_By night. Nicodemus was at this time weak in faith, and therefore did not wish to endanger himself by coming to our Saviour in open day, when the enemies of Christ could see him. For many (as this evangelist informs us in chap. xii. ver. 42,) of the chief men also believed in him; but because of th... [ Continue Reading ]
_Unless a man be born again of water, and the Holy Ghost. Though the word Holy be now wanting in all Greek copies, it is certainly the sense. The ancient Fathers, and particularly St. Augustine in divers places, from these words, prove the necessity of giving baptism to infants: and by Christ's addi... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Spirit breatheth where he will. The Protestant translation has the wind: and so it is expounded by St. John Chrysostom and St. Cyril on this verse; as if Christ compared the motions of the Holy Ghost to the wind, of which men can give so little account, whence it comes, or whither it goes. Yet... [ Continue Reading ]
_ And knoweth not these things. That is, of baptism given by in a visible manner, and you understand not, how will you comprehend greater and heavenly things, if I speak of them? (Witham) --- Many passages, both in the law and the prophets, implied this doctrine of regeneration; for what else can be... [ Continue Reading ]
_We speak what we know. It may perhaps be asked here, why Christ speaks in the plural number? To this we must answer, that it is the only Son of God, who is here speaking, showing us how the Father is in the Son, and the Son in the Father, and the Holy Ghost proceeding from both. (St. Thomas Aquinas... [ Continue Reading ]
_No man hath ascended --- but he that descended from heaven, the Son of man, who is in heaven. These words, divers times repeated by our Saviour, in their literal and obvious sense, shew that Christ was in heaven, and had a being before he was born of the Virgin Mary, against the Cerinthians, &c. Th... [ Continue Reading ]
This comparison of the serpent lifted up in the desert, upon which whoever looked was immediately cured from the bite of the fiery serpents, is a figure of the crucifixion of Christ on Calvary. And we remark, that our divine Saviour makes use of these words, _the Son of man must be lifted up or exal... [ Continue Reading ]
_Give his only begotten Son --- God sent not his Son into the world. He was then his Son, his only begotten Son, before he sent him into the world. He was not, therefore, his Son, only by the incarnation, but was his Son from the beginning, as he was also his word from all eternity. This was the con... [ Continue Reading ]
_Is not judged. He that believeth, viz. by a faith working through charity, is not judged; that is, is not condemned; but the obstinate unbeliever is judged; that is, condemned already, by retrenching himself from the society of Christ and his Church. (Challoner)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_The judgment. That is, the cause of his condemnation. (Challoner)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_And baptized. Not Christ himself, but his disciples. See chap. iv. 2. (Witham)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Salem. A town situated upon the river Jordan, where formerly Melchisedech reigned. (Ven. Bede)_... [ Continue Reading ]
He of whom you complain is the bridegroom, and I am the friend of the bridegroom, sent before to prepare his bride; that is, to collect for him a Church from all nations. (Alcuin.) --- The servants of the bridegroom do not rejoice in the same manner as his friends: I am his friend, and I rejoice wit... [ Continue Reading ]
_He (Christ) must increase, not in virtue and perfection, with which he is replenished, but in the opinion of the world, when they begin to know him, and believe in him: and in like manner, I must be diminished, when they know how much he is above me. (Witham)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_He that cometh from above, meaning Christ. He that is of the earth, meaning himself, is from the earth, [2] is earthly, is but a frail and infirm man; and so speaketh as from the earth: this seems rather the sense, than that he speaketh of, or concerning the earth. See the Greek text. (Witham)_ [B... [ Continue Reading ]
_Waht he hath seen and heard. The meaning is not by his senses, but what he knows for certain, having the same knowledge as his eternal Father. See chap. v., ver. 19. And no one; i.e. but few now receive his testimony. (Witham)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_He that hath received his testimony. These following words to the end of the chapter, seem to be the words of St. John the Baptist, rather than of the evangelist. The sense is, whosoever hath believed, and received the doctrine of Christ, hath attested as it were under his hand and seal, that God i... [ Continue Reading ]
_Doth not give the Spirit by measure. Christ, even as man, has a plenitude of graces. See chapt. i. ver. 14. And all things, all creatures, both in heaven and earth, are given into his hands, and made subject to him, as man. See 1 Corinthians xv. 26. (Witham)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Father loveth the Son. The Father loveth John, loveth Paul, yet he hat not given all things into their hands. The Father loveth the Son, not as a lord does his servants, not as an adopted Son, but as his only begotten Son; therefore hath he given all things into his hands, that as the Father is... [ Continue Reading ]
The divinity of the Son is in this chapter proved as clearly as in 1 John v. 7. "There are three who give testimony in heaven; the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one." Which verse is entirely omitted by Luther in his version; for which omission he is severly reproved by ke... [ Continue Reading ]