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Chapter XXV.—The Apocalypse of John.; original source section: Chapter 25
Complete historical editorial footnotes. These notes retain the original edition’s wording; individual note authors are unspecified.
English translation and editorial credits: Rev. Arthur Cushman McGiffert (Ph.D.).
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Upon the Apocalypse in the early Church, and especially upon Dionysius’ treatment of it, see above, Bk. III. chap. 24, note 20.
Editorial footnote · Book VII, Chapter XXV.—The Apocalypse of John.; original source section: Chapter 25, editorial note cite_note-1 · Original source
Chapter XXV.—The Apocalypse of John.
A portion of this extract (§§2 and 3) has been already quoted by Eusebius in Bk. III. chap. 28.
Editorial footnote · Book VII, Chapter XXV.—The Apocalypse of John.; original source section: Chapter 25, editorial note cite_note-2 · Original source
3. For the doctrine which he taught was this: that the kingdom of Christ will be an earthly one. And as he was himself devoted to the pleasures of the body and altogether sensual in his nature, he dreamed that that kingdom would consist in those things which he desired, namely, in the delights of the belly and of sexual passion; that is to say, in eating and drinking and marrying, and in festivals and sacrifices and the slaying of victims, under the guise of which he thought he could indulge his appetites with a better grace.
τῆς τοῦ βιβλίου διεξαγωγῆς λεγομένης. Valesius considers διεξαγωγή equivalent to dispositionem or οἰκονομίαν, “for διεξαγωγεῖν is the same as διοικεῖν, as Suidas says.” He translates ex libelli totius ductu ac dispositione, remarking that the words may be interpreted also as formam et rationem scribendi, seu characterem. The phrase evidently means the “general disposition” or “form” of the work. Closs translates “aus ihrer ganzen Ausführung”; Salmond, “the whole disposition and execution of the book”; Crusè, “the execution of the whole book.”
Editorial footnote · Book VII, Chapter XXV.—The Apocalypse of John.; original source section: Chapter 25, editorial note cite_note-5 · Original source
8. For I judge from the character of both, and the forms of expression, and the entire execution of the book, that it is not his. For the evangelist nowhere gives his name, or proclaims himself, either in the Gospel or Epistle.”
i.e. never speaks of himself in the first person, as “I, John”; nor in the third person, as e.g. “his servant, John.”
Editorial footnote · Book VII, Chapter XXV.—The Apocalypse of John.; original source section: Chapter 25, editorial note cite_note-6 · Original source
“But John never speaks as if referring to himself, or as if referring to another person. But the author of the Apocalypse introduces himself at the very beginning: ‘The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which he gave him to show unto his servants quickly; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John, who bare witness of the word of God and of his testimony, even of all things that he saw.’
See above, Bk. III. chap. 39, note 13; and on the “presbyter John,” mentioned by Papias, see also note 4 on the same chapter, and on his relation to the Apocalypse, the same chapter, note 14.
Editorial footnote · Book VII, Chapter XXV.—The Apocalypse of John.; original source section: Chapter 25, editorial note cite_note-19 · Original source
16. But I think that he was some other one of those in Asia; as they say that there are two monuments in Ephesus, each bearing the name of John.
i.e. the writer of the Apocalypse is different from the writer of the Gospel and Epistles.
Editorial footnote · Book VII, Chapter XXV.—The Apocalypse of John.; original source section: Chapter 25, editorial note cite_note-20 · Original source
17. “And from the ideas, and from the words and their arrangement, it may be reasonably conjectured that this one is different from that one.
On the Gospel and Epistle, see Bk. III. chap. 24, notes 1 and 18.
Editorial footnote · Book VII, Chapter XXV.—The Apocalypse of John.; original source section: Chapter 25, editorial note cite_note-4 · Original source
7. Therefore that he was called John, and that this book is the work of one John, I do not deny. And I agree also that it is the work of a holy and inspired man. But I cannot readily admit that he was the apostle, the son of Zebedee, the brother of James, by whom the Gospel of John and the Catholic Epistle were written.
See 2 John, ver. 1, and 3 John, ver. 1.
Editorial footnote · Book VII, Chapter XXV.—The Apocalypse of John.; original source section: Chapter 25, editorial note cite_note-11 · Original source
11. But neither in the reputed second or third epistle of John, though they are very short, does the name John appear; but there is written the anonymous phrase, ‘the elder.’ But this author did not consider it sufficient to give his name once and to proceed with his work; but he takes it up again: ‘I, John, who also am your brother and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and in the patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus.’ And toward the close he speaks thus: ‘Blessed is he that keepeth the words of the prophecy of this book, and I, John, who saw and heard these things.’