John 12:1-11

I. The Supper at Bethany: John 12:1-11.

In the presence of the great struggle of whose approach every one has a presentiment, the devotion of the friends of Jesus becomes loftier; by way of counter-stroke, the national hostility, which has its representative even among the Twelve, breaks out in this inmost circle; Jesus announces to the traitor with perfect gentleness the approaching result of his enmity towards Him.

ADDITIONAL NOTES BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.

Vv. 1-11. 1. The question as to the day on which Jesus came to Bethany, and, in connection with this, the day of His entrance into Jerusalem, is a complicated and difficult one, because of the uncertainty respecting the day of the week on which the Jewish Passover took place in this year, and also the uncertainty as to whether the counting of days here is in accordance with the Jewish or the Roman method. According to the most natural impression derived from John's narrative, the Passover occurred on Friday, the day of Jesus' death. According to the Jewish method of reckoning, six days before this would be Sunday. But if John 13:1 refers to the first day before the Passover, and this was Thursday, the Roman method is adopted by the author, and the sixth day was Saturday. The latter supposition seems more probable. If this be the case, the arrival must have taken place very early in the morning, and from a place in the immediate neighborhood, because it was the Sabbath; and the supper in Simon's house was given in the evening, after the Sabbath hours had passed. The entrance into Jerusalem, accordingly, was made on Sunday. This is the more common view, and the traditional one of the Church, with respect to the time of the triumphal entry. Godet held this view in his first edition, but in his second and third editions he places the arrival on Sunday and the entrance on Monday.

2. Godet insists that the feast mentioned in John 12:2 was not in the house of the sisters and Lazarus, and Weiss says that the form of expression used respecting the latter shows that he was not the master of the house and giver of the feast. The story of Matthew and Mark represents the feast as having taken place in the house of Simon the leper, and there is nothing in John's narrative, certainly, which is inconsistent with this representation. But it can scarcely be affirmed, with correctness, that the expressions used by John prove that the supper was not given by the sisters and Lazarus. The context in the preceding chapter has presented them as the prominent persons; no one else is named here; the verb ἐποίησαν is used without an expressed subject, and the subject to be supplied is naturally suggested by the names of these persons. As all the persons are participants in the scene, it was certainly not unnatural (as it might have been, under other circumstances) to say, They made a feast for him, and one of them had one part connected with it, another another, etc.

3. The little detail (John 12:3), and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment, is one of the incidental indications in this Gospel that the author knew the facts because he lived with Jesus. A later writer, evolving a speculative theory from his own musings, would not have thought of inserting such a statement.

4. The word ἐβάσταζεν is taken by R. V. text, Meyer, and many commentators in the sense of took away, purloined. This view is supported by the literal meaning of κλέπτης, and by the alleged tautology if the sense of bore or carried is given to the verb. The tautology, however, is not inconsistent with the simple measured style of the Gospels, and the word κλέπτης may easily have a certain loose or semi-figurative sense, as pointing to avariciousness displaying itself under such circumstances. That Judas was a thief, on the other hand, in the sense that he actually stole money from the small sum belonging to the company of disciples often or generally not exceeding about thirty or forty dollars, it would seem, comp. John 6:7 with John 12:5 of the present passage is a thing nowhere else intimated in the Gospel history, and very difficult to believe. How could he have been tolerated in the company if he was known to be a thief of this low and base order? R. V. marg., A. V., de Wette, Lucke, Ewald, Luthardt and others give the verb the meaning carried or bore.

5. If the reading ἵνα... τηρήσῃ is adopted in John 12:7, the simplest explanation, perhaps, is connected with the supposition that Jesus views the use made of the ointment as, not literally indeed, but in a certain true and deep sense, a keeping it for the embalming of His body. From this twelfth chapter onward to the end of the seventeenth Jesus evidently anticipates His death as if already present, or even as having occurred.

6. The statements of John 12:9-11 show that the place of the story of Lazarus in the narrative is that which has been already indicated. It had a great influence in the way of producing faith, and, on the other hand, in urging forward the chief- priests and Pharisees in their murderous designs. This was all. The rulers did not form their plan in consequence of this event; they had formed it long before. They did not carry it out because of this event; they would have carried it out had there been no such miracle. The results of the miracle even in the turning away of many of their own party towards faith in Jesus alarmed them, and made them yield to the bold suggestions of men like Caiaphas.

7. In the development of the narrative as related to the matter of faith, it is interesting to notice that, at the end, the writer brings out so emphatically its presence, even among those who belonged to the bitterly hostile party. The story shows progress in its plan, everywhere and in every line.