heaven, the bread of life, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ the son of
God, who was born at a later time of the seed of David and Abraham; and
I desire the drink of God [------], that is his blood, which is love
incorruptible, and eternal life" [------].(1) This is compared with John
vi. 41: "I am the bread which came down from heaven" 48.... "I am the
bread of life," 51.... "And the bread that I will give is my flesh;"
54. "He who eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath everlasting life"
[------]. Scholten has pointed out that the reference to Jesus as "born
of the seed of David and Abraham" is not in the spirit of the fourth
Gospel; and the use of [------] for the [------] of vi. 55, and
[------]; instead of [------] are also opposed to the connection with
that Gospel.(3) On the other hand, in the institution of the Supper, the
bread is described as the body of Jesus, and the wine as his blood; and
reference is made there, and elsewhere, to eating bread and drinking
wine in the kingdom of God,(3) and the passage seems to be nothing but
a development of this teaching.(4) Nothing could be proved by such an
analogy.(5)
The second passage referred to by Tischendorf is in the Epistle to the
Philadelphians vii.: "For if some
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would have led me astray according to the flesh, yet the Spirit is not
led astray, being from God, for it knoweth whence it cometh and whither
it goeth, and detecteth the things that are hidden."(1) Teschendorf
considers that these words are based upon John iii. 6--8, and the last
phrase: "And detecteth the hidden things," upon verse 20. The sense of
the Epistle, however, is precisely the reverse of that of the Gospel,
which reads: "The wind bloweth where it listeth; and thou hearest the
sound thereof but _knowest not_ whence it cometh and whither it goeth;
so is every one that is born of the Spirit;"(3) whilst the Epistle does
not refer to the wind at all, but affirms that the Spirit of God does
know whence it cometh, &c. The analogy in verse 20 is still more remote:
"For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the
light, lest his deeds should be detected."(3) In 1 Cor. ii. 10, the
sense is found more closely: "For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea,
even the deep things of God."(4) It is evidently unreasonable to assert
from such a passage the use of the fourth Gospel.(5) Even Tischendorf
recognizes that in themselves the phrases which he points out in
pseudo-Ignatius could not, unsupported by other corroboration, possess
much weight as testimony for the use of our Gospels. He says: "Were
these allusions of Ignatius to Matthew and John a wholly isolated
phenomenon, and one which perhaps other undoubted results
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Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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