Book Description

Excerpt from Biblical Commentary on the Epistles of St. John: In Continuation of the Work of Olshausen; With an Appendix on the Catholic Epistles, and an Introductory Essay on the Life and Writings of St. John St John occupies a place so peculiar and prominent, among the disciples of our Lord as a person, and among the New-Testament writers as an author - and the writings which bear his name have always been the object of such various and conflicting discussion - that a comprehensive exhibition of his personal character, his life, his labours, and his literary activity may well be regarded as one of the most difficult undertakings. If, in the brief limits here prescribed to us, we arc to succeed, we must enter upon the subject not analytically, but synthetically; that is, we must set out with the collective picture of the Apostle and his writings given in the New Testament, and then pass on to a general view of all the critical questions arising out of it. The personality of the Apostle himself, and the character of his writings, and their adjustment in the extant cycle of New-Testament literature, must first of all be viewed as a thesis; and upon that we may found a universal review of the critical questions which have been raised in relation to those writings. Three of our Lord's Apostles stand out prominently from the general circle: St John, St Peter, and St Paul. The last was not in the number of the Twelve. Among them St .James, the son of Zebedee and brother of St John, had been singled out by Christ to be the companion of St John and St Peter in the special distinction of witnessing His transfiguration and His deepest humiliation (Mark v. 37; Matt. xvii. 1, xxvi. 37); hut St James soon followed his Master in a death of martyrdom (Acts xii. 2), and on that account is less known to us than the rest. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.