last day, before the assembly of angels and men, we shall find that His praise makes amends for all.
Notes. John XII. 20—26.
20. — [And there icere certain Greeks, etc., etc.'] Who these GreeKs were has exercised the conjectural ingenuity of commentators. They were not downright heathens, it is clear, from the expres- sion that they were of those " that came to worship " at the feast. No heathen would be admitted to the passover. — They were not in my judgment Jews who had lived among Greeks until they were more Grecian than Jewish in their language. The word we have rendered " Greeks" seems to me to make that impossible. — I believe they were men who were by birth heathens, but had become proselytes to Judaism, and as such were regular attendants on the Jewish feasts. That there were many such proselytes wherever Jews lived, is a simple matter of fact. So in Acts xvii. 4, we read of " devout " or " worshipping " Greeks. The leavening influence of Judaism, in every part of the heathen world where the scattered Jews dwelt, before the coming of Christ, was probably very considerable. It is worth notice that as Gentiles, the wise men from the East, were among the first to honour our Lord when He was born, so Gentiles were among the first to show interest in Him just before His cruci- fixion.
Whether the circumstance recorded in the passage before us took place the same day that our Lord rode in triumph into Jeru- salem, or whether there was not a break or interval of a day or two, admits of question. Judging from the inquiry of the Greeks, "We would see Jesus," it seems unlikely that it happened the same day. It stands to reason that our Lord, at a time when He was riding into Jerusalem on an ass, and was the object of popular enthusiasm, would easily have been distinguished and recognized by the Greeks. Moreover, one cannot suppose that the words spoken in the following verse, and the miracle of the voice from heaven, belong to a time of noise, shouting, and popu- lar acclamation, such as there must have been during the pro- cession. For these reasons I incline to the opinion that we must suppose an interval of a day or two between this verse and the preceding one.
21. — [TJie same came. .. Philip. ..Bethsaida... Galilee.] Why the Greeks came to Philip more than any other disciple we do not know. It is conjectured that Philip, being an inhabitant of a town in North Galilee, was more likely than the other disciples to be acquainted with Greeks, from being near Tyre and Sidon. But this reason applies quite as much to Andrew, Peter, James, and John, who were all Galileans, as it does to Philip. — Is it not worth noticing that Philip's name is a more purely Greek name than that of any of the apostles? Does not this indicate that he probably had Greek relatives and connections?