but for their sakes,— to be a sign and a witness to them. The voice could tell Him nothing that He did not know. It was meant to show them what they did not know, or doubted. The sentence would be more literally rendered, " Not on ac- count of Me was this voice, but on account of you." It was just one more public miraculous evidence of His Divine mission, and apparently the last that was given. The first evidence was a voice at His baptism, and the last a voice just before His crucifixion.
Augustine remarks : "Here Christ shows that his voice was not to make known to Him what He already knew, but to them to whom it was meet to be made known."
1. — [iYow is the judgment of this world.] This is undeniably a difficult saying. The difficulty lies principally in the meaning of the word "judgment."
(a) Some, as Barnes, think that it means, "This is the crisis, or most important time in the world's history." I cannot receive this. I doubt whether the Greek word used here, will ever bear the signification of our word " crisis." That our Lord's atoning death was a crisis in the world's history, is undoubtedly true. But that is not the question. The question is, what do the Greek words mean?
(6) Some, as Theophylact and Euthymius, think it means, "Now is the vengeance of this world." — "I will cast out him by whom the world has been enslaved." — I doubt this also.
(c) Some, as Zwingle, think that "judgment" means the dis- crimination or separation between the believing and the unbe- lieving in the world. (^Compare John ix. 39.)
(d) Some, as Calvin, Brentius, Beza, Bucer, Hutcheson, Flacius, andGualter, think that "judgment" means the reforma- tion, or setting in right order of the world.
(e) Some, as Grotius, Gerhard, Poole, Toletus, and a Lapide, think "judgment" means the deliverance, and setting free from bondage, of this world.
(/) Some, as Pearce, think it means, " Now is the Jewish world or nation about to be judged or condemned for rejecting Me."
(g) Some, as Bengel, think it means, "Now is the judgment concerning this world, as to who is hereafter to be the rightful possessor of it."
I take it that the word we render "judgment " can only mean condemnation, and that the meaning of the sentence is this: " Now has arrived the season when a sentence of condemnation shall be passed by my death on the whole order of things which has prevailed in the world since the creation. The world shall no longer be let alone, and left to the devil and the powers of