The Criticism of the Fourth Gospel: Eight Lectures on the Morse Foundation, Delivered in the Union Seminary, New York in October and November 1904Sanday, W. (William)
Religion
The Criticism of the Fourth Gospel: Eight Lectures on the Morse Foundation, Delivered in the Union Seminary, New York in October and November 1904
Sanday, W. (William)
Bible. John -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
This whole group of facts is in any case one of which we must take
notice. In any case it forms an important element in the portrait that
we are to construct for ourselves of the Evangelist, even if we suppose
him to be the son of Zebedee. There is no antecedent reason why Zebedee
and his sons should not have had friends, and even friends in high
places, in Jerusalem. It would seem that Zebedee himself was a person of
substance: he has ‘hired servants’ with him in the ship, and Salome—if
that is the name of his wife—was one of those who contributed to the
support of Jesus and His disciples. We must also remember that the
practice of a trade or handicraft was not held to be derogatory among
the Jews as it was among the Greeks and Romans. There is, however, also
the other possibility that the acquaintance of the Evangelist with the
high priest is not to be taken too strictly, but that it meant rather
acquaintance with some member of his household. The account of what
happened to Peter might well seem to be told from the point of view of
what we should describe as the servants’ hall.
ii. Another set of phenomena which Delff’s theory at once explains is
the extent to which the Gospel is concerned with events that happened in
Jerusalem and Judaea. Delff himself carries out this with a logical
severity that hardly seems necessary. He cuts out all the Galilean
incidents in the Gospel as later insertions. Even so he cannot be quite
thorough enough, because he leaves the latter half of chap. i, which
introduces to us the unnamed disciple in the company of Andrew and
Peter, natives of Bethsaida. This disciple and Peter were evidently
friends: they lodged together in Jerusalem (xx. 2) and go together to
the tomb, and they each take an affectionate interest in the other (xxi.
20).
This last point is in agreement with the way in which Peter and John are
found acting together in the other Gospels and in the Acts (Mark v. 37,
&c.; Acts iii. 1, 11; iv. 13; viii. 14; cf. Gal. ii. 9). On the other
hand the scene at the foot of the cross (John xix. 26, 27) would seem to
be rather in favour of the Jerusalem theory, especially if we are to
connect the words, ‘And from that hour the disciple took her unto his
own (home),’ with the tradition that John had a house in Jerusalem.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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