Vv. 41-51. In this paragraph we are first told how the Jews were staggered by our Lord’s affirming that He had come down from heaven; second, how Jesus explains that in order to under- stand and receive Him they must be
38—45.
πα
A a 39 A εἶπεν, “Eye εἶμι 6 ἄρτος 6 καταβὰς ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ. 42. καὶ
by > co) ς 2 a Ld ἔλεγον, “ Obx οὗτός ἐστιν ᾿Ιησοῦς 6 υἱὸς ᾿Ιωσὴφ, οὗ ἡμεῖς οἴδαμεν πῶς οὖν λέγει οὗτος, Ὅτι ἐκ τοῦ phys.
τὸν πατέρα καὶ τὴν μητέρα; > A , 39 οὐρανοῦ καταβέβηκα ;
αὐτοῖς, “Mn γογγύζετε per ἀλλήλων.
a A 43. ᾿Απεκρίθη οὖν 6 ᾿Ιησοῦς καὶ εἶπεν
xii. 32; in
sense,
XVili. 10; ty Xxi. 6, ΙΙ 44. οὐδεὶς δύναται ἐλθεῖν Acts xvi.
19. Uj > ΙΑ πρός µε, ἐὰν μὴ 6 πατὴρ 6 πέµψας µε ) ἑλκύσῃ αὐτὸν, καὶ ἐγὼ π wy. 4ο, 44.
ἆ ή ὑτὸν "TH ἐσχάτη ἡμέ ἔστι γεγραμµένον ἐν τοῖς 37; εἰ
ἀναστήσω αὐτὸν "TH ἐσχάτῃ ἡμέρᾳ. 45. γεγραμμ. 37, etc. A a? A be -
προφήταις, ‘Kat ἔσονται πάντες "διδακτοὶ τοῦ Θεοῦ. Mas οὖν 6
taught of God; and third, how He reiterates His claim to be the Bread of Life, adding now the explanation that it is His flesh which He will give for the life of the world.—Ver. 41. ᾿Εγόγγυζον . .. οὐρανοῦ. ‘ The Jews,” not as we might expect, ‘‘ the Galileans,” probably because John identifies this unbelieving crowd with the characteristically un- believing Jews. ἐγόγγυζον in Exod. xvi. 7-9, I Cor. x. 1Ο, etc., has a note of malevolence, but in John vii. 32 no such note. ‘* Murmur’ thus corresponds to it, as carrying both meanings. The ground of. their murmuring was His asserting ᾿Εγώ εἰμι .. . ovpavov. Cf. ver. 33, ὁ καταβαίνων, and νετ. 38, κατα- βέβηκα. Liicke says: ‘When John makes the descent from heaven the essential, inherent predicate of the bread, he uses the present: when the descent from heaven is regarded as a definite fact in the manifestation of Christ, the aorist’”’. They not merely could not understand how this could be true, but they considered that they had evidence to the contrary (ver. 42), καὶ ἔλεγον, Οὐχ ... καταβέβηκα; the emphatic ἡμεῖς more clearly discloses their thought. We ourselves know where He comes from. The road from heaven, they argued, could not be through human birth. This was one of the real difficulties of the contemporaries of Jesus. The Messiah was to come “in the clouds,’’ suddenly to appear; but Jesus had quietly grown up among them. From this passage an argument against the miraculous birth of our Lord has been drawn. The murmurets represent the current belief that He had a father and mother, and in His reply Jesus does not repudiate His father. But He could not be expected to enter into explana- tions before a promiscuous crowd, As Euthymius says: He passes by His miraculous birth, ‘‘ lest in removing one stumbling block He interpose another’, To explain is hopeless.—Ver. 43. There- fore He merely says Mh γογγύζετε mer’
; Vil.
ε6α1 Cor. ii. 13.
ἀλλήλων. That was not the way to light. Nor could He expect to convince all of them, for ᾿οὖδεὶς .. . ἑλκύσῃ αὐτόν, πο one can come to me unless the Father who hath sent me draw him”. ἑλκύειν has the same latitude of mean- ing as ‘‘draw”’. It is used of towing a ship, dragging a cart, or pulling on a rope to set sails. But it is also used, xil. 32, of a gentle but powerful moral attraction; “1, if I be lifted up, ἑλκύσω, will draw, etc.”. Here, however, it is an inward disposing of the soul to come to Christ, and is the equivalent of the Divine teaching of ver. 45. And what is affirmed is that without this action of God on the individual no one can come to Christ. In order to apprehend the significance of Christ and to give our- selves to Him we must be individually and inwardly aided by God. [Augustine says: ‘‘Si trahitur, ait aliquis, invitus venit. Siinvitus venit, non credit, si non credit, πες venit. Non enim ad Christum ambulando currimus, sed credendo, nec motu corporis, sed voluntate cordis accedimus. Noli te cogitare invitum trahi: trahitur animus et amore.” And Calvin says: ‘‘Quantum ad_ trahendi modum spectat, non est ille quidem violentus qui hominem cogat externo impulsu, sed tamen efficax est motus Spiritus Sancti, qui homines ex nolentibus et invitis reddit voluntarios ”. All that Calvin objects to is that men should be said ‘‘ proprio motu ”’ to yield themselves to the Divine drawing. Cf.a powerful passage from Luther’s De libero Arbitrio quoted in Lampe; or as Beza concisely puts it: ‘‘ Verum quidem est, neminem credere invitum, quum Fides sit assensus. Sed volumus quia datum est nobis ut velimus.”’]—Ver. 45. In confirmation of His assertion in ver. 44, Jesus, as is His wont, cites Scripture: ἔστι γεγραμµένον ἐν τοῖς προφήταις, that is, it is written in that part of Scripture known as “‘ the Prophets”. The passage cited is Is. liv. 13, where, in describing Messianic times, the prophet says, ‘‘ Thy