are we waiting for? Why should we not acknowledge this man as the Christ?""
32. — [The Pharisees heard that the people murmured... him.'] This would be more literally translated, " The Pharisees heard the people murmuring ; " they actually heard with their own ears the common people, as they walked about the temple courts, and gathered in the streets of Jerusalem, at the crowded time of the feast, keeping up their under conversation about our Lord. Here, as at the 12th verse, the word we render "murmuring" does not necessarily imply any finding fault, but only a dissatis- fied and restless state of mind, which found vent in much con- versation and whispering among the people.
[And the Pharisees. ..sent officers to take Him.'] It would seem that the talk and stir of men's minds about our Lord so alarmed and irritated the rulers of the Jews, that they resolved even now in the midst of the feast to arrest Him, aud so stop His preaching. What day of the feast this was, and what interval elapsed between this verse and the 37th, where we are told of " the last day " of the feast, we are not told. It seems probable that the officers sought an opportunity for taking our Lord, but could find none, — partly because of the crowds that surrounded Him, and partly because of a divine restraint laid upon them ; and that this was the state of things for three days at least.
Full well did these Pharisees justify our Lord's character of them in another place: "Ye neither go in yourselves into the kingdom : neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in." (Matt, xxiii. 13.)
33. — [Then said Jesus unto them. ] The officers of the Pharisees and their supporters seem clearly to be the persons whom our Lord here addresses. Not only were they, through Divine re- straint, unable to lay hands on Him, but they were obliged to stand by and listen to Him. They dared not seize Him for fear of the people, and yet dared not go away to report their iuability to carry out their orders.
[ Yet a little while, etc. ] There is probably an uuder-tone of sadness and tenderness about this and the following sentences. It is as though our Lord said, " Ye have come to lay hands on me, and yet ye might well bear with me. I am only a little time longer with you, and then when my time is come for leaving the world, I shall go back to my Father who sent me." Or else it must mean, " Ye are sent to lay hands on me, but it is useless at present: ye cannot do it, because my hour is not yet come. I have yet a little longer time to minister on earth, and then, and not till then, I go to Him that sent me." Alford takes this view.
The Jews of course could not understand whom our Lord meant by "Him that sent me," and this saying must necessa- rily have seemed dark aud mysterious to them.
34. — [Ye shall seek me. ..shall, not find me.] These words seem addressed both to the officers and to those who sent them,— to