ciples (11:54. etc.); and in his knowledge of the Lord's
motives, etc. (2:24-25, etc.); and in his knowledge of Christ's
feelings (11:33). (4) _He was the son of Zebedee_ (Mar. 1:19-20), and
was probably one of John's two disciples whom he turned to Jesus (1-
40). (5) _He is one of the three most prominent of the apostles_,
being several times especially honored (Matt. 17:1-3. etc.), and is
prominent in the work of the church after Christ's ascension, as well
as in all their work before his death: (6) _He also wrote three
epistles and Revelation_. He outlived all the other apostles and is
supposed to have died on the Isle of Patmos as an exile about 100 A.D.

The Times and Circumstances of the Writings. These are so different
from those which influenced the other evangelists that one can hardly
escape the feeling that John's gospel is colored accordingly. The
gospel had been preached in all the Roman empire and Christianity was
no longer considered a Jewish sect, attached to the Synagogue.
Jerusalem had been overthrown and the temple destroyed. Christians had
been sorely persecuted, but had achieved great triumphs in many
lands. All the rest of the New Testament except Revelation had been
written. Some had arisen, who disputed the deity of Jesus and while
the gospel is not a mere polemic against that false teaching, it
does, by establishing the true teaching thoroughly undermine the
false. He perhaps wrote to Christians of all nationalities, whose
history had by this time been enriched by the blood of martyrs for the
faith. Instead of the Messiah in whom Jews would find a Savior or the
mighty worker in whom the Roman would find him, or the Ideal Man in
whom the Greeks would find him. John wrote concerning the eternal,
Incarnate Word in whose Spiritual Kingdom each, having lost his
narrowness and racial prejudice, could be forever united.

The Style and the Plan. This gospel differs from the others in
language and plan. It is both profound and simple and has several
elements of style as follows: (1) Simplicity. The sentences are short
and connected by coordinate conjunctions. There are but few direct
quotations, and but few dependent sentences, and most of them show the
sequence of things, either as a cause or a purpose. (2) Sameness. This
arises from the method of treating each step in the narrative as if
isolated and separate from all the rest rather than merging it into
the complete whole. (3) Repetition, wheth