3. The writer of the Gospel. The Divinity of it against the Alogians asserted.
That this John is the writer of this Gospel, he himself clearly insinuates, John 21:20, 24, Peter seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved, etc. This is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things.And since he was a disciple and Apostle of Christ, and so led by His Spirit into all truth, John 16:13, and who, speaking of himself in the third person as the beloved disciple of Christ, John 21:24, was able to say, we know that his testimony is true; and since all things that he wrote are agreeable to the Prophets, and in those things true and heavenly wisdom and prudence is recognized, we gather that about the year 167 AD the heretic Artemon with his followers, who are called ἄλογοι/Alogi by Epiphanius, hæresi 51, and Alogians by Augustine, de hæribus, chapter 30, inflamed with hatred for the teaching concerning Jesus Christ as the λόγῳ/ Logos, the true God, rejected the Gospel of John as written by Cerinthus.[1]As if Saint John were not most powerfully of all overthrowing Cerinthus’ errors, which errors Augustine catalogues in de hæresibus, chapter 8.The Emperor Julian himself,[2] although a most hostile enemy of this Gospel, inasmuch he, as Cyril testifies in contra Julianus, wrote three books against the Gospels, relates that John was received as the author.
[1] Cerinthus (circa 100) was a heretic: Like the Ebionites, he taught his followers to keep the Jewish law for salvation, and denied the divinity of Jesus (believing that the Christ came to Him at His baptism); like some Gnostics, he denied that the Supreme God made the world, and believed that the bodyless, spiritual Christ inhabited the man Jesus. He also anticipated a millennium of earthly pleasures after the Second Coming but before the general resurrection. [2] Julian the Apostate (331-363) was the last pagan Emperor of Rome. He was raised as a Christian, but rejected Christianity in favor of Theurgy, a form of Neoplatonism. As Emperor, he sought to revive paganism and reduce the influence of Christianity. Julian died after a battle with Persian forces, and it is said that his dying words were, Vicisti, Galilæe, Thou hast conquered, O Galilean.