THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN.
[Illustration: Publisher's Mark]
THE
GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN.
A Series of Discourses.
By
FREDERICK DENISON MAURICE, M.A.,
PROFESSOR OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE.
"Johannes redet schlecht und einfältig wie ein Kind, und lauten seine
Worte (wie die Weltweisen sie ansehen) recht kindisch. Es ist aber
eine solche Majestät drunter verborgen, die kein Mensch, so hoch er
auch erleuchtet ist, erforschen noch ausreden kann."--LUTHER,
_Auslegung des Evangel_. _Johannis_, 1, 5.
NEW EDITION.
London:
MACMILLAN AND CO.
1882.
[_The Right of Translation and Reproduction is Reserved._]
London: R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR BREAD STREET HILL, E.C.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
A valued friend, to whose judgment on a critical question I shall
always defer, has sent me the following observations upon certain
passages in the 11th and 16th Discourses of this volume. I have made
no alterations in the text.
_John_ v. 3, 4.
It is implied at page 143 that certain "honest and earnest men" are
unwilling to believe that St. John wrote the verse relating to angelic
interposition in the cures wrought by the pool of Bethesda, merely
because they consider the doctrine unworthy of him. It may be so: but
it is at least possible to assent fully to the doctrine, and yet
reject the verse, along with the last clause of the preceding verse,
on purely outward and critical grounds. Of the six most important
Greek MSS. two (and those, perhaps, the best) omit the whole
passage, ἐκδεχομένων--νοσήματι, two the clause,
ἐκδεχομένων--κίνησιν, and two the verse,
ἄγγελος--νοσηματι: not more than one or two
tolerable Greek MSS. support the received reading. Of important early
versions three omit the whole passage (including the recently
discovered "Curetonian" Syriac, probably the earliest and most
important of all), another (and two MSS. of a second) omits the verse,
and two others omit or obelize part of the verse. Of early patristic
evidence there is hardly any either way. Origen's commentary between
iv. 54 and viii. 19 is unfortunately lost. Tertullian in one place
shows an acquaintance with the belief about the angel, and probably
with the whole passage. With this exception, the passage appears to be
known in either form to no Father previous to St. Ambrose, no Greek
Father previous to St. Chrysostom: they and their successors follow
the common text. The only important early authority in its favour is
the Old Latin version, (with which must be taken Tertullian;) and yet
_its_ MSS. differ surprisingly in the details of the verse, presenting
it for the most part in a shorter form than the Greek MSS., which
likewise differ considerably among themselves. In short, all the
familiar phenomena of interpolation are present in the most flagrant
shape. In all probability the passage was added by degrees in the
second century in the Western Church, and passed over to the East in
the fourth century.
_John_ vii. 53-viii. 11.
At page 229 "some of the Fathers" are said to have "disliked the moral
of" the story of the woman taken in adultery, and therefore to have
been "glad to believe it not genuine." It is needless to go into the
overwhelming critical evidence against its genuineness,--a matter
quite distinct from its truth and authority. But surely the charge
here made is founded on an oversight. The earlier Fathers (with the
doubtful exception of Eusebius, who has been reasonably supposed to
allude to the same incident, as recorded by Papias, and in the Gospel
according to the Hebrews) nowhere refer to the narrative, apparently
for the simple reason that it was entirely unknown to them. Origen's
commentary on this part of the chapter is lost; but in a minute
recapitulation, included in his remarks on verse 22, he passes at once
without observation from vii. 52 to viii. 12. St. Chrysostom and St.
Cyril ignore the passage in the same manner. There is really no reason
whatever to suspect fraud here. St. Ambrose warns his readers of the
danger of reading the story carelessly (_otiosis auribus_), but does
not appear to doubt its genuineness. St. Augustine, arguing against an
excessive rigour on the part of injured husbands, rebukes certain
persons (_modicæ fidei vel potius inimicis veræ fidei_), who, as he
fancied, banished it from their MSS. because it seemed to be more
lenient to women than to their guilty selves. St. Jerome states that
it was found in many Greek and Latin MSS., and proceeds to rest an
argument upon it. Surely these three Fathers, if any, would have been
"glad to believe it not genuine."
Both passages are pretty fully discussed by Dr. Tregelles (_Account of
the printed Text of the Greek New Testament_, pp. 236-246), with the
help of some evidence not before accessible.
PREFACE.
I made many attempts to write a commentary on the Gospel of St. John.
All of them proved abortive; though each of them made me more alive to
the duty of endeavouring to impart to others some of the lessons which
I had received from it. At length I was convinced that unless I
studied the Gospel first of all with reference to my own congregation,
and used it as a lesson-book for them, I never should be able to
express what was in my mind to men whom I did not know. Critics, I
doubt not, will know excellent reasons why a book of Scripture cannot
be satisfactorily expounded in pulpit discourses. I certainly shall
not dispute their opinion. No one is more aware than myself that I
have not satisfactorily expounded _this_ book of Scripture. I have not
hoped to do that. But I believe I may have given my hearers and my
readers some encouragement to seek a better Expositor of it than I or
any much wiser teacher can be. If a few have been led by my words to
hope for that guidance, and to place themselves under it, I trust they
will ask for themselves and for me, that we may never desert it for
any other, least of all for our own.
CONTENTS.
DISCOURSE I.
PAGE
ST. JOHN I. 1.--_In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God._
The Ages of the Church--St. John the Theologian--Accounts of him
in the first Three Evangelists--His Jewish feelings--The opening
Sentence of the Gospel--What Psalmists and Prophets mean when
they speak of the Word of God--How Alexandrian Jews spoke of
the Living Word--Confused opinions at the end of the First Century--
How the opening of this Gospel meets them 1
DISCOURSE II.
ST. JOHN I. 14.--_And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us_,
(_and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the
Father_,) _full of grace and truth._
The same subject continued--How the Living Word was implied in
all the teaching of the Old Testament--The Word, the Creator of
the World--The Word enlightening human beings--The testimony
of John to Him in this character 15
DISCOURSE III.
ST. JOHN I. 29.--_The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him,
and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the
world._
John the Baptist an Old Testament teacher--How St. John the Evangelist
learnt his wisdom from him--His dialogue with the Pharisees--Wherein
the Jews were wrong in their apprehension of the Christ--How John's
message concerning Him that was before him met these confusions--His
testimony to his own disciples concerning the Lamb of God 28
DISCOURSE IV.
ST. JOHN I. 46.--_And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any
good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and
see._
The same subject continued--The Scape-Goat and the Lamb--Why
the last is a more satisfactory image than the first--The Lamb
identified with the Man--The Spirit and the Dove--John's Disciples
following Jesus--Nathanael confessing the Man of Nazareth to
be the Son of God--What was promised him hereafter 43
DISCOURSE V.
ST. JOHN II. 11.-_This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of
Galilee, and manifested forth His glory; and His disciples believed
on Him._
Miracles and Signs--The change from the desert to the feast--The
dialogue between Mary and her Son--Effects of the Sign upon those
who had not, and those who had, believed Jesus to be the Christ--
Christ giving His blessing to Marriage--Christ the spring of Life
and Joy--The beginning of Signs--Object of St. John in recording
them--Their message to us 57
DISCOURSE VI.
ST. JOHN II. 16.-_Take these things hence; make not my Father's
house an house of merchandise._
Difference between St. John and the other Evangelists in reference
to Galilee and Jerusalem--The Two Purifications of the Temple--
Jewish feelings respecting the Temple, easily understood by
Englishmen--The Temple-Market--The impression of our Lord's Zeal on
the minds of the Disciples--The Words '_My Father's House_'--The
Temple raised in three days--Double senses 72
DISCOURSE VII.
ST. JOHN III. 3.--_Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily,
I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the
kingdom of God._
Effects of the signs at the Passover on the crowd--Their impression
on Nicodemus the Pharisee--Seeing the Kingdom of God--The New
Birth--The perplexity of the Pharisee--The Spirit and the Wind--
Earthly Things and Heavenly Things--The Son of Man from Heaven
and in Heaven--The Brazen Serpent--Consciousness not the basis
of God's Kingdom--The Will of God 85
DISCOURSE VIII.
ST. JOHN III. 30.--_He must increase; I must decrease._
Return to John the Baptist--What John's Disciples say of the new
Teacher--John's answer--The Gift from above--The Royal Bridegroom--
The friend of the Bridegroom--The joy of John in his insignificance--
The Earthly and the Heavenly Speech--How the Divine Testimony is
received--The Difficulty of believing in God--The new Revelation
of the Father and the Son--The Wrath of God 101
DISCOURSE IX.
ST. JOHN IV. 10.--_Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou
knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give
me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have
given thee living water._
Water a Sign of Purification and a Sign of Life--Jesus in Samaria--
The Gift of God--The Well of Life within--The woman revealed
to herself--The Place of Worship and the Object of Worship--
Spiritual and superstitious tendencies of the Samaritans--Christ
declaring Himself to the woman 115
DISCOURSE X.
ST. JOHN IV. 48.--_Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs
and wonders, ye will not believe._
The woman's Message to her countrymen--'_Is not this the Christ?_'--
Wonder of the disciples--The Reapers and the Harvest--What
rewards Christ promises--The Samaritan Faith--The Galilæan
Faith--How the Nobleman's Faith was affected by the Cure of his
Son 128
DISCOURSE XI.
ST. JOHN V. 16-18.--_And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus,
because He had done these things on the sabbath-day. But Jesus
answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. Therefore
the Jews sought the more to kill Him, because He had not only broken
the sabbath, but said also that God was His Father, making Himself
equal with God._
Jesus at Jerusalem--The Pool--The Angel--Whether the story interferes
with Science--Records of Angels in the Old Testament--How
the cure of the Man concerned the doctrine respecting Angels--The
Sabbath-day--How the Pharisee regarded all the commandments--Reasons
of their conflict with Jesus respecting this commandment--'_My
Father worketh hitherto, and I work_' 141
DISCOURSE XII.
ST. JOHN V. 43.--_I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive
me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive._
The charge against Jesus of making Himself equal with God--How
Jesus refuses to exalt Himself--How He discovers the true Idea of
Godhead--The Son quickening the dead--All judgment committed
to the Son--The Light which that Language throws upon our
Experiences--The Son ruling and judging in the unseen World--The
Testimony of John--The Testimony of the Father--The Scriptures
and the Word 156
DISCOURSE XIII.
ST. JOHN VI. 35.--_And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life:
he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me
shall never thirst._
Jesus feeding the multitude--The Prophet and the King--Jesus
walking on the Sea--Use of that Sign--The crowd seeking Jesus--The
Bread of Life--The Son of Man and the Father--The Manna
falling from Heaven--'_My Father giveth you the Bread_'--The Will
of the Father--Christ promised to the Race and to each Man 172
DISCOURSE XIV.
ST. JOHN VI. 62.--_What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend
up where He was before?_
How to give thanks for a Peace--How the Nation of Israel was taught
that it did not live by Bread alone--How Jesus interpreted that
Language--The Teaching of the Father--'_The Bread that I will give
is my Flesh_'--Whether St. John was speaking of the Lord's Supper--
Spiritual Eating not metaphorical Eating--How the History of
the Church explains the Words, '_Except ye eat the Flesh of the
Son of Man, and drink His Blood, ye have no Life in you_'--How
the Ascension is connected with these words--The Faith of Peter--The
Unbelief of Judas--How connected with this subject--Its
relation to modern events--Christianity and Mahometanism 186
DISCOURSE XV.
ST. JOHN VII. 37-39.--_In the last day, that great day of the feast,
Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto
me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said,
out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake
He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive: for
the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet
glorified._)
Meaning of the Feast of Tabernacles--Why the brethren of our Lord
wished Him to go to Jerusalem--The Jewish World--Christ teaching
in the Temple--Doing God's Will and knowing His Doctrine--The
Sabbath-day and Circumcision--In what Sense Christ's Life was
mysterious, in what Sense open--'_Ye shall seek me, and not find
me_'--The Gift of the Holy Ghost 209
DISCOURSE XVI.
ST. JOHN VIII. 29.--_And He that sent me is with me: the Father
hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please
Him._
Bethlehem and Nazareth--The division in the Sanhedrim--The Story
of the Woman taken in Adultery--Jesus declaring Himself the Light
of the World--The Two Witnesses--The Descent and the Ascent--The
Answer to the Question, '_Who art Thou?_'--The Son of Man
lifted up--How St. John preaches the Trinity 226
DISCOURSE XVII.
ST. JOHN VIII. 43.--_Why do ye not understand my speech? even
because ye cannot hear my word._
The repelling and attracting Power of Christ's Words concerning
His Father--The Promise of Truth--The Promise of Freedom--The
Servant in the House and the Son--Abraham's Seed--The Desire to
murder the Prince of Life--The claim of God as a Father--The
charge of being children of the Devil--The Speech and the Word--The
Temporal and the Eternal--'_Before Abraham was, I am_' 240
DISCOURSE XVIII.
ST. JOHN IX. 39.--_And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into
this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which
see might be made blind._
How the story of the Blind Man is connected with the previous
discourse--Final causes of bodily disease--The obligation upon Jesus
to work--Process of the cure--The debates in the Synagogue--The
Doctors and the Beggar--His arguments and their answer--What
his blindness had done for him--The Revelation of the Son of God 259
DISCOURSE XIX.
ST. JOHN X. 27-29.--_My sheep hear my voice, and I know them,
and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they
shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my
and. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no
man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand._
The Mount of Olives--The sight of the Sheepfold--The Wicket-Gate--
Why the Pharisees could not understand the symbol--St. John's
Parables--The robbers and murderers who claimed to be Christs
in the Old Time--Application to Modern Times--How is it true
that the Sheep did not hear them--The Good Shepherd and the
Hirelings--Communion between the Shepherd and the Sheep--Communion
between Christ and His Father--The other Sheep--Why Jesus did not
say, 'I am the Christ'--'_My Father is greater than all_'--'_I and
my Father are one_'--'_I have said, Ye are gods_' 274
DISCOURSE XX.
ST. JOHN XI. 25.--_Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and
the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall
he live._
Jesus and the Disciples again in the Wilderness--The common feeling
respecting the Resurrection of Lazarus, the true one--The Sisters
and the Brother--The Message concerning Lazarus--The hours of
Night and Day--Our Friend sleepeth--How the Two Sisters endure
their Comforters--The Resurrection in the Last Day--'_I am the
Resurrection, and the Life_'--The Groaning of Jesus--The Glory of
God--Lazarus returning to his Home--Resurrection not a Break in
a Man's History--The Renewal of Family Bonds--Deliverance from
Unbelief 300
DISCOURSE XXI.
ST. JOHN XI. 49, 50.--_And one of them, named Caiaphas, being
the high priest that same year, said unto them, Ye know nothing a
all, nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should
die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not._
Why the Sadducees did not wish to stone Jesus--The Prophecy of
Caiaphas--The Romans and the Cross--The Feast at Bethany--The
Box of Ointment--Its Effect on Judas--Jerusalem during the
Passover--When the Disciples learnt the meaning of Christ's
Entry into the City--The Greeks at the Feast--The Seed falling
into the Ground and dying--The Moment of Agony--The Son of Man
drawing all Men to Him--'_Who is this Son of Man?_'--How that
Question is asked and answered in our day 321
DISCOURSE XXII.
ST. JOHN XII. 44-50, and XIII. 1.--_Jesus cried and said, He that
believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on Him that sent me. And
he that seeth me, seeth Him that sent me. I am come a light into the
world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.
And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not; for
I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that
rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him:
the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last
day. For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me,
He gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should
speak. And I know that His commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever
I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak. Now
before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that His hour was
come that He should depart out of this world unto the Father, having
loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end._
The last Signs to the Jewish people--How Isaiah had explained their
inefficacy--The Glory of Men and the Glory of God--The Words
which closed Christ's public Ministry--The Last Supper--The
Washing of the Feet--What had to be washed away--Why the feet
only had to be washed--Christ's Example--How one Man can purify
another--The Disciple not above his Master--'_He that receiveth
you receiveth Me_'--The trouble of Spirit--The Disciple whom Jesus
loved--'_That thou doest, do quickly_'--The Son of Man glorified--
The New Commandment--The prophecy of denial 341
DISCOURSE XXIII.
ST. JOHN XIV. 25, 26.--_These things have I spoken unto you, being
yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost,
whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things,
and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said
unto you._
The two causes of Trouble--The double support under them--Why
Jesus did not speak of dying--The message concerning a Father's
House--Jesus the Way--To what the Way leads--'_Have I been
so long time with you, and hast thou not known me?_'--The greater
Works--Praying in the Name of Jesus--The promise of the Comforter--
Loving and obeying--How the Disciples learnt their need
of a Spirit--The gift of the Spirit the gift of Peace--The Prince
of this World--The love of the Father to the World 365
DISCOURSE XXIV.
ST. JOHN XV. 1.--_I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman._
Allusions to vines in the old Scripture--The interpretation of them
here--'_Abide in me_'--Ground of the union of the Disciples to
Christ--The gift of Joy--Servants and friends--The command to
love--The world's hatred a hatred of God 383
DISCOURSE XXV.
ST. JOHN XVI. 1.--_These things have I spoken unto you, that ye
should not be offended._
Effect of Christ's words upon His Disciples when they met with
persecutions--Method of His education--The conviction of the world
by the Spirit--The Spirit not speaking of Himself, but of the Son
and the Father--'_A little while and ye shall not see me_'--The
birth of the Man into the world--The Apostles' belief--The world
overcome 396
DISCOURSE XXVI.
ST. JOHN XVII. 1.--_These words spake Jesus, and lifted up His
eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy
Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee._
Words, their power and their weakness--How to connect Christ's
prayer with other prayers--'_Glorify thy Son, that thy Son may
glorify thee_'--The gift of eternal life--The order of the
prayer--The part of it which refers to the Disciples--'_I pray
not for the world_'--The son of perdition--Truth and sanctity--
'_That they all may be one_'--The world which has not known
the Father 411
DISCOURSE XXVII.
ST. JOHN XIX. 37.--_And again another scripture saith, They shall
look on Him whom they have pierced._
Arrangement of our services in Passion Week--Agreement of St.
John with the other Evangelists--Why all dwell upon the arraignment
of Jesus--Peculiarities of St. John--The night-scene with the
officers--Jesus before the High Priest--The dread of defilement--Jesus
before Pilate--'_Art thou a king?_'--'_Behold the man!_'--'_Whence
art thou?_'--'_We have no king but Cæsar_'--The title on the cross--
Rending the garment--The Son and the Mother--'_A bone shall not
be broken_'--'_They shall look on Him whom they have pierced_'--
Nicodemus at the sepulchre 424
DISCOURSE XXVIII.
ST. JOHN XX. 30, 31.--_And many other signs truly did Jesus in
the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book:
but these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life
through His name._
Reasons why St. John should record the history of the Resurrection
carefully--How far he or the other Evangelists cared to produce
evidences--Peter and John at the sepulchre--How John could find
in the Scripture that Jesus should rise again--Appearance of the
angels--Differences of the Evangelists--Jesus speaking to Mary--'_I
am not yet ascended_'--'_Peace be unto you_'--The commission to bind
and loose--Thomas the Doubter--The conclusion of the narrative--The
resumption of it--The Apostles returning to their nets--Jesus
on the shore--The fish and the bread--'_Simon, lovest thou
me?_'--The two Apostles--John tarrying till Christ came--The
things which Jesus did, and is doing, and will do 443
NOTES.
NOTE I.--On Barn's theory of the Gospels 469
NOTE II.--On the construing of the 3d, 4th, and 9th verses of the
1st chapter 475
NOTE III.--On Origen's notion of St. John's Gospel in connexion
with the knowledge attributed to John the Baptist 477
NOTE IV.--On the relation of the words, '_The Lamb of God_,' to
the Passover, and to the passage in the 53d chapter of Isaiah 479
NOTE V.--On the objections to a revision of the Scriptures 481
NOTE VI.--Extract from Gregory of Nyssa 484
NOTE VII.--On the resurrection of the body and the judgment-day 484
NOTE VIII.--Comparison of the teaching in the Sermon on the Mount
with that in the 8th chapter of St. John 488
NOTE IX.--On the doctrine of Atonement--Scotch and English
divinity 492
NOTE X.--On corporate holiness 498
NOTE XI.--A translation of John viii. 2 501
DISCOURSE I.
THE JEWISH FISHERMAN, THE CHRISTIAN DIVINE.
[Lincoln's Inn, Septuagesima Sunday, January 20, 1856.]
ST. JOHN I. 1.
_In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God._
An eminent man, who died not long since in Germany, was wont to divide
the life of the Church into three periods. That before the Reformation
he called the Petrine; the three centuries since the Reformation, the
Pauline; one he maintained was at hand, which would last to the end of
this dispensation--that he named the Johannine. The classification is
perhaps too ingenious to be true; and there are many reasons why we
ought not to treat all the years before the sixteenth century as
belonging to the same division. Nevertheless, there is something in
the observation concerning St. John which has commended itself to
minds of a very different order from his who put it into this shape.
Some have supposed that St. John is to displace the earlier writers of
the New Testament, because his teaching is more profound, or more
charitable, or more simple than theirs. Some suppose that he was
especially appointed to explain, unfold, bring out into their fullest
light, all that previous Prophets and Apostles had presented under
different aspects, in forms suitable to their own times and
circumstances. Wide as this difference is, both may agree that the
writings of St. John, much as they may have been studied hitherto,
deserve a fresh and a more earnest study. Both may hope that if they
have been intended for the illumination of our days, the meaning of
them may come forth to us with greater clearness than it did to our
forefathers; not because we are wiser than they, but because a larger
experience, perhaps an experience of more intense doubt and ignorance,
may make us more ready to welcome the divine interpreter, and less
eager to anticipate his discoveries by the conclusions which ask to be
corrected by them.
There are three books in our canon which we attribute to St. John,
besides the two short letters to Gaius and the Elect Lady. Of these,
his Gospel appears to me a perfect summary of _Christian Theology_,
his First Epistle of _Christian Ethics_, his Apocalypse of _Christian
Politics_. I do not despair of seeing even this last book come forth,
out of the hands of soothsayers and prognosticators, as a real
lesson-book respecting the dealings of God with the nations,
respecting the method and the issues of His righteous government. The
craving there is in the minds of men for a faithful history of the
past, which shall be also a faithful guide to the future, will surely
be satisfied some day; this book may teach us how it shall be
satisfied. It requires even less faith to expect that when we are
tired of speculations about the maxims and principles of morality,
which do not make our morality better, while yet their very failure
convinces us that there are principles which we did not create and
which must bind us, we may turn to an old and simple document, which
sets forth the commandment that has life--which tells us what the end
of our existence is, what has deranged it, how each man may recover
all that he has lost, and be what he was created to be.
I had thought at first that these Bible ethics might be more suitable
to a congregation of men, busy in the world and valuing higher maxims
only as they can test them by their application to its daily
occasions, than what I have called by the more imposing name of
Theology. I should have acted upon that thought if I had believed that
St. John's theology was of that stamp which has made the word
agreeable to schoolmen, offensive to those who would turn words into
acts. If theology is a collection of dry husks, the granaries which
contain those husks will be set on fire, and nothing will quench the
fire till they be consumed. It is just because I find in St. John the
grain which those husks sometimes conceal, for which they are
sometimes a substitute; it is just because theology in his Gospel
offers itself to us as a living root, out of which all living powers,
living thoughts, living acts may develop themselves; it is just
because there is nothing in him that is abstract, because that which
is deep and eternal proves itself to be deep and eternal by entering
into all the relations of time, by manifesting itself in all the
common doings of men; it is therefore, I believe, that he makes his
appeal, not to the man of technicalities, not to the school doctor,
but to the simple wayfarer, and at the same time to the man of science
who does not forget that he is a man and who expects to ascertain
principles only by the honest method of experiment.
To all such, I am sure, the careful study of the fourth Gospel will
prove of unspeakable worth and interest. A preacher may do much to
hinder such study; he may also do something to promote it. He will
hinder it if he seeks to make texts give out a sense which he has
first put into them. He will hinder it if he seeks to stifle any
doubts which the words themselves may excite; any that are suggested
by the contradictions of the world, and the perplexities of the
reader's own mind. He will hinder it if he breaks the continuity of
the narration by taking a passage here and there to inculcate a
particular moral, without considering how it is related to the
passages that precede and that follow it and to the general scope of
the Evangelist. He may promote it so far as he believes that he is a
fellow-learner with those whom he is teaching; so far as he is
convinced that the words of the Evangelist are clearer and diviner
than any which he, of his own wit or by the help of inferior books,
can put in their place; so far as he desires that his own eyes, and
those of all students, may be purged that they may see what is
actually in the words; so far as he believes that there is One who is
above the words, above the writer of them, to whom they point, and
from whom all the wisdom that is in them comes; so far as he trusts
for himself, and encourages all to trust, that this Teacher wills us
to come to the knowledge of His truth, and will withhold no help that
we need in the pursuit of it. Beseeching the Holy Spirit of God to
keep alive this temper in your minds and in mine, I would begin the
examination of St. John's Gospel to-day, desiring, if God permit, that
we may go through with it to the end.
When I talk of St. John as a Theologian, I adopt the title which was
given to him at a very early time. In our own day that title has
awakened a suspicion about the genuineness of this Gospel. He is
spoken of by the other Evangelists as a fisherman mending his father's
nets; as one of two Apostles whom our Lord called Sons of Thunder; as
giving some warrant for that designation by desiring to call fire from
heaven upon a Samaritan village; as showing signs of a special
ambition by his prayer that he himself and his brother might sit one
on Christ's right hand and one on His left in His kingdom; as
exhibiting the sectarian and exclusive temper of his nation, by
forbidding a man to cast out devils in Christ's name who did not
follow with His Apostles. Was there anything in these early
characteristics to prepare one for expecting that he would be the
divine, not of a Jewish synagogue but of a Christian Church? True, he
is spoken of as being present on the Mount of Transfiguration, and in
the Garden of Gethsemane. On both occasions his eyes were heavy, like
those of the other disciples, with the sight of glory and the sight of
suffering. When others forsook and fled, he did so likewise. In the
Acts of the Apostles he appears, no doubt, in a conspicuous position,
but it is still expressly as a Jewish Apostle. If he is joined with
St. Peter in healing the sick man, it is when they are going up to the
Temple at the hour of prayer. He endures the reproaches and the
scourges of the Sanhedrim. But after the preaching of the Gospel to
the Gentiles, we hear no more of him; he vanishes out of sight. St.
Paul calls him one of the Apostles of the Circumcision, but alludes to
him no further. When we meet with him again, not in the sacred record
but in the mist of ecclesiastical traditions, there are reports of him
as adhering to the Jewish observance of the Passover, as in some sense
representing the dignity of the high-priest. How could we suppose from
such intimations that he would open a Gospel with the words I read to
you in the text, words which seem to intimate an acquaintance with
heathen speculation, even with a high philosophy? Does that language
belong at all to the simplicity of the first century? Is it not much
more in accordance with the spirit of the next age, when plain
narratives were combining themselves with curious speculations, and
Christian teachers were introducing what they had learnt in the porch
or the academy among the doctrines and the exhortations which had been
uttered to fishermen on the lake of Tiberias or to the crowds who were
gathered round the mount?
From what I said of my reasons for selecting this Gospel as a subject
for discourses in the pulpit, you will anticipate part of the answer
which I should give to these suggestions. If the Gospel is what those
who make them, say that it is, they are right. If its theology is of
an abstract, artificial character, compounded of elements drawn from
all heterogeneous sources, let it be attributed to an age--I do not
determine whether the second century was or was not such an age--in
which an artificial habit of mind prevailed, in which system-building
had become a profession. If there are _no_ traces of such a
disposition in the fourth Gospel,--if it is, in its language, in the
construction of its sentences, in the style of its narrative, the
simplest of all the Gospels,--then we may have good cause to think
that it savours more of the fisherman to whom it has been for so many
ages ascribed, than of the learned convert from some Gentile school,
the ingenious blender of Jewish and Gentile dogmas, whom critics of
this age have imagined to be its manufacturer.
I do not, however, desire to avoid a part of the inquiry which these
remarks may not seem at first to meet. All the accounts of St. John
in the New Testament, all that we can guess of him from other sources,
certainly lead us to think of him as one whose mind had been cast in
the Hebrew mould, who had learnt the lore of a child of Abraham, who
had not, in the same sense that St. Paul did, thrown himself among the
inhabitants of the Greek cities, and become as '_one without law, that
he might gain those that are without law_.' St. John's position in the
city of Ephesus, during his latter years, does not affect the opinion
that he was essentially a Jew. Jerusalem had fallen, or was about to
fall; nowhere, perhaps, would he be more likely to find a colony of
men attached to the customs of his forefathers than in that city.
Confessedly, he had no part in founding its Church or converting its
Gentile inhabitants; that had been St. Paul's work. And we may admit
without scruple the evidence, imperfect though it be, that St. John in
that city did preserve some of the characteristics of his childhood
and of his education, even when the world to which those strictly
belonged was passing away.
How do these admissions affect our belief that he was the writer of
the sentences which introduce the Gospel that bears his name? I
believe they strengthen that belief exceedingly. I can conceive
nothing more thoroughly Hebrew than these sentences. I pass over the
resemblance, which will strike you all upon this day,[1] between these
verses and those at the commencement of the Book of Genesis; though
the correspondence between their style and the style of Moses, is one
of those internal correspondences which we feel the more strongly the
more we reflect. But I would beg you to notice the essential
_difference_ between this kind of writing and that of any person who
had been brought up in any school of philosophy whatsoever, whether
one purely Greek, or where Greek and Hebrew elements were mixed as
they were at Alexandria. Would you expect in such a person the broad,
simple, assertive tone, '_In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God, and the Word was God_'? Would not the _true_ philosopher
try to vindicate his name by proving that he was a _seeker_ after
wisdom? Would not the _false_ philosopher, if he were ever so much
inclined to dogmatise, at least produce some plausible arguments in
support of any statements which he advanced? Where, but in the
writings of the Old and New Testament, do you meet with such an
adventurous proclamation as this? Where, even in the Books of the Old
and New Testament, do you meet with one that is quite a parallel to
it?
[1] Septuagesima Sunday, when the first chapter of Genesis is read.
Schleiermacher, who is not likely to exaggerate the resemblance of the
New Testament to the Old, dwells on this point. See "Homilien über das
Evangelium Johannis;" edited after his death by Sydow.
And then look at the contents of the sentence. What have you been
hearing of, all through the Psalms and the Prophets, but of God's
word, which was to give Joshua courage, which David delighted in and
fed upon, which was a fire in the heart of Jeremiah? On the surface of
the Bible this language encounters you. I mean, that your eye cannot
wander over a page without being arrested by expressions of the kind;
you become so familiar with it that you forget the peculiarity of it.
But if you stop for a moment to think, you will perceive that whenever
the word of God is spoken of, something most vital and most inward is
intended. It is a quick, penetrating power, entering into the man,
affecting his heart and his reins, standing out in the sharpest
contrast to the idols which speak to the eye. The 'word of God' is the
favourite expression in the writers of the Old Testament, because they
are testifying of an invisible Lord who speaks to man's spirit;
because they are denouncing all attempts to make the objects of men's
senses into their lords. How frightful, then, to an old Prophet would
have been the thought of confounding the mere letters of a book, which
could be seen, handled, copied out, with the words of the Lord! No
doubt these words might have characters found for them; they might be
handed down in these characters from age to age: it would be a
glorious witness of their enduring quality if they were so. But it
would remain unalterably true, that as words coming forth from the
mouth of God, and not to return to Him void, they addressed themselves
to the wills, hearts, consciences of men; into these only could they
enter.
Whence did they proceed? Solomon, the wise king, had spoken of a
divine Wisdom, from which his was derived. He had spoken of that
Wisdom as brought up with God--as His counsellor--as an object to be
sought for, embraced, loved by men. The Prophets had spoken of the
Word of God coming to them. The Word ruled them, searched them, judged
them. They were not the speakers; the Word was the speaker. Could such
language be uttered continually in the ears of earnest men and be
disregarded? It was not disregarded; it moulded the very heart of all
true Israelites. But soon it was forced upon them in another way.
After the Babylonian captivity, they were brought into contact with
heathens; they were obliged to learn what heathens had been thinking
of. Elsewhere they heard of great mythological conceptions, of the
Lion, the Eagle, the Ox, the Man, which represent different aspects of
the Divinity. But in the city of Alexandria they heard how Greek
sages, in their struggle to get rid of mythological fancies, had
spoken of a Logos or Reason in themselves, which lifted them above
themselves. It was strangely connected with the power of speech; it
pointed to the very source of speech and thought. It was often
described as an eye, blinded in most, and yet of which those in whom
it was open could only say, 'It makes us know what the privilege is of
being men, what the responsibility. Now we are sure that man has
something to do with the Divinity, as all the traditions of our
fathers tell us that he has. But what he has to do with the Divinity,
who can inform us? for the traditions only bewilder us when they try
to explain.' Was it strange that a Jew should say to himself, 'Why, my
oracles have been telling me from the very first of a Word that speaks
to men, a Word of God; a Word that withdraws them from the idolatry of
sense, and the pursuit of sensible things; a Word that has taught them
how to rule themselves; a Word that has taught them how they may seek
after their Creator, and hold converse with Him.' Men of cultivation
as well as of honesty might be easily overwhelmed by this twofold
discovery; they might vacillate between their Gentile lore and their
Jewish; they might mix them sometimes confusedly together; they might
resort to allegories for the sake of explaining the connexion, which
the simpler student of either would reject as unsatisfactory and
frivolous.
These descriptions apply, in some measure, to those commentaries on
the Old Testament which are contained in the Apocryphal books called
'The Wisdom of Solomon,' and 'Ecclesiasticus.' The characteristic of
these books is their recognition of a divine Wisdom, which the
writers sometimes speak of as if it were abstract, quite as often as
if it were personal and substantial. These modes of speech are
confessedly derived from the Scriptures. They speak of no history but
the Hebrew history; probably they were acquainted with no other. Still
it is probable that they were holding intercourse with Gentiles,
perhaps were explaining the Hebrew books to them. But all the
peculiarities I have mentioned became far more marked and definite in
Philo the Alexandrian, who was an old man when he went on an embassy
from the Alexandrian Jews to Caligula. In him the idea of a divine
Word, who unites God and man, and holds converse with the spirit of
man, becomes the ground of all his thoughts. Every book in the Bible
speaks to him of such a Being. The belief in Him alone explains to him
the life of patriarchs, lawgivers, prophets. Yet he admits that such a
Being must also have been the source of all wisdom to Gentile
philosophers. It is his privilege, as a Jew, to explain to them their
own conceptions of such a Being. Moses could declare that that was
which Plato felt must be.
All must see, if we had not positive evidence of the fact, how much
such thoughts, coming forth at such a time, must have affected Jews,
may have affected Gentiles. Yet Philo wrote avowedly for the learned.
He wished to put himself at a distance from all others. It was a
satisfaction to him that he could, by the use of dark allegories, keep
the profane vulgar at a distance. How, then, could his thoughts blend
with those of the men who came preaching that One who was called a
carpenter's son, One who had chosen fishermen as His disciples, was
the King of men and the Son of God? '_To the poor the gospel is_
_preached_,' was the maxim which they were to exhibit in their lessons
and their lives. How could such doctrines as Philo's be addressed to
the poor?
And yet the disciples were obliged to speak of Jesus as the Son of Man
who sowed the word in men's hearts, which sprang up and bore fruit,
thirty and sixty and an hundredfold. They were obliged to speak of
Jesus, the Son of Man, as opening a kingdom of heaven which was within
men. They were obliged to speak of that kingdom as the kingdom of His
Father. They were obliged to say that the Son of Man had opened it to
all, because He was also the Son of God. They were obliged to say that
they could only testify of this kingdom because He had given them the
Spirit of His Father. And when St. Paul learnt that he, the Hebrew of
the Hebrews, was called to be the Apostle of the Gentiles, it was '_by
a revelation of the Son of God in him_' Whom he was '_to preach to the
Gentiles_.' To the Corinthians, among whom he had determined to know
nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified, he still spoke of Jesus
Christ as the '_Wisdom of God_' and the '_Power of God_.' To the
Ephesians he spoke of their having '_been chosen in Him before the
foundation of the world, that they might be holy, and without blame
before Him in love_.'
What was the consequence? Jews said, 'You are exalting a man into the
place of God; you are denying the words which you were taught on your
mother's knee, "_The Lord our God is one Lord_."' Gentiles said, 'You
are robbing us of the belief we have had of friendly beings of another
world, who have sympathised with ours, who have had loving converse
with sages and heroes, who have mixed with us as men among men.'
Philosophers said, 'What has your teaching to do with all those
glimpses of light in the reason which wise men have spoken of, which
they have been sure that they received?' Disciples of Philo asked,
'What has this human Teacher of yours to do with that Word of God whom
our master discovered in all the history of the Old Testament?'
Disciples of John the Baptist (still numerous, and probably much
connected with the Alexandrian teachers, as in the instance of
Apollos) said, 'Our master preached repentance and turning to the
living God. You say he spoke also of a Teacher who was to come after
him. Do you mean that he wished us to turn away from the living God to
this future Teacher?' Christian men began to ask themselves whether
Jesus Christ was not the Son of God, _because_ He was born in a
wonderful manner of the Virgin? They began to dream of Him as a
demigod, or a superior angel, half human, half divine. Other
Christians began to boast that they were sons of God _only_ because
they were baptized men, and that their sonship was a sentence upon all
the world before them and around them. A cloud of opinions--vapours
gathered from all quarters--was floating about in the world; was
nowhere, perhaps, denser than in the great emporium of Ephesus. A
great convulsion was at hand. St. Paul had said a great _apostasy_ was
at hand.
Then, if we may believe the tradition of centuries, spoke out the old
man of Ephesus, the Galilean fisherman, the Son of Thunder,--he whose
brother had been taken by an early death to the right hand of his
Master,--he who was himself to linger till the end of the age,--the
passionate Jew, who had desired fire to come from heaven;--then spake
he who had been on the Mount, and in the Garden, and at the Last
Supper: '_In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All
things were made by Him, and without Him was not any thing made that
was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men; and the
light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. There
was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a
witness, to bear witness of the light. He was not that light, but was
sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light which
lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world,
and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came
unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received
Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God; which were born
not of flesh, nor of blood, nor of the will of man, but of God._'
Except at the close of the first century, when the Old Testament age
was passing into the New, I conceive these verses could not have been
written. Except by the most earnest of Jews, the most simple of
Christian Apostles, I believe they could not have been written. But if
they are, as they are sometimes supposed to be, merely a doctrinal
proem to an actual Gospel, I admit they must have proceeded from some
one else. I hope to show you hereafter that they explain every
narrative which follows, as every narrative which follows illustrates
them. I hope you will find that the whole Gospel is a Theology just as
much as these verses; because it is a Gospel to mankind, a Gospel to
the conscience of each man, from God and concerning God.
DISCOURSE II.
THE WORD THE LIGHT OF MEN.
[Lincoln's Inn, 1st Sunday in Lent, February 10, 1856.]
ST. JOHN I. 14.
_And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we
beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the
Father, full of grace and truth._