o
the context &c., not very successfully. But such enquiry is really
out of place. When the writer of the Epistle says, 'Christians
dwell in the world but are not of the world' [Greek: ouk xisi de
ek tou kosmou] = exactly John xvii. 14; note peculiar use of the
preposition); 'For God loved men for whose sakes He made the world
... unto whom He sent His only begotten Son' (= John iii. 16, 'God
so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son'); 'How will
you love Him who so beforehand loved you' [Greek: proagapaesanta];
cf. i John iv. 19, [Greek: protos aegapaesen] 'He sent His Son as
wishing to save ... and not to condemn' ([Greek: sozon ... krinon]
of. John iii. 16),--the probability is about as great that he had
in his mind St. John's language as it would be if the same phrases
were to occur in a modern sermon. It is a real probability; but
not one that can be urged very strongly.

* * * * *

Of more importance--indeed of high importance--is the evidence
drawn from the remains of earlier writers preserved by Irenaeus
and Hippolytus. There is a clear reference to the fourth Gospel in
a passage for which Irenaeus alleges the authority of certain
'Presbyters,' who at the least belonged to an elder generation
than his own. There can be little doubt indeed that they are the
same as those whom he describes three sentences later and with
only a momentary break in the oblique narration into which the
passage is thrown, as 'the Presbyters, disciples of the Apostles.'
It may be well to give the language of Irenaeus in full as it has
been the subject of some controversy. Speaking of the rewards of
the just in the next world, he says [Endnote 297:1]:--

'For Esaias says, "Like as the new heaven and new earth which I
create remain before me, saith the Lord, so your seed and your
name shall stand." And as the Presbyters say, then too those who
are thought worthy to have their abode in Heaven shall go thither,
and some shall enjoy the delights of Paradise, while others shall
possess the splendour of the City; for everywhere the Saviour
shall be seen according as they shall be worthy who look upon Him.
[So far the sentence has been in oratio recta, but here it becomes
oblique.] And [they say] that there is this distinction in
dwelling between those who bear fruit an hundred fold and those
who bear sixty and those who bear thirty, some of whom shall be
carried off into the Heavens, some shall s