who approach near to the presence of God': and he shall speak unto men in the cradle, and when he is grown up, he shall be one of the righteous. She answered, Lord, how shall I have a son, since a man hath not touched me? The angel said, So God createth that which he pleaseth: when he decreeth a thing, he only saith unto it, Be, and it is.' In the nineteenth chapter of the Korau, Mohammed has given another extract from an apocryphal Gospel relative to the appearance of the angel Gabriel to Mary, which is as follows. She (namely Mary) retired from her family to a place toward the east, and took a veil to conceal herself. And we sent our Spirit Gabriel unto her, and he appeared unto her in the shape of a perfect man, She said, I fly for refuge unto the merciful God, that he may defend me from thee: if thou fearest him, thou wilt not approach me. He answered, verily I am the messenger of thy Lord, and am sent to give thee a holy Son.' Other passages, which Mohammed had taken from apocryphal Gospels, might be selected from the Koran, and added as a Supplement to Fabricii Codex Apocryphus.

What St. Luke has related ch. xvii. 20, 21. of the question proposed to Christ concerning the kingdom of heaven, and the answer which he gave, appears to be a correction of the following inaccurate account, which had been given of it in the Egyptian Gospel. Erεрτηθείς αυτος ο Κυριος υπο τινος, ποτε ήξει αυτε η βασίλεια, ειπεν' οταν το της αισχύνης ενδυμα πατησητε, και οταν εσαι τα δυο εν, και τα εξω ως τα εσω, και το αρσεν μετα της ηλειας ετε αρσεν ετε θηλυ 5,

In this manner St. Luke improved and corrected the accounts, which were then in circulation, of the his

• Luke i. 32. 'He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest.'

'Fabricii Codex Apocryphus, Tom. I. p. 335.

tory of Christ. For this undertaking he is entitled to our warmest thanks: as in consequence of the accurate inquiries which he made, he was enabled to distinguish truth from falsehood, and to communicate a history, on which we can depend. It is true that the accounts contained in the histories, which it was St. Luke's object to correct, were not wholly fabulous, and the mere inventions of the authors who recorded them: but they contained so much falsehood intermixed with truth, that a correction of them was absolutely necessary. The same thing happened to these histories, as happens to our modern gazettes, when a battle or a siege is described. The main story is true, but in passing through different hands, it generally acquires an accession of circumstance, which are totally devoid of truth. Official intelligence alone is certain: and such certain intelligence we have received from St. Luke".

St. Luke's Gospel alone was admitted by Marcion, who made however many alterations in it, so as to render it more suitable to his own system. But not all the alterations in Marcion's copy are to be considered as wilful corruptions; for several of them are nothing more, than what modern critics call various readings".

CHAPTER VII.

OF ST. JOHN'S GOSPEL.

SECTION I.

Of the Life and Character of St. John.

THAT St. John the Evangelist was one of the twelve Apostles, son of Zebedee and Salome, and brother of the elder James, appears from Matth. iv. 21. xxvii. 55, 56. Mark xv. 40. xvi. 1. In the opinion of most ecclesiastical writers he was a relation of Christ: and this opinion I adopted, when I published the first edition of this Introduction. The extraordinary request made by the mother of James and John, that her two sons should sit, the one on the right hand and the other on the left hand of Christ', implied a claim, which might be thought to be founded on relationship. But at present I much doubt whether any such relationship subsisted: for in Gal. i. 19. James the less, who was not brother of John, is distinguished by the title of Brother of the Lord,' which implies that the other James, and consequently John, were not related to Christ.

It appears from Matth. xxvii. 55, 56. that St. John's mother attended Christ, not only to Jerusalem, but likewise to the place of his crucifixion. Of his father Zebedee, who was alive, when St. John was called to the Apostleship, no mention is made in the latter part

On the subject of St. John's Gospel, I would recommend Lampe's Prolegomena prefixed to his Exposition of this Gospel, Oporini Clavis Evangelii Johannis, and Lardner's Supplement to the Credibility of the Gospel History, Vol. I. ch. 9.

› See Lampe, Prol. Lib. I. cap. 1. sect. 4.

of Christ's life and as Salome accompanied Christ on his travels, it is probable that he died soon after his sons were chosen Apostles. From Luke xxiv. 1. 10. compared with Mark xvi. 1, 2. one might conclude that Salome was one of the persons, who first saw Christ after his resurrection: but St. John, in the twentieth chapter of his Gospel, though he particularly relates the circumstances of the resurrection, makes no mention of his mother: nor does St. Matthew, though he had named her among the persons who were present at the crucifixion, make any mention of her among the persons, who on the day of the resurrection went to visit the sepulchre.

It is not improbable, though it cannot be affirmed with certainty, that St. John the Evangelist, before he became a disciple of Christ, had been a disciple of John the Baptist. At least, the circumstantial account, which he has given, ch. i. 37-41. of the two disciples of John the Baptist, who followed Christ, might induce us to suppose, that he was one of the two. St. John was the favourite disciple of Christ, and was called the disciple whom Jesus loved. This particular affection and regard arose from the softness and tenderness of St. John's character, which had a great resemblance to that of Christ himself. Hence we find him present at several scenes to which most of the other disciples were not admitted. He was eye-witness, in company with only Peter and James, to the resurrection of Jairus's daughter to life, to Christ's transfiguration on the mount, and to his agony in the garden. St. John repaid this attention by the most sincere attachment to his master: for he was the only Apostle who followed Christ to the place of his crucifixion. No writer whatsoever therefore was better enabled to give a circumstantial and authentic history of Christ.

On the death of Christ, St. John took his mother Mary, whom Christ had recommended to his care, to his own home. His long intercourse therefore with the mother of Christ must have afforded him an opportunity of acquiring the best information, relative to the birth, education, and early history of Christ: and St. John's attachment to his master could not permit him to remain indifferent even to the minutest anecdote, which respected so remarkable a character. Yet he has related no circumstance whatsoever of Christ's life, prior to his thirtieth year: though he certainly had it in his power to make very numerous additions to the few accounts, which had been given by St. Matthew and St. Luke, of Christ's early history. From St. John's silence therefore we must conclude, that it was not his intention to write a complete history of all that had been said and done by Christ, but that he wrote his Gospel to answer a particular purpose, which required no more than what he has actually communicated. What this purpose was, will be examined in the next and following sections.

SECTION II.:

Various Opinions respecting the Object, which St. John had in View, when he wrote his Gospel.

CLEMENT of Alexandria, and Eusebius, supposed that St. John wrote his Gospel as a supplement to the three first but they are not agreed as to the matter, which St. John intended to supply. Accord

d John xix. 26, 27.

eSee Lardner's Supplement, Vol. I. p. 385–389. where the words of Clement and Eusebius are quoted, and also a passage from Jerom.