John 12:20-22

“ There were certain Greeks among those who went up to Jerusalem to worship at the feast, 21 who came to Philip, who was of Bethsaida in Galilee, and made this request of him: Sir, we desire to see Jesus. 22. Philip goes and finds Andrew and tells him; and Andrew and Philip tell it again to Jesus. ”

The Greeks belonged to the number of those heathen who, like the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8), had in their own country embraced the Jewish religion and who had come to celebrate the great feasts in Jerusalem. They were not, as some have thought, Jews speaking Greek and dwelling among the heathen (ἑλληνισταί). The spacious court of the Gentiles was designed for these proselytes, according to the words of Solomon, 1 Kings 8:41-43. If these strangers had been witnesses of the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem and had been present at the driving out of the traders that act by which Jesus had restored to its true use the only portion of the sanctuary which was open to them, we may the more easily understand their desire to enter into a more intimate relation with such a man.

Certainly, they did not desire merely, like Zacchaeus (Luke 19:3) to see Jesus with the bodily eye; which would limit the intervention of Philip to showing Him to them (Bruckner, Weiss). The request, thus understood, would not give a ground for such a step with relation to Philip, nor for Philip's action as related to Andrew, and that of the two as related to Jesus, nor for the solemn reflections of the latter. What these Greeks desired was certainly to have a private conversation with Him on religious subjects. Who can tell even, whether, as witnesses of the opposition which Jesus encountered from the rulers of His nation, they may not have desired to invite Him to turn to the heathen, who could better appreciate than these narrow Jews did, a sage and teacher like Him. Ecclesiastical history (Euseb., John 1:13) has preserved the memory of an embassy sent to Jesus by the King of Edessa, in Syria, to invite Him to come and fix His abode with him and to promise Him a royal welcome, which would compensate Him for the obstinacy of the Jews in rejecting Him. In the circumstance which occupies our attention we must recognize, with the disciples and with Jesus Himself (see what follows), one of the first manifestations of sympathy for the Gospel on the part of the heathen world, the first sign of the attractive power which His moral beauty was soon to exert upon the whole human race. Jesus, at the moment when this request was conveyed to Him, was undoubtedly in the court of the women, which was entered after having crossed that of the Gentiles. He often taught in this place (p. 96).

The article τῶν and the present participle ἀναβαινόντων indicate a permanent and well-known category of persons, the class of proselytes, not only among the Greeks (it is not necessary to supply ῾Ελλήνων) but of every nation, who were ordinarily seen arriving at the time of the feasts. The προσῆλθον, they came to, has in it something grave and solemn. The word of address: Sir, shows what respect they feel for the disciple of such a master. The imperfect ἠρώτων, they asked, expresses an action already begun which waits its completion from the answer of Philip. By the term ἰδεῖν, to see, these strangers present their desire in the most modest form. The appositional phrase: from Bethsaida in Galilee, serves undoubtedly to explain the reason why these Greeks addressed themselves to Philip. They were perhaps from a region in the neighborhood of Galilee, from Decapolis, for example, on the other side of the sea of Galilee, where there were cities which were entirely Greek. It is remarkable that Philip and Andrew, the two disciples who served as intermediaries for these proselytes, are the only ones among the apostles who have a name of Greek origin. The Greek name went, no doubt, hand in hand with Greek culture (Hengstenberg).

We discover here again the circumspect nature of Philip: he feels the gravity of the step which is asked of him. Jesus had always limited His activity to the Jewish people, according to the principle which He had laid down for Himself for the whole period of His earthly ministry (Matthew 15:24): “ I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. ” He does venture alone to take the initiative in a request which would lead Jesus to turn aside from His ordinary course of action, and he takes the matter into consideration with Andrew, the one of the four disciples, who are placed first in rank in the apostolic catalogues, who is always put nearest to Philip. We have already seen him twice mentioned with Philip, in chaps. 1 and 4; and we are reminded here also that these two apostles, so particularly named by John, seem, according to the tradition, not to have been altogether strangers to the composition of our Gospel. The two together decide to present the request of the Greeks to Jesus. Andrew, more active and decided than Philip, was probably the one who charged himself with making the request; for this reason it is that his name is placed first. Of the three readings, that of א is evidently a mingling together of the two others. That of A B L is the most concise and most probable one (see Meyer). The question is one of no consequence.

This request produces upon Jesus a very profound impression. Why is this? In the first place, it awakens in Him the feeling of His relation to the heathen world, which until now has been in the background in His thoughts. He sees Himself destined to extend His work also over this immense domain. But this spiritual royalty, as He is well aware, can only be realized so far as He shall Himself have been freed from His Jewish environment and raised to a new form of existence; and this transformation implies His death.

Thus the path to Calvary reveals itself to His view as the only one which can lead to the establishment of the new order of things. This is the reason why the request of these heathen agitates Him even to the depths of His soul (John 12:27). The heathen knock at the gate...all the bearing of the present hour both on His work and His person, both on the world and on Israel itself, is in this fact. It is a decisive hour, it is the great revolution of the universe which makes itself known. So, rather than reply by a yes or no to the request which is addressed to Him, He becomes absorbed in the reflections which are called forth within Him by this step. Did He receive these heathen? Did He refuse to have an interview with them? The story does not tell us. The following is the inference which Reuss draws from this fact: “The author limits himself to introducing them, then he leaves them there without giving any further attention to them.

From this we may again judge of the degree of historical reality in these conversations which are contained in our Gospel.” A number of jests directed against the commentators who “flounder in the difficulties of a blindly literal interpretation, and who cannot understand that such discourses are addressed not to the interlocutors, not even to the disciples, but only to the readers of the book.” To this lofty mode of discussion we will oppose the words of Renan: “Here are verses which have an unquestionable historical stamp.” And without going as far as Westcott does, who thinks that “the Greeks were immediately admitted, and that it was in their presence that Jesus pronounced the following words,” we regard it as probable that in crossing the court of the Gentiles, on going out of the temple, Jesus would have given to these Greeks a testimony of sympathy which He never refused to any one of those who sought Him. John is silent respecting this point, as he is respecting the return of Nicodemus to his home, because the importance of these scenes is not, for him, in the facts of a material order. As Luthardt says, it is not the external, which concerns him in the history, but the moral substance of the facts. This substance is the impression produced on the soul of Jesus, and the discourse which reveals it.