46—57.
αἰῶνα.
ἀπέθανε;
781
54. "ph σὺ μείζων ef τοῦ πατρὸς ἡμῶν ᾽Αβραὰμ, ὅστις v iv. 12. καὶ οἱ προφῆται ἀπέθανον" τίνα σεαυτὸν σὺ ποιεῖς ;” WEccles.iii.
1g. 1 Cor.
3 id 3 Αν «ς2γΓΑ Φιν 1! > A‘ ε / ii. i 54. ᾿Απεκρίθη “Ingots, “"Edv ἐγὼ δοξάζω] ἐμαυτὸν, ἡ δόξα µου vii. 1ο
ix. 19.
"οὐδέν ἐστιν: ἐστιν 6 πατήρ pou 6 δοξάζων µε, "ὃν ὑμεῖς λέγετε, y With gen. e€
ὅτι Θεὸς ὑμῶν 3 ἐστι, 55. καὶ οὐκ ἐγνώκατε αὐτόν, ἐγὼ δὲ οἶδα αὐτόν "
here only; cp.Herod iii. 37.
καὶ ἐὰν ὃ εἴπω ὅτι οὐκ οἶδα αὐτόν, ἔσομαι 7 ὅμοιος ὑμῶν, ψεύστης : 2 Burton,
5 a 217. GAN’ οἶδα αὐτὸν καὶ τὸν λόγον αὐτοῦ τηρῶ. 56. ᾿Αβραὰμ 6 watip a Ps. xxxiv
ὑμῶν ἠγαλλιάσατο "ἵνα ἵδῃ "τὴν ἡμέραν τὴν ἐμήν' καὶ εἶδε καὶ éxdpy.” 57. Εἶπον οὖν οἱ ᾿Ιουδαῖοι πρὸς αὐτὸν, “ Πεντήκοντα ἔτη
1 δοξασω in Ν"ΡΒΟ"Γ.
confirms the Jews in their opinion that He is not in His right mind, Niv ἐγνώ- Kapev .. . they seem to have now got proof of what they had _ suspected ; “antea cum dubitatione aliqua locuti erant,” Bengel. Their proof is that whereas Jesus says that those who keep His word shall never die, Abraham died and the prophets; therefore Jesus would seem to be making Himself greater than those most highly revered personages.— Ver. 53. What did He expect them to take Him for ?—tiva σεαυτὸν σὺ ποιεῖς; For the μὴ σὺ petLov cf. iv. 12.—Ver. 54. To their question Jesus, as usual, gives no categorical answer, but replies first by repelling the insinuation con- tained in their question and then by showing that He was greater than Abraham (see Plummer).—’Eaw ἐγὼ δοξάζω. “If shall have glorified myself, my glory is nothing; my Father is He who glorifieth πε. He cannot get them to understand that it is not self- assertion on His part which prompts His claims, but fulfilment of His Father’s commission. This ‘‘ Father” of whom He speaks and who thus glorifies Him is the same ὃν ὑμεῖς λέγετε ὅτι . . . “Of whom you say that He is your ἀοά ”.. His witness therefore you ought to receive; and the reason why you do not is this, οὐκ ἐγνώκατε αὐτόν, ἐγὼ δὲ οἶδα αὐτόν, ““you have not learned to know Him, but I know Him”’. The former verb denotes knowledge acquired, by teaching or by observation ; in contrast to the latter, which denotes direct and essential knowledge.—kai ἐὰν εἴπω .. . τηρῶ. So far from the affirmations of Jesus regarding His connection with the Father being false, He would be false, a liar and like them, were He to deny that He enjoyed direct knowledge of God. ‘But, on the contrary, I know Him and all I do, even that which offends you, is the
2 T.R. in SBD, ηµων in ACL.
12. Lam.
Gen. xxii. 18.
καν Tr.Ti.W.H.
fulfilment of His commission, the keeping of His word.’’—Ver. 56. And as regards the connection they claim with Abraham, this refiects discredit on their present attitude towards Jesus; for ᾽᾿Αβραὰμ 6 πατὴρ ὑμῶν, “Abraham in whose parentage you glory,”’ ἠγαλλιάσατο ἵνα ἵδῃ τὴν ἡμέραν τὴν ἐμήν, “rejoiced to see my ἆαγ”. The day of Christ is the time of His earthly manifestation; τῆς ἐπιδημίας αὐτοῦ τῆς μετὰ σαρκός, Cyril. See Lk. xvii. 22-26; where the plural expresses the same as the singular here. “Το see” the dayis ‘to be present” at it, ‘to experience”’ it; cf. Eurip., Hecuba, 56, δούλειον ἦμαρ εἶδες, and the Homeric νόστιµον ἦμαρ ἰδέσθαι. ἵνα ἵδῃ cannot here have its usual Johannine force and be epexegetical (Burton, Moods, etc.), nor as Holtzmann says = ὅτι ὄψοιτο, because in this case the εἶδε καὶ ἐχάρη would be tautological. Euthymius gives the right interpretation: ἠγαλλ., ἤγουν, ἐπεθύμησεν (similarly Theophylact), and the meaning is ‘Abraham exulted in the prospect of seeing,”’ or ‘‘ that he should see”. This he was able to do by means of the promises given to him.—«al εἶδε, ‘and he saw it,” not merely while he was on earth (although this seems to have been the idea the Jews took up from the words, see ver. 57); for this kind of anticipa- tion Jesus uses different language, Mt. xiii. 17, and at the utmost the Ο.Τ. saints could be described as πόρρωθεν ἰδόντες, Heb. xi. 13; but he has seen it in its actuality. This involves that Abraham has not died so as to be un- conscious, ver. 52, and cf. Mk. xii. 26.— Ver. 57. This, however, the Jews com- pletely misunderstand. They think that by asserting that Abraham saw His day, Jesus means to say that His day and the life of Abraham on earth were contem- poraneous.—Nevrykovta . . . ἑώρακας;