Page:Lives of the apostles of Jesus Christ (1836).djvu/375

 *tian love, and watchfulness against deceivers;—(no doubt the Gnostical heretics,—the Cerinthians and Nicolaitans.) He apologizes for the shortness of the letter, by saying that he hopes shortly to visit her; and ends by communicating the affectionate greetings of her sister's children, then residents in Ephesus, or whatever city was then the home of John. The third epistle is directed to Gaius, (that is, Caius, a Roman name,) whose hospitality is commemorated with great particularity and gratitude in behalf of Christian strangers, probably preachers, traveling in his region. Another person, named Diotrephes, (a Greek by name, and probably one of the partizans of Cerinthus,) is mentioned as maintaining a very different character, who, so far from receiving the ministers of the gospel sent by the apostle, had even excluded from Christian fellowship those who did exercise this hospitality to the messengers of the apostle. John speaks threateningly of him, and closes with the same apology for the shortness of the letter, as in the former. There are several persons, named Gaius, or Caius, mentioned in apostolic history; but there is no reason to suppose that any of them was identified with this man.

For these lucid views of the objects of all these epistles, I am mainly indebted to Hug's Introduction, to whom belongs the merit of expressing them in this distinctness, though others before him have not been far from apprehending their simple force. Michaelis, for instance, is very satisfactory, and much more full on some points. In respect to the place whence they were written, Hug appears to be wholly in the wrong, in referring them to Patmos, just before John's return. Not the least glimmer of a reason appears, why all the writings of John should be huddled together in his exile. I can make nothing whatever of the learned commentator's reason about the deficiency of "pen, ink and paper," (mentioned in Epist. ii. 12, and iii. 13.) as showing that John must still have been in "that miserable place," Patmos. The idea seems to require a great perversion of simple words, which do not seem to be capable of any other sense than that adopted in the above account.

THE TRADITIONS OF HIS LIFE IN EPHESUS.

To this period of his life, are referred those stories of his miracles and actions, with which the ancient fictitious apostolic narratives are so crowded,—John being the subject of more ancient traditions than any other apostle. Some of those are so respectable and reasonable in their character, as to deserve a place here, although none of them are of such antiquity as to deserve any confidence, on points where fiction has often been so busy. The first which follows, is altogether the most ancient of all apostolic stories, which are not in the New Testament; and even if it is a work of fiction, it has such merits as a mere tale, that it would be injustice to the readers of this book, not to give them the whole story, from the most ancient and best authorized record.