John apparently had a further pur- pose in t he gospel, namely, to supple- ment what Matthew, Mark and Luke had written in their gospels and to cor- rect some false impressions that some might have received from them. There is a tradition that John wrote the gos- pel "on the entreaty and with the sub- sequent approval of the Apostle Andrew and other leading members of the church, in order to supplement the teaching of the three gospels already published, and to counteract errors which were beguiling some from the simplicity of the faith." This tradition is not of much value, but the gospel ia certainly supplementary in its charac- ter. This accounts for omissions in ii as well as for what is related. Rarely do we find in the Fourth Gospel any- thing that has been related in the other three. John relates no miracle performed by Jesus that is related by the other three except that of the feed- ing of the five thousand and that is told for a certain purpose, viz., to introduce a discourse which none of the three relates. On the other hand, John re- lates six miracles that no one of the three mention. The Fourth Gospel is entirely independent of the other three, but it presupposes, confirms and sup- plements them. Our conception of Jesus would be utterly incomplete and inadequate without the Fourth Gospel. Where written. The tradition is that this gospel was written in Ephesus and the character of the gospel fits the tra- dition. Its references seem to point to Ephesus. Ephesus was the great meet- ing place of Oriental mysticism on the one hand and Greek philosophy on the other, and the character of the gospel is eminently adapted to meet the needs of such an environment. It also pecu- liarly adapts to the needs of the present days when mysticism, occultism and philosophy are joining in an unholy alli- ance. 1 Character of the Gospel. It is a book with a very clearly defined purpose (Jno. 20:31), a purpose which domi- nates the whole book. The three syn- optic gospels give us the impression that they had n6 other object in view than simply to' tell the words and acts of Jesus as the authors recalled them, but everything in John is written with the absorbing purpose that men might come to know Him as the "Christ, the Son of God," and thus obtain what the apostle had himself already obtained-— eternal life. This leads the apostle, be- fore telling the acts and words, to sum- marize the meaning of them in the
book is a brand of the most impossible ingenious character from beginning to end, and no true child of God who has ever deeply studied this book and felt its matchless power can for one moment believe it to be fraudulent. The External and Internal Evidence converge to one point and prove to a practical demonstration that John is the author of this gospel. The one who in this day attacks or questions the Johan- nine authorship- of the Fourth Gospel does not discredit the gospel, he dis- credits himself. Anyone who denies that John wrote this gospel is an unsafe teacher—he reveals either a lack of re- search or a lack of fairness and candor. But after all, John is not the real author of thé book. The Holy Spirit is the real author. He guided John in the selection of his material, what he should record and what he should omit. He guided in the choice of words in which the events were told. He brought to John's remembrance the exact words Jesus had spoken (Jno. 14:26). He inspired John's interpre- tation of the meaning of Jesus Christ's manifestation. Time.—The gospel was written not earlier than 85 A. D., and some com- petent scholars place it after 95 A. D. Purpose.—The principal purpose for which the gospel was'written John him- self defines. It was written that men might be brought through reading it to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and through believing they might obtain eternal life (Jno. 20:31). This purpose has been accomplished in the lives of countless men and women in all the centuries since it was writ- ten. This gospel is the one book to put in the hands of the honest sceptic, ag- nostic, Unitarian or any sincere seeker after truth. No man can surrender his will to God to do God's will as God may show it to him, and then ask God to show him whether Jesus Christ is His Son or not, with the promise to ac- cept Jesus as his own Saviour and Lord and confess Him as such before the world if you Shall show it to him, and then read this gospel through slowly, carefully, and thoughtfully, having asked God to show him what of truth there is in the verses he is about to read and having promised God to take his stand upon what He shows him to be true, without coming to the con- clusion before he finishes the gospel that "Jesus is the Christ, the Son ©f God." I have tried this with all classes of sceptics in many lands and with one uniform result.
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