John - Introduction

      JOHN, the author, was brought up to his father's calling, and even followed it after he was first pointed to Christ. While he was an "unlearned man" ( Acts 4:13 ), in the sense that he never attended the rabbinical schools, he had such an education in Hebrew and in the Scriptures as all respectable Jewish families were wont to give their children. In connection with every synagogue was a school in which children were taught reading, writing, and the rudiments of science. The children of Jewish common people were better educated than those of any other country in the world. Jesus found John among the disciples of John the Baptist, who at once pointed him and his companions to Christ. We next meet him at the sea of Galilee, fishing, and there Jesus gave him a permanent call. From this time onward he steadfastly followed the Master, and with James and Peter, formed an inner circle nearer the Lord. These three, only, witness the resurrection of Jairus' daughter, see the glory of the transfiguration, and the agony of he garden. John and Peter follow Christ, after his arrest, and the first goes openly into the house of Caiaphas, to the trial before Pilate, and to the cross, till all was over. When the news of the resurrection came he and Peter were the first to reach the sepulchre. To him Jesus committed the care of his own mother, while dying on the cross, and it is probable that he remained in Judea to attend to this sacred charge while she lived. From about the time of the overthrow of Jerusalem he changed his residence to Ephesus, where he probably lived until he died, near the close of the first century. The testimony of the early church would place his death after A. D. 98. It was during this later period that he wrote his Gospel, his Epistles, was exiled to Patmos, and there wrote his Revelation.

      THE CHARACTER of John's Gospel, written after his fellow apostles had gone to rest, differs in some respects from the others. It alone follows the chronological order of events, gives an account of the Judæan ministry of our Lord, shows that his ministry lasted for over three years, gives the account of the resurrection of Lazarus and of the wonderful discourse to the disciples the night that he was betrayed. It omits much with which the church was already familiar through the other Gospels, presents much that they had not recorded, and recognizes certain false doctrines which had begun to be taught. It is the gospel of the Incarnation, of Love, and the most Spiritual of the Gospels. It alone unfolds fully the great doctrine of the Comforter. The great end, however, that the writer had before him in all he wrote is given in his own words: 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.