John 7:25-36

ADDITIONAL NOTES BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.

Vv. 25-36.

1. The ῾Ιεροσολυμεῖται are evidently a different class from the ὄχλος, and are more fully acquainted with the desires of the rulers; but even they are left in some doubt and perplexity. That the supposed designs are not carried out is a matter of surprise to them, so that they even ask doubtingly whether it can be that the rulers, after all, recognize that Jesus is the Christ. This accurate description of the state of mind of all parties is what a later writer, of the introvertive character of this author, would have been little disposed to think of or to give. It comes into the narrative, from time to time, incidentally, and testifies of the eye and ear witness.

2. In John 7:28 Jesus acknowledges what they claim as to their knowledge of His origin, but affirms that He has a different origin which they do not understand. He thus, in reality, meets the difficulty in their minds, and shows that He can be the Christ whose origin is unknown, notwithstanding the fact that they know whence He is. This explanation, notwithstanding what Godet says in opposition to it, seems to be the most simple one and meets the demands of the passage.

3. The words I am from Him, of John 7:29, may, not improbably, imply a community of essence between Jesus and God, as Godet holds; but whether it can be positively affirmed that it must have this meaning, and cannot be in a parallelism of meaning with He has sent me, may be questioned. Meyer holds, with Godet, that the clause He has sent me is not dependent on ὅτι. Weiss ed. Mey. holds the same view. There seems to be no difficulty in adopting either construction, but, if the latter clause is independent, the argument for Godet's view of the meaning of the former clause becomes stronger.

4. The reference in John 7:34, You shall seek me and not find me, etc., must, it would seem, be to a seeking for the Messiah as connected with the securing of the life and blessedness of the Messianic kingdom. This verse can hardly be unconnected in thought with John 8:21, where dying in their sins takes the place of the words not find me, of this verse. The thought is apparently, therefore, that, after rejecting Him and after His death, they would, in their continual seeking after the Messiah which He truly was continually fail, and so they would die in their sins and be separated from Him and His kingdom. The reference to the Divine judgments in the destruction of Jerusalem, which Meyer gives, is not suggested by the passage, and is too limited for the general character of the expression. Weiss is correct, also, in denying the position taken by Meyer, that the explanation given above is inconsistent with the distinct personal reference, and “empties the words of their tragic nerve and force.” The force, says Weiss, properly, “lies in the fact that in their seeking after a Messiah they will, without being themselves conscious of it, be seeking after Him who is the only true Messiah, but is then forever separated from them.”