prominent in other ways and stood next to the beloved three, or even next to his brother Peter in
the catalogues of the apostles.^1041
Victorinus of Pettau (d. about 304), in the Scholia on the Apocalypse, says that John wrote
the Gospel after the Apocalypse, in consequence of the spread of the Gnostic heresy and at the
request of "all the bishops from the neighboring provinces."^1042
Jerome, on the basis of a similar tradition, reports that John, being constrained by his brethren
to write, consented to do so if all joined in a fast and prayer to God, and after this fast, being saturated
with revelation (revelatione saturatus), he indited the heaven-sent preface: "In the beginning was
the Word."^1043
Possibly those fellow-disciples and pupils who prompted John to write his Gospel, were
the same who afterward added their testimony to the genuineness of the book, speaking in the plural
("we know that his witness is true," 21:24), one of them acting as scribe ("I suppose," 21:25).
The outward occasion does not exclude, of course, the inward prompting by the Holy Spirit,
which is in fact implied in this tradition, but it shows how far the ancient church was from such a
mechanical theory of inspiration as ignores or denies the human and natural factors in the
composition of the apostolic writings. The preface of Luke proves the same.
The Object.
The fourth Gospel does not aim at a complete biography of Christ, but distinctly declares
that Jesus wrought "many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this
book" (John 20:30; comp. 21:25).
The author plainly states his object, to which all other objects must be subordinate as merely
incidental, namely, to lead his readers to the faith "that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that
believing they may have life in his name" (20:31). This includes three points: (1) the Messiahship
of Jesus, which was of prime importance to the Jews, and was the sole or at least the chief aim of
Matthew, the Jewish Evangelist; (2) the Divine Sonship of Jesus, which was the point to be gained
with the Gentiles, and which Luke, the Gentile Evangelist, had also in view; (3) the practical benefit
of such faith, to gain true, spiritual, eternal life in Him and through Him who is the personal
embodiment and source of eternal life.
To this historico-didactic object all others which have been mentioned must be subordinated.
The book is neither polemic and apologetic, nor supplementary, nor irenic, except incidentally and
unintentionally as it serves all these purposes. The writer wrote in full view of the condition and
needs of the church at the close of the first century, and shaped his record accordingly, taking for
granted a general knowledge of the older Gospels, and refuting indirectly, by the statement of facts
and truths, the errors of the day. Hence there is some measure of truth in those theories which have
made an incidental aim the chief or only aim of the book.- The anti-heretical theory was started by Irenaeus. Being himself absorbed in the
controversy with Gnosticism and finding the strongest weapons in John, he thought that John’s
motive was to root out the error of Cerinthus and of the Nicolaitans by showing that "there is one
God who made all things by his word; and not, as they say, one who made the world, and another,
(^1041) Matt. 10:2; Luke 6:14; Mark 3:16; 13:3; John 1:41; 12:22; Acts 1:13.
(^1042) Quoted by Westcott and Hilgenfeld. I will add the original from Migne, Patrol., V. 333: "Cum enim essent Valentinus et
Cerinthus, et Ebion, et caeteri scholae satanae, diffusi per orbem, convenerunt ad illum de finitimis provinciis omnes episcopi,
et compulerunt eum, ut et ipse testimonium coscriberet."
(^1043) Preface to Com in Matt.
A.D. 1-100.