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of thyself; thy m record is not true. 1+ Jesus answered and said unto them, Though I bear m record of myself, [ yet] my m record is true; an for I know whence I came, m render, witness. nomit: not in the original.

nn render, because.

deed of darkness had been detected in the night. But not to dwell on other objections to this view,-e. g. that such an allusion to the woman would be wholly out of character after our Lord's previous treatment of her,-how come these Pharisees, who on the hypothesis of the above Commentators are the same as those who accused the woman, to be again so soon present? Was this at all likely? We cannot escape from this difficulty with Stier, by supposing a multitude of the people to have been witnesses on both occasions : the "Pharisees" of the one must surely extend through the other, if this connexion is to be maintained. On the other hand, this discourse comes in very well after ch. vii. 52. The last saying of Jesus (ch. vii. 37, 38) had referred to a festal usage then just over; He now adds another of the same kind. It was the custom during the first night, if not during every night, of the feast of tabernacles, to light up two large golden chandeliers in the court of the women, the light of which illuminated all Jerusalem. All that night they held a festal dance by the light. Now granted that this was on the first night only,-what is there improbable

in the supposition that our Lord-standing in the very place where the candlesticks had been or perhaps actually wereshould have alluded to that practice, as He did to the outpouring of water in ch. vii. 37, 38? Surely to say in both cases, as Lücke and De Wette do, that the allusion could not have been made unless the usage took place on that day, is mere trifling. While the feast lasted, and the remembrance of the ceremonies was fresh, the allusion would be perfectly natural. See on ch. i. 9, and xi. 9, 10. See also Isa. xlii. 6; Mal. iv. 2; and on "the light of life," ch. i. 4, and vi. 48. 13.] See ch. v. 31. The assertion there was, that His own unsupported witness (supposing that possible) would not be trustworthy, but that His testimony was supported by, and in fact coincident with, that of the Father. The very same argument is here used, but the other side of it presented to us. He does witness of Himself, because His testimony is the testimony of the Father;-He being the Word of God, and the Father witnessing in Him. 14.] because I know, &c.—see on ch. vii. 29. This reason binds His testimony to that of the Father; for He came forth from the

e Luke ix. 50:

xii. 14 ch.

iii. 17.

d ch. v. 14.

o omit.

HISTORY OF THE WOMAN TAKEN IN ADULTERY.

alone, and the woman [o standing] in the midst. 10 When Jesus had lifted up himself, p and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? q She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, r and a sin no more.]

11

p read, he said unto the woman, Where are they?
r read, from this time.

q read, And she said unto him. those of younger ones are more tender.

alone, i. e. with the multitude and the disciples; the woman standing between Him and the disciples on one hand, and the multitude on the other.

10, 11.] The question is evidently so worded as it is, "hath no man condemned thee?" for the sake of the form of the answer, "Neither do I condemn thee:" but it expresses the truth in the depth of their hearts. The Lord's challenge to them would lead to a condemnation by

comparison with themselves, if they condemned at all: which they had not done. The words of Jesus were in fact a far deeper and more solemn testimony against the sin than could be any mere penal sentence. And in judging of them we must never forget that He who thus spoke knew the hearts,-and what was the peculiar state of this woman as to penitence. We must not apply in all cases a sentence, which requires His divine knowledge to make it a just one."

e I

c See ch. vii. 28: ix. 29. d ch. vii. 24. e ch. iii. 17: xii. 47: xviii.

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fver. 29. ch. DEUT. xv.

xvi. 32.

6: xix. 15. Matt. xviii.

and whither I go; but ye cannot tell whence I come, P and whither I go. 15 d Ye judge after the flesh ; judge no man. 16 q And yet if I judge, my judgment is true: for I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me. 17 88 It is also written in your law, that the & testimony of two men is true. t one that bear 16. 2 Cor. witness of myself, and the Father that sent me bearethx. 23. witness of me. 19 u Then said they unto him, Where is thy Father? Jesus answered, Ye neither know me, nor i ver. 55. ch. Father: k if had known me, ye ye should have known kch. xiv. 7.

my

18 I am

xiii. 1. Heb.

h ch. v. 37.

xvi. 3.

my Father also. 20 These words spake Jesus in the 1 Mark xii. 41. treasury, as he taught in the temple: and m no man laid m ch. vii. 30. hands on him; for "his hour was not yet come. n ch. vii. 8. 21 Then said Jesus again unto them, I go

render, know not.

¶ better, Yea, and if I should judge.

$ render, Moreover it is written. render, They said therefore.

y render, because.

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a render, away.

Father, ch. xvi. 28, and was returning to Him. Light," says Augustine, "demonstrates other things, and itself also... light gives testimony to itself: opens the eyes that are capable of beholding it, and is its own witness that it may be known to be light." Then again, he only who knows can witness and Jesus only knew this. Notice I know whence I came : -this goes back to the "existence in the beginning" of ch. i. 1; but ye know not whence I come, do not recognize even My present mission.' We must not for a moment understand " Though I bear witness," with Grotius, "even though Ishould bear witness," &c.: i. e. "even though there were no previous testimonies to me of the prophets or of 'John the Baptist.' Our Lord's words do not suppose a case, but allows the fact. 15, 16.] There is no allusion to the foregoing history; the train of thought is altogether another. 'The end of all testimony, is the forming, or pronouncing, of judgment. Ye do this by fleshly rules, concerning me and my mission: I judge no man, i. e. it is not the object nor habit of this My mission on earth; but even if I be called on to exercise judg ment, my judgment is decisive:' the word meaning not exactly true in its ordinary meaning, but rather, genuine; which a judgment can only be by being true and final; see ch. v. 30 and note.

17.]

a my way, and

P read, or.

rrender, because. trender, he that beareth. I render, would know. Z render, Therefore.

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The word your seems to give this sense to the clause:-'So that if you will have the mere letter of the law, and judge my testimony by it, I will even thus satisfy you:' your thus implying, The law which you have made so completely your own by your kind of adherence to it.' 19.] Augustine and others imagine that the Jews thought of a human Father, in thus speaking. But surely before this, as Stier remarks, the Jews must have become too well accustomed to the words "my Father," from our Lord, to mistake their meaning. It is rather a question asked in mere scorn, by persons who know, but will not recognize, the meaning of a word uttered by another. if ye had known me] See ch. xiv. 9 ff. and note. 20. the treasury] See Luke xxi. 1, and note on Mark xii. 41. It was in the court of the women. his hour was not yet come] See ch. vii. 8, 30. 21-59.] Further discourses of Jesus. The Jews attempt to stone Him.-This forms the great conclu

sion of the series of discourses to the Jews. In it our Lord testifies more plainly still to His divine origin and sinlessness, and to the cause of their unbelief; until at last their enmity is worked up to the highest pitch, and they take up stones to cast at Him. It may be divided into four parts: (1) vv. 21—24,-announcing to them the inevitable consequence of persistence in

o ch. vii. 34:
xiii. 33.
p ver. 24.

q ch. iii. 31.

r ch. xv. 19: xvii. 16

r

ye shall seek me, and P shall die in your b sins: whither I go, ye cannot come. 22 c Then said the Jews, Will he kill himself? because he saith, Whither I go, ye cannot come. 23 And he said unto them, 9 Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world. 2 I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins for if ye believe not that I am he, ye die in your sins. 25 ǹ Then said they unto him, Who art thou? And Jesus saith unto them, e Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning. 26 I have many things brender, sin. © render, The Jews therefore said. d render, Therefore.

1 John iv. 5. s ver. 21.

сс

shall

cc not expressed in the original. • read and render, In very deed, that same which I speak unto

you.

their unbelief, on His withdrawal from
them: (2) vv. 25-29,-the things which
He has to say and judge of them, and the
certainty of their own future recognition of
Him and His truthfulness: (3) vv. 30-47,
-the first springing up of faith in many
of them is by Him corrected and purified
from Jewish pride, and the source of such
pride and unbelief detected: (4) vv. 48—
58,-the accusation of the Jews in ver. 48,
gives occasion to Him to set forth very
plainly His own divine dignity and præ-
21.] The time and place of
this discourse are not definitely marked;
but in all probability they were the same
as before. Only no stress must be laid on
the therefore as connected with ver. 20,
for it is only the accustomed carrying for-
ward by the Evangelist of the great self-
manifestation of Jesus.
ye shall seek

existence.

me includes the idea and shall not find
me,' which is expressed in ch. vii. 34, 36:
-ye shall continue seeking Me

and shall die (perish) in your sin] This
sin is not unbelief, for, ver 24, it is clearly
distinguished from that: but, your state
of sin, unremoved, and therefore abiding
on you, and proving your ruin' (see on ver.
24).
The words do not refer to the
destruction of Jerusalem, but to individual
perdition. In these discourses in John, the
public judgment on the Jews is not pro-
minently brought forward, as in the other
Evangelists. whither I go, ye cannot
come, the consequence, not the cause (by
any absolute decree) of their dying in their
sins (see ch. vii. 34; xiii. 33). This latter
sense would have required the insertion of
"for" before the clause. 22.] It is
at least probable that they allude to the
idea mentioned by Josephus, himself a
Pharisee, in his speech at Jotapata,

"As

many as have laid violent hands on themselves, for their souls there is a darker Hadés reserved." Heracleon, as cited by Origen, gives this interpretation of their saying:-'and with the bitterest malice, taunt Him with thus being about to go where they, the children of Abraham, could never come.' De Wette thinks this too refined, and that such a meaning would, if intended, have been marked in our Lord's answer. 23.] Ye cannot come where I am going, because we both shall return thither whence we came: I to the Father from Whom (from above) I came: ye to the earth and under the earth (for that more awful meaning surely is not excluded) whence ye came' (from beneath). Then the term this world of course does not only imply this present state of things,' but involves the deeper meaning, of the origin of that state of things (see ver. 44) and its end, ver. 24. 24.] Since this (ver. 23) is the case, if ye do not believe that I am He, the Deliverer,-and be renewed by Faith, ye shall die in your sins (plural here, as struck nearer home to their consciences, and implying individual acts of sin, the results of the carnal state). 25.] Their question follows on the words "I am from above," ver. 23, and on the dubious elliptical expression I am (he) of the last verse. It is intended to bring out a plain answer on which their enmity might fasten.

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Our Lord's reply has been found very difficult, from reasons which can hardly be explained to the English reader. The A. V.,

even the same that I said unto you from the beginning,' cannot well be right. The verb rather means to speak or discourse, than to say the connecting particle cannot well be rendered "even:" and the word rendered "from the beginning" far

u

ye

xv. 15.

x ch. iii. 14: xii. 32. y Rom. i. 4.

to say and to judge of you: but he that sent me is true; tch. vii. 28, and I speak to the world those things which I have heard uch. iii. 32: of him. 27 They understood not that he spake to them of the Father. 28 g Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have * lifted the Son of man, up y then shall know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father [hath] taught me, I speak these things. 29 And that sent me is with me: ck the Father hath not left alone; for I do always those things that please him. 30 As he spake these words, many believed on him.

e

a

he

me

ch. v. 19, 30. beh. xiv. 10,

a ch. iii. 11.

11. c ver. 16.

dch. iv. 34:

v. 30: vi. 38.

ech. vii. 31;

x. 42: xi. 4.

frender, the things which I heard from him, these speak I unto the world.

g read and render, Jesus therefore said. k read and render, he left me not.

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more probably means 'essentially," or "in very deed.” This being premised, the sentence must be rendered (literally) thus: Essentially, that which I also discourse unto you: or, In very deed, that same which I speak unto you. He is the Word-His discourses are the revelation of Himself. And there is especial propriety in this: When Moses asked the name of God, I am that which I AM,' was the mysterious answer; the hidden essence of the yet unrevealed One could only be expressed by self-comprehension; but when God manifest in the flesh is asked the same question, it is I am that which I SPEAK:' what He reveals Himself to be, that He is (see on next verse). The above sense is maintained by De Wette, and strikingly expanded and illustrated by Stier. See an account, and discussion, of other proposed interpretations, in my Greek Test. 26.] He is, that which He speaks; and that, He has received from the Father ;He has His definite testimony to give, and His work to do: and therefore, though He has much that He could speak and judge about the Jews, He does it not, but overlooks their malice,-not answering it,that He may go forward with the speaking unto the world, the revelation of Himself: the truth of which is all-important, and excludes less weighty things. This verse is in the closest connexion with the foregoing. 27.] They did not identify "him that sent me" with "my Father." However improbable this may be, after the plain words "the Father that sent me," in ver. 18, it is stated as a fact; and the Evangelist certainly would not have done so without some sure ground:-"It is probable, that they questioned one with another, Who is he that sent him ?"" Eu

6

;

homit.

render, because.

thymius. There is no accounting for the ignorance of unbelief, as any minister of Christ knows by painful experience. 28.] This connects (therefore being the continuation of the foregoing, see above on ver. 21) with ver. 26, and also with ver. 27, as the words then shall ye know shew, referring to the expression in that verse, "They knew not." On lifted up, see ch. iii. 14. When ye shall have been the instruments of accomplishing that death by which He shall enter into His glory' for the latter idea is clearly implied here. then shall ye know] Perhaps, in different ways:-some, by the power of the Holy Spirit poured out after the exaltation of Christ, and to their own salvation; others, by the judgments which were to follow ere long, and to their own dismay and ruin. The interchange of do and speak is remarkable. The construction is not elliptical, so that "do and speak" should be understood in both cases; but the declaration of ver. 25 is still in the Lord's mind, His doing being all a declaration of the Father,—a speaking forth in the widest sense. Bengel says well: "Ye shall know by fact, that which ye now believe not by word." 29.] left me

not alone, referring to the appointment of the Father by which His work was begun, and which the continued presence of the Father (he that sent me is with me) carries on through that work: see ch. xvi. 32.

because I do always . . . .; not for,' as if what follows were merely a token that it is so. The doing always those things that please him is the very essential being of the Son, and is the cause why the Father is ever with Him. 30.] They believed on Him with a higher degree of faith than those in ch. ii. 23, in

31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which m believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples

f Rom, vi. 14, indeed; 32 and ye shall know the truth, and the truth

18, 22

James i. 25:

ii. 12.

g Lev. xxv. 42.

2.

shall make you free.

Matt. iii. 9. Abraham's seed, and

ver. 39.

34 Jesus

33 They answered him, We be were never in bondage to any man : how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? answered them, Vérily, verily, I say unto you, h Whosoever P committeth sin is the 9 servant of sin. 35 r And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: [but] the Son k Rom. viii. 2. abideth ever. 36k If the Son therefore shall make you

h Rom. vi. 16, 20.

2 Pet. ii. 19.

i Gal. iv. 30.

Gal. v. 1.

free, ye shall be free indeed.

m render, had believed him.

render, have never been. A render, bondman.

8 omit: not in

asmuch as faith wrought by hearing is higher than that by miracles; but still wanted confirming. 31.] continue in my word means to "abide in Me," ch. xv. 7, though that perhaps is spoken of a deeper entrance into the state of union with Christ. Remaining in His word is not merely obeying His teaching, but is the inner conviction of the truth of that revelation of Himself, which is his word. ye are, for probably they had given some outward token of believing on Him, e. g. that of ranging themselves among His disciples. 32.] In opposition to the mere holding of the truth. The knowing of the truth answers to the feeding on Christ;-is the inner realization of it in the man. And in the continuing increase of this comes true freedom from all fear and error and bondage. 33.] The answerers are those that believed, not some others among the hearers, as many Commentators have maintained;-see, as a proof of this, ver. 36, addressed to these same persons. They had not yet become disciples indeed, were not yet distinct from the mass of the unbelieving; and therefore, in speaking to them, He ascribes to them the sins of their race, and addresses them as part of that race.

We be

Abraham's seed: see Matt. iii. 9. The assertion that they had never been in bondage to any man was so contrary to historical truth, that we must suppose some technical meaning to have been attached to the word bondage, in which it may have been correct. The words cannot be meant of that generation only, for the word never (never yet at any time, literally) connects with their assertion that they were Abra

37 I know that

n render, ye are.

P render, doeth.

ye are

rrender, Now the bondman. the original.

As

ham's seed, and generalizes it. usual (see ch. iii. 4; iv. 11; vi. 52), they take the words of our Lord in their outward literal sense. Perhaps this was not always an unintentional misunderstanding.

34.] doeth sin, not merely "sinneth," for that all do; but in the same sense as "work iniquity" is said, Matt. vii. 23. It implies living in the practice of sin, doing sin, as a habit: see reff. The mere moral sentiment, of which this is the spiritual expression, was common among the Greek and Roman philosophers. 35.] I believe, with Stier and Bengel, the reference to be to Hagar and Ishmael, and Isaac: the bond and the free. They had spoken of themselves as the seed of Abraham. The Lord shews them that there may be, of that seed, two kinds; the son, properly so called, and the slave. The latter does not abide in the house for ever: it is not his right nor his position-Cast out the bondwoman and her son.' But the son abideth ever.' For the application, see on following verses. 36.] Ye then, being in sin, are carnal: the sons of the bondwoman, and therefore need liberation. Now comes in the spiritual reality, into which the discourse passes from the figure. This liberation can only take place by means of Him of whom Isaac was the type -the Seed according to promise; those only who of His Spirit are born again, and after His image, are free indeed-truly sons of God, and no longer children of the bondwoman, but of the free. See by all means Gal. iv. 19 (where the subject really begins, not at ver. 21) to end, which is the best commentary on this verse. There neither is, nor can be here, any allusion

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