John 6:45-46

“ It is written in the prophets: And they shall be all taught of God. Every one, who has heard the Father, and has learned from Him, comes to me: 46 not that any one has seen the Father, except he who is from God, he has seen the Father. ”

This passage presents a remarkable example of the manner in which Jesus cites the Old Testament. It is not from this book that He derived the thought which He here developes; it arose in Him spontaneously, as is shown by the perfectly original form in which it has been previously expressed: the gift, the drawing of the Father. But, afterwards, He thinks fit to cite the Old Testament as the authority recognized by the people. If He was already in the synagogue (John 6:59), He might have in His hands the roll which contained the prophecies of Isaiah, and, as He said these words: “ It is written,”

He might read this very passage. Comp. Luke 4:17 ff. This would explain the retaining of the copula, and, at the beginning of the quotation. These words are found in Isaiah 54:13. Isaiah here declares that the whole Messianic community will be composed of persons taught of God, whence it follows that it is only men who are in the inward school of God who can truly give themselves to the Messiah. According to Meyer, the general expression, in the prophets, signifies: in the sacred volume containing the prophets. This meaning follows, indeed, from the terms in and is written. It is nevertheless true that Jesus is not thinking only of the passage of Isaiah, which He quotes textually, but that He sees all the prophets rising in chorus to testify to this same truth; otherwise, why not name Isaiah, as is done elsewhere? Comp. Jeremiah 31:33-34; Joel 2:28 ff.

The second part of the 45th verse is commonly understood in this sense: “Every man who, after having heard the teaching (ἀκούσας), consents to receive it internally (καὶ μαθών), comes to me.” With this sense, the teaching would be given to all men, as objects of the pre- eminent grace of God, but it would be expressly distinguished from the free acceptance of this teaching, which is true of only a certain number of them. The πᾶς, whoever, would have, therefore, a much more restricted sense than the πάντες, all, of the first clause. But, convenient as this explanation would be to dispose of the doctrine of predestination, we believe that it is contrary to the true sense of the word all in the passage of Isaiah and in the mouth of Jesus. This word in the former designates only the members of the Messianic community, altogether like the word πᾶς in the mouth of the latter.

The meaning is rather this: As Isaiah has declared, all my believers must be taught of the Father; but of these not one shall fail. The whoever merely individualizes the idea of all. Jesus does not place in opposition here the teaching given and the teaching received; for the question is of an inward teaching, working from the first in the heart. Hence it follows that if the Jews do not believe, it is because this divine teaching has not been effected in them. Hence their inability to believe (John 6:44); but this inability is wholly chargeable to them. Perhaps Weiss is right in insisting on the rejection of the word οὖν, therefore, which connects the two clauses of this verse. The second may be regarded as a reaffirmation of, as well as a conclusion from the first. We may hesitate between the readings ἀκούσας and ἀκούων, who has heard or who hears. On the one hand, the aorist may have been substituted for the present, because it was supposed that the first participle must be accommodated to the second. But, on the other hand, the present, which expresses the continuance of the hearing, is less suitable than the past, which indicates an act accomplished for the future at the moment when faith is produced. It is therefore through their previous want of docility with regard to the means prepared by God, that these hearers have brought themselves into an incapacity for believing. This saying implies in Jesus the infinitely exalted feeling of what His person and His work are. In order to come to Him, there is need of nothing less than a drawing of a divine order. “He feels Himself above everything which the natural man can love and understand” (Gess). The true sense of this passage does not imply the notion of predestination (in so far as it is exclusive of liberty), but, on the contrary, sets it aside. The inability of the Jews to believe arises from the fact that they come to Him, not as persons taught of God, but as slaves of the flesh. They possessed the means of doing better; hence their culpability.