thefe ftrangers, not the members of the church. For, as plainly appears, Caius was not excommunicated, though he had done what was oppofed by Diotrephes. Nor need it be fuppofed, that all the ftrangers here fpoken of, were obliged to leave that place, or fociety. Diotrephes, it is true, difcou raged their reception, and fome might remove elsewhere. Others of them, however, might continue their abode there, encouraged by Caius, and fome other pious members of this church, who did not fubmit to the reafons, or the orders of Diotrephes. In this interpretation it is fuppofed, that cafting out of the church refers not to the perfons laft mentioned, who would receive thefe ftrangers, but to the ftrangers, whom Diotrephes would not have to be received. And Beaufobre fays, the = place may be fo understood. Dr. Heumann blames him for not faying, that it ought to be fo understood. There have been various conjectures of learned men concerning the reafons of Diotrephes's conduct, which I do not choose to take notice of now. Dr. Heumann fuppofeth, that Diotrephes had the difpofal of the revenues of the church. There came to the place ftrangers, who needed relief. But Diotrephes oppofed the diftribution of any of the common ftock, and alfo difcouraged fuch as were willing to affist them with their own. For all which, as may be fuppofed, he affigned fome reafons. This appears to me to have been the whole of the affair. But whether thefe ftrangers were Jews, or Gentiles, I cannot fay. There might be fome of both. Grotius and Lampe think they were Jews, who had been driven out of Palestine, or had been reduced to want by the general and grievous calamity of that country, and had come into Afia with hopes of relief, and for the fake of a fettlement. Heumann, as before seen, says they were Gentiles. For certain, they were Chriftians. Les chaffe de l' eglife. Cela fe peut rapporter ou aux freres, ou á ceux qui les reçoient, ou aux uns et aux autres. Sur. ver. 10. n Hic enim in Gallica fua N. T. verfione animadvertit, hæc verba etiam ad remotius referri poffe, hoc eft, ad fratres exules. Debebat vero indulgere meditationi, nec id relinquere dubium et incertum. Heum. ib. p. 311. note (p). • YTTER TO OVOMAAtos auт8 EžnλBov. id eft, a Judæa, ejecti fant per And And St. John, I think, fays, that we ought to receive fuch, whether they be of Jewish or Gentile ftock, that we may be fellow-helpers to the truth: that we alfo may ferve the interefts of truth, for the fake of which these perfons have suffered the lofs of all things.' Ver. 11. Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. Here the apoftle exhorts Caius to perfift in his good conduct, and to be upon his guard, not to be influenced by any bad examples. In the 12th verfe he recommends to him Demetrius, by whom, as may be supposed, this letter was carried. In the 13th and 14th verfes he fends falutations, and speaks again of coming to the place where Caius dwelled, and of Speaking with him face to face. Which I fuppofe he did. And I please myself with the fuppofition, that his journey was not in vain. I imagine, that Diotrephes fubmitted, and acquiefced in the advices and admonitions of the apostle. Of this I have no certain affurance. However I may add : that neither does any one elfe know the contrary. VI. Concerning the time of writing these two epiftles, nothing can be faid with certainty. Mill placeth them about the fame time with the firft, in 91, or 92. Whiston likewife fuppofeth, that they were all three written about the year 82, or 83. I imagine, that St. John was fomewhat advanced in age, and that he had resided a good while in Afia, before he wrote any of thefe epiftles. Confequently, I am difpofed to think, that these two were not written fooner than the first. And as it was before argued, that the first epiftle was written about the year 80, thefe two may be reckoned to have been written between the years 80, and 90. 1. His Hiftory. ST. JUDE, AND HIS EPISTLE. II. Teftimonies to the Genuineness of the Epifle. III. To whom it was fent. IV. The Time when it was written. I. THE writer defcribes himfelf in this manner at the beginning of the epistle. ch. i. ver. 1. Jude the fervant of Jesus a See above, p. 590. Ιέδας, τησε χρισε δόλος, αδελφος δε ιακωβο. Christ and brother of James. Those two characters lead us to think, that he was one of thofe called the Lord's brethren, and that he was an apoftle. Our Lord's brethren, as enumerated in Matt. xiii. 55. are James, and Jofes, and Simon, and Judas. In Mark vi. 3. James, and fofes, and Judas, and Simon. And in the catalogues of the apostles are these. Matt. x. 3. James the son of Alpheus, and Lebbeus, whofe furname was Thaddeus. Simon the Canaanite. Mark iii. 18. James the fen of Alpheus, and Thaddeus, and Simon the Canaanite. Luke vi. 15, 16. James the Son of Alpheus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James. Acts i. 13. James the fon of Alpheus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James. Thus he appears to have been fometimes called Judas, at other times Thaddeus, or Lebbeus. As I do not inquire into the meaning and origin of thefe names, I refer to others. I only obferve, that it was no uncommon thing among the Jews, for a man to have different names, as Simon, fometimes called Simeon, at other times Peter, or Cephas. And Thomas was alfo called Didymus. Jude, fervant of Jefus Chrift. He does not thereby deny himfelf to be an apoftle. St. Paul does not always take upon himfelf that character at the beginning of his epiftles. It is wanting in his two epiftles to the Theffalonians, in the epiftles to the Philippians, and to Philemon. The epiftle to the Philippians begins in this manner. Paul and Timothy, fervants of Jefus Christ, to all the faints in Chrift Jefus, which are at Philippi. It follows. And brother of James: meaning James, fometimes called the Lord's brother, and fon of Alpheus, one of the twelve apoftles. And he does fitly fo ftyle himself, as that James was the eldest brother, and was of note among the apoftles, after our Saviour's afcenfion, and in great repute among the Jewish believers. As appears from Acts xii. 17. XV. xxi. 18-25. and Gal. i. 19. ii. 9. We have no account of Jude's vocation to the apostleship. Nor is there any thing faid of him particularly in the gofpels, except what is related in John xiv. 21, 22, 23. in the account, which that evangelift has given of our Lord's molt excellent and affectionate difcourfes with the difciples a fhort time See Lightfoot's Hebrew and Talmudical Exercitations upon St. Matthew, vol. II. p. 176. Withii Comm. in ep. Judæ. num. ii. Cave's Life of St. Jude, in English. Dr. Benfon's Preface to this epittle, fect. i. before p. 314. before his last fufferings. He that bath my commandments, and This disciple still had the common prejudice concerning the kingdom of the Meffiah. And he afks our Saviour with furprise, how he could speak of manifefting himself to a few only, when he was about to fet up an univerfal monarchy in great power and fplendour? Our Lord tells him (what he might have known before) that his kingdom, as Messiah, was fpiritual, a kingdom of truth and righteoufnefs: and that the bleffings and privileges of it were peculiar to good men, who obeyed the precepts of true religion, which had been taught by him. Such would be accepted, and approved by himself, and by his heavenly Father, in whofe name he had fpoken. This they would all know, when he should come again among them, after his refurrection, and when the gift of the Spirit fhould be bestowed upon them, and others his followers. As there is little faid of Jude in the hiftory of our Saviour before his refurrection, fo St. Luke in the Acts has inferted nothing particularly concerning him after it. However it is unquestionable, that he partook of the plentiful effufion of the Holy Ghoft at the pentecoft next after our Lord's afcenfion: and that he joined with the other apoftles in bearing an open teftimony to our Lord's refurrection at Jerufalem: and that he had a fhare with them in the reproaches and other fufferings, which they endured upon that account. It may be alfo reafonably fuppofed, that for a while he preached the gospel in feveral parts of the land of Ifrael, and wrought miracles in the name of Chrift. But what they were, we cannot fay, because they are not recorded by St. Luke, nor any other credible hiftorian near the time. As his life feems to have been prolonged, it may be alfo reckoned very likely, that he afterwards left Judea, and went abroad, preaching the gofpel to Jews and Gentiles in other countries. But we have no account of his travels, that can be relied on. Some have faid, that he preached in Arabia, Syria, Mefopotamia, and Perfia: and that he fuffered martyrdom in VOL. VI. Rr this this last mentioned country. But of these things there remains not any credible history, Indeed, it may be queftioned, whether St. Jude was a martyr. It was formerly obferved by us, that Heracleon, a learned Valentinian, as cited by Clement of Alexandria, reckons among apoftles, who had not died by matyrdom, Matthew, Philip, Thomas, and Levi. And it was then faid, that by Levi, Heracleon, probably, meant Lebbeus, that is, Judas. Which is allowed by Dodwell, and fome other learned writers, to whom we then referred. Nor does Jerom, in his article of St. Jude, in his catalogue of ecclefiaftical writers, fay any thing of his having died a martyr. с Jerom, in his commentary upon the tenth chapter of St. Matthew, where is the catalogue of the apoftles, fays, that f the apoftle Thaddeus, called by the evangelift Luke, Jude the • brother of James, was fent to Edeffa to Agbarus king of Of• röene.' But Eufebius, in his account of that affair, fays, that Thomas, one of the twelve, fent to Edeffa Thaddeus, one of Chrift's feventy difciples, to preach the gospel in thofe 'countries.' And in the preceding chapter, where he speaks of Chrift's seventy difciples, he reckons Thaddeus, who went to Edeffa, one of them. Whence it came to pass, that Jerom called him an apostle, and reckoned him one of the twelve, is not easy to fay. But I imagine, that what he fays in his commentary upon St. Matthew, is an inaccuracy, owing to his writing in hafte. This conjecture receives confirmation hence, that in the article of St. Jude, in the catalogue above-mentioned, he fays nothing of that journey. Before I proceed any farther, I must take notice of a Differtation of the learned Theodore Hafæus: in which he argues, that Judas, called Lebbeus, and Thaddeus, is the See before, p. 44. note (B). 4 Ου γαρ παντες οι σωζόμενοι ωμο λόγησαν την δια της φωνής ομολογίαν, και εξήλθον εξ ων ματθαιος, Φιλιππος, θωHeracl. μας, λευις, και άλλοι πολλοι. ap. Clem. A. Str. 1. 4. p. 502. e Diff. Iren. i. num. xxiv. f Thaddeum Apoftolum, ecclefiaftica tradit hiftoria miffum Edeffan ad Abgarum regem Ofrænæ, qui ab Evangelifta Luca, Judas Jacobi dicitur. In Matt. T. IV. p. 35. in. |