Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

John 12:23

ὁ δὲ Ἰ. ἀποκρίνεται. He anticipates the Apostles and addresses them before they introduce the Greeks. We are left in doubt as to the result of the Greeks’ request. Nothing is said to them in particular, though they may have followed and heard this address to the Apostles, which gradually shades off into soliloquy.

These men from the West at the close of Christ’s life set forth the same truth as the men from the East at the beginning of it—that the Gentiles are to be gathered in. The wise men came to His cradle, these to His cross, of which their coming reminds Him; for only by His death could ‘the nations’ be saved.

ἐλήλυθεν ἡ ὥρα. The phrase is peculiar to S. John 7:30; John 8:20; John 13:1; John 17:1 : contrast Matthew 26:45; Luke 22:14. The verb first for emphasis (John 4:21; John 4:23), ‘it hath come—the fated hour.’ see on John 7:6; John 13:1. The ἵνα indicates the Divine purpose (John 13:1; John 16:2; John 16:32; John 11:50); see Winer, p. 576. Δοξασθῇ, by His Passion and Death, through which He must pass to return to glory (John 7:39; John 11:4; John 1:51).

ἀμὴν�. John 1:51. Strange as it may seem that the Messiah should die, yet this is but the course of nature: a seed cannot be glorified unless it dies. A higher form of existence is obtained only through the extinction of the lower form that preceded it. Except the grain of wheat fall into the earth and die it abideth by itself alone.

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

John 12:23

Old Testament

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