in part at least, because he judged that a sufficient account of them had been given by the earlier evangelists, of whose writings, when we consider the time that in all probability intervened between their composition and that of his gospel, we cannot suppose him to have been ignorant.  Such a reference to these writings does not in any way exclude the general design which he had, in common with the earlier evangelists, to show “that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,” through faith in whose name eternal life is received.

Ancient tradition represents, in a variety of forms, that John intended to complete the evangelical history, as given by the other evangelists, in the way of furnishing additional events and discourses omitted by them.  The citations may be seen in Davidson’s Introduct. to New Test., vol. 1, pp. 320-22.  Though the statements of the fathers on this point cannot be accepted without qualification, there is no valid ground for denying the general reference above assumed.

36.  In writing his gospel John had not a polemical, but a general end in view.  It was not his immediate aim to refute the errors and heresies of his day; but, as he tells us, to show that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, in order that men, through faith in his name, may have eternal life.  Yet, like every wise and practical writer, he must have had regard to the state of the churches in his day and the forms of error by which they were assailed.  In the latter part of the apostolic age the seeds of those heresies which in the following century yielded such a rank and poisonous harvest, had already begun to be sown.  Like all the heresies which have troubled the Christian church to the present day, they consisted essentially in false views respecting our Saviour’s person and office.  The beloved disciple who followed Jesus through the whole of his ministry and leaned on his bosom at the last supper, has given us an authentic record of the Redeemer’s words and works, in which, as in a bright untarnished mirror, we see both the divine dignity of his person and the true nature of his office as the Redeemer of the world.  Such a record was especially adapted to refute the errors of his day, as it is those of the present day.  It is preeminently the gospel of our Lord’s person.  It opens with an account of his divine nature and eternal coexistence with the Father; his general office as the creator of all things, and the source of light and life to all men and his special office as “the word made flesh,” whom the Father sent for the salvation of the world, and by whom alone the Father is revealed to men.  Equality with the Father in nature, subordination to the Father in office, union with human nature in the work of redeeming and judging men, and in all these perfect union with the Father in counsel and will—­such are the great doctrines that run through our Lord’s discussions with the unbelieving Jews, as recorded by this evangelist.  In the