John 12:37-50

Third Section: 12:37-50. Retrospective Glance at the Mysterious Fact of Jewish Unbelief.

This passage forms the close of the second part of the Gospel (John 12:1-36). The evangelist interrupts his narrative that he may give himself up to a meditation on the fact which he has just set forth. What is this fact? Is it, as some interpreters suppose (Reuss, Westcott, for example) the public ministry of Jesus? The entire part chaps. 5-12 is the representation of the public activity of the Lord, while chaps. 13-17 describe His private activity. This view appears to us very superficial. Between these two parts, there exists a much more profound contrast than that of a more or less limited circle of activity; it is that of unbelief and faith, of unbelief in the people and of faith in the disciples. Is it not obvious that the real subject of the following epilogue, that which preoccupies the mind of John and becomes for a moment the subject of his meditation, is not the public ministry of Jesus, but the unbelief of the Jewish people. The question to which John replies is this: How explain the failure of the work of the Messiah in Israel? It is indeed one of the most obscure problems of history. It rose in all its greatness, after the preceding part of the Gospel, before the eyes of the historian and his readers. In the first passage, John 12:37-43, Jesus explains the causes of this mysterious fact; in the second, John 12:44-50, he shows the gravity of it by summing up its tragical consequences.

ADDITIONAL NOTES BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.

Vv. 37-50.

1. The writer closes this first great division of his work with a declaration of the failure and success of the miracles of Jesus, so far as the matter of faith in the case of the hostile party was concerned as, at the end of the book, he sets forth his purpose and hope with reference to the recording of them for all his readers. The σημεῖα had been abundant, but this party would not believe.

2. This unbelief is connected in two ways with the prophetic words uttered by Isaiah first, as a fulfilment of what he said, and, secondly, as finding its foundation or cause in another statement of his. The two prophetic statements are those declared to have been made in view of the time of Christ. The first and third of these points (John 12:38 and John 12:41) may be explained in connection with the general view which the New Testament writers had of the Old Testament. They found its whole meaning in Christ, and they thus carried Him, as it were, into every part or sentence of it which corresponded with His experience or work. Their view, in the truest and deepest sense, perchance, was the right one. But the special difficulty here lies in connection with the second point (John 12:39-40). The explanation of this point must, apparently, involve two things first, the responsibility of the individual, which limits the inability to what is moral, and, secondly, the Divine activity, which must be of the nature of a judicial hardening. The literal interpretation of the words, when pressed to its utmost extreme, is contradicted by the general representations of the New Testament respecting the sinfulness of men.

3. The exception mentioned in John 12:42 is apparently presented as showing the success which Jesus had gained, notwithstanding the failure just described, and in connection with all that has been said in these later Chapter s respecting the rulers. The persons here alluded to do not seem to be such as Nicodemus or Joseph of Arimathea, nor such as Gamaliel. The two former were, probably, not actuated by the motive indicated in John 12:43. The last, as Meyer remarks, “did not get as far as faith.” The word δόξα of John 12:43 means the glory which comes from men or from God.

4. As to the passage John 12:44-50, it is generally held by the recent commentators to be a sort of summary of the teachings of Jesus as given in the foregoing Chapter s, just as the preceding verses have presented a kind of summation of the results of His work. This is quite probably, though not indeed certainly, the correct view. The verses are introduced as if they might be a new discourse, and yet no occasion or mark of time is given. The thoughts and expressions are, to say the least, more strikingly similar to what has been said before than is the case with any other discourse, and no new idea is presented. The position of the verses also following the summing up of results favors the view that they are a resume of the teachings, rather than a new discourse; and, on the whole, this view of them is to be adopted.

5. The thoughts of this passage follow each other in the natural order: Faith in Jesus brings the soul into union with God; the object of the coming of Jesus into the world is to bring the light of God, that the soul of the believer may dwell in the light-life which has no darkness, the life like God's life; as Jesus thus comes to save the world, and not to judge it, He gives forth His teachings, which have been committed to Him by the Father, and they determine the judgment; these teachings which are given to Him as His Divine commission are eternal life, in that, being received by faith, they become the source of eternal life to the soul; in the proclamation of these teachings Jesus speaks in exact accordance with the Father's communication of His will and of His truth. The thoughts contained in these verses, in the completeness of their setting forth of His message, as well as in the fact that the passage gathers into itself only what has been said in different places before, seem to be the summary of what He gave to the world in this earlier portion of this Gospel.

6. It is worthy of notice that at this point the σημεῖα, so far as they are found in the sphere of miraculous works, cease to be recorded. What remains of the book contains only the σημεῖα which pertain to the region of the words of Jesus. The works are the primary and lower proofs, to the view of this writer; the words are of the higher order. The former are designed to arrest the attention of the world and to bear upon the earlier development of faith. The latter are adapted to the thoughtful and growing disciples, whose minds open more and more widely to the truth. Just in accordance with this character and purpose of the two kinds of evidence, we find that, when the conflict with the world and the public ministry of Jesus come to their end, and the disciples have been growing in the fulness of their belief even to the last days, the outward miracles are no longer mentioned, and the discourses of intimate friendship and love, as between Christ and His Father and the followers of Christ, begin. How can it be fitly said that this Gospel has no progress, or that it ends at its beginning?