Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

John 11:33

Ἰησοῦς οὖν … αὐτόν. “Jesus, then, when He saw her weeping [κλαίειν is stronger than δακρύειν and might be rendered ‘wailing'. It is joined with ἀλαλάζειν, Mark 5:38; ὀλολύζειν, James 5:1; θορυβεῖν, Mark 5:39; πενθεῖν, Mark 16:10. Cf. Webster's Synonyms] and the Jews who accompanied her wailing,” ἐνεβριμήσατο τῷ πνεύματι, “was indignant in spirit”. The word ἐμβριμᾶσθαι occurs again in John 11:38 and in three other passages of the N.T., Matthew 9:30; Mark 1:43; Mark 14:5. In those passages it is used in its original sense of the expression of feeling, and might be rendered “sternly charged”; and it is in each case followed by an object in the dative. In Matthew 9:30 Jesus sternly charged or with strong feeling charged the healed blind man not to make Him known. In Mark 1:43 the leper is similarly charged. In Mark 14:5 the bystanders express strong feeling [of indignation, ἀγανακτοῦντες] against Mary for her apparent extravagance. In all three passages it is used of the expression of strong feeling; but no indignation enters into its meaning in the former two passages. Here in John it is not feeling expressed, but τῷ πνεύματι, inwardly felt; and with only such expression as betrayed to observers that He was moved (cf. Mark 8:12, ἀναστενάξας τῷ πνεύματι), for τῷ πνεύματι cannot be the object, for this does not give a good sense and it is contradicted by πάλιν ἐμβριμ. ἐν ἑαυτῷ of John 11:38. It would seem, then, to mean “strongly moved in spirit”. This meaning quite agrees with the accompanying clause, ταραζεν ἑαυτόν, “and disturbed Himself”; precisely as we speak a man “distressing himself,” or “troubling himself,” or “making himself anxious”. To say that the active with the reflexive pronoun indicates that this was a voluntary act on Christ's part is to introduce a jarring note of Doketism. His sympathy with the weeping sister and the wailing crowd caused this deep emotion. To refer His strong feeling to His indignation at the “hypocritical” lamentations of the crowd is a groundless and unjust fancy contradicted by His own “weeping” (John 11:34) and by the remark of the Jews (John 11:35).

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

John 11:33

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