Even the spirit of deep curiosity which beguiles the historical inquirer into a love of the fabulous and unfounded tales of tradition, though specifically more elevated by its intellectual character, is yet generically the same with the spirit of superstitious credulity, that leads the miserable Papist to bow down with idolatrous worship before the ridiculous trash, called relics, which are presented to him by the consecrated impostors who minister to him in holy things; and the feeling of indignant horror with which he repulses the Protestant zeal, that would rob his spirit of the comfortable support afforded by the possession of an apostolical toe-nail, a lock of a saint’s hair, or by the sight of the Savior’s handkerchief, or of a drop of his blood,——is all perfectly kindred to that indignant regret with which even a reformed reader regards all these critical assaults upon agreeable historical delusions,——and to that stubborn attachment with which he often clings to antique falsehood. Yet the pure consolations of the truth, known by research and judgment, are so far above these baser enjoyments, that the exchange of fiction, for historical knowledge, though merely of a negative kind, becomes most desirable even to an uncritical mind.
The sweeping sentence of condemnation against all traditionary stories, may, however, be subjected to some decided exceptions in the case of John, who, living much longer than any other of the apostles, would thus be much more widely and lastingly known than they, to the Christians of the first and second generations after the immediate contemporaries of the twelve. On this account the stories about John come with much higher traditionary authority, than those which pretend to give accounts of any other apostle; and this view is still further confirmed by the character of most of the stories themselves; which are certainly much less absurd and vastly more probable in their appearance, than the great mass of apostolic traditions. Indeed, in respect to this apostle, may be said, what can not be said of any other, that some tolerably well-authorized, and a very few decidedly authentic, statements of his later life, may be derived from passages in the genuine writings of the early Fathers.
HIS JUDAICAL OBSERVANCES.
The first point in John’s history, on which the authentic testimony of the Fathers is offered to illustrate his life, after the Acts of the Apostles cease to mention him, is, that during the difficulties between the weak-minded, Judaizing Christians, and those of a freer spirit who advocated an open communion with those Gentile brethren that did not conform to the Mosaic ritual, he, with Peter, and more particularly with James, joined in recommending a compromise with the inveterate prejudices of the Jewish believers; and to the end of his life, though constantly brought in contact with Gentiles, he himself still continued, in all legal and ritual observances, a Jew. A striking and probable instance of this adherence to Judaism, is given in the circumstance, that he always kept the fourteenth day of March as holy time, in conformity with one of the most common of the religious usages in which he had been brought up; and the respect with which he regarded this observance is strongly expressed in the fact that he countenanced and encouraged it, also, in his disciples, some of whom preserving it throughout life as he did, brought down the notice of the occurrence to those days when the extinction of almost all the Judaical part of primitive Christianity made such a peculiarity very remarkable. This, though a small, is a highly valuable incident in the history of John, containing a proof of the strong affection which he always retained for the religion of his fathers,——a feeling which deserves the highest commendation, accompanied as it was, by a most catholic spirit towards those Gentile Christians who could not bear a yoke, which education and long habit alone made more tolerable to him.
With Peter and James.——The authority for this is Irenaeus, (A. D. 150–170,) who says, “Those apostles who were with James, permitted the Gentiles indeed to act freely, leaving us to the spirit of God. They themselves, too, knowing the same God, persevered in their ancient observances. * * * Thus the apostles whom the Lord made witnesses of his whole conduct and his whole teaching, (for every where are found standing together with him, Peter, James and John,) religiously devoted themselves to the observance of the law, which is by Moses, thus acknowledging both [the law and the spirit] to be from one and the same God.” (Irenaeus, Against Heresies.)
Fourteenth day of March.——This refers to the practice of observing the feast of the resurrection of Christ, on the fourteenth day of March, corresponding with the passover of the Jews,——a custom long kept up in the eastern churches, instead of always keeping it on Sunday. The authority for the statement is found in two ancient writers; both of whom are quoted by Eusebius. (Church History, V. 24.) He first quotes Polycrates, (towards the end of the second century,) as writing to Victor, bishop of Rome, in defense of the adherence of the eastern churches to the practice of their fathers, in keeping the passover, or Easter, on the fourteenth day of the month, without regard to the day of the week on which it occurred, though the great majority of the Christian churches throughout the world, by common consent, always celebrated this resurrection feast on the Lord’s day, or Sunday. Polycrates, in defense of the oriental practice of his flock and friends, so accordant with early Jewish prejudices, quotes the example of the Apostle John, who, he says, died at Ephesus, where he (Polycrates) was bishop. He says, that John, as well as his brother-apostle, Philip, and Polycarp his disciple, “all observed Easter on the fourteenth day of the month, never varying from that day, at all.” Eusebius (ibid.) quotes also Irenaeus, writing to the same bishop Victor, against his attempt to force the eastern churches into the adoption of the practice of the Roman church, in celebrating Easter always on a Sunday, instead of uniformly on the fourteenth day of the month, so as to correspond with the Jewish passover. Irenaeus, in defense of the old eastern custom, tells of the practice of Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, a disciple of John. Polycarp, coming to Rome in the days of bishop Anicetus, (A. D. 151–160,) though earnestly exhorted by that bishop to renounce the eastern mode of celebrating Easter always on the fourteenth, like the Jewish passover, steadily refused to change; giving as a reason, the fact that John, the disciple of Jesus, and others of the apostles, whom he had intimately known, had always followed the eastern mode.
This latter authority, fairly derived from a person who had been the intimate friend of John himself, may be pronounced entitled to the highest respect, and quite clearly establishes this little circumstance, which is valuable only as showing John’s pertinacious adherence to Jewish forms, to the end of his life.
Socrates, an ecclesiastical historian, (A. D. 439,) alludes to the circumstance, that those who observed Easter on the fourteenth, referred to the authority of the Apostle John, as received by tradition.
THE DEPARTURE FROM JERUSALEM.
Some vain attempts have been made to ascertain the time at which the apostle John left Jerusalem; but it becomes an honest investigator to confess, here, the absolute want of all testimony, and the total absence of such evidence as can afford reasonable ground even for conjecture. All that can be said, is, that there is no account of his having left the city before the Jewish war; and there is some reason, therefore, to suppose that he remained there till driven thence by the first great alarm occasioned by the unsuccessful attack from Cestius Gallus. This Roman general, in the beginning of the Jewish war, (A. D. 66,) advanced to Jerusalem, and began a siege, which, however, he soon raised, without any good reason; and suffering a fine opportunity of ending the war at once, thus to pass by, unimproved, he marched off, though in reality the inhabitants were then but poorly provided with means to resist him. His retreat, however, gave them a chance to prepare themselves very completely for the desperate struggle which, as they could see, was completely begun, and from which there could now be no retraction. This interval of repose, after such a terrible premonition, also gave opportunity to the Christians to withdraw from the city, on which, as they most plainly saw, the awful ruin foretold by their Lord, was now about to fall. Cestius [♦]Gallus, taking his stand on the hills around the city, had planted the Roman eagle-standards on the highths of Zophim, on the north, where he fortified his camp, and thence pushed the assault against Bezetha, or the upper part of the city. These were signs which the apostles of Jesus, who had heard his prophecy of the city’s ruin, could not misunderstand. Here was now “the abomination of desolation, standing in the holy place where it ought not;” and as Matthew records the words of Jesus, this was one great sign of coming ruin. “When they should see Jerusalem encompassed with armies, they were to know that the desolation thereof was nigh;” for so Luke records the warning. “Then let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains; and let them who are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in other countries enter into it. For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.” The apostles, therefore, reading in all these signs the literal fulfilment of the prophetic warning of their Lord, gathered around them the flock of the faithful; and turning their faces to the mountains of the northwest, to seek refuge beyond the Jordan,——