11. Legends, Traditions, etc
FAVOURITE mode of bringing saints to their providential destination, in legends, is by means of shipwreck. According to one legend, John is cast on the shores of Ephesus in this way, and arrives just in time to check the heresies that sprang up after the final departure of Paul. Another legend tells of the Apostles agreeing together, before they parted to evangelize the world, on the symbol which they should teach in common—namely, what is now called “the Apostles’ Creed,” a clause being composed by each of the Twelve separately. John was detained at Jerusalem for a time in charge of the Lord’s mother; and after her death he bent his steps eastward to the Euphrates, to preach among the Parthians. Among them he laboured for a time, but finally he was led to Asia Minor, and came to Ephesus about the year 65.
The “History of John the Son of Zebedee, Apostle and Evangelist,”* tells with much minute and often grotesque detail, how, after the Lord’s ascension, the Apostles being full of the spirit of holiness, conferred together about preaching the Gospel among all nations, and then went forth to such countries
* Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles. Edited, from Syriac Manuscripts in the British Museum and other Libraries, by W. Wright, LL.D., Ph. D.
and regions as they were charged by the grace of God. John was led to the country of the Ephesians, where the head and power of idolatry were dominant. On his arrival he hired himself to a bath-keeper named Secundus, and fetched fagots for those who kindled the bath. After a time he spoke to Secundus about his Master in heaven, and gave an account of Him on to His ascension into heaven, so that Secundus became a believer. After this the Apostle was appointed to receive the incomings of the bath, and to have charge of it.
A wonderful story is told, how Menelaus, son of the procurator, sinning in spite of rebuke, was smitten by the angel of the Lord, at the word of the holy man, and died on the spot. At the command of the procurator, they seized John and stript him, to see what he had on; and when they had taken off his coat and worn-out shirt, they found a cross of wood suspended from his neck, which had four tongues of fire, and burned the hands of those who came near it. A great crowd being gathered together, with outcry and tumult, John begged the procurator to bid the crowd be silent, and then in the name of Jesus the Messiah he restored the young man to life. The consequence was that a great multitude believed, to the number of thirty-six thousand seven hundred and six. The very same night a baptistery was made in the theatre, twelve cubits in length, twelve cubits in breadth, and two-and-a-half cubits deep, and amidst many marvels, with angels present, and outspreading their wings, the procurator was baptized first, and then the nobles, and then the whole crowd, from the eighth hour of the night until the sun rose; and when it was morning they brought their children, and the holy man gave them baptism till the fifth hour. An equally marvellous story is told of the conversion and baptism of the priesthood of Artemis.
When Nero, the wicked king, heard of these things, he laid hold of John, drove him into exile, and passed sentence on the city that it should be laid waste. Believing men took counsel, and collected money, that John might be set at liberty, and sent ten men with it by ship to Rome. When they entered the city, the Lord sent an angel to Nero in a flame of fire, and bearing a sword, who smote the wicked king and took away his speech, so that he could only howl like a dog, and commanded him to send back to Ephesus the man whom he had cast into exile. Nero wrote an order accordingly, and they took the Apostle back, and he dwelt in a hut above the city.
After a long time, when the Apostles had planted the cross over the four quarters of the world, Peter and Paul came to Ephesus to see John. They entered Ephesus on a Monday, and for five days they continued persuading him to compose a Gospel, as had been done by Matthew, Mark, and Luke. On the Sunday, at night, at the time when our Lord arose from the grave, the Apostles slumbered and slept; but at that glorious time of the resurrection the Spirit of holiness descended, and the whole place was in a flame, and those who were awake awakened their fellows. Then John took paper and wrote his Gospel in one hour, and delivered it to Paul and Peter; and when the sun arose they went down to the house of prayer, and read it before the whole city, and prayed, and partook of the body and blood of the Lord Jesus. And the holy man sat in the hut summer and winter, until he was a hundred and twenty years of age, and there his Master buried him in that place, as Moses was buried on Mount Nebo. So much for the "History of John, the son of Zebedee, Apostle and Evangelist."
Among the sacred objects exhibited on great occasions in the church of S. Croce at Rome, is the cup in which the Apostle by command of Domitian the Emperor drank poison without receiving hurt; which being afterwards tasted by his attendants, they instantly fell down dead. Of this legend there are several versions.
Tertullian, who is rather apt to credit the marvellous, assuming the imprisonment of John at Rome in the time of Domitian, records a tradition to the effect that he was cast into a caldron of boiling oil, which had no power to hurt him. "Happy church" (of Rome), he exclaims, "to whom the Apostles poured forth their full teaching with their blood; where Peter is made equal in suffering to his Lord (*i. e.*, is crucified); where Paul is crowned with a death like the Baptist's; where the Apostle John, after being plunged into boiling oil, came forth unhurt, and was banished to the island." A fragment, wrongly ascribed to Polycarp, repeats the legend, "that the blessed John was cast into a caldron of boiling oil for the name of Christ." Jerome, founding on Tertullian, gives it at still greater length: "It is questioned in what manner the sons of Zebedee, James and John, drank the cup of martyrdom, when Scripture narrates the death of James only, beheaded by command of Herod, while John ended his days by a natural death. But if we read ecclesiastical histories, in which it is reported that he also was cast for martyrdom into a caldron of boiling oil, and then went forth an athlete to receive the crown of Christ, being immediately banished to the isle of Patmos, we shall see that in spirit he too failed not of martyrdom, and that he drank the cup of confession which the three young men in the fiery furnace also drank, although the persecutor did not shed his blood." In another passage, he makes this addition to the story, that the Apostle "came forth more sound and vigorous than when he was thrown in."
Another tradition (varying according to the teller) records that the elders of the Asiatic churches were gathered together at Ephesus, solemnly fasting, and laid before the Apostle the three Gospels already written, desiring to have his judgment respecting them. He said that the three Evangelists had written the truth, but that some things were omitted. He said also that it was necessary to speak of the Lord's divinity, lest some afterwards should deny it, thinking that He came only in the flesh. Then the elders requested that he would record those things which had been omitted by the others, and which he deemed of chiefest importance, which accordingly he did, breaking out, as if by sudden inspiration, with the utterance, "In the beginning was the Word," and so giving forth the Gospel which goes under his name.
In the "*Travels of S. John in Patmos*," professing to be written by one of his pupils named Prochorus, a different account is presented. The place of composition is not Ephesus, but Patmos, at a spot called *The Repose*, which is still held sacred. There the master is found by the pupil standing in prayer and rapt as in ecstasy. He bids Prochorus take pen and paper; the mountain is shaken by a flash of lightning and a peal of thunder; and then he dictates the whole Gospel from first to last to Prochorus, who writes sitting at his feet.*
Polycrates, bishop of Ephesus in the close of the second century, says that the Apostle carried a plate of gold on his forehead, as priest of Jesus Christ. The allusion is to Exod. xxviii. 36–38: “Thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, and grave upon it like the engravings of a signet, HOLINESS TO THE LORD; and thou shalt put it on a blue lace, that it may be upon the mitre; upon the forefront of the mitre it shall be; and it shall be upon Aaron’s forehead.” The probability is that the words of Polycrates were simply metaphorical—as when we read of receiving a white stone or eating of the hidden manna; and if so, we must not think of the Apostle as being arrayed like the Jewish high-priest, but only of his being from age, character, and apostleship, the foremost among those who were made kings and priests unto God. A similar metaphor at a later time represents Christ’s ministers as clothed “in the priestly garb of the Holy Ghost.”
The well-known story of Cerinthus and the bath comes to us only at third hand. Irenæus records it on the authority of some who heard it from Polycarp, one of John’s pupils. In a later edition of it (when dirt had become one of the badges of saintship), John’s visit to the bath is represented as quite unusual—his general life being that of one “who used neither bath nor oil, and ate no animal food.” The account given by Irenæus is, that the Apostle was one day entering the public bath at Ephesus, when he learned that the heretic Cerinthus was within. Immediately he sprang from the place, without having used the bath, exclaiming, “Let us flee, lest the house fall upon us, since
* When an attempt was made under the Emperor Julian to rebuild the Temple at Jerusalem, as the workmen were busy at the foundations, they lifted (it is said) a stone which covered the mouth of a cave, cut out square in the rock. On a pillar lay a book wrapt in clean fine linen, which being opened proved to be the Gospel of John, the first words writ large so as to attract attention—“*In the beginning was the Word.*” We are indebted for this legend to Philostorgius.
Cerinthus, the enemy of truth, is within." Jeremy Taylor pronounces this a good precedent for us, when the case is equal. St. John could discern the spirit of Cerinthus, whose heresy was fundamental, and the Apostle was a person assisted up to infallibility. "And possibly," he adds, "it was done by the whisper of a prophetic spirit and upon a miraculous design; *for immediately upon his retreat the bath fell down, and crushed Cerinthus in the ruins.*" More to the point is the bishop's counsel, that we should not quickly, nor upon slight grounds, nor unworthy instances, call heretic.
Two young men (another story runs), had sold all their possessions, to cast in their lot with the Apostle, but afterwards repented. Knowing their thoughts, he sent them to gather pebbles and faggots, which on their return he changed into golden ingots, saying to them, "Take back your riches and enjoy them on earth, since you regret having exchanged them for heaven."
A graceful little story is told by John Cassian,* a "hermit" of the fifth century, with no faculty of discrimination. Probably he picked it up from hearsay—as he introduces it with "*It is told.*" In his old age the Apostle used to find pleasure in the attachment of a bird which he had tamed—a partridge. One day, as he held it in his bosom and was gently stroking it, a huntsman suddenly approached, and wondering that one so illustrious should take to such a trivial amusement, he asked, "Art thou that John whose singular renown had inspired even me with a great desire to know thee? How then canst thou occupy thyself with an employment so humble?" The Apostle replied, "What is that in thy hand?" He answered, "A bow." "And why dost thou not always carry it bent?" "Because," he answered, "it would in that case lose its strength; and when it was necessary to shoot, it would fail from the too continuous strain." "Then let not this slight and brief relaxation of mine, O young man, perplex thee," answered the Apostle; "since without it the spirit would flag from the unremitted strain, and
* Collatio xxiv. chap. xxi., with a long note by the Benedictine Editor. The same story is told, with variations, about St. Anthony and many others.
fail when the call of duty came." One might add the well-known lines,—
"He prayeth best who loveth best
All things both great and small ;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all."
We are indebted to Clement of Alexandria for the story of John and the young robber. It is to this effect.
Visiting a town not far from Ephesus, and assembling with the brethren, he saw in the audience a young man, tall of stature and of noble countenance and ardent spirit. Addressing the pastor of the Church, he said : "I commit that young man to thy charge, and call Christ and the Church to witness that I do so." The pastor of the Church undertook, and for a time faithfully fulfilled, the charge. He instructed the young man in the faith, and by-and-by had the joy of receiving him into the Church. Subsequently however he somewhat relaxed his watchfulness, as having set upon him the seal of the Lord. In the meantime idle and worthless acquaintances took advantage of circumstances to lead him into temptation. First they enticed him to their sumptuous banquets. Then they induced him to go out with them, in the dark, on errands of plunder. Finally they make him accustomed to iniquity ; and having started from the right way, like a powerful and hard-mouthed horse that seizes the bit between its teeth, he was hurried into evil all the more violently through the energy of his nature. At length, believing salvation hopeless, he fully surrendered himself to evil, and became one of a company of brigands, of whom he was made the chief, being the most violent and fierce of all.
Some time after this, John revisited the city on some pressing emergency. When the special business was concluded, for which he had undertaken the journey, he turned to the pastor of the Church and said, "Restore me now the pledge which I with the Saviour entrusted to your charge in the presence of the Church." And when he saw that his words were not understood, he added, "I reclaim the young man whose soul I entrusted to thee." The pastor said, with tears, "He is dead." "How?" asked the Apostle : "what death did he die?" "He is dead to
God," was the answer; "for he has become evil and reprobate; he was forced to flee for his crimes, and he is now a brigand among our mountains."
Immediately the Apostle, obtaining a horse and guide, rode off even as he was to the robber hold, and falling into the hands of the sentinels, required to be led at once to their chief. But when John was led into his presence, he at once fled, overwhelmed with shame. John, forgetting his years, ran after him, calling him to stay, and exclaiming, "My son, why dost thou flee from thy father? I am feeble and advanced in age; have pity on me, my son; fear not. There is yet hope of salvation for thee. I will stand for thee before the Lord Christ. If need be, I will gladly die for thee, as He died for us. Stay; believe; it is Christ who has sent me."
The young man stood still, with eyes bent to the earth; then flung away the weapons with which he was armed; then trembled and wept; then threw himself into the embrace of the aged saint, and implored his pardon. The Apostle raised him up; assured him of forgiveness; prayed and fasted with him; and did not desist till he had fully restored him to the Church, a glorious testimony to the new birth, and a token of the hoped-for resurrection.
The story is at least in keeping with the social conditions which then existed, and is one of the most admirable illustrations to be met with of a shepherd going after the lost sheep until he finds it.
In his extreme old age, with every faculty becoming numb, when he could no longer walk to the place of Christian assembly, he caused himself to be borne thither, that he might address the brethren; and this was his whole address—"*Little children, love one another.*" The disciples and brethren, hearing nothing but this from him, asked him why he always spoke the same thing to them, and nothing else; to which he replied, *That it was the command of the Lord, and that if this only were done, enough was done.* The story is not unworthy the name of him who reported the charge of Jesus, "As I have loved you, that ye also love one another;" and who so largely taught "We have known and believed the love which God hath to us: God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him."
Many legends sprang up in course of time respecting his death. An "*Account of the Decease of S. John, Apostle and Evangelist,*"\* tells that on a Sunday, when the brethren were assembled, he addressed them, and then prayed and broke bread with thanksgiving, and stretched out his hand to them, praying for every man. Then he said to Byrrhus, "Take with thee two brethren, who have with them baskets and spades, and come after me;" and so Byrrhus did. John then walked forth, dismissing many from attending him, and came to the grave of a certain Christian brother, and said to the youths, "Dig, my sons;" and as they digged, he urged them, saying, "Let the trench be deep." Then he went on conversing and edifying those who were present, speaking to them of the majesty of the Messiah, and praying over each of them. When the trench was finished, he suddenly stripped off the garments which he wore, and cast them like bed-clothes into the bottom of the trench; and standing in his mantle only, he lifted up his hands and prayed to God, in many words—somewhat rhetorical—"Receive the soul of Thy John." Then he turned to the east and glorified God, standing full in the light, and said, "Be Thou with me, Jesus the Messiah our Lord." Then he went down into the trench, where he had spread his clothes, and saying, "Concord and peace be with you, my brethren," he rendered up his spirit, rejoicing.
During his life-time the saying went abroad among the brethren (claiming to rest on the express word of Jesus) that he was not to die, but to form one of the company who "are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord." If we bear in mind that many of the early Christians expected the world to end with that very generation, the currency of the "saying," will not appear extraordinary. Even his actual passing away, however, did not suffice to eradicate the belief that had sprung up. Wild assertions in course of time were hazarded; such as, that
\* *Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles.* Edited by Dr. William Wright.
his remains, though sought for, could not be found. Augustine tells of persons in his day who professed to have witnessed the gentle heaving of the turf where he lay, asleep, but not dead, at Ephesus. The notion that he was still alive became almost an article of popular faith in the middle ages (not unlike the legend of the Wandering Jew), and in some quarters lingered even later. The English sect of "*Seekers*," under Cromwell, expected his reappearance as the forerunner of Christ's glorious return. A trace of the notion is still partially visible in the Feast of the Translation of the Body of S. John, observed in the Greek Church. Beza tells of an impostor of his times, burned at Toulouse, who gave himself out to be the Apostle.
A specimen of a different class of legends is found in the *Chronicle of John of Brompton*. King Edward the Confessor had, after Christ and the Virgin Mary, a special veneration for S. John the Evangelist. One day, returning from his church at Westminster, he was accosted by a pilgrim, who asked of him an alms for the love of God and S. John. The king, who was ever merciful to the poor, immediately drew from his finger a ring, and, unknown to any one, gave it to the beggar. When the king had reigned twenty-four years, it came to pass that two Englishmen, pilgrims, returning to their own country from the Holy Land, were met by one in the habit of a pilgrim, who asked of them concerning their country: and being told they were of England, he said unto them, "When ye shall have arrived in your own country, go to King Edward, and salute him in my name: say to him that I thank him for the alms which he bestowed on me in a certain street in Westminster; for there, on a certain day, as I begged of him an alms, he bestowed on me this ring, which till now I have preserved, and ye shall carry it back to him, saying that in six months from this time he shall quit the world and come and remain with me for ever." The pilgrims, being astounded, said, "Who art thou? and where is thy dwelling?" And he answered, saying, "I am John the Evangelist. Edward your king is my friend, and for the sanctity of his life I hold him dear. Go now therefore, deliver to him this message and this ring, and I will pray to God that ye may arrive safely in your country.” When S. John had spoken, he delivered them the ring, and then vanished out of their sight. The pilgrims, praising and thanking God for this glorious vision, went on their journey; and being arrived in England, they repaired to King Edward, and saluted him, and delivered the ring and the message, relating all truly. And the king received the tidings joyfully and feasted the messengers royally. Then he set himself to prepare for his departure out of this world. On the eve of the nativity 1066, he fell sick, and on the eve of the Epiphany following he died. The ring he gave to the Abbot of Westminster to be for ever preserved among the relics there.*
Three names are traditionally linked to John’s as those of pupils. The first is that of *Ignatius*:—“the disciple of John the Apostle,” he is called in the “*Martyrdom of Ignatius*,” “and a man in all respects of apostolic character.” It is probably he whom Lucian pillories in his *Peregrinus*. Tradition makes him out to have been the little child whom Jesus set as an example of humility amidst the twelve Apostles. Hence he was supposed to derive his name of Theophorus—Ignatius who is called Theophorus—the “God-carried;” though he himself interprets it to mean one who carries God in his heart. He was overseer of the Church of Syrian Antioch, and is said to have suffered martyrdom under Trajan, at Rome, by being thrown to the lions. A large number of writings have been attributed to him, respecting which there has been more controversy than about any ancient Christian writings, if we except the New Testament itself. Probably not more than three of the whole number are his, and even these interpolated. In whatever form—the longer or the shorter—they are examined, they will be found to contain opinions and exhibit modes of thought entirely unknown to the age to which they are attributed.† Though called a pupil of John, he had but slight mental sympathy with him, and his writings rather bear the Pauline stamp.
* Mrs. JAMESON’S *Sacred and Legendary Art*.
† Dr. JAMES DONALDSON: *Critical History of Christian Literature and Doctrine*.
“His three epistles,” says De Pressensé, “are the farewells of a Christian hero. It is clear they were written in haste, by a man who desired to put all his Christianity in the few words hurriedly penned, in moments when the vigilance of his fierce jailers was relaxed. A strange fire flashes from those broken words, as from fretted flints.”
Perhaps the most interesting of these epistles is that to the Romans, which he forwarded, as he was proceeding to Rome for his martyrdom, by some friends who were taking a shorter route. Thinking it not unlikely that his brethren at Rome might intercede for his life, he earnestly urged them not to make the attempt. “Pray do not seek to confer any greater favour upon me than that I be sacrificed to God. . . . . Only request in my behalf both inward and outward strength, that I may not only speak but will. . . . . I shall die willingly for God, unless ye hinder me. I beseech of you not to show an unseasonable good-will toward me. Suffer me to become food for the wild beasts, through whose instrumentality it will be granted me to attain to God. . . . . Now I begin to be a disciple. And let no one, of things visible or invisible, envy me that I should attain to Jesus Christ. Let fire and the cross, let the crowds of wild beasts, let tearings, breakings and dislocations of bones, let cutting-off of members, let shatterings of the whole body, let all the dreadful torments of the devil come upon me—only let me attain to Jesus Christ.”
At length (according to *The Martyrdom of Ignatius*), he reached the shores of Italy, and was hurried on to Rome, just in time for the last day of the games during the Saturnalia. Kneeling down he entreated the Son of God in behalf of the churches, that brotherly love might continue, and that persecution might cease; and then immediately was thrown to the wild beasts and devoured.
The second name is *Polycarp*. Irenæus, who sat at his feet, informs us that he “was instructed by the Apostles, and was brought into contact with many who had seen Christ.” In a letter to Florinus, Irenæus says: “While I was yet a boy, I saw you in Lower Asia with Polycarp, pursuing a brilliant career in the royal court, and trying to be well-pleasing to him. For I remember the occurrences of those days better than the more recent (for instructions which we receive in childhood grow with our soul and become one with it); so that I can tell even the spot in which the blessed Polycarp sat and conversed, and his outgoings and incomings, and the character of his life, and the form of his body, and the conversations which he held with the multitude; and how he related his familiar intercourse with John and the rest who had seen the Lord; and how he rehearsed their sayings and what things they were which he had heard from them with regard to the Lord and His miracles and teaching. All these things Polycarp related in harmony with the writings, as having received them from the eye-witnesses of the Word of life." We learn from Irenæus further that Polycarp was an overseer in the Church at Smyrna by apostolic appointment.
A short "Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians" still survives, which, although poor in thought, breathes a simple and noble Christian spirit.
A letter professing to have been written by the Church at Smyrna to the Church at Philomelium—but which cannot be trusted in consequence of interpolations, additions, and internal improbabilities—gives an exceedingly interesting and graphic account of Polycarp's martyrdom. When called to swear by the fortune of Cæsar and reproach Christ, that he might save his life, he replied, "Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He never did me an injury: how can I blaspheme Him, my King and my Saviour?" From amidst the flames that consumed him he gave thanks, "because Thou hast counted me worthy to have a part in the number of Thy martyrs, in the cup of Thy Christ, to the resurrection of eternal life, both of soul and body, through the incorruption [imparted] by the Holy Ghost."
The third name is that of Papias, an overseer in the Church at Hierapolis, a city of Phrygia, the birthplace of Epictetus, the famous Stoic philosopher. Irenæus speaks of him as an "ancient man," "a hearer of John," and "a companion of Polycarp."
He was on terms of intercourse with many who had known the Lord and His Apostles. From them he gathered information which he wove into Five Books, entitled an *Exposition of the Lord's Sayings*—a work which has not come down to us, except some fragments preserved in Eusebius and elsewhere.* He seems to have been a man of small mind, a great reader, but a poor thinker. It is to him that the report is traced back that Matthew wrote in Hebrew, and that Mark, in his Gospel, was the mouthpiece of Peter. He too is said to have suffered martyrdom about the same time with Polycarp.
* Dr. Donaldson (*Crit. Hist.*) suggests that perhaps this work of Papias may yet be recovered; for some writing under the name of Papias is mentioned thrice in the catalogue of the library of the Benedictine Monastery of Christ Church, Canterbury, contained in a Cottonian MS. written in the end of the thirteenth or beginning of the fourteenth century; and, according to Menard, the words, "I found the book of Papias on the Words of the Lord," are contained in an inventory of the property of the Church of Nismes, prepared about 1218.
London: Morgan & Scott, 12, Paternoster Buildings.