[9] See authorities in [Note 2].
[10] “Now my mother, the Holy Ghost, took me by one of my hairs, and brought me to the great mountain even Tabor.” “Jesus said unto him, go sell all which thou possessest and divide among the poor, and come follow me. But the rich man began to scratch his head, and it did not please him.” Origin, etc., by Professor Stowe, p. 22.
[11] Abbott’s Fourth Gospel, p. 78; Eusebius, b. 6, c. 12; b. 3, c. 25.
[12] Abbott, etc., p. 79; Waite’s History, p. 11.
[13] Abbott, etc., p. 104, Eusebius, b. 6, c. 12.
[14] The entire passage is as follows: “And when it is said that he changed the name of one of the Apostles to Peter; and when it is written in the Memoirs of him that this so happened, as well as that he changed the names of other two brothers, the sons of Zebedee, to Boanerges, which means sons of thunder; this was an announcement of the fact that it was he by whom Jacob was called Israel, and Oshea called Jesus (Joshua) under whose name the people who survived of those who came from Egypt were conducted into the land promised to the patriarchs.” The controversy is, whether the personal pronouns “He” and “Him” refer to Jesus, or whether “Him” refers to Peter. Judge Waite says that Justin has ten times “Memoirs of the Apostles,” and five times, “Memoirs,” and not once, “Memoirs of Christ.” It is true we do not find “Memoirs of Christ.” But confessedly the Memoirs intended were of or concerning Christ, and not of or concerning the Apostles, or either of them. Justin used the expression Memoirs of the Apostles just as we say the Gospel of John. They were concerning Christ; he is the grand subject of discourse in all Justin’s writings. And in Ap. c. 33, Justin speaks of those “who have written Memoirs of all things concerning our Saviour Jesus Christ.” In the proper and highest sense they should only be spoken of as “Memoirs of Christ.”
Judge Waite, after the author of “The Supernatural” (p. 337), says, to refer to the more distant antecedent is contrary to the rule. The rule is of but slight importance as compared to the whole scope. And to apply the rule here, Peter would be the one who changed the names of the sons of Zebedee; for Peter, and not Christ, would be the last antecedent.
[15] As quoted by Dr. Ezra Abbot, pp. 98, 99; see, also, Inter-Ocean of February 12, 1881.
[16] Abbot, etc., p. 103, 104; Inter-Ocean of February 12.
[17] Bampton Lectures for 1877, pp. 279, 281.