John 7:52

Art thou also of Galilee?

Are you. follower of the Galilean? Then they assert, "Out of Galilee hath arisen no prophet;". false statement. Jonah was of Galilee (2 Kings 14:25); Elijah probably so (1 Kings 17:1), and Nahum, also (Nahum 1:1). In their scorn of Galilee they held it impossible that. man of God could come out of that province. With such recrimination the session of the Sanhedrim broke up.

PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS.

1. If any man thirst. In those hot and arid regions there is no fiercer want than thirst and no greater blessing than the cool draught of water. The Savior knew that there was. thirst no earthly fountain could satisfy,. deep inward thirst that dries up the spirit. Such he bids to come and drink.

2.. condition of coming to the living fountain is thirst. "Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters." "If any thirst, let him come." "Come ye that are weary and heavy laden." There must be. felt need of Christ, before anyone can come to him. If the world satisfies the soul it has no room for Christ.

3. Those who drink must become flowing fountains. Moses struck the rock of Horeb and it flowed in. living stream. Christ strikes our barren hearts and lives and they flow forth in his love,. stream of life to others. Those who have eternal life must lead others to eternal life.

4. There is no ignorance so deep as the ignorance that will not know; no blindness so incurable as the blindness that will not see. And the dogmatism of. narrow and stolid prejudice which believes itself to be theological learning is, of all others, the most ignorant and blind. Such was the spirit in which, ignoring the mild justice of Nicodemus, and the marvellous impression made by Jesus on their own officers, the majority of the Sanhedrim broke up, and went each to his own home.-- Farrar.

5. When the Interpreter had done, he takes them out into his garden again, and led them to. tree whose inside was all rotten and gone; and yet it grew and had leaves. Then said Mercy, "What means this?"--"This tree," said he, "whose outside is fair, and whose inside is rotten, is it to which many may be compared that are in the garden of God; who with their mouths speak high in behalf of God, but in deed will do nothing for him; whose leaves are fair, but their heart good for nothing but to be tinder for the devil's tinder-box."-- Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE ADULTEROUS WOMAN (John 8:1-11).

By referring to the Revised Version the reader will see that the last verse of Chap. VII. and eleven verses of Chap. VIII. are omitted. It is not in harmony with the purpose of this commentary to enter into. critical discussion of the reasons why they are rejected, further than to say that they are wanting in most of the very ancient manuscripts, and terms are also used that John nowhere else adopts. On the other hand the account is so much in harmony with the spirit of Christ, so characteristic, and bears such marks of real history, that. am compelled to believe that it gives. real incident of the life of the Master. With the stern ideas that grew up in the succeeding centuries it would have been impossible to have invented such. story, and the suggestion of some of the early Fathers, Augustine for one, that it had been stricken from some of the manuscripts because it might be tortured into. license for sin, is more likely. Whether or not penned by John it is so full of, Christ that. believe it is true, though it might have been added to the Gospel after it was written.

"The whole scene, the arrest of the woman, the demand on Jesus, the Pharisaic contempt of public morality in obtruding the crime and the criminal on public attention in the temple courts; the attempt to entrap Jesus; the skill of his reply; the subtle recognition of the woman's shame and despair,--and the gentle avoidance of adding to it by turning the public gaze from her to himself as he wrote upon the ground; the final confusion of the Pharisees and the release of the woman, bear the marks of real history. It is impossible to believe that any monkish mind conceived of this and added it to the narrative. The deed is the deed of Christ, whether or no the record is the record of John."-- Abbott.

1. Jesus went to the mount of Olives.

The last verse of Chap. VII. says that "every man went to his own house." Those who disputed with him had homes in Jerusalem to which they retired, but "Jesus went to the Mount of Olives," perhaps to the shades of Gethsemane where he rested under. leafy olive tree, possibly to the bower of some of his Galilean friends, constructed of branches as was the custom at this feast, possibly to the loved home of Lazarus and his sisters which was situated on the farther slope of the mount, about two miles from the city. This is somewhat remarkable as the only place where John mentions by name this hallowed mount, although it soon acquires. striking prominence in his history from its relation to the scenes of Bethany, Gethsemane and the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. It was separated from the city by the valley of Jehoshaphat, through which flowed the brook Kedron, and overlooked Jerusalem from the east. The road to Jericho, the Jordan, and Perea lay across, or rather around its brow. On its eastern slope were the sacred localities of Bethphage and Bethany.