THE AGES DIGITAL LIBRARY REFERENCE CYCLOPEDIA of BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL and ECCLESIASTICAL LITERATURE John - Juxon, William by James Strong & John McClintock To the Students of the Words, Works and Ways of God: Welcome to the AGES Digital Library. We trust your experience with this and other volumes in the Library fulfills our motto and vision which is our commitment to you: MAKING THE WORDS OF THE WISE AVAILABLE TO ALL — INEXPENSIVELY. AGES Software Rio, WI USA Version 1.0 © 2000 2 John (Ijwa>nnh, the Greek form of Jehohanan; comp. Josephus, Ant. 8, 15, 2), a common name among the Jews after the captivity. I. In the Apocrypha the following occur under this rendering in the A.V.: 1. The father of Matathias, of the Maccabean family (1 Macc. 2:1). SEE MACCABEES. 2. The son of Accos, and father of Eupolemus, which latter was one of the envoys sent by Judas Maccabaeus to Rome (1 Macc. 8:17; 2 Macc. 4:11). 3. Surnamed Caddis (q.v.), the eldest son of the same Matathias, and one of the Maccabean brothers (1 Macc. 2:2, Johanan; less correctly Joseph in 2 Macc. 8:22). He had been sent by his brother Jonathan on a message to the Nabathaeans, when he was taken prisoner by “the children of Jambri” (q.v.), from Medeba, and appears to have been put to death by them (1 Macc. 9:35, 36, 38) 4. One of the persons sent by the Jews with a petition to the Syrian general Lysias (2 Macc. 11:17). 5. The son of Simon Maccabaeus (1 Macc. 13:53; 16:1, 2, 9, 19, 21, 23), better known by the epithet HYRCANUS SEE HYRCANUS (q.v.). II. In the New Testament the following are all that are mentioned, besides JOHN THE APOSTLE and JOHN THE BAPTIST, who are noticed separately below: 1. One of the high priest’s family, who, with Annas and Caiaphas, sat in judgment upon the apostles Peter and John for their cure of the lame man and preaching in the Temple (<440406>Acts 4:6), A.D. 29. Lightfoot identifies him with R. Johanan Ben-Zachai, who lived forty years before the destruction of the Temple, and was president of the great synagogue after its removal to Jabne, or Jamnia (Lightfoot, Cent. Chor. Matth. praef. ch. 15; see also Selden, De Synedriis, 2, ch. 15). Grotius merely says he was known to Rabbinical writers as “John the priest” (Comm. in Act. 4). — Smith. 2. The Hebrew name of the evangelist MARK SEE MARK (q.v.), who throughout the narrative of the Acts is designated by the name by which he was known among his countrymen (<441212>Acts 12:12, 25; 13:5, 13; 15:37). 3 III. In Josephus the following are the most noteworthy of this name, besides the above and JOHN OF GISCHALA, whom we notice separately below: 1. A high priest (son of Judas, and grandson of Eliashib), who slew his brother Jesus in the Temple, thereby provoking the vengeance of Bagoses, the Persian viceroy under Artaxerxes (Ant. 11, 7, 1). He corresponds to the Jonathan (q.v.), son of Joiada, of <161210>Nehemiah 12:10, 11. SEE HIGH PRIEST. 2. Son of Dorcas, sent by the Sicarii with ten executioners to murder the persons taken into custody by John of Gischala on his arrival in Jerusalem (Josephus, War, 4, 3, 5). 3. Son of Sosas, one of the four popular generals of the Idumaeans who marched to Jerusalem in aid of the zealots at the instance of John of Gischala (Josephus. War, 4, 4, 2). He was possibly the same with John the Essene, spoken of as commander of the toparchy of Shamma at an earlier stage of the war (ib. 2, 20, 4; comp. 3, 2, 1). He was mortally wounded by a dart during the final siege (ib. 5, 6, 5). John the Apostle (Ijwa>nnhv) the Apostle, and brother of the apostle James “the greater” (<400421>Matthew 4:21; 10:2; <410119>Mark 1:19; 3:17; 10:35; <420510>Luke 5:10; 8:3; etc.). I. Personal History. — 1. Early Life. — It is probable that he was born at Bethsaida, on the Lake of Galilee. The general impression left on us by the Gospel narrative is that he was younger than the brother whose name commonly precedes his (<400421>Matthew 4:21; 10:3; 17:1, etc.; but compare <420928>Luke 9:28, where the order is inverted in most codices), younger than his friend Peter, possibly also than his Master. The life which was protracted to the time of Trajan (Eusebius, H.E. 3, 23, following Irenaeus) can hardly have begun before the year B.C. 4 of the Dionysian era. The Gospels give us the name of his father Zebedaeus (<400421>Matthew 4:21) and his mother Salome (comp. <402756>Matthew 27:56 with <411540>Mark 15:40; 16:1). Of the former we know nothing more. SEE ZEBEDEE. The traditions of the fourth century (Epiphan. 3, Hoer. 78) make the latter the daughter of Joseph by his first 4 wife, and consequently half sister to our Lord. By some recent critics she has been identified with the sister of Mary, the mother of Jesus, in <431925>John 19:25 (Wieseler, in Stud. u. Krit. 1840, p. 648). Ewald (Gesch. Israels, v. 171) adopts Wieseler’s conjecture, and connects it with his own hypothesis, that the sons of Zebedee, and our Lord, as well as the Baptist, were of the tribe of Levi. On the other hand, more sober critics, like Neander (Pflanz. u. Leit. p. 609 [4th ed.]) and Lücke (Johannes, 1, 9), reject both the tradition and the conjecture. SEE SALOME. They lived, it may be inferred from <430144>John 1:44, in or near the same town as those who were afterwards the companions and partners of their children. SEE BETHSAIDA. There, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, the apostle and his brother grew up. The mention of the “hired servants” (<410120>Mark 1:20), of his mother’s “substance” (ajpo< tw~n uJparco>ntwn, <420803>Luke 8:3), of “his own house” (ta< i]dia, <431927>John 19:27), implies a position removed by at least some steps from absolute poverty. The fact that the apostle was known to the high priest Caiaphas, as that knowledge was hardly likely to have begun after he had avowed himself the disciple of Jesus of Nazareth, suggests the probability of some early intimacy between the two men or their families. The name which the parents gave to their younger child was too common to serve as the ground of any special inference; but it deserves notice (1) that the name appears among the kindred of Caiaphas (<440406>Acts 4:6); (2) that it was given to a priestly child, the son of Zacharias (<420113>Luke 1:13), as the embodiment and symbol of Messianic hopes. The frequent occurrence of the name at this period, unconnected as it was with any of the great deeds of the old heroic days of Israel, is indeed in itself significant as a sign of that yearning and expectation which then characterized not only the more faithful and devout (<420225>Luke 2:25, 38), but the whole people. The prominence given to it by the wonders connected with the birth of the future Baptist may have imparted a meaning to it for the parents of the future evangelist which it would not otherwise have had. Of the character of Zebedeus we have hardly the slightest trace. He interposes no refusal when his sons are called on to leave him (<400421>Matthew 4:21). After this he disappears from the scene of the Gospel history, and we are led to infer that he had died before his wife followed her children in their work of ministration. Her character meets us as presenting the same marked features as those which were conspicuous in her son. From her, who followed Jesus and ministered to him of her substance (<420803>Luke 8:3), who sought for her two sons that they might sit, one on his right hand, the other on his left, in his kingdom (<402020>Matthew 20:20), he might well derive 5 his strong affections, his capacity for giving and receiving love, his eagerness for the speedy manifestation of the Messiah’s kingdom. The early years of the apostle we may believe to have passed under this influence. He would be trained in all that constituted the ordinary education of Jewish boyhood. Though not taught in the schools of Jerusalem, and therefore, in later life, liable to the reproach of having no recognized position as a teacher, no Rabbinical education (<440413>Acts 4:13), he would yet be taught to read the Law and observe its precepts, to feed on the writings of the prophets with the feeling that their accomplishment was not far off. 2. Incidents recorded of him in the New Testament. — The ordinary life of the fisherman of the Sea of Galilee was at last broken in upon by the news that a prophet had once more appeared. The voice of John the Baptist was heard in the wilderness of Judaea, and the publicans, peasants, soldiers, and fishermen of Galilee gathered round him. Among these were the two sons of Zebedaeus and their friends. With them perhaps was One whom as yet they knew not. They heard, it may be, of John’s protests against the vices of their own ruler — against the hypocrisy of Pharisees and Scribes.