Baptist's testimony may be said to end here. But there is an appeal to it later on in the section describing the close of his mission, where, after negation and antithesis-"I am not the Christ, I am his messenger"; "he, the bridegroom, must increase but I, the bridegroom's friend, must decrease "-there follows a remarkable instance of twofold repetition, "He that cometh from above is above all. He that is from the earth, from the earth he is, and from the earth he speaketh: he that cometh from the heaven is above all1."

§ 8. Twofold repetition in Christ's words

[2603] In Christ's words, the twofold repetitions are for the most part confined to negative or comparatively rudimentary doctrine. The earliest of any importance is expressly said to refer to "earth." It describes the necessity of something more than mere baptism by water, iii. 3 "Except a man be born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God," iii. 5 "Except a man be born from water and the Spirit (2573, 2612) he cannot enter into the kingdom of God"-concerning which statements and their context Jesus says, "If I told you earthly things and ye believe not, how will ye believe if I tell you heavenly things?" Another twofold protest in behalf of "the spirit" is in iv. 23-4, "the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth...they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth." The following refers to the resurrection, v. 25-8 "the hour cometh and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that shall have heard shall live...the hour cometh when all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice and shall go forth."

[2604] The belief in Christ for His works' sake, being regarded in this Gospel as rudimentary, is naturally made the subject of twofold. repetition, v. 36 "for the works that the Father hath given me that I may accomplish them, the very works that I do, bear witness concerning me," compared with x. 25 "the works that I do in the name of my Father, these bear witness concerning me." As regards the reduplication in xiv. 13-14 "Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name this will I do...if ye shall ask [me] anything in my name this will I do," it may be intended as a preparation for a further doctrine in xv. 16"that whatsoever ye may ask the Father in my name he may 2 ii. 23, xiv. 11.

1 iii. 28-31.

give it to you,” and xvi. 23—4 "If ye ask the Father anything he

will give it to you in my name.

Hitherto ye have asked nothing in

my name. Ask and ye shall receive1."

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[2605] Further instances of twofold negative repetition, in Christ's words, occur as follows: v. 19, 30 "The Son can do, from himself, nothing," "I can do, from myself, nothing"; v. 30, vi. 38 "I seek not mine own will but the will of him that sent me," not that I may do mine own will but the will of him that sent me"; v. 34, 41 “But I receive not my witness from man," "I receive not glory from man,” vii. 6, 8 "My time (kapós) is not yet present," "My time is not yet fulfilled." The effect of a twofold repetition is produced both in vii. 34-6 and in viii. 21-2 because Christ first says, and the Jews then repeat, "Where I (y) am (or, go) ye (vueîs) cannot come." Later on, Christ repeats the second of these sayings to the disciples, xiii. 33 "Ye shall seek me3, and even as I said to the Jews, 'Where I (¿yú) go, ye (viμcîs) cannot come '-to you also I say it now (apri).” Then, to Peter, He drops the emphatic pronouns, saying xiii. 36 "Where I go, thou canst not follow me for the present." All this implies that what had been said to the Jews in one sense is repeated to the disciples in another, which is explained to Peter. The following is an utterance of mere condemnation, x. 25-6 “I told you and ye believe not......But ye believe not because ye are not of my sheep'."

1 [2604 a] It might be urged that the twofold use (xii. 23, xvii. 1) of EXHλder ʼn pa announcing that the time has come for the sacrifice and for the "glorifying," is to be contrasted with the sevenfold use (2625) of EpxeTaι

pa referring to the time when the sacrifice shall have been consummated in victory. But a closer examination shews that Epxerai and éλýλvev are combined with @pa in the description of the bitterest trial of all, which is to leave Christ deserted and "alone," yet "not alone," xvi. 32 ¿doù ëрxeтai ŵpa kai ἐλήλυθεν, closely followed by xvii. 1 Πάτερ, ἐλήλυθεν ἡ ὥρα, δόξασόν σου τὸν υἱόν. Hence the more probable view is that eλýλu@ev ʼn pa is used thrice as referring to (2589) a holy matter."

2 [2605 a] Note the emphasis laid on ovdév by its position at the end of the clause or sentence, ποιεῖν ἀφ' ἑαυτοῦ οὐδέν, ποιεῖν ἀπ ̓ ἐμαυτοῦ οὐδέν. The saying is repeated, without dúvaμai, in viii. 28 àπ' ¿μavтoû roɩŵ ovdév, “from myself I do nothing."

3 [26056] To the Jews Christ had said, viii. 21 “Ye shall seek me and in your sin ye shall die." The disciples were to "seek" Jesus, after His departure, but in a different way (2545).

[2605] It may be added that Christ twice says to the soldiers arresting Him (xviii. 4, 7) “ Whom seek ye?" On this, and on its possible relations with other sayings about "seeking," see 2649 d-e.

A. VI.

449

29

[2606] In Christ's words, the pleonastic repetition of a noun or verb may sometimes be sufficiently explained by the desire of emphasis as in x. 32 " Many deeds have I shewn unto you [and those] good... For which deed of [all] those do ye stone me?" The verb is clearly emphatic in vi. 63 "The words that I have spoken unto you— spirit they are and life they are (πνεῦμά ἐστιν καὶ ζωή ἐστιν),” Χ. 10 "that they may have life and abundantly may have [it]." It is interesting and probably we are intended-to compare Christ's words, x. 18 "Authority have I to lay it [i.e. my life] down and authority have I again to take it," with Pilate's words, xix. 10 "authority have I to acquit thee and authority have I to crucify". in view of (1593-4) the two different views of "authority" here contrasted. There is no pleonasm in the following, but the repetition of the noun (instead of using a pronoun) adds weight: iii. 20 "hateth the light and cometh not to the light," iv. 14 "whosoever shall drink of the water that I shall give him.....but the water that I shall give him shall become...," xii. 47 "for I came not that I might judge the world but that I might save the world," with which compare iii. 17 "For God sent not the Son into the world that he might judge the world but that the world might be saved through him." In the last two or three instances mystical meaning may be intended.

$9. Twofold repetition in narrative

[2607] Twofold repetition in narrative may occasionally be intended to emphasize a disputed or doubtful fact, as in the Anointing, where some said that Christ's head was anointed but John says xii. 3 "She anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped with her hair his feet.” Emphasis is also laid on the piercing of Christ's side by a "soldier” thus, xix. 32 "There came therefore the soldiers...but, having come to Jesus...they brake not his legs but one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side." Or it may be used for clearness after a parenthesis as in ii. 9 "But when the master of the feast had tasted...the master

1 [2606 α] In xii. 49 ἐντολὴν δέδωκεν τί εἴπω καὶ τί λαλήσω, the meaning seems to be, "what I should say [particularly, on each occasion] and what I should speak [generally, in proclaiming the Gospel]." Weight is added by the pleonastic repetition of ri, as well as by the two verbs. Comp. Rom. iii. 19 őσa ó vóμos Xéyel τοῖς ἐν τῷ νόμῳ λαλεῖ, “whatsoever the Law says on any particular occasion it invariably proclaims to those who are in the pale of the Law."

2 Mk xiv. 3, Mt. xxvi. 7.

of the feast calleth," or in scorn as in vii. 35 "Will he go to the scattered people of the Greeks and teach the Greeks?" It is manifestly emphatic in ii. 25 "he needed not that any should testify about the [nature of] man, for he knew of himself what was in the [nature of] man," and in the words of Thomas xx. 25 "and [unless] I put my finger...and put my hand." There is a twofold repetition in i. 20 "He confessed and denied not and confessed," and probably a pair of twofold repetitions with slight variations, in xix. 35 “And he that hath seen hath borne witness (μeμaprúpŋkev) and real-and-true (λnown) is his witness (paprvpía), and he knoweth that he saith true (ἀληθῆ)." But on the whole the evangelist's tendency to twofold repetition appears not so much in words as in the insistence on parallelism in events, which is discussed later on (2646-9).

$10. Twofold or threefold repetition

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[2608] In Christ's words, there occurs the twice repeated statement (x. 11, 14) "I am the good shepherd." This describes a condition of conflict intended to prepare the way for victory-the shepherd contending against the wolf-and may be read as a twofold repetition or attestation. But the addition of (x. 11) "the good shepherd layeth down his life for the sheep" suggests a threefold repetition of "the good shepherd," as a separate phrase, implying a reference to the sacrifice of Christ, which would be regarded as (2588-9) "a holy matter," to be triply attested. So, too, the triple mention of the vine in xv. 1-5 "I am the true vine...if any man abide not in the vine...I am the vine”—these being the only instances of "vine" in the Fourth Gospel-suggests a triple attestation. And, if this is so with "good shepherd" and "vine," it is probably true about x. 2-9 "But he that entereth through the door...I am the door of the sheep...I am the door" and we are to regard the only other mention of "door" (in Christ's words) in this Gospel ("he that entereth not through the door...is a thief and a robber") as a negation, serving as a foil to a threefold attestation. With these must be compared the duality of viii. 12 ἐγώ εἰμι τὸ φῶς τ. κόσμου, ix. 5 φῶς εἰμὶ τ. κόσμου supplemented by xii. 46 ἐγὼ φῶς εἰς τ. κόσμον λλva, and that of vi. 35, 48 "I am the bread of life," supplemented by vi. 51 "I am the bread that liveth."

[2609] The same possibility of various interpretation occurs in xii. 45 "he that beholdeth me beholdeth him that sent me." This, if

taken with xiii. 20 "he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me," would suggest a twofold statement that the vision, and the reception, of the Messenger on earth, are to prepare the way for a vision, and a reception, of the Sender in heaven; but if the two are combined with xiv. 9" He that hath seen me hath seen the Father"-the three passages suggest a threefold attestation. So, too, the command "Love one another" would be a twofold repetition if taken merely in xiii. 34 "A new command I give you that ye love one another even as I loved you that ye also love one another"; but it is probably to be taken as repeated a third time in xv. 12 "This is the commandment that is [peculiarly] my own that ye love one another even as I loved you" (see also 2612). On the other hand the statements xiv. 15, 23 “If ye love me ye will keep my commandments,” “If a man love me he will keep my word," are rudimentary and repeated only twice1.

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[2610] In the Epistle, duality characterizes the passages that deal with earthly testimony. We may give the name dual "-or quadruple" but certainly not "triple"-to the attestation with which the Epistle opens, i. 1 "That which we have heard, that which we have seen (éwpákaμev) with our eyes," followed by (ib.) "That which we gazed on (éleaσáμeða) and our hands handled." Similarly ii. 12-13, containing a solemn testimony to all classes in the

1 [2609 a] 'Avioτnu (trans.) occurs four times in Jn thus, vi. 39 ȧvaorńow avrò T. ÉσXάτη ημéра-where auró refers to the Church ("all that thou hast given me”), 40 ἀναστήσω αὐτὸν ἐγὼ τ. ἐ. ἡ., 44 κἀγὼ ἀναστήσω αὐτὸν ἐν τ. ἐ. ἡ., 54 κἀγὼ ἀναστήσω αὐτὸν τ. έ. ἡ. Here some may say that the language is a varied refrain four times repeated, others that it is first a promise of resurrection to the whole Church, and then a thrice repeated promise to individual believers. The emphasis on "I" in the last three sentences, and the sing. "him," differentiate these three from the first sentence.

[2609 ] In the following three clauses, describing Christ's legacy of “peace” (xiv. 27), the word "peace" is twice actually repeated, and a third repetition is suggested. In the first clause it is simply "peace," in the second “my peace.” In the first clause the action is described as "leaving"; in the second, as “giving"; in the third, as “giving not as the world giveth"; and it is no longer ôídwu "I-give," but èyà ôldwμ “I give." It would be contrary to all rules of literature and good taste-and, we may almost say, of morality-to suppose that the writer deliberately wrote the sentence according to numerical canons. But the passage is one of the most beautiful instances of inspiration working under rule -like the rule of poetic metre for a true poet-rule that gives life and force and harmony to expression: "Peace I leave (åpínμ) unto you; the peace that is mine I-give (didw) unto you; not as the world giveth give I (¿yw dldwμ) unto you."