John 11:45-46

“ Many therefore of the Jews, those who had come to Mary and had seen that which he had done, believed on him. 46. But some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them that which Jesus had done. ”

Again a division among the spectators, and a still more profound one than on any of the previous occasions. For it penetrated even into the midst of the Jewish party. It is impossible, indeed, to include the some of whom John 11:46 speaks in the class of the πολλοί, many, of John 11:45, and to ascribe to them, as a consequence, a benevolent intention in the step which they take before the enemies of Jesus, as Origen thought. There is an antithesis between the two subjects: many and some, as between the two verbs: believed (John 11:45) and went away (John 11:46). Only it must be carefully noticed that the first (the πολλοί, of John 11:45) are not merely a part of the visitors of Martha and Mary, but include them all; this is indicated by the participles in the nominative with the article οἱ : Those who had come and who had seen. In the opposite case, the participles ought to be in the genitive: many of those who came and saw.

The some of John 11:46 are therefore other Jews (ἐξ αὐτῶν refers to the word ᾿Ιουδαίων alone), who saw without having come, either inhabitants of Bethany, or visitors who were not with Mary when she had run to the tomb and who had not been present at the scene. This explains the difficult expression: “who came to Mary. ” Why to Mary only? Is she named here as the one best known (Weiss) or as the most afflicted (Luthardt, Keil)? Both of these explanations are very unnatural. She is named because it was near her that the Jews who came found themselves when they went to the sepulchre and with her that they had been witnesses of the miracle (comp. John 11:31; John 11:33).