John 12:20-36

III. The Last Scene in the Temple: John 12:20-36.

Of all the events which occurred between Palm-day and Thursday evening, the evening before the Passion, John mentions but one, which is omitted by the Synoptics: the attempt of a few Greek proselytes to approach Jesus and the discourse in which He expressed the feelings to which this unexpected circumstance gave rise in Him.

If John so specially sets forth this event, it is not in order to relate an event omitted by his predecessors; it is because it has according to him a peculiar importance, and is in direct connection with the purpose of his whole narrative. He had beheld in it, beyond the closing of the public activity of Jesus, the prelude to the agonies of the Passion. It is therefore an essential landmark in his narrative. He does not say at what moment this event must be placed. According to the words of Mark (Mark 11:11), it cannot have taken place on Palm-day. It issued, moreover, in the final rupture of Jesus with the people; and we know that, during the days which followed Palm-day, Jesus resided in the temple, as if in His palace, and exercised there a sort of Messianic sovereignty. The next day after His entrance into Jerusalem, Tuesday, Jesus purified the temple by the expulsion of the traders.

The following day, Wednesday, He coped with the official authorities, who demanded an explanation as to the origin of the power which He arrogated to Himself; then, successively, with the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Scribes, who approached him with captious questions; and in His turn He presented to them, from Psalms 110, the great question of the divinity of the Messiah, which was to be the subject of His judicial sentence; then, after having pronounced the malediction upon the rulers of the people, He withdrew, towards evening, to the mount of Olives, where He displayed before the eyes of four of His disciples (Mark) the picture of the judgment of Jerusalem, of the Church, and of mankind. The last words of our narrative (John 12:36): “ Jesus said these things; then, departing he hid himself from them,” may therefore lead us to suppose that the scene related by John occurred on this same Wednesday evening, at the moment when Jesus was leaving the temple to go to Bethany (comp. the solemn farewell, Matthew 23:37-39). In this case, it must be supposed that Jesus did not return to Jerusalem on Thursday morning, at the time when all the people were expecting Him in the temple, and that He passed the whole of Thursday in retirement at Bethany. This might very well be indicated by the expression: he hid himself from them. But perhaps in this way Wednesday will be too full. It is possible also that Jesus returned again to Jerusalem for a few moments on Thursday morning; it would then be at that time that the scene here related by John took place. Nevertheless, the expression: he hid himself from them, is more easily justified on the first supposition.

ADDITIONAL NOTES BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.

Vv. 20-36.

1. The persons called ῞Ελληνες were undoubtedly Gentiles by birth, but yet Gentiles who had become proselyted Jews, because they went up to celebrate the feast. Whether their request to see Jesus was allowed or not, the narrative does not say. If we may judge from the ordinary readiness of Jesus to meet those who honestly desired to meet Him, we may believe that these representatives of the Gentiles were admitted to His presence. It would seem hardly probable that, after such expressions of His feeling and thought in view of their appearance, He would have refused to speak with them. But the author's plan moves away from this point. He is looking towards testimony and proof, not towards the history or experience of these few men. Hence he turns the reader to what Jesus said, and leaves him with the impression which comes from His words.

2. The glorification of the Son of man which is spoken of in John 12:23 is evidently that which comes through the extending of His kingdom over the world. This is indicated, (a) by the fact that the expression is suggested by the approach of these representatives of the Gentile nations; (b) by the words of the 24th verse; (c) by the reference of John 12:31-32 to the overthrow of Satan and the drawing of all men to Himself. This coming glory is suggested to Him, as if in vision, by the approach of these Greeks, and the future appears as if already realized. The future centred itself in the hour of His death for the world, and this hour is so near that it seems to have already come.

3. The words of John 12:27-28 correspond somewhat closely with those which were uttered in the garden of Gethsemane. As to the sudden change of feeling indicated by these words as compared with those of John 12:23 ff., the following suggestions may be offered:

(a) The whole passage evidently shows that Jesus was thinking of His death as close at hand. With this in view, it was natural that two sets of feelings should have risen in His mind now, of the triumph of His work, which even as a prophet or reformer, far more as the Son of God, He must have had before His thought as He looked forward, in His confidence in the Divine truth, into the future; and again, of the trial and suffering which were just coming upon Him in the hour of His crucifixion. It would have been strange, indeed, if it had been otherwise.

(b) As the Divine messenger to the world, who was to suffer death for its sins, and, through this suffering, was to accomplish the work of redemption, the existence of these two feelings in His mind is yet more fully explained. And to such a Divine messenger they would come in quick succession and in almost immediate connection with each other, as the end drew near. A similar succession of feeling, though not in such nearness of time, is seen in the discourse on the last things, where the coming of the Son of man in power and great glory is declared, and in the scene in the garden.

4. The omission in this Gospel of the words spoken in Gethsemane, which resemble those recorded here, may be accounted for from the fact that the author's plan made it desirable to bring in this whole matter of Jesus' victorious and sorrowful feeling at the close of that portion of his book which related to His public ministry. Having once presented the matter here, he had no occasion to repeat it afterwards; and, so far as was related to his plan of proof, etc., the words in Gethsemane were only of the nature of a repetition of what was uttered at this time.

5. The question whether the words Save me from this hour are to be taken interrogatively or affirmatively, is one which cannot be decisively answered. If they are understood in the latter way, they correspond more nearly with the words in Gethsemane, If it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, etc. For this reason, they seem to the writer of this note to have this construction and meaning. Weiss and Keil take them interrogatively, and the latter writer says that the absence here of the if it is possible, and the change from nevertheless, etc., in Matthew, to but for this cause, etc., here, shows that this cannot be an actual prayer, but must be understood as a question. Milligan and Moulton and Alford give the affirmative sense, as also does Meyer.

6. The words of Meyer respecting the voice from heaven seem conclusive as showing that it was an objective occurrence: “John himself, who was an ear-witness, describes it as such; he repeats its express words; to take the first half of these words referring to the past as the product of a merely subjective perception is without any support in the prayer of Jesus; Jesus Himself in John 12:30 gives His confirmation to the occurrence of an actual voice; finally, the ἄλλοι also, John 12:29, must have heard a speech. ” Weiss, on the other hand, claims that a voice, the understanding of which depends on spiritual conditions, cannot be a voice of articulate sound. The comparison which Godet makes of the understanding of the human voice by animals and men may, perhaps, be helpful in the way of illustrating this matter; and the condition of mind in different hearers in many ordinary cases has some influence on what they gain from the voice heard it may even determine whether they think it to be a voice or a mere sound.

7. In John 12:30-31 Jesus rises again to the contemplation of the success and triumph of the future. The judgment of the world and the casting of its prince out of his power and dominion seem to His mind to be accomplished, since His death, now at hand, makes it certain that these things will come to pass; and He looks forward to the ingathering of all men into His kingdom. The reference here is probably to the last times, when the Gospel shall be triumphant everywhere, when Jews and Gentiles alike shall be saved (Romans 11:25-26). Towards this consummation the movement would be constant from the day of Christ's death and resurrection and of the outpouring of the Spirit.

8. The writer explains the words be lifted up as referring to the manner of Jesus' death thus, to His crucifixion. It was the hour of His death which was ever before Jesus' mind at this time. But in the idea of His death we may believe that all was included which belonged with it as essential to His great work namely, His resurrection and ascension and the descent of the Holy Spirit.

9. In His answer to the people in John 12:35 f. Jesus once more calls their minds to Himself as the light, and seems to say that, by putting themselves in connection with the light while it still lingers with them in His personal presence, and thus becoming sons of light, they will discover for themselves, after His removal, how He can be lifted up, and yet can be the Christ who abides forever.