¢ vii. 50; xix. 39. d vii. 31; ix. 31.
αντον in RABKL, etc,
tion to Jesus of Divine power. The supernatural in mind, the superhuman mental processes of Jesus, are part of the proof we have that though He was man He created the irresistible impres- sion that He was more than man.”’ CuaPTER III. Vv. 1-21. A specimen is given of the kind of belief produced in the Fews of Ferusalem and of the manner in which Fesus dealt with it.— ἦν δὲ ἄνθρωπος, the Syriac adds “ there,” i.¢., at Jerusalem. ἄνθρωπος is simply equivalent to τις, and does not point back to the ἄνθρωπος of the preceding verse. He is described as éx tov Φαρισαίων that we may the better understand what follows. He belonged to that party which with all its bigotry contained a salt of true patriotism and could rear such cultured and high-toned men as Gamaliel and Paul. It is a mistake to suppose that all who belong to a mis- chievous party in a Church are themselves mischievous: it is also a mistake to ascribe without inquiry the goodness of indi- viduals to the influence of their party.— Νικόδημος ὄνομα αὐτῷ. Many Jews had now Greek names. Lightfoot quotes from the Talmud passages which show that a certain Bonai surnamed Nicodemus was a disciple of Jesus, and that he lived through the destruction of Jerusalem, but lost in it all his wealth. He is, how- ever, very doubtful whether this is the Nicodemus of this passage. He is further described as ἄρχων τῶν “lovdaiwy, a member of the Sanhedrim. See vii. 50, where he appears in the Sanhedrim. Lk. xiv. I speaks of one τῶν ἀρχόντων τῶν Φαρισαίων. See also Lk. xviii. 18, viii. 41; Mt. ix. 18.—Ver. 2. οὗτος ᾖἦλθε πρὸς αὐτὸν. The pronoun instead of the name Jesus, as Holtzmann remarks, shows the close connection with the closing verses of the last chapter. Nicodemus came to the fountain head, dissatisfied with the way in which his colleagues were dealing with Jesus, and
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