Kitabı oku: «The Making of the New Testament», sayfa 9

CHAPTER VIII
THE JOHANNINE TRADITION. PROPHECY

In Paul's enumeration of the "gifts" by which the Spirit qualifies various classes of men to build in various ways upon the structure of the church, the class of "prophets" takes the place next after that of "apostles," a rank even superior (as more manifestly 'spiritual') to that of "pastors and teachers." The Book of Acts shows us as its most conspicuous centre of "prophecy" the house of Philip the Evangelist at Cæsarea. This man had four unmarried daughters who prophesied, and in his house Paul received a 'prophetic' warning of his fate from a certain Agabus who had come down from Judæa. There were also prophets in Antioch (Acts xiii. 1), though the only ones mentioned by name are this same Agabus²⁴ and Silas, or Silvanus, who is also from Judæa. In the Teaching of the Twelve the 'prophet' still appears among the regular functionaries of the church, for the most part a traveller from place to place, and open to more or less suspicion, as is the case at Rome, where Hermas combines reverence for the "angel" that speaks through the true prophet, with warnings against the self-seeker. In 1st John the "false prophets" are a serious danger, propagating Doketic heresy wherever they go. In fact, this heresy was, as we know, the great peril in Asia. However, Asia, if plagued by wandering false prophets, had also become by this time a notable seat of true and authentic prophecy; for the same Papias who shows such sympathy with Polycarp against those who were "perverting the Sayings of the Lord to their own lusts," and had turned, as Polycarp advised, "to the tradition handed down from the beginning," had similar means for counteracting those who "denied the resurrection and judgment." Among those upon whom he principally relied as exponents of the apostolic doctrine were two of those same prophesying daughters of Philip the Evangelist, who with their father had migrated from Cæsarea Palestina to Hierapolis, leaving, however, one, who had married, a resident till her death at Ephesus. As late as the time of Montanus (150-170), the "Phrygians" traced their succession of prophets and prophetesses back to Silvanus and the daughters of Philip.

We cannot be sure that the traditions Papias reported from these prophetesses were derived at first hand, though it is not impossible that Papias himself may have seen them. However it is certain that many of his traditions of 'the Elders' had to do with eschatology, and aimed to prove the material and concrete character of the rewards of the kingdom; for we have several examples of these traditions, attributing to Jesus apocryphal descriptions of the marvellous fertility of Palestine in the coming reign of Messiah, and particularizing about the abodes of the blessed. Moreover Eusebius blames Papias for the crude ideas of Irenæus and other second century fathers who held the views called "chiliastic" (i. e. based on the "thousand" year reign of Christ in Rev. xx. 2 f.). We also know that Papias defended the "trustworthiness" of Revelation, a book which served as the great authority of the "chiliasts" for the next fifty years in their fight against the deniers of the resurrection. He quoted from it, in fact, the passage above referred to; so that if reason must be sought for his placing "John and Matthew" together at the end of his list of seven apostles instead of in their usual place, it is probably because they were his ultimate apostolic authorities for the "word of prophecy" and for the "commandment of the Lord" respectively. Justin Martyr, Papias' contemporary at Rome, though converted in Ephesus, and unquestionably determined in his mould of thought by Asiatic Paulinism, has, like Papias, but two authorities for his gospel teaching: (1) the commandment of the Lord represented in the Petrine and Matthæan tradition; (2) prophecy, represented in the Christian continuation of the Old Testament gift. This second authority, however, is not appealed to without the support of apostolicity. Revelation is quoted as among "our writings," like "the memorabilia of the apostles called Gospels," but not without the additional assurance that the seer was "John, one of the apostles of Christ."

For 'prophecy,' however acclimated elsewhere, was in its origin distinctively a Palestinian product. Its stock in trade was Jewish eschatology as developed in the long succession of writers of 'apocalypse' since Daniel (165 b. c.). Of the nature of this curious and fantastic type of literature we have seen some examples in 2nd Thessalonians and the Synoptic eschatology (Mark xiii.=Matt. xxiv.=Luke xxi.). More can be learnt by comparing the contemporary Jewish writings of this type known as 2nd Esdras and the Apocalypse of Baruch. Older examples are found in the prophecies and visions purporting to come from Enoch. For apocalypse became the successor of true prophecy in proportion as the loss of Israel's separate national existence and the enlargement of its horizon compelled it to make its messianic hopes transcendental, and its notion of the Kingdom cosmic. Hence comes all the phantasmagoria of allegorical monsters, spirits and demons, the great conflict no longer against Assyria and Babylon, but a war of the powers of light and darkness, heaven and hell. Yet all centres still upon Jerusalem as the ultimate metropolis of the world, whose empires, now given over to the leadership of Satan, will soon lie prostrate beneath her feet.

Some such eschatology of divine judgment and reward is an almost necessary complement to the legalistic type of religion. If Christianity be conceived as a system of commandments imposed by supernatural authority it must have as a motive for obedience a system of supernatural rewards and punishments. Not merely, then, because for centuries the legalism of the scribes had actually had its corresponding development of apocalypse, with visions of the great judgment and Day of Yahweh, but because of an inherent and necessary affinity between the two, "Judæa" continued to be the home of 'prophecy' in New Testament times also.

However, the one great example of this type of literature that has been (somewhat reluctantly) permitted to retain a place in the New Testament canon appears at first blush to be clearly and distinctively a product of Ephesus. Of no book has early tradition so clear and definite a pronouncement to make as of Revelation. Since the time of Paul the Jewish ideas of resurrection provoked opposition in the Greek mind. The Greek readily accepted immortality, but the crudity of Jewish millenarianism, with its return of the dead from the grave for a visible, concrete rule of Messiah in Palestine repelled him. The representation of Acts xvii. 32 is fully borne out by the constant effort of Paul in his Greek epistles to remove the stumbling-blocks of this doctrine. It is no surprise, then, to find the 'prophecy' of Revelation, and more particularly its doctrine of the thousand-year reign of Messiah in Jerusalem, a subject of dispute at least since Melito of Sardis (167), and probably since Papias (145). Fortunately controversy brought out with unusual definiteness, and from the earliest times, positive statements regarding the origin of the book. Irenæus (186) declared it a work of the Apostle John given him in vision "in the end of the reign of Domitian." The same date (93), may be deduced from statements of Epiphanius regarding the history of the church in Thyatira. Justin Martyr (153), as we have seen, vouches for the crucial passage (Rev. xx. 2 f.) as from "one of ourselves, John, an apostle of the Lord." Papias (145) vouched for its orthodoxy at least, if not its authenticity. There can be no reasonable doubt that it came to be accepted in Asia early in the second century, in spite of opposition, as representing the authority of the Apostle John, and as having appeared there c. 95. In fact, there is no book of the entire New Testament whose external attestation can compare with that of Revelation, in nearness, clearness, definiteness, and positiveness of statement. John is as distinctively the father of 'prophecy' in second century tradition as Matthew of 'Dominical Precepts' and Peter of 'Narratives.'

Moreover the book itself purports to be written from Patmos, an island off the coast of Asia. It speaks in the name of "John" as of some very high and exceptional authority, well known to all the seven important churches addressed, the first of which is "Ephesus." By its references to local names and conditions it even proves, in the judgment of all the most eminent modern scholars, that it really did see the light for the first time (at least for the first time in its present form) in Ephesus not far from a. d. 95.

One would think the case for apostolic authenticity could hardly be stronger. And yet no book of the New Testament has had such difficulty as this, whether in ancient or modern times, to maintain its place in the canon. It must also be said that no book gives stronger internal evidence of having passed through at least two highly diverse stages in process of development to its present form.

The theory of "another John" is indeed comparatively modern. Nobody dreamt of such a solution until Dionysius of Alexandria hesitatingly advanced the conjecture in his controversy with Nepos the Chiliast. Even then (c. 250) Dionysius (though he must have known the little work of Papias) could think of no other John at Ephesus than the Apostle, unless it were perhaps John Mark! It is Eusebius who joyfully helps him out with the discovery in Papias of "John the Elder." But Eusebius himself is candid enough to admit that Papias only quoted "traditions of John" and "mentioned him frequently in his writings." When we read Papias' own words, though they are cited by Eusebius for the express purpose of proving the debatable point, it is obvious that they prove nothing of the kind, but rather imply the contrary, viz. that John the Elder, though a contemporary of Papias, was not accessible, but known to him only at second hand, by report of travellers who "came his way." In short, as we have seen, "Aristion and John the Elder" were the surviving members of a group of 'apostles, elders and witnesses of the Lord' in Jerusalem. If, then, one chose to attribute the 'prophecies' of Rev. iv. – xxi. to this Elder there could be no serious objections on the score of doctrine, for the "traditions of John" reported by Papias were not lacking in millenarian colour. Only, it is not the 'prophecies' of Rev. iv. – xxi. which contain the references to "John," but the enclosing prologue and epilogue; and these concern themselves with the churches of Asia as exclusively as the 'prophecies' with the quarrel of Jerusalem with Rome.

The second century is, as we have seen, unanimous in excluding from consideration any other John in Asia save the Apostle, and if the writer of Rev. i. and xxii. produced this impression in all contemporary minds without exception, including even such as opposed the book and its doctrine, it is superlatively probable that such was his intention. The deniers of the resurrection and judgment did not point out to Polycarp, Papias, Justin, Melito and Caius, that they were confusing two Johns, attributing the work of a mere Elder to the Apostle. They plumply declared the attribution to John fictitious; and since the internal evidence from the condition of the churches and growth of heresy in chh. i. – iii. and the imperial succession down to Domitian in chh. xiii. and xvii. strongly corroborate the date assigned in antiquity (c. 93), we have no alternative, if we admit that the Apostle John had long before been "killed by the Jews,"²⁵ but to suppose that this book, like nearly all the books of 'prophecy,' is, indeed, pseudonymous. It does not follow that he who assumes the name of "John" in prologue and epilogue (i. 1 f., 4, 9; xxii. 8) to tell the reader definitely who the prophet is, was guilty of intentional misrepresentation. If anything can be made clear by criticism it is clear that the prophecies were not his own. They were taken from some nameless source. The "pseudonymity" consists simply in clothing a conjecture with the appearance of indubitable fact.

But why should a writer who wished to clothe with apostolic authority the 'prophecies' he was promulgating, not assume boldly the title of "apostle," as the author of 2nd Peter has done in adapting similarly the Epistle of Jude? Why, if he assumes the name of the martyred Apostle John at all, does he refrain from saying, "I John, an apostle, or disciple of the Lord," and content himself with the humbler designation and authority of 'prophet'?

This question brings us face to face with the most remarkable structural phenomena of the book, and cannot be understandingly answered until we have considered them.

The outstanding characteristic of Revelation is its adaptation of literary material dealing with, and applicable to, one historical and geographical situation, to another situation almost completely different. The opening chapters, devoted to "John's" vision on Patmos and the conditions and dangers of the seven Churches of Asia, employ indeed some of the expressions of the substance of the book. The promises of the Spirit to the churches recall the glories of the New Jerusalem of the concluding vision of the seer. There is some reference to local persecution at Smyrna incited by the Jews ("a synagogue of Satan") and which is to last "ten days," and there is an isolated reference to a martyrdom of days long gone by in the message to the church in Pergamum (ii. 13) recalling remotely the blood and suffering of which the body of the work is full. This we should of course expect from an adapter of existing 'prophecies.' But the converse, i. e. consideration for the historical conditions of Ephesus and its sister churches, on the part of the body of the work, is absolutely wanting. On the one side is the situation of the Pauline churches on the east coast of the Ægean in a. d. 93-95. The prologue and epilogue (Rev. i. – iii. and xxii. 6-21) are concerned with these churches of Asia, and their development in the faith, particularly their growth in good works, purity from defilements of the world, and resistance to the inroads of heretical teaching. The message of the Spirit, conveyed through "John," is meant to encourage the members of these churches to pure living in the face of temptations to worldliness and impurity. The epistles to the churches, in a word, belong in the same class with the Pastorals, Jude, and 2nd Peter, as regards their object and the situation confronted; though they are written to enclose apocalyptic visions which deal with a totally different situation.

The visions, on the contrary, take not the smallest notice of (proconsular) Asia and its problems. Their scene is Palestine, their subject the outcome of Jerusalem's agonizing struggle against Rome. From the moment the threshold of iv. 1 is crossed there is no consciousness of the existence of such places as Ephesus, Smyrna and Thyatira. The scenes are Palestinian. The great battle-field is Har-Magedon (i. e. city of Megiddo, on the plain of Esdraelon, the scene of Josiah's overthrow, 2nd Kings xxiii. 29 f.). "The city," "the great city," "the holy city" is Jerusalem; though "spiritually (in allegory) it is called Sodom and Egypt" (i. e. a place from which the saints escape to avoid its doom). When the saints flee from the oppression of the dragon it is to "the wilderness." When the invading hordes rush in it is from beyond "the Euphrates." When the redeemed appear in company with the Christ it is on Mount Zion; they constitute an army of 144,000, twelve thousand from each of the twelve tribes. Two antagonistic powers are opposed. On the one side is Jerusalem and its temple, now given over to the Gentiles to be trodden under foot forty and two months, on the other is Rome, no longer, as with Paul, a beneficent and protecting power, but the city of the beast, Babylon the great harlot, at whose impending judgment the Gentiles will mourn, but all the servants of God rejoice. Jerusalem rebuilt, glorified, the metropolis of the world, seat and residence of God and his Christ, will take the place of Rome, the seat of the beast and the false prophet. The gates of this New Jerusalem will stand open to receive tribute from all the Gentile nations, and will have on them the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. The foundations of the city wall will have on them "the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb."

All this is cumulative proof that the horizon of the seer of Rev. iv. – xx. is that of Palestine. Its expansion in the introductory Letters of the Spirit to the Churches to include the seven churches of (proconsular) Asia, is as limited in its way as the original. The later writer merely adds the special province where he wishes the 'prophecy' to circulate, with its special interests; there is no real interrelation of the two parts.

It is a problem of great complexity to disentangle the various strands of this strange and fantastic work, certain as it is that we have here a conglomerate whose materials come from various periods. Some elements, such as ch. xi. on the fate of Jerusalem, seem to date in part from before 70; others, such as ch. xviii. on the fate of Rome, show that while originally composed for the circumstances of the reign of Vespasian or Titus, the time has been extended to take in at least the beginning of that of Domitian.²⁶ The author rests mainly upon the Hebrew apocalyptic prophets, such as Ezekiel, Daniel and Enoch, but he has not been altogether inhospitable to such originally Gentile mythology as the doctrine of the seven spirits of God, and the conflict of Michael and his angels with the dragon. He intimates himself that his prophesying had not been confined to one period or one people (x. 11). When he translates the "Hebrew" name of the angel of the abyss, "Abaddon," into its Greek equivalent (ix. 11), or uses Hebrew numerical equivalents for the letters of the name of a man (xiii. 18), it is not difficult to guess that this prophecy had at least its origin in Palestine. In fact, there is no other country where the geographical references hold true, and no other period save that shortly after the overthrow of Jerusalem by Titus, that affords the historical situation here presupposed, when worshipping "the beast and his image" is demanded of the saints by the earthly ruler (Domitian), and the overthrow of the seven-hilled city by one of its own rulers in league with lesser powers is looked forward to as about to avenge the sufferings inflicted on the Jews. As regards this hope of the overthrow of Rome, we know that the legend of Nero's prospective return at the head of hosts of Parthian enemies to recapture his empire gained currency in Asia Minor in Domitian's reign, and this legend is certainly developed in Rev. xiii. and xvii. On the other hand, the author, if he ever came to Asia, did not cease to be a Palestinian Jew. He operates exclusively (after iv. 1) with the materials and interests of Jewish and Jewish-Christian apocalypse. He has no interest whatever in the churches of Asia. He does not betray by one syllable a knowledge even of their existence, to say nothing of their dangers, their heresies, their temptations. He does make it abundantly clear that he is a Christian prophet (x. 7-11), and (to us) almost equally clear that he is not one of the twelve apostles whose names he sees written on the foundation-stones of the New Jerusalem (xxi. 14). But since his prophecy, with all its heterogeneous elements had to do with the final triumph of Messiah, and the establishment of His kingdom, after the overthrow of the power of Satan – since it depicted "the time of the dead to be judged, and the time to give their reward to thy servants the prophets, and to the saints and to them that fear thy name," it could not fail to be welcomed by orthodox Christians in (proconsular) Asia. For the churches of Asia were engaged at this time in a vigorous struggle against the heretical deniers of the resurrection and judgment. Only, a mere anonymous prophecy from Palestine could not obtain any authoritative currency in Asia. To be accepted, even among the orthodox, some name of apostolic weight must be attached to it, as we see in the case of the two Epistles of Peter and those of James and Jude. The Epistles of the Spirit to the churches are, then, as truly "letters of commendation" as though they introduced a living prophet and not merely a written prophecy. The John whom they present is not called an apostle for the very simple reason that the visions themselves everywhere refer to their recipient as a 'prophet.' The author of the prologue and epilogue does not disregard the language of his material. As we have seen, he carefully weaves its phraseology into the 'letters.' So with his insertion of the name "John." It occurs nowhere but in i. 1 f., 4, 9 and xxii. 8 f. All these passages, but especially xxii. 8 f., are based upon xix. 9b, 10, adding nothing to the representation but the name "John" and the location "Patmos." In fact, xxii. 6-9 reproduces xix. 9 f., for the most part verbatim, although it is clearly insupposable that the seer of the former passage should represent himself as offering a second time to worship the angel, and as receiving again exactly the same rebuke he had received so shortly before. He who calls himself "John" in xxii. 8 is, therefore, not the prophet of xix. 10. The epilogue itself has apparently received successive supplements, and the prologue its prefix; but he who inserts the name John has done so with caution. He may not have intended to leave open the ambiguity found by Dionysius and Eusebius between the Apostle and the Elder, as a refuge in case of accusation, but he has at least been careful not to transgress the limits of the text he reproduces. The seer spoke of himself as a "prophet" writing from the midst of great tribulation, about the kingdom to follow to those that endured. He had said that he received "true words of God" from an angel who declared "I am a fellow servant with thee and with thy brethren that hold the testimony of Jesus" (i. e. the confession of martyrdom). The prologue, accordingly, describes "John" as a servant of Jesus, who received from an angel the word of God and the testimony of Jesus (i. 1 f.). He is a brother and partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and endurance which are in Jesus. When he comes to Asia it is "for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus." The spot whence he issues his prophetic message is not located in Ephesus, or in any city where the residents could say, "But the Apostle John was never among us." He resides temporarily (as a prisoner in the quarries?) in the unfrequented island of Patmos. Thence he could be supposed to see "in the Spirit" the condition of affairs in the churches of Asia without inconvenient questions as to when, and how, and why.

We may think, then, of this book of 'prophecy' as brought forth in the vicinity of Ephesus near "the end of the reign of Domitian" (95). But only the enclosing letters to the churches, and the epilogue guaranteeing the contents, originate here at this time. The 'prophecies,' occupied as they are exclusively with the rivalry of Jerusalem and Rome, and the judgment to be executed for the former upon her ruthless adversary, bear unmistakable marks of their Palestinian origin, not only in the historical and geographic situations presupposed, but in the "defiant" Hebraisms of the language, and the avowed translations from "the Hebrew." They are an importation from Palestine like "the sound words, even the words of the Lord Jesus" referred to in the Pastorals. The churches of Asia are feeling the need of apostolic authority against the deniers of the resurrection and the judgment, as much as against the perverters of the Lord's words. Such centres as the homes of the prophesying daughters of Philip at Ephesus and Hierapolis were even more abundantly competent to supply this demand than the other. Agabus will not have been the only Judæan prophet who visited them, especially after the "great tribulation" which befell "those in Judæa." There is nothing foreign to the habit of the times, even in Christian circles, if nameless 'prophecies' from such a source are translated, edited, and given out under cover of commendatory epistles written in the name of "John" at a time when John had indeed partaken both of the tribulation and of the kingdom of Jesus. They would hardly have obtained currency had they not been attributed to an apostle; for a denial of the apostolicity of this book has always deprived it of authority.

On the other hand, the actual (Palestinian) prophet has no such exalted opinion of himself as of those whose names he sees written on the foundation of the walls of the New Jerusalem (xxi. 14). He is not an apostle and does not claim to be. He shows not the faintest trace of any association with the earthly Jesus, and indeed displays a vindictiveness toward the enemies of Israel that has more of the spirit of the imprecatory psalms than the spirit of Jesus. He thinks of Jesus as a king and judge bestowing heavenly rewards upon the martyrs in a manner quite inconsistent with his rebuke of James and John (Mark x. 40). It is a far cry indeed from this to apostleship and personal intimacy with Jesus.

The chief value of Revelation to the student of Christian origins is that by means of its clearly determinable date (Ephesus, 93-95) he can place himself at a point of vantage whence to look not only around him at the conditions of the Pauline churches as depicted in the letters, vexed with growing Gnostic heresy and moral laxity, but also both backward and forward. The backward glance shows Palestine emerging from the horrors of the Jewish war, filled with bitterness against Rome, held down under hateful tyranny and longing for vengeance upon the despot with his "names of blasphemy" and his demands of worship for "the image of the beast" (emperor-worship). Here Jewish apocalyptic (as in 2nd Esdras) and Christian 'prophecy' are closely in accord. Indeed a considerable part of the material of Rev. iv. – xxi., especially in chh. xi. – xii. is ultimately of Jewish rather than Christian origin. What the development of Christian 'prophecy' was in Palestine from apostolic times until the scattering of the church of "the apostles and elders" after the war of Bar Cocheba (135), we can only infer from the kindred Jewish apocalypses and the chiliastic "traditions of the Elders" quoted by Irenæus from Papias. A forward look from our vantage point in Ephesus c. a.d. 95, shows the effects of the Palestinian importation extending down from generation to generation, first in the long chiliastic controversy against the Doketic Gnostics, including Montanist 'prophecy'; secondly, in the growth of a claim to apostolic succession from John.

(1) In the chiliastic controversy for a century the chief bones of contention are the (non-Pauline) doctrine of the resurrection of the flesh (so the Apostles' Creed and the second-century fathers), and that of a visible reign of Christ for a thousand years in Jerusalem. The new form of resurrection-gospel which at about this time begins to take the place of the apostolic of 1st Cor. xv. 3-11, centering upon the emptiness of the sepulchre and the tangibility and food-consuming functions of Jesus' resurrection body, instead of the "manifestations" to the apostles, is characteristic of this struggle against the Greek disposition to spiritualize. Luke and Ignatius represent the attitude of the orthodox, Ignatius' opponents that of those who denied that Jesus was "in the flesh after his resurrection." Revelation, like the "traditions of the Elders," champions the visible kingdom of Messiah in Jerusalem.

(2) In the effort for apostolic authority the writings which came ultimately to represent Asian orthodoxy have all been brought under the name and authority of the Apostle John, although for many decades after the appearance of Revelation, Paul, and not John, remains the apostolic authority to which appeal is made, and although the writings themselves were originally anonymous. There was, indeed, a contributory cause for the growth of this tradition in the accidental circumstance that a Palestinian Elder from whom Papias derived indirect, and Polycarp in all probability direct, traditions, bore also the name of John, and survived until a. d. 117. Still, the main reason why this particular apostolic name was ultimately placed over the Gospel and Epistles of Ephesian Christendom, can only have been its previous adoption to cover the compilation of Palestinian 'prophecies' of a. d. 95.