DISCOURSES OF JESUS IN THE FOURTH GOSPEL.
§ 80.
CONVERSATION OF JESUS WITH NICODEMUS.
The first considerable specimen which the fourth gospel gives of the
teaching of Jesus, is his conversation with Nicodemus (iii. 1–21). In
the previous chapter (23–25) it is narrated, that during the first
passover attended by Jesus after his entrance on his public ministry,
he had won many to faith in him by the miracles, σημεῖα, which he
performed, but that he did not commit himself to them because he saw
through them: he was aware, that is, of the uncertainty and impurity of
their faith. Then follows in our present chapter, as an example, not
only of the adherents whom Jesus had found even thus early, but also of
the wariness with which he tested and received them, a more detailed
account how Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews and a Pharisee, applied to
him, and how he was treated by Jesus.
It is through the Gospel of John alone that we learn anything of this
Nicodemus, who in vii. 50 f. appears as the advocate of Jesus, so far
as to protest against his being condemned without a hearing, and in
xix. 39 as the partaker with Joseph of Arimathea of the care of
interring Jesus. Modern criticism, with reason, considers it surprising
that Matthew (with the other synoptists) does not even mention the name
of this remarkable adherent of Jesus, and that we have to gather all
our knowledge of him from the fourth gospel; since the peculiar
relation in which Nicodemus stood to Jesus, and his participation in
the care of his interment, must have been as well known to Matthew as
to John. This difficulty has been numbered among the arguments which
are thought to prove that the first gospel was not written by the
Apostle Matthew, but was the product of a tradition considerably more
remote from the time and locality of Jesus. [1019] But the fact is that
the common fund of tradition on which all the synoptists drew had
preserved no notice of this Nicodemus. With touching piety the
Christian legend has recorded in the tablets of her memory, the names
of all the others who helped to render the last honours to their
murdered master—of Joseph of Arimathea and the two Marys (Matt. xxvii.
57–61 parall.); why then was Nicodemus the only neglected one—he who
was especially distinguished among those who tended the remains of
Jesus, by his nocturnal interview with the teacher sent from God, and
by his advocacy of him among the chief priests and Pharisees? It is so
difficult to conceive that the name of this man, if he had really
assumed such a position, would have vanished from the popular
evangelical tradition without leaving a single trace, that one is
induced to inquire whether the contrary supposition be not more capable
of explanation: namely, that such a relation between Nicodemus and
Jesus might have been fabricated by tradition, and adopted by the
author of the fourth gospel without having really subsisted.
John xii. 42, it is expressly said that many among the chief rulers
believed on Jesus, but concealed their faith from dread of
excommunication by the Pharisees, because they loved the praise of men
more than the praise of God. [1020] That towards the end of his career
many people of rank believed in Jesus, even in secret only, is not very
probable, since no indication of it appears in the Acts of the
Apostles; for that the advice of Gamaliel (Acts v. 34 ff.) did not
originate in a positively favourable disposition towards the cause of
Jesus, seems to be sufficiently demonstrated by the spirit of his
disciple Saul. Moreover the synoptists make Jesus declare in plain
terms that the secret of his Messiahship had been revealed only to
babes, and hidden from the wise and prudent (Matt. xi. 25; Luke x. 21),
and Joseph of Arimathea is the only individual of the ruling class whom
they mention as an adherent of Jesus. How, then, if Jesus did not
really attach to himself any from the upper ranks, came the case to be
represented differently at a later period? In John vii. 48 f. we read
that the Pharisees sought to disparage Jesus by the remark that none of
the rulers or of the Pharisees, but only the ignorant populace,
believed on him; and even later adversaries of Christianity, for
example, Celsus, laid great stress on the circumstance that Jesus had
had as his disciples ἐπιῤῥήτους ἀνθρώπους, τελώνας καὶ ναύτας τοὺς
πονηροτάτους. [1021] This reproach was a thorn in the side of the early
church, and though as long as her members were drawn only from the
people, she might reflect with satisfaction on the declarations of
Jesus, in which he had pronounced the poor, πτωχοὺς, and simple,
νηπίους, blessed: yet so soon as she was joined by men of rank and
education, these would lean to the idea that converts like themselves
had not been wanting to Jesus during his life. But, it would be
objected, nothing had been hitherto known of such converts. Naturally
enough, it might be answered; since fear of their equals would induce
them to conceal their relations with Jesus. Thus a door was opened for
the admission of any number of secret adherents among the higher class
(John xii. 42 f.). But, it would be further urged, how could they have
intercourse with Jesus unobserved? Under the veil of the night, would
be the answer; and thus the scene was laid for the interviews of such
men with Jesus (xix. 39). This, however, would not suffice; a
representative of this class must actually appear on the scene: Joseph
of Arimathea might have been chosen, his name being still extant in the
synoptical tradition; but the idea of him was too definite, and it was
the interest of the legend to name more than one eminent friend of
Jesus. Hence a new personage was devised, whose Greek name Νικόδημος
seems to point him out significantly as the representative of the
dominant class. [1022] That this development of the legend is confined
to the fourth gospel, is to be explained, partly by the generally
admitted lateness of its origin, and partly on the ground that in the
evidently more cultivated circle in which it arose, the limitation of
the adherents of Jesus to the common people would be more offensive,
than in the circle in which the synoptical tradition was formed. Thus
the reproach which modern criticism has cast on the first gospel, on
the score of its silence respecting Nicodemus, is turned upon the
fourth, on the score of its information on the same subject.
These considerations, however, should not create any prejudice against
the ensuing conversation, which is the proper object of our
investigations. This may still be in the main genuine; Jesus may have
held such a conversation with one of his adherents, and our Evangelist
may have embellished it no further than by making this interlocutor a
man of rank. Neither will we, with the author of the Probabilia, take
umbrage at the opening address of Nicodemus, nor complain, with him,
that there is a want of connexion between that address and the answer
of Jesus. [1023] The requisition of a new birth (γεννηθῆναι ἄνωθεν), as
a condition of entrance into the kingdom of heaven, does not differ
essentially from the summons with which Jesus opens his ministry in the
synoptical gospels, Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
New birth, or new creation, was a current image among the Jews,
especially as denoting the conversion of an idolater into a worshipper
of Jehovah. It was customary to say of Abraham, that when, according to
the Jewish supposition, he renounced idolatry for the worship of the
true God, he became a new creature (בריה חדשה). [1024] The proselyte,
too, in allusion to his relinquishing all his previous associations,
was compared to a new-born child. [1025] That such phraseology was
common among the Jews at that period, is shown by the confidence with
which Paul applies, as if it required no explanation, the term new
creation, καινὴ κτίσις, to those truly converted to Christ. Now, if
Jesus required, even from the Jews, as a condition of entrance into the
messianic kingdom, the new birth which they ascribed to their heathen
proselytes, Nicodemus might naturally wonder at the requisition, since
the Israelite thought himself, as such, unconditionally entitled to
that kingdom: and this is the construction which has been put upon his
question v. 4. [1026] But Nicodemus does not ask, How canst thou say
that a Jew, or a child of Abraham, must be born again? His ground of
wonder is that Jesus appears to suppose it possible for a man to be
born again, and that when he is old. It does not, therefore, astonish
him that spiritual new birth should be expected in a Jew, but corporeal
new birth in a man. How an oriental, to whom figurative speech in
general—how a Jew, to whom the image of the new birth in particular
must have been familiar—how especially a master of Israel, in whom the
misconstruction of figurative phrases cannot, as in the apostles (e.g.
Matt. xv. 15 f.; xvi. 7), be ascribed to want of education—could
understand this expression literally, has been matter of extreme
surprise to expositors of all parties, as well as to Jesus (v. 10).
Hence some have supposed that the Pharisee really understood Jesus, and
only intended by his question to test the ability of Jesus to interpret
his figurative expression into a simple proposition: [1027] but Jesus
does not treat him as a hypocrite, as in that case he must have done—he
continues to instruct him, as one really ignorant οὐ γινώσκοντα (v.
10). Others give the question the following turn: This cannot be meant
in a physical sense, how then otherwise? [1028] But the true drift of
the question is rather the contrary: By these words I can only
understand physical new birth, but how is this possible? Our wonder at
the ignorance of the Jewish doctor, therefore, returns upon us; and it
is heightened when, after the copious explanation of Jesus (v. 5–8),
that the new birth which he required was a spiritual birth, γεννηθῆναι
ἐκ τοῦ πνεύματος, Nicodemus has made no advance in comprehension, but
asks with the same obtuseness as before (v. 9), How can these things
be? By this last difficulty Lücke is so straitened, that, contrary to
his ordinary exegetical tact, he refers the continued amazement of
Nicodemus (as other expositors had referred his original question) to
the circumstance that Jesus maintained the necessity of new birth even
for Israelites. But, in that case, Nicodemus would have inquired
concerning the necessity, not the possibility, of that birth; instead
of asking, How can these things be? he would have asked, Why must these
things be? This inconceivable mistake in a Jewish doctor is not then to
be explained away, and our surprise must become strong suspicion so
soon as it can be shown, that legend or the Evangelist had inducements
to represent this individual as more simple than he really was. First,
then, it must occur to us, that in all descriptions and recitals,
contrasts are eagerly exhibited; hence in the representation of a
colloquy in which one party is the teacher, the other the taught, there
is a strong temptation to create a contrast to the wisdom of the former
by exaggerating the simplicity of the latter. Further, we must remember
the satisfaction it must give to a Christian mind of that age, to place
a master of Israel in the position of an unintelligent person, by the
side of the Master of the Christians. Lastly, it is, as we shall
presently see more clearly, the constant method of the fourth
Evangelist in detailing the conversations of Jesus, to form the knot
and the progress of the discussion, by making the interlocutors
understand literally what Jesus intended figuratively.
In reply to the second query of Nicodemus, Jesus takes entirely the
tone of the fourth Evangelist’s prologue (v. 11–13). [1029] The
question hence arises, whether the Evangelist borrowed from Jesus, or
lent to him his own style. A previous investigation has decided in
favour of the latter alternative. [1030] But this inquiry referred
merely to the form of the discourses; in relation to their matter, its
analogy with the ideas of Philo, does not authorize us at once to
conclude that the writer here puts his Alexandrian doctrine of the
Logos into the mouth of Jesus; [1031] because the expressions, We speak
that we do know, etc. ὃ οἴδαμεν λαλοῦμεν κ.τ.λ., and, No man hath
ascended up to heaven, etc. οὐδεὶς ἀναβέβηκεν κ.τ.λ., have an analogy
with Matt. xi. 27; and the idea of the pre-existence of the Messiah
which is here propounded, is, as we have seen, not foreign to the
Apostle Paul.
V. 14 and 15 Jesus proceeds from the more simple things of the earth,
ἐπιγείοις, the communications concerning the new birth, to the more
difficult things of heaven, ἐπουρανίοις, the announcement of the
destination of the Messiah to a vicarious death. The Son of Man, he
says, must be lifted up (ὑψωθῆναι, which, in John’s phraseology,
signifies crucifixion, with an allusion to a glorifying exaltation), in
the same way, and with the same effect, as the brazen serpent Num. xxi.
8, 9. Here many questions press upon us. Is it credible, that Jesus
already, at the very commencement of his public ministry, foresaw his
death, and in the specific form of crucifixion? and that long before he
instructed his disciples on this point, he made a communication on the
subject to a Pharisee? Can it be held consistent with the wisdom of
Jesus as a teacher, that he should impart such knowledge to Nicodemus?
Even Lücke [1032] puts the question why, when Nicodemus had not
understood the more obvious doctrine, Jesus tormented him with the more
recondite, and especially with the secret of the Messiah’s death, which
was then so remote? He answers: it accords perfectly with the wisdom of
Jesus as a teacher, that he should reveal the sufferings appointed for
him by God as early as possible, because no instruction was better
adapted to cast down false worldly hopes. But the more remote the idea
of the Messiah’s death from the conceptions of his cotemporaries, owing
to the worldliness of their expectations, the more impressively and
unequivocally must Jesus express that idea, if he wished to promulgate
it; not in an enigmatical form which he could not be sure that
Nicodemus would understand. Lücke continues: Nicodemus was a man open
to instruction; one of whom good might be expected. But in this very
conversation, his dulness of comprehension in earthly things, ἐπίγεια,
had evinced that he must have still less capacity for heavenly things,
ἐπουράνια; and, according to v. 12, Jesus himself despaired of
enlightening him with respect to them. Lücke, however, observes, that
it was a practice with Jesus to follow up easy doctrine which had not
been comprehended, by difficult doctrine which was of course less
comprehensible; that he purposed thus to give a spur to the minds of
his hearers, and by straining their attention, engage them to reflect.
But the examples which Lücke adduces of such proceeding on the part of
Jesus, are all drawn from the fourth gospel. Now the very point in
question is, whether that gospel correctly represents the teaching of
Jesus; consequently Lücke argues in a circle. We have seen a similar
procedure ascribed to Jesus in his conversation with the woman of
Samaria, and we have already declared our opinion that such an
overburthening of weak faculties with enigma on enigma, does not accord
with the wise rule as to the communication of doctrine, which the same
gospel puts into the mouth of Jesus, xvi. 12. It would not stimulate,
but confuse, the mind of the hearer, who persisted in a misapprehension
of the well-known figure of the new birth, to present to him the novel
comparison of the Messiah and his death, to the brazen serpent and its
effects; a comparison quite incongruous with his Jewish ideas. [1033]
In the first three Gospels Jesus pursues an entirely different course.
In these, where a misconstruction betrays itself on the part of the
disciples, Jesus (except where he breaks off altogether, or where it is
evident that the Evangelist unhistorically associates a number of
metaphorical discourses) applies himself with the assiduity of an
earnest teacher to the thorough explanation of the difficulty, and not
until he has effected this does he proceed, step by step, to convey
further instruction (e.g. Matt. xiii. 10 ff., 36 ff., xv. 16, xvi. 8
ff.). [1034] This is the method of a wise teacher; on the contrary, to
leap from one subject to another, to overburthen and strain the mind of
the hearer, a mode of instruction which the fourth Evangelist
attributes to Jesus, is wholly inconsistent with that character. To
explain this inconsistency, we must suppose that the writer of the
fourth gospel thought to heighten in the most effective manner the
contrast which appears from the first, between the wisdom of the one
party and the incapacity of the other, by representing the teacher as
overwhelming the pupil, who put unintelligent questions on the most
elementary doctrine, with lofty and difficult themes, beneath which his
faculties are laid prostrate.
From v. 16, even those commentators who pretend to some ability in this
department, lose all hope of showing that the remainder of the
discourse may have been spoken by Jesus. Not only does Paulus make this
confession, but even Olshausen, with a concise statement of his
reasons. [1035] At the above verse, any special reference to Nicodemus
vanishes, and there is commenced an entirely general discourse on the
destination of the Son of God, to confer a blessing on the world, and
on the manner in which unbelief forfeits this blessing. Moreover, these
ideas are expressed in a form, which at one moment appears to be a
reminiscence of the Evangelist’s introduction, and at another has a
striking similarity with passages in the first Epistle of John. [1036]
In particular, the expression, the only begotten Son, ὁ μονογενὴς υἱὸς,
which is repeatedly (v. 16 and 18) attributed to Jesus as a designation
of his own person, is nowhere else found in his mouth, even in the
fourth gospel; this circumstance, however, marks it still more
positively as a favourite phrase of the Evangelist (i. 14–18), and of
the writer of the Epistles (1 John iv. 9). Further, many things are
spoken of as past, which at the supposed period of this conversation
with Nicodemus were yet future. For even if the words, he gave, ἔδωκεν,
refer not to the giving over to death, but to the sending of the
Messiah into the world; the expressions, men loved darkness, ἡγάπησαν
οἱ ἄνθρωποι τὸ σκότος, and, their deeds were evil, ῆν πονηρὰ αὐτῶν τὰ
ἔργα (v. 19), as Lücke also remarks, could only be used after the
triumph of darkness had been achieved in the rejection and execution of
Jesus: they belong then to the Evangelist’s point of view at the time
when he wrote, not to that of Jesus when on the threshold of his public
ministry. In general the whole of this discourse attributed to Jesus,
with its constant use of the third person to designate the supposed
speaker; with its dogmatical terms only begotten, light, and the like,
applied to Jesus; with its comprehensive view of the crisis and its
results, which the appearance of Jesus produced, is far too objective
for us to believe that it came from the lips of Jesus. Jesus could not
speak thus of himself, but the Evangelist might speak thus of Jesus.
Hence the same expedient has been adopted, as in the case of the
Baptist’s discourse already considered, and it has been supposed that
Jesus is the speaker down to v. 16, but that from that point the
Evangelist appends his own dogmatic reflections. [1037] But there is
again here no intimation of such a transition in the text; rather, the
connecting word for, γὰρ (v. 16), seems to indicate a continuation of
the same discourse. No writer, and least of all the fourth Evangelist
(comp. vii. 39, xi. 51 f., xii. 16, xxxiii. 37 ff.), would scatter his
own observations thus undistinguishingly, unless he wished to create a
misapprehension. [1038]
If then it be established that the evangelist, from v. 16 to the end of
the discourse, means to represent Jesus as the speaker, while Jesus can
never have so spoken, we cannot rest satisfied with the half measure
adopted by Lücke, when he maintains that it is really Jesus who
continues to speak from the above passage, but that the Evangelist has
inwoven his own explanations and amplifications more liberally than
before. For this admission undermines all certainty as to how far the
discourse belongs to Jesus, and how far to the Evangelist; besides, as
the discourse is distinguished by the closest uniformity of thought and
style, it must be ascribed either wholly to Jesus or wholly to the
Evangelist. Of these two alternatives the former is, according to the
above considerations, impossible; we are therefore restricted to the
latter, which we have observed to be entirely consistent with the
manner of the fourth Evangelist.
But not only on the passage v. 16–21 must we pass this judgment: v. 14
has appeared to us out of keeping with the position of Jesus; and the
behaviour of Nicodemus, v. 4 and 9, altogether inconceivable. Thus in
the very first sample, when compared with the observations which we
have already made on John iii. 22 ff., iv. 1 ff., the fourth gospel
presents to us all the peculiarities which characterize its mode of
reporting the discourses of Jesus. They are usually commenced in the
form of dialogue, and so far as this extends, the lever that propels
the conversation is the striking contrast between the spiritual sense
and the carnal interpretation of the language of Jesus; generally,
however, the dialogue is merged into an uninterrupted discourse, in
which the writer blends the person of Jesus with his own, and makes the
former use concerning himself, language which could only be used by
John concerning Jesus.
§ 81.
THE DISCOURSES OF JESUS, JOHN V.–XII.
In the fifth chapter of John, a long discourse of Jesus is connected
with a cure wrought by him on the sabbath (19–47). The mode in which
Jesus at v. 17 defends his activity on the sabbath, is worthy of
notice, as distinguished from that adopted by him in the earlier
gospels. These ascribe to him, in such cases, three arguments: the
example of David, who ate the shew-bread; the precedent of the
sabbatical labours of the priests in the temple, quoted also in John
vii. 23 (Matt. xii. 3 ff. parall.); and the course pursued with respect
to an ox, sheep, or ass, that falls into the pit (Matt. xii. 11,
parall.), or is led out to watering on the sabbath (Luke xiii. 18): all
which arguments are entirely in the practical spirit that characterizes
the popular teaching of Jesus. The fourth Evangelist, on the contrary,
makes him argue from the uninterrupted activity of God, and reminds us
by the expression which he puts into the mouth of Jesus, My Father
worketh hitherto, ὁ πατὴρ ἕως ἄρτι ἐργάζεται, of a principle in the
Alexandrian metaphysics, viz. God never ceases to act, ποιῶν ὁ θεὸς
οὐδέποτε παύεται: [1039] a metaphysical proposition more likely to be
familiar to the author of the fourth gospel than to Jesus. In the
synoptical gospels, miracles of healing on the sabbath are followed up
by declarations respecting the nature and design of the sabbatical
institution, a species of instruction of which the people were greatly
in need; but in the present passage, a digression is immediately made
to the main theme of the gospel, the person of Christ and his relation
to the Father. The perpetual recurrence of this theme in the fourth
gospel has led its adversaries, not without reason, to accuse it of a
tendency purely theoretic, and directed to the glorification of Jesus.
In the matter of the succeeding discourse there is nothing to create a
difficulty, nothing that Jesus might not have spoken, for it treats,
with the strictest coherence, of things which the Jews expected of the
Messiah, or which Jesus attributed to himself, according to the
synoptists also: as, for instance, the raising of the dead, and the
office of judging the world. But this consistency in the matter only
heightens the difficulty connected with the form and phraseology in
which it is expressed. For the discourse, especially its latter half
(from v. 31), is full of the closest analogies with the first epistle
of John, and with passages in the gospel in which either the author
speaks, or John the Baptist. [1040] One means of explaining the former
resemblance is to suppose, that the Evangelist formed his style by
closely imitating that of Jesus. That this is possible, is not to be
disputed; but it is equally certain that it could proceed only from a
mind destitute of originality and self-confidence,—a character which
the fourth Evangelist in nowise exhibits. Further, as in the other
gospels Jesus speaks in a thoroughly different tone and style, it would
follow, if he really spoke as he is represented to have done by John,
that the manner attributed to him by the synoptists is fictitious. Now,
that this manner did not originate with the Evangelists is plain from
the fact, that each of them is so little master of his matter. Neither
could the bulk of the discourses have been the work of tradition, not
only because they have a highly original cast, but because they bear
the impress of the alleged time and locality. On the contrary, the
fourth Evangelist, by the ease with which he disposes his materials,
awakens the suspicion that they are of his own production; and some of
his favourite ideas and phrases, such as, The Father showeth the Son
all that himself doeth, [1041] and those already quoted, seem to have
sprung from an Hellenistic source, rather than from Palestine. But the
chief point in the argument is, that in this gospel John the Baptist
speaks, as we have seen, in precisely the same strain as the author of
the gospels, and his Jesus. It cannot be supposed, that not only the
Evangelist, but the Baptist, whose public career was prior to that of
Jesus, and whose character was strongly marked, modelled his
expressions with verbal minuteness on those of Jesus. Hence only two
cases are possible: either the Baptist determined the style of Jesus
and the Evangelist (who indeed appears to have been the Baptist’s
disciple); or the Evangelist determined the style of the Baptist and
Jesus. The former alternative will be rejected by the orthodox, on the
ground of the higher nature that dwelt in Christ; and we are equally
disinclined to adopt it, for the reason that Jesus, even though he may
have been excited to activity by the Baptist, yet appears as a
character essentially distinct from him, and original; and for the
still more weighty consideration, that the style of the Evangelist is
much too feeble for the rude Baptist,—too mystical for his practical
mind. There remains, then, but the latter alternative, namely, that the
Evangelist has given his own style both to Jesus and to the Baptist: an
explanation in itself more natural than the former, and supported by a
multitude of examples from all kinds of historical writers. If however
the Evangelist is thus responsible for the form of this discourse, it
is still possible that the matter may have belonged to Jesus, but we
cannot pronounce to what extent this is the case, and we have already
had proof that the Evangelist, on suitable opportunities, very freely
presents his own reflections in the form of a discourse from Jesus.
In chap. vi., Jesus represents himself, or rather his Father, v. 27
ff., as the giver of the spiritual manna. This is analogous to the
Jewish idea above quoted, that the second Goël, like the first, would
provide manna; [1042] and to the invitation of Wisdom in the Proverbs,
ix. 5, Come, eat of my bread: ἔλθετε, φάγετε τῶν εμῶν ἄρτων. But the
succeeding declaration, that he is himself the bread of life that
cometh down from heaven, ἄρτος ὁ ζῶν ὁ ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καταβὰς (v. 33
and 35) appears to find its true analogy only in the idea of Philo,
that the divine word, λόγος θεῖος, is that which nourishes the soul, τὸ
τρέφον τὴν ψυχήν. [1043] From v. 51, the difficulty becomes still
greater. Jesus proceeds to represent his flesh as the bread from
heaven, which he will give for the life of the world, and to eat the
flesh of the Son of Man, and to drink his blood, he pronounces to be
the only means of attaining eternal life. The similarity of these
expressions to the words which the synoptists and Paul attribute to
Jesus, at the institution of the Lord’s Supper, led the older
commentators generally to understand this passage as having reference
to the Sacramental supper, ultimately to be appointed by Jesus. [1044]
The chief objection to this interpretation is, that before the
institution of the supper, such an allusion would be totally
unintelligible. Still the discourse might have some sense, however
erroneous, for the hearers, as indeed it had, according to the
narrator’s statement; and the impossibility of being understood is not,
in the fourth gospel, so shunned by Jesus, that that circumstance alone
would suffice to render this interpretation improbable. It is certainly
supported by the analogy between the expressions in the discourse, and
the words associated with the institution of the supper, and this
analogy has wrung from one of our recent critics the admission, that
even if Jesus himself, in uttering the above expressions, did not refer
to the supper, the Evangelist, in choosing and conveying this discourse
of Jesus might have had that institution in his mind, and might have
supposed that Jesus here gave a premonition of its import. [1045] In
that case, however, he could scarcely have abstained from modifying the
language of Jesus; so that, if the choice of the expression eat the
flesh, etc., can only be adequately explained on the supposition of a
reference to the Lord’s Supper, we owe it, without doubt, to the
Evangelist alone. Having once said, apparently in accordance with
Alexandrian ideas, that Jesus had described himself as the bread of
life, how could he fail to be reminded of the bread, which in the
Christian community was partaken of as the body of Christ, together
with a beverage, as his blood? He would the more gladly seize the
opportunity of making Jesus institute the supper prophetically, as it
were; because, as we shall hereafter see, he knew nothing definite of
its historical institution by Jesus. [1046]
The discourse above considered, also bears the form of a dialogue, and
it exhibits strikingly the type of dialogue which especially belongs to
the fourth gospel: that, namely, in which language intended
spiritually, is understood carnally. In the first place (v. 34), the
Jews (as the woman of Samaria in relation to the water) suppose that by
the bread which cometh down from heaven, Jesus means some material
food, and entreat him evermore to supply them with such. Such a
misapprehension was certainly natural; but one would have thought that
the Jews, before they carried the subject farther, would have
indignantly protested against the assertion of Jesus (v. 32), that
Moses had not given them heavenly bread. When Jesus proceeds to call
himself the bread from heaven, the Jews in the synagogue at Capernaum
murmur that he, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother they knew,
should arrogate to himself a descent from heaven (v. 41); a reflection
which the synoptists with more probability attribute to the people of
Nazareth, the native city of Jesus, and to which they assign a more
natural cause. That the Jews should not understand (v. 53) how Jesus
could give them his flesh to eat is very conceivable; and for that
reason, as we have observed, it is the less so that Jesus should
express himself thus unintelligibly. Neither is it surprising that this
hard saying, σκληρὸς λόγος, should cause many disciples to fall away
from him, nor easy to perceive how Jesus could, in the first instance,
himself give reason for the secession, and then, on its occurrence,
feel so much displeasure as is implied in v. 61 and 67. It is indeed
said, that Jesus wished to sift his disciples, to remove from his
society the superficial believers, the earthly-minded, whom he could
not trust; but the measure which he here adopted was one calculated to
alienate from him even his best and most intelligent followers. For it
is certain that the twelve, who on other occasions knew not what was
meant by the leaven of the Pharisees (Matt. xvi. 7), or by the
opposition between what goes into the mouth, and what comes out of it
(Matt. xv. 15), would not understand the present discourse; and the
words of eternal life, for the sake of which they remained with him (v.
68), were assuredly not the words of this sixth chapter. [1047]
The further we read in the fourth gospel, the more striking is the
repetition: of the same ideas and expressions. The discourses of Jesus
during the Feast of Tabernacles, ch. vii. and viii. are, as Lücke has
remarked, mere repetitions and amplifications of the oppositions
previously presented (especially in ch. v.), of the coming, speaking,
and acting, of Jesus, and of God (vii. 17, 28 f., viii. 28 f., 38, 40,
42, compare with v. 30, 43, 38); of being from above, εἶναι ἐκ τῶν ἄνω,
and from beneath, ἐκ τῶν κάτω (viii. 23, comp. iii. 31); of bearing
witness of one’s self, and receiving witness from God (viii. 13–19,
comp. v. 31–37); of light and darkness (viii. 12, comp. iii. 10, ff.,
also xii. 35 f.); of true and false judgment (viii. 15 f., comp. v.
30). All that is new in these chapters, is quickly repeated, as the
mention of the departure of Jesus whither the Jews cannot follow him
(vii. 33 f., viii. 21, comp. xiii. 33, xiv. 2 ff., xvi. 16 ff.); a
declaration, to which are attached, in the first two instances, very
improbable misapprehensions or perversions on the part of the Jews,
who, although Jesus had said, I go unto him that sent me, are
represented as imagining, at one time, that he purposed journeying to
the dispersed among the Gentiles, at another, that he meditated
suicide. How often, again, in this chapter are repeated the
asseverations, that he seeks not his own honour, but the honour of the
Father (vii. 17 f., viii. 50, 54); that the Jews neither know whence he
came, nor the father who sent him (vii. 28, viii. 14, 19, 54); that
whosoever believeth in him shall have eternal life, shall not see
death, while whosoever believeth not must die in his sins, having no
share in eternal life (viii. 21, 24, 51, comp. iii. 36, vi. 40).—The
ninth chapter, consisting chiefly of the deliberations of the Sanhedrim
with the man born blind, whom Jesus had restored to sight, has of
course the form of conversation, but as Jesus is less on the scene than
heretofore, there is not the usual amount of artificial contrast; in
its stead, however, there is, as we shall presently find, another
evidence of artistic design in the narrator.
The tenth chapter commences with the well-known discourse on the Good
Shepherd; a discourse which has been incorrectly called a parable.
[1048] Even the briefest among the other parables of Jesus, such as
that of the leaven and of the mustard-seed, contain the outline of a
history that develops itself, having a commencement, progress, and
conclusion. Here, on the contrary, there is no historical development;
even the particulars that have an historical character are stated
generally, as things that are wont to happen, not as things that once
happened, and they are left without further limitation; moreover, the
door usurps the place of the Shepherd, which is at first the principal
image; so that we have here, not a parable, but an allegory. Therefore
this passage at least—(and we shall find no other, for the similitude
of the vine, ch. xv., comes, as Lücke confesses, under the same
category as the one in question)—furnishes no argument against the
allegation by which recent critics have justified their suspicions as
to the authenticity of the fourth gospel; namely, that its author seems
ignorant of the parabolic mode of teaching which, according to the
other Evangelists, was habitual with Jesus. It does not however appear
totally unknown to the fourth Evangelist that Jesus was fond of
teaching by parables, for he attempts to give examples of this method,
both in ch. x. and xv., the first of which he expressly styles a
parable, παροιμία. But it is obvious that the parabolic form was not
accordant with his taste, and that he was too deficient in the faculty
of depicting external things, to abstain from the intermixture of
reflections, whence the parable in his hand became an allegory.
The discourses of Jesus at the Feast of Tabernacles extend to x. 18.
From v. 25, the Evangelist professes to record sayings which were
uttered by Jesus three months later, at the Feast of Dedication. When,
on this occasion, the Jews desire from him a distinct declaration
whether he be the Messiah, his immediate reply is, that he has already
told them this sufficiently, and he repeats his appeal to the testimony
of the Father, as given in the works, ἔργα, done by Jesus in his name
(as in v. 36). Hereupon he observes that his unbelieving interrogators
are not of his sheep, whence he reverts to the allegory of the
shepherd, which he had abandoned, and repeats part of it word for word.
[1049] But Jesus had not recently abandoned this allegory; for since
its delivery three months are supposed to have elapsed, and it is
certain that in the interim much must have been spoken, done, and
experienced by Jesus, that would thrust this figurative discourse into
the background of his memory, so that he would be very unlikely to
recur to it, and in no case would he be able to repeat it, word for
word. He who had just quitted the allegory was the Evangelist, to whom
three months had not intervened between the inditing of the first half
of this chapter, and that of the second. He wrote at once what,
according to his statement, was chronologically separated by a wide
interval; and hence the allegory of the shepherd might well leave so
distinct an echo in his memory, though not in that of Jesus. If any
think that they can solve this difficulty by putting only the verbal
similarity of the later discourse to the earlier one to the account of
the Evangelist, such an opinion cannot be interdicted to them. For
others, this instance, in connexion with the rest, will be a positive
proof that the discourses of Jesus in the fourth gospel are to a great
extent the free compositions of the Evangelist.
The same conclusion is to be drawn from the discourse with which the
fourth Evangelist represents Jesus as closing his public ministry (xii.
44–50). This discourse is entirely composed of reminiscences out of
previous chapters, [1050] and, as Paulus expresses it, [1051] is a mere
echo of some of the principal apophthegms of Jesus occurring in the
former part of the gospel. One cannot easily consent to let the
ministry of Jesus close with a discourse so little original, and the
majority of recent commentators are of opinion that it is the intention
of the Evangelist here to give us a mere epitome of the teaching of
Jesus. [1052] According to our view also, the Evangelist is the real
speaker; but we must contend that his introductory words, Jesus cried
and said, Ἰησοῦς δὲ ἔκραξε καὶ εἶπεν, are intended to imply that what
follows is an actual harangue, from the lips of Jesus. This
commentators will not admit, and they can appeal, not without a show of
reason, to the statement of the Evangelist, v. 36, that Jesus withdrew
himself from the public eye, and to his ensuing observations on the
obstinate unbelief of the Jews, in which he seems to put a period to
the public career of Jesus; whence it would be contrary to his plan to
make Jesus again step forward to deliver a valedictory discourse. I
will not, with the older expositors, oppose to these arguments the
supposition that Jesus, after his withdrawal, returned to pronounce
these words in the ears of the Jews; but I hold fast to the proposition
that by the introduction above quoted, the Evangelist can only have
intended to announce an actual harangue. It is said, indeed, that the
aorist in ἔκραξε and εἶπε has the signification of the pluperfect, and
that we have here a recapitulation of the previous discourses of Jesus,
notwithstanding which the Jews had not given him credence. But to give
this retrospective signification there ought to be a corresponding
indication in the words themselves, or in the context, whereas this is
far less the case than e.g. in John xviii. 24. Hence the most probable
view of the question is this: John had indeed intended to close the
narrative of the public ministry of Jesus at v. 36, but his concluding
observations, v. 37 ff., with the categories of faith, πίστις, and
unbelief, ἀπιστία, reminded him of discourses which he had already
recorded, and he could not resist the temptation of making Jesus
recapitulate them with additional emphasis in a parting harangue.
§ 82.
ISOLATED MAXIMS OF JESUS, COMMON TO THE FOURTH GOSPEL AND THE
SYNOPTICAL ONES.
The long discourses of Jesus above examined are peculiar to the fourth
gospel; it has only a few brief maxims to which the synoptists present
parallels. Among the latter, we need not give a special examination to
those which are placed by John in an equally suitable connexion, with
that assigned to them by the other Evangelists (as xii. 25, comp. with
Matt. x. 39, xvi. 25; and xiii. 16, comp. with Matt. x. 24); and as the
passage ii. 19 compared with Matt. xxvi. 61, must be reserved until we
treat of the history of the Passion, there remain to us only three
passages for our present consideration.
The first of these is iv. 44, where the Evangelist, after having
mentioned that Jesus departed from Samaria into Galilee, adds, For
Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honour in his own
country, αὐτὸς γὰρ ὁ Ἰ. ἐμαρτύρησεν, ὅτι προφήτης ἐν τῇ ἰδίᾳ πατρίδι
τιμὴν οὐκ ἔχει. We find the same idea in Matthew xiii. 57 (Mark vi. 4;
Luke iv. 24), A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country
and in his own house, οὐκ ἔστι προφήτης ἄτιμος, εἰ μὴ ἐν τῇ πατρίδι
αὑτοῦ καὶ ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ αὑτοῦ. But while in the latter case it stands in
a highly appropriate connexion, as a remark prompted by the ungracious
reception which Jesus met with in his native city, and which caused him
to leave it again: in John, on the contrary, it is given as a motive
for the return of Jesus into his own country, Galilee, where, moreover,
he is immediately said to be warmly received. The experience stated in
the above sentence would rather have disinclined than induced Jesus to
undertake a journey into Galilee; hence the expedient of translating
γὰρ by although, is the best adapted to the necessity of the case, and
has even been embraced by Kuinöl, except that, unhappily, it is an open
defiance of the laws of language. [1053] Unquestionably, if Jesus knew
that the prophet held this unfavourable position in his native country,
πατρίς, it is not probable that he would regard it as a reason for
going thither. Some expositors, therefore, have been induced to
understand πατρίς, not as the province, but in a narrower sense, as the
native city, and to supply, after the statement that Jesus went into
Galilee, the observation, which they assume the Evangelist to have
omitted, that he avoided his native city, Nazareth, for the reason
given in the ensuing verse. But an ellipsis such as this explanation
requires us to suppose, belongs not less to the order of
impossibilities than the transmutation of γὰρ into though. The attempt
to introduce the desiderated statement that Jesus did not visit his own
πατρίς into the present passage has been therefore renounced: but it
has yet been thought possible to discover there an intimation that he
did not soon return thither; a delay for which the maxim, ὅτι προφήτης
κ.τ.λ. might consistently be quoted as a reason. [1054] But to render
this interpretation admissible, the entire period of the absence of
Jesus from Galilee must have been mentioned immediately before the
notice of his return; instead of this, however, only the short time
that Jesus had tarried in Samaria is given (v. 45), so that in
ludicrous disproportion of cause and effect, the fear of the contempt
of his fellow country men would on the above supposition, be made the
reason for delaying his return into Galilee, not until after a
residence of some months in Judea, but until after the lapse of two
days spent in Samaria. So long, therefore, as Galilee and Nazareth are
admitted to be the πατρίς of Jesus, the passage in question cannot be
vindicated from the absurdity of representing, that Jesus was
instigated to return thither by the contempt which he knew to await
him. Consequently, it becomes the interest of the expositor to
recollect, that Matthew and Luke pronounce Bethlehem to be the
birthplace of Jesus, whence it follows that Judea was his native
country, which he now forsook on account of the contempt he had there
experienced. [1055] But according to iv. 1, comp. ii. 23, iii. 26 ff.,
Jesus had won a considerable number of adherents in Judea, and could
not therefore complain of a lack of honour, τιμή; moreover the enmity
of the Pharisees, hinted at in iv. 1, was excited by the growing
consequence of Jesus in Judea, and was not at all referable to such a
cause as that indicated in the maxim: ὅτι προφήτης κ.τ.λ. Further, the
entrance into Galilee is not connected in our passage with a departure
from Judea, but from Samaria; and as, according to the import of the
text, Jesus departed from Samaria and went into Galilee, because he had
found that a prophet has no honour in his own country, Samaria might
rather seem to be pointed out as his native country, in conformity with
the reproach cast on him by the Jews, viii. 48; though even this
supposition would not give consistency to the passage, for in Samaria
also Jesus is said, iv. 39, to have had a favourable reception.
Besides, we have already seen, [1056] that the fourth Evangelist knows
nothing of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, but on all occasions
presupposes him to be a Galilean and a Nazarene. From the above
considerations we obtain only the negative result, that it is
impossible to discover any consistent relation between the maxim in
question and the context. A positive result,—namely, how the maxim came
to occupy its actual position, notwithstanding this want of relation,
will perhaps be obtained when we have examined the two other passages
belonging to the present head of our inquiry.
The declaration xiii. 20, He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he
that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me, has an almost verbal
parallel in Matt. x. 40. In John, it is preceded by the prediction of
the betrayal of Jesus, and his explanation to his disciples that he had
told them this before it came to pass, in order that when his
prediction was fulfilled, they might believe in him as the Messiah.
What is the connexion between these subjects and the above declaration,
or between the latter and its ensuing context, where Jesus recurs to
his betrayer? It is said that Jesus wished to impress on his disciples
the high dignity of a messianic missionary, a dignity which the
betrayer thought lightly of losing; [1057] but the negative idea of
loss, on which this supposition turns, is not intimated in the text.
Others are of opinion that Jesus, observing the disciples to be
disheartened by the mention of the betrayer, sought to inspire them
with new courage by representing to them their high value; [1058] but
in that case he would hardly have reverted immediately after to the
traitor. Others, again, conjecture that some intermediate sentences
have been omitted by the writer; [1059] but this expedient is not much
happier than that of Kuinöl, who supposes the passage to be a gloss
taken from Matt. x. 40, united originally to v. 16 of chap. xiii. of
John, but by some chance transposed to the end of the paragraph.
Nevertheless, the indication of v. 16 is an useful way-mark. This
verse, as well as v. 20, has a parallel in the discourse of
instructions in Matthew (x. 24); if a few fragments of this discourse
had reached the author of the fourth gospel through the medium of
tradition, it is very probable that one of them would bring the others
to his recollection. In v. 16 there is mention of the sent, ἀπόστολος,
and of him who sent him, πέμψας αὐτὸν; so in v. 20, of those whom Jesus
will send, and of Him who sent Jesus. It is true, that the one passage
has a humiliating, the other an encouraging tendency, and their
affinity lies, therefore, not in the sense, but in the words; so that
as soon as the fourth Evangelist puts down, from memory, traditional
sayings of Jesus, we see him subject to the same law of association as
the synoptists. It would have been the most natural arrangement to
place v. 20 immediately after v. 16; but the thought of the traitor was
uppermost in the mind of the writer, and he could easily postpone the
insertion of an apophthegm that had only a verbal connexion with his
previous matter.
Our third passage, xiv. 31, lies yet farther within the domain of the
history of the Passion than the one last examined, but as, like this,
it can be viewed quite independently, we shall not be anticipating if
we include it in our present chapter. In the above passage, the words
Arise, let us go hence, ἐγείρεσθε, ἄγωμεν ἐντεῦθεν, remind us of those
by which Jesus, Matt. xxvi. 46; Mark xiv. 42, summons his disciples to
join him in encountering the traitor: Rise, let us be going, ἐγείρεσθε
ἄγωμεν. The position of the words in John is perplexing, because the
summons to depart has no effect; Jesus, as if he had said nothing of
the kind, immediately continues (xv. 1), I am the true vine, etc., and
does not take his departure with his disciples until after he has
considerably prolonged his discourse. Expositors of every hue have been
singularly unanimous in explaining the above words by the supposition,
that Jesus certainly intended at the moment to depart and betake
himself to Gethsemane, but love for his disciples, and a strong desire
to impart to them still further admonition and comfort, detained him;
that hence, the first part of the summons, Arise, was executed, but
that, standing in the room in which he had supped, he pursued his
discourse, until, later (xviii. 1), he also put into effect the words,
let us go hence. [1060] It is possible that the circumstances were
such; it is also possible that the image of this last evening, with all
its details, might be engraven so deeply and accurately in the memory
of a disciple, that he might narrate how Jesus arose, and how
touchingly he lingered. But one who wrote under the influence of a
recollection thus lively, would note the particulars which were most
apparent; the rising to depart and the delay,—not the mere words, which
without the addition of those circumstances are altogether
unintelligible. Here again, then, the conjecture arises that a
reminiscence of the evangelical tradition presented itself to the
writer, and that he inserted it just where it occurred to him, not, as
it happened, in the best connexion; and this conjecture assumes
probability so soon as we discover what might have reminded him of the
above expression. In the synoptical parallels the command, Rise, let us
be going, is connected with the announcement, Behold the hour is at
hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners—behold
he is at hand that doth betray me; with the announcement, that is, of
the hostile power which is approaching, before which, however, Jesus
exhibits no fear, but goes to encounter the danger with the decision
implied in that command. In John’s gospel, also, Jesus, in the passage
under our notice, had been speaking of a hostile power when he said,
The Prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me. It makes little
difference that in John it is the power that dwells in the betrayer,
and in those led by him, while, in the synoptical gospels, it is the
betrayer who is impelled by that power, that is said to approach. If
the author of the fourth gospel knew by tradition that Jesus had united
with the announcement of an approaching danger the words, Rise, let us
be going, this expression would be likely to occur to him on the
mention of the prince of this world; and as in that stage of his
narrative he had placed Jesus and his disciples in the city and within
doors, so that a considerable change of place was necessary before they
could encounter the enemy, he added to ἄγωμεν (let us go), ἐντεῦθεν
(hence). As, however, this traditional fragment had intruded itself
unawares into the train of thought, which he designed to put as a
farewell discourse into the mouth of Jesus, it was immediately lost
sight of, and a free course was given to the stream of valedictory
instruction, not yet exhausted.
If, from the point of view now attained, we glance back on our first
passage, iv. 44, it is easy to see how the Evangelist might be led to
insert in so unsuitable a connexion the testimony of Jesus as to the
treatment of a prophet in his own country. It was known to him
traditionally, and he appears to have applied it to Galilee in general,
being ignorant of any unfavourable contact of Jesus with the Nazarenes.
As, therefore, he knew of no special scene by which this observation
might have been prompted, he introduced it where the simple mention of
Galilee suggested it, apparently without any definite idea of its
bearing.
The result of the above investigation is this: the fourth Evangelist
succeeds in giving connectedness to his materials, when he presents his
own thoughts in the form of discourses delivered by Jesus; but he often
fails lamentably in that particular, when he has to deal with the real
traditional sayings of Jesus. In the above instances, when he has the
same problem before him as the synoptists, he is as unfortunate in its
solution as they; nay, he is in a yet more evil case, for his narrative
is not homogeneous with the common evangelical tradition, and presented
few places where a genuine traditional relic could be inserted.
Besides, he was accustomed to cast his metal, liquid from his own
invention, and was little skilled in the art of adapting independent
fragments to each other, so as to form an harmonious mosaic.
§ 83.
THE MODERN DISCUSSIONS ON THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE DISCOURSES IN THE
GOSPEL OF JOHN. RESULT.
The foregoing examination of the discourses of Jesus in the fourth
gospel, has sufficiently prepared us to form a judgment on the
controversy of which they have recently been the subject. Modern
criticism views these discourses with suspicion, partly on account of
their internal contexture, which is at variance with certain generally
received rules of historical probability, and partly on account of
their external relation to other discourses and narratives. On the
other hand, this gospel has had numerous defenders.
With respect to the internal contexture of the above discourses, there
arises a twofold question: Does it correspond to the laws, first of
verisimilitude, and secondly, of memory?
It is alleged by the friends of the fourth gospel that its discourses
are distinguished by a peculiar stamp of truth and credibility; that
the conversations which it represents Jesus as holding with men of the
most diverse disposition and capacity, are faithful delineations of
character, satisfying the strictest demands of psychological criticism.
[1061] In opposition to this, it is maintained to be in the highest
degree improbable, that Jesus should have adopted precisely the same
style of teaching to persons differing widely in their degrees of
cultivation; that he should have spoken to the Galileans in the
synagogue at Capernaum not more intelligibly than to a master of
Israel; that the matter of his discourses should have turned almost
entirely on one doctrine—the dignity of his person; and that their form
should have been such as to seem selected with a view to perplex and
repel his hearers. Neither, it is further urged, do the interlocutors
express themselves in conformity with their position and character. The
most educated Pharisee has no advantage in intelligence over a
Samaritan woman of the lowest grade; the one, as well as the other, can
only put a carnal interpretation on the discourse which Jesus intends
spiritually; their misconstructions, too, are frequently so glaring, as
to transcend all belief, and so uniform that they seem to belong to a
standing set of features with which the author of the fourth gospel has
chosen, for the sake of contrast, to depict those whom he brings into
conversation with Jesus. [1062] Hence, I confess, I understand not what
is the meaning of verisimilitude in the mind of those who ascribe it to
the discourses of Jesus in the Gospel of John.
As to the second point, regarding the powers of memory, it is pretty
generally agreed that discourses of the kind peculiar to John’s
gospel,—in contradistinction to the apophthegms and parables, either
isolated or strung together, in the synoptical gospels,—namely, series
of dependent propositions, or prolonged dialogues, are among the most
difficult to retain and reproduce with accuracy. [1063] Unless such
discourses were reduced to writing at the moment of their delivery, all
hope of their faithful reproduction must be abandoned. Hence Dr. Paulus
once actually entertained the idea, that in the judgment-halls of the
temple or the synagogues at Jerusalem, there were stationed a sort of
shorthand writers, whose office it was to draw up verbal processes, and
that from their records the Christians, after the death of Christ, made
transcripts. [1064] In like manner, Bertholdt was of opinion, that our
Evangelist, during the lifetime of Jesus, took down most of the
discourses of Jesus in the Aramæan language, and made these notes the
foundation of his gospel, composed at a much later period. [1065] These
modern hypotheses are clearly unhistorical; [1066] nevertheless, their
propounders were able to adduce many reasons in their support. The
prophetic declarations of Jesus relative to his death and resurrection,
said Bertholdt, are more indefinite in John than in the synoptical
gospels, a sure sign that they were recorded before their fulfilment,
for otherwise the writer’s experience of the event would have reflected
more clearness on the predictions. To this we may add the kindred
argument, by which Henke thought it possible to establish the
genuineness of the discourses in John: namely, that the fourth
Evangelist not seldom appends explanatory remarks, often indeed
erroneous, to the obscure expressions of Jesus, thus proving that he
was scrupulously conscientious in reporting the discourses, for
otherwise he would have mingled his comments with their original
matter. [1067] But it is with justice objected, that the obscurity of
the predictions in the fourth gospel is in perfect harmony with the
mystical spirit that pervades the work, and as, besides, the author,
together with his fondness for the obscure and enigmatical,
indisputably possessed taste, he must have been conscious that a
prophecy would only be the more piquant and genuine-looking, the more
darkly it was delivered: hence, though he put those predictions into
the mouth of Jesus long after the events to which they refer, he might
yet choose to give them an indefinite form. This observation helps to
explain why the Evangelist, when elucidating some obscure expressions
of Jesus, adds that his disciples did not understand them until after
his resurrection, or after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit (ii. 22,
vii. 39); for the opposition of the darkness in which the disciples at
one time groped, to the light which ultimately arose on them, belongs
to that order of contrasts with which this gospel abounds. Another
argument, adopted by Bertholdt and approved by Tholuck, is, that in the
discourses of the fourth gospel there sometimes occur observations,
which, having no precise meaning in themselves, nor any connexion with
the rest of the discourse, must have been occasioned by some external
circumstance, and can only be accounted for on the supposition of
prompt, nay, of immediate reduction to writing; and among their
examples the passage, Arise, let us go hence (xiv. 31), is one of the
most important. [1068] But the origin of such digressive remarks has
been above explained in a manner that renders the hypothesis of
instantaneous notetaking superfluous.
Thus commentators had to excogitate some other means of certifying the
genuineness of the discourses of Jesus in the fourth gospel. The
general argument, so often adduced, founded on what a good memory might
achieve, especially among men of simple lives, unused to writing, lies
in the region of abstract possibility, where, as Lücke remarks, [1069]
there may always be nearly as much said against as for a theory. It has
been thought more effectual to adopt an argument resting on a narrower
basis, and to appeal to the individual distinctions of the Apostle
John,—to his intimate and peculiar relation to Jesus as the favourite
disciple,—to his enthusiasm for his master, which must surely have
strengthened his memory, and have enabled him to preserve in the most
lively recollection all that came from the lips of his divine friend.
[1070] Although this peculiar relation of John to Jesus rests on the
authority of John’s gospel alone, we might, without reasoning in a
circle, draw from it conclusions as to the credibility of the
discourses communicated by him, were the faults of which his gospel is
accused only such as proceed from the inevitable fading of the memory;
because the positive notices of that relation could never flow from
this negative cause. As, however, the suspicion which has arisen to the
prejudice of the fourth Evangelist has gone far beyond those limits,
even to the extent of taxing him with free invention, no fact resting
on the word of John can be used in support of the discourses which he
communicates. But neither the above relation, if admitted, nor the
remark that John apparently attached himself to Jesus in early youth,
when impressions sink deepest, and from the time of his master’s death
lived in a circle where the memory of his words and deeds was
cherished, [1071] suffices to render it probable that John could retain
in his mind long series of ideas, and complicated dialogues, until the
period in which the composition of his gospel must be placed. For
critics are agreed that the tendency of the fourth gospel, its evident
aim to spiritualize the common faith of Christians into the Gnosis, and
thus to crush many errors which had sprung up, is a decisive
attestation that it was composed at a period when the church had
attained a degree of maturity, and consequently in the extreme old age
of the apostle. [1072]
Hence the champions of the discourses in question are fain to bring
forward, as a forlorn hope, the supernatural assistance of the
Paraclete, which was promised to the disciples, and which was to
restore all that Jesus had said to their remembrance. This is done by
Tholuck with great confidence, [1073] by Lücke with some diffidence,
[1074] which Tholuck’s Anzeiger severely censures, but which we
consider laudable, because it implies a latent consciousness of the
circle that is made, in attempting to prove the truthfulness of the
discourses in John, by a promise which appears nowhere but in those
discourses; [1075] and of the inadequacy of an appeal, in a scientific
inquiry, to a popular notion, such as that of the aid of the Holy
Spirit. The consciousness of this inadequacy shows itself indirectly in
Tholuck, for he ekes out the assistance of the Paraclete by early
notes; and in Lücke also, for he renounces the verbal authenticity of
the discourses in John, and only contends for their substantial
veracity on grounds chiefly connected with the relation which they bear
to other discourses.
The external relation of the discourses of Jesus in John’s gospel is
also twofold; for they may be compared both with those discourses which
the synoptists put into the mouth of Jesus, and with the manner in
which the author of the fourth gospel expresses himself when he is
avowedly the speaker.
As a result of the former comparison, critics have pointed out the
important difference that exists between the respective discourses in
their matter, as well as in their form. In the first three gospels,
Jesus closely adapts his teaching to the necessities of his
shepherdless people, contrasting, at one time, the corrupt institutions
of the Pharisees with the moral and religious precepts of the Mosaic
law; at another, the carnal messianic hopes of the age with the purely
spiritual nature of his kingdom, and the conditions of entrance
therein. In the fourth gospel, on the contrary, he is perpetually
dilating, and often in a barren, speculative manner, on the doctrine of
his person and higher nature: so that in opposition to the diversified
doctrinal and practical materials of the synoptical discourses, we have
in John a one-sided dogmatism. [1076] That this opposition does not
hold invariably, and that in the discourses of the synoptical gospels
there are passages which have more affinity with those of John, and
vice versâ, must be granted to judicious critics; [1077] but the
important preponderance of the dogmatical element on the one side, and
of the practical on the other, is a difficulty that demands a thorough
explanation. In answer to this requisition, it is common to adduce the
end which John is supposed to have had in view in the composition of
his gospel: namely, to furnish a supplement to the first three gospels,
and to supply their omissions. But if Jesus taught first in one style,
then in another, how was it that the synoptists selected almost
exclusively the practical and popular, John, nearly without exception,
the dogmatic and speculative portions of his discourse? This is
accounted for in a manner intrinsically probable. In the oral
tradition, it is observed, on which the first three gospels were
founded, the simple and popular, the concise and sententious discourses
of Jesus, being the most easy of retention, would alone be propagated,
while his more profound, subtle and diffuse discourses would be lost.
[1078] But according to the above supposition, the fourth Evangelist
came as a gleaner after the synoptists: now it is certain that all the
discourses of Jesus having a practical tendency had not been preserved
by them; hence, that the former has almost invariably avoided giving
any relic of such discourses, can only be explained by his preference
for the dogmatic and speculative vein: a preference which must have had
both an objective and a subjective source, the necessities of his time
and circumstances, and the bent of his own mind. This is admitted even
by critics who are favourable to the authenticity of the fourth gospel,
[1079] with the reservation, that the preference betrays itself only
negatively, by omission, not positively, by addition.
There is a further difference between the synoptical gospels and the
fourth, as to the form of teaching adopted by Jesus; in the one, it is
aphoristic and parabolic, in the other, dialectic. [1080] We have seen
that the parable is altogether wanting in the fourth gospel, and it is
natural to ask why, since Luke, as well as Matthew, has many admirable
parables peculiar to himself, John has not been able to make a rich
gleaning, even after those two predecessors? It is true that isolated
apothegms and sentences, similar to the synoptical ones, are not
entirely absent from the fourth gospel: but, on the other hand, it must
be admitted that the prevailing aphoristic and parabolic form of
instruction, ascribed to Jesus by the synoptists, is more suited to the
character of a popular teacher of Palestine, than the dialectic form
which he is made to adopt by John. [1081]
But the relation of the discourses of Jesus in the gospel of John, to
the Evangelist’s own style of thinking and writing, is decisive. Here
we find a similarity, [1082] which, as it extends to the discourses of
a third party, namely, the Baptist, cannot be explained by supposing
that the disciple had formed his style on that of the master, [1083]
but requires us to admit that the Evangelist has lent his own style to
the principal characters in his narrative. The latest commentator on
John has not only acknowledged this with regard to the colouring of the
expression; he even thinks that in the matter itself he can here and
there detect the explanatory amplifications of the Evangelist, who, to
use his own phrase, has had a hand in the composition of the longer and
more difficult discourses. [1084] But since the Evangelist does not
plainly indicate his additions, what is to assure us that they are not
throughout interwoven with the ideas of Jesus, nay, that all the
discourses which he communicates are not entirely his own productions?
The style furnishes no guidance, for this is everywhere the same, and
is admitted to be the Evangelist’s own; neither does the sense, for in
it also there is no essential difference whether the Evangelist speaks
in his own name or in that of Jesus: where then is the guarantee that
the discourses of Jesus are not, as the author of the Probabilia
maintains, free inventions of the fourth Evangelist?
Lücke adduces some particulars, which on this supposition would be in
his opinion inexplicable. [1085] First, the almost verbal agreement of
John with the synoptists in isolated sayings of Jesus. But as the
fourth Evangelist was within the pale of the Christian community, he
must have had at his command a tradition, from which, though drawing
generally on his own resources, he might occasionally borrow isolated,
marked expressions, nearly unmodified. Another argument of Lücke is yet
more futile. If, he says, John had really had the inclination and
ability to invent discourses for Jesus, he would have been more liberal
in long discourses; and the alternation of brief remarks with prolonged
addresses, is not to be explained on the above supposition. But this
would follow only if the author of the fourth gospel appeared to be a
tasteless writer, whose perception did not tell him, that to one
occasion a short discourse was suitable, to another a long one, and
that the alternation of diffuse harangues with concise sentences was
adapted to produce the best impression. Of more weight is the
observation of Paulus, that if the fourth Evangelist had given the rein
to his invention in attributing discourses to Jesus, he would have
obtruded more of his own views, of which he has given an abstract in
his prologue; whereas the scrupulousness with which he abstains from
putting his doctrine of the Logos into the mouth of Jesus, is a proof
of the faithfulness with which he confined himself to the materials
presented by his memory or his authorities. [1086] But the doctrine of
the Logos is substantially contained in the succeeding discourse of
Jesus; and that the form in which it is propounded by the evangelist in
his preface, does not also reappear, is sufficiently explained by the
consideration, that he must have known that form to be altogether
foreign to the teaching of Jesus.
We therefore hold it to be established, that the discourses of Jesus in
John’s gospel are mainly free compositions of the Evangelist; but we
have admitted that he has culled several sayings of Jesus from an
authentic tradition, and hence we do not extend this proposition to
those passages which are countenanced by parallels in the synoptical
gospels. In these compilations we have an example of the vicissitudes
which befal discourses, that are preserved only in the memory of a
second party. Severed from their original connexion, and broken up into
smaller and smaller fragments, they present when reassembled the
appearance of a mosaic, in which the connexion of the parts is a purely
external one, and every transition an artificial juncture. The
discourses of Jesus in John present just the opposite appearance. Their
gradual transitions, only rendered occasionally obscure by the mystical
depths of meaning in which they lie,—transitions in which one thought
develops itself out of another, and a succeeding proposition is
frequently but an explanatory amplification of the preceding,
[1087]—are indicative of a pliable, unresisting mass, such as is never
presented to a writer by the traditional sayings of another, but such
as proceeds from the stores of his own thought, which he moulds
according to his will. For this reason the contributions of tradition
to these stores of thought (apart from the sayings which are also found
in the earlier gospels) were not so likely to have been particular,
independent dicta of Jesus, as rather certain ideas which formed the
basis of many of his discourses, and which were modified and developed
according to the bent of a mind of Alexandrian or Greek culture. Such
are the correlative ideas of πατὴρ and υἱὸς (father and son), φῶς and
σκότος (light and darkness), ζωὴ and θάνατος (life and death), ἄνω and
κάτω (above and beneath), σὰρξ and πνεῦμα (flesh and spirit); also some
symbolical expressions, as ἄρτος τῆς ζωῆς (bread of life), ὕδωρ ζῶη
(water of life). These and a few other ideas, variously combined by an
ingenious author, compose the bulk of the discourses attributed to
Jesus by John; a certain uniformity necessarily attending this
elemental simplicity.