775
23. Καὶ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς, ““Ypets ἐκ τῶν κάτω ἐστὲ, ἐγὼ ἐκ τῶν ἄνω
«ἰμί: ὑμεῖς ἐκ τοῦ κόσµου τούτου ἐστὲ, ἐγὼ οὐκ εἰμὶ ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου
γούτου.
a - a / ~ 24. εἶπον οὖν ὑμῖν ὅτι ἀποθανεῖσθε ἐν ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις ὑμῶν -
ἐὰν γὰρ μὴ πιστεύσητε ὅτι ἐγώ εἰμι, ἀποθανεῖσθε ἐν ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις
ς ~ 32 ὑμῶν.
᾽νησοῦς, “'"Τὴν ἀρχὴν 6 τι] καὶ λαλῶ ὑμῖν.
~ > 25. Ἔλεγον οὖν αὐτῷ, “XO τίς εἶ ;᾽
Καὶ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς ὁ v Gen. xliii. 26. “moda ἔχω περὶ 20. Dan.
Viii. 1.
ὑμῶν λαλεῖν καὶ κρίνειν' GAN 6 πέµψας µε ἀληθής ἐστι, κἀγὼ & w xvii 12.
1 W.H. read ors as one word and place point of interrogation at the end of the
clause.
that as they had no intention of dying, His supposed death would put Him beyond their reach.—Ver. 23. But dis- regarding the interruption, and wishing more clearly to show why they could not follow Him, and what constituted the real separation in destiny between Him and them, He says: Ὑμεῖς .
τούτου, ‘You belong to the things below, I to the things above: you are of this world, I am not of this world”. The two clauses balance and interpret one another: ‘things below” being equivalent to ‘this world”. It was because this gulf naturally separated them from Him and His destiny and because their destiny was that of the world that He had warned them.—Ver. 24. εἶπον οὖν . . . ὑμῶν. '' Therefore said I unto you, ye shall die in your sins.” The emphatic word is now ἀποθανεῖσθε (cf. ver. 12); the destruc- tion is itself put in the foreground (Meyer, Holtzmann). ‘For unless ye believe that I am He, ye shall, etc.” What they were required to believe is not explicitly stated (see their question, ver. 15), it is ὅτι ἐγώ εἰμι “ that 1 am,” which Westcott supposes has the pregnant meaning “that I am, that in me is the spring of life and light and strength ” ; but this scarcely suits the context. Meyer supposes that He means ‘‘ that I am the Messiah”’. But surely it must refer directly to what He has just declared Himself to be, ‘‘I am not of this world but of the things above ” [‘‘namlich der ἄνωθεν Stammende ; die allentscheidende Pers6nlichkeit,” Holtzmann]. This belief was necessary because only by attaching themselves to His teaching and person could they be delivered from their identification with this world.— Ver. 25. This only adds bewilderment to their mind, and they, not “‘ pertly and contemptuously ” (Meyer, Weiss, Holtz- mann), but with some shade of im- patience, ask: Σὺ τίς et; “Πο art
Thou?” To this Jesus replies: τὴν ἀρχὴν & τι καὶ λαλῶ ὑμῖν. These words are rendered in A.V. ‘“ Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning”; and in R.V. ‘ Even that which I have also spoken unto you from the beginning’. The Greek Fathers understood τὴν ἀρχὴν as equivalent to ὅλως, a Meaning it frequently bears ; and they interpret the clause as an exclama- tion, ‘‘ That I should even speak to you at all!” [6Aws, ὅτι καὶ λαλῶ ὑμῖν, περιττόν ἐστιν. ἀνάξιοι γάρ ἐστε παντὸς λόγου, ὡς πειρασταί, Euthymius.] With this Field compares Achilles Tatius, vi. 20, οὐκ Gyamds ὅτι σοι καὶ λαλῶ; Art thou not content that I even condescend to speak to thee? In support of this rendering Holtzmann quotes from Clem., Hom. vi. 11, εἶ μὴ παρακολουθεῖς ots λέγω, τί καὶ τὴν ἀρχὴν διαλέγοµαι; He even supposes that this is an echo of John, so that we have here an indication of the earliest interpretation of the words. This meaning does no violence to the words, but it is slightly at discord with the spirit of the next clause and of Jesus generally (although cf. Mk. ix. το). Another rendering, advocated at great length by Raphel (Annot., i. 637), puts a comma after τὴν ἀρχὴν and another after ἡμῖν, and connects τὴν ἀρχὴν with πολλὰ ἔχω; ‘‘omnino, quia et loquor vobis, multa habeo de vobis loqui”. Raphel’s note is chiefly valu- able for the collection of instances of the use of τὴν ἀρχήν. A third interpretation is that suggested by the A.V., and which finds a remarkable analogue in Plautus, Captivi, III. iv. 901, “Quis igitur ille est? Quem dudum dixi a principio tibi”” (Elsner). But this would require λέγω, not λαλῶ. There remains a fourth possible interpretation, that of Melanchthon, who _ renders “plane illud ipsum verbum sum quod loquor vobiscum”’. So Luther (see Meyer); and Winer translates ‘‘ (I am)