The first point in John’s history, on which the authentic testimony of
the Fathers is offered to illustrate his life, after the Acts of the
Apostles cease to mention him, is, that during the difficulties between
the weak-minded, Judaizing Christians, and those of a freer spirit who
advocated an open communion with those Gentile brethren that did not
conform to the Mosaic ritual, he, with Peter, and more particularly
with James, joined in recommending a compromise with the inveterate
prejudices of the Jewish believers; and to the end of his life, though
constantly brought in contact with Gentiles, he himself still continued,
in all legal and ritual observances, a Jew. A striking and probable
instance of this adherence to Judaism, is given in the circumstance,
that he always kept the fourteenth day of March as holy time, in
conformity with one of the most common of the religious usages in
which he had been brought up; and the respect with which he regarded
this observance is strongly expressed in the fact that he countenanced
and encouraged it, also, in his disciples, some of whom preserving it
throughout life as he did, brought down the notice of the occurrence
to those days when the extinction of almost all the Judaical part of
primitive Christianity made such a peculiarity very remarkable. This,
though a small, is a highly valuable incident in the history of John,
containing a proof of the strong affection which he always retained
for the religion of his fathers,――a feeling which deserves the highest
commendation, accompanied as it was, by a most catholic spirit towards
those Gentile Christians who could not bear a yoke, which education and
long habit alone made more tolerable to him.
_With Peter and James._――The authority for this is Irenaeus,
(A. D. 150‒170,) who says, “Those apostles who were with James,
permitted the Gentiles indeed to act freely, leaving us to the
_spirit_ of God. They themselves, too, knowing the same God,
persevered in their ancient observances. * * * Thus the apostles
whom the Lord made witnesses of his whole conduct and his whole
teaching, (for every where are found standing together with him,
Peter, James and JOHN,) religiously devoted themselves to the
observance of the _law_, which is by Moses, thus acknowledging
both [the law and the spirit] to be from one and the same God.”
(Irenaeus, Against Heresies.)
_Fourteenth day of March._――This refers to the practice of
observing the feast of the resurrection of Christ, on the
fourteenth day of March, corresponding with the passover of the
Jews,――a custom long kept up in the eastern churches, instead
of always keeping it on Sunday. The authority for the statement
is found in two ancient writers; both of whom are quoted by
Eusebius. (Church History, V. 24.) He first quotes Polycrates,
(towards the end of the second century, ) as writing to Victor,
bishop of Rome, in defense of the adherence of the eastern
churches to the practice of their fathers, in keeping the
passover, or Easter, on the fourteenth day of the month, without
regard to the day of the week on which it occurred, though the
great majority of the Christian churches throughout the world,
by common consent, always celebrated this resurrection feast
on the Lord’s day, or Sunday. Polycrates, in defense of the
oriental practice of his flock and friends, so accordant with
early Jewish prejudices, quotes the example of the Apostle John,
who, he says, died at Ephesus, where he (Polycrates) was bishop.
He says, that John, as well as his brother-apostle, Philip, and
Polycarp his disciple, “all observed Easter on the fourteenth
day of the month, never varying from that day, at all.” Eusebius
(ibid.) quotes also Irenaeus, writing to the same bishop Victor,
against his attempt to force the eastern churches into the
adoption of the practice of the Roman church, in celebrating
Easter always on a Sunday, instead of uniformly on the
fourteenth day of the month, so as to correspond with the Jewish
passover. Irenaeus, in defense of the old eastern custom, tells
of the practice of Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, a disciple of
John. Polycarp, coming to Rome in the days of bishop Anicetus,
(A. D. 151‒160,) though earnestly exhorted by that bishop to
renounce the eastern mode of celebrating Easter always on the
fourteenth, like the Jewish passover, steadily refused to change;
giving as a reason, the fact that John, the disciple of Jesus,
and others of the apostles, whom he had intimately known, had
always followed the eastern mode.
This latter authority, fairly derived from a person who had been
the intimate friend of John himself, may be pronounced entitled
to the highest respect, and quite clearly establishes this
little circumstance, which is valuable only as showing John’s
pertinacious adherence to Jewish forms, to the end of his life.
Socrates, an ecclesiastical historian, (A. D. 439,) alludes
to the circumstance, that those who observed Easter on the
fourteenth, referred to the authority of the Apostle John, as
received by tradition.