8. THE AUTHOR NOT THE APOSTLE JOHN.

As we cannot ascribe the Gospel to the Apostle John, it is still possible that he may have written the Apocalypse (in i. 1, 4 the author calls himself John and a servant of Christ; in xxii. 9 a prophet). But, in that case we may be sure he would not call Jesus, exactly as if he were God, the Alpha and Omega, that is to say, as is expressly explained, the first 229and the last (literally the first and last letter of the Greek Alphabet; see xxii. 13; i. 17; ii. 8, just as in i. 8; xxi. 6), nor describe him as the first link of God’s creation, if not as the author of God’s creation (iii. 14). We found such expressions in the Fourth Gospel, but not in the Synoptics. And how can a personal disciple of Jesus imagine him in heaven as a lamb with seven horns and seven eyes, “standing as though it had been slain,” and then taking a book from the hand of God and breaking its seals (v. 6-9; vi. 1), or conceive of him as he is described in i. 13-16? But even if he took such sections as these from another book and incorporated them in his own, we might expect that expression would be given at the same time to his own recollection of the life of Jesus. And yet almost the only case in which this is done is in the statement that Jesus is “the true witness” (i. 5; iii. 14), and we cannot be sure that this does not mean that Jesus is now testifying in heaven that what is prophesied in the Apocalypse is true (such is the idea in i. 2). We need only add that according to xxi. 14 the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb, that is to say, of Christ, are written on the twelve foundation-stones of the walls of the heavenly Jerusalem. Had one of these same apostles written this or even merely incorporated it in his book, we should be obliged to regard it in the same way as the title, “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” if by this the Fourth Evangelist meant himself (pp. 179-181).