Notes

ST. JOHN

P. 3, 1. 6. The best MSS. read 'Bethany' instead of 'Bethabara. It was near Galilee, but the exact site has not been discovered. The conversation must have taken place soon after our Lord's temptation.

p. 4, 1. 18. Nathanael has been by all commentators identified with Bartholomew, who is continually found with Philip in the other Gospels. The latter name is the patronymic, Nathanael (='God's gift') is a conferred name. It only occurs in this Gospel.

p. 5, 1. 14. Our Lord's mother had already received the assurance of His Messiahship, and therefore knew that His power must of necessity be as great as that of Elijah or Elisha (1 Kings xvii. 4; 2 Kings iv. 6).

p. 5, 1. 16. Men in general have to seize opportunities. 'Mine hour,' says Jesus, follows an unchanging law, namely, My Father's will.

p. 7, 1. 13. Nicodemus, another character only found in this Gospel (vii. 50, xix. 30).

p. 18, 1. 15. The lake is only called by this name in St. John. Tiberias was a city built by Herod the Tetrarch, and named after the Emperor. It is now the only town existing on the lake. St. John's use of the name shows that it was in his time superseding the older title of Lake of Galilee.

p. 28, 1. 17. The words 'as though he heard them not' are not in the oldest MSS. They are a gloss of some editor who offered this explanation of the action. We cannot be sure of its meaning, but it may be that the writing on the stone was intended to remind them of the divine origin of the Law, and

therefore of the sin of their attempt to pervert it to an unholy

use.

p. 33, 1. 2. The doctrine of the transmigration of souls was current among some Jewish sects; the Disciples' question may have had reference to this.

p. 36, 1. 10. Several travellers have noted that, from the spot where our Saviour was standing, it is a daily occurrence to see the shepherds preceding their flocks up the Mount of Olives, and this may have suggested the similitude now.

p. 38, 1. 5. Solomon's porch, or cloister, has been generally identified with a covered way on the east side of the Temple Court, which was so called because it was part of the original building which escaped the Babylonian destruction. But others think it was the immense crypt leading up from Solomon's palace to the Temple (1 Kings x. 5), which is still existing.

p. 39, 1. 9. Probably northern Bethany (i. 28). Here, then, we have a partial break in the public ministry. He left at the Feast of the Dedication (December), went to Bethany of Judæa (time uncertain) for the raising of Lazarus, and then retired to Ephraim, in the wilderness of Judæa, to appear at Jerusalem for the Great Final Scene.

p. 43, 1. 6. Caiaphas is the Syriac name for Cephas. His proper name was Joseph; it is a striking coincidence that he and the great Christian Apostle should bear the same second name. His fear was one shared by most of the Jews of the day. The Roman power was steadily encroaching on their liberties. Their King Archelaus had been deposed, and a Roman procurator was holding his place, and the tower of Antonia dominated the Temple area. Our place' means our standing among the other people. The Romans had not interfered with their Legal Observances, the Temple Worship still went on. But Caiaphas rightly saw that Christ was striking at the hollowness of their worship and striving to establish the real spiritual principles on which it was based.

p. 45, 1. 22. Hellenes, not Hellenists. Gentiles not Grecian Jews.

They were pure

p. 62, 1. 18. This preliminary investigation is only mentioned by St. John. Annas had very great weight with them, and they were therefore anxious for his counsel and influence.

p. 65, 1. 8. Bacon describes Pilate's question as 'jesting.' Perhaps this is too strong, but it was contemptuous and sarcastic-'What has Truth got to do with it?' with emphasis on Truth. You are talking wide of the mark instead of answering the accusations.

p. 66, 1. 10. Coleridge's idea that from above' means from the Jewish Sanhedrim is striking, but cannot be admitted. The whole of Christ's speech with the Roman goes to impress upon him his responsibility to God, and His own mission to convey God's will. He that delivered Me unto thee' is evidently Caiaphas, and his great sin was that he, as priest, was the representative of God, and yet was acting in direct defiance of God, and calling His Son a malefactor.

p. 66, l. 16. Tiberius was terribly severe against 'treason.' Pilate saw his own life threatened, and yielded.

p. 68, 1. 2. St. John's account of the scene at the Cross is the fullest. Here are four persons named. 'His mother's sister' is very probably Salome his mother. Cleophas is the same name as Alphæus.

p. 71, 1. 7. The Greek word translated 'touch' means 'cling to.' The words mean the earthly visible intercourse is to end. Henceforward there shall be a permanent closeness of union by My presence in the souls of my people through the Paraclete.'

REVELATION

p. 90, l. 1. Revelation' is an exact Latinised version of the Greek word Apocalypse, lit., 'lifting of the veil.'

p. 91, l. 10. Patmos is a rugged, almost bare, island in the Ægean Sea, about fifteen miles in circumference, one of the

Sporades. A monastery occupies the site of the cave where tradition states that St. John was when the Revelation came to him. See Introduction, p. xxxiv.

p. 92, 1. 17. Ephesus was the capital of the Roman province of Asia. It must be remembered that all through the New Testament the word Asia means that province only, comprising simply the western coast of the peninsula. Ephesus was a city which, by its communication with the Oriental world, and also with the newer world of Greece, combined in a marked degree the ancient and the more modern philosophies of old heathendom. It owed its vast commercial prosperity to its situation. The site of the great and world-renowned Temple of Artemis was unknown until the last century, but in the course of years, between 1824 and 1868, the whole was excavated. It was found to have been capable of seating 24,500 people. The Lord's mother and St. John are both said to have been buried at Ephesus.

p. 93, 1. 9. Smyrna' is still a large and flourishing town on the sea. The site of the church in which St. John and Polycarp are said to have ministered is now occupied by one of the seventeenth century. The scene of Polycarp's martyrdom and the burial-place of his ashes is marked by some cypress trees above

the town.

p. 93, 1. 22. Pergamos' (or Pergamum), being an inland town, had no commercial position like Ephesus or Alexandria, yet it was in point of splendour the first of the Asiatic cities. It had been the royal city of the Attalic kings, who had beautified it not only with a palace, but with a university. It may be designated as the cathedral city of the heathen world of the East, and as such would be regarded as the place where Satan's seat was. Of Antipas, whose martyrdom is mentioned (ii. 13), no records remain.

P. 94, l. 16. Thyatira' was a town founded by the Macedonians after the victories of Alexander the Great in the East; a city of commercial enterprise and of many trade guilds. See Acts xvi. 14.

p. 95, 1. 18. Sardis' was also a manufacturing town, especially of beautiful woollen fabrics. It had been the residence of the kings of Lydia. It was almost destroyed by an earthquake in the reign of Tiberius, and the drying up of the river Pactolus made the site desperately unhealthy. It is now utterly desolate. p. 96, 1. 9. Philadelphia' was the centre of the wine-growing district of the country. A succession of earthquakes had, however, almost ruined it. Hence its 'poverty.'

p. 97, 1. 5. Laodicea' was a rich and prosperous town, not far from Colosse. When St. Paul wrote to the Colossians he seems to have sent a letter to Laodicea (cp. iv. 16). The stern warning which St. John was commanded to utter (iii. 14-22) I would seem to have been listened to. In later days Laodicea was the seat of some Church councils, and here was drawn up the authorised canons of the New Testament.

p. 132, 1. 2. 'Gog and Magog,' the barbarous and at that time only slightly known races, lying in the north of Europe and in the region round the Caucasus. The Apostle contemplates the triumph of the Church as far as the Roman Empire is concerned, and the devil as attempting to make servants of these wild, far-off tribes.

P. 135, 1. 1. The general interpretation will be found in the Introduction. It is impossible to say with any certainty the several meanings of the precious stones. Mystical writers have attempted it, but the explanations are very conflicting, whereas the general sense is perfectly clear.