presslon must include all the works, and signs, and miracles, which the Father gave Him to do ; as well as the words which He gave Him to speak. (John v. 26; xiv. 10, 11.)
55. — [Yet ye have not known him, etc.~ The meaning of this verse seems to be as follows : " Although you say of My Father in heaven that He is your God, you do not really know Him, and are plainly ignorant of His character, His will, and His pur- poses. Professing to know Him, in works you deny Him. But I, on the contrary, know Him perfectly : for I am indeed one with Him from all eternity, and cariTe forth from Him. So per- fectly do I know Him, that I should be a liar, and a child of the devil, like yourselves, if I said I did not know Him. Bm I re- peat that I know Him perfectly, and in all My words anc works here on earth I carefully keep His sayings, and observe the commission he gave me."
There is undeniably a great peculiarity in the language of this verse. But- it is probably a Hebrew mode of putting in strong contrast the Jews' thorough ignorance of God, notwith- standing their high profession of being His chosen people, — and our Lord's perfect knowledge of God, notwithstanding the repeated assertions that He had a devil, was a Samaritan, and was consequently an enemy to the God of Israel. — The phrase, " I should be a liar, like yourselves, if I said I did not know the Father," was just the phrase to convey the strongest idea to the Jews' minds of our Lord's knowledge. — In arguing with some men, nothing but the strongest language, and the most paradoxical expressions, have any effect.— Even God himself thinks it good to make such an asseveration as "I swear by myself," and " as I live," in order to command attention. (Jer. xxii. 5; Heb. vi. 13; Ezek. xxxiii. 11.) Those who blame ministers and preachers for using strong language, and say that they should never use any but gentle, tame, and mild phrases, can hardly have studied human nature or the style of Scripture with thorough attention.
56.— [Your father Abraham, etc.'] Our Lord, in this verse, takes up the question of the Jews, as to His being greater than Abra- ham, and boldly gives an answer. " You ask Me whether I am greater than Abraham. I tell you in reply that I am He whose coming and whose day of glory Abraham rejoiced to think he should see. Moreover by faith he even saw it, and when he saw it he was glad."
The precise meaning of the words of this verse is rather dif- ficult to discover, though the general idea of it is plain and un- mistakable. It is clear that our Lord implies that He is the promised Messiah, the Seed of Abraham, in whom all the generations of the earth should be blessed, — and of whom when Abraham first heard, " he laughed " for joy. (Gen. xvii. 17.)
(a) Some think, as most of the Fathers and Reformers, that it means, " Abraham rejoiced in the prospect of seeing, at