715
10. ᾽Απεκρίθη ὁ "Ingots καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ, “ Σὺ ef ! Κοπι. ii.20.
μὴ mi Posy It. ν ο. 2Cor. μη v.1. Phil.
ἁμὴν λέγω σοι, ὅτι ὃ οἴδαμεν λαλοῦμεν, καὶ ὃ ἑωράκαμεν papTupodper’ _ iii. το.
καὶ τὴν µαρτυρίαν ἡμῶν οὐ λαμβάνετε.
n 1 Cor. xv. 12. εἰ τὰ "' ἐπίγεια εἶπον 48. Phil. ll. 1Ο,
nw 8 ~ Ἀ ὑμῖν, καὶ οὐ πιστεύετε, πῶς, ἐὰν εἴπω ὑμῖν τὰ " ἐπουράνια, πιστεύ- ο Deut. xxx.
σετε;
οὐρανοῦ Ρ καταβὰς, ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ὁ ὢν ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ 1:
~ 12.Baruch
13. καὶ °oddels ἀναβέβηκεν εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν, εἰ μὴ 6 ἐκ τοῦ iii, 29.
Prov. XXX. 4. P vi. 33, 38.
1 o wv εν τω ovpavw is found in ATA vet. Lat. vulg. syr., but is omitted in BL 33
memph. Cyr.-Alex.
sadness than either of indignation or irony in the words. Is this the state of matters I have to confront? If the teacher is so obtuse what must the taught be? The presence of the article 1s usually taken as indicating that Nicodemus was recognised as a great teacher, perhaps held the official position of Chakam in the Sanhedrim. But Westcott is right: ‘the definite article marks the official relation of Nicodemus to the people generally”. It is used to bring out sharply, not the relation he held to other teachers, but the relation he held to the people. ‘‘ Art thou the teacher of Israel and knowest not these things?” Bad enough for an Israelite to be blind to such things, but how much worse for one who teaches! But should a teacher of Israel have known these things? Westcott over- leaps the difficulty by saying that γινώσκεις refers to the knowledge of perception, and that Jesus is surprised that Nicodemus should not have been able during this conversation to appre- hend what was said.—Ver. 11. ἁμὴν, ἁμὴν . . . οὐ λαμβάνετε. From this point dialogue ceases, and we have now an unbroken utterance of Jesus. It starts with a certification of the truth of what Nicodemus had professed himself unable to understand.—6 οἴδαμεν λαλοῦμαν. Why plural? Were the discipies present and are they included? Or does it mean Jesus and the prophets, or Jesus and the Baptist, or Jesus and the Father, or is it the rhetorical ‘‘we”? Possibly it is merely an unconscious transition to the plural, as in this same verse the σοι of, the first clause becomes a plural in λαμβάνετε in the last clause. Or there may κ. an indefinite identification of Himself with all who had apprehended the nature of the new birth—the Baptist and the best of his disciples. Jesus does not wish to represent Himself as alone able to testify of such matters. Weiss’
view is peculiar. He thinks that the con- tents of the μαρτυροῦμεν consist of what John and Jesus saw at the Baptism, when the Spirit’s descent indicated Jesus as the Baptiser with the Spirit.—Ver. 13. εἰ τὰ ἐπίγεια .. . πιστεύσετε; The reference of τὰ ἐπίγεια is fixed by the εἶπον ὑμῖν. They are such things as Jesus had been speaking of: things verified in human, earthly experience, the necessity of a spiritual birth and the results of it. Regeneration was a change made in this earthly life. The kingdom of regenerate men was to be established on earth, as apprehensible in certain of its aspects as the kingdom Nicodemus was proposing to found. The ἐπουράνια are matters not open to human observa- tion, matters wholly in the unseen, the nature and purposes of God. Cf. the remarkable parallel in Wisd. ix. 16. —Ver. 13. καὶ οὐδεὶς ἀναβέβηκεν .. . καταβάς. The connection is: You have not believed earthly things, much less will you believe those which are heavenly; for not only are they in their own nature more difficult to understand, but there is none to testify of them save only that One who came down out of heaven. The sentence may be paraphrased thus: No one has gone up to heaven and by dwelling there gained a knowledge ot the heavenly things: One only has dwelt there and is able to communicate that knowledge—He, viz., who has come down from heaven. ‘ Presence in heaven” is considered to be the ground and qualification for communi- cating trustworthy information regarding ‘‘ heavenly things”. Direct knowledge and personal experience of heavenly things alone justify authoritative declara- tions about them; as in earthly things one may expect to be believed if he can say, “νε speak that we do know and testify that we have seen”. But this ‘presence in heaven” Jesus declares to be the qualification exclusively of one