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THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO

ST. JOHN.

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO

ST. JOHN,

WITH NOTES CRITICAL AND PRACTICAL.

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BY THE REV. M. F. SADLER,

RECTOR OF HONITON; PREBENDARY OF WELLS; AUTHOR OF "CHURCH DOCTRINE
BIBLE TRUTH," "CHURCH TEACHER'S MANUAL,"
""NOTES CRITICAL
AND PRACTICAL ON ST. MATTHEW," ETC.

LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS,

YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN.

1883.

1016.2. 3.

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CHISWICK PRESS C. WHITTINGHAM AND CO., TOOKS COURT,

CHANCERY LANE.

INTRODUCTION.

ST

LIFE OF ST. JOHN.

T. JOHN, Apostle and Evangelist, "the disciple whom Jesus loved," was the son of Zebedee and Salome (compare Matth. xxvii. 56 with Mark xv. 40). Respecting Zebedee we know nothing whatsoever, except that he followed the occupation of a fisherman on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. He could not have been poor, for he had hired servants to assist him (Mark i. 20). He could not have been hostile to the Messianic claims of Jesus, as, apparently without a word of remonstrance, he suffered his sons to leave him with the hired labourers, and to follow the Lord as His constant companions.

Respecting Salome, we know more. Some have supposed, on the strength of a mere inference drawn from a very doubtful reading in John xix. 25 (see note), that she was the sister of the Virgin; in which case, St. John and the Lord would have been first cousins. But this is the merest conjecture. All that is said of her is to her honour. She appears to have had a very firm belief in Christ as the future Messiah and King of Israel; though, in common with all the disciples, she took a carnal view of His Kingdom, as appears by her request that her two sons might occupy the chief places of honour in His Kingdom (Matth. xx. 20-24). She was one of the devoted and courageous women who stood by the Cross. And she was one of those who, on the morning of the Resurrection, went first to the Sepulchre (Mark. xvi. 1).

Of the early youth of the Evangelist we are told nothing whatsoever. We first find him attached to the Baptist, as one of his disciples. All commentators seem to agree in the fact that he was one of the two disciples who, when John pointed to Jesus as the Lamb of God, immediately left the Baptist, and began to follow

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