It is not necessary to enter upon any exhaustive analysis of the Apocalypse and Gospel to demonstrate anew that both works cannot have emanated from the same mind. This has already been conclusively done by others. Some apologetic writers,—greatly influenced, no doubt, by the express declaration of the Church, and satisfied by analogies which could scarcely fail to exist between two works dealing with a similar theme,—together with a very few independent critics, have asserted the authenticity of both works.(2) The great majority of
critics, however, have fully admitted the impossibility of recognizing a common source for the fourth Gospel and the Apocalypse of John.(1) The critical question regarding the two works has, in fact, reduced itself to the dilemma which may be expressed as follows, in the words of Llicke: "Either the Gospel and the first Epistle are genuine writings of the Apostle John, and in that case the Apocalypse is no genuine work of that Apostle, or the inverse."(2) After an elaborate comparison of the two writings, the same writer, who certainly will not be suspected of wilfully subversive criticism, resumes: "The difference between the language, way
of expression, and mode of thought and doctrine of the Apocalypse and the rest of the Johannine writings, is so comprehensive and intense, so individual and so radical; the affinity and agreement, on the contrary, are so general, and in details so fragmentary and uncertain (zuruckweichend), that the Apostle John, if he really he the author of the Gospel and of the Epistle—which we here assume—cannot have composed the Apocalypse either before or after the Gospel and the Epistle. If all critical experience and rules in such literary questions are not deceptive, it is certain that the Evangelist and Apocalyptist are two different persons of the name of John,"(l) &c.
De Wette, another conservative critic, speaks with equal decision. After an able comparison of the two works, he says: "From all this it follows (and in New Testament criticism no result is more certain), that the Apostle John, if he be the author of the fourth Gospel and of the Johannine Epistles, did not write the Apocalypse, or, if the Apocalypse be his work, that he is not the author of the other writings."(2) Ewald is equally positive: "Above all," he says, "we should err in tracing this work (the Gospel) to the Apostle, if the Apocalypse of the New Testament were by him. That this much earlier writing cannot have been composed by the author of the later is an axiom which I consider I have already, (in 1826-28) so convincingly demonstrated, that it would be superfluous now to return to it, especially as, since then, all men capable of forming a judgment are of the same opinion, and what has been brought forward by a few writers against it too clearly depends upon
influences foreign to science."(1) We may, therefore, consider the point generally admitted, and proceed very briefly to discuss the question upon this basis.
The external evidence that the Apostle John wrote the Apocalypse is more ancient than that for the authorship of any book of the New Testament, excepting some of the Epistles of Paul, and this is admitted even by critics who ultimately deny the authenticity of the work.(2) Passing over the very probable statement of Andrew of Cæsarea,(3) that Papias recognized the Apocalypse as an inspired work, and the inference drawn from this fact that he referred it to the Apostle, we at once proceed to Justin Martyr, who affirms in the clearest and most positive manner the Apostolic origin of the work. He speaks to Tryphon of "a certain man whose name was John, one of the Apostles of Christ, who prophesied by a revelation made to him," of the Millennium, and subsequent general resurrection and judgment.(4) The statement of Justin is all the more important from the fact that he does not name any other writing of the New Testament, and that the Old Testament was still for him the only Holy Scripture. The genuineness of this
