Section 329
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298 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. after proving that it is impossible that it should be understood according to the obvious and literal sense, he proceeds : " The prophet, as I said, having completed the whole prophecy, he pro nounces those blessed that should observe it as also himself For blessed,' says he, ' is he that keepeth the words of the pro phecy of this book, and I, John,* who have seen and heard these things.' I do not, therefore, deny that he was called John, and that this was the writing of one John. And I agree that it .was the work, also, of some holy and inspired man. But I would npj easily_agree that th^^s_the^^,p_ostle, the son of Zebedee, the brother of James, who is the author of the gospel, and the general (catholic) epistle that bears his name. But I conjecture, both from the general tenor of both, and the form and complexion of the composition, and the execution of the whole book, that it is not from him. For the evangelist never prefixes his name, never proclaims himself, either in the gospel or in his epistle." A little farther, he adds : " But John never speaks as of hurt self (in the first person), nor as of another (in the third), but he that wrote the apocalypse, declares himself immediately in the beginning : ' The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which he gave to him to show to his servants quickly. And he sent and signified it by his angel, to his servant John, who bare record of the word of God, and of his testimony (of Jesus Christ) and of all things that he saw.' " Besides this, he wrote an epistle : John to the seven churches of Asia, grace and peace to you.' But the evangelist does not prefix his name even to his general epistle ; but, without any in troduction or circumlocution, begins from the very mystery of the divine revelation : That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes ;' for upon such a revelation as this Peter was blessed by our Lord : ' Bless ed art thou, Simon Bar-jona, because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but my Father in heaven.' But neither in * Dionysius here understands the author of the Apocalypse, introducing him self as a subject of the same blessedness of which he speaks. This connexion, though not usually regarded, is obvious on an inspection of the original.