Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898)
JOHN, identical with JOHA'NAN (whom Jehovah loves; comp. the German Gottlieb). One of the high priest's kindred. Acts 4:6. The Hebrew name of Mark the evangelist. Acts 12:25; Josh 13:5; Acts 15:37. " Matt 3:1. T. His parents were old when they received the promise of his birth. Luke 1:18. See Zechariah. He was born about six months before Christ. His birth and work were predicted by the angel Gabriel, Luke 1:5-15, and by Isaiah, Isa 40:3, and Malachi. Mal 4:5.
He grew up in solitude, and when about 30 years of age began to preach in the wilderness of Judaea, and to call men to repentance and reformation. " John 1:19-28. His manner of life was solitary, and even austere; for he seems to have shunned the habitations of men and to have subsisted on locusts and wild honey, while his dress was made of the coarse hair of camels, and a leathern girdle was about his loins. " Matt 3:2. " Matt 3:17.
By this, John knew most certainly that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah, and afterward pointed him out to his own disciples and announced to the people that he was then among them. John 1:26-36. " The testimony of John to the divine nature and offices of the Redeemer is full and distinct. John 1:29; John 3:28-32. The message he sent by his disciples while he was in prison was for their sakes rather than his own, although it is not impossible that his own faith was temporarily clouded by the gloom of the prison. Matt 11:1-6.
The preaching of John was awakening and alarming, and produced a deep impression on the minds of his hearers, but with most it was but temporary. They rejoiced in his light only for a season. Among the hearers of John was Herod, the tetrarch of Galilee. This wicked prince not only heard him, but heard him with delight, and reformed his conduct in many points in consequence of his solemn warnings, Mark 6:20; but there was one sin which he would not relinquish. He had put away his own wife, and had married Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, who was still living.
For this iniquity John faithfully reproved the tetrarch, by which he was so much offended that he would have killed the preacher had he not feared an insurrection of the people, for all men held John to be a prophet. Matt 14:5. He went so far, however, as to shut him up in prison. The resentment of Herodias was still stronger and more implacable toward the man who had dared to reprove her sin. She therefore watched for some opportunity to wreak her vengeance on this prophet of the Lord.
On Herod's birthday, when all the principal men of the country were feasting with him, Salome, the daughter of Herodias, danced so gracefully before the company that Herod was charmed beyond measure, and declared with an oath that he would give her whatever she asked, even to the half of his kingdom. She immediately asked the advice of her mother, who told her to request the head of John the Baptist. Herod, whose resentment against him seems to have subsided, was exceedingly sorry, but out of regard to his oath, as he said, and respect for his company, he caused John to be beheaded.
His head was brought on a platter and presented to the young dancer, who immediately gave it to her mother. Thus terminated the life of him who, of all the prophets of old, came nearest to Christ, and was in this sense the greatest born among women, yet less than "least in the kingdom" of Christ. Matt 11:11. e. gifted with his power and spirit. He summed up the whole meaning of the Jewish dispensation, the Law, and the prophecy in its direct termination in Christ, who came to fulfil the Law and the promise. " Josephus also confirms the gospel account of the murder of John. , xviii. 5^2.
" Comp. with Matt 27:56; Mark 15:40; Luke 23:49. He was probably born at Bethsaida. Matt 4:18, Matt 4:21. His parents were in comfortable circumstances, for his father had hired servants, Mark 1:20, and a partnership in business. Luke 5:10. His mother was one of the women who gave of their substance for the support of Jesus, Luke 8:3, and came with spices to embalm his body. Mark 16:1. The apostle himself was acquainted with the high priest and his court, John 18:15, and had property in Jerusalem. John 19:27. He with James, his brother, carried on the business of fishing with their father.
But the fame of the new prophet, John the Baptist, reached Galilee, and with his friends, Peter, Andrew, and Philip, he eagerly advocated the claims of the Baptist, and became one of his followers. In this school he was prepared for a far higher service. He who faithfully obeyed the Forerunner was brought soon to the Lord. " John 1:36. He followed Jesus unto his abode, saw the marvellous works he performed, and from that hour was a convert to the new faith. But not as yet was he called.
He resumed his trade for a time, until Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, caught a glimpse of his old acquaintances, Peter and Andrew, James and John, and by the same command, "Follow me," counted them among the twelve apostles who form the first layer of God's spiritual building. Eph 2:20. " Comp. the German Gottlieb. Did we know nothing more of him than this, we should know enough to stamp him as the worthiest of sinful mortals; he who was the chosen friend of the sinless One must have possessed rare qualities of heart and mind.
He was, along with James and Peter, the spectator of all the more private events of the Saviour's life. He saw the glories of the transfiguration, rejoiced in the restoration of Jairus's daughter, wondered at the resurrection of Lazarus, leaned on the Saviour's breast at the Last Supper, and was nearest to him in the garden. He alone of the apostles attended the crucifixion. It was, then, fitting that to him, at the cross, should be committed the care of the widowed mother of Jesus. " John 21:22. After the ascension Peter, James, and John are the pillar apostles. Gal 2:1-9.
They work miracles, are the sources of counsel, and the heads of the infant Church. In the year 50, Paul meets them, and how cordial a greeting would the ardent lover of Jesus receive from John, whose mind was stored with those precious memories he was destined to write down for the edification and enjoyment of all future time! But when Paul for the last time visited Jerusalem, in 68, John was not there - so do we interpret Luke's silence. Acts 21:18 - having entered upon those wider labors which made him so much beloved.
He made Ephesus the centre of his operations, and had, after Paul's martyrdom, according to unanimous tradition, the supervision in general of the churches of Asia Minor. This oversight began in the year 64. d. 54-68, in the year 68, he was banished to Patmos, a solitary, barren, rocky island in the AEgean Sea. There he had the visions recorded in Revelation. Rev 1:9. d. d. d. 70. " Another story relates to an earlier period. " These stories serve well to reveal the permanency of those traits of character which come out in the Gospels.
Down to the close John was "the son of thunder," intense in his feeling and vehement in his affection, and the "beloved disciple," of open mind and tender heart, of profound thought and burning zeal. When we compare him with the other apostles we learn his marked individuality. John is the "good" man, while James is the righteous man. John is the pensive, quiet, thoughtful man, while Peter is the active, practical man.
"Both these disciples loved the Lord with all the heart, but, as Grotius finely remarks, Peter was more a friend of 'Christ,' John of 'Jesus' - that is, the one revered and loved the Saviour chiefly in his official Messianic character, the other was attached most of all to his person, and was therefore personally still nearer to him, being, so to speak, his bosom-friend. John and Paul have depth of knowledge in common. They are the two disciples who have left us the most complete systems of doctrine.
But while Paul is the representative of genuine scholasticism in the best sense of the term, being an exceedingly acute thinker and an accomplished dialectician, John is a representative of all true mysticism, learning from intuition and contemplation. Not inaptly has Peter been styled the apostle of hope, Paul the apostle of faith, and John the apostle of love. " - Shaff: Apost. , pp. 410,411. Full of days and of honors, highly privileged and richly endowed, about the close of the century "the disciple whom Jesus loved" was summoned by the Master to resume their loving companionship.
John, Gospel of. d. 70 and 95. The particular design of it is expressed by the author to be that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that, believing, we might have life through his name. John 20:31. Hence the subjects and discourses of this book have special relation to our Lord's character and offices, and are evidently intended to prove his nature, authority, and doctrines as divine. John probably had the other Gospels before him, or was familiar with their general contents.
This fact affords substantial evidence of the genuineness of these writings, and also accounts for the omission of many important occurrences which are particularly stated by the other evangelists. We should not regard John, however, as attempting to correct the other evangelists, or merely to supplement them. This idea is at once contradicted by his having many points in common with them. His work is all one effusion, and though it serves as a valuable complement to the other Gospels is yet a complete whole in itself. John wrought on a fixed plan.
He grouped all the events around the several Jewish feasts, mentioning three - indeed, probably four - Passovers, John 2:13; Jud 5:1; Am 6:4; John 11:55; Neh 12:1; Acts 13:1, one feast of tabernacles, John 7:2, and one feast of dedication, Num 10:22, But there is likewise a certain inward order, a progressive development of the relation of Jesus to his disciples and the world; especially is this to be traced in the growth of love and devotion on the one hand, and of hate and rage of the unbelieving Jews on the other.
All through the history we hear the sound of the hammer in the making of his cross, but more loudly the shouting of the coming saints. The Gospel contains - A. The prologue, ch. 1:1-18; B, The history, ch. 1:19 to ch, 21. 1. The preparation for Jesus' public ministry, (a) by John, 1:19-36; (b) by the choice of disciples. 1:37-51. 2. The public labors of Jesus in doctrine and miracle, chs. 2-12, 3. Jesus in the private circle of his disciples, chs. 13-17. 4. The history of the passion and resurrection or public glorification of the Lord, chs. 18-21. "The Gospel of John is the Gospel of Gospels.
It is the most remarkable as well as most important literary production ever composed. . . . It is a marvel even in the marvellous Book of books. It is the most spiritual and ideal of Gospels. It brings us, as it were, into the immediate presence of Jesus. " - Special Introd. by Dr. Schaff to Lange on John. The Gospel of John is a battlefield of modern criticism, but the fight is in the main between belief and unbelief. It must also be confessed that the latter is fairly defeated. T. It is this fact which gives bitterness to the frequent and often learned and plausible attacks made upon it.
The attempt has been made to assign it to some great "unknown" author in the second century, but at that time it was already widely known, and the second century is so far below the apostolic age that it could not possibly have produced such a work. Up to a quite modern date the genuineness of this Gospel was undisputed. The verses John 21:24-25 give the contemporary Ephesian testimony. 2 Pet 1:14 alludes to John 21:18.
Ignatius, Polycarp, the Epistle to Diognetus, Basilides, Justin Martyr, Tatian (especially in the light of the recent discovery of a commentary of Ephraem Syrus on Tatian's Diatessaron), impliedly quote from it. This carries the date up to the middle of the second century, when it was in current use. The external evidence is in favor of John's authorship, while internally it is so befitting the known character and opportunities of John that it is either from him or else it is a forgery.
But it cannot be a forgery; it is too self-possessed, too well-balanced, too original, too profound, too divine. The heart of Christ throbs in no liar's breast. The high-priestly prayer came from the hand of no hypocritical or designing man. Read the Gospel and compare it with the productions of the Fathers, and you will endorse the statement, "Verily, no man in the second century, or of any other subsequent century, could have written the work. " - Schaff. And in this conclusion the heart of Christendom will always abide. The Epistles of John are three in number.
They were written in Ephesus, after the Gospel, though before the date of the Revelation. Dr. Lange assigns them between the years 96 and 100. The First has always been attributed to John, though his name is neither prefixed nor subscribed. It is a kind of practical application of the Gospel.
It is addressed to Christians, and does not aim, therefore, to produce, but to nourish, the Christian life, to warn them against all errors, and to induct them into the mysteries of redeeming love and into the principles and duties which the religion of Christ enjoins, and to furnish them with certain signs or criteria by which to determine the genuineness of their faith. " The elect lady is supposed to have been some honorable woman distinguished for piety, and well known in the churches as a disciple of Christ.
Some, however, have thought some particular church and its members might be denoted. Those who adopt the latter opinion apply the term to the church at Jerusalem, and the term "elect sister" 2 John 13, to the church at Ephesus. The title of "elder" was indicative of the apostle's office, with a reference also to his great age, then not far from 100 years, as it is supposed.
The substance of this letter is an exhortation to continual obedience and an admonition against deceivers, especially against a new form of error, that Christ was a man in appearance only, and not in reality, and therefore his sufferings and death were not real. The Third Epistle, which is addressed to Gaius, or Caius, a private individual, and is commendatory of his piety, was written about the same time with the others. John, Revelation of. See Revelation.