Note 59 — Chapter V · THE DISCIPLES OF JESUS.

It may appear more doubtful whether the author intended by this title to designate himself, and thus to announce himself as the Apostle John. The conclusion of the twenty-first chapter, v. 24, does certainly make the favourite disciple the testifier and writer of the preceding history; but we may assume it as granted that this passage is an addition by a strange hand.59 When, however, in the genuine text of the gospel (xix. 35), the writer says of the effect produced by the piercing of the side of Jesus, he that saw bare record, ὁ ἑωρακὼς μεμαρτύρηκε, no other than the favourite disciple can be intended, because he alone among all the disciples (the only parties eligible as witnesses in the case), is supposed to be present at the cross. The probability that the author here speaks of himself is not at all affected by his use of the third person; but the preterite annexed to it may well excite a doubt whether an appeal be not here made to the testimony of John, as one distinct from the writer.60 This mode of expression, however, may be explained also in accordance with the other supposition,61 which is supported by the circumstance that the author in i. 14, 16, seems to announce himself as the eye-witness of the history he narrates.