《Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers – John (Vol. 1)》(Charles J. Ellicott)
Commentator
Charles John Ellicott, compiler of and contributor to this renowned Bible Commentary, was one of the most outstanding conservative scholars of the 18th century. He was born at Whitwell near Stamford, England, on April 25, 1819. He graduated from St. John's College, Cambridge, where other famous expositors like Charles Simeon and Handley Moule studied. As a Fellow of St. John's, he constantly lectured there. In 1847, Charles Ellicott was ordained a Priest in the Church of England. From 1841 to 1848, he served as Rector of Pilton, Rutlandshire. He became Hulsean Professor of Divinity, Cambridge, in 1860. The next three years, 1861 to 1863, he ministered as Dean of Exeter, and later in 1863 became the Lord Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol.
Conspicuous as a Bible Expositor, he is still well known for his Critical and Grammatical Commentaries on Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians and Philemon. Other printed works include Modern Unbelief, The Being of God, The History and Obligation of the Sabbath.
This unique Bible Commentary is to be highly recommended for its worth to Pastors and Students. Its expositions are simple and satisfying, as well as scholarly. Among its most commendable features, mention should be made of the following: It contains profitable suggestions concerning the significance of names used in Scripture.
00 Introduction
DE S. JOANNE EVANGELISTA.
WE pause on the threshold that leads from the Three Gospels to the Fourth, as from the Holy Place to the Holy of Holies; and I feel that there can be no better introduction to that innermost sanctuary than the hymn of which it has been truly said, that “sacred Latin poetry scarcely possesses, if indeed it possess,” anything grander or loftier. (Archbishop Trench, Sacred Latin Poetry, p. 72.) Many readers of this Volume will, I believe, thank me for giving them the opportunity of reading that hymn in the unapproachable majesty of the original. Others will, I hope, appreciate it in some measure, even in the weaker medium of a translation. The writer is unknown, but he was clearly one who had been trained in the school of Adam of St. Victor, whose hymn on the Cherubic Emblems of the Gospels has been already given (p. xliv.), and the disciple was not inferior to his master.
E. H. P.
Verbum Dei, Deo Natum,
Quod nec factum, nec creatum,
Venit de cœlestibus;
Hoc vidit, hoc attrectavit,
Hoc de cœlo reseravit,
Joannes hominibus.
Inter illos primitivos
Veros veri fontis rivos
Joannes exiliit;
Toti mundo propinare
Nectar illud salutare,
Quod de throno prodiit.
Cœlum transit, veri rotam
Solis vidit. ibi totam
Mentis figens aciem;
Speculator spiritalis,
Quasi Seraphim sub alis,
Dei vidit faciem.
Audiit in gyro sedis
Quid psallant cum citharædis,
Quater seni proceres:
De sigillo Trinitatis
Nostræ nummo civitatis
Impressit characteres.
Volat avis sine meta
Quo nec vates nec propheta
Evolavit altius:
Tam implenda quam impleta,
Nunquam vidit tot secreta
Purus homo purius.
Sponsus, rubra veste tectus,
Visus, sed non intellectus,
Redit ad palatium:
Aquilam Ezechielis
Sponsæ misit, quæ de cœlis
Referret mysterium.
Dic, dilecte, de Dilecto,
Qualis, adsit, et de lecto
Sponsi Sponsæ nuncia;
Dic quis cibus angelorum,
Quæ sint festa superorum
De Sponsi præsentia.
Veri panem intellectus,
Cænam Christi super pectus,
Christi sumptam resera:
Ut cantemus de Patrono,
Coram Agno, coram Throno,
Laudes super æthera.
The Word of God, the Eternal Son,
With God, the Uncreated, One,
Came down to earth from Heaven;
To see Him, handle Him, and show
His heavenly life to men below,
To holy John was given.
Among those four primeval streams
Whose living fount in Eden gleams,
John’s record true is known;
To all the world he poureth forth
The nectar pure of priceless worth
That flows from out the Throne.
Beyond the Heavens he soared, nor failed,
With all the spirit’s gaze unveiled,
To see our true Sun’s grace;
Not as through mists and visions dim,
Beneath the wings of Seraphim
He looked, and saw God s face.
He heard where songs and harps resound
And four and twenty elders round
Sing hymns of praise and joy:
The impress of the One in Three,
With print so clear that all may see,
He stamped on earth’s alloy.
As eagle winging loftiest flight
Where never seer’s or prophet’s sight
Had pierced the ethereal vast,
Pure beyond human purity,
He scanned, with still undazzled eye,
The future and the past.
The bridegroom, clad in garments red,
Seen, yet with might unfathomed,
Home to his palace hies;
Ezekiel’s eagle to His bride
He sends, and will no longer hide
Heaven’s deepest mysteries.
O loved one, bear, if thou can’st tell
Of Him whom thou did’st love so well,
Glad tidings to the Bride;
Tell of the angels’ food they taste,
Who with the Bridegroom’s presence graced,
Are resting at His side.
Tell of the soul’s true bread unpriced,
Christ’s supper, on the breast of Christ
In wondrous rapture ta’en;
That we may sing before the Throne
His praises, whom as Lord we own,
The Lamb we worship slain.
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN.
John.
BY
THE REV. H. W. WATKINS, M.A.,
Professor of Logic and Moral Philosophy at King’s College, London.
Quarti euangeliorum Iohannis ex decipolis
cohortantibus condescipulis et eps suis
dixit conieiunate mihi odie triduo et quid
cuique fuerit reuelatum alterutrum
nobis ennarremus eadem nocte reue
latum andreae ex apostolis ut recognis
centibus cuntis Iohannis suo nomine
cuncta discriberet et ideo licit uaria sin
culis euangeliorum libris principia
doceantur Nihil tamen differt creden
tium feidei cum uno ac principali s̄pû de
clarata sint in omnibus omnia de natidi
tate de passione de resurrectione
de conuersatione cum decipulis suis
ac de gemino eius aduentu
Primo In humilitate dispectus quod fo
tu secundum potestate regali pre
clarum quod foturum est. quid ergo
mirum si Iohannes tam constanter
sincula etiâ In epistulis suis proferat
dicens In semeipsu Quæ uidimus oculis
nostris et auribus audiuimus et manus
nostrae palpauerunt haec scripsimus
uobis
[Tregelles, CANON MURATORIANUS.
See Introduction, page 377.]
INTRODUCTION
TO
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN.
I. LIFE OF THE APOSTLE JOHN.
II. AUTHORSHIP OF THE GOSPEL.
III. TIME WHEN AND PLACE WHERE THE GOSPEL WAS WRITTEN.
IV. THE PURPOSE WHICH THE WRITER HAD IN VIEW.
V. CONTENTS AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPEL.
VI. SKETCH OF THE LITERATURE OF THE SUBJECT.
I. Life of the Apostle John.—Our sources of information for the life of the Apostle John are, (1) the Four Gospels themselves; (2) the Acts of the Apostles, with references in the Epistles; (3) the traditions which have come to us in the history of the early Church.
(1) From the Gospels we know that St. John was the son of Zebedee and Salome.
The father is mentioned only once in the narrative (Matthew 4:21-22; Mark 1:19-20), but the name occurs frequently as distinguishing the sons. He had “hired servants” (Mark 1:20); and John’s own connection with the family of the high priest (John 18:15; but see Note here), and the committal of Mary to his care (John 19:27), may also point to a position removed at least from the necessity, but not from the practice, of labour, which was customary among Jews of all classes (Matthew 4:21).
Of Salome we know little more. It has been assumed above that she was the wife of Zebedee, and the mother of St. John; and the assumption is based upon a comparison of Matthew 20:20; Matthew 27:56; Mark 15:40; Mark 16:1. (Comp. Notes on these passages.) It has also been frequently assumed that she was the sister of Mary, the mother of our Lord, mentioned in John 19:25 (comp. Note there); and although this cannot be regarded as proved, it is the most probable interpretation. It would follow from this that St. John was the cousin-german of our Lord. Salome was also one of the band of women who ministered unto the Lord of their substance (Matthew 27:56; Luke 8:3); and this falls in with the general impression which the narrative gives of the position of the family. She was present at the Crucifixion (Mark 15:40), and was one of those who brought spices for the embalmment (Mark 16:1). In one other passage she is mentioned, and there she appears as asking for her two sons the position of honour in the Messianic kingdom (Matthew 20:20 et seq.). Her prominence as compared with her husband, and the title “mother of Zebedee’s children,” makes it probable that she outlived him, and that the influence of the mother, whose zeal and love for her sons are illustrated in her ambitious request for them, was that which chiefly moulded the Apostle’s earlier years.
Another member of the household is known to us—James, who is usually mentioned first, and was presumably the elder of the pair of brothers. At the time of his death he was, however, known to St. Luke as “James the brother of John” (Acts 12:2), and the same writer inverts the order of the names in the same chapter (Luke 9:28 [? reading], Luke 9:52). In Acts 1:13, too, the better reading is Peter and John and James. The home of the family was on the shores of the Lake of Galilee, at Bethsaida, according to the usual conclusion from Luke 5:9 and John 1:44; or, perhaps, at Capernaum, which was not far from Bethsaida (Mark 1:29).
The sons of Jonas were companions of the sons of Zebedee when they are first mentioned, and had probably been friends in boyhood and youth. Whether the home was at Bethsaida or Capernaum, the Apostle was by birth a Galilean, as were all the Twelve, with the exception, perhaps, of Judas Iscariot. (Comp. Notes on John 6:71, and Acts 2:7.) He belonged, then, to the free, industrious, and warlike people of the North, who were despised by the more cultured inhabitants of Jerusalem, and upon whom the yoke of Judaism pressed less heavily than it did upon the dwellers in Judæa. Removed from the influence of scribes and Pharisees on the one hand, he would on the other hand grow up in contact with men of alien races and creeds, who were found in large numbers in the populous cities of Galilee. The union of Jewish and Greek characteristics which mark the man would be thus formed insensibly in the boy.
We know too little of the family life in Galilee eighteen centuries ago to be able to realise with any fulness and certainty how the years of the Apostle’s boyhood and youth were spent; and yet there are certain bold lines which can be distinctly traced. Up to the age of six he, like other Jewish children, would be taught by his parents at home, and then sent to one of the public schools, which, in the period after the Captivity, had been established in every town and important village in Judæa and Galilee. We know that after the fall of Jerusalem Tiberias became the seat of the most famous rabbinic school, and it is probable that there were already established on the shores of the Sea of Galilee the seminaries of doctors who had been themselves trained at Jerusalem. The lad would have gone to one of these higher seminaries at the age of sixteen, and would thus have been fitted for the work which, in the providence of God, lay before him, though he was not technically trained at the feet of a rabbi, and was therefore classed among the “unlearned and ignorant” (Acts 4:13).
At the age of twelve or thirteen, John would have been taken up, as we know that Jesus was, to keep the feasts at Jerusalem. The holy city, bound up with prophecy and psalm; the temple, the centre of every highest hope and thought which, at mother’s knee or at the feet of the teacher, had been instilled into his mind, now burst in all the glory of its reality upon this Galilean boy. What Oxford and Cambridge are to English schoolboys, or Rome to the pilgrim from distant lands, all this, and a thousand times more than all this, was the city of Zion to the Jewish pilgrim. Well may it be that the gorgeous ritual of the temple so impressed itself upon the receptive youthful mind as to furnish the imagery in which the Visions of the Apocalypse were afterwards to be clothed.
These visits would be repeated three times each year, and form the great events in the year’s course. The caravans, the pilgrim-songs, the discourses of rabbis and teachers, the ritual of the feasts themselves, would all leave their mark upon the opening mind, and lead to question and answer as to what these things meant.
In the intervals between the feasts, there would be the regular synagogue services and instructions, the converse with teachers and friends, the daily task in his father’s trade, the growth and development of character in and through all these outer circumstances.
The most prominent thought of the times, the subject on which men were ever musing and speaking of, was the expectation of the Messiah. Probably every well-trained Jewish boy expected that the Messiah would come before his own life would end. Together with this expectation of the Messiah there were hopes of freedom from the oppression of Rome; and the deep feeling of the masses frequently found vent in open insurrection. One remarkable attempt to throw off the hated yoke, which was for a time successful—when Judas the Gaulonite, and Sadoc the Pharisee, ruled the whole country—must have occurred when John was yet a boy, and his spirit must have been fired by the cry of their watchword, “God only is our Lord and Master.” (Comp. Jos. Ant. xviii. 1.)