spirit would flag from over-exertion and not be able to respond to the call of duty when need
required." Childlike simplicity and playfulness are often combined with true greatness of mind.
Polycrates, bishop of Ephesus, at the close of the second century, relates (according to
Eusebius) that John introduced in Asia Minor the Jewish practice of observing Easter on the 14th
of Nisan, irrespective of Sunday. This fact entered largely into the paschal controversies of the
second century, and into the modern controversy about the genuineness of the Gospel of John.
The same Polycrates of Ephesus describes John as wearing the plate, or diadem of the Jewish
high-priest (Ex. 28:36, 37; 39:30, 31). It is probably a figurative expression of priestly holiness
which John attaches to all true believers (Comp. Rev. 2:17), but in which he excelled as the
patriarch.^606
From a misunderstanding of the enigmatical word of Jesus, John 21:22, arose the legend
that John was only asleep in his grave, gently moving the mound as he breathed, and awaiting the
final advent of the Lord. According to another form of the legend he died, but was immediately
raised and translated to heaven, like Elijah, to return with him as the herald of the second advent
of Christ.^607CHAPTER VIII.
CHRISTIAN LIFE IN THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH.
Sources.
The teaching and example of Christ as exhibited in the Gospels, and of the apostles in the Acts and
Epistles; compared and contrasted with the rabbinical ethics and the state of Jewish society,
and with the Greek systems of philosophy and the moral condition of the Roman empire, as
described in the writings of Seneca, Tacitus, the Roman satirists, etc.
Literature.
I. The respective sections in the Histories of the Apost. Church by Neander: I. 229–283 (Germ.
ed.); Schaff: §§ 109–123 (pp. 433–492); Lange: II. 495–534; Weizsäcker: 647–698.
II The works on the Theology of the Apostolic Age, by Schmid,Reuss,Baur, Weiss, etc.
III. The Systems of Christian Ethics by Schleiermacher,Rothe,Neander, Schmid, Wuttke, Harless,
Martensen, Luthardt, and Lecky’sHistory of European Morals (1869), vol I. 357 sqq.
IV. A. Thoma (pastor in Mannheim): Geschichte der christlichen Sittenlehre in der Zeit des Neuen
Testamentes, Haarlem, 1879 (380 pp.). A crowned prize-essay of the Teyler Theol. Society.
The first attempt of a separate critical history of N. T. ethics, but written from the negative
standpoint of the Tübingen school, and hence very unsatisfactory. It is divided in three parts:
I. The Ethics of Jesus; II. The Ethics of Paul; III. The Ethics of the Congregation.(^606) In Euseb. H. E. III. 31, 3; V. 24, 3: Ἰωάννης ...ὃς ἐγεννήθη ἱερευς τὸ πέταλον πεφορηκὼς –ϊκαὶ–ͅϊμάρτυς και–ῒ –ͅϊδιδάσκαλος
οὗτος ἐν Εφέσω, κεκοίμηται. Epiphanius reports (no doubt from Hegesippus) the same, with some ascetic features, of James
the brother of the Lord. See Stanley’s remarks, pp. 276-278, and Lightfoot on Galat., p. 345 note, and Philipp. p. 252. "As a
figurative expression," says Lightfoot, "or as a literal fact, the notice points to St. John as the veteran teacher, the chief
representative, of a pontifical race. On the other hand, it is possible that this was not the sense which Polycrates himself attached
to the figure or the fact; and if so, we have here perhaps the earliest passage in any extant Christian writing where the sacerdotal
view of the ministry is distinctly put forward." But in the Didache (ch. 13) the Christian prophets are called "high priests."
(^607) Augustin mentions the legend, but contradicts it, Trad. 224 in Ev. Joann.
A.D. 1-100.