Our next condition was that the matter should be tested not only by the positive

address to the world, but by parallel internal evidence that Jews were definitely not in the

writer's mind. Every Jew knew the purpose of the six water pots at the wedding feast of

Cana, but John informs us that they were "after the manner of the Jews" (John 2: 6).

Every Jew knew the history and import of the Passover, but John writes: "The Jews'

Passover was at hand"; "the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh"; "the Jews'

Passover was nigh at hand" (John 2: 13, 6: 4, 11: 55). Added to these are the further

informative statements: "There was a feast of the Jews" (5: 1), "the Jews' feast of

tabernacles" (7: 2). Again, note John 10: 22: "It was at Jerusalem the feast of the

dedication and it was winter", which is as though we should write, "It was Christmas day

in London and it was winter".

Further, what Jewish reader of John's Gospel, though he lived at the ends of the earth,

would need the explanation given in 4: 9: "for the Jews have no dealings with the

Samaritans"? Would a Jewish reader need the added interpretation given to the name of

the pool of Siloam--"which is by interpretation, Sent" (John 9: 7)? Would they not

know, too, the meaning of the name Cephas, "stone"? (John 1: 42).

We have abundant evidence therefore that John wrote his Gospel with the world of

non-Jewish readers specially in view.

The message that fits the wider circle of believers during the present time must

recognize the fact that the Lord was rejected by His own people. This we find at the very

forefront of the Gospel by John: "He came unto His own, and His own received Him not,

but as many as received Him . . . . ." (John 1: 11, 12). Here it is evident that the "many"

who received Him are a different company from "His own" who received Him not.

Matthew's Gospel waits until the twelfth chapter before rejection is reached, but John

opens with it. There is a foreshadowing of Acts 28: at the close of John ix: "For

judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see, and that they

which see might be made blind." The critical passage (Isa. 6: 10) is quoted immediately

after the warning to walk while the light lasts, lest darkness come upon them, and

towards the close of the passage come the solemn words: "He that rejecteth Me, and

receiveth not My words, hath One that judgeth him" (John 12: 48).

It will be remembered that where Matthew quotes Isa. 6: 10, we find the parables of

the kingdom of heaven, which, while revealing the interval of failure and corruption,

nevertheless look forward to the day when, under the new covenant, the word of the

kingdom shall be received in an honest and good heart (Jer. 31: 27-33). The quotation

of Isa. 6: 10 in John 12: is not accompanied by the mysteries of the kingdom of

heaven, but focuses attention upon the rejection of the Lord by His own people.