Jews was a thing as clearly foretold In Scripture ns the suffer- ings of Christ. If they had not been unbelieving, the Scriptures would have been untrue.
[To whom. ..arm of.. .Lord revealed.'] The expression, " Arm of the Lord," is thought by Augustine to mean Christ Himself. It may be so. If not, it must mean, " To whom is the Lord's power in raising up a Redeemer and an atoning sacrifice re- vealed?" That is, the Lord's power is revealed to and received by none. The question here again is a Hebraism, equivalent to an assertion.
Bullinger observes, that " some might perhaps wonder that the Jews did not believe Jesus to be the Messiah. To this John replies, that Isaiah long ago foretold that they would prove an unreasonable and uubelieving nation."
The quotation of Isaiah in this place is strong evidence that the fifty-third chapter of this prophecy applies to Christ, and none else.
39. — [Therefore they could not believe, because, etc.] This is un- deniably a difficult verse. It cannot of course mean that the Jews were unable to believe, although really desirous to do so, and were prevented by the prophecy of Isaiah. What, then, can it mean? The following paraphrase is offered : " This was the cause why they could not believe, — they were in that state of judicial blindness and hardness which Isaiah had described. They were justly given over to this state, because of their many sins, and for this cause they had no power to believe."
" Therefore," is literally, " on account of this." It cannot, I think, look backward, but forward. (Compare x. 17, aud xii. 18.)
"They could not," is literally, "they were not able." It precisely describes the moral inability of a thoroughly hardened and wicked man to believe. He is thoroughly under the mastery of a hardened and seared conscience, and has, as it were, lost the power of believing. — They had no will to believe, and so they had no power. They could have believed if they would, but they would not, and so they could not. The expression is parallel to the well-known words, " No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him." There the meaning is, " No man has any will to come unless he is drawn, and so no man cau come."
Even in our own English language the expression, " could not, " is sometimes used in the sense of " would not." Thus the brethren of Joseph "hated him, and could not speak peaceably of him." (Gen. xxxvii. 4.)
The word " because " is a needlessly strong rendering of the Greek. It would be just as correctly translated " for."
Chrysostom observes : " In many places Christ is wont to term