(6.) The burial of Jesus, 19:38–42.
(7.) The resurrection. Mary Magdalene, Peter and John visit the empty tomb, 20:1–10.
(8.) Christ appears to Mary Magdalene, 20:11–18.
*(9.) Christ appears to the apostles, except Thomas, on the evening of the resurrection day,
20:19–23.
*(10.) Christ appears to the apostles, including Thomas, on the following Lord’s Day, 20:26–29.
*(11.) Object of the Gospel, 20:30, 31
*V. The Appendix and Epilogue, 21:1–25.
(1.) Christ appears to seven disciples on the lake of Galilee. The third manifestation to the
disciples, 21:1–14.
(2.) The dialogue with Simon Peter: "Lovest thou Me?" "Feed My sheep." "Follow Me,"
21:15–19.
(3.) The mysterious word about the beloved disciple, 21:1–23.
(4.) The attestation of the authorship of the Gospel by the pupils of John, 21:24, 25.
Characteristics of the Fourth Gospel.
The Gospel of John is the most original, the most important, the most influential book in
all literature. The great Origen called it the crown of the Gospels, as the Gospels are the crown of
all sacred writings.^1049 It is pre-eminently the spiritual and ideal, though at the same time a most
real Gospel, the truest transcript of the original. It lifts the veil from the holy of holies and reveals
the glory of the Only Begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. It unites in harmony the
deepest knowledge and the purest love of Christ. We hear as it were his beating heart; we lay our
hands in his wound-prints and exclaim with doubting Thomas: "My Lord and my God." No book
is so plain and yet so deep, so natural and yet so full of mystery. It is simple as a child and sublime
as a seraph, gentle as a lamb and bold as an eagle, deep as the sea and high as the heavens.
It has been praised as "the unique, tender, genuine Gospel," "written by the hand of an
angel," as "the heart of Christ," as "God’s love-letter to the world," or "Christ’s love-letter to the
church." It has exerted an irresistible charm on many of the strongest and noblest minds in
Christendom, as Origen in Egypt, Chrysostom in Asia, Augustin in Africa, the German Luther, the
French Calvin, the poetic Herder, the critical Schleiermacher, and a multitude of less famous writers
of all schools and shades of thought. Even many of those who doubt or deny the apostolic authorship
cannot help admiring its more than earthly beauties.^1050
But there are other sceptics who find the Johannean discourses monotonous, tedious,
nebulous, unmeaning, hard, and feel as much offended by them as the original hearers.^1051(^1049) Opera, IV. 6: τολμητέον τοίνυν εἰπεῖν ἀπαρχὴν μὲν πασῶν γραφῶν εἷναι τὰ εὐαγγέλια, τῶν δε εὐαγγελίων ἀπαρχὴν τὸ
κατὰ Ἰωάννην.
(^1050) DeWette says that the discourses of Christ in John shine with more than earthly brilliancy (sie strahlen in mehr als irdischem
Brillantfeuer, Exeg. Handbuch, I.3, p. 7). Holtzmann: "The fundamental ideas of the fourth Gospel lie far beyond the horizon
of the church in the second century, and indeed of the whole Christian church down to the present day" (in Schenkel’s "Bibel.
Lexik.," II. 234). Baur and Keim (I. 133) give the Gospel the highest praise asa philosophy of religion, but deny its historical
value.
(^1051) Renan and John Stuart Mill have confessed a strong antipathy to these discourses. Renan’s last judgment on the Gospel of
John (in L’église chrét., 1879, p. 51) is as follows: "On l’a trop admiré. Il a de la chaleur, parfois une sorte de sublimité, mais
quelque chose d’enflé, de faux, d’obsur. La naïveté manque tout à fait. L’auteur ne raconte pas; il démontre. Rien de plus tatigant
que ses longs récits de miracles et que ces discussions, roulant sur des malentendus, où les adversaires de Jésus jouent le rôle
d’idiots. Combien à ce pathos verbeux nous préférons le doux style, tout hébreu encore, du Discours sur la montagne, et cette
A.D. 1-100.