Tischendorf only devotes a short note to Hegesippus,(3) and does not pretend to find in the fragments of his writings, preserved to us by Eusebius, or the details of his life which he has recorded, any evidence for our Gospels. Apologists generally admit that this source, at least, is barren of all testimony for the fourth Gospel, but Canon Westcott cannot renounce so important a witness without an effort, and he therefore boldly says: "When he, (Hegesippus) speaks of 'the door of Jesus' in his account of the death of St. James, there can be little
doubt that he alludes to the language of our Lord recorded by St. John."(1) The passage to which Canon Westcott refers, but which he does not quote, is as follows:—"Certain, therefore, of the seven heretical parties amongst the people, already described by me in the Memoirs, inquired of him, what was the door of Jesus; and he declared this ([———]—Jesus) to be the Saviour. From which some believed that Jesus is the Christ. But the aforementioned heretics did not believe either a resurrection, or that he shall come to render to every one according to his works. As many as believed, however, did so, through James." The rulers fearing that the people would cause a tumult, from considering Jesus to be the Messiah [———], entreat James to persuade them concerning Jesus, and prevent their being deceived by him; and in order that he may be heard by the multitude, they place James upon a wing of the temple, and cry to him: "O just man, whom we all are bound to believe, inasmuch as the people are led astray after Jesus, the crucified, declare plainly to us what is the door of Jesus."(2) To find in this a reference to the fourth Gospel, requires a good deal of apologetic ingenuity. It is perfectly clear that, as an allusion to John x. 7, 9: "I am the door," the question: "What is the door of Jesus?" is mere nonsense, and the reply of James totally irrelevant. Such a question in reference to the discourse
in the fourth Gospel, moreover, in the mouths of the antagonistic Scribes and Pharisees, is quite inconceivable, and it is unreasonable to suppose that it has any connection with it. Various emendations of the text have been proposed to obviate the difficulty of the question, but none of these have been adopted, and it has now been generally accepted, that [———] is used in an idiomatic sense. The word is very frequently employed in such a manner, or symbolically, in the New Testament,(1) and by the Fathers. The Jews were well acquainted with a similar use of the word in the Old Testament, in some of the Messianic Psalms, as for instance: Ps. cxviii. 19, 20 (cxvii. 19, 20 Sept.). 19," Open to me the gates [———] of righteousness; entering into them, I will give praise to the Lord;" 20, "This is the gate [———] of the Lord, the righteous shall enter into it"(2) Quoting this passage, Clement of Alexandria remarks: "But explaining the saying of the prophet, Barnabas adds: Many gates [———] being open, that which is in righteousness is in Christ, in which all those who enter are blessed."(3) Grabe explains the passage of Hegesippus, by a reference to the frequent allusions in Scripture to the two ways: one of light, the other of darkness; the one leading to life, the other to death; as well as the simile of two gates which is coupled with them, as in Matt. viL 13 ff. He, therefore, explains the question of the rulers: "What is the door of Jesus?" as an inquiry into the judgment of James concerning him:
whether he was a teacher of truth or a deceiver of the people; whether belief in him was the way and gate of life and salvation, or of death and perdition.(1) He refers as an illustration to the Epistle of Barnabas, xviii.: "There are two ways of teaching and of power: one of light, the other of darkness. But there is a great difference between the two ways."(2) The Epistle, under the symbol of the two ways, classifies the whole of the moral law.(3) In the Clementine Homilies, xviii. 17, there is a version of the saying, Matt. vii. 13f, derived from another source, in which "way" is more decidedly even than in our first Synoptic made the equivalent of "gate:" "Enter ye through the narrow and straitened way [———] through which ye shall enter into life." Eusebius himself, who has preserved the fragment, evidently understood it distinctly in the same sense, and he gave its true meaning in another of his works, where he paraphrases the question into an enquiry, as to the opinion which Jamas held concerning Jesus [———].(4)
This view is supported by many learned men, and Routh has pointed out that Ernesti considered he would have been right in making [———], doctrine, teaching, the equivalent of [———], although he admits that Eusebius does not once use it in his history, in connection with Christian doctrine.(5)
He might, however, have instanced this passage, in which it is clearly used in this sense, and so explained by Eusebius. In any other sense the question is simple nonsense. There is evidently no intention on the part of the Scribes and Pharisees here to ridicule, in asking: "What is the door of Jesus?" but they desire James to declare plainly to the people, what is the teaching of Jesus, and his personal pretension. To suppose that the rulers of the Jews set James upon a wing of the temple, in order that they might ask him a question, for the benefit of the multitude, based upon a discourse in the fourth Gospel, unknown to the Synoptics, and even in relation to which such an inquiry as: "What is the door of Jesus?" becomes mere ironical nonsense, surpasses all that we could have imagined even of apologetic zeal.