Bible Commentary (1871–1879 Edition) (continued)

Bible Commentary (1871–1879 Edition) (continued)

Ihe Eedhig of the Courtier's Son. JO] IX V. The Impotent Man Healed,

Second Galilean Miracle—Healing of the OOUKTIEK'S SON. 43, 44. After two days— ' the two

It was not one, but a » accession of miracles periodically wrought: (2.) As it was only wrought "when the waters were troubled," so only upon one patient at a time, and that the patient "who first stepped in after the troubling of tlie waters." But this only the more uude* niably fixed its miraculous character. We liave heard of manj' waters having a medicinal virtue ; but what water was ever known to cure instantaneously a single disease? And wlio ever heard of any water curing all, even the most diverse diseases—"blind, lialt, withered "—alike? Above all, who ever heard of such a thing being done "only at a certain season," and most singularly of all, doing It only to the first person who stepped in after the moving of the waters? Any of these peculiarities—much more all taken together—must have proclaimed the supernatural character of the cures wrought. (If the text here be genuine, there carj be no doubt of the miracle, as there were multitudes living when this Gospel was published who, from their own knowledge of Jerusalem, could have exposed the falseiiood of the Evangelist, if no sucli cure had been known there. The want of v. i and part of V. 3 in some good iVLSS., and the use of some unusual words In the passage, are more easily accounted for than the evidence in their favour if they were not originally in the text. Indeed v. 7 is unintelligible without V. 4. The internal evidence brought against it is merely the unlikelihood of such a miracle—a principle which will carry us a great deal farther if we allow it to weigh against positive evidence.) 5-9. tliirty-eight years—but not all that time at the pool. This was probably the most pitiable of all the cases, and therefore selected. saw him lie and Itnew, &c.—As He doubtless visited the spot just to perform this cure, so He knows where to find His patient, and the whole previous history of his case (ch.

days' of His stiiy at Syohar. For Jesits testified, Ac— This verse has occasioned much discussion. For it seems

Btrauge, If "His own country" here means Nazareth, which was in Galilee, that it should be said He came to

Galilee because in one of its towns He expected no good reception. But all will be simple and natural if we fill np the statement thus: 'He went into the region of Galilee, but not, as might have been expected, to that part of It called "His own country," Nazareth (see Mark 6. 4; Lake i. 2)), for He acted on the maxim which He oft repeated, that a prophet,' &c. 45. received— ' welcomed' Him. Imving seen . . . at the feast—proud, perhaps, of their Countryman's wonderful works at Jerusalem, and possibly won by this circumstance to regard His claims as at least wortlij' of respectful investigation. Even this our Ix)rddid notdespise, for saving conversion often begins in less than this (so Zaccheus, Luke 19. 3, &c.). fortliey also went— i. e., it was their pi'actice to go up to the feast. 46, 47. nobleman — courtier, king's servant, or one connected with a royal household; such as Chuza (Luke 8. 3), or Manaen (Acts 13. 1). heard tliat Jesiis was come out of Judea—

' where he had doubtless seen or heard what things Jesus had done at Jerusalem ' (v. 45). [Bengel.] comedown—for Capernaum was down on the north-west shore of the .Sea of Galilee. 4S-54. Except ye see signs,

(Sc.-He did believe, botli as his coming and his urgent entreaty show; but how imperfectly we shall see; and our Lord would deepen his faith by such a blunt and seemingly rough answer as He made to Nicodemus. Come down ere my child die—

' Wliile we talk, the case is at its crisis, and if Ihou come not instantly, all is over.' This was faith, but partial, and our Lord would perfect It. The man cannot believe the cure could be wrought without the Physician coming to the patient—the thought of such a thing evidently never occurred to him. But Jesus will in a moment bring him up to this. Go thy wayj thy son liveth—Both efl'ects Instantaneously followed: "The man believed the word," and the cure, shooting quicker than lightning from Cana to Capernaum, was felt by the dying youth. In token of faith, the father takes his leave of Christ—in the circumstances this evidenced full

2. 25). Wilt thou be made whole!—Could anyone doubt that a sick man would like to be made whole, or that the patients came thither, and this man had returned again and again, just in hope of a cure? But our Lord asked the question. (1.) To I'asteu attention upon Pliraself; (2.) By making him detail his case to deepen in him the feeling of entire helplessne.ss ; (3.) By so singular a question to beget in his desponding heart the hope of a cure. (Cf. Mark 10. 51.) Sir, I liave no man, &c.—Instead of saying he wished to be cured, hejust tells with piteous simplicity how fruitless had oeen all his efforts to obtain it, and how helpless and all but hopeless he was. Yet not quite. For here he is at the pool, waiting on. It seemed of no use; nay, only tantalizing—" Vv'hile lam coming, another steppetli down before me "—the fruit was snatched from hia lips. Yet he will not go away. He may get nothing by staying, he may drop into his grave ere he get into the pool; but by going from the appointed. Divine way of healing, he can get nothing. 'Wait therefore he will, wait he does, and when Christ comes to heal; him, lo! he is waiting his turn. What an altitude for a sinner at Mercy's gate! The man's hopes seemed low enough ere Christ came to Iilra. He might have said, just before "Jesus passed by that way,"' 'This is no use; I'll never get in; let me die at home.' Then all had been lost. But he held on, and his perseverance was rewarded with a glorious cure. Probably some rays of hope darted into his heart as he told his tale before those Eyes whose glance measured iiis whole case. But the word of command consummates his preparation to receive the cure, and instantaneously works it. Rise, tAke up t\ty bed, &c.—"Immediately" he did so. "He spake and it was done." The slinging of ills portable couch over his slioulders was designed to show the perfection of the cure, the same day was the sabbatli—beyond all doubt this was intentional, as in so many other healings, in order that wlien opposition arose on this account men might be coniiiclled to listen to His claims and His teaching. 10-10. The .lewa —i.e., those in authority. See on ch. 1. 19. It is not lawful to carry thy bed—a glorious testimony to the cure, aa instanlanemis SLnd complete, from the lips of the most prefaith. The servants hasten to convey the joyful tidings to the anxious parent, wliose faith now only wants one confirmation. "When began he to amend?" " Yesterday, at the .seventh hour, the fever left him"—the very hour in which was uttered that great word, "Thy son liveth !" So " himself believed and his whole house." He had believed before this, first very imperfectly ; then with assured confidence of Christ's word ; but now with a faith crowned by "sight." And the wave rolled from the head to the members of his household. "To-day is salvation ccme to this house" (Luke 19.9); and no mean house this! second miracle Jesns did i.e., in Cana; done "after be came out of Judea," as the former before.

CHAPTER V.

Ver. 1-47. The Impotent Man Healed—Discourse Occasioned by thk Persecution arising thereupon.

1. a feast of the Jews What feast? No question has more divided the Harmonists of tlie Gospels, and the duration of our Lord's minislrjmay be said to hinge on it. For if, as tlie majority have thought (until of late years)

It was a Fassover, His ministry lasted three and a lialf years; If not, probably a year less. Those who are dissatisfied with the Passover-view all dlH'er among themselves what other feast it was, and some of the most acute think there are no grounds for deciding. In our Judgment the evidence is in favour of its l)eing a Passover, but the reasons cannot be stated liere. 2, 3. Slieep [market]—The supplement should be (as in Mnrc/in) 'sheep

[gate]', mentioned Nehemlah 3. 1, 32. Bethesda— i. e.,

' house (place) of mercy,' from the cures wrought there. Ave porches—for shelter to the patients. Impotent—or infirm. 4. An angel, Ac.—This miracle differed in two points from all other miracles recorded in Scripture : (1.)

judiced! (And what a contrast does it, as all our Lord's miracles, present to the bungling miracles of tlie Church of Rome !) In ordinal j circumstances, the rulers had the

The Jews Cavil at Christ's ^Firades. JQHN V. Christ, answering, Showeih who He it.

Persons results from unity of nature. (3.) Their oneness of interest is no unconscious or involuntary thing, but a thing of glorious consciousness, will, and love, of which the Persons themselves are the proper Objects, show hint greater things, &c.—referring to what He goes on to mention (I'. 21-31), comprised in two great words, Like and Judgment, which Stieu beautifully calls God's Regalia. Yet tliese tlhrist says the Father and He do in common. '^1-^3. raiseth tiie dead and quiekeneth them—one act in two stages. This is His absolute prerogative as God. so tiie Son quiekeneth—t. e., raiseth up and quiekeneth. whom He will—not only doing the same Divine act, but doing it as the result of Hi own will, even as the P'ather does it. This statement is of immense Importance in relation to the miracles of Christ, distinguishing them from similar miracles of prophets and apostles, who as human instruments were employed to perlorm supernatural actions, while Christ did all as the Father's commissioned Kei'vanl indeed, but in the exercise of His oW7i absolute right of action. For tlie Father Judgeth no man, ifcc—rather, ' For neither doth the Fatlier judge any man,' implying that the same "thing was meant in the former verse of llie quickening of the dead"—both acts being done, not by the Father and the Son, as though twice done, but by the Father tlirouyh the Son as His voluntary Agent, all judgment—judgment in its most comprehensive sense, or as we should say, all administralaw on their side. (Nehemlah 13. 15; Jeremiah 17. 21.) But when the man referred them to "Him that had made him wiiole" as his authority, the argument was resistless. Yet tliey ingeniously parried the llirust, asking him, not wliohad " made 111 m whole"—tliat would liave condemned lliemselves and defeated their purpose—but who liad bidden him ' take up his bed and walk," in other words, who had dared to order a breach of the sabbath? ' Tis time we were looking after him—thus liopiiig to shake the man's tV.ith in his Healer, lie tltat was liealcd wist not, &c.—That some one, witli unparalleled generosity, tenderness and power, had done it, the man knew well enough but as he had never heard of Him before, so he disappeared too quickly for any inquiries, conveyed Himself awny—or 'slipped out' of the crowd that had gatliered to avoid both hasty popularity and precipitate liatred. (Matthew li 14-19.) liudelU Ulm in tl»e temple—say ing, perhaps, "I will go into thy house with burnt otlerings, I will pay my vows wliich my lips have uttered and my mouth hatli spoken when I was in trouble." (Psiilm tKi.

13, It.) Jesus, there Himself for His own ends, "lindeth him there" iiot all accidentally, be assured. Sin no more, &c.—a glimpse this of the reckless life he had probably led bejore his thirty-eight years' intirmity had come upon him, and wliicli not improbably had brought on, in tlie just judgment of God, his chronic complaint. Fearlul illustration this of " tbe severity of God," but glorious manifestation of our Lord's insight into " what was in man." Tlie man departed and told, Ac—little thinking how unwelcome his grateful and eager testimony would tion, honour tile Son as . , . the Father—As he who believes that Christ in the foregoing verses has given a true account of His relation to tiie Father must of necessity hold Him entitled to the same lionour as the Father, so He here adds that it was the Father s express intention in making over all judgment to the Son, that men should thus honour Him. honoureth not the i<'aUier, Ac.—does not do it in tact, whatever he may imagine, and will bo held as not doing it by the Father Himself, who will accept no luiinage which is not accorded to His own Sou. believeth on Htm (hat sent me i, e., believeth in him as having sent Me. q. d., 1 have spoken of the Son's right not only to heal the sick but to raise from the dead, ami quicken wiiom He will: And now I say unto you, 2'hai life-giving operation has already passed upon all u ho receive my uorUs as the jSent of the Father on the great errand of mercy. Iiath everlasting life—immediately on his believing (cf. ch. 3. 18; 1 John 5.12,13), is passu!—'hath passed over' " Irom death unto life." What a transition I Cf. 1 John 3. H. a5-!J9. the hour cometh—in its whole luliuss, at I'eutecost. and now Is—In its beginnings, the dead—the spiritually dead, as is clear from v. is. Here He rises from the calmer phrase " hearing his word" {v. 2i), to the grander expression, "hearing the voice of the Hon of

' The darkness received not the liglit which waspouring its rays upon it,' Joliu 1. o, 11. [Olsuausen.] because be.

lie liaddone tliese tilings on tile subl>atli-duy—Wliat to tliese hypocritical religionists was the doi ng of tile most glorious and biiielicent miracles, coiiipaied with tlie atrocity of doing tliem on the sabbalii-day ! Having given tliem tliis liandie, on purjjose to raise the first public controversy wilh them, and tlius opuu a litliug opportunity ol laying His claims before tlii-m. He rises at once to tUi! wiiole lieiglit of them, in a statement which lor grandeur and terseness exceeds almost any thing tlnit ever afterwards ull from Him, at least to His enemies. 17,

1 a. Hy Patlier worketli iilllierto and 1 worK—Tlie "J" is empliatic ; <j. d., 'The creative and conservative aitlivity of My Fatlier has known no 6al)bath-cessation from llie beginning until now, atid that is the law of My working.' was ills Fatlier—/i/., 'his own (or peculiar) l-'alller,' as in iioinans 8. M. Tlie addition is tlieir own, but a very proper one. malting Iilmself equal witli God—riglitly gathering this to be His meaning, not from tbe mere words " My Father," but irom His claim of right to actas His Fatiier did in the like higli sphere, and by the same law of ceaseless activity in that spliere. And as, instead of instantly disclaiming any such meaning—as He must have done if it was false—He positively sets His seal to it In the following verses, merely explaining how consistent such claim was with the prerogatives of His Father, it is

Ood," to signify that a-s it finds men in a rfc<tti condition, so it carries with it a resurrection-power, shall live—in the sense of v. 21. given to the Son, &c.—Does this refer to the essential life of the Son before all lime (ch. 1. 4) [as most of the Fatliers, and Olshausen, Stiek, Ai.KOi<l>, Ac, among the moderns], or to the purpose of God that this essenbeyond all doubt that we have here an assumption of peculiar 2>crsunul Hons/iij), or participation in the Fatlier's essential nature. l'J,>iO, tlie Son can do notliliig of liiiusell— i. e., apart from and in rivalry of the Father, as they KUijposed. The meaning is, 'The Kon can have no Beparate interest or action from the Father.' for what tilings, (tc—f/. d., 'On the contrary', whatever the Father doetli that same douth the Son,' likewise—'in the like manner.' What claim to absolute equality with the Fatlier could exceed this: not only to do the name l/ilnys, but to do them as the I<'alher doea t/uinf Futlier lovetli tial life should reside in the I'er.son of the Incarnate Son, and be manifested thus to the world 7 [C.\lvin, Lucke, LuTHAitnr, <tc.) The question is as dithcull as the subject is higli. But as all that Christ says of His essential relation to the Father is Intended to explain and exalt his mediatorial functions, so the one seems In our Lord's own mind and language mainly the starting-point of the other, because lie is the Son of man—This seems to conhrm the last remark, that what Christ had properly in view was tlie indwelling of the Son's essential life in humanity us the great theatre and medium of IJlvine display, in both the great departments of His wovli—lifegiving and judgment. Tlie appointment of a Judge in our own nature is one of the mcist beautiful arrangiments of Divine wisdom in redemption. Marvel not at this-this conimltlal of all Judgment to the Hon of man. fortliehour, . . and sliowetli lilm all, itc.—As love has nocoiiccalments, so it results Irom the perfect fellowship and mutual endearment of the Father and the Son (,see on ch. 1.

1, 16), whose inli rests are one, even as their nature, that the Father coniniuuicates to the Son all His comiscls, and what has been thus shown to the Son is by Him executed in His mediatorial character. 'With tlie Father, doiny Is williny ; it is only the Son who acts in 'J'ime.' [Al>- FOHU.I Thri e things here are clear : (l. i 'i'Ui: pvinuniU Uis-

Is voniing—He adtis not in this ca.se (as in o. '25), " and no\T

Is," because this was not to be till the close of the whole dispensation of mercy, resurrection of life—j. c, 'to life' everlasting. (Matthew 25, Kt.) of damnation— It would have been htirsh losuy ' the resurrection of death,' though ttnoiotwi in tlie Godhead. (2.) Unity of ucliun among llie m

TAc Scriptures Bear Witness to Christ. JOHN VI. Jesus Walks upon the Sra, features of the same awful state of the numan heart. De not think I will accuse you—7. d., 'My errand hither is not to collect evidence to condemn you at God's bar.' one thai judgeth you, Moses, &c.—7. d., 'Alas ! tliat will be too well <l<>ne by another, and liim the object of all your religious boastings—Moses,' here put for "Wie Law," that Is meant, for sinners rise from death to death. [Benski-.] Tlie resurrection of botli classes is an exercise of aovfi eign. (ti Ulioriti/ ; but in the one case it isanactof (/?-ace,

In the other of justice. {Cf. Daniel 12. 2, from which the language is tjilien.) How awfully grand are these utifoldings of His dignity and authority from the mouth of tlie Infiis of the Old Testament Scriptures, he wrote of me—'an important testimony to the subject of the wliole Pentateuch—"of Me.'" [AtFORd.) If ye l>elieve not, &c.—(See on Luke 16. .'il.) his writings . . . my words a remarkable contrast, not absoltdcly vnnXUnf:, Old Testament .Scripture above His own words, but pointing to tlie

Christ Himself! And they are all in tlie third pcr.wii ; in what follows He resumes the first person. 30-32. of iiilue oiiit sell" do iiotlitng—t. e., apart from the Father, or in any inteiest tlian my own. (See on v. 19.) as I hear— d., 'My judgments are all anticipated in the bosom of my Father, to whicli I have immediate access, and by me only responded to and reflected. They cannot therefore office of those venerable documents to prepare Christ's waj', to the necessity universally felt for documentary testimony in revealed religion, and perhaps (as Stier adds) err, as I live for one end onl3', to carry into effect the will of Him that sent me. If I witness of myself—standing alone, and setting up any separate interest. Tl»cre is Buofher— !. v., the Fatlie)-, as is plain from the connection. How brightly the distinction of the Persons shines out here! and I know that the wititess, &c.—'This is the Son"s testimony to the Father's truth (seech. 7. 28; 8.26, to tlie relation which the comparative "letter" of tlie Old Testament holds to the more flowing "words" of "spirit and life" wliich characterize the New Testament.

CHAPTER VI.

5.5). It testifies to the full consciousness on tlie part of the Son, even in the days of His humiliation, of the righteousness of the Father.' [Alford.] And thus he cheered His

Ver. 1-13. Five Thousand Miraculously Fed. (See on Mark 6. 31-44.) 3. a mountain—somewhere in that hilly range which skirts tiie east side of the lake. 4. Passover . . . was nigh—liut for the reason mentioned, ch. 7. 1, Jesus kept away from it, remaining in Galilee.

spirit under the cloud of human opposition which was already gathering over His head. 33-35. Ye sent unto Johu—(See ch. 1. 19, &c.) receive not test . . . from m<>n —t. e., depend not on human testimony, but . . . that ye may be save*!—'I reler to hiin merely to aid your

14-21. Jesus Walks on the Sea. See also on Mark 6.

14, 15. that prophet—(See on ch. I. '21.) 15. departed to a mountain himself alone—(1.) to rest, which He came to this "desert place" on purpose to do before the miracle of the loaves, but could not for the multitude that followed Him (see on Mark 6. .31); and (2.) "to pmj/," Matthew 11. 2:5 ; Mark 6. 46. But from His mountain-top He kept watching the ship (see on d. 18), and doubtless prayed both for them, and with a view to the new manifestation which He was to give them of His glory. 16, 17. when even was come—(See on Mark salvation.' He was a burning and a shining light lit.,

'the Inirning and shining lamp' (or torch) :—7. d., 'the groat light of his day.' Christ is never called by the humble word here applied to John—a ?/i7/t«-6e(7re?-—studiously used to distinguish him from liis Master, but ever the Lighl

In the most absolute sense. See on ch. 1. 6. willing for a season i. e., till they saw that it pointed whither tliey were not prepared to go. to rejoice In his light—Tliere

Is a play of irony here, referring to the hollow delight with whicli liis testimony tickled them. 36-38. I liave greater witness—rather, 'Tlie witness whicii I have is greater.' the works . . . bear witness of me—not simply as miracles nor even as a miracle of mercy, but these miracles, cm He did them, witli a iviU and a power, a majesty and a grace manifestly His own. The Father himself hath borne witness of me—not referring, probably, to the voice of His baptism, but (as seems from what follows) to the testimony of the Old Testament Scripture. [Calvin, Lucke, Meyer, Luthardt, &c.] neither heard his voice, <S:c.—never recognized him in tliis^^character. Tlie words are 'designedly mysterious, like many others which our Lord uttered.' [Stier.] not his word abiding In you—passing now from the Witness to the testimony borne by liim in "tlie lively oracles:" both were alike strangers to their breasts, as was evidenced by their rejecting Him to whom all that witness was borne. 39—I'J. S«nrch the Scriptures, &c. q. d., 'In the Scriptures ye

6.35.) entered Into a ship "constrained.' to do SO by their Master (Matthew 14. 22; Mark 6. 45), in order to put an end to the misdirected excitement in His f.'ivour (v,

15), into which the disciples themselves may have been somewhat drawn. The word "constrained" implies reluctance on their part, perhaps from unwillingness to part with their Master and embark at night, leaving Him alone on the mountain, went—rather, ' were proceeding.' towards Capernaum—Mark says (6. 45), "unto Bethsaida," meaning "Bethsaida of Galilee" (ch. 12.21), on the west side of tlie lake. The place they left was of the same name (see on Mark 6. 31). Jesus was not coma to them—They probably lingered in hopes of His still joining them, and so let the darkness cotne on. 18. 19 sea arose, &c.—and they were "now in the midst of it" (Matthew 14. 24). Mark adds the graphic and touching particular, "He saw tliem toiling in rowing" (6. 48), putting forth all their strengtli to buffet the waves and bear on against a head wind, but to little effect. He saw this from His mountain-top, and tlirough the darkness of the fiufl your charter of eternal life; go search them then, and you will find that I am the Cireat Burden of their testimony; yet ye will not come to Me for tliat life eternal which you profess to find there, and of which they tell you I am the appointed Dispenser.' (Cf. Acts 17. 11, 12.) How touching and gracious are these last words! Observe here (1.) The honour wliicli Christ gives to the Scriplures, as a record which all have a right and are bound to search—the reverse of which the Church of Rome teaches niglit, for His heart was all with them; yet would He not go to their relief till His own time came, they see Jesus —"about the fourth watch of the night" (Matthew 14.

25; Mark 6. 48), or between three and six in the morning, walking on the sea—What Job (9.8) celebrates as the distinguishing prerogative of God, "Who alone spreadetli out the heavens, and treadeth upon the WAVES OF THE SEA"—wliat Agur challenges as GoD'a unapproachable prerogative, to " gather the wind in His FISTS, and bind the waters in a garment" (Proverbs

The opposite extreme is, resting in the mere Book, without the living Christ, to direct the soul to Whom is its main useand chiefest glory. I receive not honour from men—contrasting His own end with theirs, which was to otitain human applunse. not the love of God In you which would Inspire j-ou with a single desire to know Ills mind and will, and yield yourselves to It, In spite of Jirejudice atid regardless of consequences. 43-47. If another shall come, <tc.—How strikingly li.as this been verified in the history of the Jews! 'From the time of the true Christ to our time, sixty-four false Christs have lieen re<-koned by whom they have been deceived.' [Bkn- <IEL.] How can ye believe? &c.—(See on v. 40, 4 1 . ) Tlie "wiU not'' of I'. 40, and "canr.oV here are just differeut

30. 4)—lo! this is here done in flesh, by "the Son of man.'' drawing nigh to the ship—yet as though He " would have passed by them," Mark C. 48 (cf. Luke 21. 28; Genesis 18. 3. 5;

32.21-26). they were afraid—" cried out for fear" (Matthew 14. 26), "supposing it had been a spirit" (Mark 6. 49). He would appear tothemat first likeadark moving speck upon the waters; then as a human figure, but.—in the dark tempestuous sky, and not dreaming that it could be their Lord—they take It for a spirit. (How often thus we miscall our chiefest mercies—not only thinking them distant when they are near, but thinlcing the best tn«> 137

Christ, Followed by Great Multitudes, JOHN VI. Discourses on the Bread of Life.

hath God tlie Father sealed—marked out and au thentlcated for that transcendent office, to impart to the world the bread of an everlasting life, and this in the character of "the Son of man." 38-31. What shall we do worst !) 20. It Js I ! be not afraid—Mat thew and Mark give before these exliilaraliiig words, that to them wellknown one, " He of good cheer !" 31. Wlllliigly received him Into the ship—their first fears being now converted Into wonder and deliglit. and Immediately the ship was at the land—Tliis additional miracle, for as such it. . . the works of God—such works as God will approve. DifJ'erent answers may be given to such a question, according to the sj>irit which prompts tiie inquiry. (See Hosea 6. 6-8 ; Luke 3. 1'2-14.) Here our Lord, knowing whom he had to deal with, shapes His reply .accordingly. This U the work of Gotl, &c.— That lies at tlie threshold of aU acceptable obedience, being not only the prerequisite to is manifestly related, is recorded here alone. Yet all that is meant seems to be that as the storm was suddenly calmed, so the little baric—propelled by the secret power of the Lord of Nature now sailing in it—glided tlirough the now unruffled waters, and while they were wrapt in wonder at wliat had happened, not heeding their rapid motion, was found at port, to their still further surprise.

it, but the proper spring of itin that sense, the work of works, emphatically "the work of God." What sign showest thou, <&c.—But how could they ask "a sign," when many of them scarce a day before had witnessed sucli a "sign" as had never till then been vouchsafed to men; when after witnessing it, they could hardly be restrained from making Him a king; when they followed Him from the one side of the lake to the other; and when, in the opening words of tills very discour.se, He had chid them for seeking Him, " not because they saw the signs," but for the loaves? The truth seems to be, that they were confounded by the novel claims which our Lord had Just advanced. In proposing to make Him a king,

22-71. Jesus, Followed by the Multitudes to Capernaum, Discourses to them in the Synagogue of the Bread of Life—Effect of.this on Two Classes of the Disciples. 32-34. These verses are a little involved, from the Evangelist's desire to mention every circumstance, however minute, that might call up the scene as vividly to tlie reader as it stood before his own view. The day following—the miracle of the loaves, and the stormy night; tlie day on wliieh they landed at Capernaum, the people which stood on the other side of the sea—not the whole multitude tiiat had been fed, but only such of them as remained over night about the shore, i. e., on the it was for far other purposes than dispensing to the'world the bread of an everlasting life; and when He seemed to raise His claims even higher still, by representing it as the grand "work of God," that they should believe on Himself as His Sent One, they saw very clearly that Ho was making a demand upon them beyond anything they were prepared to accord to Him, and beyond all that man had ever before made. Hence their question, "What dost thou Our fathers did eat manna, Ac-Insinuating the inferiority of Christ's miracle of the loaves to those of Moses: q. d., 'When Moses claimed the confidence of the fathers, " he gave them bread from lieavea to eat"—not for a few thousands, but for millions, and not once only, but daily throughout their wilderness Journey.' 33, 33. Moses gave you not. &c. q. d., ' It was not Moses that gave you the manna, and even it was but from the lower heavens; "but Mj/ Father giveth you the true east side of the lake ; for we are supposed to have come, with .lesus and his disciples in the ship, to the ivesi side, to Capernaum. saAv that there was none other boat there, etc.—The meaning is, the people had observed that there had been only one boat on the east side where tliey were, namely, the one in which the disciples had crossed at night to the other, the west side, and they had also observed that Jesus had not gone on board that boat, but His disciples had put off without Him: " Howbeit," adds the Evangelist, in a lively parenthesis;, " there came otlier boats from Tiberias" (which lay near the south-west coast of the lake), whose passengers were part of the multitude that had followed Jesus to the east side, and been miraculously fed ; those boats were fastened somewhere (says the Evangelist) "nigh unto the place where they did eat bread, after that the Lord had given thanks"—thus he refers to the glorious " miracle of the loaves"—and now they were put in requisition to convey tlie people back again to tlie west side. For when " the people saw that Jesus was not there, neitlier his disciples, they also took shipping (in these boats)and came to Capern.aum, seeking for Jesus." 'Za. when they found him on the other Bide (at Caperiinnm) they said, itc—astonished at His being there, and wondering how he could have accomplished it, whether by land or water, and irhen He came; fcreofi," and that "/)-o/;i heaven."' The bread of GoA la He, etc.—Tills verse Is perhaps best left in its own transparent grandeur—holding up the Bread Itself as dimne, spiritual, and eternal; its ordained Fountain and essential Substance, "Him who came down from heaven to give it" (that Eternal Life which was with the Father and was nnifested unto us, 1 Joliu 1. 2); and its designed objects, ." the world." 34. Lord evermore give us this bread—speaking now with a certain reverence (as at V. 25), the perpetuity of the manna floating perhaps In their minds, and much like the Samaritan woman, when her eyes were but half opened, "Sir, give me this water," &c. (ch. i. 15). 3.5. I am the Bread of Life—Henceforth the discourse is all in the first person, "I," "Me," which occur in one form or other, as Stier reckons, thlrty-flve times. He that Cometh to me—to obtain wliat the soul craves, and as the only all-sutlicient and ordained source of supply, hunger . . . thirst—shall have conscious and abiding satisfaction. 30. But ye have seen nie and be« lleve not—seen Him not In His mere bodily presence, but in all the majesty of His life. His teachlig. His works. 37-40. All that, itc-This coiiipreliensiveand very grand passage is expressed with a peculiar artistic precision. Tlio opening general statement (v. 37) consists of two members: (1.) "All that the Father Givkth mes SHALL COME TO ME"— (7. d., 'Tliough ye, as I told you, have no faith in me, my errand into the world shall In no wise be defeated; for all that the Father giveth me shall Infallibly come to me.' Observe, what Is given Him by for being quite unaware of His having walked upon the sea and landed with the disciples in the ship, tliey could not see how, unless He had travelled all night round the head of the lake alone, he could have reached Capernaum, and even then, how he could have arrived before themselves. 30. Ye seek me, &c.—Jesus does not put them through their dilticulty, says nothing of His treading on the waves of the sea, nor even notices their question, but takes advantage of tlie favourable moment for pointing out to tliem how forward, fiijipant, and superficial were their views, and liow low their desires. " Ye seek me not because ye saw the miracles" lit., ' the signs,' i. e., supernatural tokens of a higher presence, and a Divine commission, "but because ye did eat of tlie loaves and were filled." From this He proceeds atonce to iUai other liread,

Just as, Willi the woman of Samaria, to that other Water

(eh. 4). We should li.ave supposed all that follows to have been delivered by the wayside, or wherever they happened first to meet. Hut from v. 59 we gather that they had probably met about the door of the synagogue— ' for that was the <lay In which they assembled in their synagogues' [Lioil tfoot]—and that on being asked, at the close of the service. If He had any word of exhortation to the people. He had taken the two breads, the perishing and the living bread, for the subject of His profound and extraordinary discourse. 37. which the Son of man taking that title of Himself which denoted His incarnate tlie Father is expressed in X\\c singular numberand neuter gender—;i7., 'everything;' while those who come to Him are put In the masculine gender and singular number— 'every one.' The whole mass, so to speak. Is gifted by the Father to the Son as a unit!/, which the Son evolves, one by one. In the execution of His trust. So ch. 17. 2, " thai He shouli! give eternal life to all that which Thou has\ given Him." [Benqei,.] This " ahall" expresses the glorU life, ahall gi-ve unto you—in the sense of r. SI. Him 138

Jeeta Ldarea IlimsdJ to be JOHN VI. the Bread oj Li/a to all Believers u. 54. written In the 'propliets-In Isaiah 54.13; Jeremiah 31.33, 34 ; other similar passages may also have been in view. Our Lord thus falls back upon Scripture authority for this seemingly hard saying, nil taught of Goil— not by external revelation merely, but Ijy internal illumination, corresponding to the "drawing" of v. 44. every man tlj«refore, <tc. i. e., who hath been thus efficaciously taught of Him. cometli unto me— with absolute certainty, yet in the sense above given of "drawing:" q. d., 'As none can come to me but as divinely drawn, so none thus drawn shall fail to come.' Not tJiat any man hnth seen, &c.—Lest they should confound that " hearing and learning of the Father," to which believers are admitted by Divine teaching, with His own immediate access to Him, He here throws in a parenthetical explanation; stating, as explicitly as words could do it, how totally different the two cases were, and that only He who is " from God" hath this naked, immediate access to the Father. (Seech. 1. 18.) 47-51. He that believeth, &c.—See on ch.

ouscertaint)/ c>{ it, the Father being pledged to see to it that tlie gilt be no empty mockery. (2.) "And him that

COMF.TJI TO ME I WtLl, IN NO WISE CAST OUT." AS the former was tlie Divine, tliis is just the human side of tlie same tiling. True, the "coming" ones of tlie second clau.sp are just tlie " given" ones of the first. But had our Lord merely said, MtViere those that have been given me of Hiy Father shall come to me, I will receive them'—besides being very flat, the Impression conveyed would have been quite diflerent, sounding as if there were »io Uher laus in 02>eratinn, in the movement of sinners to

Christ, but such as are wholly Divine and inscrutable to us; whereas, though He docs speak of it as a sublime certainty which men's refusals cannot frustrate, he speaks of that certainty as taking eflect only by men's voluntary advances to Iliin and acceptance of Him—"Him that comelh to me," "whosoever will," throwing the door wide open. Only it is not the simply willing, but the actually coming, whom He will not cast out; for the word here employed usually denotes arrival, us distinguished from the ordinary word, which ratlier expresses the act

3. 36; 5. 24. I am the bread of life, &c.—As he that believeth in Me hath everlasting life, so I am Myself tlie everlasting Sustenance of that life. (Repeated from v. 35.) Your fathers—of whom ye spake (u. 31); not 'ours,' by which He would hint that He had a higlier descent, of which they dreamt not. [Bengel.J did eat manna . . . and are dead—recurring to their own point about tlie manna, as one of the noblest of the ordained preparatory illustrations of His own office : ' Your fathers, ye say, ate manna in the wilderness; and ye say well, for so they did,6u< they are dead—wen they whose carcassesfell in the wilderness did eat of that bread; the Bread whereof I speak cometh down from heaven, which the manna never did, that men, eating of it, may live /or ever.' I am, etc. Understand, it is of Myself I now speak as the Bread from heaven; of Mb if a man eat he shall live for ever; and " THE Bread which I will give is My Flesh, which of coming ; see ch. R. 42, Oreek. [Webster and Wilkinson.] "In no wise" is an emphatic negative, to meet the fears of the timid (as in Revelation 21. 27, to meet the presumption of the hardened). These, then, being the two members of the general opening statement, what follows

Is meant to take in both, "For I came down from heaven not to do mine own will"—to play an independent part "but {in respect to both the foregoing things, the Divine and the human side of salvation) the will of Him that sent me." What this twofold will of Him that sent Him is, we are next sublimely told (v. 39, 40): "And this"-in the firr.t place—" is the will of Him that sent me, that of all (' everything') which He hath given me (taking up the Identical words of d. 37), I should lose nothing, but should raise It upat the last day." The meaning is not, of course, that Ho is charged to keep the objects entrusted to Him as He received them, so as they should merely suffer nothing in His hands. For as they were Just "perishing" sinner* of Adam's family, to let " nothing" of such " be lost," but "raise them up at the last day," mu!it involve,/i)-«<, "giving His flesh for them" (v. 51), that they " might not perish, liut have everlasting life;" and after "keeping them from falling," raising their sleeping dust in incorruption and glory, and presenting them, body and

I WILL GIVE FOK THE LIFE OF THE WOULD." Here,

for the first time In this high discourse, our Lord explicitly introduces His sacrificial death—for only rationalists can doubt this—not only as that which constitutes Him the Bread of life to men, but as that very element in Him WHICH POSSESSES THE LIFE-GIVING VIUTCE.— ' From this time we hear no more (in this discourse) of " Bread ;'' this figure is dropped, and the reality takes its place.' [Stier.] The words "I will give" may be compared with, the words of institution at the Supper, "This is my body which is given for you" (Lulte 22. 19), or in Paul's report of

Boul, perfect and entire, wanting nothing, to Him who gave them to Him, saj'ing, " Behold I and the children which God hath given me." So much for tlie first will of Him that sent Him, the ZJiume side of man's salvation, whose every stage and movement is inscrutable to us, but Infallilily certain. " And this"—in the second place— "is the will of Him that sent me, that every one which' it, "broken for you." (1 Corinthians 11. 24.) 52. .Tewjh strove among themselves—arguing the point together How can, Ac.—7. d.,' Give us his flesh to eat? Absurd.' 53-58. Except ye eat the tlesh . . . and drink the blood.

. . . no life, Ac—The harshest word He had yet uttered in their ears. They asked how it was possible to eat hiaeeetli the Sonandbelieveth (or ' seeing the Son believeth') on Him, may have everlasting life, and I will raise him np at t!ie last daj'." This is the human side of the same thing as in the foregoing verse, and answering to "Him flesh. He answers, with great solemnity, ' It is indispen able.' Yet even here a thoughtful hearer might find something to temper the harshness. He says they must not' only "eat His/es7i" but "drink His blood," which could not but suggest the idea of His rfcart—implied in the separation of one's flesh from his blood. And as He had already hinted t'nal it was to be something very different from a natural death, saying, " My flesh I will give for the that comelh unto me Twill in no wise cast out:" q. d.,

' I have

It expressly in charge that every one that so "beholdeth"

(' so vieweth') the .Son as to believe on Him shall have everlasting life ; and, that none of Him be lost, " I will raise him up at the last day." ' See on v. 54. *1-4:G. Jews miirmureil—or ' muttered,' not in our Lord's hearing, l)ut He knew it, V. 4.3 (ch. 2. 25). he said, I am tlic bread, &c.— Missing the sense and glory of this, and having no relish for such sublimities, they harp upon tlie "Bread from heaven." 'What can this mean? Do we not know all about Him—where, when, and of whom He was born? And yet He says He came down from heaven !' Mnrmur not . . . Xo man—7. d., 'Be not either startled or stumbled at these sayings ; for it needs Divine teaching to understanil them. Divine drawing to submit to them.' can come fo me— In the sense of v. .35. except the Father Mhtch liatik sent me i. e., the Father as tlie Sender of Me and fo carrt/ out the design of My mission, draw him—by nn internal and efficaeious operation ; though by all the means of rational conviction, and In a way altogether consonant to their moral nature (Song of Salomon 1.4; Jeremiah 31. 3; Hosea 11. 3, 4). raise him up, &c.—See on 50 life of the world" {v. 51), it must have been pretty plain to candid hearers that he meant something above the grossidea which the bare terms expressed. And farther, when he added that they " had no life in them unless they thusate and drank," it was impossible they should think He meant that the temporal life they were then living was dependent on their eating and drinliing, in this gross sense. His flesh and blood. Yet the whole statement was certainly confounding, and beyond doubt was meant to bo so. Our Lord had told them that in spite of all they had "seen" in Him they "did not believe" (v. Sn). For Iheirconviction therefore he does not here lay Himself out; but having the ear not only of them but of the more candid a.n<l iliought/id in the crowded synagogue, and the miracle of the loaves having led up to the most exalted of all views of His Person and OtSce, He takes advantage of their very difficulties and; objections to announce, lor

Many Disciples Depart from Jesus, JOHN VII. but Peter Boldly Confensen Him.

all time, those most profound tri Uhs which ave here expressed, regiirdless of tlie disgust of the untrii(tlial)Ie, and merely of the outer but of the Inner circle of His dlsciples ; for he knew the traitor, though it was not yet time to expose him. Therefore said I, &c. q.d., 'That wan why I spoke to you of the necessity of Divine teaching which some of you are strangers to.' except it were given him—plainly showing that by the Father's "drawing'' (v. 4i) was meant an internal and effleacious operation, for iu recalling the statement here He says, it must l)e " given to a man to come" to Christ. 66-71. Prom tliat time, &c.— or, in consequence of this. Those last words of our Lord seemed to have given them the finishing stroke—the.v could not stand i t any longer, walked no more—Many a journey, It maybe, they had taken with Him, but now they gave Him finally up! the Ttvelve—the flvst time they are thus mentioned in this Gospel. 'Will ye also go away!—Aflfecting appeal! Evidently Christ felt the desertion of Him even by those miserable men who could not abide His statements; and seeing a disturbance even of the wheat by the violence of the wind which blew away the c?tf/^'(uot yet visibly showing itself, but open to His eyes of fire). He would nip it in the bud by this hotne question. Then Simon Peter—whose forwardness in this case was noble, and to the wounded spirit of His Lord doubtless very grateful. Lord, to whom, &c. q. cl., ' We cannot deny thatrt e have been staggered as well as they, and seeing so many go away who, as we thought, might have been retained by teaching a little less hard to take iu, oar own endurance has been severely tried, nor have we been able to stop short of the question. Shall we follow the rest, and give it up? But when it came to this, our light returned, and our hearts were reassured. For as soon .as we thought of going away, there arose upon us that awful question, "To whom shall we go?" To the lifeless formalism and wretched traditions of the elders? to the gods many and lords many of the heathen around us? or to blank unbelief? Nay, Lord, we are shut up. They have none of that "eternal life" to ofl'er us whereof Thou hast been discoursing, in words rich and ravishing as well as in words staggering to human wisdom. That life we canuot want ; that life we have learnt to crave as a necessity of the deeper nature which Thon hastawakened : " the words of that eternal life" (theantliority to rcvea/. it and the power to confer it) Thou hast : Therefore will we stay with Thee— tlie prejudices even of tlie most sincere, wliicli His language would seem only designed to deepen. The truth really conveyed here is no other tlian that expressed in v.

51, thouih in more emphatic terms—that Himself, in the virtue of His sacrificial death, is the spiritual and eternal life of men ; and that unless men voluntarily appropriate to themselves this death, in its sacrilicial virtue, so as to become the very life and nourishment of their inner man, tliey have no spiritual and eternal life at all. Not as if His death were the only thing of value, but it is what gives all else in Christ's Incarnate Person, Life, and Office, their whole value to ns sinners. AVlioso eatetli . . . hath, &c. The former verse said that viitess they partook of Him they had no life; tliis adds, that whorver does so "hath eternal life." Ami I will raise him up at the lust day For the fourth time this is repeated (see v. S!), -10, 44)—showing most clearly that the "eternal life" which such a man "hat?i" cannot be the same with the /i<<(«-e resurrectionlife, from which it is carefully distinguished each time, but a life communicated here below immediately on believing (ch. 3. 36; 5. 24, 2.5); and giving to the resurreetion of the body as that whicli consummates the redemption of the entire man, a, prominence which in the current theology, it is to be feared, it has seldom had. (See Romans 8.

23; 1 Corinthians 15., throughout.) He that eateth . . . dwelletU in me and I in him—As our food becomes incorporated with ourselves, so Christ and those who eat His flesh and drink His blood becotne spiritually one life, though personally AifiVmcl. As the living Father Itath sent ine—to communicate His own life, and I live by the Fatlier lit., 'because of the Father;' My life and his being one, but Mine that of a Son, whose it is to be " of the Father." (See ch. 1. IS; 5. 26.) he tliat eatetli me shall live by n\K—lit., ' because of me.' So that though one spiritual life with Him, " the Head of every man is Christ, as the head of Christ is God." (1 Corinthians II. 3; 3. 23.) This is that bread, &c.—a sort of summing up of the whole discourse, on wliicli let this one further remark snl Hce that as our Lord, instead of softeiiing down His figurative sublimities, or even putting them in naked phraseology, leaves the great truths of His Person and Office, and our participation of Him and it, enshrined for all time in those glorious forms of speech, so when we attempt to strip the truth of these figures, figures though they be, it goes away from ns, like water when the vessel is broken, and our wisdom lies in raising our own spirit, and attuning our own ear, to our Lord's chosen modes of expression. (It should be added thataltliough this discourse has nothing to do with the Sacrament of the Supper, the Bacrament lias every thing to do with it, as the visible em-

' we must.' And we believe, &c.—(See on Matthew 16. 16.) Peter seems to have added this not merely—probably not so much—as an assurance to his Lord of ills heart's belief in Him, ,as for the purpose of fortifying himself and his faithful brethren against that recoil from his Lord's harsh statements which he was probably struggling against witli difllculty at that moment. iV.£.—There are seasons when one's faith is tried to the utmost, particularly by speculative diflicu Uies ; the spiritual eye then swims, and all truth seems ready to depart from us. At such seasons, a clear perception that to abandon the faith of Christ Is to face blank desolation, ruin and death; and on recoiling from this, to be able to bodi7He?it of these figures, and, to the believing partaker, a real, yea, and the most lively and atl'ecting participation of His flesh and blood, and nourishment thereby of the spiritual and eternal life, here below.) 59. Tliese things Bald lie in tlic synagogue—which seems to imply that what lollows took place after the congregation had broken up. 00-0.>. Many of Ills disciples—His pretty constant followers, though an outer circle of them, hard saying— not merely harsh, but insulferable, as the word often means in the Old Testament, ivlio can hear—submit to Listen to it. Doth this ol Tend . . . AVIiat and if, &c.— fall back, not merely onrst principles and immovable foundations, but on persortal experience of a Living Lord in tvhom all truth is wrapt up and made flesh for our very benefit —this is a relief unspeakable. Under that blessed Wing taking shelter, until we are again fit to grapple with the questions that have staggered us, we at length either find our way through them, or attain to a calm sjitisfaction in the discovery that they lie beyond the limits of present apprehension. Have not I chosen . . , and one of you g. d., ' If ye are stumbled at what I Iiave said, liow will ye .bear what I now say?' Not that His as(^ension Itself would Stumble them more than His death, but that after recoiling from the mention of the one they would not be in a state of mind to take in the other, tlie flesh profiteth Mothing— Much of His discourse was about "flesh;" but Hesh as such, mere flesh, could proflt nothing, much less impart that Vi/e which the Holy Spirit alone communlCUtes to the suul. the words I speak are spirit and life— the whole burden of the discour.se is "spirit," not mere flesh, and "life" i,n its highest, not its lowest sense, and the words 1 have employed are to be Interpreted solely in is a devil 1—5. (/., 'Well said, Slmon-Barjonas, but that "we" embraces not so wide a circle as in the simplicity of thine heart thou thinkest; for though I have chosen you but twelve, one even of these Is a "devU" ' (the temple, the tool of that wicked one).

CHAPTER VII.

"Ver. 1-53. Christ at the Feast op Tabernacles. !« S. After these things—t. e., all that is recorded after o/i. 5. 18. walked In Galilee—continuing ills labours there. Instead of going to Judea, as might have been expected, sought to kill hiin, &c.—referring bock to cU. 5. IS. Jlcnce U apthai, sense. But tliere are some, &c. q. d., ' But it matters little to some of you in what sense I speak, for ye bcllovo not.' ThlJii was said, adds the Evangelist, not 140

OirLft at the Feast of Tabernacles. JOHN lie Teaches in, the Temple mense importance, showing, on the one hand, that singleness of desire to please God is the grand inlet to light on all questions vitally affecting one's eternal interests, and on the other, that the want of thi, whether perceived or uot, is the chief cause of injidelily amidst the light of revealed religion, seeketii his own glory,ttc.—See on cli. o. 41—tl. 19, 30. Did not nioses, >ic.—17. d., 'In opposing Me ye pretend zeal for Moses, but to the spirit and end of that law which he gave ye are total strangers, and in "going about to kill me" ye are its greatest enemies.' Tlie people answered. Thou hast a devil : m'Iio goeth about to kill thee !—Tills was saidby ' tlie muliitude,' whoas yet had no bad feelingto Jesus, and were not in tlie secret of the plot hatching, as our Lord knew, against Him. Hl-'H. I have doneone work, &c.—Taking no notice of the popular appeal, as there were those there who knew well enough what He meant, He recalls His cure of*the impotent man, and tlie murderous rage it had kindled (ch. 5. S), 16, 18). It may seem strange that He should refer to an event a year and a half old, as if but newlj' done. But tlieir present attempt "to kill Him" brought the past scene all fresh up, not only to Him, but without doubt to tliem too, if indeed they had ever forgotten it; and by this fearless reference to it, exposing their hypocrisy and dark designs. He gave His position great moral strength. Moses gave you circumcision, (fee.—Tliough servile work was forbidden on the sabbath, tlie circumcision of males on that day (which certainly was a servile work) was counted no infringement of the Law. How much less ought fault to be found witli One who had made a man "every wliit whole"—or rather, ' a man's entire body whole"—011 the sabbath-day 7 What a testimony to the reality of tlie miracle, none daring to meet the bold appeal, judge not, &c.—q. d., 'Rise above the letter into the spirit of the law.' 25-!J7. some of them of Jerusalem—the citizens, who, knowing the long-formed purpose of the rulers to put Jesus to death, wondered they were now letting Him teach openly. Do the rulers linow, &c.—Have they got some new light in favour of His claims? Howbelt we know tliis man, &e.—^Tliis seems to refer to some current opinion that Messiah's origin would be mj'sterious (not altogether wrong), from which they concluded that Jesus could uot be he, since they knew all about His family at Nazareth.

pears that our Lord did rwt attend the Passover mentioned ai ch. C. i—bein>5 the third since His ministry began, if the feast nienlioiied in cli. 5. 1 was a Passover, feast of tabernnclec at hand—Tliis was tlie last of the tliree annual lestivals, celebrated on the 15th of the 7lh month (September). See Leviticus 2;!. 33, &c, ; Deuteronomy 16. 13, &e.; Nehemiah 8. 11-18. 3-5, HU brethren said—See on Matthew l i. 5-1-.36, Depart . . . Into Jiidca, Ac—In v. 5 this speecli is ascribed to their unbelief. But as they were In the " upper room" among the one hundred and twenty disciples who waited for the descent of the Spirit after the Lord's ascension (Acts I. H), tliey seem to have had tlieir prejudices removed, perhaps after His resurrection. Indeed here their language is more that of strong prejudice and suspicion (such as near relatives, even the best, too frequently show ill 4«c7i caes), than from unbelief. There was also, probably, a tincture of vanity in it, ' Thou hast manj' disciples in Judea; here in Galilee they are fast dropping off; it is not like one who advances the claims thou dost to linger so long here, away from the city of our solemnities, where surely " tlie kingdom of our father David" is to be set up; "seeking," as thou dost, "to be known openly," those miracles of thine ought not to be confined to tliis distant corner, but submitted at headquarters to the inspection of " the world." ' (.See Psalm

69.8, "I am become a stranger to my brethren, an alien unto my mother's children.'") G-10. My time uot yet come —i.e., for "showing Himself to tlie world." your time always ready, &c.—q. d.,

' It matters little when we go up, for ye have no great plans in life, and nothing hangs upon your movements. With Me it is otherwise; on every movement of Mine there hangs wliatye know not: The world lias no quarrel with you; for ye bear no testimon.v against it, and so draw down upon yourselves none of its wratli; but I am here to lift up My voice against its hypocrisy, and denounce its abominations; therefore it cannot endure Me, uud one false step might precipitiite its fury on its Victim's liead before tlie time. Away, therefore, to the feast as soon as it suits you ; I follow at the fitting moment, but " My time is not yet full come."' theu went he . . . not openly—not "in the (caravan) company." [Meyer,] (.See on Luke 2.44.) ns it were In secret—rather, 'in a manner secretly;' perhaps by some other route, and in a way not to attract no-

Z'Z, 29. Jesus cried—in a louder tone, and more solemn, witnessing style than usual. Ye both, etc. q. d., 'Yes, ye know both myself and my local parentage, "and (yet) I am not come of myself." ' he that sent me is true, &c. Probably the meaning is, 'Pie that sent me is tlie only tice. 11-13. Jews (the rulers) sought him—for no good end. Where is he ?—He had not been at Jerusalem for probably a year and a half, much murmuring— ' l)uzzing,' among the people—'the multitudes;' 'the naturecti Sender of any one.' 30-38. sought to take . . . nouo laid hands thfiv intpotence being equal to their malignity. When Christ eometh, will he, itc. q. d., 'If this be not ral expression of a Jewish writer, indicating without design the crowded slate of Jerusalem at this festival.' fWEBSTKK and Wilkinson.] a good man . . . Nay . . . decelveth, &c.—the two opposite views of His claims, that they were honest, and that tliey were an imposture, none spake oi»enly of him—£. e., in His favour, " for fear of tlie tlic Christ, what can the Christ do, wlien He does come, which has uot been anticipated and eclipsed by this man? Tliis was evidently the language of friendly persons, overborne by their spiteful superiors, but unable to keep quite silent, lieard. that tliey murmured—that mutterings to this ef Tect were going about, and thought it high time to stop Him if He was not to be allowed to

(ruling) Jews." 11, 15, about tlie midst of the feast-the fourth or fifth duy of the eight, during wliich it lasted, went up into the temple and taught—Tlie word denotes formal and coi Uin uuics tcachini/, a.s di>iliiitimshed from mere casual Siiyings. Tliis was pvobahly the Jiist time lhat He did so thus openly in Jerusalem. He had kept liack till the feast was half through, to let the stir about Him sul>

Ciirry away the people. 33, 34. Yet a little while, <S:c.

q. d., 'Your desire to be rid of Me will be for you all too soou fulfilled. Yet a little while and we part company— for ever; for I gc^-hither ye cannot come, nor, even when ye at length .seek to Him wliom ye now despise, shall ye be able to find Him'— referring not to any penitential, but to purely selfish cries in their tiu\e of desperation. 35, 30. whither will he go, &c.—They cannot comprehend him, but seem awed l).v the solemn grandeur of Hla warning. He takes no notice, however, of tbfir questions. 37-39. the last, tlie great dajof t!ie feast—the eightli (Leviticus 2.3. ;iy). It was a sablialh, tlie last least day of the year, and distinguished by very remarkable ceremo-

Bide, and entering the city unexpectedly, had begun His " teaching" at tlie temple, and civaled a certain awe, before tlie wrath of the rulers had time to break it. How knoweth . . . letters—learning. (Acts 2(i. 24.) having never learned—at any rabbinical school, as Paul under Ciumaliel. Tliesc rulers knew well enough lhat He liad tMl studied under an.v human teacher—an Important admission against ancient and modern attempts to irace our Lord s wisdom to human sourcejs, [MEVEit.] Probably His teaching on this occasion was expository, manifesting that unrlvalkxl faculty and depth which in tlie Sermon on the Mount had excited the astonishment of ail. 16-18. doctrine . . . not mine, &p.—t. c, from Myself unauthorized ; I am here liy commission. If any n. iui will do the M ill, Ac.—' is willing,' or ' wishes to do.' wUetiier of Oodor . . . of myself—from above or from bt iieutli nies. 'The generally joyous character of tliis least broke out on this day into loud jubilation, jiarticularly at the solemn moment wlien the priest, as was done on every day of this festival, brought forth, iu golden vessels, water from the stream of Siloah, wliicli (lowed uniler tlie temple-mountain, and solemnly poured it U)>on tlie altar. Then tlie words of Jsaiali 12. 3 were sung, ' With joi, thali lu _>ivine or an imposture of mine. A principle of im-

Christ Teachei in the Temple. JOHN VIII. Divers Opinions Concerning Him.

pe drmv writer out of the welh of Salvation,'' and thns the ing its expectation—had gushed forth upon a thlrsxy world. 40-43. Many . . . when they hear<t this . . . said, Of a trnth, &c.—The only wonder Is they did not all say it. "But their minds were blinded." Others, TlUs Is the Christ—See on ch. 1. 21. Shall Christ come ont of Galilee . . . Scripture snid ... of the see<I of David and out of Bethlehem, &c.—We accept this spontaneous testimony to our David-descended, Bethleliemborn Saviour. Had those who gave it made the inquiry which the case demanded, they would have found that Jesus "came out of Galilee" and "out of Bethlehem" both, alike in fulfilment of prophecy as in point of fact. (Matthew 2. 23 ; 4. 44-49. AvotUd have taken him, tout, <fcc.—See on i*. 30. Then came the officers—"sent to take him," v. 32. Why not brought him?—already thirsting for their Victim, and thinking it an easy matter to .seize and bring Him. BTever man spake like thU man—Noble testimony of unsophisticated men ! Doubtless they were strangers to the profound Intent of Christ's teaching, but there was that in it which by Its mysterious grandeur and transparent purity and grace, held them spell-bound. No doubt it was of God that they should so feel, that their arm might be paralyzed, as Christ's hour was not come ; but even in human teaching there has sometimes been felt such a Divine power, that men who came to kill them (e. g., Rowland Hill) have confessed to all that they were unmanned, ye also deceived?— In their own servants this seemed Intolerable, any of the rulers and Plkarlsees believed 1—" Manj' of them" did, including Nicodemus and Joseph, but not one of these had openly "confessed him" (ch. 12. 42), and this appeal must have stung such of them as heard it to the quick. But this people—ii7., 'multitude,' meaning the ignorant rabble. [Pity these important distinctions, so marked in the original of this gospel, should not be also in our version.] knoweth not the law—i. c, by school learning, which only subverted it by human traditions, are cursed—a cnrsed set (a kind of swearing at them, out of mingled lage and scorn). 50-53. Nicodemus—reap» pearing to us after nearly three years' absence from the history, as a member of the council, probably then sitting. Doth our law, &c.—A very proper, but all too tame rejoinder, and evidently more from pressure of conscience than any design to pronounce positively in the case. ' The feebleness of his defence of Jesus has a strong contrast in the fierceness of the rejoinders of the Pharisees.' [Webster and Wilkinson.] Thou of Galilee t— syiiitjolical reference of this act, intimated in v. 39, was expressed.' [OlshauSen.] So ecstatic was the joy with whicli this ceremonywas performed—accompanied with sound of tmmpets—that it used to be said, 'Whoever had Mot witnessed it had never seen rejoicing at all.' [Lightfoot.] On this high occasion, then. He wlio had already drawn all eyes upon Him by His supernatural power and unrivalled teaching —"jEStrs stood," probably in some elevated position, "and cried," as if making proclamation in the audience of all the people, "If any man thirst, LET HIM COME UNTO Me AND DRINK!" What an Offer! The deepest cravings of the human spirit are here,- as in the Old Testament, expressed by the figure of "tfiirst," and the eternal satisfaction of them hy " drinking." To the woman of Samaria He had said almost the same thing, and in the same terms, Jolfn 4. 1.3, It. But what to her was simply affirmed to her as a fact, is here turned into a. yorliX-'Vj'xAe proclamation ; and whereas there, the gift by Him of the living water is the most prominent Idea—in contrast with her hesitation to give Him the perishable water of Jacob's well—here, the prominence is given to Himself as the Well-spring of all satisfaction. He had in Galilee invited all the weary and heavyL.ADEN of the human family to come under His wing and they should find rest (Matthew 11. 28), which is just the same deep want, and the same profound relief of it, under another and equally grateful figure. He had in the synagogue of Capernaum (ch. 6.) announced Himself, in every variety of form, as "the Bread of Life," and as both able and authorized to appease the " hunger,'' and quench the "thirst," of all that apply to Him. There is, and there can l>e, nothing beyond tliat here. But what was on all those occasions uttered in private, or addressed to a provincial audience, is here sounded forth in the sti-eets of the great religious metropolis, and in language of surpassing majesty, simplicity, and grace. It is just Jehovah's ancient proclamation noiv soundinff forth through human flesh, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money !"' (Isaiah 55. 1.) In tliis light we have but two alternatives; either to say with Caiaphas of Him that uttered such words,"//*' is guilty of death," or falling down before Him to exclaim with Tliojnas, "My Lord and my God!" »« the ScrtpInre huth said—These words belong to what follows, " Out of his belly, as the Scripture hatli said, shall flow%''

&e., referring not to any particular passage, but to such as Isaiah .5.S. 11 ; .loel 3. 18; Zechariah H. 8; Ezekiel -17. 1-12; In most of whicii the idea is that of waters issuing from beneatli the Temple, to which our Lonl compares Himin this taunt expressing their scorn of the party. Even a word of caution, or the gentlest proposal to inquire before condemning, was with them equivalent to an espousal of the hated One. Search . . . otit of Galilee . . . no prophet—Strange! For had not Jmiah (of Gathhepher) and even Elijah (of Thisbe) arisen out of Galilee? and it may be more, of whom we have no record. But rage self and those who believe in Him. out of Ills Iwlly

I. e., his inner man, his soul, as in Proverbs 20. 27. rivers of living water—See on ch. 4. 13, It. It refers primarily to tlie copiousness, but indirectlj' also to the diffusiveness, of this living water to the good of others. Tlila spnkc l«e of tlie spirit—Who, by His direct personal agency, opens up tliis spring of living waters in the Inunan spirit (ch. 3.

is blind, and deep prejudicedistorts all facts. Yet It looks as if tliey were afraid of losing Nicodemus, when they take the trouble to reason the point at all. It was Just because he had "searched," as they advised him, that ho went the leng'h even that he did. every man went to his own Uome—finding their plot could not at that time be carried into

6), and by His indwelling in the renewed soul ensures their unfailing flom. tliey that believe, A-c—As the Holy Ghost is, in tlie redemption of man, entirely at tlie service of Christ, as His Agent, so it is onh) in believing connection with Christ tliat any one " receives" the'Spirit. For the Holy Ghost wns not yet [given]—l)eyond all doubt tlie word "given," or some similar word, is the right supplement. In ch. 16. 7 the Holy CJhost is represented not only as the gift of Christ, but a gill the communication of which was dependent upon His own departure to the Father. Now as Clirist was not yet gone, so the Holy Gliost was not effect. Is your rage thus impotent, ye c'uief priests?

CHAPTER VIII.

Ver. l-U. The Woman Taken in Adultery. 1, 9. •Tesus went unto the Mount of Olives—This should have formed the last verse of the foregoing chapter. 'The return of the people to the inert qnietand security of their dwellings (ch. 7. M), at the close of the feast. Is designedly contrasted with our Ijord's homeless way, so to speak, of spending the sliort niglit, who is early In the morning on the s(uMie again. One cannot well see why what is recorded in Luke 21. .'17, 38 may not even thus early have taken place ; it might have been the Lord's ordinary custom from the beginning to leave the brilliant misery of the city every night, that so Ho miglit compose Ills sorrowful and interceding heart, and collect His energies for new labours of love; preferring for His rcstlng-plaoe yet given. .Jesiis not yet glorlflecl—flie woriX " glorified" is here used advisedly, to teacli tlie reader not only that the departure of Clirist to the Fatlier was indispensable to the giving of tlie Spirit, but that tliis Illustrious Gift, <lirecl from the liands of Iheascended .Saviour, was (jod's intimation to tlie world tliat He whom it had cast out, crucllled, and slain, was "His Elect, in whom Ills soijl delighted," and tliat it was through the smiting of that Rock that the waters of the Spirit—for which tlie Cliurch was waitlug, and with pomp at the feast of tabernacles proclaim-

The Woman Taken in Adultery. JOHN VIII. Christ Jistijieth his Docti i'oe.

me and drink,"' so now amid.st the blaze and the joyousness of this illumination. He proclaims, " I am the Light OF THE WORLD"—plainly in the most a6*o;u/e sense. For though He gives bis disciples the same title, they are only " light in the Lord " (^hesians 5. 8) ; and tliough He calls the Baptist "the burning and shining light" (or 'lamp' of his day, ch. 5. 35), yet "he was not thai Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Liglit: that was the true Light which, coming into the •wo\-\i\,lighteth evcri/ man"

Bethany, and the Mount of Olives, the scene thus consecrated by many preparatory prayers for His linal humiliation and exaltation. [Stier.] 3-6. Scribes and Pharliwcs—foiled in their s-^esterday's attempt, and hoping to BUPceed better in this, woman ... in adultery . . . Moses commanded . . . should be stoned—simply put to dentil (Deuteronomy 22, 22), but in aggravated cases, at least in later times, this was proliably by stoning (Ezekiel

Hi. 40). but what sayest thou—lioping, whatever He irlglit answer, to put Him in the wrong: — if He said, gtone her, that would seem a stepping out of His province;

(ch. 1.8,9). Under this magnificent title Messiah was promised of old, Isaiah 42. 6; Malachi 4. 2, &c. lie tliat followeth me—as one does a light going before him, and as the Israelites did the pillar of Ijriglit cloud in tlie wilderness, but shall have tlie llgitt of life—the liglit, as of a new world, a newly-awakened spiritual and eternal

If He forbade it, that would hold Him up as a relaxer of the public morals. But these cunning hypocrites were overmatched, stooped down—It will be observed He was "xitling" when they came to Him. wrote with his Bnger on the ground—Tlie words of our translators lu life. 13-19. bearest record of thyself ; tliy record is not true—How does He meet this specious cavil? Not by disputing the wholesome human maxim tliat 'self-praise is no praise,' but by affirming that He was an exception to the rule, or ratlier, tli;it it had no application to I/im. for I know whence I caine, and wliltlier I go, etc.—See on ch. 7. 2S, 29. Ye judge after the flesh—with no spiritual apprehension. 1 judge no man . . . yet if I judge, my Judgment is true, &c.—q. d., ' Ye not only /oi-m your carnal and warped judgments of Me, but are bent on carrying them into efl Tect; I, tliough I form and utter my judgment of you, am not here to carry this into execution that is reserved to a future day; yet the judgment I now pronounce and the witness I now bear is not mine only as ye suppose, but His also that sent me. (See on ch. 5.

Italics ("as thougli he heard them not") have liardly improved the sense, for it is scarcely probable He could wish that to be thought. Rather He wislied to show tliem His aversion to enter on the subject. But as this did not suit them, they "continue asking him," pressing for an answer. At last, raising Himself Hesaid—He tliat is without sin—not meaning sinless altogether; nor yet, guiltless of a literal breach of the Seventh Commandment; but probably, he wliose conscience acquits him of atiy xiiK-h sin. cast a gtone—

' Ihe stone,' meaning tlie first one (Deuteronomy 17. 7). again stooped down and wrote

Tlie design of this second stooping and writing on the ground was evidently to give her accusers an opportunity to slinI away unol)served by Him, and so avoid an exposure to His eye which they could ill have stood. Accordingly it iadded—tlicy . . . convict«d . . . went out one by one . . . Jesus left alone—t. e., without one of her accusers remaining; for it is added—tlie woman in tlie midst i. e., of the remaining audience. Wliile tlie trap

31, S2.) And these are the two witnesses to any fact which your law requires.' 20. Tliese woitls spake lie in the treasury—a division, so called, of the fore-court of the temple, part of the court of the women [Josephus, Antiquities, xix. 6. 2, etc.), which may confirm the genuineness of f,'. 2-U, as the place wliere the wom.an was brought, no man laid hands on him, &c.—See on ch. 7. 30. In the dialogue that follows, the conflict waxes sharper on both sides, till rising to its climax, they take up stones to stone him. fil-Z5, then said .Tcsus again unto tliem, I go my way, &e.—See on ch. 7. 34. then said the Jews, Will lie kill himself I—seeing something more in his«words than before (ch. 7. 35), but their question more malignant and scornful. Ye arc from beneath ... I from above—contrasting Himself, not as in ch.3. 31, simply witli earth-born messengers of God, but with mere sprung from and breathing an opposite element from His, whicli rendered it impossible that He and the,y should have any present fellowship, or dwell eternally together. See again on ch. 7.34: also v.

failed to catch Him for whom it was laid, it caught those who laid it. Stunned by the unexpected home-thrust, they Immediately made off—which makes the impudence of those impure hypocrites in dragging sucti a case before the public eye the more disgusting. Woman, &c.—What luimitalde tenderness and grace! Conscious of her own guilt, and till now in tlie hands of men who had talked

Df stoning her, wondering at tlie skill with wliich her accusers had been dispersed, .and the grace of the few words addressed to herself, she would be disposed to listen, with a reverence and teacliableness before unknown, to our Lord's admonition, "And Jesus said unto her. Neither do

I condemn thee, go and sin no more." He pronounces no pardon upon the woman (like "Thy sins are forgiven thee"—"Go In peace"), much less does He say that she had done nothing condemnable; He simply leaves the matter where it was. He meddles not with the magis-

44. . If yc believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins—They knew well enougli what He meant. (Mark 13.

6, Gr. ; cf. Matthew 24. 5.) But he would not, by sp>>aking it out, give them the materials for a charge for which they were watching. At the same time, one is irresistibly reminded by such language, so far transcending what is becoming in men, of those ancient declarations of the God of Israel, "I AM He," (tc. (Deuteronomy 32. 39; Isaiali 43.

trate's office, nor acts the Judge in any sense (ch. 12. 47). But in saying "Go and sin no more," which had b(ien before said to one who undoubtedly believed (ch. 5. 14), more

Is probaldy implied than expressed. If brought suddenly to c<»hviction of sin, admiration of her Deliverer, and a willingness to be admonished and guided by Him, tliis

10, 13; 46. 4; 48. 12.) See on ch. 6. 20. Who ni-t thou I— hoping thus to extort an explicit answer; but they are disappointed. 26, 27. 1 have many things to say and to Judge of you ; but He tliat sent me is true, &c. (j. d., call to begin a new life may have carried with it what would ensure and naturally bring about a permanent change. (This whole narrative is wanting in some of the earliest and most valuable MSS., and Ihotie which have it vary to some extents The internal evidence in its favour

' I could, and at tlie fitting time will say and judge many tilings of you (referring perhaps to tlie work of the Spirit which is iuT judgment as well as salvation, ch. 16. 8), but what I do say is just the message my Father hath given mo to deliver.' JJ8-30. Wiien yc have lifted up the Sou of man—Tlie plainest intiiiiation He had yet given in public of the nuinncr and the authors of His death, ye shall know that I am lie, itc —t. e., fln.d out, or have sufficient evidence, how true was ill He said, tliougli they would be far from owning it. tlic linther liath not left inc alone; for I do always those things tliat please Him, &c. q. d., 'To you, who gnash upon ine with your teeth, and frown down all open appearance for ine, I seem to stand uncountenaiiced and alone; but I have a sympathy and support transcending all human applause; I came hitlier to do my Father's will, and in tlie doing of*it have not ceased to please Uini ; therefore is He ever by Me with

Is almost overpowering. It is easy to account for Its ominxion, thougli genuine; but if not so, it is next to impossible to account for its inxertion.)

12-.)9. KUUTIIER DlSCOUKSES OF JESIT.S—ATTEMPT TO Stone Him. la. I am the liglit of tlie world—As the former references to water (ch. 4. and 7.) and to bread (ch.

8.) were occasioned by outward occurrences, so this one to ligi.t. In "the Treasury" where it was spoken (see on v. stood two colossal golden lamp-stands, on which liung auiullitude of lamps, lighted after tlie evening sacritice (probably every evening during the feast of tabernacles), dlltu Klng their brilliancy. It is said, over all the city. Around these the people danced with great rejoicing. Now, as amidst the festivities of tlie water from Siloam Jesus cried, saying, "If any man tliii'st let him come unto

Clu isCs Angucer to the Jews, JOHN VIII. who had Boasted 0/ Abi-aham.

23. If ye were Abraliam's children, ye would do the works of Abraham—He had just said He "knew they were Abraham's children," i.e., according to ihe tleifh; but the children of His faith and holiness they were not, but the reverse, this did not Abraham—In so doing ye act in direct opposition to him. we l>e not bom of fornication . . . we have one father, God—meaning, as ia generally allowed, that they were not an illegitimate race in point of reliyion, pretending only to l)e God's people, but were descended from His own chosen Abraham.

His approving smile, llis oliopring words. His snpporling ai m.' As he spnkc tlifc words, >iii>.i«y believed on lilin — liistearl of wonderi ns; at tliis, tlie wonder wonld l>e if words of sneii nnenrtlil.v, surpas.siiis graii<i<>nr could he niti Ted witliont captivating .?0)ne that lieard tliem. And, just as "all tliat sat in tlie council *to tr.v Stephen "saw hi.s/dre''—thonsj;)! expectinH notliin<; hut deatli "a.i ith<ul hec-i) Ihe f<ice of an av<)cl" (Acts 6. l i), so may we suppose tliat, lull of tlie sweet, snpportin"; sense of His Fatlier's pieseiit e, amidst the ra<re atxi scorn of the rulers, a Divine Iienignity beamed from His countenance, irradiated the words tliat fell from Him, and won over the candid "man.v" of His audience. 31-33. nieii said Jesns to those who ht-liev«l. If" ye continue in my >vor«l, then ave ye my dLscipIes Indeed, &c.—The impression produced hy the last words of our Lord ma.v have become visible by some decisive movement, and here He takes

4::l, 43. If God were yonr futlier, ye wonld love me— q. d., 'If .ye had anything of his moral image, as cliildren have their father's likeness, ye wonld love me, for I am immediately of him and directl.v from him. Bui "my speech" (meaning His peculiar style of expressing Himself on these subjects) is unintelligible to you Ix-cause ye cannot take in the troth which it conveys.' 44. Ye are of your father .the devll—'This is one of the most decisive testimonies to the objective (outward) personalily of the devil. It is qnite impossible to snppase an accommodation to Jewish views, or a inelaphorical form of speech, in so solemn an assertion as this.' [Ai.forb.] the lusts of yonr father—his impure, malignant, ungodly propensities, inclinations, desires, ye will do— 'are willing to do,' i. e., 'willingly do;' not of any blind necessity of nature, but of pitre natural inclination, l>e was a murderer from the beginning—The reference is not to Cain [as lyjCKB, De Wetts:, Alford, &c.], but to Adam [GroTius, Cai>vin, Meyer, Luthakdt, Ac.]. The death of the human race, in its widest sense, is ascribed to the murderous seducer of our race, and abode not In the truth—As, strictly .speaking, the word mns fid vantage of it to press on them " canliniimire" in the faith, since then only were they "his real disciples " (cf. ch. 15. :1-.S), and then should the,v experimentn Jbt "know the truth." and "l)y the truth be made (spii-it»ri/l,i/) free." They nnswered him, We l>e Abraham's seed, and were net-er in bondage to nny man, itc.—AVho said this? Not surely the very class .just spoken of as won over b.v His Divine words, and exhorted to continue in them. 3Iost interpreters seem to think so; but it is hard to ascribe sucli a petulant speech to the newl.v-gained disciples, even

311 the lowest sense, much less persons so gained as they were. It came, probably, from persons mixed np with them in the same part of the crowd, but of a very different spirit. The pj itle of the.Jewish nation, even now after centuries of hnnilliation, is the most striking feature of

' abideth,' it has been denied that the .fall of Sati».n from a former hol.y state is here expressed [Locke, Ac], and .some superior interpreters think it only implied. [Olsh.^usen, Ac] But though the form of the thought is present—not past— this is to express the important idea, that his whole clift' racter and activity are just a cmdinunl aberration from hit mvn oritfinal tntth or rectitude ; and thus his fall is not only tlieir character. 'Talk of freedom to iis? Pray when or to whom were we ever in bondage?' This bluster sounds almost ludicrous from such anation. Had the.y forgotten their long and bitter bondage in Eg.vpt? their dreary captivity in Babylon? their present bondage to the Roman yoke, and their restless eagerness to throw it off? But probal)ly they saw that our Lord pointed to something else—freedom, perhaps, from the leaders of sects or parties—and were not willing to allow their sulyection even to these. Our Lord, therefore, though He knew what slaves they were in this sense, drives the ploughshare KOinowhat' deeper than this, to a bondage they little dreamt of. 34-, 35. \A'hosoo%er rommitteth sin i.e., t\ie implied basis ol the thought, but p<irt of the statement itself, properly interpreted and brought out. no truth in him-void of all that holy, transparent rectitude w hich, as his creature, he originall.y pos.sessed. when lie s]>eaketh a lie, Ite spcaketh of his own—perliapis his own resources, treasures. Matthew 12. 35. [ALFOitD.] (The word is plural.) It means that be has no temptation to it .from livfth in the eommi.t.iioot of it—(Of. 1 John 3. S; Matthew 7. 2S)—is the sei-\'ant of sin i. c, the botrd-scrvnut, or slare of it; for the question is not al>out free service, but AVho are in bondone * (Cf. 2 Peter '2. 19; Revelation 6. Ifi.) The great truth here expressed was not unknown to heathen moralists; but it was applied only to rice, for the.y were tt'ilhout ; it is purely self-beffollcn, springing from a nature wliich is nothing but obliquity, the father of it— i. e., of lying: all the falsehofxl in the world owes its exisleneo toliim. What a verse is this! It holds np the devil (J.) as the murderer of the human race; but as this is meant here in the more profound sense of spiritual death, it holds him np (2.) as the spiritual parent of this fallen human family, commnnicating to liis off'sprii>g his own evil passions and univei-si»l obliquity, and stimulating these into active exercise. But as there is "a stronger than he," who comes upon him and overcomes him (Luke 11. 21, 22), it is only such as "love the darkness," who are addressed as children of the devil (Matthew 13. ;B; 1 John ."). S-IO). 4.'>-47. And because I tell you the truth, ye will not believe-not although, but.just txvause He did so, for the reason given in the former vei-se. Had He been less true they would have hailed Him more readil.v. wliich of yon eonvincrth me of sin—'Contotal strangers to what in revealed religion is called sin.

Tlie thought of slaves and /reenm in the house suggests to our IjOrd a wider idea. And the seiT."«nt abldetli not In the Iionse for ever, biitlheson abldeth ever q.iK, 'And if your connection witli the family of God be thatof boni> SERVANTS, ye have no natural lie to the house ; .your tie is essentially vncerlnin nvrl preenriou.^. But the Son's relationship to the FAxriKit is n ri'ittiral and essential one; it is an inilefeasible tie; Hisnbixle in It is perpetual and of rif/tit : That is M.v relationship, M.y tie : If, then, .ye would have your connection with God's famil.y made real, ri<//>l-

/iil, permanent, ye must by the Son be manirmiticd and adopted as sons and daughters of the Lord Almight.v. In victotli,' bringeth home a chaise of sin. Glorious dilemma! ' Convict me of sin, and reject me: If not, why stand ye out against my claims?' Of course, they could only be supposed to inipea(!h His life; but in On(^ who hacj «lrcad.y passed through unparalleled complications, find had continually to deal with friends and foes of ever.y Borland degree, such a challenge thrown wide ajiiongst His bitterest enemies, can amount to nothing short of a claim to alisnlute sinlessness. 48-,'51. Say we not well, Tlnat thou art a Samaritan, and hnst a devil !— Whaf. intense and virulent scorn! (.See Hebrews 1'2. S.) TV;« "say we not well" refers to ch. 7.20. "A Saniarilan" means more than ' no Israelite at all :' it means ..iie m'!;o pretended, but liad no vianncr of cltiim to the title— retorttills sublime stntenieiit there is no doubt a sid/i>rai.nate allusion to Genesis 21. 10, " Oast out this bondienman and. her son, for the son of this bondn'oman shall not be heir with liny.tm?, with Isaac." (Cf. Galatiaiis I. 22-'J0.) 37-4i. ye seek to kill me—He had said this to their face l>efore: He now repeats it, and thc.v do r,)t deny it; yet are the.v held back, as by somi Tnar-<-inlons spell— it was the awe which His combined dignity, courage, and benignil.v struck into them, because my wor«l l«nti» no |>lncc in yoti—When did ever human irrrr/iliet so speak of His words? The.y tell us of " the word of the Iord" coming to them. But here

Is One who holds up " Ills word" as that which ought to find entrance and abiding room for itself in the souls of nil who hear It. n«y tUther . . . your father—See on v. 144

CfirH'e Answer to Ike Jew*, JOHN IX. One Born Blind Restored to Sight.

ing perhaps, this denial of their Irtte desopnt from Abraplainly uitclii-ainod him, since " llien took they up stones to cast at him," jual as they had before done when Ihi}/ miv that He made Hivi.irlf equal Willi God, ch. 5. 18. Iild himself— See on Luke i. 30.

Uuiii. J«mis aiiswertd, I have not a devil—AV'liatcahn dignity is lieie! Verily, " wlieii reviled, lie reviled not again." (1 Peter 2. 21) Cf. Paul, Acts 2ii. 2.5, "I am not mad," Ac. He add.s not, 'Nor am I a Samaritan,' tliat He miglit not even .seeui to partake of tlitiir conlenipl for

CHAPTER IX.

ft race that had already welcomed Him as the Christ, and txan to he blessed i).v Iiini. I Iiouoiir my Kntju-r, nncl

Ver. \-n. The Oi'e.vixo ok the Eyes ok One Rorx Bl.INP. AND WHAT FoLi.owion ON IT. 1-5. As Jesus passed by, he saxv a man wh Uli was blind fiom bivjh —and who "sal ln'gaing," r. S. who did sin, tliU n>nn or his parents, tliat be wns l>o»-n bllnil, cV.c.—not in a former state of existence, in which, as respects t lie wicked, jre d« dlahciiour iiic—tlie language of wouniled f<:eUii(/. But the in/eriiiiof His soul at such moments is only to tie seen in such prophetic utterances as these, "For thy sake

I have borne reproacli; shatne hath covered my face; I am l>econae &str<w{ji'r unto my lirethren.au alici) unto my mother's children. For the zeal of tliine house hatii oaten nie up, and IJie reproaches of them IhcU ieproached thee are falh n upon mc" (Psalm (iii. 7-9.) I se«-U not mti>« own gloiy: Oiei-e as one Hunt secltetlv— i.e., evidently, 'IIkU Kdclceih my glori/ requivin;; "all men to honour the Son even as thejhonour the Father;" juditiie Jews did not believe; but, perhaps, expressing loosely that sin nometehere had surely been the cau.se of this calamity. Neither this man, &c.—7. rf., 'The cause was neither in hini.self nor his i)arents, bvit, in order to the manifestation of "tlie works of God,'' in his cure.' I must work {lie works of Kim that sent me, &c.— most Interesting statement from the nioulh of Christ; Intimaliuir, (1.) that, He liad a pi'ecise work to do upon earth, with every particular of it arranged and laid out to Him; (2.) tliat all He did upon earth was Just "the works of God"—particularly "going aljout doing good," though not exclusively by miracles; (3.) that each work had its precise lime and place in His programme of instructions, so to speak; hence, (4.) that as His period for work had definite termination, so by b iting any one service pass by its allotted time, the whole would be disarranged, marred, and driven be.vond its destined period for completion ; (5.) that He acted ever under the impulse of these c<msiderati(nis, as man—"the night conieth when no man (or no one) can work." What lessons are here for others, and what encouragement from sucVi Example! As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world, &c. —not as if He would cease, after that, to be so; but that He must make full proof of His fidelity while His earthly career lasted by displaying His glory. 'As before the raising of Laz;irus (ch. 11. '25), Hi' announces Himself as th licsiirrectidu and the Life, so now He sets Himself forth as the source of the archetypal spiritual liglit, of which the natural, now about to lie conferred, is only a derivation and symliol.' [Alford.] G, 7. he spat on the ground, and made elny . . . and anoiiiled the eyes of the blind man, &c.—These operations were not so incongruous in their nature as might appear, though it were absurd to imagine that they contributed in the least degree to the efl'eet which followed. (See on Mark cially tretiHw/ him '.' who honoureth not the Son as honouring not the Father that hath sent Him" (eh. 5. 2"; and cf. Matthew 17.5); l)ut trivina: to Him (eh. ().37) such as will yet east their crowns before His' throne, in whom He "shall se« of the travail of his soul, and be satisfie<l." ({saiah .53. 11.) 51. If a mail keep my snying, he slinll nevT *e« dvalPi — I';irtl.v thus vindicating Ilis lofty claims as Lord of the kingdom of life everlasting, and, at the same time, l-.olding out even to His rcvilers the sceptre of grace. The word " keep"' is in harmony with u.

31, "If ye coii't/tiie iu my word," expressing the permanency, as a living and paramount principle, of that faith to which He referred : ".Vci'cr see deaih," though virtuall.y uttered before (ch. 5. 24 ; (>. W, 17, olj, is the strongest and most na Uel statement of a very gioriou.s truth .vet given. (In ch. 11. 26 it is repeated in nearly identical terms.) 51, 33. tHen said the Jews unto him, Now we know Hint thoii hast a devil, &c.—'Thou art now self-convicted; only a (ienioniac could speak so; the most illustrious of our fathers are dead, and thou promisest cx.- emption from death toanyone who will keep Th;/ xdi/ing .'

prai, , who art Thou?' 54-56. IIT I honour myself, my liononr Is nothing, Ac.—See on ch. 5. 31, &e. I should l)e A liRr like unto you—now rising to the summit of holy, naked .«?verity, thereby to draw this long dialogue to a head. Abi-aham rejoiced f o see my day, &c.—' exulted,' or 'exceedingly rejoiced that lie should see,' he 'exulted to see'

It, i. e., by anticipalion. Na.y, he saw It and was gladhe aelxuilly beheld it, to his joy. If this mean no more

6. 18; and 7. X\ 34.) Go, wash In Slloam . . . wlilch tjian tliat he had a prophetic foresight of the gospel-day —the second clause just repeating tVie first—how could the Jews understand our Lord to mean that He"liad seen Abraham'.''' And if it mean that Abraham was then beholding, in his disembodied spirit, the incarnate Messiah

Is, Sent, Ac-(See 2 Kings 5. 10, 14.) As the prescribed action was purely s.vmbolical in its design, so in connection with it the Evangelist notices the symbolical name of the pool as in this case hearing testimon.v to him who was sent to do what it only .inintbo Uzed. (See Isaiah 8. 6, where this same pool is used figuratively to denote " the streams that make glad the cit.y of God," and which, humble though they be, betoken a present God of Israel.) 8-15. Tlio neighbours therefore . , . said. Is not this he that sat and begged—Here are a number of details to Identify the newly-seeing with the long-known blind beggar, they brought to the Pharisees—sitting probalily in council, and chiefly of that sect (ch. 7. 47, 48). 16, 17. thla man is not of God, &c,—See on ch. o. 9, Ifi. Others said, &c.—as Nicodenius, and Joseph, the blind man said, He is a prophet^—rightly viewing the miracle as but a "sign" of his prophetic commission. 18-33. the Jews did not believe he had been bom blind . . . till they called the parents of him that had received his slghl Foiled b.v the testimony of the young man him-

[STII5R, Alford, <Src.], the words seem very unsuitable to express it. It expresses something paU—"he sam my day, and xvds glad," t. e., surely while he lived. He seems to refer to the familiar Intercourse which Abraham had with Gvd, who is once and again in the history called "the Angel of the Lord," and whom Christ here identifies with Himself. On those occasions, Abraham "saw Me." "Ol-SHAusek, though he thinks the refei-enee is to some unrecorded scene.] If this be the meaning, all that follows

Is quite natural. 51-TiO. Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet iflfly years old— ' No inference can be drawn from vhis as to the age of our Lord at tlie time as man. Fifty years was with the Jews the completion of manhood.' [Alford.] and hast thou seen Abraham T —He had said Abraham saw Him, as being his peculiar privilege. Thejgive the opposite turn to it—" Hast thou Been Abraham f" as an honour too great for Him to pretend to. Before Abraham was, I am—The words rendered •' was" and " am" arc quite diflferent. The one clause means, ' Aiiraham was brought into being ;' the other, '/ self, they hope to throw doubt on the fact by close questioning his parents, who, perceiving the snare laid for them, ingeniously escape it by testifying simply to the identity of their sou, and his birth-blindness, leaving it to himself, as a competent witness, to speak to the cure. They prevaricated, however, in saying they "knew not who liad opened his eyes," for "they feared the Jews," who had come to an understanding (probably after what exist.' The statement therefore is not thai Chrint came into exiilence be/ore Abraham did (as .\rians affirm is the meaning), but that He never came into being at all, but existed before .\braliam had a Ijeing; in other words, existed betore creaiiun, or eternally, as ch. 1. 1. In lltat sense tlie Jews

Is recorded, ch. 7. 50, A' . hut by this time pretty well

TJie Restored Man Confesseth. Jesus, JOHN X. Christ the Good Shepherd.

promising faith as soon as Jesus shall say who He l-s.' [Stiek.] Jesus said unto him, TIiou hast both seen Him—the new .sense of sight having at that moment its highest exercise, in gazing upon " the Light of the world." He said, Lord, I believe i and he worshipped Him— known), vhat whoever owned him as the Christ should be pat out of the synagogue— /. e., not simply excluded, but excommunicated. 24-34. Give God tlie praise, we Unow that tills is a sinner—not wisliing iiim to own, even to the praise of God, tliat a miracle had been wrought faith and a ivomhip, beyond doubt, meant to express far

him, but to show more regard to the honour of God than asoiibe any such act to one who was a sinner. He Answered and said, "VVIietlier a sinner or no, &c.—Not that the man meant to insiimate any doubt in his own wind on the point of his being "a sinner," but as his opinion on such a point would be of no consequence to others, he Avould speak only to what he knew a>i/acC in his own case, then said tliey again, Wliat ditl lie to tliee, &c.—hoping by repeated questions to ensnare him, but the youth is more than a match for them. I liave told you already . . . ivlH yc also be Ills disciples!—In a vein of keen irony he treats their questions as those of anxious Inquirers, almost ready for discipleship! Slung by this, they retort upon /imi as the disciple (and here they plainly were not wrong); for themselves, they fall back upon Moses; about him there could be no doubt; but who knew about this upstart? Tlie man answered. Herein more than he would think proper toany hnman "prophet" {v. 17)—the unstudied, resistless expression, probably of SUPREME faith and adoration, though without the full understanding of what that implied. 39-41. Jesus said —perhaps at the same time, but after a crowd, including some of the skeptical and scornful rulers, had, on seeing Jesus talking with the healed youth, hastened to the spot, that they which see not might see, &c.—Rising to that ^ght of which the natural vision communicated to the youth was but the symbol. (See on r. and cf. Luke i. 18.) that they wliich see might be made blind—judicially incapable of apprehending and receiving the truth, to which they have wilfully shut their eyes, are we blind also?—We, the constituted, recognized guides of the people in spiritual things? pride and rage prompting the question. If ye were blind—wanted light to discern My claims, and only waited to receive it—ye should have no sin—none of the guilt of shutting out the light, ye say. We see ; tlierefore your sin remainetli—Your clairti to possess light, while rejecting Me, is that wliich seals you up in the guilt of unbelief.

is a marvellojis tiling, that ye know not from whence he Is, and yet h« hath opened mine eyes, &c.—He had no need to say another word ; but waxing bolder in defence of his Benefactor, and his views brightening by the very courage which it demanded, he puts it to them how they could pretend inability to tell whether one who opened the eyes of a man born blind was "of God" or "a sinner" from above or from beneath—and proceeds to argue the case with remarkable power. So irresistible was his argument that their rage hurst forth in a speech of intense Pharisaism, 'Thou wast altogetlier born in sins, and dost thou teach ns'7—thou, a base-born, uneducated, impudent youth, teach us, tlie trained, constituted, recognized guides of the people in the things of God ! Out upon tliee !' they cast him out—judicially, nodoubt, as well as in fact. The allusion to his being " born in sins" seems a tacit admission of his being blind from birth—the very thing they had been so unwilling to own. But rage and enmity to trutli are seldom consistent in their outbreaks. The friends of this excommunicated youth, crowding around him witli their sympathy, would probably express surprise that One who could work such a cure should be unal)le to protect his patient from the persecution it had raised against him, or should possess the power without using it. Nor would it be wonderful if such thouglits should arise in the youth's own mind. But if they did, it is certain, frojn what follows, that they tnade no lodgment there, conscious as ho was that " whereas he was blind, now he saw," and satis-

CHAPTER X.

Ver. 1-21. The Good Shephekd. This discourse seems plainly to be a continuation of the closing verses of ch. 9. The figure was familiar to the Jewish ear, from Jeremiah

23.; EzekielSl. ; Zeehariah 11., &c. ' This simple creature (the sheep) has this special note among all animals, that it quickly hears the voice of the shepherd, follows no one else, depends entirely on him, and seeks help from him alone—cannot help itself, but is shut up to another's aid.' [Luther in Stier.] 1, 3. he that entereth not in by the door—the legitimate way (without saying v.'hat that was, as yet), into the sheep-fold—the sacred enclosure of God's true people, cllmbeth up some other wny-,-not referring to the assumption of ecclesiastical office without an external call, for those Jewish rulers, specially aimed at, had this (Matthew 23.2), but to the want of a true spiritual commission, the seal of heaven going along with the outward authoi-ity ; it is the assumption of the spiritual guidance of the people without this that is meant, he that enteretli in by the door is the shepherd of tlife sheep-a true, divinely-recognized shepherd. 3. to him the porter openetli i.e., right of free access is given, by order of Him to whom the sheep belong; for it is better not to give the allusion a more specific interpretation. [CaiVIN, Meyer, Luthardt.] and tlie sheep hear his voice—This and all that follows, though it admits of Important application to every faithful shepherd of God's tied that if his Benefactor "were not of God he could do nothing" (v. 33). There was a word for him too, which, if whispered in his ear from tlx; oracles of God, would seem expressly designed to describe his case, and prepare him for the coming interview Avith his gracious Friend. " Hear the word of the Lord, ye that tremble at His word.

Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name's flock, is in its direct anci highest sense true only of " the great Shepherd of the sheep," who in the first five verses seems plainly, under the simple character of a true shepherd, to l)e drawing His own portrait. [I>a.mpe, Stier, Ac] 7-14. I am tlie door of the shee]>— i. e., the tray in to the fold, with all blessed privileges, both for shepherds and sheep (cf. ch.14.6; Ephesians 2.18). AH tliat ever came before me—the false prophets; not as claiming the prerogatives of Messiah, but as perverters of the people from the way of life, all pointing to Him. [Oi-shausen.] the sheep did not Iiear them—the instinct of their divinely-taught hearts preserving them from seducers, and n'.laching them to the heaven-sent prophets, of whom it is said that " the Spirit of Christ was In them" sake, said. Let the Lord be glorified ; liUT He shail appeak TO YOUR JOY, and they shall be ashamed" (Isaiah 06. 5). But how was He engaged to whom sucli noble testimony had been given, and for whom such persecution had been borne? Uttering, perhaps, in secret, " with strong crying and tears," the words of the pr<)i>lietic psalm, "Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord (iod of liosts, be ashamed for my sake; let none that seek thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel ; because for thy sake I have borne reproach . . . and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me" (Psalm fli). (i, 7, 9). .Tesns heard— 1. e., by intelligence brought Jlini—that they had cast ont tlie youth; and when He liad found liim—by accident? Not very likely. Sympathy i)i that breast could not long keep aloof from its ol)ject. He said unto him, Do«t tliou hellcve in tlie Son of Go<l !—A question Stretching purposely beyond his present attainments, in order the more quickly to lead hiniin his present teachable frame—into the highest truth. He answered and

(i Peter 1. 11). by me If any man enter in—whethershepherd or sheep, slinll be savedtlie great object of the pastoral otilce, iis of all llie Divine arrangements towards mankind, and sliall go in and out anil find pasturein, as to a place of safrty and rcpnsc , out, as to "green pastures and still waters" (Psalm 2;t. 2) for nourishment and suid, AVIio is He, Lord, tliat If may believe on Him I— refri sliing, and all this only transferred to anollier clime, and enjoyed in another niauuor, at the close of this

'Hir. re|)l.v is allifmatl ve, aud believing by anticipation,

14G

Chrid the Good SJtepherd. JOHN X. Discourse at the Feast of Dedieation.

earthly scene. (Revelation 7. 17.) I am come that they might have lift, and more ahundantly—not merely to preserve but imparl life, and communicate it in rich and unfailing exuberance. Wliataclaim! Yet it is only an echo of uU His teaching; ami He who uttered these and like words must be either a blasphemer, all wortliy of the death He died, or " God witli us"—there can be no middle course. I am the good Shepherd—emphatically, and, in the sense intended, exclusively so. (Isaiah 40. 11 ; Ezekiel

It again—It is Impossible for language more plainly and emphatically to express the absolute voluntariness of Christ's death, such a voluntariness as it would be manifest presumption in any mere creature to affirm of his own death. It is beyond all doubt the language of One who was conscious tliat His life iras HLi own (whicii uo creature's is), and therefore His to surrender or retain at will. Here lay the glory of His sacrifice, that it wan purely voluntarily. The claini of " power to take it again" is uo lesa important, as showing that His resurrec tion, though ascribed to the Father, in the sense we shall presently see, was iieverthele.ss His own assertion of His own right to life as soon as the purposes of His voluntary death were accomplished. Tikis commandikkcnt—to "lay down His life, that He might take it again.'' have I received of my Father—So tliat Christ died at once by " command" of His Father, and by such a voluutary obedience to that command as has made Him (so to speakj infinitely dear to the Father. The necessity of Christ's death, in the light of these profound sayings, must be mani Jest to all but the superflciiil student. 19-^1. tiki-re was a division agatu aiikong the Jews for these suyiikgs—tlie ligliC and the darkness revealing them.solvi-s with increasing clearness in the separation of the teachable from the obstinately prejudiced. The one saw in Him only "a devil and a madman;'' the other revolted at the tliought that such words could come from one possessed, and siglit be given to the blind by a demoniac ; showing clearly that a deeper impression had been made upon lliem than their words expressed.

84.23 ; 37.21; Zechariah 13.7.) the good shepherd giveth Uls life for the sheep—Though this may be said of literal shepherds, who, even for their brute flock, have, like David, encountered " the lion and the bear" at the risk of their own lives, and still more of faithful pastors who, like the earlj' bishops of Rome, have been the foremost to brave the fury of their enemies against the flock committed to their care; yet here, beyond doubt, it points to the struggle which was to issue in the willing surrender of the Redeemer's own life, to save His sheep from destruction, an hireling . . . whose own the sheep are not —who ha-s no property in them. By this He points to His own peculiar relation to the sheep, the same as His

Father'.s, the great Proprietor and Lord of the flock, •who styles Him "My Shepherd, the Man that is my Fellow" (Zechariah 13. 7), and though faithful undershepherds are so in their Master's interest, that they feel a measure of His own concern for tlieir charge, the language is strictly applicable only to " the Son over His own house." (Hebrews 3. 6.) seeth the wolf combig—not the devil distincti velj'-, as some take it [Stieii, Alkokd, &c.], but generally whoever comes upon the flock with hostile intent, in whatever form: though t!ie wicked one, no doubt, is at the bottom of such movements. [LuTHAKDT.] lam tlie good Shepherd, and know my

22-12. IJtSCOURSE AT THE FEAST Of DEDICATION—FROM THE FUKY OF Hl.-j IJNEMIES jE.iUS ESCAI'Ea BEYOND JORDAN, WHt;ttE MANY BIOlilliVK ON Hl.M. 'i'l, ~3. It WOS. . . the fenst of dedication — Celebrated ratlier more than two vionllis, after the feast of tabernacles, during which intermediate period our Lord seems to have reniiilned in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem. It was instituted by Julias Maccabeus, to comniemurate the purification of the temple from the proianations to which it had been subjected by Antiochus Epijihanes (B. c. 165), and kept for eight days, from tlie 25lh Chisleu (December), the day on which Judas began the first joyous celebration of it. (1 JIaccabees i. 52, 5(), 59; and Jo.-jErHUS, Antiquities, slieei>— in thepeculiarsenseof 2Timothy 2. 19. am known of mine—the soul's response to the voice that has inwardly and eflicaciously called it; for of tliis mutual loving acquaintance ours is the effect of His. 'The Redeemer's knowledgeof us is theaci'veelement, penetrating us with His power and life; that of believers is the passtie principle, the reception of His life and light. In this reception, however, an assimilation of the soul to the sublime Object of its knowledge and love takes place; and thus an activity, though a derived one, is unfolded, which shows itself in ol)edience to His commands.' [Oi-shausex.] From this mutual knowledge Jesus rises to another and loftier reciprocity of knowledge. 15-lS. As my Father knowcth me, even so know I the Father—What claim xii. 7. 7.) it was wiikter—implying .some inclemency, Tlierefore .Tesws walked in Solumoik's porch—for shelter. This portico was on the east side of tlie temple, and Josepluis says it was part of the original structure of Solomon. [Antiquities, xx. 9. 7.] 'H. then came tike Jews the rulers, (See on ch. 1. 19.) how loikg dost thoti make us to doubt —"hold us in suspense" (marg.). If thou l»e the Christ, tell us plalkkly—l!ut when the plainest evidence of it was resisted, what weight could a mere assertion of it have?

absolute equality with the Father could exceed this? (See on Mattliew 11. 27.) and I lay dowtt my life for the sheep—How sublime tills, immediately following the lofty claim of the preceding clause! 'Tis the riches and the poverty of " the AVord niaile flesh"—one glorious Person reaching at once up to the Throne and down even to the dust of death, " that we might live through Him." A can-

2.5, 'ZC>, Jesus answered them, I told you i.e., in s'ubslance, what I am (e. g. ch. 7. ;^7, 3S; 8. 12, ;30, 58.) ye Isclieve not, because ye are not of «ny sheep, as I said— relerring to the whole strain of the Parable of the .Sheep, did interpretation of the words, "Jojthe sheep" ought to RO far to establish the special relation of the vicarious death of Christ to the Church, other slieep I have, not of this fold: them also I mnst hring—He means the perishing Gentiles, already His " sliecp" in the love of His heart and the purpose of His grace to " brinr/ them" in due time, they sliall hear my voice This i.i not the lant/uage

V. 1, &C. 27-30. My slkeep hear krky voice, ttc-(See on v.

8.) Iglve unto them eternal life—not "will give them;" for it is a present gift. (See on ch. 3, oli ; 5. 21.) It is a very grand utterance, couched in the language of majestic authority. My Father, which gave them me—(See on ch.

C. 37-.'i9.) is greater than all—with wlioiu no adverse power can contend. It is a general expression of an admitted truth, and what follows shows for what purpose it was uttered, "and none is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand." The impossibility of true believers being of mere foresiijht thai they would believe, but the expression of a purpose U> draw them to Himself by an inii.ard and ejfflca Cious call, which would infallibly issue in their spontaneous accession to Him. and there shall he one fold—rather 'one flock' (for the word for 'fold,' as in tlie foregoing verses, is quite difl'crent). Therefore dotik my Father love me, because I lay down my life, itc.—.Vs the highest act of the Son's love to the Father was the laying down of His life for the sheep at His " comniandment," so the Father's love to Him as His incarnate Son reaches its consummation, and finds its highest justification, in tliat fubllmest and most afl'ecting of all acts, that I might take it again—His resurrection-life being indispensable to the acromplishment of the frr.it of Ills death. IVo man taketli my life from me, l>iit I lay it <iown myself: I have power to lay It down, and I liuvc power to take lost, in the midst of all the tem|>tatioiis wliicli they may epcounter, does not consist in their fidelity and decision, but is founded uiion the power of Ood. lU;xe the doctrine

()f predestination is presented in its sublime and sacred aspect; there is a predestination of the holy, which la taught from one end of the Scriptures to the other; not, indeed, of such a nature that an "irresistible grace" comjiels the opposing will of man (of course not), but so that that will of man which receives and loves the commands of God is produced only by God's grace. [Olsiiausen—a testimony all the more valualile, being given in spite of Lutheran prej utlice.] I and my Father arc one—Our Ian*

Jcbus Proves Tlimstlf to be the Son of God. JOHN XI. Lazaitui Rdisedfrom lite Dead.

one nature with Him, yet mysteriously o/i7im. The parenthesis (v. :>5), "and the Scripture cannot be broken," referring to the terms used of magistrates in the 82d P.salm, guage admits not, of tlie prt'clsion of the original in this grent saying. "Are'' is in the masculine gender—" we (two persons) iire;" while "o-ne" Is neuter—"one thing." Perhaps "one interest" expresses, as nearly as may be, the purport of tlie saying. There seemed to be some contradiction between His saying they had l)een given by His Father into His own hands, out of which they couUl not he plucked, and then saying that none could pluck them out of His Father's hands, as if they had not been given nut of them. ' Neither ttiey have,' says He ; lias an important Ijearing on the authorUy of the living oracles. 'The Scripture, as the expressed will of the unchangeable Ood, is itself unchangeable and indissoluble.' [Olshauskn.1 'C'f. Matthew 5. 17.) 37-39. Though ye believe not me, believe the works—There was in Christ's words, independently of any miracles, a self-evidencing truth, majesty and grace, which those who had any spiritual susceptibility were unable to resist. (Ch. 7. 4tj; 8. 3<\) But, for those who wanted this, " the works" were a mighty help. When these failed, the case was desperate indeed, that ye may know and l>elleve that tlie Father Is in n»e, ami I In Him—thus reiterating His claim to essen-

' though He has given them to me, they are as much in His own almighty hands as ever—they cannot lie, and when given to me they are not, given away from Himself; for He and I have ALL IN COMMON.' Thus it wlU he seen, that, though oneness of essence is not the precise thing here affirmed, that truth is the basis of ivhat is affirmed, without which tial oneness with the Father, which He had only seemed to soften down, that He might calm their rage and get their ear again for a moment, therefore they songht again to take Him—true to their original understanding of His words, for they saw perfectly well that He meant to " make Himself God" throughout all this dialogue, he escaped out of tlicir hand—(.See on Luke 4. 30; ch. 8. 59.) 40-1-4. went away again beyond Jordan . . . the place where John at first baptlced—.See on ch. I. 28. many resortetl* to lilm—on whom the ministry of the Baptist had left permanent impressions. John did no miracle, Imt all things Jolin spake of this man were true—what they now heard .and saw in .Jesus only confirming in their minds the divinity of His forerunner's mission, though unaccompanied by any of His Master's miracles. And thus, "many believed on him there."

It would not be true. And Augustin was right in saying the "We are" condemns the Sabe.llians (who denied the distinction of Persons in the Godhead), while tlie " one" (as explained) condemns the Arians (who denied the unity of tlieir essence). 31-33. tlkeiii tli« Jews took up stones ngalii to stone Iltin—and for precisely the same t liiug as before i,ch. 8. 5S, 5t)>. Many food works liave I slkowjd j-on i. e., works of pure benevolence (as Acts 10. 3S, " Who went about doing good," &o. ; see Mark 7.37). from my Patlier—not so much by His power, but as directly commissioned by Him to do them. Tliis He says to meet the Imputation of unwarrantable assumption of the Divine prerogatives. [Luthardt.] for wliicli of tJiese works do ye stoite me!—"are ye stoning (i. e., going to stone) me?" for l>2asp3»emy—whose legal punishment was stoning (Leviticus '2i. 11-16). thou, being a man i.e., a man only, ijiakest tliyself God— Twice before they understood Him to atlvance the same claim, and both times they prepared themselves to avenge what they took to be the insulted -honour of God, as here, in the way directed by their law (ch. 5. 18; 8. .51)). 34-30. It i* written lu your law— in Psalm 82. 6, respecting judges or magistrates,

CHAPTER XI.

Ver. 1-IG. Lazarus Raised fhom the Dkad—Thb Consequences of this, l, 3. Of Bethany—at the east side of Mount Olivet, the town of Mary and her sister Martha—thus distinguishing it from tlie other Bethany, " beyond Jordan." (See on ch. 1.28; 10.40.) it was that Blary wlio anointed the Lord with ointment, Ac—This, though not recorded by our Evangelist till ch. 12. 3, &o., was so well Icnown in the teaching of all the cliurches, according to our Lord's prediction (Matthew 20. 13), that it j-e are gods—being the official representatives and commissioned agents of God. If lie" called tJiem gods to Avhoin tlie word of God came, say ye of llim wliom tlie Futlier

Iiatlt sanctltied and sent into tlie world, Tiiou blaspliemest !—The whole force of this reasoning, which has been but in pari seized by the commentators, lies in what is here alluded to by anticipation, as the most natural way of identifying her; and she is first name<l, though the younger, as the more distinguished of the two. She "anointed the Loud," says the Evangelist—led doubtless to the use of this term here, as he was about to exhibit Him illustriously as the Lord of Life. 3-5. His sister sent niito Iiiin, saying. Lord, he whom thou lovest is sick —a most womanly appeal, yet how reverential, to the known af Tection of her Lord for the patient. (.See i\ 5, 11.) 'Those whom Christ loves are no more exempt than others from their share of earthly trouble and anguish: rather are they bound over to it more surely.' [Trench.] When Jesus heard,that, he said, Tliis sickness is not iintodeath—to result in dea til—but for tlie glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorl Aed therel»y— e., by this glory of God. (See Gr.) Remarkable language this, which from creature lips would have been intolerable. It means that the glory of God manifested in the resurrection of dead Lazarus would be shown to be the glory, personally and immediately, of the Son. Jesxts loved Martha and her sister and Laxarus—what a picture!—one that in every age has attracted the admiration of the whole Christian Church. No wontlor that those miserable skeptics who have carped at the ethical system of the Gospel, as not embracing private friendships in tlie list of its virtues, have been referred to the Saviour's peculiar regard for this family as a triumphant refutation, if such were needed, when he heard he was sick, he abode two days still where he was—at least twenty-five miles

Is said of the two parties compared. The conipa)-i40« of Himself with mere men, divinely commissioned, is intended to show [!is Neandek well expresses itjthat the idea of a communiciition of the Divine Majesty to human nature w;is by no means foreign to the revelations of the Old Testament; l)ut there is also a contrast between Himself and all merely human repre.senlali ves of God—the one "sanctified bjj the Father and sent into the world ;" the otlier, "to uhnm the word of God (inevely) came," which is expressly designed to prevent His being massed up with them as only one of many human ollicials of God. It is never said of Christ that " the word of the lord came to Him;" whereas tills is the well-known formula by which the Divine commission, even to the higliest of mere men,

Is expressed, as .Jolm the Baptist Uuke 3. 2). The reason

Is that given by the Baptist himself (see on ch. 3.31). The contrast is betweim those "to whom the word of God came"—men of the earth, earthy, who were merely privileged to get a Divine message to utter (if prophets), or a Divine office lo discharge (if judges)—and " Him whom (not being of the earth at the Father sanctifled {or set apart), and sent into the world," an expression never used of ant/ merely human messenginof Ood, and used only of Himself, because,! said, I am the Son of God—It Is worthy of special notice that our Lord liad not .laid. In so many words, that He was the Son of God, on this occasion. I>ut He had said what beyond doubt amounted to it—namely, that He gave his sheep eternal life, and none could i)luck them out of His hand; tliat He had got them from His Fatlier, In whose hands, though given to Him, they still renniined, and out of whose hand none could pluck them; and that they were the indefeasible property of both, inasmuch as "He and His Father were one." Our Lord considers all otf. Beyond all doubt this was just to let things come to their worst, in order to the display of His glory. But how trying, meantime, to the faith of his friends, and how unlike the way in which love to a dying friend usually shows itself, on which It is plain that Mary reckoned. But the ways of Diviiie are not as the ways of human luve.

Ulis as just saying of Himself, "I am llie Son of God"— 148

Lazarus Haisedfrom the Dead, JOII>' XI. after being Four Days BurierL

Often they are Uie reverse. When His people are sick, there is nothing of the sort. He perceives clearly how this journey to Judea will end, as respects His JIaster, and not only sees in it peril to themselves, as they all did, but feels as if he could not and cared not to survive His Master s sacrilice to the tuiy of His enemies. It was that kind of alt'cetion which, living only in the light of

111 body or spirit; when their case is waxing more ;ind more desperate every clay ; wlien all hope of recovery is aboul to expire—^jiist then and tlieri'fore it is tli'at"//e abides two dnj/.s still in the same place where He is." Can tViey still hope against hope? Often they do not; but "this is their infirmity." For it is His chosen style of acting. We have been well taught it, and should not WW have the lesson to learn. From the days of Moses was it given siililimely forth as the character of His grandest Interpositions, that "the Lord will Judge his people and r;'pent himself for liis servants" wheii he scelh that its Object, cannot contemplate, or has no lieart for life, without it. 17-19. When Jesus came, he found that he had lain In the grave four days— If he died on the day the tidings came of his illness—and was, according to the Jewish custom, buried the same day (see J ahn's Archaeology, and V. 89; Acts 5. 5, (i, 10)—and if Jesus, after two days' farther stay in Perea, set out on the day following for Bethany, some ten hours' journey, that would make out the four days; the first and last being incomplete. [Meyer.] Betlknny was nigh Jerusalem, nl>out tlfleen furlongs—i-allier less than two miles; mentioned to explaiu tlie visits of sympathy noticed in the lollowing words, which the proximity of tlie two places facilitated, many of the .Jews came to Mai-tha and Mary to comfort them—Thus were provided, in a most natural way, so many witnesses of the glorious miracle that was to follow, as to put the fact beyond possible question. 30Alai'tha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and methiiu—true to the ciiec;/^ and aetiviiy of her character, as seen in Luke 10. 38-42. (See notes their povcr is f/nnp. (Beuterononiy 32. 36.) 7-10. lict iis go Into JtKlen H$rain—He was now in Perea, "beyond Jordan." IIIn (li Liciples say iiitto iitni, Master, tlie JeAvs of late sought, Ac. lit., ' were (just) now seeking' " to stone

' (Ch. 10. ,SI.) gocst tlioii titither again ? to certain death, as V. Ifi sliows they thought. Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hoiirn In the day}—.See on ch. 9, 4. Our Lord's day had now reached its eleventli hour, and having till n iw " walked in the day," He would not mis Hme the remaining and more critical part of His work, wliich would be as fatal. He says, as omitting it altogether; for "if a man Cso He speaks, putting Himself nnder the same great Law of duty as all other men—if a man) walk in t!ie niglit. he stumbleth, liecause there is no light in liim." 11-16. 0«r friend Lnzariis sleepeth, but tliee.

tliei"e.; but Mary s!*t In the house—equally true to her 2}lacid character. These undesigned touches not only charmingly illustrate the minute historic Jideiitiy of both narratives, but tlieir timer harmonij. then said Martha, Lord, If thou hadst been here, my brother had not died—As Mary afterwards said the same tiling (v. 32), it ia plain tliey had made this very natural remark to each other, perhaps many times during these four sad days, and not without having their confidence in His love at times overclouded. Such trials of faith, however,are not peculiar to them, but I know that even now, Ac. Energetic characters are usually sanguine, the rainljowof hope peering through tlie drenching cloud, whatever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee i. e., ' even to tlie restoration of my dead brother to life,' for that plainly is her meaning, as the sequel shows. 'Z3-'i7, Jesus salth unto her. Thy brother shall rise again— purposely expressing Himself in general terms, to draw her out. Martha said, I know that he shall rise again at the last day— 5. d., ' But are wc never to see him In lite

1 go that I may awake him otit of sleeji—Illustrious title! "Our friond Lazarus." To Abraham only is it accorded in the O d Testament, and not WW afti'r his death, 2 Chronicles 20.7; Isaiah 41. 8, to which our attention is called in the New Testament. (James 2.23.) When Jesus cntne in the flesh. His forerunner applied this name, in a certain sense, to himself, ch. 3. 29; and into the same fellowship the Lord's chosen disciples are declared to have come, ch. 1.5. 13-15. 'The phrase here employed, "onr friend Lazarus," means more than " he whom thou, lovest" In t;. 3, for it implies that Christ's affection wnsireciprocated by Lazarus.' [Lampe.] Our Lord had been told only that Lazarus was "sick." But the change which bis two days' d May had produced is here tenderly alluded to. Donbtless. His spirit was all the while with His d}^ing,and now dead "friend." The symbol of "sleep" for death is common to all langu.ages, and familiar to us in the Old Testament. In the XewTeslament,however,a higher meaning

Is put into it, in relation to believers in Jesus (see on 1 Thes«.alonians 4. 14"), a sense hinted at, and pretty clearly, In Psalm 17. 1.5 [Lutiiardt]; and the "awaking out of sleep" acquires a corresponding sense far transcending bare resuscitation, tf he sleep, he shall do well lit., 'he preserved;' i. e., 'recover;' 7. d., 'Why then go to Juden?' then said Jesns itnto them plainly, Iazams till tlieu?' Jesus said, I am the Resurrectioik and the I>ife (]. d., ' The whole power to restore, impart, and maintain life, resides in Me.' (See on ch. 1. 4; 5.21.) What higher claim to supreme divinity than this grand saying can be conceived? he that believeth in me, though dead . . . shall live—5. d., ' The believer's death shall be swallowed up in life, and his life sliall never sink into deatli.' As death comes by sin, it is His to dissolve it; and as life Hows through His righteousness, it is His to communicate and eternally maintain it. (Etonians 5. 21.) The temporary separation of soul and body is here regarded as not even Interrupting, much less impairing, the new and everlasting life imparted by Jesus to His believing people. Bellevest thou this !—Canst thou take this in? Tea, I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, &c.

Is dead—'Sleep [.says Bkngei,, beautifully] is the de.nth of the saints, in the language of he.aven ; but this Language the disciples here understood not; incomparable

Is the generosity of the Divine manner of discoursing, hut such is the slowness of men's apprehension that Scripture often has to descend to the more miserable style of human discourse; cf. Matthew Ki. 11,' Ac. lam glad for yonrsalvCB I was not there—TIlis certainly implies that if He had been present, Lazarus would not have died ; not because He could not have resisted the importunities of the sisters, but because, in presence of the personal Life, death conlil not have reached His friend. fLrTirARDT.) 'It Is beautifully congruous to the Divine deeornm that in presence of the Prince of I<ife no one is ever said to have died.' fBEXGEl..] that ye may believe —This is added to explain His "gladness" at not having been present. His friend's death, as such, could not have been to Him "Joyous ;'' the sequel shows it was "grievous;" but '/or them It was safe.' (Philemon 3. 1.) Thomas, called Dldymns—or ' the twin.' let us also go, that wc may die with him—lovely spirit, though tinged with some sadness, such as reappears at ch. 14. .5, showing the *«ndency of this dl.sciple to take the dark view of things. On a memoral>le occasion this tendency opened the door to Jownrlglit, though but momentary, unliellef. (Ch. 20.

g. d.. And having such faith In Thee, I can believe all which that comprehends. While she had a glimmering perception that Resurrection, in every sense of the word, belonged to the Messianic office and Sonship of Jesus, she means, by this way of expressing herself, to cover much, that she felt her Ignorance of—as no doubt belonging to Him. The Master Is come and calletlt for thee— The narrative does not give us this interesting detail, but Martha's words do. as soon as she heard that, she arose quickly—affection for her Lord, assurance of His sympathy, and His hope of interposition, putting a spring into her distressed spirit. The Jews followed her to the grave—Thus casually were provided witnesses of the glorious miracle that followed, not prejudiced, certainly, in favour of Him who wrought It. to weep there—according to Jewish practice, for some days after burial, fell at his feet—more Impassioned iiihu her

3B.) Here., however, though alleged by many Interpreters

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