John 21:24 This is the disciple which testifies of these things, and wrote these things: and we know that his testimony is true. That the last two verses of this Gospel are not the composition of the evangelist whose name it bears is plain enough. But it is almost equally plain that this fact does not detract from their value, but, all things considered, rather adds to it. I. IT IS EVIDENT THAT THIS GOSPEL WAS KNOWN TO THE CONTEMPORARIES OF THE APOSTLE JOHN. Whoever wrote these supplementary sentences, this appendix to the treatise, it is clear that the treatise itself was in his hands, and that he added his witness in the earliest age, and in all likelihood while the aged John was still living. II. JOHN HIMSELF WAS KNOWN BY THE WRITER OF THIS APPENDIX TO BE THE AUTHOR OF THE GOSPEL. No one who is unprejudiced can suppose that this addition was made long after the writer was dead, and longer still after the death of the great Subject of the memoir. We have not here the record of an opinion; it is not the case of an anonymous Christian giving expression to his judgment that, as a matter of criticism, John was probably the author of the Gospel. "We know," he says - speaking for others as well as for himself - "that his [the beloved disciple's] testimony is true." They had doubtless heard many of the contents of the book from the lips of John himself, and they had doubtless heard the aged apostle acknowledge the authorship. III. THE VERSE CONTAINS A GUARANTEE OF THE VERACITY OF JOHN. In stating that they knew that John's testimony was true, the guarantors and attestors must have been deliberately laying claim to independent sources of information. What more reasonable than to believe that they had seen and listened to some who had been witnesses of the Lord's death and of his resurrection-life? They may not only have entertained other apostles at Ephesus; they may have visited Jerusalem, and have seen those who in their youth had seen the Lord. In many ways they may have satisfied themselves that the records of John were not "cunningly devised fables;" that he had spoken what his eyes had seen and his ears had heard of the Word of life. IV. THE WITNESS THUS BORNE TO THE GOSPEL CONFIRMS ITS CLAIM UPON OUR REVERENT ATTENTION AND FAITH. This was the intention with which the appendix was added. And as the interest and value of the document center in the Being to whom it mainly relates, we may justly acknowledge that we are under a moral obligation to study the testimony borne. The Gospel of John is to be treated as an ordinary book in so far that its acceptance as credible depends upon evidence of an appropriate and convincing character. But its contents are far from ordinary; they are so extraordinary that it is reasonable and right for the reader to look for a valid foundation for his credence. And inasmuch as the manifest purpose, the professed purpose, for which the Gospel was written was to produce faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall only receive the testimony of this unnamed but credible and veracious attestor so as to secure our highest enlightenment and welfare, if we are convinced that Jesus Christ is indeed the Son of God and the Savior of mankind. Even assent to historical truth is insufficient; for this is the means to an end, and that end is "saving faith." - T. Parallel Verses KJV: This is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things: and we know that his testimony is true. |
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