John 12:9. The common people of the Jews therefore learned that he was there: and they came, not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also, whom he had raised from the dead. Faith and unbelief have revealed them selves in the case of the friends and the enemies of Jesus, and especially in the deed of Mary and the words of Judas. But the sifting process which accompanies every manifestation of Jesus extends to a wider circle. Once more (comp. chap. John 11:45-46), and much more clearly than before, the Evangelist records the division amongst ‘the Jews' themselves; for we have no right whatever to take this term in any other than that sense which is so firmly established in this Gospel. That very circle of Jewish influence and power in which till lately the spirit of narrow bigotry and fanaticism had found its expression in determined hostility to Jesus is divided into two classes, ‘the common people of the Jews,' and the rulers in this ruling faction, ‘the high priests.'

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Old Testament