PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Expositor's Bible: The Gospel of St. John, Vol. I
Dods, Marcus · 107,269 words · 146 reading sections
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339 wordsSECTION 2Introductory Note.
In order to read the Gospel of St. John with some intelligence, it is necessary to understand its purpose and its plan. For in the whole range of literature there is no composition which is a more perfect work of art, or which more rigidly excludes whatever does not subserve its main end. From the first word to the las…
827 wordsSECTION 3Introductory Note.
This part of the Gospel therefore appropriately closes with the words: "These things spake Jesus and departed, and did hide Himself from them" (xii. 36). The public manifestation of Jesus is closed. Between the first and the second part of the Gospel there is interposed a paragraph (xii. 37-50), in which John briefly …
452 wordsSECTION 4_The Incarnation._
THE PROLOGUE OR INTRODUCTION. Chap. i. 1-18. PART I. _The Manifestation of Christ's Glory in Life and Power._ Chap. i. 19-xii. 36. 1. Christ's Announcement of Himself, and the Beginnings of Faith and Unbelief. Chap. i. 19-iv. 2. The Period of Conflict. Chap. v.-xii. 36. THE EVANGELIST'S PAUSE FOR REFLECTION, AND RE…
857 wordsSECTION 5_The Incarnation._
Beyond Jewish circles of thought the expression would also be readily understood. For not among the Jews only, but everywhere, men have keenly felt the difficulty of arriving at any certain and definite knowledge of the Eternal One. The most rudimentary definition of God, by declaring Him to be a Spirit, at once and fo…
820 wordsSECTION 6_The Incarnation._
It is apparent, then, why John chooses this title to designate Christ in His pre-existent life. No other title brings out so clearly the identification of Christ with God, and the function of Christ to reveal God. It was a term which made the transition easy from Jewish Monotheism to Christian Trinitarianism. Being alr…
683 wordsSECTION 7_The Incarnation._
The process of the Incarnation John describes very simply: "The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us." The Word did not become flesh in the sense that He was turned into flesh, ceasing to be what He had previously been, as a boy who becomes a man ceases to be a boy. In addition to what He already was He assumed human …
724 wordsSECTION 8_The Incarnation._
If, then, we still feel as if we had not sufficient assurance of God, it is because we look for the wrong thing, or seek where we can never find. Let us understand that God can best be known as God through His moral qualities, through His love, His tenderness, His regard for right; and we shall perceive that the most s…
744 wordsSECTION 9_The Incarnation._
The second lesson the Incarnation teaches regards our own duty. Everywhere among the first disciples was this lesson learned and inculcated. "Let this mind," says Paul, "be in you which was also in Christ Jesus." "Christ suffered for us," says Peter, "leaving us an example." "If God so loved us, we ought also to love o…
1,007 wordsSECTION 10_Reception Christ Met With._
[1] See also Gen. xvi. 13, xviii. 22; Exod. iii. 6, xxiii. 20; Judges xiii. 22. [2] For the need of intermediaries, see Plato, _Symposium_, pp. 202-3: "God mingles not with men; but there are spiritual powers which interpret and convey to God the prayers and sacrifices of men, and to men the commands and rewards of Go…
790 wordsSECTION 11_Reception Christ Met With._
1. "The light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness apprehended it not." As yet John has said nothing of the Incarnation, and is speaking of the Word in His eternal or pre-incarnate state. And one thing he desires to proclaim regarding the Word is, that although it is from Him every man has such light as he has, ye…
780 wordsSECTION 12_Reception Christ Met With._
3. But in this great world of men there was an inner and specially trained circle, which John here designates "His own." For although the world might be called "His own," as made and upheld by him, yet it seems more likely that this verse is not a mere repetition of the preceding, but is intended to mark a deeper degre…
756 wordsSECTION 13_Reception Christ Met With._
For some did receive Him. John could say for many, along with himself, "We beheld His glory," and recognised that it was Divine glory, such as none but an Only-begotten in the image of His Father could manifest. This glory dawned upon believing men, and gradually encompassed them in the brightness and beauty of a Divin…
674 wordsSECTION 14_Reception Christ Met With._
Let us stir ourselves to a clearer decision by remembering that He is presented to us as to His contemporaries. Time was when any one going into the synagogue of Nazareth would have seen Him, and might have spoken with Him. But the particular thirty years during which this manifestation of God on earth lasted makes no …
258 wordsSECTION 15_The Baptist'S Testimony._
[3] See Isaac Taylor's _Restoration of Belief_. [4] See Pliny's _Letters to Trajan_, 23, 98. [5] Cp. Faber's _Bethlehem_. [6] The first introduction in the Gospel of the name of Jesus Christ. [7] This expression means a succession of graces, higher grace ever taking the place of lower. "There came a man, sent from…
725 wordsSECTION 16_The Baptist'S Testimony._
To us, at this time of day, it may seem of little importance what the Baptist thought or said of Jesus. We may sympathise rather with the words of the Lord Himself, who, in allusion to this witness, said, "I receive not testimony from man." But it is plain that, at any rate from a Jewish point of view, the witness of J…
857 wordsSECTION 17_The Baptist'S Testimony._
This adoption of the _role_ of the ancient prophets, this resuscitation of their long-forgotten function of mourning before God for the people's sin, and addressing the nation authoritatively as God's voice, was outwardly shown by his assumption of the prophet's dress. The rough skin for a cloak; the long, uncared-for …
677 wordsSECTION 18_The Baptist'S Testimony._
The baptism of Jesus was, in fact, His anointing as the Messiah; and this anointing by which He became the Christ was an anointing, not with a symbolic oil, but with the Divine Spirit (Acts x. 38). This Spirit descended upon Him "in a _bodily_ shape" (Luke iii. 22), because it was not one member or faculty or power whi…
904 wordsSECTION 19_The Baptist'S Testimony._
Probably, then, the Baptist himself would think we waste too much emotion over his self-sacrifice and magnanimity. After all, it not being possible to him to be the Messiah, it was no small glory and joy to be the friend, the next, to the Messiah. The tragic character of the Baptist's death, the despondent doubt which …
754 wordsSECTION 20_The Baptist'S Testimony._
4. The Baptist pointed to Jesus as "the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world." That by this title he meant only to designate Jesus as a person full of gentleness and innocence is out of the question. The second clause forbids this. He is the Lamb that takes away sin. And there is only one way in which a l…
695 wordsSECTION 21_The Baptist'S Testimony._
In the Old Testament two ideas present themselves regarding the Spirit which illustrate this statement. The one is that which conveys the impression that only a limited amount of spiritual influence was communicated to prophetic men, and that from them it could be conveyed to others. In Numb. xi. 17 the Lord is represe…
839 wordsSECTION 22_The Baptist'S Testimony._
It is, I say, impossible that we can make nothing of such a testimony. Here was one who knew, if any man ever did, spotless holiness when he saw it; who knew what human strength and courage could accomplish; who was himself certainly among the six greatest men the world has seen; and this man, standing thus on the high…
396 wordsSECTION 23_The First Disciples._
"Again on the morrow John was standing, and two of his disciples; and he looked upon Jesus as He walked, and saith, Behold, the Lamb of God! And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. And Jesus turned, and beheld them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? And they said unto Him, Rabbi (…
705 wordsSECTION 24_The First Disciples._
The two men who enjoyed the signal distinction of leading the way in owning the majesty and attaching themselves to the person of Christ were Andrew and probably John who wrote this Gospel. The writer, indeed, does not name himself, but this is in accordance with his habit. The suppression of the name is an indication …
696 wordsSECTION 25_The First Disciples._
The question put by Jesus to the following disciples, "What seek ye?" was the first breath of the winnowing fan which the Baptist had warned them the Messiah would use. It was not the gruff interrogation of one who would not have his retirement invaded, nor his own thoughts interrupted, but a kindly invitation to open …
781 wordsSECTION 26_The First Disciples._
Sixty years after, when one of these men wrote this Gospel, he remembered as if it had been yesterday the very hour of the day when he followed Jesus into His house. His whole life seemed to date from that hour; as well it might, for what could mark a human life more deeply and lift it more surely to permanent altitude…
689 wordsSECTION 27_The First Disciples._
Coming in this mood, he is greeted with words which seem to say to him, I know the character identified with the name "Simon, son of John;" I know all you fear, all the remorseful thoughts that possess you; I know how you wish now you were a man like Andrew, and could offer yourself as a serviceable subject of this new…
731 wordsSECTION 28_The First Disciples._
To the man of prayer a suitable promise is given, as to the man of uncertain character a promise fitting his need had come. Under his fig-tree Nathanael had often been in sympathy with his forefather Jacob in his great experience of God's attentiveness to prayer. When Jacob fled from home and country, a criminal and ou…
419 wordsSECTION 29_The First Sign--The Marriage In Cana._
[8] See Mr. Reith's rich Handbook on _The Gospel of John_ (Clark). "And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there: and Jesus also was bidden, and His disciples, to the marriage. And when the wine failed, the mother of Jesus saith unto Him, They have no wine. And Jesus …
707 wordsSECTION 30_The First Sign--The Marriage In Cana._
But though Mary did not anticipate a miracle, it had already occurred to our Lord that this was a fit occasion for manifesting His kingly power. His words grate somewhat on the ear, but this is partly due to the difficulty of translating fine shades of meaning, and to the impossibility of conveying in any words that mo…
723 wordsSECTION 31_The First Sign--The Marriage In Cana._
And this was the least of it, that in this act He became a public and marked character. The glory that here shed a single ray into the rustic home of Cana must grow to that dazzling and perfect noon which shone from the cross to the remotest corner of earth. The same capacity and willingness to bless mankind which here…
883 wordsSECTION 32_The First Sign--The Marriage In Cana._
The significance of this incident is manifold. First, it gives us the key to the miracles of our Lord. It has become the fashion to depreciate miracles, and it is often thought that they hamper the gospel and obscure the true claim of Christ. It is often felt that so far from the miracles verifying Christ's claim to be…
750 wordsSECTION 33_The First Sign--The Marriage In Cana._
We must, therefore, beware of falling into the error that lies at either extreme. We must neither, on the one hand, suppose that Christ's miracles were wrought solely for the purpose of establishing His claim to be God's Viceroy on earth; nor, on the other hand, are we to suppose that the marvels of beneficence by whic…
728 wordsSECTION 34_The First Sign--The Marriage In Cana._
And just because of this difficulty we find in reconciling religion with joy, God with nature, does Christ reveal His glory first at a marriage-feast, not in the temple, not in the synagogue, not by taking His disciples apart to teach them to pray, but at a festive gathering, that thus they may recognise in Him the Lor…
874 wordsSECTION 35_The First Sign--The Marriage In Cana._
5. His disciples, when they saw His power and His goodness in this miracle, felt more than ever that He was the rightful King. They "believed on Him." To us this first of signs is merged in the last, in His death. The joy, the self-sacrifice, the holiness, the strength and beauty of human character which that death has…
334 wordsSECTION 36_The Cleansing Of The Temple._
[9] Modern topography inclines to identify this Cana, not, as formerly, with Kafr-Kenna, but with Kanet-el-Jelil, some six miles N.E. of Nazareth. It is called Cana of Galilee to distinguish it from Cana in Asher, S.E. from Tyre (Joshua xix. 28). "After this He went down to Capernaum, He, and His mother, and His bret…
684 wordsSECTION 37_The Cleansing Of The Temple._
There might seem, therefore, to be room to say much in favour of this convenient custom. At any rate, it was one of those abuses which, while they may shock a fresh and unsophisticated mind, are allowed both because they contribute to public convenience and because they have a large pecuniary interest at their back. In…
746 wordsSECTION 38_The Cleansing Of The Temple._
Others, again, who approved the act could not reconcile themselves to the manner of it. Might it not have been enough to have pointed out the abuse, and to have made a strong representation to the authorities? Was it fair to step in and usurp the authority of the Sanhedrim or Temple officials? Was it consistent with pr…
771 wordsSECTION 39_The Cleansing Of The Temple._
What did He mean by this enigmatical saying, which not even His disciples understood till long afterwards? We cannot doubt that in their resistance to His first public act, righteous and necessary, and welcome to all right-hearted men, as it was, He plainly saw the symptom of a deep-seated hatred of all reform, which w…
666 wordsSECTION 40_The Cleansing Of The Temple._
But it is not the stupendous difficulty of this sign which should chiefly engage our attention. It is rather its significance. Christ rose from the dead, not to startle godless and truth-hating men into faith, but to furnish all mankind with a new and better Temple, with the means of spiritual worship and constant fell…
836 wordsSECTION 41_Nicodemus._
"Now when He was in Jerusalem at the passover, during the feast, many believed on His name, beholding His signs which He did. But Jesus did not trust Himself unto them, for that He knew all men, and because He needed not that any one should bear witness concerning man; for He Himself knew what was in man. Now there…
655 wordsSECTION 42_Nicodemus._
To illustrate the state of mind of the Jerusalem Jews and Christ's mode of treating them, John selects the case of Nicodemus. He was one of those who were much impressed by the miracles of Jesus, and were prepared to attach themselves to any movement in His favour. He belonged to the Pharisees; to that party which, wit…
805 wordsSECTION 43_Nicodemus._
In our Lord's _language_ there was nothing that need have puzzled Nicodemus. In religious circles in Jerusalem there was nothing being talked of but the kingdom of God which John the Baptist had declared to be at hand. And when Jesus told Nicodemus that in order to enter this kingdom he must be born again, He told him …
850 wordsSECTION 44_Nicodemus._
As soon as we clearly see what the kingdom of God is, we see also that by nature we do not belong to it. The kingdom of God so far as man is concerned is a state of willing subjection to Him--a state in which we are in our right relation to Him. All irrational creatures obey God and do His will: the sun runs his course…
942 wordsSECTION 45_Nicodemus._
Now if we ask ourselves a little more closely, What is human nature? what are the characteristics by which men are distinguished from all other creatures? what is it which marks off our kind from every other kind, and which is always produced by human parents? we may find it hard to give a definition, but one or two th…
837 wordsSECTION 46_Nicodemus._
Of the Agent who accomplishes this great transformation there is need only to say that He is free in His operation and also inscrutable. He is like the wind, our Lord tells us, that blows where it lists. We cannot bring the Spirit at will; we cannot use Him as if He were some unintelligent passive instrument; neither c…
849 wordsSECTION 47_The Brazen Serpent._
But above all let us bear in mind that it is a new birth that is required; that no care spent on our conduct, no improvement and refinement of the natural man, suffices. For flying it is not an improved caterpillar that is needed, it is a butterfly; it is not a caterpillar of finer colour or more rapid movement or larg…
688 wordsSECTION 48_The Brazen Serpent._
In dealing with Nicodemus, a sincere and thoroughly decent but unspiritual man, our Lord had difficulty in lifting his thoughts off what was external and worldly and fixing them on what was inward and heavenly.[10] And in order to effect this, He told him, among other things, that the Son of man was indeed to be lifted…
677 wordsSECTION 49_The Brazen Serpent._
But though this is the chief point of analogy there are others. We do not know _precisely_ what the Israelites would think of the Brazen Serpent. We need not repeat from the sacred narrative the circumstances in which it was formed and lifted up in the wilderness. The singularity of the remedy provided for the plague o…
742 wordsSECTION 50_The Brazen Serpent._
Christ being lifted up, then, meant this, whatever else, that in His death sin was slain, its power to hurt ended. He being made sin for us, we are to argue that what we see done to Him is done to sin. Is He smitten, does He become accursed, does God deliver Him to death, is He at last slain and proved to be dead, so c…
747 wordsSECTION 51_The Brazen Serpent._
It is by a similar act we receive healing from the cross of Christ. It is by an act which springs from a similar state of mind. "Every one that _believeth_,"--that is all that is required of any who would be healed of sin and its attendant miseries. It is a little and an easy thing in itself, but it indicates a great a…
719 wordsSECTION 52_The Woman Of Samaria._
[10] In saying, "Art thou the teacher of Israel, and knowest not these things?" our Lord hints that it is bad enough for an ordinary Israelite to be so ignorant, but for a teacher how much worse. If the teacher is thus obtuse, what are the taught likely to be? Is this the state of matters I must confront? And in saying…
674 wordsSECTION 53_The Woman Of Samaria._
A line drawn from Jerusalem to Nazareth would pass through the entire breadth of Samaria, and quite close to the town of Sychar. Between Judaea, where Jesus was, and Galilee, where He wished to be, the province of Samaria intervened. It stretched right across from the sea to the Jordan, so that the Jews, who were too s…
703 wordsSECTION 54_The Woman Of Samaria._
This Samaritan woman, then, was taken quite aback when the quiet figure on the well, which by dress and accent she had recognised as that of a Jew, uttered the simple request, "Give me to drink." As any Samaritan would have done, she twitted the Jew with showing a frankness and friendliness which she supposed were whol…
921 wordsSECTION 55_The Woman Of Samaria._
What, then, can teach a man to know this gift? What can make a man for a while forget the lesser gifts that perish in the using? What can reasonably induce him to turn from the accredited sources round which men in all ages have crowded, what can induce him to forego fame, wealth, bodily comfort, domestic happiness, an…
744 wordsSECTION 56_The Woman Of Samaria._
If the inquiry be more closely pressed, and if it be asked what this Samaritan woman would find to be living water to her, what it was which, after Christ had gone, would daily renew in her the purpose to live a better life and to bear her burden cheerfully and hopefully, it will be seen that it must have been simply t…
994 wordsSECTION 57_The Woman Of Samaria._
For in truth it is always the same request He urges to all. In His words to the woman, "Give Me to drink," there was more than the mere request that He would lift her pitcher to His lips. Driven from Judaea, wearied as much with the blindness of men as with His journey, He sat on the well. Everything He saw had that da…
332 wordsSECTION 58_Jesus Declares Himself._
[11] Some good authorities hold that John reckoned the hours of the day from midnight, not from sunrise. It is, however, probable that John adopted the Roman reckoning, and counted noon the sixth hour. "The woman answered and said unto Him, I have no husband. Jesus saith unto her, Thou saidst well, I have no husband:…
758 wordsSECTION 59_Jesus Declares Himself._
This distinction between the chemist who analyses the living water, and the thirsting soul that uses it, runs very deep, and may be commended to the consideration of any who are apt to be carried away by the current of unbelief that characterizes much of our literature. I think it may be said that in writers distinguis…
859 wordsSECTION 60_Jesus Declares Himself._
Convinced that Jesus was a prophet, the woman proposes to Him the standing subject of debate between Jews and Samaritans. Her statement of it is abrupt, and offers some appearance of being intended to turn the conversation away from herself; but this does not harmonise with her simple and direct character, and it is qu…
731 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.