John 19:31-42

ADDITIONAL NOTES BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.

Vv. 31-42.

1. If the Sabbath referred to in John 19:31 was the 15th of Nisan, we have a very simple and satisfactory explanation of the expression that it was “a great day.” In that case it was a weekly Sabbath, as being Saturday, and also the feast Sabbath. This verse, therefore, points towards the conclusion that the day of Jesus' death was the 14th. The supposition that this Sabbath was the day of the sheaf-offering is far less probable. If the Sabbath mentioned was the 15th, the readers in Ephesus and its neighborhood, for whom John wrote, might be able to understand from the narrative itself and from the indications that all took place in connection with the Passover, how this day should be a Sabbath of a special character and special solemnity. But such a familiarity with the Jewish arrangements as to make them readily understand that the day of the sheaf-offering was referred to could hardly be supposed by him, so that he could allude to it without any more definite designation.

2. The reference in the words he that has seen it (John 19:35) is to what is mentioned in John 19:33-34, and not merely to John 19:34 b. This is indicated by the fact that the two quotations from the Old Testament point to John 19:33-34 a. The statement of John 19:34 b can scarcely be regarded, therefore, as the one of sole prominence in connection with this scene.

3. With reference to the 35th verse as pointing to the author of the Gospel, see, in addition to Godet's note, the remarks in Vol. I., pp. 502, 503. A further consideration may be presented here, as connected with John 19:36-37. These verses are so related to John 19:35 that they seem clearly to show that the witness referred to was confirmed in his belief by means of this fulfilment of prophecy. The allusion to this point corresponds, on the one hand, with what the author says elsewhere respecting the disciple whom Jesus loved that is, himself and, on the other, there is an additional improbability (in the line of that which is mentioned in Vol. I.) that he would bring forward the conviction of a person wholly unknown to the readers, and also unnamed, that a certain prophecy was true, as a matter of emphasis and importance.

The proof that the witness here is the author is found in every indication of the passage: (a) in the valuelessness of the testimony as coming from an unknown person; (b) in the statement that his testimony is ἀληθινή (that which corresponds to the true idea of testimony); (c) in the emphatic assertion, “he knows that he says what is true;” (d) in the declaration that he bears the testimony to the end that you (the readers) may believe; (e) in the matter of the quotation from the prophetic writings. How impossible that a witness, necessarily insignificant because utterly unknown to any one who read the book, should be thus introduced.

4. The action of Nicodemus, as recorded in John 19:39, is certainly indicative of love and devotion to Jesus. It is worthy of notice that the evangelist does not say of Nicodemus, as he does of Joseph of Arimathea, that he was “a disciple, but secretly for fear of the Jews.” This fact, when brought into connection with the position which he is represented as taking in the meeting of the Sanhedrim in ch. John 7:50-51, is worthy of consideration in forming our estimate of the character of Nicodemus.