The Author. From the evidence found in the gospel, we may learn several things about the author. (1) _That he was a Jew_. This is seen in his evident knowledge of Jewish opinions concerning such subjects as the Messiah, and his knowledge of their customs, such as the purification. (2) _He was an eye-witness to most of what he relates_. This is seen in his exact knowledge of time, as to the hour or time of day a thing occurred; in his knowledge of the number of persons or things present, as the division of his garments into four parts; in the vividness of the narrative which he could hardly have had without first having seen it all. (3) _He was an apostle_. This is seen in his knowledge of the thoughts of the disciples (2:11, 17); in his knowledge of the private words of the disciples to Jesus and among themselves (4:31, 33, etc.); in his knowledge of the private resorts of the disciples (11:54. etc.); and in his knowledge of the Lord's motives, etc. (2:24-25, etc.); and in his knowledge of Christ's feelings (11:33). (4) _He was the son of Zebedee_ (Mar. 1:19-20), and was probably one of John's two disciples whom he turned to Jesus (1- 40). (5) _He is one of the three most prominent of the apostles_, being several times especially honored (Matt. 17:1-3. etc.), and is prominent in the work of the church after Christ's ascension, as well as in all their work before his death: (6) _He also wrote three epistles and Revelation_. He outlived all the other apostles and is supposed to have died on the Isle of Patmos as an exile about 100 A.D. The Times and Circumstances of the Writings. These are so different from those which influenced the other evangelists that one can hardly escape the feeling that John's gospel is colored accordingly. The gospel had been preached in all the Roman empire and Christianity was no longer considered a Jewish sect, attached to the Synagogue. Jerusalem had been overthrown and the temple destroyed. Christians had been sorely persecuted, but had achieved great triumphs in many lands. All the rest of the New Testament except Revelation had been written. Some had arisen, who disputed the deity of Jesus and while the gospel is not a mere polemic against that false teaching, it does, by establishing the true teaching thoroughly undermine the false. He perhaps wrote to Christians of all nationalities, whose history had by this time been enriched by the blood of martyrs for the faith. Instead of the Messiah in whom Jews would find a Savior or the mighty worker in whom the Roman would find him, or the Ideal Man in whom the Greeks would find him. John wrote concerning the eternal, Incarnate Word in whose Spiritual Kingdom each, having lost his narrowness and racial prejudice, could be forever united.