eyes ; and my testimony is true, and accurate, and trustworthy, and I know that I say true things in recording the fact, so that you to whom I write need not hesitate to believe me. 1 stood by. I saw it. I was an eye-witness, and I do not write by hear-say."
The Greek word rendered " true " in the second place in this verse, means literally, " true things."
The question arises naturally. To what does John refer in this peculiar verse ? (a) Does he refer only to the issue of blood and water from our Lord's side, as a singularly miracu- lous event? (&) Or does he refer to the thrust of the spear into our Lord's side, as a convincing proof that our Lord really died ? (c) Or does he refer to the fact that our Lord's legs were not broken, and that he thus saw the great type of the passover- lamb fulfilled ?
I decidedly lean to the opinion that the verse refers to all the three things I have mentioned together, and not to any one of them only. All three things were so remarkable, and so calcu- lated to strike the mind of a pious and intelligent Jew, and all happened in such close and rapid succession, that John em- phatically records that he saw all the three with his own eyes. He seems to say, " I saw myself that not a bone of the Lamb of God was broken, so that He fulfilled the type of the pass- over. I saw myself a spear thrust into His heart, so that He was a true Sacrifice, and really died. And I saw myself that blood and water came out of His side, and I beheld a fulfil- ment of the old prophecy of a fountain for sin being opened." When we consider the immense importance and significance of all these three things, we do not wonder that John should have been inspired to write this verse, in which he emphatically tells his readers that he is writing down nothing but the plain naked truth, and that he actually saw these three things, — the un- broken legs, the pierced side, the flow of blood and water, — with his own eyes.
Pearce and Alf ord think that the expression " that ye might believe," signifies that ye might believe that Jesus did really die on the cross. Others decidedly prefer thinking that it means, " that ye may believe that blood and water did really flow from the side of Jesus after His death." Others take the phrase in a general sense, " that ye may believe more firmly than ever on Christ, as the true sacrifice for sin."
36^ 37. — [For these things mere done, etc.] In these two verses John explains distinctly to his readers why two of the facts he has just mentioned, however trifling they might seem to an ignorant person, were in reality, of great importance. By one of these facts, — the not breaking a bone of our Lord's body, — the text was fulfilled which said that not a bone of the pass- over-lamb should be broken. (Ex. xii. 46.) By the other fact, — the piercing of our Lord's side, — the prophecy of Zechariah