To advert for a moment to the mere length of the discourses. The Sermon
on the Mount is considerably longer than the longest discourse in St.
John's Gospel (viz., that occupying chapters xiv., xv., xvi.). This is
the only unbroken discourse of any length in this Gospel. The others,
viz., those with Nicodemus, with the woman at Sychem, with the Jews in
the Temple, and the one in the Synagogue at Capernaum, are much shorter
than many in the Synoptics, and none of them are continuous discourses,
but rather conversations. And, with respect to the composition, those in
St. John are mainly made up of short, terse, axiomatic deliverances just
such as Justin describes.
Take, for instance, the sentences in the sixth chapter:--
"I am the bread of life."
"He that believeth on me hath everlasting life."
"I am that bread of life."
"This is the bread that cometh down from heaven, that a man should
eat thereof and not die."
"My flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
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