floods of mine eyes gushed out, an acceptable sacrifice to Thee” (viii. 28). Nathanael asks, “ Whence Anowest thou me?” Jesus answers, “ J saw thee (eidov).”
49. Rabbi. Nathanael here gives the title, which he had withheld in his first address.
50. Under the fig.tree (i176 THs cvxfs). Compare ver. 48. Here the same preposition is used with the genitive case, indi- cating rest, without the suggestion of wethdrawal to.
Believest thou? Rightly so, though some render affirma- tively, thow belrevest.
51. Verily, verily (aun, dunv). The word is transcribed into our Amen. John never, like the other Evangelists, uses the single verily, and, like the single word in the Synoptists, it is used only by Christ.
Hereafter (dm dp). The best texts omit. The words literally mean, from henceforth ; and therefore, as Canon West- cott aptly remarks, “if genuine, would describe the communion between earth and heaven as established from the time when the Lord entered upon His public ministry.”
Heaven (rov ovpavov). Rev., giving the article, the heaven.
Open (avewydéra). The perfect participle. Hence Rev., rightly, opened. The participle signifies standing open, and is used in the story of Stephen’s martyrdom, Acts vii. 56. Com- pare Isa. lxiv. 1. The image presented to the true Israelite is drawn from the history of his ancestor Jacob (Gen. xxviii. 12).
Angels. With the exception of xii. 29 and xx. 12, John does not use the word “angel” elsewhere in the Gospel or in the Epistles, and does not refer to their being or ministry. Trench (“Studies in the Gospels”) cites a beautiful passage of Plato as suggestive of our Lord’s words. Plato is speaking of Love. “ He is a great spirit, and like all spirits he is intermediate be- tween the divine and the mortal. He interprets between gods
GOSPEL OF JOHN. el
and men, conveying to the gods the prayers and sacrifices of men, and to men the commands and replies of the gods; he is the mediator who spans the chasm which divides them, and in him all is bound together, and through him the acts of the prophet and the priest, their sacrifices and mysteries and charms, and all prophecy and incantation find their way. For God mingles not with man, but through Love all the inter- course and speech of God with man, whether awake or asleep, is carried on” (“ Symposium,” 208).
Son of man. See on Luke vi. 22. Notice the titles suc- cessively applied to our Lord in this chapter: the greater Suc- cessor of the Baptist, the Lamb of God, the Son of God, the Messiah, the King of Israel. These were all given by others. The title Son of man He applies to Himself.
In John’s Gospel, as in the Synoptists, this phrase is used only by Christ in speaking of Himself; and elsewhere only in Acts vii. 56, where the name is applied to Him by Stephen. It occurs less frequently in John than in the Synoptists, being found in Matthew thirty times, in Mark thirteen, and in John twelve.
Jesus’ use of the term here is explained in two ways.
I. That He borrows the title from the Old Testament to designate Himself either (a) as a prophet, as in Ezek. ii. 13 ; iii. 1, etc.; or (0) as the Messiah, as prefigured in Dan. vii. 13. This prophecy of Daniel had obtained such wide currency that the Messiah was called Anan, or the man of the clouds.
(a.) This is untenable, because in Ezekiel, as everywhere in the Old Testament, the phrase Son of man, or Sons of men, is used to describe man under his human limitations, as weak, fallible, and incompetent by himself to be a divine agent.
(b.) The allusion to Daniel’s prophecy is admitted; but Jesus does not mean to say, “I am the Messiah who is pre- figured by Daniel.” A political meaning attached in popular conception to the term Messiah ; and it is noticeable through- out John’s Gospel that Jesus carefully avoids using that term before the people, but expresses the thing itself by circumlo- cution, in order to avoid the complication which the popular