JOHN THE APOSTLE

where James (not the son ot Zebedee), Cephas, and John are 'reputed to be pillars' in the Church at Jerusalem.

Our knowledge of John's history and character is largely increased, and the interest in his personaUty is greatly deepened, if he is identified with 'the disciple whom Jesus loved,' the author of the Fourth Gospel, and the John of the Apocalypse. Both these points are strongly contested in modern times, though the identifi-cationis supported by an early, wide-spread, and steadily maintained tradition. An examination of these questions will be found on pp. 479, 483, 797''; but here it may be pointed out what additional light is shed on John's life and character if his authorship of the Fourth Gospel is admitted. In Jn IS^^ the disciple whom Jesus loved is spoken of as ' reclining in Jesus' bosom ' at the Last Supper. The phrase implies that on the chief couch at the meal, holding three persons, Jesus was in the middle and John on His right hand, thus being brought more directly face to face with the Master than Peter, who occupied the left-hand place. This explains the expres-sion of \.^ 'he, leaning back, as he was, on Jesus' breast'; as well as Peter's 'beckoning' mentioned in v.^. John has been also identified with the 'other disciple' mentioned in Jn 18"- '« as known to the high priest and having a right of entrance into the court, which was denied to Peter. Again, the disciple whom Jesus loved is described in Jn 19^ as standing by the cross of Jesus with His mother, as receiving the sacred charge impUed by the words, ' Woman, behold thy soni ' and 'Behold thy motherl' and as thenceforth providing a home for one who was of his near kindred. In 20' he accompanies Peter to the tomb of Jesus; and while he reached the sepulchre first, Peter was the first to enter in, but John was apparently the first to ' beUeve.' In ch. 21 the two sons of Zebedee are among the group of seven disciples to whom our Lord appeared at the Sea of Tiberias, and again the disciple whom Jesus loved and Peter are distinguished; the one as the first to discern the risen Lord upon the shore, the other as the first to plunge into the water to go to Him. The Gospel closes with an account of Peter's inquiry concerning the future of his friend and companion on so many occasions; and in 19'' as well as in 21^ it is noted that the disciple 'who wrote these things' bore witness of that which he himself had seen, and that his witness is true.

It is only necessary to add that the John mentioned in Eev 1'- ' as writing to the Seven Churches in Asia from the island of Patmos was identified by early tradition with the son of Zebedee. If this be correct, much additional light is cast upon the later life of the Apostle John (see Revelation [Book op]).

2. Early tradition.— Outside the NT only vague tradition enables us to fill up the gap left by Christ's answer to Peter's question, 'Lord, and what shall this man do?' We may gather that he spent several years in Jerusalem. After an indefinite interval he is under-stood to have settled in Ephesus. Eusebius states (HE iii. 18, 20) that during the persecution of Domitian 'the apostle and evangelist John' was banished to Patmos, and that on the accession of Nerva (a.d. 98) he returned from the island and took up his abode in Ephesus, according to 'an ancient Christian tradition' (lit. 'the word of the ancients among us'). TertulUan mentions a miraculous deUverance from a cauldron of boiling oil to which John had been condemned during a persecution in Rome, presumably under Domitian. Eusebius further states that John was Uving in Asia and governing the churches there as late as the reign of Trajan. He bases this assertion upon the evidence of Irenseus and Clement of Alexandria. The former says that ' all the elders associated with John the disciple of the Lord in Asia bear witness,' and that he remained in Ephesus until the time of Trajan. Clement recites at length the well-known touching incident concerning St. John and the young disciple who fell into evil ways and became the chief of a band of robbers, as having

476

JOHN THE APOSTLE

occurred when 'after the tyrant's death he returned from the isle of Patmos to Ephesus.' TertulUan con-firms the tradition of a residence in Ephesus by quoting the evidence of the Church of Smyrna that their bishop Polycarp was appointed by John (de Pr. Hmr. 32). Polyc-rates, bishop of Ephesus towards the end of the 2nd cent., in a letter to Victor, bishop of Rome, speaks of one among the 'great Ughts' in Asia — 'John, who was both a witness and a teacher, who reclined upon the bosom of the Lord, and, being a priest, wore the sacerdotal plate,' as having fallen asleep at Ephesus. The Mura-torian Fragment, which dates about a.d. 180, records an account of the origin of the Fourth Gospel, to the effect that John wrote it in obedience to a special revelation made to himself and Andrew. This story is somewhat mythical in character and is not elsewhere confirmed, but it proves the early prevalence of the belief in the Apostolic origin of the Gospel. Irenseus states that the Gospel was written specially to confute unbelievers like Cerinthus, and tells, on the authority of those who had heard it from Polycarp, the familiar story that St. John refused to remain under the same roof with the arch-heretic, lest the building should fall down upon him. Ephesus is said to have been the scene of this incident. All traditions agree that he lived to a great age, and it is Jerome {in Gal. vl. 10) who tells of his being carried into the church when unable to walk or preach, and simply repeating the words, ' Little children, love one another,' Christ's enigmatical answer to Peter, 'If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?' led, as Jn 21^' indicates, to the beUef that John would not die, but would be translated.

Still, in spite of the record, the legend lingered long in the Church, and is mentioned by Augustine, that though apparently dead, the beloved Apostle was only asleep, and that the dust upon his tomb rose and fell with his breathing. The poet Browning, in his Death in the Desert, adopts the ancient tradition concerning the Apostle's great age and hngering death, and imagines him recalled from a deep trance and the very borderland of the grave to deliver a last inspired message.

The universal belief of the early Church that St. John maintained a prolonged ministry in Ephesus has never been challenged till recent years. The arguments adduced against it, though quite inadequate to set aside positive evidence, have been accepted Ijy critics of weight, and at least deserve mention. The chief fact of importance urged is the silence of writers who might well be expected to make some reference to it. Poly-carp in his letter to the Philippians, and Ignatius in writing to the Ephesians, refer to Paul and his writings, but not to John or his ministry. Clement of Rome, writing about 93-95 concerning the Apostles and their successors, makes no reference to John as an eminent survivor, but speaks of the Apostolic age as if completely past. If John did labour in Asia for a generation, and was Uving in the reign of Trajan, it is not unnatural to expect that fuller reference to the fact would be found in the writings of the sub-ApostoUc Fathers. But the reply is twofold. First, the argument from silence is always precarious. The Uterature of the eariy years of the 2nd cent, is very scanty, and Uttle is known of the circumstances under which the fragmentary documents were written or of the precise objects of the writers. The silence of the Acts of the Apostles in the 1st cent., and of Eusebius in the 4th, is in many respects quite as remarkable as their speech and much more inexplicable. It is quite impossible for the most acute critic in the 20th cent, to reproduce the conditions of an obscure period, and to understand precisely why some sub-jects of little importance to us are discussed in its Uterature and others of apparently greater significance ignored.

It is the weight of positive evidence, however, on which the tradition really rests. Irenseus, in a letter to Florinus preserved for us by Eusebius, describes how