1862 ; Hengsten berg, 1863 ; and the commentaries in the more general works of Grotius, Whitby, De Wctte, Olshausen, Lange, Alford, Bloomfield, and Words worth. Much may be gained also for the due understanding of John's writings from Schmid, De theologia 7oan. Apost., Jen. 1800 ; Frommann, Der yohan. Lehrbegrif, Leipz. 1839 ; Koestlin, Der Lehrb. der Evang. und a'er Br. yok., Berl. 1843; Neander, Apost. Zeit., Th. ii., E. T. ii.; Reuss, Histoire de la Theo/. ii. 273-466.— W. L. A.