ow to
introduce an allusion to the rite of pouring forth water from the pool
at Siloam at the Feast of Tabernacles (vii. 37).

The only important argument which can be urged against the author
having been a Jew is that founded on the use of the phrase "the Jews,"
which is said to imply that the writer was not a Jew. Now, in some
passages (as vii. 1), "the Jews" may mean the inhabitants of Judaea, as
distinct from those of Galilee, and such passages are therefore
indecisive. But in other passages the phrase "the Jews" does not admit
this interpretation, and is used with a decided suggestion of dislike.
But when we remember the bitter hostility which the Jews soon
manifested towards the Christians, and remember that in Asia Minor this
hostility was active, the phrase presents no real difficulty. St. Paul
was proud to reckon himself a Jew, but long before the Jews had shown
their full antagonism to Christianity, St. Paul spoke of "the Jews" (1
Thess. ii. 14-16) with the same condemnation as the writer of the
fourth Gospel.

The only important arguments in favour of the author having absorbed
Gnostic views are drawn: (1) _From the alleged Dualism of the Gospel_.
In theology the word Dualism signifies the doctrine that the world is
not only the battle-ground of two opposing forces, one good and the
other evil, but also that the material world is itself essentially
evil. Such was the doctrine of the great Gnostic sects of the 2nd
century. But this Gospel, in spite of the strong contrast which it
draws between God and the world, light and darkness, is not Dualist.
It teaches that there is one God, that the world was made by the Word
who is God, that this Word was made flesh and came to save the world.
In thus teaching that the material world was made by the good God, and
that God took a material human body, this Gospel opposes the
fundamental tenet of Gnostic Dualism. (2) _From the alleged
condemnation of the Jewish prophets by Christ in x. 8_. Other passages
make it perfectly plain that this is not a condemnation of the Jewish
prophets, but of any religious pretenders who claimed divine authority.
In this Gospel an appeal is made to Moses (v. 46), to Abraham (viii.
56), to Isaiah {91} (xii. 41), and, what is most remarkable of all, our
Lord says, "Salvation is of the Jews," _i.e._ the knowledge and the
origin of religious truth came from the Jews. The Jewish Scriptures
are ratified (v. 39; x. 35). It is impossibl