844 τοῦ πονηροῦ. αχ. 36; Exod. xiii. 2. wv ὁ ods ἀλήθειά ἐστι. Ecclus. xlv. 4.
16. ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου οὐκ εἰσὶ, καθὼς ἐγὼ ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου οὐκ εἰμί. 17. " ἁγίασον αὐτοὺς ἐν τῇ ἀληθείᾳ σου] ὁ λόγος 18. καθὼς ἐμὲ ἀπέστειλας εἰς τὸν κόσμον, > A > , > a > A , 4 ε 7 ᾿ A 3 4 κἀγὼ ἀπέστειλα αὐτοὺς eis τὸν κόσμον: 19. καὶ ὑπὲρ αὐτῶν ἐγὼ
vi Esdri, ” ἁγιάζω ἐμαυτὸν, ἵνα καὶ αὐτοὶ dow ἡγιασμένοι ἐν ἀληθεία. 29.
3.
1 gov omitted in ΝΑΕΒς3Β, it. vulg.
13. ‘The evil one” as the prince of this world and ‘‘a murderer from the beginning’? (viii. 44) was the instigator of persecution.—Ver. 16, For τηρεῖν ἐκ see Rev. iii. το. The reason of the world’s hatred and persecution is given here, as in xv. 19, ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου . . . “ They do not belong to the world, as I am out of the world.’’—Ver. 17. But besides this negative qualification for representing Christ, they must possess also a positive equipment, ἁγίασον αὐτοὺς ἐν τῇ ἀληθείᾳ σου. ‘‘Consecrate them by thy truth.” ἁγιάζω is to render sacred, to set apart from profane uses; as in Exod. xiii 1, ἁγίασόν µοι πᾶν πρωτότοκον; Exod. xx. 8, ay. ἡμέραν; Exod. xxviii. 37, ἁγιάσεις αὐτοῦς ἵνα ἱερατεύωσί por; Mt. xxiii. 17 ; Heb. ix. 13. Inx. 36 it is used of the Father’s setting apart of Christ to His mission. Here it is similarly used of the setting apart or consecration of the dis- ciples as Christ’s representatives. Meyer includes their “‘ equipment with Divine illumination, power, courage, joyfulness, love, inspiration, είο., for their official activity”. Wetstein’s definition is good ; “ Sanctificare est aliquem eligere ad certum munus obeundum, eumque prae- parare atque idoneum reddere”’. ‘‘ The truth,” as the element in which they now lived, was to be the efficient instrument of their consecration, cf. xiv. 16, xvi. 7-13; the truth specifically which be- came theirs through the revelation of the Father, 6 λόγος 6 σὸς ἀλήθειά ἐστι, “«the word which is Thine,’’ ver. 14, but here emphatically distinguished as being the Word of the Father and no other. The article is absent before ἀλήθεια, as in iv. 24, because ἀλήθ. is abstract. ‘“ Thy word 15 not only ‘‘ true” but “ truth ”’.— Ver. 18. καθὼς ἐμὲ ἀπέστειλας .. . “As Thou didst send me into the world, I also sent them into the world.” καθὼς seems to imply ‘in _ pro- secution of the same purpose and therefore with similar equipment”’. eis τὸν κόσμον is not otiose, but suggests that as Christ’s presence in the world
, ~ A Οὐ περὶ τούτων δὲ ἐρωτῶ µόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ περὶ τῶν πιστευσόντων 3
Σπιστενοντων in SABCD,
was necessary for the fulfilment of God’s purpose, so the sphere of the disciples’ work is also “‘the world,” cf. v. 15. ἀπέστειλα, aorist, because already they had served as apostles, see iv. 38 and Mark iii. 14.—Ver. 19. The crowning plea is that it was for this end, their con- secration, Jesus consecrated Himself: καὶ ὑπὲρ αὐτῶν, “and in their behalf, that they may be consecrated in truth, do I consecrate myself”. “'"Αγιάζω in the present with ὑπέρ can only be under- stood of Christ’s self-consecration to His sacrificial death.” Tholuck. ἐγὼ ἑκουσίως θυσιάζω ἐμαντόν, Euthymius; so Meyer, Reynolds and others. This however is needlessly to limit the reference and to introduce an idea somewhat alien to this context and to x. 36. Calvin is right: “Porro sanctificatio haec quamvis ad totam Christi vitam pertineat, in sacri- ficio tamen mortis ejus maxime illustris fuit”. ἵνα e.. The object of Christ’s consecration to His work was the sever- ance of His disciples from the world and their inspiration with the same spirit of self-sacrifice and devotedness to sacred uses, ἐν ἀλήθειᾳ, understood by the Greek commentators as ‘real’’ in con- trast to what is symbolic, cf. iv. 23. Thus Euthymius, ἵνα καὶ αὐτοὶ ὦσι τεθυµένοι ἐν ἀληθινῇ θυσίᾳ, ἡ γὰρ νομικὴ θυσία τύπος ἦν, οὐκ ἀλήθεια. Discernit a sanctificationibus legis.” Melanchthon. Similarly Godet. Meyer renders “truly” and remarks: ‘‘ As contrasted with every other ἁγιότης in human relations, that wrought through the Paraclete is the true consecration”. But is it possible to neglect the reference to ἀληθείᾳ, ver. 17 ? As Liicke points out, John-(3 John 3, 4) does not always distinguish between ἀλήθεια and ἡ ἀλήθεια. The object of Christ’s consecration was to bring the truth by and in which the disciples might be consecrated.