John 8:12-20

2. Jesus, the light of the world: 8:12-20.

We find in this section: 1. A testimony (John 8:12); 2. An objection (John 8:13); 3. The answer of Jesus (John 8:14-19); 4. An historical notice (John 8:20). John 8:12. “ Jesus, taking up the discourse again, said to them: I am the light of the world; he who follows me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life. ”

The πάλιν, again, can the less be a simple transition to a new discourse since it is placed at the beginning with a certain emphasis and is accompanied by οὖν, therefore, which would, in that case, be a useless repetition (in answer to Weiss). It announces therefore a new testimony, analogous to that of John 7:37 ff., as if John meant to say: “Jesus, after having thus applied to Himself a first symbol, takes up the discourse again for the purpose of applying to Himself a second.” Was this new discourse given on the same day as the preceding one? According to Weiss, John 8:20 proves the contrary, because it indicates a new situation. But was Jesus obliged to remain during the whole day as if fastened to one spot? The term ἐλάλησε, He spoke, indicates a less solemn attitude and tone than the expressions He opened His mouth and cried, in John 7:37. This is a continuation, a complement of the preceding discourse; this circumstance speaks in favor of the identity of the day. In any case, it must be said with Luthardt: “The historic thread which concerned the author was quite other than that of days and hours.”

For what reason does Jesus designate Himself as the light of the world? Hug and others have thought that He alluded to the brightness which was shed forth by the two candelabras which were lighted at evening during the feast, in the court of the women, and the light of which, according to the Rabbis, shone over the whole of Jerusalem. This ceremony was very noisy; a sacred dance, in which grave men participated, took place around the candelabras; and it may be that Jesus made allusion to this solemn march in the following words: “He that followeth me shall not walk...” The singing and the music of instruments filled the temple; the festivity was prolonged even until daylight. The celebrated Maimonides affirms that this ceremony occurred on every evening of the feast, which would accord with the explanation of Hug. But the Talmud speaks of it only on occasion of the first evening. For this reason Vitringa and other commentators have thought that they must connect this saying rather with some prophetic passage which may have been read in the temple during that day; Isaiah 42:6: “ I will cause thee to be the covenant of the people, and the light of the nations. ” Comp. also Isaiah 49:6; Isaiah 49:9.

But it is not certain that there were regular readings from the Old Testament in the temple; even the existence of a synagogue in the sacred inclosure is doubtful (see Lucke). Jarchi speaks only of a synagogue “situated near the court, on the temple-mountain.” And, above all, the saying of Jesus does not contain any sufficiently precise allusion to these prophetic passages. The commentators who hold that there is an allusion to the candelabras of the temple seem to me to commit the same mistake as in the explanation of the previous symbol (John 7:37 ff.). Thinking only of the ceremony which was celebrated in the time of Jesus, they forget what is much more important, the miraculous and beneficent fact of which this ceremony was the memorial, and which was for Jesus certainly the essential point. The feast of Tabernacles, which at this time assembled the people together, was designed to recall to their minds the blessings of God during the sojourn in the wilderness. Hence, the tents of leafy branches under which they lived and which gave the name to the feast. Now among these blessings, the two greatest had been the water from the rock and the pillar of fire in the cloud. Jesus has just applied to Himself the first of these types. He now applies to Himself the other (hence the πάλιν, John 8:12).

It is thus that Jesus celebrates the feast of Tabernacles, translating it, in some sort, into His own person. Only Israel is henceforth the whole world, the κόσμος, as in chap. 6. Jesus was the manna, not for the people only, but for humanity, and in John 7:37, the living water for whosoever is athirst. We have already explained in John 1:4 and John 3:19 the term light; it is the perfect revelation of moral good, that is to say, of God, the living good. The expression: “ He that followeth me shall not walk...,” alludes, not to the torch-dance in the court, but to the pilgrimage of Israel in the desert. The people arose, advanced, stopped, encamped, at the signal which came from the luminous cloud; with such a guide, there was no more darkness for the travelers. Thus are the obscure things of existence, the night which the selfish will and passions spread over his life, dissipated for man from the moment when he receives Jesus into his heart. At every step, he begins by looking to Him, and he finds in Him the revelation of holiness, the only real truth. The light of life does not signify that which consists in life or which produces it, but that which springs from it (John 1:4); a light which radiates from the life in communion with God and which directs the exercise of the understanding. The future περιπατήσει, in the Received Text, is probably a correction in accordance with the following ἕξει. The conjunctive aorist must be read οὐ μὴ περιπατήσῃ; comp. John 10:5. The use of the form οὐ μή is founded upon the natural distrust of the heart: “It is not to be feared, whatever may be its own darkness, that it will be compelled still to walk in the night.” ῞Εξει : it will possess internally.

There is a profound connection between this testimony and that which precedes. In John 7:37, Jesus presented Himself as the life (ὕδωρ ζῶν); in John 8:12, He offers Himself as the light which emanates from the life. As to the response which man should make to these divine gifts, in the first passage it is the receptivity of faith (shall drink); in the second, the activity of practical obedience (shall walk).

Vv. 12-20.

1. If the passage containing the story of the woman taken in adultery is omitted, John 8:12 follows soon after John 7:37, and contains what we may believe to have been the second point of the discourse, which would have been developed in both of its parts more fully, had it not been for the interruptions from the multitude and the Pharisees. The question by which Jesus is interrupted in these verses turns the discourse into a new line, and leads Him to speak of the testimony on which He rests. As to the consistency of what He says in John 8:14 with what is said in John 8:31, see Note XXIX., Vol. I., p. 557. This fourteenth verse declares that, in the present case, although He testifies of Himself, His testimony is true, because He is the only man who has the knowledge on which reliable testimony can be founded. In connection with this statement. we must explain John 8:17-18.

In one sense, it seems evident that Jesus does not comply here with the demand of the Mosaic law to which He appeals. There is but one witness besides Himself. But the case is one which allows no more. The only two who can bear testimony are the two who know and these two, by the necessity of the case, are the one sending and the one sent, for “no man has seen God at any time,” John 1:18. The only-begotten Son, therefore, having come in the flesh, must not only be the revealer of God, but He must also be the human witness of Himself. Indeed, the witness of God on His behalf must, in some measure, come through Him. While there is not, therefore, a fulfilment of the Mosaic requirement, in the letter of it, there is a full satisfaction of its spirit.

2. The expression, You judge according to the flesh, John 8:15, seems to be immediately connected with the words of John 8:14. As they are wholly unqualified for judging, through want of knowledge, they judge according to the fleshly standard. They look upon Him as a mere man like themselves. They judge apart from any connection with God. He, on the other hand, in case He passes judgment, does so in union with the Father, and hence His judgment answers to the true condition of things and the true idea. The peculiar form of the sentence: “I judge no one, and if I judge...I and the one who sent me,” favors the view that there is a reference to a final and decisive judgment which is not made independently of God. In view of this fact, Jesus does not make it His work here on earth to judge any one, and if, on any occasion and in any subordinate sense, He does so, He still does it in accordance with the Father's mind. It seems evident that the last clause of John 8:15 and John 8:16 are parenthetical in their character, and that the thought moves on from John 8:14-15 a, as above explained, to John 8:17 f.

3. The question of the Pharisees in John 8:19 is a challenge to produce the evidence of the Father, of whom He speaks. We can scarcely suppose that, after all which Jesus had said in Jerusalem, these Jewish leaders could have doubted whom He meant by His Father, or could have intended to imply a doubt. But they demanded the production of the evidence from the Father in some conspicuous way which might answer the demands of the law. They said, in substance, You cannot give us the proof from God. The second witness thus fails you. Where is your Father? This seems to be the force of the interrogative particle ποῦ. They did not say τίς, for this was not the question which was in their minds.

4. In His answer, Jesus presents before them the incapacity which they have, in their present moral state, to appreciate the testimony of God, which comes with its full force only to the soul which has susceptibility to the truth. To know God, they must know Him who reveals Him. Thus we have a new declaration and testimony to the truth for which the Gospel was written.