PREFACE.

FOR Some long time past it has been widely felt that a reduction in the cost of Classical Works used in schools generally, and more especially in those intended for boys of the middle classes, is at once desirable and not difficult of accomplishment. For the most part only portions of authors are read in the earlier stages of education, and a pupil is taken from one work to another in each successive half-year or term; so that a book needlessly large and proportionably expensive is laid aside after a short and but partial use.

In order, therefore, to meet what is certainly a want, Portions of the Classical Writers usually read in Schools are now being issued under the title of GRAMMAR SCHOOL TEXTS; while, at the request of various Masters, it has been determined to add to the series some of the Gospels in Greek.

Each TEXT is provided with a VOCABULARY of the words occurring in it. In every instance but that of Eutropius the origin of a word, when known, is stated at the commencement of the article treating of it, if connected with another Latin, or Greek,

word; at the end of it, if derived from any other source. Further still, the primary or etymological meaning is always given, within inverted commas, in Roman type, and so much also of each word's history as is needful to bring down its chain of meanings to the especial force, or forces, attaching to it in the particular "Text." In the Vocabulary, however, to Eutropius-which is essentially a book for beginners-the origin is given of those words alone which are formed from other Latin words.

Moreover, as an acquaintance with the principles of GRAMMAR, as well as with ETYMOLOGY, is necessary to the understanding of a language, such points of construction as seem to require elucidation are concisely explained under the proper articles, or a reference is simply made to that rule in the Public Schools Latin Primer, or in Parry's Elementary Greek Grammar, which meets the particular difficulty. It occasionally happens, however, that more information is needed than can be gathered from the above-named works. When such is the case, whatever is requisite is supplied, in substance, from Felf's Greek Grammar, Winer's Grammar of New Testament Greek, or the Latin Grammars of Zumpt and Madvig.

LONDON: February, 1876.

INTRODUCTION.

Or the personal history of St. John, the fourth and latest of the Evangelists, more particulars are recorded than of that of any of the other three. John was the son of Zebedee and Salomë, and the brother of James surnamed "the Great." His father Zebedee was a fisherman on the Lake of Galilee, otherwise the Lake of Gennesaret or the Sea of Tiberias. Salōmë his mother was, according to tradition, the daughter of Joseph, the husband of the Virgin Mary, by a former wife; according to some recent critics, the sister of the Virgin. She would thus stand to Jesus in the relation of half-sister, through Joseph, in the former case; in the latter case, of aunt; while her sons, James and John, would occupy for the same reason the position of either the children of His half-sister on Joseph's side, or of His own cousins. All this, however, seems to be utterly inconsistent with the fact that, when John (as presently mentioned) accompanied Jesus to His abode, he evidently possessed no previous knowledge of the Lord's person; a thing that could hardly have been, had their two families been in any way related or connected. Added to which, the call of John and his brother James to become the Lord's followers is stated in just the same terms as the call of Peter and Andrew, and no intimation whatever is given that they were His kinsmen or even acquaintance. But to pass from this matter. John and his brother were brought up to their father's calling. The craft they thus followed was one of some importance, as it probably supplied the adjacent towns and country with an article of food largely used by the Jews. Their home was on the shore of the Lake of Gennesaret, probably in,

St. John.

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