21. MENTION OF BAR COCHBA S INSURRECTION IN JN. v. 43 201.

Let us now return to a consideration of the Gospel itself, and ask whether we cannot really get the best information as to the date at which it was composed in the same way 201that we have obtained it in considering the questions who was its author, and whether the work is reliable. Here then our attention is arrested by Jesus’ words to the Jews in v. 43, “I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.” In the year 132 Simon, having taken the name Bar Cochba, came forward, proclaimed himself the Messiah, and became among the Jews the leader of a fanatical rising against the Roman rule, with the result that in the year 135 the Jewish nation finally lost its in dependence. The Christians, as we can well understand, declared against the new Messiah from the first, and in consequence were fiercely persecuted so long as he retained any power. If the Fourth Evangelist had had experience of all this, may he not have thought that it would be under stood and would make an impression if he put into Jesus mouth a prophecy of these events? In that case he would have written between 132 and 140. If it had not been that for other reasons we have already been led to assign the composition of his book to about this date, we might not have had the boldness to appeal to this passage; but, such being the case, we seem to be really justified in doing so.