OF THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO
S T. J O H N.
It is not material to enquire when and where this gospel was written;
we are sure that it was given by inspiration of God to John, the
brother of James, one of the twelve apostles, distinguished by the
honourable character of that disciple whom Jesus loved, one of
the first three of the worthies of the Son of David, whom he took to be
the witnesses of his retirements, particularly of his transfiguration
and his agony. The ancients tell us that John lived longest of all the
twelve apostles, and was the only one of them that died a natural
death, all the rest suffering martyrdom; and some of them say that he
wrote this gospel at Ephesus, at the request of the ministers of the
several churches of Asia, in opposition to the heresy of Corinthus and
the Ebionites, who held that our Lord was a mere man. It seems
most probable that he wrote it before his banishment into the isle of
Patmos, for there he wrote his Apocalypse, the close of which
seems designed for the closing up of the canon of scripture; and, if
so, this gospel was not written after. I cannot therefore give credit
to those later fathers, who say that he wrote it in his banishment, or
after his return from it, many years after the destruction of
Jerusalem; when he was ninety years old, saith one of them; when he was
a hundred, saith another of them. However, it is clear that he wrote
last of the four evangelists, and, comparing his gospel with theirs, we
may observe,
1. That he relates what they had omitted; he brings up
the rear, and his gospel is as the rearward or gathering
host; it gleans up what they has passed by. Thus there was a
later collection of Solomon's wise sayings
(Proverbs 25:1),
and yet far short of what he delivered,
1 Kings 4:32.
2. That he gives us more of the mystery of that of which the
other evangelists gave us only the history. It was necessary
that the matters of fact should be first settled, which was done in
their declarations of those things which Jesus began both to do and
teach,
Luke 1:1,Ac+1:1.
But, this being done out of the mouth of two or three witnesses,
John goes on to perfection
(Hebrews 6:1),
not laying again the foundation, but building upon it, leading
us more within the veil. Some of the ancients observe that the other
evangelists wrote more of the ta somatika--the
bodily things of Christ; but John writes of the ta
pneumatika--the spiritual things of the gospel, the life
and soul of it; therefore some have called this gospel the key of
the evangelists. Here is it that a door is opened in
heaven, and the first voice we hear is, Come up hither, come
up higher. Some of the ancients, that supposed the four living
creatures in John's vision to represent the for evangelists, make John
himself to be the flying eagle, so high does he
soar, and so clearly does he see into divine and
heavenly things.
Matthew Henry "Verse by Verse Commentary for 'John' Matthew Henry Bible Commentary".
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