discovered that Origen thrice assumes this to be the meaning (“inclinasse caput super gremium Patris"). Besides these two assumptions, the Johannine Grammar recognises one strong probability-namely, that the author was an honest man (a fact that some commentators hardly seem to recognise), writing indeed some seventy years or more after the Crucifixion, but still with some knowledge of what he wrote about, and with some sense of responsibility to those for whom he wrote. His Christian readers (I assume) had read earlier Gospels, which, if authoritative, an honest writer of a new Gospel was bound to take into account. For example, the Synoptists express themselves differently and somewhat obscurely as to the "authority" possessed by Christ and imparted by Him to the disciples. The meaning of true "authority" is of great moral importance, and much discussed by Epictetus. It is assumed as probable that John's teaching on this point was intended to elucidate that of the Synoptists. I venture to think that the Index to N.T. passages will supply something like a continuous commentary on the Fourth Gospel, and that the Index to Greek words will help the reader to compare Johannine, Synoptic, literary, and vernacular Greek. The English Index contains copious references to Origen, Nonnus, Chrysostom, Philo, and Epictetus, indicating lines of thought illustrative of the circumstances amid which the Gospel issued from its originator, was committed to writing by its author, and was interpreted by the earliest extant commentaries. Many of the grammatical details must of course be abstruse and unsuitable for any but Greek scholars. But an attempt has been made by translating literally many of the quotations, by comparing the Authorised with the Revised Version, and by illustrating Greek from English idiom-to make several interesting peculiarities of Johannine xi style intelligible to readers unacquainted with Greek literature except through, translations. In order to give easy access to all such oases in the classical desert, and a bird's-eye view of some of them, the English Index has been made very copious. It contains, for example, two columns on "Ambiguity." The reader will also find references to "Allusiveness,” "Emphasis," "Mysticism," "Narrowing Down," "Parenthesis," "Quotation," "Repetition," and "Self-correction." Many of these subjects will-I sincerely believe-be better understood by a student with little or no knowledge of Greek but much knowledge of literature, than by one case-hardened against intellectual interests by a long course of "the classical languages" unintelligently and unwillingly studied. For my "Notes on preceding Paragraphs" (2664–799) I am under great obligations to Professor Blass's Grammar of New Testament Greek, even where I have been led to differ from its conclusions'. To Dr Joseph B. Mayor, in whose works on the Epistle of St James and on Clement of Alexandria I have found rich stores of Greek learning, and to Dr W. Rhys Roberts, Professor of Greek at the University of Leeds, whose editions of Longinus, Dionysius, and Demetrius, are full of interesting and stimulative information on Greek style, I am indebted for correction of my proofs and for very useful criticisms and suggestions; nor must I omit brief but hearty thanks to the Cambridge University Press. Wellside Hampstead 20 Dec. 1905 EDWIN A. ABBOTT. 1 See note on p. xxvii. (iii) Explaining, or defining (not with Participle) (1931-6) (iv) With Participle (1937-45) |