John 3:32

Ver. 32. “ What he hath seen and heard, of that he beareth witness; and no man receiveth his witness. ”

The καί, and, is omitted by the Alexandrian authorities, and no doubt rightly; asyndeta are frequent in this discourse. From the heavenly origin of Jesus follows the perfection of His teaching. He is in filial communion with the Father. When He speaks of divine things, He speaks of them as an immediate witness. This saying is the echo of that of Jesus in John 3:11. In reproducing it, the forerunner declares that Jesus has affirmed nothing respecting Himself which is not the exact truth. But how could he know this? We think we have answered this question in the explanation of John 3:29.

By the last words, John confirms the severe judgment which Jesus had passed upon the conduct of the people and their rulers (John 3:11). However, while declaring, as Jesus had done, the general unbelief of Israel, John does not deny individual exceptions; he brings them out expressly in John 3:33. What he means here by the word no one, is that these exceptions which seem so numerous to the view of his disciples that they make the whole (“ all ” John 3:26), are to his view only an imperceptible minority. To the exaggeration of envy, he opposes that of zeal: “Where you say: all, as for me, I say: no one.” He would not be satisfied unless he saw the Sanhedrim in a body, followed by the whole people, coming to render homage to the bridegroom of the Messianic community. Then, he could, himself also, abandon his office as friend of the bridegroom, and come to sit, as spouse, at the Messiah's feet. We should notice the verbs in the present tense, “ he testifies...no one receives,” which place us in the time of the ministry of Jesus, and do not permit us to put this part of the discourse in the evangelist's mouth.