The Expositor's Bible: The General Epistles of St. James and St. JudePlummer, Alfred
Religion
The Expositor's Bible: The General Epistles of St. James and St. Jude
Plummer, Alfred
Bible. James -- Commentaries; Bible. Jude -- Commentaries
The name is not strictly accurate, excepting in the cases of 1 John,
2 Peter, and Jude. It is admissible in a qualified sense of 1 Peter
and James; but it is altogether inappropriate to 2 and 3 John, which
are addressed, not to the Church at large, nor to a group of local
Churches, but to individuals. But inasmuch as the common title of
these letters was not the Epistles "to the Elect Lady" and "to Gaius,"
as in the case of the letters to Philemon, Titus, and Timothy, but
simply the Second and Third of John, they were regarded as without
address, and classed with the Catholic Epistles. And of course it was
natural to put them into the same group with the First Epistle of
St. John, although the name of the group did not suit them. At what
date this arrangement was made is not certain; but there is reason for
believing that these seven Epistles were already regarded as one
collection in the third century, when Pamphilus, the friend of
Eusebius, was making his famous library at Cæsarea. Euthalius (_c._
A.D. 450) published an edition of them, in making which he had
collated "the accurate copies" in this library; and it is probable
that he found the grouping already existing in those copies, and did
not make it for himself. Moreover, it is probable that the copies at
Cæsarea were made by Pamphilus himself; for the summary of the
contents of the Acts published under the name of Euthalius is a mere
copy of the summary given by Pamphilus, and it became the usual
practice to place the Catholic Epistles immediately after the Acts.
If, then, Euthalius got the summary of the Acts from Pamphilus, he
probably got the arrangement from him also, viz. the putting of these
seven Epistles into one group, and placing them next to the Acts.[6]
The order which makes the Catholic Epistles follow immediately after
the Acts is very ancient, and it is a matter for regret that the
influence of Jerome, acting through the Vulgate, has universally
disturbed it in all Western Churches. "The connexion between these two
portions (the Acts and the Catholic Epistles), commended by its
intrinsic appropriateness, is preserved in a large proportion of Greek
MSS. of all ages, and corresponds to marked affinities of textual
history."[7] It is the order followed by Cyril of Jerusalem,
Athanasius, John of Damascus, the Council of Laodicea, and also by
Cassian. It has been restored by Tischendorf, Tregelles, and Westcott
and Hort; but it is not to be expected that even their powerful
authority will avail to re-establish the ancient arrangement.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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