S. Iohns Ghospel may be deuided into foure partes.
The first part is of the Actes of Christ before his solemne manifestation of himselfe, while
Iohn Baptist was yet baptizing: Chap. 1. 2. 3. 4.
The second, of his Actes in Iurie (hauing now begunne his solemne manifestation in Galilee,
Mat. 4, 12.) the second Easter or Pasche of his preaching: Chap. 5. For of the first Pasche,
we had in the first part. chap. 2. 13: And the Pasche of * the Iewes was at hand. And
that feast whereof we haue in this second part, chap. 5, 1: After this there was a
festiual day of * the Iewes, is thought of good Authours, to be the feast of Pasche.
The third part is of his Actes in Galilee, and in Iurie, about the third Pasche, and after it:
chap. 6, to the 12. For so we haue chap. 6, 4: And Pasche the festiual day of * the Iewes was
at hand.
The fourth part is of the fourth Pasche (which we haue in the end of the chap. 11, 55.
And the Pasche of * the Iewes was at hand) that is to say, of the Holy weeke of his Passion
in Hierusalem: chap. 12. vnto the end of the booke.
By which diuision it is manifest, that the intent of this Euangelist writing after the other
three, was, to omit the Actes of Christ in Galilee, because the other three had written them at
large: and to report his Actes done in Iurie, which they had omitted.
And this doth, because Iurie with Hierusalem and the Temple, beeing the principal part of the
Country, there abode the principal of the Iewes, both for authoritie, and also for learning in
the law or knowledge of the Scriptures, and therfore that was the place, where our Lord
Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ finding in the Head it selfe and in the leaders of the rest, such wilful obstinacie
and desperate resistance, as the Prophets had foretold, did by this occasion, much more plainely
then in Galilee, both say and proue, at sundry times, euen euery yeare of his preaching,
himselfe to be the Cʜʀɪꜱᴛ that had beene so long promised vnto them, and expected of them:
and the same Cʜʀɪꜱᴛ to be not only a man, as they imagined, but also the natural,
consubstantial, and coeternal Sonne of God the Father, who now had sent him. Therfore these were
the wordes and deedes that serued best the purpose of this Euangelist, being to shew the glorie
and excellencie of this Person Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ: that thereby the Gentils might see how worthily
Hierusaleme and the Iewes were reprobated who had refused yea & crucified such an one: and how
wel & to their owne saluation themselues might doe, to receiue him and to beleeue in him. For
this to haue beene his purpose, himselfe declareth in the end, saying: These are written,
that you may beleeue that Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ is Cʜʀɪꜱᴛ the Sonne of God: and that beleeuing, you may haue
life in his name.
And herevpon it is, that S. Hierome writeth thus in his life: Iohn the Apostle whom
Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ loued very much, the sonne of Zebedee, the brother of Iames the Apostle whom Herod after
our Lords Passion beheaded, last of al wrote the Ghospel, at the request of the Bishops of
Asia, against Cerinthus, and other Heretikes, and specially against the assertion of the
Ebionites then rising, who say that Christ was not before Mᴀʀɪᴇ. Whereupon also he was
compelled to vtter his Diuine Natiuitie.
Of his three Epistles, and of his Apocalypse, shal be said in their owne places.
It followeth
in S. Hierome, that In the second persecution vnder Domitian, fourteene yeares after the
persecution of Nero he was exiled into the ile Patmos. But after that Domitian was slaine, and
his actes for his passing repealed by the Senate; vnder Nerua the Emperour he returned to
Ephesus, and there continuing vnto the time of Traiane the Emperour, he founded and gouerned al
the Churches of Asia: and worne with old age, he died the threescore and eight yeare after the
Passion of our Lord, and was buried besides the same citie.
Whose excellencie the same holy Doctour thus briefly describeth. li. 1. Aduers.
Iouinianum.
IOHN the Apostle, one of our Lords Disciples, who was the youngest among the Apostles, and whom
the faith of Christ found a virgin, remained a virgin, and therfore is more loued of our Lord,
and lieth vpon the breast of Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ: and that which Peter durst not aske, he desireth him to
aske. And after the resurrection, when Marie Magdelen had reported that our Lord was risen
againe, both of them ranne to the Sepulchre, but he came thither first: and when they were in
the ship and fished in the lake of Genesareth, Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ stood on the shore, neither did the
Apostles know whom they saw: onely the virgin, knoweth the virgin & saith to Peter: it is
our Lord. This Iohn was both an Apostle, & Euangelist, and Prophet. An Apostle, because
he wrote to the Churches as a Maister: an Euangelist, because he compiled a booke of the Ghospel,
which (except Matthew) none other of the twelue Apostles did: a Prophet, for he saw in the ile
Patmos, where he was bannished by Domitian the Emperour for the testimonie of our Lord, the
Apocalipse, conteining infinite mysteries of things to come. Tertullian also reporeth, that at
Rome being cast into a barrel of hote boiling oile, he came forth more pure and fresher or
liuelier, then he went in. Yea and his Ghospel it self much differeth from the rest. Matthew
beginneth to write as of a man: Marke of the prophecie of Malachie and Esay. Luke of the
Priesthood of Zacharie: The first hath the face of a man, because of the genealogie: the second
the face of a lion, for the voice of one crying in the desert: the third the face of a calfe,
because of the Priest-hood. But Iohn as an Eagle flieth to the things on high, and mounteth to
the Father him self, saying: In the beginning was the Wᴏʀᴅ, and the Wᴏʀᴅ was
with God, and God was the Wᴏʀᴅ. Thus farre S. Hierome.
Vpon this Ghospel there are the famous commentaries of S. Augustine called Tractatus in
Euan. Ioan. to. 9. and twelue bookes of S. Cyrils commentaries.