[192]_i. e._ the First Epistle of St. John; the second and third were not so described at first and rightly so.
[193]Rev. i. 1, 2. One might almost think Dionysius was quoting from memory, for he follows no extant text in omitting “God” before “gave” (thus making Jesus Christ the subject and “him” = “to John”) and “the things which must come to pass” before “speedily”: also he substitutes “his testimony” for “the testimony of Jesus Christ,” though “his” still = “Jesus Christ.”
[195]Dionysius seems to contrast the “Divine revelation” of the Epistle which we can trust with that of the Book so-called about which he felt less sure.
[197]Matt. xvi. 17. Dionysius substitutes the adjective “heavenly” for “which is in heaven.”
[198]Rev. i. 9. Here again the text is somewhat inaccurate “in the patience of Jesus” having no support elsewhere.
[199]Rev. xxii. 7. See note on p. 86, above.
[200]It would seem likely, but by no means certain, that Dionysius is speaking of strictly baptismal names here. We have very slight grounds for being sure that the custom of connecting the giving of a name at baptism was universal as early as this.
[203]This assertion is taken almost verbatim from Eus., _H. E._ iii. 39, where a passage is also quoted from Papias in which John the Elder is mentioned as well as John the Apostle among the Lord’s disciples.
[204]This is the second argument which Dionysius adduces, but he seems as if he now includes the third with it. See above.
[208]It looks as if this phrase may be a marginal gloss on the Light, which has crept into the text, as it occurs nowhere in the writings of St. John nor elsewhere in the New Testament; but the same might be said of the “adoption” below, and one or two others of the other phrases are quite rare in St. John’s writings, so that they may be all instances of the thoughts, not the words being identical in the two books.
[209]The reference is to such passages as 2 Cor. xii. 1 ff., Gal. i. 12, ii. 2, etc.
[211]A rather forced and fanciful statement. Dionysius appears loosely to refer to 1 Cor. xii. 8, somewhat boldly substituting “of speech” (τῆς φράσεως) for St. Paul’s “of wisdom.”
[213]_i. e._ the results not of design but of the fortuitous intersection of lines of causation.