John 1:51

51. Before ὄψεσθε omit ἀπ' ἄρτι (Matthew 26:64).

51. πιστεύεις. As in John 16:31; John 20:29, the sentence is half a question, half an exclamation. He, who marvelled at the unbelief of the people of Nazareth, expresses joyous surprise at the ready belief of the guileless Israelite of Cana.

51. Ἀμὴν, ἀμὴν. The double ἀμήν occurs 25 times in this Gospel, and nowhere else, always in the mouth of Christ. It introduces a truth of special solemnity and importance. The single ἀμήν occurs about 30 times in Matthew, 14 in Mark,, 7 in Luke. Hence the title of Jesus, ‘the Amen’ (Revelation 3:14). The word is originally a verbal adjective, ‘firm, worthy of credit,’ sometimes used as a substantive; e.g. ‘God of truth’ (Isaiah 65:16) is literally ‘God of (the) Amen.’ In the LXX. ἀμήν never means ‘verily;’ in the Gospels it always does. The ἀμήν at the end of sentences (John 21:25; Matthew 6:13; Matthew 28:20; Mark 16:20; Luke 24:53) is in every case of doubtful authority.

ὑμῖν. Nathanael alone had been first addressed; now all present.

τ. οὐρ. ἀνεῳγότα. The heaven opened; made open and remaining so. What Jacob saw in a vision they shall see realised. The Incarnation brings heaven down to earth; the Ascension takes earth up to heaven. These references to Jacob (John 1:48) were possibly suggested by the locality: Bethel, Mahanaim, and the ford Jabbok, all lay near the road that Jesus would traverse between Judaea and Galilee.

τ. ἀγγέλους τ. θ. The reference is not to the angels which appeared after the Temptation, at the Agony, and at the Ascension; rather to the perpetual intercourse between God and the Messiah during His ministry, and afterwards between God and Christ’s Body, the Church; those ‘ministering spirits’ who link earth to heaven.

ἀναβαίνοντας. Placed first: prayers and needs ascend; then graces and blessings descend. But see Winer, p. 692.

τ. υἱὸν τ. ἀνθρώπου. This phrase in all four Gospels is invariably used by Christ Himself of Himself as the Messiah; upwards of 80 times in all. None of the Evangelists direct our attention to this strict limitation in the use of the expression: their agreement on this striking point is evidently undesigned, and therefore a strong mark of their veracity. See notes on Matthew 8:20; Mark 2:10. In O.T. the phrase ‘Son of Man’ has three distinct uses; (1) in the Psalms, for the ideal man; Psalms 8:4-8; Psalms 80:17; Psalms 144:3; Psalms 146:3. (2) in Ezekiel, as the name by which the Prophet is addressed by God; John 2:1; John 2:3; John 2:6; John 2:8; John 3:1; John 3:3-4, &c., &c., more than 80 times in all; probably to remind Ezekiel that in spite of the favour shewn to him, and the wrath denounced against the children of Israel, he, no less than they, had a mortal frailty: (3) in the ‘night visions’ of Daniel 7:13-14, where ‘One like a son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days … and there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve Him, &c.’ That ‘Son of man henceforth became one of the titles of the looked-for Messiah’ may be doubted. Rather, the title was a new one assumed by Christ, and as yet only dimly understood (comp. Matthew 16:13). Just as ‘the Son of David’ marked Him as the one in whom the family of David culminated, so ‘the Son of Man’ as the one in whom the whole human race culminates.

This first chapter alone is enough to shew that the Gospel is the work of a Jew of Palestine, well acquainted with the Messianic hopes, and traditions, and with the phraseology current in Palestine at the time of Christ’s ministry; able also to give a lifelike picture of the Baptist and of Christ’s first disciples.

CHAPTER 2