Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 30:117 (Jan 1873)
Article: Christian Ernest Luthardts Refutation Of False Views As To The Design Of St. John’s Gospel
Author: Caspar Rene Gregory

BSac 30:117 (Jan 1873) p. 1

Christian Ernest Luthardts Refutation Of False Views As To The Design Of St. John’s Gospel

Caspar Rene Gregory

The aim and the occasion of a book are two very different things. In the Gospel of John they have been entirely too much mingled together. Baumgarten-Crusius1 distinguishes them carefully, and looks for the first only in the book itself. But Lücke thinks that what is given in 20:31 as the complete aim is not enough to explain the peculiarity of the Gospel. He therefore asks for the particular occasion, so as to learn from it the special aim. In doing this, he tries to find and prove the special aim outside of the book itself, and thus treads the same path that most men had gone in before, and against the consequences of which he, at least in part, contends. Baumgarten-Crusius certainly has not shown that the aim which is common to all the Gospels brings out the individuality of John’s Gospel simply by being more distinctly marked.2 In attempting to show this, he lays before us a history of the apostolic teaching concerning Jesus,3 like that given by Lücke. On the whole, Bruckner has struck the right path.4

BSac 30:117 (Jan 1873) p. 2

1. The Supplement Hypothesis

When we compare the fourth Gospel with the three earlier Gospels, we cannot help thinking that its author had them before him. The regard he pays to them can be taken in two ways. We may understand it of the historical matter, or of the whole character of the Gospel. Even in the earliest times they tried to explain the peculiarity of the fourth Gospel from this,5 and this view has often been defended in later times.6

The evangelist certainly takes for granted much that is told in the synoptical Gospels, and that is necessary to make his account intelligible. The baptism of Jesus, as we have seen, is not excluded, bat is rather required by the account of John. And some other things are only made clear by the help of the synoptical accounts (e.g. 11:1, 2; 18:24, 28). At times, again, it fills up the synoptical accounts, or secures itself against false relations with them. Indeed, at 2:12, and especially at 3:...