THE SILENCES OF SCRIPTURE. 



91 



In the Gospel of John, on the other hand, it is recorded that 

 our Lord was hotly opposed by the Jews at the feast of Tabernacles 

 at Jerusalem, and that He constantly moved about in order to 

 avoid the persecution of the Judsean Jews. Then we have the 

 record of the intensification of opposition recorded as the result of 

 the raising of Lazarus at Bethany, evoking the bitter persecution 

 which culminated in the crucifixion. 



Thus the Synoptists adopted one plan of conducting to the climax : 

 they told of the voluntary journey to the death of earthly shame 

 just after glory and success, with hardly any mention of persecution ; 

 while St. John adopted a different method, he dwelt on the great 

 and increasing opposition of the Jews, which our Lord evaded 

 until His hour had come. If either had narrated the special facts 

 told by the other, the unity of each plan of leading to the climax 

 would have been lost. Both plans are perfectly in accord with the 

 events which actually happened. 



It is sometimes said that the Synoptists did not tell of the raising 

 of Lazarus from fear of injuring him, as he was probably alive 

 when they wrote, and the Jews had " consulted that they might 

 put Lazarus also to death " (John xii, 10) ; but John, writing long 

 afterwards, was not prevented from recording the miracle by any 

 such considerations. This may be so, but the other reasons just 

 given for the omission are probably the chief ones, as they explain 

 the omission in the fourth Gospel, as well as those in the first three. 



Another instance of the process of selection to which Mr. Finn 

 calls our attention is furnished by the ending of the Acts. Some 

 think it has been lost, because no account is given of the death 

 of St. Paul, though so much is told us of his life. But if we conclude, 

 as no doubt we must, that the purport of this book is to record 

 the work of the Holy Spirit, through faithful men, in gathering 

 out the members of the infant Church from among the nations 

 of the world, the ending, as we have it, is most appropriate, because 

 the book closes with the attainment of a definite climax — the preach- 

 ing of the Gospel vmhindered in the world's capital by the great 

 Apostle of the Gentiles, with good prospects of further success 

 (xxviii, 28). 



An account of the death of St. Paul would have spoilt this plan. 

 The Acts is not a biography of a man, but it is an account of the 

 work of the Holy Spirit. 



