formed part of the creed of the Jewish Church, and of the faith of our Lord's disciples. Martha's " i" know" sounds as if she re- membered the words of Job, " I know that my Redeemer liveth." What she did not understand, or had failed to remember, was our Lord's peculiar office as Lord of the resurrection. We cannot now understand how she can have failed to hear what our Lord had said before the Sanhedrim. (John v. 25 — 29.) If she had, she evidently had not comprehended it. Even our Lord's teaching was often not taken in by His people ! How much less must His ministers expect all their sermons to be understood !
To my eyes there is an evident tone of disappointment about Martha's speech. It is as though she said, " I know, of course, that he will rise again at last ; but that is cold comfort. It is a far-distant event. I want nearer and better consolation."
Hutcheson remarks : " It is no uncommon thing to see men be- lieving great things that are far off, and about which they have no present exercise, when yet their faith proves weak in the mat- ter of a present trial, though less difficult than that which they profess to believe." 25. — [Jesus said.. .lam.. .resurrection.. .life.'] In this and the follow- ing verses, our Lord corrects Martha's feeble and inadequate notions, and sets before her more exalted views of Himself. As Chrysostom says, " He shows her that He needed none to help Him." He tells her that He is not merely a human teacher of the resurrection, but the Divine Author of all resurrection, whether spiritual or physical, and the Root and Fountain of all life. " I am that high and holy One who, by taking man's nature upon Me, have ennobled his body, and made its resurrection possible. I am the great First Cause and Procurer of man's resurrection, the Conqueror of death, and the Saviour of the body. I am the great Spring and Source of all life, and what- ever life any one has, eternal, spiritual, physical, is all owing to Me. All that are raised from the grave will be raised by Me. All that are spiritually quickened are quickened by Me. Sep- arate from Me there is no life at all. Death came by Adam : Ufa comes by Me."
All must feel that this is a deep saying, so deep that we se< but a little of it. One thing only is very clear and plain : none could use this language but one who knew and felt that He waa very God. No prophet or Apostle ever spoke in this way.
I do not feel sure that the two first words of this verse do not; contain a latent reference to the great title of Jehovah, "I am." The Greek quite permits it.
[He that believeth... me. ..dead. ..live.] This seutence receives two interpretations. Some, as Calvin and Hutcheson, hold that " dead " here means spiritually dead. Others, as Bollinger, Gual- ter, Brentitus, Museums, hold that " dead " means bodily dead. — With these last I entirely agree, partly because of the point that our Lord is pressing on Martha, partly because of the awkward- ness of speaking of a believer as "dead." Moreover, the ex-