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CHAP. IX.

OF THE

INTERNAL EVIDENCE RESPECTING

AR

THE QUESTION, WHETHER THE APOCALYPSE
WAS WRITTEN BY ST. JOHN. DR. LARD-
NER'S OPINION; OPINIONS OF OTHERS.
GUMENTS OF DIONYSIUS OF ALEXANDRIA
UNDER FIVE HEADS; ANSWERS THERETO,
AND TO THE OBJECTIONS OF MICHAELIS.
INQUIRY WHETHER JOHN THE EVANGELIST,
AND JOHN THE DIVINE, WERE BY THE AN-
CIENTS ACCOUNTED THE SAME PERSON. EVI-
DENCE FROM A PASSAGE IN THE BOOK THAT
IT WAS WRITTEN BY ST. JOHN.
LATION AND CONCLUSION.

RECAPITU

THE next, and, I believe, the only subject remaining to be considered is, whether, if we admit the Apocalypse to be an inspired book, we are also to receive it as the writing of John, the Apostle and Evangelist.

We have already seen it expressly declared to be such, by unexceptionable witnesses, who lived in or near to the times when it was first received by the Seven Churches; who had ample means of information; and were interested to know from whom the Churches had received it.

Such

Such were Justin Martyr, Irenæus the disciple of Polycarp, Tertullian, Origen, and others who preceded them. This external evidence appeared of such preponderating weight to the candid and judicious. Lardner, (who entertained no prejudice in favour of the Apocalypse, which he appears to have little studied or understood*) as to have drawn from him this conclusion, twice repeated; "It may be questioned, whether the exceptions founded on the difference of style, "and such like things, or any other criticisms "whatever, can be sufficient to create a doubt "concerning the author of this book, which was "owned for a writing of John, the Apostle and "Evangelist, before the times of Dionysius and "Caius, and, so far as we know, before the most early of those who disputed its genuineness."

66

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But it is a part of our proposed plan to consider these exceptions and criticisms. They arose in the third century, and are detailed in the writings of Dionysius of Alexandria; and the objections are by him placed in so strong a light, that little has been added to them by subsequent critics. The answers to them that I have seen are those by Mill, in his Prolegomena to the New Testament; by Bishop Gibson, in his Pastoral Letters; by Blackwall, in his Sacred Classics; which, with those of other writers,

* Supplement, vol. iii. p. 372.

+ Cred. Gosp. Hist. vol. iv. p. 733. Supplement, vol. iii. P. 364.

have been abridged and presented to the public, with useful additions, by Lardner, in his Credibility of the Gospel History*. I shall state the objections of Dionysius, as reduced by Lardner to five heads †. I shall subjoin to them, in a short compass, such answers as appear to me to have been satisfactorily produced, or I shall substitute others; and I shall note occasionally those objections of Michaelis, which have not yet been answered.

I." The Evangelist John has not named himself, "in his Gospel, nor his catholic Epistle; but the "writer of the Revelation nameth himself more

" than once."

This argument appears to me to stand on very weak and untenable foundations: yet Michaelis has thought proper to repeat it. Is it possible for us to know, at this distance of time, with no historical information on the subject, what special or private reasons, then existing, occasioned an apostolic writer, either to disclose or conceal his name? Thus far the answer is general: but let us enter more particularly into the charge. 1. "The Apostle who put his name "to the Apocalypse, has omitted to do so to "the Gospel." But was it usual for the Evangelists to put their names to their Gospels? Is any other Gospel published with the name of its

* Art. Dionysius of Alexandria.

+ Part I. vol. iv. p 730.

+ P. 534.

author?

author? Not one. It was not the apostolic practice: yet John, of all the Evangelists, approaches nearest to a disclosure of his name; he discloses by various circumlocutions, that he, the Apostle John, wrote that Gospel; and this we know, from what he has delivered to us by such circumlocution, as clearly, as if he had expressly written his name. 2. "But though "this answer may be satisfactory respecting St. "John's Gospel, can we defend by it the same "omission in his Epistles?" An epistle, indeed, generally requires the name of its author to be inserted; and for that reason, among others, the name of John is inserted in the Apocalypse, which is written in the form of an cpistle. Yet there may be exceptions to this general rule; and we see such evidently in the Epistle to the Hebrews, which is written with out a name. But the omission, if such, in the three Epistles of St. John, need not be sheltered under this precedent. We may otherwise account satisfactorily for their being published without his name,

The two last Epistles are short letters, familiarly addressed to individuals; and the writer calls himself, not by the name of John, but by the appellation of the Elder, by which he was probably as well known, in the familiar confe

John xxi. 20, &c. xix. 26. xiii. 23, &c. † See Michaelis, Introd. ch. xxxii. sect. iii.

rence

rence which he held with these his correspondents, as if he had written his name John. He was, indeed, at the time he wrote these Epistles, the Elder of the Christian Church, not only far advanced in years, but the sole survivor of all his apostolic brethren. Such an appellation, in a private letter to an individual, amounts to the same as the writer's name.

But what shall we say to the omission of his name in the First Epistle? Michaelis shall assist us to clear up this difficulty. He pronounces this writing of St. John to be "a trea"tise rather than an Epistle," and, therefore, says he, it has neither the name of the writer in the beginning, nor the usual salutations at the end*. Therefore, in all these writings of our Apostle, the insertion of his name appears to have been unnecessary; in the Gospel, because such had not been the practice of the other Evangelists; in the treatise, because in that likewise it would have been informal; in the two familiar Epistles, because another well-known appellation supplied its place. But in the Apocalypse, which is written in the epistolary form, not to any individual, but to seven Christian communities, and is commanded, by Him who gave the Revelation, to be written and addressed to them↑, the Apostle could not do otherwise than prefix

.

* See his arguments at large, vol. iv, ch. xxx. sect, ii. p. 400,

401.

+ Ch. i. v. 11.

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