Jewish people, who after the fulness of the Gentiles attain salva- tion. The sick son is the Jewish people fallen from the true religion. — This is patristic interpretation ! Allegoiical expositions like this destroy the whole value of God's word. At this rate the Bible niay be made to mean anything.
Chemnitius thinks, that with this chapter ends the first year of our Loi d's public ministry, and gives a useful summary of the principal events comprehended within it. These are the Lord's baptism, — the calling" of the first disciples, — the miracle at Cana, — the miracle of casting out of the temple the buyers and sell- «?rs, — the conversation with Nicodemus, — the tarrying in Judaea and baptizing, — the testimony of John the Baptist, — the journey through Samaria, — the arrival in Gralilee, — and the healing of the nobleman's son. Epiphanius, he observes, calls it the " acceptable year" of our Lord's ministry, because it was the most quiet and peaceful.
Bengel, in closing this chapter, observes, that St. John seems to arrange our Lord's miracles in threes. He relates three in Galilee, — the first at the marriage in Cana, the second on the nobleman's son, the third in feeding five thousand men (John vi.) ; — three in Judaea, — the first at Bethesda at pentecost (ch. v.), the second after the feast of tabernacles, on the bhnd man (ch. ix.), the third on Lazarus before the passover (ch. xi.). — So also after the ascension, he describes three appearances of our Lord to His disciples. (John xxi. 14.)
Dyke observes how God keeps account of all the gracious means He affords men for their good. " The second miracle ia specified to aggravate the infidelity of the Jews ; that though Christ had now done another and a second miracle, yet only the ruler and his household beheved. Two miracles wrought, and one household converted 1 God takes account not only how many men are won by a sermon, (Acts ii. 41,) but of how many sermons are lost by men."