THE
ARGUMENT
OF S. JOHNS GHOSPEL
S. Johns Ghospel may be devided into foure partes.
The first part is, of the Actes of Christ before his solemne manifestation of himselfe, while John Baptist was yet baptizing: Chap. 1. 2. 3. 4.
The second, of his Actes in Jurie (having now begunne his solemne manifestation in Galilee, Mat. 4, 12.) the second Easter or Pasche of his preaching: Chap. 5. For of the first Pasche, we had in the first part. chap. 2, 13: And the Pasche of * This speach very common in this Ghospel, as appeareth by the places here marked, declareth that he writeth to the Gentils.* the Jewes was at hand. And that feast whereof we have in this second part, chap. 5, 1: After this there was a festival day of Iren. li. 2. c. 39.* the Jewes, is thought of good Authours, to be the feast of Pasche.
The third part is, of his Actes in Galilee, and in Jurie, about the third Pasche, and after it: chap. 6, to the 12. For so we have chap. 6, 4: And Pasche the festival day of * the Jewes was at hand.
The fourth part is of the fourth Pasche (which we have in the end of the chap. 11, 55: And the Pasche of * the Jewes was at hand) that is to say, of the Holy weeke of his Passion in Hierusalem: chap. 12. unto the end of the booke.
By which division it is manifest, that the intent of this Evangelist writing after the other three, was, to omit the Actes of Christ in Galilee, because the other three had written them at large: and to report his Actes done in Jurie, which they had omitted.
And this he doth, because Jurie with Hierusalem and the Temple, beeing the principal part of the Country, there abode the principal of the Jewes, both for authoritie, and also for learning in the law or knowledge of the Scriptures, and therfore that was the place, where our Lord Jesus finding in the Head it selfe and in the leaders of the rest, such wilful obstinacie and desperate resistance, as the Prophets had foretold, did by this occasion, much more plainely then in Galilee, both say and prove, at sundry times, even every yeare of his preaching, himselfe to be the Christ that had beene so long promised unto them, and expected of them: and the same Christ to be not only a man, as they imagined, but also the natural, consubstantial, and coeternal Sonne of God the Father, who now had sent him. Therfore these were the wordes and deedes that served best the purpose of this Evangelist, being to shew the glorie and excellencie of this person Jesus: that thereby the Gentils might see how worthily Hierusaleme and the Jewes were reprobated who had refused yea and crucified such an one: and how wel and to their owne salvation themselves might doe, to receive him and to beleeve in him. For this to have beene his purpose, himselfe declareth in the end, saying: Jo. 20, 31.These are written, that you may beleeve that Jesus is Christ the Sonne of God: and that beleeving, you may have life in his name.
And hereupon it is, that S. Hierome writeth thus in his life: Hier. in Catal.John the Apostle, a Io. 21, 20.a whom Jesus loved very much, the b Mat. 4, 21.b sonne of Zebedee, b the brother of James the Apostle c Act. 12, 2.c whom Herod after our Lords Passion beheaded, last of al wrote the Ghospel, at the request of the Bishops of Asia, against Cerinthus, and other Heretikes, and specially against the
