《The Biblical Illustrator – John (Ch.0~1)》(A Compilation)

General Introduction

Over 34,000 pages in its original 56 volume printing, the Biblical Illustrator is a massive compilation of treatments on 10,000 passages of Scripture. It is arranged in commentary form for ease of use in personal study and devotion, as well as sermon preparation.

Most of the content of this commentary is illustrative in nature, and includes from hundreds of famous authors of the day such as Dwight L. Moody, Charles Spurgeon, J. C. Ryle, Charles Hodge, Alexander MacLaren, Adam Clark, Matthew Henry, and many more. The collection also includes lesser known authors published in periodicles and smaller publications popular in that ara. Unlike modern publishers, Exell was apparently not under any pressure to consolidate the number of pages.

While this commentary is not known for its Greek or Hebrew exposition, the New Testament includes hundreds of references to, and explanations of, Greek words.

Joseph S. Exell edited and compiled the 56 volume Biblical Illustrator commentary. You will recognize him as the co-editor of the famous Pulpit Commentary (this commentary is even larger than the Pulpit Commentary). This remarkable work is the triumph of a life devoted to Biblical research and study. Assisted by a small army of students, the Exell draws on the rich stores of great minds since the beginning of New Testament times.

The Biblical Illustrator brings Scripture to life in a unique, illuminating way. While other commentaries explain a Bible passage doctrinally, this work illustrates the Bible with a collection of:

  • illustrations
  • outlines
  • anecodtes
  • history
  • poems
  • expositions
  • geography
  • sermons
  • Bible backgrounds
  • homiletics

for nearly every verse in the Bible. This massive commentary was originally intended for preachers needing help with sermon preperation (because who else in that day had time to wade through such a lengthy commentary?). But today, the Biblical Illustrator provides life application, illumination, inspiriation, doctrine, devotion, and practical content for all who teach, preach, and study the Bible.

00 Overview

JOHN

INTRODUCTION

S T . J OHN THE A POSTLE

1. HIS PERSONALITY AS APPREHENDED BY MODERN STUDENTS. To most of us the Apostle dwells apart, in a dim, solemn region of mystery. He seems to look out upon us with gentle, dreamy eyes--a man of meditative calmness and repose, intensely intuitional, speaking in words of childlike, mystic simpleness, whose drift and scope baize our logical methods to apprehend. With a kind of vague intention we are content to call him “the Apostle of Love” while his meaning floats before us in twilight and distance. As our life in God deepens we begin to perceive that, while the image of the Lord mirrors itself in him, as the sky mirrors itself in the depths of the Galilean seas, he is no mere passive and idle recipient of light, no mere reflecting surface, but a great, loving, deeply spiritual soul, all aglow with adoration, and enthusiasm, and delight, and ever-living wonder, absorbed with the Lord, and resting in the calm assurance of His favour. As when one gazes with speculative eye into the star-lit azure, piercing far into its deep immensity, so (spiritually) does this man gaze into the depths of Christ with the gaze of love. (J. Culross, D. D.)

2. THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF HIS EARLY LIFE. His birthplace was probably Bethsaida, a fishing village on the Sea of Galilee, the native place also of Peter, Andrew, and Philip. This seems to be a natural inference from his intimate acquaintance with them, and from his being with them Matthew 4:18-21; John 1:40). His parents could not have been altogether poor: Zebedee had “hired servants” (Mark 1:20); Salome was one of the women who provided for the Saviour’s wants (Matthew 27:56), and who purchased spices to embalm him (Luke 23:55); and our Saviour, when He was dying, commended Mary to the care of John, and requested him to take her to his own house. That Zebedee was in good circumstances, and in a respectable social position, may perhaps also be inferred from the fact that John was known by the high priest (chap. 18:15). Under these circumstances, the supposition is natural that the Evangelist had received some education. He is, indeed, enumerated Acts 4:13), among the “ignorant,” but the Pharisees regarded all persons as such who had not pursued the Rabbinic study of the law, all who were not pupils of the Rabbins. It is probable that from his earliest years he had a religious bent, His mother Salome appears to have been a woman of piety, such was the devotion with which she attached herself to Jesus; her mind, too, was probably occupied with the Messlanic hopes, as we infer from the narrative in Matthew 20:20, from which we gather also her devoted love to her” children. Such a mother would be likely to exercise at an early period a hallowed influence on her children, and this would be fostered in John by his mode of life as a fisherman, which often led him to pass the quiet watches of the night on the waters, amid the enchantments of a region resembling that which encircles the Lake of Lucerne. (Tholuck.)

John inherited, no doubt, a good bodily organization. His parents were not doomed to breathe the impure air of a pent-up city. Their home was out in open nature, amidst the fresh breezes of the hills and of the sea. Their habits were not those of self-indulgence and indolence which generate disease, nor of hard brain work which tends to enervate the system. The work of the muscles and the limbs was their invigorating occupation. The child, thus inheriting a healthful frame, grew up amidst the same invigorating conditions. His early impressions from nature would be large and deep. Our greatness is determined by our ideas and our ideas by our impressions. Small ideas can never make a great man, nor can great ideas grow out of superficial impressions. Large plants must have a deep soil. Hence as a rule a man must be brought up amidst grand scenery to have a grand soul. To John’s young eye nature towered in some of her loveliest and most majestic aspects, and spoke, in the rustle of trees, the howl of winds, and the roar of billows, strange and stirring poetry to his soul. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

3. HIS HISTORY AS A FOLLOWER OF CHRIST. John first appears as a disciple of the Baptist. As such the visions which may have been awakened in his youthful fancy through the Suggestions of ancient prophecy must have become more fixed by the rigid tones of the great teacher. In such a state of mind, waiting for the hope of Israel, how welcome must have been the sight of the dove alighting on Christ’s head and the voice which proclaimed Him the well-beloved Son of God. But Jesus did not then begin His public ministry; He retired from the gaze of an expecting people to meet and subdue the chief adversary of His mission. To all who recognized Him as their long-looked-for Anointed, this must have been an interval of painful suspense. At length, however, as the Baptist and two of his disciples were standing together, Jesus drew near. A mere hint is sufficient to recall Him to their remembrance. The disciples overhear their master’s exclamation: “Lo, the Lamb of God!”--and immediately leaving him they follow Jesus. Nor are they willing to be separated from Him, till they have found out His abode and lived with Him. In this incident is contained the germ of that attachment between Christ and John which expanded with ever-increasing vigour and beauty on earth and is now perfected by the purity and ennobled by the higher association of heaven. In the next scene Jesus meets him on the shores of Tiberias, and calls him to be His constant follower. From this period to the end of the Saviour’s ministry all that is known of him is embraced in a few scattered incidents. With Peter and James he was present at the restoration of Jairus’s daughter. In the same company he was a witness of the transfiguration. At the last supper John reclined next to Christ, and was looked upon as His bosom friend. It was John’s sad privilege to behold the agony of Gethsemane. He fearlessly entered the hall of Pilate, and led in Peter who had been timidly loitering at the door. And how soothing, in the last dark hour of the crucifixion--like the mild beaming of the evening star on the edge of a retiring thundercloud--is that parting interchange of affection as the weeping eye of the beloved disciple meets the agonized yet tender look of the dying Saviour, and that simple charge is given, “Behold thy mother!” When the women reported that the stone had been rolled away from the sepulchre, Peter and John ran thither in company. After the resurrection John went into Galilee, and there meeting Jesus, according to appointment, he followed Him to receive his final instructions and promises. But soon the day of separation came, and Jesus ascended, leaving John and the other disciples to tarry at Jerusalem. (E. E. Salisbury.)

4. HIS LIFE SUBSEQUENT TO THE ASCENSION. After the ascension he continued in Jerusalem, at least for a time. Among the brethren at the election of Matthias, and on the Day of Pentecost, he accompanied Peter to the Temple, when the lame man was healed at the Gate Beautiful. Later in the day he was apprehended along with Peter and sent to prison; and on the morrow the two were cited before the Sanhedrim. With Peter he was afterwards despatched to Samaria (Acts 8:14). It is probable that soon after he withdrew from the metropolis to Galilee with the Virgin, induced to do so, it may be supposed, by the dislike of the latter to remain where her Lord (as well as her son) had been crucified, and by the increasing hostility of the Jews.(Acts 8:1). If this were so, it will explain how, three years after, on the occasion of Paul’s first visit, he did not meet with Galatians 1:18), whom he first saw fourteen years after Galatians 2:9). John, it is believed, had by this time returned to the head-quarters of the Church in Jerusalem, in consequence of the Virgin’s death in 48 A.D. Then, having resumed his natural position, he was recognized by St. Paul as one of the “pillars” of the Church. How long he abode hers is uncertain. Perhaps he accompanied the Church when it migrated to Pella, before the Roman war, about 67 A.D. In later years, though not till Paul’s death, possibly not till the deaths of Timothy and Titus had deprived the churches in Asia Minor of apostolic guidance, he settled at Ephesus. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.)

5. CLOSING YEARS. During the period of the labours of the Evangelist in these portions of0 Asia Minor, he was banished by one of the emperors to Patmos, where, according to Revelation 1:9, he wrote the Apocalypse. If Irenaeus and Eusebius are to be credited, the banishment must have occurred under Domitian (died 96 A.D.). We find in addition in Tertullian, in Jerome, and other writers, an account of John’s being taken to Rome under Domitian, of his being cast into a vessel of boiling oil, of his miraculous deliverance from it, and of his being subsequently removed to Patmos. There is an independent testimony that John suffered for the faith, in the fact that Polycrates, bishop of Ephesus (about 200 A.D.), calls him μάρτυς, “a martyr.” The return from exile is to be dated under Nerva. In the ecclesiastical tradition he appears as the centre of the Church-life in Asia Minor, insomuch, that in the controversies, as for example the one about Easter, and in the struggle with the Gnostics, he is referred to, and frequent mention is made of his disciples and hearers. When he had reached, as Jerome tells us, his extremest old age, he became too feeble to walk to the meetings, and was carried to them by young men. He could no longer say much, but he constantly repeated the words: “Little children, love one another!” When he was asked why he constantly repeated this expression, his answer was: “Because this is the command of the Lord, and because enough is done if but this one thing be done.” (Tholuck.)

6. DEATH. We are ignorant of the time and circumstances of his death. Conjecture ranges from 89 A.D. to 120 A.D. Chrysostom affirms that he was a hundred years old when he wrote his Gospel, and that he lived full twenty years after. It does not appear that he died by violence, but peacefully upon his bed, most probably in Ephesus, amidst his “little children.” One likes to imagine the tranquility of the last scenes, in keeping with the tenor of his life. In all likelihood, his dust lies somewhere amidst the wild jungle that has overspread the neighbourhood. With the setting of “that last Resplendence” the age of common history begins. The churches found it difficult to believe that he had really passed away; the saying had gone abroad among them that he should not die, but should continue until the appearing of the Lord; and so in course of time the legend was framed--that he was not really dead, but only sleeping in his grave. It was notwholly an error; for “he lives and will ever live by his writings, and the future belongs to him even more than the past.” (J. Culross, D. D.)

7. TRADITIONS.

John and Cerinthus

One day as the Apostle was entering the public bath at Ephesus, the Apostle learned that the heretic was within. Immediately he sprang from the place, exclaiming, “Let us flee, lest the house fall upon us, since Cerinthus, the enemy of truth, is within.” Jeremy Taylor pronounces this a good precedent for us, when the case is equal. St. John could discern the spirit of Cerinthus, whose heresy was fundamental, and the Apostle was a person assisted up to infallibility. “And possibly,” he adds, “it was done by the whisper of a prophetic spirit and upon a miraculous design; for immediately upon his retreat the bath fell down, and crushed Cerinthus in the ruins.” More to the point is the bishop’s counsel, that we should not quickly, nor upon slight grounds, nor unworthy instances, call heretic. (J. Culross, D. D.)

The partridge and the hunter

In his old age the Apostle used to find pleasure in the attachment of a tamed partridge, One day, as he held it in his bosom and was gently stroking it, a huntsman suddenly approached, and wondering that one so illustrious should take to such a trivial amusement, he asked, “Art thou that John whose singular renown had inspired even me with a great desire to know thee? How then canst thou occupy thyself with an employment so humble?” The Apostle replied, “What is that in thy hand?” He answered, “A bow.” “And why dost thou not always carry it bent?” “Because,” he answered, “it would in that case lose its strength; and when it was necessary to shoot, it would fail from the too continuous strain.” “Then let not this slight and brief relaxation of mine perplex thee,” answered the Apostle; “since without it the spirit would flag from the un-remitted strain, and fail when the call of duty came.” (John Cassian.)

St. John and the bandit

Visiting a town not far from Ephesus, and assembling with the wheather, he saw in the audience a young man, tall of stature and of noble countenance and ardent spirit. Addressing the pastor of the church, he said: “I commit that young man to thy charge, and call Christ and the Church to witness that I do so.” The pastor of the church undertook, and for a time faithfully fulfilled, the charge. He instructed the young man in the faith, and by and by had the joy of receiving him into the church. Subsequently, however, he relaxed his watchfulness, and was led by idle and worthless acquaintances into temptation, and at length, believing salvation hopeless, he fully surrendered himself to evil, and became one of a company of brigands, of whom he was made the chief. Some time after this, John revisited the city, and addressing the pastor of the church, said, “Restore me now the pledge which I, with the Saviour, entrusted to your charge in the presence of the church.” And when he saw that his words were not understood, he added, “I reclaim the young man whose soul I entrusted to thee.” The pastor said, with tears, “He is dead.” “How?” asked the Apostle: “what death did he die?” “He is dead to God,” was the answer; “for he has become evil and reprobate; he was forced to flee for his crimes, and he is now a brigand among our mountains.” Immediately the Apostle, obtaining a horse and guide, rode off even as he was to the robber hold, and falling into the hands of the sentinels, required to be led at once to their chief. But when John was led into his presence, he at once fled, overwhelmed with shame. John, forgetting his years, ran after him, crying, “Why, my child, do you flee from me--from me, your father, an unarmed old man? Have compassion on me, my child; do not be afraid. You yet have a hope of life. I will yet give account to Christ for you. If needs be, I will gladly die for you, as Christ died for us. I will lay down my life for you. Stop! Believe, Christ hath sent me.” Hearing these words, he first stands still and casts his eyes upon the ground. He next throws away his arms, and commences trembling and weeping bitterly. When the old man approaches he clasps his knees, and with the most vehement agony pleads for forgiveness, baptizing himself anew as it were with his own tears: all this time, however, he conceals his right hand. But the Apostle, pledging himself, with an appeal to God for His truth, that he had obtained forgiveness from the Saviour for him, implores him even on his knees, and the hand he had held back he kisses as if it were cleansed again by his penitence. He finally led him back to the church. Here he pleaded with him earnestly, strove with him in fasting, urged him with monitions, until he was able to restore him to the church--an example of sincere repentance and genuine regeneration. (From Clement of Alexandria.)