NOTES ON THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST JOHN
In this book is set down the history of the Son of God dwelling among men; that,
I. Of the first days, where the apostle, premising the sum
of the whole......................................... Chap. i, 1-14
Mentions the testimony given by John, after the baptism of
Christ, and the first calling of some of the apostles.
Here is noted what fell out,
The first day................................................. 15-28
The day after................................................. 29-34
The day after................................................. 35-42
The day after................................................. 43-52
The third day.............................................. ii, 1-11
After this....................................................... 12
II. Of the two years between, spent chiefly in journeys to and
from Jerusalem,
A. The first journey, to the passover.............................. 13
a. Transactions in the city,
1. Zeal for his Father's house.............................. 14-22
2. The power and wisdom of Jesus............................ 23-25
3. The instruction of Nicodemus......................... iii, 1-21
b. His abode in Judea; the rest of John's testimony........... 22-36
c. His journey through Samaria (where he confers with
the Samaritan woman) into Galilee, where he heals
the nobleman's son..................................... iv, 1-54
B. The second journey to the feast of pentecost.
Here may be observed transactions,
a. In the city, relating to the impotent man, healed at
the pool of Bethesda.................................... v, 1-47
b. In Galilee, before the second passover and after.
Here we may note,
1. His feeding the five thousand......................... vi, 1-14
2. Walking upon the sea..................................... 15-21
3. Discourse of himself, as the bread of life............... 22-59
4. Reproof of those who objected to it...................... 60-65
5. Apostasy of many, and steadiness of the apostles......... 66-71
6. His continuance in Galilee.............................. vii, 1
C. The third journey, to the feast of tabernacles................ 2-13
Here may be observed transactions,
a. In the city,
1. In the middle and end of the feast....................... 14-53
viii; 1
Where note,
1. The woman taken in adultery.............................. 2-12
2. Christ's preaching and vindicating his doctrine......... 13-30
3. His confuting the Jews and escape from them............. 31-59
4. His healing the man born blind........................ ix, 1-7
5. Several discourses on that occasion...................... 8-41
6. Christ the Door and the Shepherd of the sheep......... x, 1-18
7. Different opinions concerning him....................... 19-21
2. At the feast of the dedication. here occur,
1. His disputes with the Jews..................... Chap. x, 22-38
2. His escaping their fury.................................... 39
b. Beyond Jordan.............................................. 40-42
III. Of the last days, which were,
A. Before the great week, where we may note,
a. The two days spent out of Judea, while Lazarus was
sick and died.......................................... xi, 1-6
b. The journey into Judea; the raising of Lazarus;
the advice of Caiaphas; Jesus's abode in Ephraim;
the order given by his adversaries........................ 7-57
c. The sixth day, before the passover; the supper at Bethany; the
ointment poured on Jesus............................. xii, 1-11
B. In the great week, wherein was the third passover, occur,
a. On the three former days, his royal entry into the city;
the desire of the Greeks; the obstinacy of the Jews;
the testimony given to Jesus from heaven................. 12-50
b. On the fourth day, the washing the feet of the disciples;
the discovery of the traitor,
and his going out by night.......................... xiii, 1-30
c. On the fifth day,
1. His discourse
1. Before the paschal supper.................................. 31
Chap. xiv, 1-31
2. After it........................................ xv, and xvi.
2. His prayer........................................... xvii, 1-26
3. The beginning of his passion,
1. In the garden..................................... xviii, 1-11
2. In Caiaphas's house..................................... 12-27
d. On the sixth day,
1. His passion under Pilate,
1. In the palace of Pilate.................................... 28
xix, 1-16
2. On the cross............................................ 17-30
2. His death................................................. 30-37
3. His burial................................................ 38-42
C. After the great week,
a. On the day of the resurrection.......................... xx, 1-25
b. Eight days after........................................... 26-31
c. After that
1. He appears to his disciples at the sea of Tiberias... xxi, 1-14
2. Orders Peter to feed his sheep and lambs................. 15-17
3. Foretells the manner of Peter's death, and checks
his curiosity about St John............................. 18-23
4. The conclusion........................................... 24,25
Chapter I
| 1 |
In the beginning - (Referring to Gen 1:1, and Prov 8:23.) When all things
began to be made by the Word: in the beginning of heaven and earth, and this whole frame
of created beings, the Word existed, without any beginning. He was when all things began
to be, whatsoever had a beginning. The Word - So termed Psa 33:6, and
frequently by the seventy, and in the Chaldee paraphrase. So that St. John did not borrow
this expression from Philo, or any heathen writer. He was not yet named Jesus, or Christ.
He is the Word whom the Father begat or spoke from eternity; by whom the Father speaking,
maketh all things; who speaketh the Father to us. We have, in John 1:18, both
a real description of the Word, and the reason why he is so called. He is the only
begotten Son of the Father, who is in the bosom of the Father, and hath declared him. And
the Word was with God - Therefore distinct from God the Father. The word rendered with,
denotes a perpetual tendency as it were of the Son to the Father, in unity of essence. He
was with God alone; because nothing beside God had then any being. And the Word was God -
Supreme, eternal, independent. There was no creature, in respect of which he could be
styled God in a relative sense. Therefore he is styled so in the absolute sense. The
Godhead of the Messiah being clearly revealed in the Old Testament, (Jer 23:7;
Hos 1:6; Psa 23:1,) the other evangelists aim at this, to prove that Jesus, a
true man, was the Messiah. But when, at length, some from hence began to doubt of his
Godhead, then St. John expressly asserted it, and wrote in this book as it were a
supplement to the Gospels, as in the Revelation to the prophets. |
| 2 |
The same was in the beginning with God - This verse repeats and contracts into one the
three points mentioned before. As if he had said, This Word, who was God, was in the
beginning, and was with God. |
| 3 |
All things beside God were made, and all things which were made, were made by the
Word. In Joh 1:1,2 is described the state of things before the creation: Joh
1:3, In the creation: Joh 1:4, In the time of man's innocency: Joh
1:5, In the time of man's corruption. |
| 4 |
In him was life - He was the foundation of life to every living thing, as well as of
being to all that is. And the life was the light of men - He who is essential life, and
the giver of life to all that liveth, was also the light of men; the fountain of wisdom,
holiness, and happiness, to man in his original state. |
| 5 |
And the light shineth in darkness - Shines even on fallen man; but the darkness -
Dark, sinful man, perceiveth it not. |
| 6 |
There was a man - The evangelist now proceeds to him who testified of the light, which
he had spoken of in the five preceding verses. |
| 7 |
The same came for (that is, in order to give) a testimony - The evangelist, with the
most strong and tender affection, interweaves his own testimony with that of John, by
noble digressions, wherein he explains the office of the Baptist; partly premises and
partly subjoins a farther explication to his short sentences. What St. Matthew, Mark, and
Luke term the Gospel, in respect of the promise going before, St. John usually terms the
testimony, intimating the certain knowledge of the relator; to testify of the light - Of
Christ. |
| 9 |
Who lighteth every man - By what is vulgarly termed natural conscience, pointing out
at least the general lines of good and evil. And this light, if man did not hinder, would
shine more and more to the perfect day. |
| 10 |
He was in the world - Even from the creation. |
| 11 |
He came - In the fulness of time, to his own - Country, city, temple: And his own -
People, received him not. |
| 12 |
But as many as received him - Jews or Gentiles; that believe on his name - That is, on
him. The moment they believe, they are sons; and because they are sons, God sendeth forth
the Spirit of his Son into their hearts, crying, Abba, Father. |
| 13 |
Who were born - Who became the sons of God, not of blood - Not by descent from
Abraham, nor by the will of the flesh - By natural generation, nor by the will of man -
Adopting them, but of God - By his Spirit. |
| 14 |
Flesh sometimes signifies corrupt nature; sometimes the body; sometimes, as here, the
whole man. We beheld his glory - We his apostles, particularly Peter, James, and John, Luke
9:32. Grace and truth - We are all by nature liars and children of wrath, to whom
both grace and truth are unknown. But we are made partakers of them, when we are accepted
through the Beloved. The whole verse might be paraphrased thus: And in order to raise us
to this dignity and happiness, the eternal Word, by a most amazing condescension, was made
flesh, united himself to our miserable nature, with all its innocent infirmities. And he
did not make us a transient visit, but tabernacled among us on earth, displaying his glory
in a more eminent manner, than even of old in the tabernacle of Moses. And we who are now
recording these things beheld his glory with so strict an attention, that we can testify,
it was in every respect such a glory as became the only begotten of the Father. For it
shone forth not only in his transfiguration, and in his continual miracles, but in all his
tempers, ministrations, and conduct through the whole series of his life. In all he
appeared full of grace and truth: he was himself most benevolent and upright; made those
ample discoveries of pardon to sinners, which the Mosaic dispensation could not do: and
really exhibited the most substantial blessings, whereas that was but a shadow of good
things to come. |
| 15 |
John cried - With joy and confidence; This is he of whom I said - John had said this
before our Lord's baptism, although he then knew him not in person: he knew him first at
his baptism, and afterward cried, This is he of whom I said. &c. He is preferred
before me - in his office: for he was before me - in his nature. |
| 16 |
And - Here the apostle confirms the Baptist's words: as if he had said, He is indeed
preferred before thee: so we have experienced: We all - That believe: have received - All
that we enjoy out of his fulness: and in the particular, grace upon grace - One blessing
upon another, immeasurable grace and love. |
| 17 |
The law - Working wrath and containing shadows: was given - No philosopher, poet, or
orator, ever chose his words so accurately as St. John. The law, saith he, was given by
Moses: grace was by Jesus Christ. Observe the reason for placing each word thus: The law
of Moses was not his own. The grace of Christ was. His grace was opposite to the wrath,
his truth to the shadowy ceremonies of the law. Jesus - St. John having once mentioned the
incarnation {Joh 1:14,) no more uses that name, the Word, in all his book. |
| 18 |
No man hath seen God - With bodily eyes: yet believers see him with the eye of faith.
Who is in the bosom of the Father - The expression denotes the highest unity, and the most
intimate knowledge. |
| 19 |
The Jews - Probably the great council sent. |
| 20 |
I am not the Christ - For many supposed he was. |
| 21 |
Art thou Elijah? - He was not that Elijah (the Tishbite) of whom they spoke. Art thou
the prophet - Of whom Moses speaks, Deut 18:15. |
| 23 |
He said - I am that forerunner of Christ of whom Isaiah speaks. I am the voice - As if
he had said, Far from being Christ, or even Elijah, I am nothing but a voice: a sound that
so soon as it has expressed the thought of which it is the sign, dies into air, and is
known no more. Isa 40:3. |
| 24 |
They who were sent were of the Pharisees - Who were peculiarly tenacious of old
customs, and jealous of any innovation (except those brought in by their own scribes)
unless the innovator had unquestionable proofs of Divine authority. |
| 25 |
They asked him, Why baptizest thou then? - Without any commission from the sanhedrim?
And not only heathens (who were always baptized before they were admitted to circumcision)
but Jews also? |
| 26 |
John answered, I baptize - To prepare for the Messiah; and indeed to show that Jews,
as well as Gentiles, must be proselytes to Christ, and that these as well as those stand
in need of being washed from their sins. |
| 28 |
Where John was baptizing - That is, used to baptize. |
| 29 |
He seeth Jesus coming and saith, Behold the Lamb - Innocent; to be offered up;
prophesied of by Isaiah, Isa 53:7, typified by the paschal lamb, and by the
daily sacrifice: The Lamb of God - Whom God gave, approves, accepts of; who taketh away -
Atoneth for; the sin - That is, all the sins: of the world - Of all mankind. Sin and the
world are of equal extent. |
| 31 |
I knew him not - Till he came to be baptized. How surprising is this; considering how
nearly they were related, and how remarkable the conception and birth of both had been.
But there was a peculiar providence visible in our Saviour's living, from his infancy to
his baptism, at Nazareth: John all the time living the life of a hermit in the deserts of
Judea, Luke 1:80, ninety or more miles from Nazareth: hereby that
acquaintance was prevented which might have made John's testimony of Christ suspected. |
| 34 |
I saw it - That is, the Spirit so descending and abiding on him. And testified - From
that time. |
| 37 |
They followed Jesus - They walked after him, but had not the courage to speak to him. |
| 41 |
He first findeth his own brother Simon - Probably both of them sought him: Which is,
being interpreted, the Christ - This the evangelist adds, as likewise those words in John
1:38, that is, being interpreted, Master. |
| 42 |
Jesus said, Thou art Simon, the son of Jonah - As none had told our Lord these names,
this could not but strike Peter. Cephas, which is Peter - Moaning the same in Syriac which
Peter does in Greek, namely, a rock. |
| 45 |
Jesus of Nazareth - So Philip thought, not knowing he was born in Bethlehem. Nathanael
was probably the same with Bartholomew, that is, the son of Tholomew. St. Matthew joins
Bartholomew with Philip, Mt 10:3, and St. John places Nathanael in the midst
of the apostles, immediately after Thomas, John 21:2, just as Bartholomew is
placed, Acts 1:13. |
| 46 |
Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? - How cautiously should we guard against
popular prejudices? When these had once possessed so honest a heart as that of Nathanael,
they led him to suspect the blessed Jesus himself for an impostor, because he had been
brought up at Nazareth. But his integrity prevailed over that foolish bias, and laid him
open to the force of evidence, which a candid inquirer will always be glad to admit, even
when it brings the most unexpected discoveries. Can any good thing - That is, have we
ground from Scripture to expect the Messiah, or any eminent prophet from Nazareth? Philip
saith, Come and see - The same answer which he had received himself from our Lord the day
before. |
| 48 |
Under the fig tree I saw thee - Perhaps at prayer. |
| 49 |
Nathanael answered - Happy are they that are ready to believe, swift to receive the
truth and grace of God. Thou art the Son of God - So he acknowledges now more than he had
heard from Philip: The Son of God, the king of Israel - A confession both of the person
and office of Christ. |
| 51 |
Hereafter ye shall see - All of these, as well as thou, who believe on me now in my
state of humiliation, shall hereafter see me come in my glory, and all the angels of God
with me. This seems the most natural sense of the words, though they may also refer to his
ascension. |
Chapter II
| 1 |
And the third day - After he had said this. In Cana of Galilee - There were two other
towns of the same name, one in the tribe of Ephraim, the other in Caelosyria. |
| 2 |
Jesus and his disciples were invited to the marriage - Christ does not take away human
society, but sanctifies it. Water might have quenched thirst; yet our Lord allows wine;
especially at a festival solemnity. Such was his facility in drawing his disciples at
first, who were afterward to go through rougher ways. |
| 3 |
And wine falling short - How many days the solemnity had lasted, and on which day our
Lord came, or how many disciples might follow him, does not appear. His mother saith to
him, They have not wine - Either she might mean, supply them by miracle; or, Go away, that
others may go also, before the want appears. |
| 4 |
Jesus saith to her, Woman - So our Lord speaks also, John 19:26. It is
probable this was the constant appellation which he used to her. He regarded his Father
above all, not knowing even his mother after the flesh. What is it to me and thee? A mild
reproof of her inordinate concern and untimely interposal. Mine hour is not yet come - The
time of my working this miracle, or of my going away. May we not learn hence, if his
mother was rebuked for attempting to direct him in the days of his flesh, how absurd it is
to address her as if she had a right to command him, on the throne of his glory? Likewise
how indecent it is for us to direct his supreme wisdom, as to the time or manner in which
he shall appear for us in any of the exigencies of life! |
| 5 |
His mother saith to the servants - Gathering from his answer he was about to do
something extraordinary. |
| 6 |
The purifying of the Jews - Who purified themselves by frequent washings particularly
before eating. |
| 9 |
The governor of the feast - The bridegroom generally procured some friend to order all
things at the entertainment. |
| 10 |
And saith - St. John barely relates the words he spoke, which does not imply his
approving them. When they have well drunk - does not mean any more than toward the close
of the entertainment. |
| 11 |
And his disciples believed - More steadfastly. |
| 14 |
Oxen, and sheep, and doves - Used for sacrifice: And the changers of money - Those who
changed foreign money for that which was current at Jerusalem, for the convenience of them
that came from distant countries. |
| 15 |
Having made a scourge of rushes - (Which were strewed on the ground,) he drove all out
of the temple, (that is, the court of it,) both the sheep and the oxen - Though it does
not appear that he struck even them; and much less, any of the men. But a terror from God,
it is evident, fell upon them. |
| 17 |
Psa 69:9. |
| 18 |
Then answered the Jews - Either some of those whom he had just driven out, or their
friends: What sign showest thou? - So they require a miracle, to confirm a miracle! |
| 19 |
This temple - Doubtless pointing, while he spoke, to his body, the temple and
habitation of the Godhead. |
| 20 |
Forty and six years - Just so many years before the time of this conversation, Herod
the Great had begun his most magnificent reparation of the temple, (one part after
another,) which he continued all his life, and which was now going on, and was continued
thirty - six years longer, till within six or seven years of the destruction of the state,
city, and temple by the Romans. |
| 22 |
They believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said - Concerning his
resurrection. |
| 23 |
Many believed - That he was a teacher sent from God. |
| 24 |
He did not trust himself to them - Let us learn hence not rashly to put ourselves into
the power of others. Let us study a wise and happy medium between universal suspiciousness
and that easiness which would make us the property of every pretender to kindness and
respect. |
| 25 |
He - To whom all things are naked, knew what was in man - Namely, a desperately
deceitful heart. |
Chapter III
| 1 |
A ruler - One of the great council. |
| 2 |
The same came - Through desire; but by night - Through shame: We know - Even we rulers
and Pharisees. |
| 3 |
Jesus answered - That knowledge will not avail thee unless thou be born again -
Otherwise thou canst not see, that is, experience and enjoy, either the inward or the
glorious kingdom of God. In this solemn discourse our Lord shows, that no external
profession, no ceremonial ordinances or privileges of birth, could entitle any to the
blessings of the Messiah's kingdom: that an entire change of heart as well as of life was
necessary for that purpose: that this could only be wrought in man by the almighty power
of God: that every man born into the world was by nature in a state of sin, condemnation,
and misery: that the free mercy of God had given his Son to deliver them from it, and to
raise them to a blessed immortality: that all mankind, Gentiles as well as Jews, might
share in these benefits, procured by his being lifted up on the cross, and to be received
by faith in him: but that if they rejected him, their eternal, aggravated condemnation,
would be the certain consequence. Except a man be born again - If our Lord by being born
again means only reformation of life, instead of making any new discovery, he has only
thrown a great deal of obscurity on what was before plain and obvious. |
| 4 |
When he is old - As Nicodemus himself was. |
| 5 |
Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit - Except he experience that great
inward change by the Spirit, and be baptized (wherever baptism can be had) as the outward
sign and means of it. |
| 6 |
That which is born of the flesh is flesh - Mere flesh, void of the Spirit, yea, at
enmity with it; And that which is born of the Spirit is spirit - Is spiritual, heavenly,
divine, like its Author. |
| 7 |
Ye must be born again - To be born again, is to be inwardly changed from all
sinfulness to all holiness. It is fitly so called, because as great a change then passes
on the soul as passes on the body when it is born into the world. |
| 8 |
The wind bloweth - According to its own nature, not thy will, and thou hearest the
sound thereof - Thou art sure it doth blow, but canst not explain the particular manner of
its acting. So is every one that is born of the Spirit - The fact is plain, the manner of
his operations inexplicable. |
| 11 |
We speak what we know - I and all that believe in me. |
| 12 |
Earthly things - Things done on earth; such as the new birth, and the present
privileges of the children of God. Heavenly things - Such as the eternity of the Son, and
the unity of the Father, Son, and Spirit. |
| 13 |
For no one - For here you must rely on my single testimony, whereas there you have a
cloud of witnesses: Hath gone up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven. Who is in
heaven - Therefore he is omnipresent; else he could not be in heaven and on earth at once.
This is a plain instance of what is usually termed the communication of properties between
the Divine and human nature; whereby what is proper to the Divine nature is spoken
concerning the human, and what is proper to the human is, as here, spoken of the Divine. |
| 14 |
And as Moses - And even this single witness will soon be taken from you; yea, and in a
most ignominious manner. Num 21:8,9. |
| 15 |
That whosoever - He must be lifted up, that hereby he may purchase salvation for all
believers: all those who look to him by faith recover spiritual health, even as all that
looked at that serpent recovered bodily health. |
| 16 |
Yea, and this was the very design of God's love in sending him into the world.
Whosoever believeth on him - With that faith which worketh by love, and hold fast the
beginning of his confidence steadfast to the end. God so loved the world - That is, all
men under heaven; even those that despise his love, and will for that cause finally
perish. Otherwise not to believe would be no sin to them. For what should they believe?
Ought they to believe that Christ was given for them? Then he was given for them. He gave
his only Son - Truly and seriously. And the Son of God gave himself, Gal 4:4,
truly and seriously. |
| 17 |
God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world - Although many accuse him of
it. |
| 18 |
He that believeth on him is not condemned - Is acquitted, is justified before God. The
name of the only - begotten Son of God - The name of a person is often put for the person
himself. But perhaps it is farther intimated in that expression, that the person spoken of
is great and magnificent. And therefore it is generally used to express either God the
Father or the Son. |
| 19 |
This is the condemnation - That is, the cause of it. So God is clear. |
| 21 |
He that practiseth the truth (that is, true religion) cometh to the light - So even
Nicodemus, afterward did. Are wrought in God - That is, in the light, power, and love of
God. |
| 22 |
Jesus went - From the capital city, Jerusalem, into the land of Judea - That is, into
the country. There he baptized - Not himself; but his disciples by his order, John
4:2. |
| 23 |
John also was baptizing - He did not repel them that offered, but he more willingly
referred them to Jesus. |
| 25 |
The Jews - Those men of Judea, who now went to be baptized by Jesus; and John's
disciples, who were mostly of Galilee: about purifying - That is, baptism. They disputed,
which they should be baptized by. |
| 27 |
A man can receive nothing - Neither he nor I. Neither could he do this, unless God had
sent him: nor can I receive the title of Christ, or any honour comparable to that which he
hath received from heaven. They seem to have spoken with jealousy and resentment; John
answers with sweet composure of spirit. |
| 29 |
He that hath the bride is the bridegroom - He whom the bride follows. But all men now
come to Jesus. Hence it is plain he is the bridegroom. The friend who heareth him - Talk
with the bride; rejoiceth greatly - So far from envying or resenting it. |
| 30 |
He must increase, but I must decrease - So they who are now, like John, burning and
shining lights, must (if not suddenly eclipsed) like him gradually decrease, while others
are increasing about them; as they in their turns grew up, amidst the decays of the former
generation. Let us know how to set, as well as how to rise; and let it comfort our
declining days to trace, in those who are likely to succeed us in our work, the openings
of yet greater usefulness. |
| 31 |
It is not improbable, that what is added, to the end of the chapter, are the words of
the evangelist, not the Baptist. He that is of the earth - A mere man; of earthly
original, has a spirit and speech answerable to it. |
| 32 |
No man - None comparatively, exceeding few; receiveth his testimony - With true faith.
|
| 33 |
Hath set to his seal - It was customary among the Jews for the witness to set his seal
to the testimony he had given. That God is true - Whose words the Messiah speaks. |
| 34 |
God giveth not him the Spirit by measure - As he did to the prophets, but
immeasurably. Hence he speaketh the words of God in the most perfect manner. |
| 36 |
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life - He hath it already. For he loves
God. And love is the essence of heaven. He that obeyeth not - A consequence of not
believing. |
Chapter IV
| 1 |
The Lord knew - Though none informed him of it. |
| 3 |
He left Judea - To shun the effects of their resentment. |
| 4 |
And he must needs go through Samaria - The road lying directly through it. |
| 5 |
Sychar - Formerly called Sichem or Shechem. Jacob gave - On his death bed, Gen
48:22. |
| 6 |
Jesus sat down - Weary as he was. It was the sixth hour - Noon; the heat of the day. |
| 7 |
Give me to drink - In this one conversation he brought her to that knowledge which the
apostles were so long in attaining. |
| 8 |
For his disciples were gone - Else he needed not have asked her. |
| 9 |
How dost thou - Her open simplicity appears from her very first words. The Jews have
no dealings - None by way of friendship. They would receive no kind of favour from them. |
| 10 |
If thou hadst known the gift - The living water; and who it is - He who alone is able
to give it: thou wouldst have asked of him - On those words the stress lies. Water - In
like manner he draws the allegory from bread, John 6:27, and from light,
8:12; the first, the most simple, necessary, common, and salutary things in nature. Living
water - The Spirit and its fruits. But she might the more easily mistake his meaning,
because living water was a common phrase among the Jews for spring water. |
| 12 |
Our father Jacob - So they fancied he was; whereas they were, in truth, a mixture of
many nations, placed there by the king of Assyria, in the room of the Israelites whom he
had carried away captive, 2Kings 17:24. Who gave us the well - In Joseph
their supposed forefather: and drank thereof - So even he had no better water than this. |
| 14 |
Will never thirst - Will never (provided he continue to drink thereof) be miserable,
dissatisfied, without refreshment. If ever that thirst returns, it will be the fault of
the man, not the water. But the water that I shall give him - The spirit of faith working
by love, shall become in him - An inward living principle, a fountain - Not barely a well,
which is soon exhausted, springing up into everlasting life - Which is a confluence, or
rather an ocean of streams arising from this fountain. |
| 15 |
That I thirst not - She takes him still in a gross sense. |
| 16 |
Jesus saith to her - He now clears the way that he might give her a better kind of
water than she asked for. Go, call thy husband - He strikes directly at her bosom sin. |
| 17 |
Thou hast well said - We may observe in all our Lord's discourses the utmost
weightiness, and yet the utmost courtesy. |
| 18 |
Thou hast had five husbands - Whether they were all dead or not, her own conscience
now awakened would tell her. |
| 19 |
Sir, I perceive - So soon was her heart touched. |
| 20 |
The instant she perceived this, she proposes what she thought the most important of
all questions. This mountain - Pointing to Mount Gerizim. Sanballat, by the permission of
Alexander the Great, had built a temple upon Mount Gerizim, for Manasseh, who for marrying
Sanballat's daughter had been expelled from the priesthood and from Jerusalem, Neh
13:28. This was the place where the Samaritans used to worship in opposition to
Jerusalem. And it was so near Sychar, that a man's voice might be heard from the one to
the other. Our fathers worshipped - This plainly refers to Abraham and Jacob (from whom
the Samaritans pretended to deduce their genealogy) who erected altars in this place: Gen
12:6,7, and Gen 33:18,20. And possibly to the whole congregation, who
were directed when they came into the land of Canaan to put the blessing upon Mount
Gerizim, Deut 11:29. Ye Jews say, In Jerusalem is the place - Namely, the
temple. |
| 21 |
Believe me - Our Lord uses this expression in this manner but once; and that to a
Samaritan. To his own people, the Jews, his usual language is, I say unto you. The hour
cometh when ye - Both Samaritans and Jews, shall worship neither in this mountain, nor at
Jerusalem - As preferable to any other place. True worship shall be no longer confined to
any one place or nation. |
| 22 |
Ye worship ye know not what - Ye Samaritans are ignorant, not only of the place, but
of the very object of worship. Indeed, they feared the Lord after a fashion; but at the
same time served their own gods, 2Kings 17:33. Salvation is from the Jews -
So spake all the prophets, that the Saviour should arise out of the Jewish nation: and
that from thence the knowledge of him should spread to all nations under heaven. |
| 23 |
The true worshippers shall worship the Father - Not here or there only, but at all
times and in all places. |
| 24 |
God is a Spirit - Not only remote from the body, and all the properties of it, but
likewise full of all spiritual perfections, power, wisdom, love, holiness. And our worship
should be suitable to his nature. We should worship him with the truly spiritual worship
of faith, love, and holiness, animating all our tempers, thoughts, words, and actions. |
| 25 |
The woman saith - With joy for what she had already learned, and desire of fuller
instruction. |
| 26 |
Jesus saith - Hasting to satisfy her desire before his disciples came. l am He - Our
Lord did not speak this so plainly to the Jews who were so full of the Messiah's temporal
kingdom. If he had, many would doubtless have taken up arms in his favour, and others have
accused him to the Roman governor. Yet he did in effect declare the thing, though he
denied the particular title. For in a multitude of places he represented himself, both as
the Son of man, and as the Son of God: both which expressions were generally understood by
the Jews as peculiarly applicable to the Messiah. |
| 27 |
His disciples marvelled that he talked with a woman - Which the Jewish rabbis reckoned
scandalous for a man of distinction to do. They marvelled likewise at his talking with a
woman of that nation, which was so peculiarly hateful to the Jews. Yet none said - To the
woman, What seekest thou? - Or to Christ, Why talkest thou with her? |
| 28 |
The woman left her water pot - Forgetting smaller things. |
| 29 |
A man who told me all things that ever I did - Our Lord had told her but a few things.
But his words awakened her conscience, which soon told her all the rest. Is not this the
Christ? - She does not doubt of it herself, but incites them to make the inquiry. |
| 31 |
In the meantime - Before the people came. |
| 34 |
My meat - That which satisfies the strongest appetite of my soul. |
| 35 |
The fields are white already - As if he had said, The spiritual harvest is ripe
already. The Samaritans, ripe for the Gospel, covered the ground round about them. |
| 36 |
He that reapeth - Whoever saves souls, receiveth wages - A peculiar blessing to
himself, and gathereth fruit - Many souls: that he that soweth - Christ the great sower of
the seed, and he that reapeth may rejoice together - In heaven. |
| 37 |
That saying - A common proverb; One soweth - The prophets and Christ; another reapeth
- The apostles and succeeding ministers. |
| 38 |
I - he Lord of the whole harvest, have sent you - He had employed them already in
baptizing, John 4:2. |
| 42 |
We know that this is the Saviour of the world - And not of the Jews only. |
| 43 |
He went into Galilee - That is, into the country of Galilee: but not to Nazareth. It
was at that town only that he had no honour. Therefore he went to other towns. |
| 44 |
Matt 13:57. |
| 47 |
To come down - For Cana stood much higher than Capernaum. |
| 48 |
Unless ye see signs and wonders - Although the Samaritans believed without them. |
| 52 |
He asked the hour when he amended - The more exactly the works of God are considered,
the more faith is increased. |
Chapter V
| 1 |
A feast - Pentecost. |
| 2 |
There is in Jerusalem - Hence it appears, that St. John wrote his Gospel before
Jerusalem was destroyed: it is supposed about thirty years after the ascension. Having
five porticos - Built for the use of the sick. Probably the basin had five sides! Bethesda
signifies the house of mercy. |
| 4 |
An angel - Yet many undoubtedly thought the whole thing to be purely natural. At
certain times - Perhaps at a certain hour of the day, during this paschal week, went down
- The Greek word implies that he had ceased going down, before the time of St. John's
writing this. God might design this to raise expectation of the acceptable time
approaching, to add a greater lustre to his Son's miracles, and to show that his ancient
people were not entirely forgotten of him. The first - Whereas the Son of God healed every
day not one only, but whole multitudes that resorted to him. |
| 7 |
The sick man answered - Giving the reason why he was not made whole, notwithstanding
his desire. |
| 14 |
Sin no more - It seems his former illness was the effect or punishment of sin. |
| 15 |
The man went and told the Jews, that it was Jesus who had made him whole - One might
have expected, that when he had published the name of his benefactor, crowds would have
thronged about Jesus, to have heard the words of his mouth, and to have received the
blessings of the Gospel. Instead of this, they surround him with a hostile intent: they
even conspire against his life, and for an imagined transgression in point of ceremony,
would have put out this light of Israel. Let us not wonder then, if our good be evil
spoken of: if even candour, benevolence, and usefulness, do not disarm the enmity of those
who have been taught to prefer sacrifice to mercy; and who, disrelishing the genuine
Gospel, naturally seek to slander and persecute the professors, but especially the
defenders of it. |
| 17 |
My Father worketh until now, and I work - From the creation till now he hath been
working without intermission. I do likewise. This is the proposition which is explained John
5:19 - 30, confirmed and vindicated in John 5:31 and following verses.
|
| 18 |
His own Father - The Greek word means his own Father in such a sense as no creature
can speak. Making himself equal with God - It is evident all the hearers so understood
him, and that our Lord never contradicted, but confirmed it. |
| 19 |
The Son can do nothing of himself - This is not his imperfection, but his glory,
resulting from his eternal, intimate, indissoluble unity with the Father. Hence it is
absolutely impossible, that the Son should judge, will, testify, or teach any thing
without the Father, John 5:30, &c; John 6:38; John 7:16; or that he
should be known or believed on, separately from the Father. And he here defends his doing
good every day, without intermission, by the example of his Father, from which he cannot
depart: these doth the Son likewise - All these, and only these; seeing he and the Father
are one. |
| 20 |
The Father showeth him all things that himself doth - A proof of the most intimate
unity. And he will show him - By doing them. At the same time (not at different times) the
Father showeth and doth, and the Son seeth and doth. Greater works - Jesus oftener terms
them works, than signs or wonders, because they were not wonders in his eyes. Ye will
marvel - So they did, when he raised Lazarus. |
| 21 |
For - He declares which are those greater works, raising the dead, and judging the
world. The power of quickening whom he will follows from the power of judging. These two,
quickening and judging, are proposed John 5:21,22. The acquittal of
believers, which presupposes judgment, is treated of John 5:24; the
quickening some of the dead, John 5:25; and the general resurrection, John
5:28. |
| 22 |
For neither doth the Father judge - Not without the Son: but he doth judge by that man
whom he hath ordained, Acts 17:31. |
| 23 |
That all men may honour the Son, even as they honour the Father - Either willingly,
and so escaping condemnation, by faith: or unwillingly, when feeling the wrath of the
Judge. This demonstrates the EQUALITY of the Son with the Father. If our Lord were God
only by office or investiture, and not in the unity of the Divine essence, and in all
respects equal in Godhead with the Father, he could not be honoured even as, that is, with
the same honour that they honoured the Father. He that honoureth not the Son - With the
same equal honour, greatly dishonoureth the Father that sent him. |
| 24 |
And cometh not into condemnation - Unless he make shipwreck of the faith. |
| 25 |
The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God - So did Jairus's daughter, the
widow's son, Lazarus. |
| 26 |
He hath given to the Son - By eternal generation, to have life in himself - Absolute,
independent. |
| 27 |
Because he is the Son of man - He is appointed to judge mankind because he was made
man. |
| 28 |
The time is coming - When not two or three, but all shall rise. |
| 29 |
The resurrection of life - That resurrection which leads to life everlasting. |
| 30 |
I can do nothing of myself - It is impossible I should do any thing separately from my
Father. As I hear - Of the Father, and see, so I judge and do; A because I am essentially
united to him. See Joh 5:19. |
| 31 |
If I testify of myself - That is, if I alone, (which indeed is impossible,) my
testimony is not valid. |
| 32 |
There is another - The Father, John 5:37, and I know that, even in your
judgment, his testimony in beyond exception. |
| 33 |
He bare testimony - That I am the Christ. |
| 34 |
But I have no need to receive, &c. But these things - Concerning John, whom ye
yourselves reverence, I say, that ye may be saved - So really and seriously did he will
their salvation. Yet they were not saved. Most, if not all of them, died in their sins. |
| 35 |
He was a burning and a shining light - Inwardly burning with love and zeal, outwardly
shining in all holiness. And even ye were willing for a season - A short time only. |
| 37 |
He hath testified of me - Namely at my baptism. I speak not of my supposed father
Joseph. Ye are utter strangers to him of whom I speak. |
| 38 |
Ye have not his word - All who believe have the word of the Father (the same with the
word of the Son) abiding in them, that is, deeply ingrafted in their hearts. |
| 39 |
Search the Scriptures - A plain command to all men. In them ye are assured ye have
eternal life - Ye know they show you the way to eternal life. And these very Scriptures
testify of me. |
| 40 |
Yet ye will not come unto me - As they direct you. |
| 41 |
I receive not honour from men - I need it not. I seek it not from you for my own sake.
|
| 42 |
But I know you - With this ray he pierces the hearts of the hearers. And this
doubtless he spake with the tenderest compassion. |
| 43 |
If another shall come - Any false Christ. |
| 44 |
While ye receive honour - That is, while ye seek the praise of men rather than the
praise of God. At the feast of pentecost, kept in commemoration of the giving the law from
Mount Sinai, their sermons used to be full of the praises of the law, and of the people to
whom it was given. How mortifying then must the following words of our Lord be to them,
while they were thus exulting in Moses and his law! |
| 45 |
There is one that accuseth you - By his writings. |
| 46 |
He wrote of me - Every where; in all his writings; particularly Deut 18:15,18.
|
Chapter VI
| 1 |
After these things - The history of between ten and eleven months is to be supplied
here from the other evangelists. Mt 14:13; Mr 6:32; Lu 9:10. |
| 3 |
Jesus went up - Before the people overtook him. |
| 5 |
Jesus saith to Philip - Perhaps he had the care of providing victuals for the family
of the apostles. |
| 15 |
He retired to the mountain alone - Having ordered his disciples to cross over the
lake. |
| 16 |
Mt 14:22; Mr 6:45. |
| 22 |
Who had stood on the other side - They were forced to stay a while, because there were
then no other vessels; and they stayed the less unwillingly, because they saw that Jesus
was not embarked. |
| 26 |
Our Lord does not satisfy their curiosity, but corrects the wrong motive they had in
seeking him: because ye did eat - Merely for temporal advantage. Hitherto Christ had been
gathering hearers: he now begins to try their sincerity, by a figurative discourse
concerning his passion, and the fruit of it, to be received by faith. |
| 27 |
Labour not for the meat which perisheth - For bodily food: not for that only not
chiefly: not at all, but in subordination to grace, faith, love, the meat which endureth
to everlasting life. Labour, work for this; for everlasting life. So our Lord expressly
commands, work for life, as well as from life: from a principle of faith and love. Him
hath the Father sealed - By this very miracle, as well as by his whole testimony
concerning him. See Joh 3:33. Sealing is a mark of the authenticity of a
writing. |
| 28 |
The works of God - Works pleasing to God. |
| 29 |
This is the work of God - The work most pleasing to God, and the foundation of all
others: that ye believe - He expresses it first properly, afterward figuratively. |
| 30 |
What sign dost thou? - Amazing, after what they had just seen! |
| 31 |
Our fathers ate manna - This sign Moses gave them. He gave them bread from heaven -
From the lower sublunary heaven; to which Jesus opposes the highest heaven: in which sense
he says seven times, John 6:32,33,38,50,58,62, that he himself came down from
heaven. |
| 32 |
Moses gave you not bread from heaven - It was not Moses who gave the manna to your
fathers; but my Father who now giveth the true bread from heaven. Psa 78:24. |
| 33 |
He that - giveth life to the world - Not (like the manna) to one people only: and that
from generation to generation. Our Lord does not yet say, I am that bread; else the Jews
would not have given him so respectful an answer, John 6:34. |
| 34 |
Give us this bread - Meaning it still, in a literal sense: yet they seem now to be not
far from believing. |
| 35 |
I am the bread of life - Having and giving life: he that cometh - he that believeth -
Equivalent expressions: shall never hunger, thirst - Shall be satisfied, happy, for ever. |
| 36 |
I have told you - Namely, John 6:26. |
| 37 |
All that the Father giveth me - All that feel themselves lost, and follow the drawings
of the Father, he in a peculiar manner giveth to the Son: will come to me - By faith. And
him that thus cometh to me, I will in nowise cast out - I will give him pardon, holiness,
and heaven, if he endure to the end - to rejoice in his light. |
| 39 |
Of all which he hath already given me - See Joh 17:6,12. If they endure
to the end. But Judas did not. |
| 40 |
Here is the sum of the three foregoing verses. This is the will of him that sent me -
This is the whole of what I have said: this is the eternal, unchangeable will of God.
Every one who truly believeth, shall have everlasting life. Every one that seeth and
believeth - The Jews saw, and yet believed not. And I will raise him up - As this is the
will of him that sent me, I will perform it effectually. |
| 44 |
Christ having checked their murmuring, continues what he was saying, John 6:40.
No man comes to me, unless my Father draw him - No man can believe in Christ, unless God
give him power: he draws us first, by good desires. Not by compulsion, not by laying the
will under any necessity; but by the strong and sweet, yet still resistible, motions of
his heavenly grace. |
| 45 |
Every man that hath heard - The secret voice of God, he, and he only believeth. Isa
54:13. |
| 46 |
Not that any one - Must expect him to appear in a visible shape. He who is from or
with God - In a more eminent manner than any creature. |
| 50 |
Not die - Not spiritually; not eternally. |
| 51 |
If any eat of this bread - That is, believe in me: he shall live for ever - In other
words, he that believeth to the end shall be saved. My flesh which I will give you - This
whole discourse concerning his flesh and blood refers directly to his passion, and but
remotely, if at all, to the Lord's Supper. |
| 52 |
Observe the degrees: the Jews are tried here; the disciples, John 6:60 -
66, the apostles, John 6:67. |
| 53 |
Unless ye eat the flesh of the Son of man - Spiritually: unless ye draw continual
virtue from him by faith. Eating his flesh is only another expression for believing. |
| 55 |
Meat - drink indeed - With which the soul of a believer is as truly fed, as his body
with meat and drink. |
| 57 |
I live by the Father - Being one with him. He shall live by me - Being one with me.
Amazing union! |
| 58 |
This is - That is, I am the bread - Which is not like the manna your fathers ate, who
died notwithstanding. |
| 60 |
This is a hard saying - Hard to the children of the world, but sweet to the children
of God. Scarce ever did our Lord speak more sublimely, even to the apostles in private.
Who can hear - Endure it? |
| 62 |
What if ye shall see the Son of man ascend where he was before? - How much more
incredible will it then appear to you, that he should give you his flesh to eat? |
| 63 |
It is the Spirit - The spiritual meaning of these words, by which God giveth life. The
flesh - The bare, carnal, literal meaning, profiteth nothing. The words which I have
spoken, they are spirit - Are to be taken in a spiritual sense and, when they are so
understood, they are life - That is, a means of spiritual life to the hearers. |
| 64 |
But there are some of you who believe not - And so receive no life by them, because
you take them in a gross literal sense. For Jesus knew from the beginning - Of his
ministry: who would betray him - Therefore it is plain, God does foresee future
contingencies:
"But his foreknowledge causes not the fault, Which had no less proved certain
unforeknown."
|
| 65 |
Unless it be given - And it is given to those only who will receive it on God's own
terms. |
| 66 |
From this time many of his disciples went back - So our Lord now began to purge his
floor: the proud and careless were driven away, and those remained who were meet for the
Master's use. |
| 68 |
Thou hast the words of eternal life - Thou, and thou alone, speakest the words which
show the way to life everlasting. |
| 69 |
And we - Who have been with thee from the beginning, whatever others do, have known -
Are absolutely assured, that thou art the Christ. |
| 70 |
Jesus answered the - And yet even ye have not all acted suitable to this knowledge.
Have I not chosen or elected you twelve? - But they might fall even from that election.
Yet one of you - On this gracious warning, Judas ought to have repented; is a devil - Is
now influenced by one. |
Chapter VII
| 1 |
After these things Jesus walked in Galilee - That is, continued there, for some months
after the second passover. For he would not walk - Continue in Judea; because the Jews -
Those of them who did not believe; and in particular the chief priests, scribes, and
Pharisees, sought an opportunity to kill him. |
| 2 |
The feast of tabernacles - The time, manner, and reason of this feast may be seen, Lev
23:34, &c. |
| 3 |
His brethren - So called according to the Jewish way of speaking. They were his
cousins, the sons of his mother's sister. Depart hence - From this obscure place. |
| 4 |
For no man doth any thing - Of this kind, in secret; but rather desireth to be of
public use. If thou really dost these things - These miracles which are reported; show
thyself to the world - To all men. |
| 6 |
Jesus saith, Your time is always ready - This or any time will suit you. |
| 7 |
The world cannot hate you - Because ye are of the world. But me it hateth - And all
that bear the same testimony. |
| 10 |
He also went up to the feast - This was his last journey but one to Jerusalem. The
next time he went up he suffered. |
| 11 |
The Jews - The men of Judea, particularly of Jerusalem. |
| 12 |
There was much murmuring among the multitude - Much whispering; many private debates
with each other, among those who were come from distant parts. |
| 13 |
However no man spake openly of him - Not in favour of him: for fear of the Jews -
Those that were in authority. |
| 14 |
Now at the middle of the feast - Which lasted eight days. It is probable this was on
the Sabbath day. Jesus went up into the temple - Directly, without stopping any where
else. |
| 15 |
How does this man know letters, having never learned? - How comes he to be so well
acquainted with sacred literature as to be able thus to expound the Scripture, with such
propriety and gracefulness, seeing he has never learned this, at any place of education? |
| 16 |
My doctrine is not mine - Acquired by any labour of learning; but his that sent me -
Immediately infused by him. |
| 17 |
If any man be willing to do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of
God - This is a universal rule, with regard to all persons and doctrines. He that is
thoroughly willing to do it, shall certainly know what the will of God is. |
| 18 |
There is no unrighteousness in him - No deceit or falsehood. |
| 19 |
But ye are unrighteous; for ye violate the very law which ye profess so much zeal for.
|
| 20 |
The people answered, Thou hast a devil - A lying spirit. Who seeketh to kill thee? -
These, coming from distant parts, probably did not know the design of the priests and
rulers. |
| 21 |
I did - At the pool of Bethesda: one work - Out of many: and ye all marvelled at it -
Are amazed, because I did it on the Sabbath day. |
| 22 |
Moses gave you circumcision - The sense is, because Moses enjoined you circumcision
(though indeed it was far more ancient than him) you think it no harm to circumcise a man
on the Sabbath: and are ye angry at me (which anger had now continued sixteen months) for
doing so much greater a good, for healing a man, body and soul, on the Sabbath? |
| 27 |
When Christ cometh, none knoweth whence he is - This Jewish tradition was true, with
regard to his Divine nature: in that respect none could declare his generation. But it was
not true with regard to his human nature, for both his family and the place of his birth
were plainly foretold. |
| 28 |
Then cried Jesus - With a loud and earnest voice. Do ye both know me, and know whence
I am ? - Ye do indeed know whence I am as a man. But ye know not my Divine nature, nor
that I am sent from God. |
| 29 |
l am from him - By eternal generation: and he hath sent me - His mission follows from
his generation. These two points answer those: Do ye know me? Do ye know whence I am? |
| 30 |
His hour - The time of his suffering. |
| 33 |
Then said Jesus - Continuing his discourse (from John 7:29) which they
had interrupted. |
| 34 |
Ye shall seek me - Whom ye now despise. These words are, as it were, the text which is
commented upon in this and the following chapter. Where I am - Christ's so frequently
saying while on earth, where I am, when he spake of his being in heaven, intimates his
perpetual presence there in his Divine nature: though his going thither was a future
thing, with regard to his human nature. |
| 35 |
Will he go to the dispersed among the Greeks - The Jews scattered abroad in heathen
nations, Greece particularly. Or, Will he teach the Greeks? - The heathens themselves. |
| 37 |
On the last, the great day of the feast - On this day there was the greatest concourse
of people, and they were then wont to fetch water from the fountain of Siloam, which the
priests poured out on the great altar, singing one to an other, With joy shall ye draw
water from the wells of salvation. On this day likewise they commemorated God's
miraculously giving water out of the rock, and offered up solemn prayers for seasonable
rains. |
| 38 |
He that believeth - This answers to let him come to me. And whosoever doth come to him
by faith, his inmost soul shall be filled with living water, with abundance of peace, joy,
and love, which shall likewise flow from him to others. As the Scripture hath said - Not
expressly in any one particular place. But here is a general reference to all those
scriptures which speak of the effusion of the Spirit by the Messiah, under the similitude
of pouring out water. Zec 14:8. |
| 39 |
The Holy Ghost was not yet given - That is, those fruits of the Spirit were not yet
given even to true believers, in that full measure. |
| 40 |
The prophet - Whom we expect to be the forerunner of the Messiah. |
| 42 |
From Bethlehem - And how could they forget that Jesus was born there? Had not Herod
given them terrible reason to remember it? Micah 5:2. |
| 48 |
Hath any of the rulers - Men of rank or eminence, or of the Pharisees - Men of
learning or religion, believed on him? |
| 49 |
But this populace, who know not the law - This ignorant rabble; are accursed - Are by
that ignorance exposed to the curse of being thus seduced. |
| 50 |
Nicodemus, he that came to him by night - Having now a little more courage, being one
of them - Being present as a member of the great council, saith to them - Do not we
ourselves act as if we knew not the law, if we pass sentence on a man before we hear him? |
| 52 |
They answered - By personal reflection; the argument they could not answer, and
therefore did not attempt it. Art thou also a Galilean? - One of his party? Out of Galilee
ariseth no prophet - They could not but know the contrary. They knew Jonah arose out of
Gethhepher; and Nahum from another village in Galilee. Yea, and Thisbe, the town of
Elijah, the Tishbite, was in Galilee also. They might likewise have known that Jesus was
not born in Galilee, but at Bethlehem, even from the public register there, and from the
genealogies of the family of David. They were conscious this poor answer would not bear
examination, and so took care to prevent a reply. |
| 53 |
And every man went to his own house - So that short plain question of Nicodemus
spoiled all their measures, and broke up the council! A word spoken in season, how good it
is! Especially when God gives it his blessing. |
Chapter VIII
| 5 |
Moses hath commanded us to stone such - If they spoke accurately, this must have been
a woman, who, having been betrothed to a husband, had been guilty of this crime before the
marriage was completed; for such only Moses commanded to be stoned. He commanded indeed
that other adulteresses should be put to death; but the manner of death was not specified.
Deut 22:23. |
| 6 |
That they might have to accuse him - Either of usurping the office of a judge, if he
condemned her, or of being an enemy to the law, if he acquitted her. Jesus stooping down,
wrote with his finger on the ground - God wrote once in the Old Testament; Christ once in
the New: perhaps the words which he afterward spoke, when they continued asking him. By
this silent action, he,
- fixed their wandering, hurrying thoughts, in order to awaken their consciences: and,
- signified that he was not then come to condemn but to save the world.
|
| 7 |
He that is without sin - He that is not guilty: his own conscience being the judge)
either of the same sin, or of some nearly resembling it; let him - as a witness, cast the
first stone at her. |
| 9 |
Beginning at the eldest - Or the elders. Jesus was left alone - By all those scribes
and Pharisees who proposed the question. But many others remained, to whom our Lord
directed his discourse presently after. |
| 10 |
Hath no man condemned thee? - Hath no judicial sentence been passed upon thee? |
| 11 |
Neither do I condemn thee - Neither do I take upon me to pass any such sentence. Let
this deliverance lead thee to repentance. |
| 12 |
He that followeth me shall in nowise walk in darkness - In ignorance, wickedness,
misery: but shall have the light of life - He that closely, humbly, steadily follows me,
shall have the Divine light continually shining upon him, diffusing over his soul
knowledge, holiness, joy, till he is guided by it to life everlasting. |
| 13 |
Thou testifiest of thyself; thy testimony is not valid - They retort upon our Lord his
own words, John 5:31; if I testify of myself, my testimony is not valid. He
had then added, There is another who testifieth of me. To the same effect he replies here,
John 8:14, Though I testify of myself, yet my testimony is valid; for I am
inseparably united to the Father. I know - And from firm and certain knowledge proceeds
the most unexceptionable testimony: whence I came, and whither I go - To these two heads
may be referred all the doctrine concerning Christ. The former is treated of John
8:16, &c, the latter John 8:21, &c. For I know whence I came - That is, For
I came from God, both as God and as man. And I know it, though ye do not. |
| 15 |
Ye judge after the flesh - As the flesh, that is, corrupt nature dictates. I judge no
man - Not thus; not now; not at my first coming. |
| 16 |
I am not alone - No more in judging, than in testifying: but I and the Father that
sent me - His Father is in him, and he is in the Father, John 14:10,11; and
so the Father is no more alone without the Son, than the Son is without the Father, Prov
8:22,23,30. His Father and he are not one and another God, but one God, (though
distinct persons,) and so inseparable from each other. And though the Son came from the
Father, to assume human nature, and perform his office as the Messiah upon earth, as God
is sometimes said to come from heaven, for particular manifestations of himself; yet
Christ did not leave the Father, nor the Father leave him, any more than God leaves heaven
when he is said to come down to the earth. |
| 17 |
Deut 19:15. |
| 19 |
Then said they to him, Where is thy Father? Jesus answered - Showing the perverseness
of their question; and teaching that they ought first to know the Son, if they would know
the Father. Where the Father is - he shows, John 8:23. Meantime he plainly
intimates that the Father and he were distinct persons, as they were two witnesses; and
yet one in essence, as the knowledge of him includes the knowledge of the Father. |
| 23 |
Ye are - Again he passes over their interruption, and proves what he advanced, John
8:21. Of them that are beneath - From the earth. I am of them that are above - Here
he directly shows whence he came, even from heaven, and whither he goes. |
| 24 |
If ye believe not that I AM - Here (as in John 8:58) our Lord claims the
Divine name, I AM, Exod 3:14. But the Jews, as if he had stopped short, and
not finished the sentence, answered, Who art thou? |
| 25 |
Even what I say to you from the beginning - The same which I say to you, as it were in
one discourse, with one even tenor from the time I first spake to you. |
| 26 |
I have many things to say and to judge of you - I have much to say concerning your
inexcusable unbelief: but he that sent me is true - Whether ye believe or no. And I speak
the things which I have heard from him - I deliver truly what he hath given me in charge. |
| 27 |
They understood not - That by him that sent him he meant God the Father. Therefore in John
8:28,29 he speaks plainly of the Father, and again claims the Divine name, I AM. |
| 28 |
When ye shall have lifted up - On the cross, ye shall know - And so many of them did,
that I AM - God over all; and that I do nothing of myself - Being one with the Father. |
| 29 |
The Father hath not left me alone - Never from the moment I came into the world. |
| 32 |
The truth - Written in your hearts by the Spirit of God, shall make you free - From
guilt, sin, misery, Satan. |
| 33 |
They - The other Jews that were by, (not those that believed,) as appears by the whole
tenor of the conversation. We were never enslaved to any man - A bold, notorious untruth.
At that very time they were enslaved to the Romans. |
| 34 |
Jesus answered - Each branch of their objection, first concerning freedom, then
concerning their being Abraham's offspring, John 8:37, &c. He that
committeth sin, is, in fact, the slave of sin. |
| 35 |
And the slave abideth not in the house - All sinners shall be cast out of God's house,
as the slave was out of Abraham's: but I, the Son, abide therein for ever. |
| 36 |
If I therefore make you free, ye - shall partake of the same privilege: being made
free from all guilt and sin, ye shall abide in the house of God for ever. |
| 37 |
I know that ye are Abraham's offspring - As to the other branch of your objection, I
know that, ye are Abraham's offspring, after the flesh; but not in a spiritual sense. Ye
are not followers of the faith of Abraham: my word hath no place in your hearts. |
| 41 |
Ye do the deeds of your father - He is not named yet. But when they presumed to call
God their Father, then he is expressly called the devil, John 8:44. |
| 42 |
I proceeded forth - As God, and come - As Christ. |
| 43 |
Ye cannot - Such is your stubbornness and pride, hear - Receive, obey my word. Not
being desirous to do my will, ye cannot understand my doctrine, John 7:17. |
| 44 |
He was a murderer - In inclination, from the beginning - Of his becoming a devil; and
abode not in the truth - Commencing murderer and liar at the same time. And certainly he
was a killer of men (as the Greek word properly signifies) from the beginning of the
world: for from the very creation he designed and contrived the ruin of men. When he
speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own - For he is the proper parent, and, as it were,
creator of it. See the origin not only of lies, but of evil in general! |
| 45 |
Because I speak the truth - Which liars hate. |
| 46 |
Which of you convicteth me of sin? - And is not my life as unreprovable as my
doctrine? Does not my whole behaviour confirm the truth of what I teach? |
| 47 |
He that is of God - That either loves or fears him, heareth - With joy and reverence,
God's words - Which I preach. |
| 48 |
Say we not well - Have we not just cause to say, Thou art, a Samaritan - An enemy to
our Church and nation; and hast a devil? - Art possessed by a proud and lying spirit? |
| 49 |
I honour my Father - I seek his honour only. |
| 50 |
I seek not my own glory - That is, as I am the Messiah, I consult not my own glory. I
need not. For my Father consulteth it, and will pass sentence on you accordingly. |
| 51 |
If a man keep my word - So will my Father consult my glory. We keep his doctrine by
believing, his promises by hoping, his command by obeying. He shall never see death - That
is, death eternal. He shall live for ever. Hereby he proves that he was no Samaritan; for
the Samaritans in general were Sadducees. |
| 54 |
If I honour myself - Referring to their words, Whom makest thou thyself? |
| 56 |
He saw it - By faith in types, figures, and promises; as particularly in Melchisedec;
in the appearance of Jehovah to him in the plains of Mamre, Gen 18:1; and in
the promise that in his seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. Possibly he
had likewise a peculiar revelation either of Christ's first or second coming. |
| 57 |
Thou art not yet fifty years old - At the most. Perhaps the gravity of our Lord's
countenance, together with his afflictions and labours, might make him appear older than
he really was. Hast thou seen Abraham - Which they justly supposed must have been, if
Abraham had seen him. |
| 58 |
Before Abraham was I AM - Even from everlasting to everlasting. This is a direct
answer to the objection of the Jews, and shows how much greater he was than Abraham. |
| 59 |
Then they took up stones - To stone him as a blasphemer; but Jesus concealed himself -
Probably by becoming invisible; and so passed on - With the same ease as if none had been
there. |
Chapter IX
| 2 |
Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? - That is, was it for his
own sins, or the sins of his parents? They suppose (as many of the Jews did, though
without any ground from Scripture) that he might have sinned in a pre - existent state,
before he came into the world. |
| 3 |
Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents - It was not the manner
of our Lord to answer any questions that were of no use, but to gratify an idle curiosity.
Therefore he determines nothing concerning this. The scope of his answer is, It was
neither for any sins of his own, nor yet of his parents; but that the power of God might
be displayed. |
| 4 |
The night is coming - Christ is the light. When the light is withdrawn night comes,
when no man can work - No man can do any thing toward working out his salvation after this
life is ended. Yet Christ can work always. But he was not to work upon earth, only during
the day, or season which was appointed for him. |
| 5 |
I am the light of the world - I teach men inwardly by my Spirit, and outwardly by my
preaching, what is the will of God; and I show them, by my example, how they must do it. |
| 6 |
He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay - This might almost have blinded a
man that had sight. But what could it do toward curing the blind? It reminds us that God
is no farther from the event, when he works either with, or without means, and that all
the creatures are only that which his almighty operation makes them. |
| 7 |
Go, wash at the pool of Siloam - Perhaps our Lord intended to make the miracle more
taken notice of. For a crowd of people would naturally gather round him to observe the
event of so strange a prescription, and it is exceeding probable, the guide who must have
led him in traversing a great part of the city, would mention the errand he was going
upon, and so call all those who saw him to a greater attention. From the fountain of
Siloam, which was without the walls of Jerusalem, a little stream flowed into the city,
and was received in a kind of basin, near the temple, and called the pool of Siloam. Which
is, by interpretation, Sent - And so was a type of the Messiah, who was sent of God. He
went and washed, and came seeing - He believed, and obeyed, and found a blessing. Had he
been wise in his own eyes, and reasoned, like Naaman, on the impropriety of the means, he
had justly been left in darkness. Lord, may our proud hearts be subdued to the methods of
thy recovering grace! May we leave thee to choose how thou wilt bestow favours, which it
is our highest interest to receive on any terms. |
| 11 |
A man called Jesus - He seems to have been before totally ignorant of him. |
| 14 |
Anointing the eyes - With any kind of medicine on the Sabbath, was particularly
forbidden by the tradition of the elders. |
| 16 |
This man is not of God - Not sent of God. How can a man that is a sinner - That is,
one living in wilful sin, do such miracles? |
| 17 |
What sayest thou of him, for that he hath opened thine eyes? - What inference dost
thou draw herefrom? |
| 22 |
He should be put out of the synagogue - That is be excommunicated. |
| 27 |
Are ye also - As well as I, at length convinced and willing to be his disciples? |
| 29 |
We know not whence he is - By what power and authority he does these things. |
| 30 |
The man answered - Utterly illiterate as he was. And with what strength and clearness
of reason! So had God opened the eyes of his understanding, as well as his bodily eyes.
Why, herein is a marvellous thing, that ye - The teachers and guides of the people, should
not know, that a man who has wrought a miracle, the like of which was never heard of
before, must be from heaven, sent by God. |
| 31 |
We - Even we of the populace, know that God heareth not sinners - Not impenitent
sinners, so as to answer their prayers in this manner. The honest courage of this man in
adhering to the truth, though he knew the consequence, John 9:22, gives him
claim to the title of a confessor. |
| 33 |
He could do nothing - Of this kind; nothing miraculous. |
| 34 |
Born in sin - And therefore, they supposed, born blind. They cast him out - Of the
synagogue; excommunicated him. |
| 35 |
Having found him - For he had sought him. |
| 36 |
Who is he, that I may believe? - This implies some degree of faith already. He was
ready to receive whatever Jesus said. |
| 37 |
Lord, I believe - What an excellent spirit was this man of! Of so deep and strong an
understanding; (as he had just shown to the confusion of the Pharisees,) and yet of so
teachable a temper! |
| 39 |
For judgment am I come into the world - That is, the consequence of my coming will be,
that by the just judgment of God, while the blind in body and soul receive their sight,
they who boast they see, will be given up to still greater blindness than before. |
| 41 |
If ye had been blind - Invincibly ignorant; if ye had not had so many means of
knowing: ye would have had no sin - Comparatively to what ye have now. But now ye say - Ye
yourselves acknowledge, Ye see, therefore your sin remaineth - Without excuse, without
remedy. |
Chapter X
| 1 |
He that entereth not by the door - By Christ. He is the only lawful entrance. Into the
sheepfold - The Church. He is a thief and a robber - In God's account. Such were all those
teachers, to whom our Lord had just been speaking. |
| 3 |
To him the door keeper openeth - Christ is considered as the shepherd, John
10:11. As the door in the first and following verses. And as it is not unworthy of
Christ to be styled the door, by which both the sheep and the true pastor enter, so
neither is it unworthy of God the Father to be styled the door keeper. See Acts
14:27; Col 4:3; Rev 3:8; Acts 16:14. And the sheep hear his voice - The
circumstances that follow, exactly agree with the customs of the ancient eastern
shepherds. They called their sheep by name, went before them and the sheep followed them.
So real Christians hear, listen to, understand, and obey the voice of the shepherd whom
Christ hath sent. And he counteth them his own, dearer than any friend or brother:
calleth, advises, directs each by name, and leadeth them out, in the paths of
righteousness, beside the waters of comfort. |
| 4 |
He goeth before them - In all the ways of God, teaching them in every point, by
example as well as by precept; and the sheep follow him - They tread in his steps: for
they know his voice - Having the witness in themselves that his words are the wisdom and
the power of God. Reader, art thou a shepherd of souls? Then answer to God. Is it thus
with thee and thy flock? |
| 5 |
They will not follow a stranger - One whom Christ hath not sent, who doth not answer
the preceding description. Him they will not follow - And who can constrain them to it?
But will flee from him - As from the plague. For they know not the voice of strangers -
They cannot relish it; it is harsh and grating to them. They find nothing of God therein. |
| 6 |
They - The Pharisees, to whom our Lord more immediately spake, as appears from the
close of the foregoing chapter. |
| 7 |
I am the door - Christ is both the Door and the Shepherd, and all things. |
| 8 |
Whosoever are come - Independently of me, assuming any part of my character,
pretending, like your elders and rabbis, to a power over the consciences of men,
attempting to make laws in the Church, and to teach their own traditions as the way of
salvation: all those prophets and expounders of God's word, that enter not by the door of
the sheepfold, but run before I have sent them by my Spirit. Our Lord seems in particular
to speak of those that had undertaken this office since he began his ministry, are thieves
- Stealing temporal profit to themselves, and robbers - Plundering and murdering the
sheep. |
| 9 |
If any one - As a sheep, enter in by me - Through faith, he shall be safe - From the
wolf, and from those murdering shepherds. And shall go in and out - Shall continually
attend on the shepherds whom I have sent; and shall find pasture - Food for his soul in
all circumstances. |
| 10 |
The thief cometh not but to steal, and to kill, and to destroy - That is, nothing else
can be the consequence of a shepherd's coming, who does not enter in by me. |
| 12 |
But the hireling - It is not the bare receiving hire, which denominates a man a
hireling: (for the labourer is worthy of his hire; Jesus Christ himself being the Judge:
yea, and the Lord hath ordained, that they who preach the Gospel, should live of the
Gospel:) but the loving hire: the loving the hire more than the work: the working for the
sake of the hire. He is a hireling, who would not work, were it not for the hire; to whom
this is the great (if not only) motive of working. O God! If a man who works only for hire
is such a wretch, a mere thief and a robber, what is he who continually takes the hire,
and yet does not work at all? The wolf - signifies any enemy who, by force or fraud,
attacks the Christian's faith, liberty, or life. So the wolf seizeth and scattereth the
flock - He seizeth some, and scattereth the rest; the two ways of hurting the flock of
Christ. |
| 13 |
The hireling fleeth because he is a hireling - Because he loves the hire, not the
sheep. |
| 14 |
I know my sheep - With a tender regard and special care: and am known of mine - With a
holy confidence and affection. |
| 15 |
As the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father - With such a knowledge as implies an
inexpressible union: and I lay down my life - Speaking of the present time. For his whole
life was only a going unto death. |
| 16 |
I have also other sheep - Which he foreknew; which are not of this fold - Not of the
Jewish Church or nation, but Gentiles. I must bring them likewise - Into my Church, the
general assembly of those whose names are written in heaven. And there shall be one flock
- (Not one fold, a plain false print) no corrupt or divided flocks remaining. And one
shepherd - Who laid down his life for the sheep, and will leave no hireling among them.
The unity both of the flock and the shepherd shall he completed in its season. The
shepherd shall bring all into one flock: and the whole flock shall hear the one shepherd. |
| 17 |
I lay down my life that I may take it again - I cheerfully die to expiate the sins of
men, to the end I may rise again for their justification. |
| 18 |
I lay it down of myself - By my own free act and deed. I have power to lay it down,
and I have power to take it again - I have an original power and right of myself, both to
lay it down as a ransom, and to take it again, after full satisfaction is made, for the
sins of the whole world. This commission have I received of my Father - Which I readily
execute. He chiefly spoke of the Father, before his suffering: of his own glory, after it.
Our Lord's receiving this commission as mediator is not to be considered as the ground of
his power to lay down and resume his life. For this he had in him self, as having an
original right to dispose thereof, antecedent to the Father's commission. But this
commission was the reason why he thus used his power in laying down his life. He did it in
obedience to his Father. |
| 21 |
These are not the words - The word in the original takes in actions too. |
| 22 |
It was the feast of the dedication - Instituted by Judas Maccabeus, 1 Macc. iv, 59,
when he purged and dedicated the altar and temple after they had been polluted. So our
Lord observed festivals even of human appointment. Is it not, at least, innocent for us to
do the same? |
| 23 |
In Solomon's portico - Josephus informs us, that when Solomon built the temple, he
filled up a part of the adjacent valley, and built a portico over it toward the east. This
was a noble structure, supported by a wall four hundred cubits high: and continued even to
the time of Albinus and Agrippa, which was several years after the death of Christ. |
| 26 |
Ye do not believe, because ye are not of my sheep - Because ye do not, will not follow
me: because ye are proud, unholy, lovers of praise, lovers of the world, lovers of
pleasure, not of God. |
| 27, 28, 29 |
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, &c. - Our Lord still
alludes to the discourse he had before this festival. As if he had said, My sheep are they
who,
- Hear my voice by faith;
- Are known (that is, approved) by me, as loving me; and
- Follow me, keep my commandments, with a believing, loving heart.
And to those who,
- Truly believe (observe three promises annexed to three conditions) I give eternal life.
He does not say, I will, but I give. For he that believeth hath everlasting life. Those
whom,
- I know truly to love me, shall never perish, provided they abide in my love.
- Those who follow me, neither men nor devils can pluck out of my hand. My Father who
hath, by an unchangeable decree, given me all that believe, love, and obey, is greater
than all in heaven or earth, and none is able to pluck them out of his hand.
|
| 28 |
See note ... "Joh 10:27" |
| 29 |
See note ... "Joh 10:27" |
| 30 |
I and the Father are one - Not by consent of will only, but by unity of power, and
consequently of nature. Are - This word confutes Sabellius, proving the plurality of
persons: one - This word confutes Arius, proving the unity of nature in God. Never did any
prophet before, from the beginning of the world, use any one expression of himself, which
could possibly be so interpreted as this and other expressions were, by all that heard our
Lord speak. Therefore if he was not God he must have been the vilest of men. |
| 34 |
Psa 82:6. |
| 35 |
If he (God) called them gods unto whom the word of God came, (that is, to whom God was
then speaking,) and the Scripture cannot be broken - That is, nothing which is written
therein can be censured or rejected. |
| 36 |
Say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world - This
sanctification (whereby he is essentially the Holy One of God) is mentioned as prior to
his mission, and together with it implies, Christ was God in the highest sense, infinitely
superior to that wherein those judges were so called. |
| 38 |
That ye may know and believe - In some a more exact knowledge precedes, in others it
follows faith. I am in the Father and the Father in me. I and the Father are one - These
two sentences illustrate each other. |
| 40 |
To the desert place where John baptized, and gave so honourable a testimony of him. |
| 41 |
John did no miracle - An honour reserved for him, whose forerunner he was. |
Chapter XI
| 1 |
One Lazarus - It is probable, Lazarus was younger than his sisters. Bethany is named,
the town of Mary and Martha, and Lazarus is mentioned after them, John 11:5.
Ecclesiastical history informs us, that Lazarus was now thirty years old, and that he
lived thirty years after Christ's ascension. |
| 2 |
It was that Mary who afterward anointed, &c. She was more known than her elder
sister Martha, and as such is named before her. |
| 4 |
This sickness is not to death, but for the glory of God - The event of this sickness
will not be death, in the usual sense of the word, a final separation of his soul and
body; but a manifestation of the glorious power of God. |
| 7 |
Let us go into Judea - From the country east of Jordan, whither he had retired some
time before, when the Jews sought to stone him, John 10:39,40. |
| 9 |
Are there not twelve hours in the day? - The Jews always divided the space from
sunrise to sunset, were the days longer or shorter, into twelve parts: so that the hours
of their day were all the year the same in number, though much shorter in winter than in
summer. If any man walk in the day he stumbleth not - As if he had said, So there is such
a space, a determined time, which God has allotted me. During that time I stumble not,
amidst all the snares that are laid for me. Because he seeth the light of this world - And
so I see the light of God surrounding me. |
| 10 |
But if a man walk in the night - If he have not light from God; if his providence does
no longer protect him. |
| 11 |
Our friend Lazarus sleepeth - This he spoke, just when he died. Sleepeth - Such is the
death of good men in the language of heaven. But the disciples did not yet understand this
language. And the slowness of our understanding makes the Scripture often descend to our
barbarous manner of speaking. |
| 16 |
Thomas in Hebrew, as Didymus in Greek, signifies a twin. With him - With Jesus, whom
he supposed the Jews would kill. It seems to be the language of despair. |
| 20 |
Mary sat in the house - Probably not hearing what was said. |
| 22 |
Whatsoever thou wilt ask, God will give it thee - So that she already believed he
could raise him from the dead. |
| 25 |
l am the resurrection - Of the dead. And the life - Of the living. He that believeth
in me, though he die, yet shall he live - In life everlasting. |
| 32 |
She fell at his feet - This Martha had not done. So she makes amends for her slowness
in coming. |
| 33 |
He groaned - So he restrained his tears. So he stopped them soon after, John
11:38. He troubled himself - An expression amazingly elegant, and full of the
highest propriety. For the affections of Jesus were not properly passions, but voluntary
emotions, which were wholly in his own power. And this tender trouble which he now
voluntarily sustained, was full of the highest order and reason. |
| 35 |
Jesus wept - Out of sympathy with those who were in tears all around him, as well as
from a deep sense of the misery sin had brought upon human nature. |
| 37 |
Could not this person have even caused, that this man should not have died? - Yet they
never dreamed that he could raise him again! What a strange mixture of faith and unbelief.
|
| 38 |
It was a cave - So Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their wives, except Rachel, were
buried in the cave of Machpelah, Gen 49:29 - 31. These caves were commonly in
rocks, which abounded in that country, either hollowed by nature or hewn by art. And the
entrance was shut up with a great stone, which sometimes had a monumental inscription. |
| 39 |
Lord, by this time he stinketh - Thus did reason and faith struggle together. |
| 40 |
Said I not - It appears by this, that Christ had said more to Martha than is before
recorded. |
| 41 |
Jesus lifted up his eyes - Not as if he applied to his Father for assistance. There is
not the least show of this. He wrought the miracle with an air of absolute sovereignty, as
the Lord of life and death. But it was as if he had said, I thank thee, that by the
disposal of thy providence, thou hast granted my desire, in this remarkable opportunity of
exerting my power, and showing forth thy praise. |
| 43 |
He cried with a loud voice - That all who were present might hear. Lazarus, come forth
- Jesus called him out of the tomb as easily as if he had been not only alive, but awake
also. |
| 44 |
And he came forth bound hand and foot with grave clothes - Which were wrapt round each
hand and each foot, and his face was wrapt about with a napkin - If the Jews buried as the
Egyptians did, the face was not covered with it, but it only went round the forehead, and
under the chin; so that he might easily see his way. |
| 45 |
Many believed on Him - And so the Son of God was glorified, according to what our Lord
had said, John 11:4. |
| 46 |
But some of them went to the Pharisees - What a dreadful confirmation of that weighty
truth, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one
rose from the dead! |
| 47 |
What do we? - What? Believe. Yea, but death yields to the power of Christ sooner than
infidelity. |
| 48 |
All men will believe - And receive him as the Messiah. And this will give such umbrage
to the Romans that they will come and subvert both our place - Temple; and nation - Both
our Church and state. Were they really afraid of this? Or was it a fair colour only?
Certainly it was no more. For they could not but know, that he that raised the dead was
able to conquer the Romans. |
| 49 |
That year - That memorable year, in which Christ was to die. It was the last and chief
of Daniel's seventy weeks, the fortieth year before the destruction of Jerusalem, and was
celebrated for various causes, in the Jewish history. Therefore that year is so peculiarly
mentioned: Caiaphas was the high priest both before and after it. Ye know nothing - He
reproves their slow deliberations in so clear a case. |
| 50 |
It is expedient that one man should die for the people - So God overruled his tongue,
for he spake not of himself, by his own spirit only, but by the spirit of prophecy. And
thus he gave unawares as clear a testimony to the priestly, as Pilate did to the kingly
office of Christ. |
| 52 |
But that, he might gather into one - Church, all the children of God that were
scattered abroad - Through all ages and nations. |
| 55 |
Many went up to purify themselves - That they might remove all hinderances to their
eating the passover. |
Chapter XII
| 1 |
Six days before the passover - Namely, on the Sabbath: that which was called by the
Jews, "The Great Sabbath." This whole week was anciently termed "The great
and holy week." Jesus came - From Ephraim, John 11:54. |
| 2 |
It seems Martha was a person of some figure, from the great respect which was paid to
her and her sister, in visits and condolences on Lazarus's death, as well as from the
costly ointment mentioned in the next verse. And probably it was at their house our Lord
and his disciples lodged, when he returned from Jerusalem to Bethany, every evening of the
last week of his life, upon which he was now entered. |
| 3 |
Then Mary, taking a pound of ointment - There were two persons who poured ointment on
Christ. One toward the beginning of his ministry, at or near Nain, Luke 7:37,
&c. The other six days before his last passover, at Bethany; the account of whom is
given here, as well as by St. Matthew and Mark. |
| 7 |
Against the day of my burial - Which now draws nigh. |
| 10 |
The chief priests consulted, how to kill Lazarus also - Here is the plain reason why
the other evangelists, who wrote while Lazarus was living, did not relate his story. |
| 12 |
The next day - On Sunday. Who were come to the feast - So that this multitude
consisted chiefly of Galileans, not men of Jerusalem. Mt 21:8. |
| 13 |
Psa 118:26; Mr 11:8; Lu 19:36 . |
| 15 |
Fear not - For his meekness forbids fear, as well as the end of his coming. Zec
9:9. |
| 16 |
These things his disciples understood not at first - The design of God's providential
dispensations is seldom understood at first. We ought therefore to believe, though we
understand not, and to give ourselves up to the Divine disposal. The great work of faith
is, to embrace those things which we knew not now, but shall know hereafter. When he had
been glorified - At his ascension. |
| 17 |
When he called Lazarus out of the tomb - How admirably does the apostle express, as
well the greatness of the miracle, as the facility with which it was wrought! The easiness
of the Scripture style on the most grand occurrences, is more sublime than all the pomp of
orators. |
| 18 |
The multitude went to meet him, because they heard - From those who had seen the
miracle. So in a little time both joined together, to go before and to follow him. |
| 20 |
Certain Greeks - A prelude of the Gentile Church. That these were circumcised does not
appear. But they came up on purpose to worship the God of Israel. |
| 21 |
These came to Philip of Bethsaida in Galilee - Perhaps they used to lodge there, in
their journey to Jerusalem. Or they might believe, a Galilean would be more ready to serve
them herein, than a Jew. Sir - They spake to him, as to one they were little acquainted
with. We would see Jesus - A modest request. They could scarce expect that he would now
have time to talk with them. |
| 23 |
The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified - With the Father and in the
sight of every creature. But he must suffer first. |
| 24 |
Unless a grain of wheat die - The late resurrection of Lazarus gave our Lord a natural
occasion of speaking on this subject. And agreeable to his infinite knowledge, he singles
out, from among so many thousands of seeds, almost the only one that dies in the earth:
and which therefore was an exceeding proper similitude, peculiarly adapted to the purpose
for which he uses it. The like is not to be found in any other grain, except millet, and
the large bean. |
| 25 |
He that loveth his life - More than the will of God; shall lose it eternally: and he
that hateth his life - In comparison of the will of God, shall preserve it. Mt 10:39.
|
| 26 |
Let him follow me - By hating his life: and where I am - In heaven. If any man serve
me - Thus, him will the Father honour. |
| 27 |
Now is my soul troubled - He had various foretastes of his passion. And what shall I
say? - Not what shall I choose? For his heart was fixed in choosing the will of his
Father: but he laboured for utterance. The two following clauses, Save me from this hour -
For this cause I came - Into the world; for the sake of this hour (of suffering) seem to
have glanced through his mind in one moment. But human language could not so express it. |
| 28 |
Father, glorify thy name - Whatever I suffer. Now the trouble was over. I have
glorified it - By thy entrance into this hour. And I will glorify it - By thy passing
through it. |
| 29 |
The multitude who stood and heard - A sound, but not the distinct words - In the most
glorious revelations there may remain something obscure, to exercise our faith. Said, It
thundered - Thunder did frequently attend a voice from heaven. Perhaps it did so now. |
| 31 |
Now - This moment. And from this moment Christ thirsted more than ever, till his
baptism was accomplished. Is the judgment of this world - That is, now is the judgment
given concerning it, whose it shall be. Now shall the prince of this world - Satan, who
had gained possession of it by sin and death, be cast out - That is, judged, condemned,
cast out of his possession, and out of the bounds of Christ's kingdom. |
| 32 |
Lifted up from the earth - This is a Hebraism which signifies dying. Death in general
is all that is usually imported. But our Lord made use of this phrase, rather than others
that were equivalent, because it so well suited the particular manner of his death. I will
draw all men - Gentiles as well as Jews. And those who follow my drawings, Satan shall not
be able to keep. |
| 34 |
How sayest thou, The Son of man must be lifted up? - How can these things be
reconciled? Very easily. He first dies, and then abideth for ever. Who is this Son of man?
- Is he the Christ? Psa 110:4. |
| 35 |
Then Jesus said to them - Not answering them directly, but exhorting them to improve
what they had heard already. The light - I and my doctrine. |
| 36 |
The children of light - The children of God, wise, holy, happy. |
| 37 |
Though he had done so many miracles before them - So that they could not but see them.
|
| 38 |
The arm of the Lord - The power of God manifested by Christ, in his preaching,
miracles, and work of redemption. Isa 53:1. |
| 39 |
Therefore now they could not believe - That is, by the just judgment of God, for their
obstinacy and wilful resistance of the truth, they were at length so left to the hardness
of their hearts, that neither the miracles nor doctrines of our Lord could make any
impression upon them. |
| 40 |
Isa 6:10; Mt 13:14; Ac 28:26. |
| 41 |
When he saw his glory - Christ's, Isa 6:1, &c. And it is there
expressly said to be the glory of the Lord, Jehovah, the Supreme God. |
| 44 |
Jesus said with a loud voice - This which follows to the end of the chapter, is with
St. John the epilogue of our Lord's public discourses, and a kind of recapitulation of
them. Believeth not on me - Not on me alone, but also on him that sent me: because the
Father hath sent the Son, and because he and the Father are one. |
| 45 |
And he that seeth me - By the eye of faith. |
| 47 |
I judge him not - Not now: for I am not come to judge the world. See, Christ came to
save even them that finally perish! Even these are a part of that world, which he lived
and died to save. |
| 50 |
His commandment - Kept, is life everlasting - That is the way to it, and the beginning
of it. |
Chapter XIII
| 1 |
Before the feast - Namely, on Wednesday, in the paschal week. Having loved his own -
His apostles, he loved them to the end - Of his life. |
| 2 |
Having now - Probably now first. |
| 3 |
Jesus knowing - Though conscious of his own greatness, thus humbled himself. |
| 4 |
Layeth aside his garments - That part of them which would have hindered him. |
| 5 |
Into the basin - A large vessel was usually placed for this very purpose, wherever the
Jews supped. |
| 7 |
What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter - We do not now know
perfectly any of his works, either of creation, providence, or grace. It is enough that we
can love and obey now, and that we shall know hereafter. |
| 8 |
If I wash thee not - If thou dost not submit to my will, thou hast no part with me -
Thou art not my disciple. In a more general sense it may mean, If I do not wash thee in my
blood, and purify thee by my Spirit, thou canst have no communion with me, nor any share
in the blessings of my kingdom. |
| 9 |
Lord, not my feet only - How fain would man be wiser than God! Yet this was well
meant, though ignorant earnestness. |
| 10 |
And so ye, having been already cleansed, need only to wash your feet - That is, to
walk holy and undefiled. |
| 14 |
Ye ought also to wash one another's feet - And why did they not? Why do we not read of
any one apostle ever washing the feet of any other? Because they understood the Lord
better. They knew he never designed that this should be literally taken. He designed to
teach them the great lesson of humble love, as well as to confer inward purity upon them.
And hereby he teaches us,
- In every possible way to assist each other in attaining that purity;
- To wash each other's feet, by performing all sorts of good offices to each other, even
those of the lowest kind, when opportunity serves, and the necessity of any calls for
them.
|
| 16 |
The servant is not greater than his lord - Nor therefore ought to think much of either
doing or suffering the same things. |
| 18 |
I speak not of you all - When I call you happy, I know one of you twelve whom I have
chosen, will betray me; whereby that scripture will be fulfilled. Psa 41:9. |
| 20 |
And I put my own honour upon you, my ambassadors. Mt 10:40. |
| 21 |
One of you - The speaking thus indefinitely at first was profitable to them all. |
| 23 |
There was lying in the bosom of Jesus - That is, sitting next to him at table. This
phrase only expresses the then customary posture at meals, where the guests all leaned
sidewise on couches. And each was said to lie in the bosom of him who was placed next
above him. One of the disciples whom Jesus loved - St. John avoids with great care the
expressly naming himself. Perhaps our Lord now gave him the first proof of his peculiar
love, by disclosing this secret to him. |
| 24 |
Simon Peter - Behind Jesus, who lay between them. |
| 25 |
Leaning down, and so asking him privately. |
| 26 |
Jesus answered - In his ear. So careful was he not to offend (if it had been possible)
even Judas himself. The sop - Which he took up while he was speaking. He giveth it to
Judas - And probably the other disciples thought Judas peculiarly happy! But when even
this instance of our Lord's tenderness could not move him, then Satan took full
possession. |
| 27 |
What thou doest, do quickly - This is not a permission, much less a command. It is
only as if he had said, If thou art determined to do it, why dost thou delay? Hereby
showing Judas, that he could not be hid, and expressing his own readiness to suffer. |
| 28 |
None knew why he said this - Save John and Judas. |
| 30 |
He went out - To the chief priests. But he returned afterward, and was with them when
they ate the passover, Mt 26:20, though not at the Lord's Supper. |
| 31 |
Jesus saith - Namely, the next day; on Thursday, in the morning. Here the scene, as it
were, is opened, for the discourse which is continued in the following chapters. Now -
While I speak this, the Son of man is glorified - Being fully entered into his glorious
work of redemption. This evidently relates to the glory which belongs to his suffering in
so holy and victorious a manner. |
| 33 |
Ye cannot come - Not yet; being not yet ripe for it. John 7:34. |
| 34 |
A new commandment - Not new in itself; but new in the school of Christ: for he had
never before taught it them expressly. Likewise new, as to the degree of it, as I have
loved you. |
| 36 |
Peter saith, Lord, whither goest thou? - St. Peter seems to have thought, that Christ,
being rejected by the Jews, would go to some other part of the earth to erect his throne,
where he might reign without disturbance, according to the gross notions he had of
Christ's kingdom. Thou canst not follow me now - But Peter would not believe him. And he
did follow him, Joh 18:15. But it was afar off. And not without great loss. |
| 38 |
The cock shall not have crowed - That is, cock crowing shall not be over, till thou
hast denied me thrice - His three - fold denial was thrice foretold; first, at the time
mentioned here; secondly, at that mentioned by St. Luke; lastly, at that recorded by St.
Matthew and Mark. |
Chapter XIV
| 1 |
Let not your heart be troubled - At my departure. Believe - This is the sum of all his
discourse, which is urged till they did believe, Joh 16:30. And then our Lord
prays and departs. |
| 2 |
In my Father's house are many mansions - Enough to receive both the holy angels, and
your predecessors in the faith, and all that now believe, and a great multitude, which no
man can number. |
| 4 |
The way - Of faith, holiness, sufferings. |
| 5 |
Thomas saith - Taking him in a gross sense. |
| 6 |
To the question concerning the way, he answers, I am the way. To the question
concerning knowledge, he answers, I am the truth. To the question whither, I am the life.
The first is treated of in this verse; the second, Joh 14:7 - 17; the third,
14:18, &c. |
| 7 |
Ye have known - Ye have begun to know him. |
| 10 |
I am in the Father - The words that I speak, &c. - That is, I am one with the
Father, in essence, in speaking, and in acting. |
| 11 |
Believe me - On my own word, because I am God. The works - This respects not merely
the miracles themselves, but his sovereign, Godlike way of performing them. |
| 12 |
Greater works than these shall he do - So one apostle wrought miracles merely by his
shadow, Acts 5:15; another by handkerchiefs carried from his body, Acts
19:12; and all spake with various tongues. But the converting one sinner is a
greater work than all these. Because I go to my Father - To send you the Holy Ghost. |
| 15 |
If ye love me, keep my commandments - Immediately after faith he exhorts to love and
good works. |
| 16 |
And I will ask the Father - The 21st verse, Joh 14:21, shows the
connection between this and the preceding verses. And he will give you another Comforter -
The Greek word signifies also an advocate, instructer, or encourager. Another - For Christ
himself was one. To remain with you for ever - With you, and your followers in faith, to
the end of the world. |
| 17 |
The Spirit of truth - Who has, reveals, testifies, and defends the truth as it is in
Jesus. Whom the world - All who do not love or fear God, cannot receive, because it seeth
him not - Having no spiritual senses, no internal eye to discern him; nor consequently
knoweth him. He shall be in you - As a constant guest. Your bodies and souls shall be
temples of the Holy Ghost dwelling in you. |
| 18 |
I will not leave you orphans - A word that is elegantly applied to those who have lost
any dear friend. I come to you - What was certainly and speedily to be, our Lord speaks of
as if it were already. |
| 19 |
But ye see me - That is, ye shall certainly see me. Because I live, ye shall live also
- Because I am the living One in my Divine nature, and shall rise again in my human
nature, and live for ever in heaven: therefore ye shall live the life of faith and love on
earth, and hereafter the life of glory. |
| 20 |
At that day - When ye see me after my resurrection; but more eminently at the day of
pentecost. |
| 21 |
He that hath my commandments - Written in his heart. I will manifest myself to him -
More abundantly. |
| 23 |
Jesus answered - Because ye love and obey me, and they do not, therefore I will reveal
myself to you, and not to them. My Father will love him - The more any man loves and
obeys, the more God will love him. And we will come to him, and make our abode with him -
Which implies such a large manifestation of the Divine presence and love, that the former
in justification is as nothing in comparison of it. |
| 26 |
In my name - For my sake, in my room, and as my agent. He will teach you all things -
Necessary for you to know. Here is a clear promise to the apostles, and their successors
in the faith, that the Holy Ghost will teach them all that truth which is needful for
their salvation. |
| 27 |
Peace I leave with you - Peace in general; peace with God and with your own
consciences. My peace - In particular; that peace which I enjoy, and which I create, I
give - At this instant. Not as the world giveth - Unsatisfying unsettled, transient; but
filling the soul with constant, even tranquillity. Lord, evermore give us this peace! How
serenely may we pass through the most turbulent scenes of life, when all is quiet and
harmonious within! Thou hast made peace through the blood of thy cross. May we give all
diligence to preserve the inestimable gift inviolate, till it issue in everlasting peace! |
| 28 |
God the Father is greater than I - As he was man. As God, neither is greater nor less
than the other. |
| 29 |
I have told you - Of my going and return. |
| 30 |
The prince of this world is coming - To make his grand assault. But he hath nothing in
me - No right, no claim, or power. There is no guilt in me, to give him power over me; no
corruption to take part with his temptation. |
| 31 |
But I suffer him thus to assault me,
- Because it is the Father's commission to me, Joh 10:18.
- To convince the world of my love to the Father, in being obedient unto death, Php
2:8.
Arise, let us go hence - Into the city, to the passover. All that has been related from
John 12:31, was done and said on Thursday, without the city. But what follows
in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth chapters, was said in the city, on the very
evening of the passover just before he went over the brook Kedron. |
Chapter XV
| 1 |
I am the true vine - So the true bread, John 6:32; that is, the most
excellent. |
| 2 |
Every one that beareth fruit, he purifieth - by obeying the truth, 1Pet 1:22;
and by inward or outward sufferings, Heb 12:10,11. So purity and fruitfulness
help each other. That it may bear more fruit - For this is one of the noblest rewards God
can bestow on former acts of obedience, to make us yet more holy, and fit for farther and
more eminent service. |
| 3 |
Ye are clean - All of you, to whom I now speak, are purged from the guilt and power of
sin; by the word - Which, applied by the Spirit, is the grand instrument of purifying the
soul. |
| 4 |
Abide in me - Ye who are now pure by living faith, producing all holiness; by which
alone ye can be in me. |
| 5 |
I am the vine, ye are the branches - Our Lord in this whole passage speaks of no
branches but such as are, or at least were once, united to him by living faith. |
| 6 |
If any one abide not in me - By living faith; not by Church communion only. He may
thus abide in Christ, and be withered all the time, and cast into the fire at last. He is
cast out - Of the vineyard, the invisible Church. Therefore he was in it once. |
| 7 |
If ye abide in me, ye shall ask - Prayers themselves are a fruit of faith, and they
produce more fruit. |
| 8 |
So shall ye be my disciples - Worthy of the name. To be a disciple of Christ is both
the foundation and height of Christianity. |
| 9 |
Abide ye in my love - Keep your place in my affection. See that ye do not forfeit that
invaluable blessing. How needless a caution, if it were impossible for them not to abide
therein? |
| 10 |
If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love - On these terms, and no other,
ye shall remain the objects of my special affection. |
| 11 |
That my joy might remain in you - The same joy which I feel in loving the Father, and
keeping his commandments. |
| 12 |
Your joy will be full, if ye so love one another. |
| 13 |
Greater love - To his friends. He here speaks of them only. |
| 14 |
Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you - On this condition, not
otherwise. A thunderbolt for Antinomianism! Who then dares assert that God's love does not
at all depend on man's works? |
| 15 |
All things - Which might be of service to you. |
| 16 |
Ye - My apostles, have not chosen me, but I have chosen you - As clearly appears from
the sacred history: and appointed you, that ye may go and bear fruit - I have chosen and
appointed you for this end, that ye may go and convert sinners: and that your fruit may
remain - That the fruit of your labours may remain to the end of the world; yea, to
eternity; that whatsoever ye shall ask - The consequence of your going and bearing fruit
will be, that all your prayers will he heard. |
| 19 |
Because ye are not of the world, therefore the world hateth you - Because your maxims,
tempers, actions, are quite opposite to theirs. For the very same reason must the world in
all ages hate those who are not of the world. |
| 20 |
John 13:16; Mt 10:24; Lu 6:40. |
| 21 |
All these things will they do to you, because they know not him that sent me - And in
all ages and nations they who know not God will, for this cause, hate and persecute those
that do. |
| 22 |
They had not had sin - Not in this respect. |
| 23 |
He that hateth me - As every unbeliever doth, For as the love of God is inseparable
from faith, so is the hatred of God from unbelief. |
| 25 |
Psa 69:4. |
| 26 |
When the Comforter is come, whom I will send from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who
proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me - The Spirit's coming, and being sent
by our Lord from the Father, to testify of him, are personal characters, and plainly
distinguish him from the Father and the Son; and his title as the Spirit of truth,
together with his proceeding from the Father, can agree to none but a Divine person. And
that he proceeds from the Son, as well as from the Father, may be fairly argued from his
being called the Spirit of Christ, 1Pet 1:11; and from his being here said to
be sent by Christ from the Father, as well as sent by the Father in his name. |
Chapter XVI
| 2 |
The time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think he doth God service - But,
blessed be God, the time is so far past, that those who bear the name of Christ do not now
generally suppose they do him service by killing each other for a difference in opinion or
mode of worship. |
| 3 |
They have not known the Father nor me - This is the true root of persecution in all
its forms. |
| 4 |
I did not tell you these things at the beginning, because I was with you - To bear the
chief shock in my own person, and to screen you from it. |
| 5 |
None of you asketh me - Now when it is most seasonable. Peter did ask this before, John
13:36. |
| 7 |
It is expedient for you - In respect of the Comforter, John 16:7, &c,
and of me, John 16:16, &c, and of the Father, John 16:23,
&c. |
| 8 |
He - Observe his twofold office; toward the world, John 16:8, &c;
toward believers, John 16:12, &c: will convince - All of the world - Who
do not obstinately resist, by your preaching and miracles, of sin, and of righteousness,
and of judgment - He who is convinced of sin either accepts the righteousness of Christ,
or is judged with Satan. An abundant accomplishment of this we find in the Acts of the
Apostles. |
| 9 |
Of sin - Particularly of unbelief, which is the confluence of all sins, and binds them
all down upon us. |
| 10 |
Of righteousness, because I go to my Father - Which the Spirit will testify, though ye
do not then see me. But I could not go to him if I were not righteous. |
| 11 |
The prince of this world is judged - And in consequence thereof dethroned, deprived of
the power he had so long usurped over men. Yet those who reject the deliverance offered
them will remain slaves of Satan still. |
| 12 |
I have yet many things to say - Concerning my passion, death, resurrection, and the
consequences of it. These things we have, not in uncertain traditions, but in the Acts,
the Epistles, and the Revelation. But ye cannot bear them now - Both because of your
littleness of faith, and your immoderate sorrow. |
| 13 |
When he is come - It is universally allowed that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost dwell
in all believers. And the internal agency of the Holy Ghost is generally admitted. That of
the Father and the Son, as represented in this Gospel, deserves our deepest consideration.
|
| 15 |
All things that the Father hath are mine - Could any creature say this? |
| 16 |
A little while and ye shall not see me - When I am buried: and again, a little while,
and ye shall see me - When I am risen: because I go to my Father - I die and rise again,
in order to ascend to my Father. |
| 19 |
Jesus said to them - Preventing their question. |
| 20 |
Ye will weep and lament - When ye see me dead; but your sorrow will be turned into joy
- When ye see me risen. |
| 22 |
Ye now therefore have sorrow - This gives us no manner of authority to assert all
believers must come into a state of darkness. They never need lose either their peace, or
love, or the witness that they are the children of God. They never can lose these, but
either through sin, or ignorance, or vehement temptation, or bodily disorder. |
| 23 |
Ye shall not question me about any thing - Which you do not now understand. You will
not need to inquire of me; for you will know all things clearly. Whatsoever ye shall ask -
Knowledge, love, or any thing else, he will give it - Our Lord here gives us a charte
blanche. Believer, write down what thou wilt. He had said, John 14:13, I will
do it, where the discourse was of glorifying the Father through the Son. Here, speaking of
the love of the Father to believers, he saith, He will give it. |
| 24 |
Hitherto ye have asked nothing in my name - For they had asked him directly for all
they wanted. |
| 26 |
At that day ye shall ask - For true knowledge begets prayer. And I say not that I will
pray - This in nowise implies that he will not: it means only, The Father himself now
loves you, not only because of my intercession, but also because of the faith and love
which he hath wrought in you. |
| 30 |
Thou knowest all things - Even our hearts. Although no question is asked thee, yet
thou answerest the thoughts of every one. By this we believe that thou camest forth from
God - They, as it were, echo back the words which he had spoken in John 16:27,
implying, We believe in God; we believe also in thee. |
Chapter XVII
In this chapter our Lord prays,
- For himself, ver. 1 - 5. John 17:1 - 5
- For the apostles, ver. 6 - 19; John 17:6 - 19 and again, ver. 24 - 26. John
17:24 - 26
- For all believers, ver. 20 - 23. John 17:20 - 23 And
- For the world, ver. 21 - 23. John 17:21 - 23
In his prayer he comprises all he had said from John 13:31, and seals, as
it were, all he had hitherto done, beholding things past, present, and to come. This
chapter contains the easiest words, and the deepest sense of any in all the Scripture: yet
is here no incoherent rhapsody, but the whole is closely and exactly connected.
| 1 |
Father - This simplicity of appellation highly became the only - begotten Son of God;
to which a believer then makes the nearest approach, when he is fullest of love and humble
confidence. The hour is come - The appointed time for it; glorify thy Son - The Son
glorified the Father, both before and after his own glorification. When he speaks to the
Father he does not style himself the Son of man. |
| 2 |
As thou hast given him power over all flesh - This answers to glorify thy Son. That he
may give eternal life, &c. - This answers to that thy Son may glorify thee. To all
whom thou hast given him - To all believers. This is a clear proof that Christ designed
his sacrifice should avail for all: yea, that all flesh, every man, should partake of
everlasting life. For as the Father had given him power over all flesh, so he gave himself
a ransom for all. |
| 3 |
To know - By loving, holy faith, thee the only true God - The only cause and end of
all things; not excluding the Son and the Holy Ghost, no more than the Father is excluded
from being Lord, 1Cor 8:6; but the false gods of the heathens; and Jesus
Christ - As their prophet, priest, and king: this is life eternal - It is both the way to,
and the essence of, everlasting happiness. |
| 4 |
I have finished the work - Thus have I glorified thee, laying the foundation of thy
kingdom on earth. |
| 5 |
The glory which I had - He does not say received - He always had it, till he emptied
himself of it in the days of his flesh. |
| 6 |
I have manifested thy name - All thy attributes; and in particular thy paternal
relation to believers; to the men whom thou hast given me - The apostles, and so John
17:12. They were thine - By creation, and by descent from Abraham. And thou hast
given them me - By giving them faith in what I have spoken. So John 17:9. |
| 7 |
Now they know that all things - Which I have done and spoken, are of thee - And
consequently right and true. |
| 8 |
They have received them - By faith. |
| 9 |
I pray not for the world - Not in these petitions, which are adapted to the state of
believers only. (He prays for the world at John 17:21,23, that they may
believe - That they may know God hath sent him.) This no more proves that our Lord did not
pray for the world, both before and afterward, than his praying for the apostles alone, John
17:6 - 19, proves that he did not pray for them also which shall believe through
their word, John 17:20. |
| 10 |
All things that are mine are thine, and that are thine are mine - These are very high
and strong expressions, too grand for any mere creature to use; as implying that all
things whatsoever, inclusive of the Divine nature, perfections, and operations, are the
common property of the Father and the Son. And this is the original ground of that
peculiar property, which both the Father and the Son have in the persons who were given to
Christ as Mediator; according to what is said in the close of the verse, of his being
glorified by them; namely, believing in him, and so acknowledging his glory. |
| 11 |
Keep them through thy name - Thy power, mercy, wisdom, that they may be one - with us
and with each other; one body, separate from the world: as we are - By resemblance to us,
though not equality. |
| 12 |
Those whom thou hast given me I have guarded, and none of them is lost, but the son of
perdition - So one even of them whom God had given him is lost. So far was even that
decree from being unchangeable! That the Scripture might be fulfilled - That is, whereby
the Scripture was fulfilled. The son of perdition signifies one that deservedly perishes;
as a son of death, 2Sam 12:5; children of hell, Mt 23:15, and
children of wrath, Eph 2:3, signify persons justly obnoxious to death, hell,
wrath. Psalm 109:8. |
| 13 |
In the world - That is, before I leave the world. My joy - The joy I feel at going to
the Father. |
| 15 |
That thou wouldest take them out of the world - Not yet: but that thou wouldest keep
them from the evil one - Who reigns therein. |
| 17 |
Sanctify - Consecrate them by the anointing of thy Spirit to their office, and perfect
them in holiness, by means of thy word. |
| 19 |
I sanctify myself - I devote myself as a victim, to be sacrificed. |
| 20 |
For them who will believe - In all ages. |
| 21 |
As thou art in me - This also is to be understood in a way of similitude, and not of
sameness or equality. That the world may believe - Here Christ prays for the world.
Observe the sum of his whole prayer,
- Receive me into thy own and my glory;
- Let my apostles share therein;
- And all other believers:
- And let all the world believe.
|
| 22 |
The glory which thou hast given me, I have given them - The glory of the only begotten
shines in all the sons of God. How great is the majesty of Christians. |
| 24 |
Here he returns to the apostles. I will - He asks, as having a right to be heard, and
prays, not as a servant, but a Son: that they may behold my glory - Herein Is the
happiness of heaven, 1John 3:2. |
| 25 |
Righteous Father - The admission of believers to God through Christ, flows even from
the justice of God. |
| 26 |
I have declared to them thy name - Thy new, best name of love; that the love wherewith
thou hast loved me - That thou and thy love, and I and my love, may be in them - That they
may love me with that love. |
Chapter XVIII
| 1 |
A garden - Probably belonging to one of his friends. He might retire to this private
place, not only for the advantage of secret devotion, but also that the people might not
be alarmed at his apprehension, nor attempt, in the first sallies of their zeal, to rescue
him in a tumultuous manner. Kedron was (as the name signifies) a dark shady valley, on the
east side of Jerusalem, between the city and the mount of Olives, through which a little
brook ran, which took its name from it. It was this brook, which David, a type of Christ,
went over with the people, weeping in his flight from Absalom. Mt 26:30; Mr
14:26; Lu 22:39. |
| 2 |
Mr 14:43; Lu 22:47. |
| 3 |
A troop of soldiers - A cohort of Roman foot. |
| 6 |
As soon as he said, I am he, they went backward and fell to the ground - How amazing
is it, that they should renew the assault, after so sensible an experience both of his
power and mercy! But probably the priests among them might persuade themselves and their
attendants, that this also was done by Beelzebub; and that it was through the providence
of God, not the indulgence of Jesus, that they received no farther damage. |
| 8 |
If ye seek me, let these (my disciples) go - It was an eminent instance of his power
over the spirits of men, that they so far obeyed this word, as not to seize even Peter,
when he had cut off the ear of Malchus. |
| 9 |
Joh 17:12. |
| 10 |
Then Simon Peter - No other evangelist names him. Nor could they safely. But St. John,
writing after his death, might do it without any such inconvenience. |
| 13 |
Annas had been high priest before his son - in - law Caiaphas. And though he had for
some time resigned that office, yet they paid so much regard to his age and experience,
that they brought Christ to Annas first. But we do not read of any thing remarkable which
passed at the house of Annas; for, which reason, his being carried thither is omitted by
the other evangelists. Mt 26:57; Mr 14:53; Lu 22:54. |
| 17 |
Art thou also - As well as the others, one of this man's disciples - She does not
appear to have asked with any design to hurt him. |
| 20 |
I spake openly - As to the manner: continually - As to the time: in the synagogue and
temple - As to the place. In secret have I said nothing - No point of doctrine which I
have not taught in public. |
| 21 |
Why askest thou me - Whom thou wilt not believe? |
| 22 |
Answerest thou the high priest so? - With so little reverence? |
| 24 |
Now Annas had sent him to Caiaphas - As is implied John 18:13. Bound -
Being still bound, John 18:12. |
| 28 |
They went not into the palace themselves, lest they should be defiled - By going into
a house which was not purged from leaven, Deut 16:4. Mt 27:2; Mr
15:1; Lu 23:1. |
| 31 |
It is not lawful for us to put any man to death - The power of inflicting capital
punishment had been taken from them that very year. So the sceptre was departed from
Judah, and transferred to the Romans. |
| 32 |
Signifying what death he should die - For crucifixion was not a Jewish, but a Roman
punishment. So that had he not been condemned by the Roman governor, he could not have
been crucified. John 3:14. |
| 36 |
My kingdom is not of this world - Is not an external, but a spiritual kingdom; that I
might not be delivered to the Jews - Which Pilate had already attempted to do, Joh
18:31, and afterward actually did, Joh 19:16. |
| 37 |
Thou sayest - The truth. To this end was I born - Speaking of his human origin: his
Divine was above Pilate's comprehension. Yet it is intimated in the following words, I
came into the world, that I might witness to the truth - Which was both declared to the
Jews, and in the process of his passion to the princes of the Gentiles also. Every one
that is of the truth - That is, a lover of it, heareth my voice - A universal maxim. Every
sincere lover of truth will hear him, so as to understand and practise what he saith. |
| 38 |
What is truth? - Said Pilate, a courtier; perhaps meaning what signifies truth? Is
that a thing worth hazarding your life for? So he left him presently, to plead with the
Jews for him, looking upon him as an innocent but weak man. |
Chapter XIX
| 1 |
Mt 27:26; Mr 15:15. |
| 7 |
By our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God - Which they
understood in the highest sense, and therefore accounted blasphemy. |
| 8 |
He was the more afraid - He seems to have been afraid before of shedding innocent
blood. |
| 9 |
Whence art thou? - That is, whose son art thou? |
| 11 |
Thou couldst have no power over me - For I have done nothing to expose me to the power
of any magistrate. Therefore he that delivered me to thee, namely, Caiaphas, knowing this,
is more blamable than thou. |
| 13 |
Pilate sat down on the judgment seat - Which was then without the palace, in a place
called, in Greek, the pavement, on account of a beautiful piece of Mosaic work, with which
the floor was adorned: but in Hebrew, Gabbatha - Or the high place, because it stood on an
eminence, so that the judge sitting on his throne might be seen and heard by a
considerable number of people. |
| 14 |
It was the preparation of the passover - For this reason both the Jews and Pilate were
desirous to bring the matter to a conclusion. Every Friday was called the preparation,
(namely, for the Sabbath.) And as often as the passover fell on a Friday, that day was
called the preparation of the passover. |
| 17 |
Bearing his cross - Not the whole cross, (for that was too large and heavy,) but the
transverse beam of it, to which his hands were afterward fastened. This they used to make
the person to be executed carry. Mt 27:31; Mr 15:20; Lu 23:26. |
| 19 |
Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews - Undoubtedly these were the very words,
although the other evangelists do not express them at large. |
| 20 |
It was written in Latin - For the majesty of the Roman empire; in Hebrew - Because it
was the language of the nation; and in Greek - For the information of the Hellenists, who
spoke that language, and came in great numbers to the feast. |
| 22 |
What I have written, I have written - That shall stand. |
| 23 |
The vesture - The upper garment. |
| 24 |
They parted my garments among them - No circumstance of David's life bore any
resemblance to this, or to several other passages in the 22d Psalm. So that in this
scripture, as in some others, the prophet seems to have been thrown into a preternatural
ecstacy, wherein, personating the Messiah, he spoke barely what the Spirit dictated,
without any regard to himself. Psa 22:18. |
| 25 |
His mother's sister - But we do not read she had any brother. She was her father's
heir, and as such transmitted the right of the kingdom of David to Jesus: Mary, the wife
of Cleopas - Called likewise Alpheus, the father, as Mary was the mother of James, and
Joses, and Simon, and Judas. |
| 27 |
Behold thy mother - To whom thou art now to perform the part of a son in my place, a
peculiar honour which Christ conferred on him. From that hour - From the time of our
Lord's death. |
| 29 |
A stalk of hyssop - Which in those countries grows exceeding large and strong. Psa
69:21. |
| 30 |
It is finished - My suffering: the purchase of man's redemption. He delivered up his
spirit - To God, Mt 27:50. |
| 31 |
Lest the bodies should remain on the cross on the Sabbath - Which they would have
accounted a profanation of any Sabbath, but of that in particular. For that Sabbath was a
great day - Being not only a Sabbath, but the second day of the feast of unleavened bread
(from whence they reckoned the weeks to pentecost:) and also the day for presenting and
offering the sheaf of new corn: so that it was a treble solemnity. |
| 34 |
Forthwith there came out blood and water - It was strange, seeing he was dead, that
blood should come out; more strange, that water also; and most strange of all, that both
should come out immediately, at one time, and yet distinctly. It was pure and true water,
as well as pure and true blood. The asseveration of the beholder and testifier of it,
shows both the truth and greatness of the miracle and mystery. |
| 35 |
His testimony is true - Valid, unexceptionable. And he knoweth - And his conscience
beareth him witness, that he testifieth this for no other end, than that ye may believe. |
| 36 |
A bone of it shall not be broken - This was originally spoken of the paschal lamb, an
eminent type of Christ. Exod 12:46. |
| 37 |
They shall look on him whom they have pierced - He was pierced by the soldier's spear.
They who have occasioned his sufferings by their sins (and who has not?) shall either look
upon him in this world with penitential sorrow: or with terror, when he cometh in the
clouds of heaven, Rev 1:7. Zec 12:10. |
| 38 |
Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate - And Nicodemus also came - Acknowledging Christ,
when even his chosen disciples forsook him. In that extremity Joseph was no longer afraid,
Nicodemus no longer ashamed. |
| 41 |
In the place where he was crucified - There was a garden in the same tract of land:
but the cross did not stand in the garden. |
| 42 |
Because of the preparation - That is, they chose the rather to lay him in that
sepulchre which was nigh, because it was the day before the Sabbath, which also was
drawing to an end, so that they had no time to carry him far. |
Chapter XX
| 1 |
Mt 28:1; Mr 16:1; Lu 24:1. |
| 3 |
Peter went out - Of the city. |
| 6 |
Peter seeth the linen clothes lie - and the napkin folded up - The angels who
ministered to him when he rose, undoubtedly folded up the napkin and linen clothes. |
| 8 |
He saw - That the body was not there, and believed - That they had taken it away as
Mary said. |
| 9 |
For as yet - They had no thought of his rising again. |
| 10 |
They went home - Not seeing what they could do farther. |
| 11 |
But Mary stood - With more constancy. Mr 16:9. |
| 16 |
Jesus saith to her, Mary - With his usual voice and accent. |
| 17 |
Touch me not - Or rather, Do not cling to me (for she held him by the feet,) Mt
28:9. Detain me not now. You will have other opportunities of conversing with me.
For I am not ascended to my Father - I have not yet left the world. But go immediately to
my brethren - Thus does he intimate in the strongest manner the forgiveness of their
fault, even without ever mentioning it. These exquisite touches, which every where abound
in the evangelical writings, show how perfectly Christ knew our frame. I ascend - He
anticipates it in his thoughts, and so speaks of it as a thing already present. To my
Father and your Father, to my God and your God - This uncommon expression shows that the
only - begotten Son has all kind of fellowship with God. And a fellowship with God the
Father, some way resembling his own, he bestows upon his brethren. Yet he does not say,
Our God: for no creature can be raised to an equality with him: but my God and your God:
intimating that the Father is his in a singular and incommunicable manner; and ours
through him, in such a kind as a creature is capable of. |
| 19 |
Mr 16:14 Lu 24:36. |
| 21 |
Peace be unto you - This is the foundation of the mission of a true Gospel minister,
peace in his own soul, 2Cor 4:1. As the Father hath sent me, so send I you -
Christ was the apostle of the Father, Heb 3:1. Peter and the rest, the
apostles of Christ. |
| 22 |
He breathed on them - New life and vigour, and saith, as ye receive this breath out of
my mouth, so receive ye the Spirit out of my fulness: the Holy Ghost influencing you in a
peculiar manner, to fit you for your great embassy. This was an earnest of pentecost. |
| 23 |
Whose soever sins ye remit - (According to the tenor of the Gospel, that is, supposing
them to repent and believe) they are remitted, and whose soever sins ye retain (supposing
them to remain impenitent) they are retained. So far is plain. But here arises a
difficulty. Are not the sins of one who truly repents, and unfeignedly believes in Christ,
remitted, without sacerdotal absolution? And are not the sins of one who does not repent
or believe, retained even with it? What then does this commission imply? Can it imply any
more than,
- A power of declaring with authority the Christian terms of pardon; whose sins are
remitted and whose retained? As in our daily form of absolution; and
- A power of inflicting and remitting ecclesiastical censures? That is, of excluding from,
and re - admitting into, a Christian congregation.
|
| 26 |
After eight days - On the next Sunday. |
| 28 |
And Thomas said, My Lord and my God - The disciples had said, We have seen the Lord.
Thomas now not only acknowledges him to be the Lord, as he had done before, and to be
risen, as his fellow disciples had affirmed, but also confesses his Godhead, and that more
explicitly than any other had yet done. And all this he did without putting his hand upon
his side. |
| 30 |
Jesus wrought many miracles, which are not written in this book - Of St. John, nor
indeed of the other evangelists. |
| 31 |
But these things are written that ye may believe - That ye may be confirmed in
believing. Faith cometh sometimes by reading; though ordinarily by hearing. |
Chapter XXI
| 2 |
There were together - At home, in one house. |
| 4 |
They knew not that it was Jesus - Probably their eyes were holden. |
| 6 |
They were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes - This was not only a
demonstration of the power of our Lord, but a kind supply for them and their families, and
such as might be of service to them, when they waited afterward in Jerusalem. It was
likewise an emblem of the great success which should attend them as fishers of men. |
| 7 |
Peter girt on his upper coat (for he was stript of it before) - Reverencing the
presence of his Lord: and threw himself into the sea - To swim to him immediately. The
love of Christ draws men through fire and water. |
| 12 |
Come ye and dine - Our Lord needed not food. And none presumed - To ask a needless
question. |
| 14 |
The third time - That he appeared to so many of the apostles together. |
| 15 |
Simon, son of Jonah - The appellation Christ had given him, when be made that glorious
confession, Matt 16:16, the remembrance of which might make him more deeply
sensible of his late denial of him whom he had so confessed. Lovest thou me? - Thrice our
Lord asks him, who had denied him thrice: more than these - Thy fellow disciples do? -
Peter thought so once, Matt 26:33, but he now answers only - I love thee,
without adding more than these. Thou knowest - He had now learnt by sad experience that
Jesus knew his heart. My lambs - The weakest and tenderest of the flock. |
| 17 |
Because he said the third time - As if he did not believe him. |
| 18 |
When thou art old - He lived about thirty - six years after this: another shall gird
thee - They were tied to the cross till the nails were driven in; and shall carry thee -
With the cross: whither thou wouldest not - According to nature; to the place where the
cross was set up. |
| 19 |
By what death he should glorify God - It is not only by acting, but chiefly by
suffering, that the saints glorify God. Follow me - Showing hereby likewise what death he
should die. |
| 20 |
Peter turning - As he was walking after Christ. Seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved
following him - There is a peculiar spirit and tenderness in this plain passage. Christ
orders St. Peter to follow him in token of his readiness to be crucified in his cause. St.
John stays not for the call; he rises and follows him too; but says not one word of his
own love or zeal. He chose that the action only should speak this; and even when he
records the circumstance, he tells us not what that action meant, but with great
simplicity relates the fact only. If here and there a generous heart sees and emulates it,
be it so; but he is not solicitous that men should admire it. It was addressed to his
beloved Master, and it was enough that he understood it. |
| 22 |
If I will that he tarry - Without dying, till I come - To judgment. Certainly he did
tarry, till Christ came to destroy Jerusalem. And who can tell, when or how he died? What
is that to thee? - Who art to follow me long before. |
| 23 |
The brethren - That is, the Christians. Our Lord himself taught them that appellation,
John 20:17. Yet Jesus did not say to him, that he should not die - Not
expressly. And St. John himself, at the time of writing his Gospel, seems not to have
known clearly, whether he should die or not. |
| 24 |
This is the disciple who testifieth - Being still alive after he had wrote. And we
know that his testimony is true - The Church added these words to St. John's, Gospel, as
Tertius did those to St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, Rom 16:22. |
| 25 |
If they were to be written particularly - Every fact, and all the circumstances of it.
I suppose - This expression, which softens the hyperbole, shows that St. John wrote this
verse. |
|
