The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 1 — Section 135

incarnRte LogoR, nttPstRtion of tesUmony, miracle, propl1etic zeal, prophecy (eh. i.-il.). (2) Jesus a11d the world. (a) The woi·ld seeks him; i.e. the people, the schismatics, the heathen, all do so on better terms t.han does scholastic wisdom (oh. iii., iv.). (b) The 'World as hostile (eh. v.-xi.), recapitulation and hint of calling the Gentiles. ll. Ch. xiii.-xvii., Complete contrast with the foregoing-love, secrecy, the favoured few, promise and prospect, victory in death, practical and ethical treatment. III. Oh. xviii. -xx., The narrative or the Passion, but only in small degree lifted up to the theological standpoint of the rest of the Gospel. IV. The epilogue (eh. xxi.). Luthardt and Godet, in their comments on this scheme, nppear to think that, by showing this _exaltation of the ideal and dogmatic element, Reuss virtually destroys all the h1stonc element, or that, by confounding the facts of the Lord's death and resurrection with a "mere mirror of religious truths," Reuss's theory would be con- demned. But it should be remembered that Reuss avowedly treats the Gospel as a "mirror," or plastic arrangement of ideas-a serie1 of reflections on the Person of Christ, and nothing more. Baur's division of the Gospel corresponds very nearly with that of Reuss. (1) The first manifestations of the Word, and earliest symptoms of faith and unbelief (eh. i.-vi.). (2) The victory, dialectically, of faith over unbelief (eh. vii.-xii.). (3) '.l.'he positive development of faith (eh. xiii.-xvii.). (4) The death of Jesus, being the work of unbelief (eh. xviii., m.). (6) The resurrection of Jesus, being the consummation of faith (eh. xx.). .After the fashion in which the Alexandrines resolved all the histories of the Penta- tench into psychological facts and ethical relations, so, according to Baur, the Logos is that which is Divine in itself. It is set forth illustratively in Jesus, as coming for him into a consciousness which all elect souls may share, '.1.'here is no essential fact accentuated as having taken place in the Incarnation, only the idea of belief in snch a possible experience produced by the antagonism of light and darkness. The testimony of the Baptist to the Logos-light was a mode of finding the link of relation between the old and the new. Ch. iv.-vL are the record of the first movements of faith and unfaith. Nicodemus (eh. iii.) represents Jewish faith, Samaria (eh. iv.) the faith of the world; subsequently the faith of the Jews is unveiled as nothing less than unbelief (eh. v., vi.), which is then dialectically refuted (eh. vii.-x.). After this the Divine element of Logos must declare itself to be the absolute life (in eh. xi.), and opposition to this reaches its highest expression. From eh. xiii. to :xvil. the Logos presents itself in all its fulness, but only to implicit faith. From that innermost circle the traitor is excluded. The idea of the Logos thus revealed must complete itself in its historical glorification. The death is a glory brought about by the unbelief of the Jews, to whom Jesus is dead. The Resurrection is the view of the Logos in the eye of faith; so the process of unbelief, u seen first in Nathanael's doubt (eh. i.), is seen eventually to be scattered in the triumphant exclamation of Thomas (eh. x.x.). Baur regards the final section (eh. xxi.) by another hand. The appearance of biographic fact is thus regarded as the mere clothing of the pro- cesses of faith, stimnlated by the antagonism of unbelief. The object of faith disappears, because the incarnate Logos is simply a mental process, an ethical experience of the second century. 1'he Son of God, as a Saviour, as life, light, and love, cannot, with Baur, be the object of faith. He is in his final glory nothing but pure absolute idea. This survey of various efforts prepares the way for the admirable and penetrative repre- sentation of Luthardt. Two points especially emerge of prime importance: (1) the great change in theme and tone which is observable between eh. iv. and v.; and (2) the opening of a new theme in eh. xiiL Luthardt, however, emphasizes the historic or chronologic relation of eh. xii. with what follows. The final week, which is introduced as the sequel of the death-sentence recorded in eh. xi., certainly commences with eh. xii. 1. The subject-matter of eh. xii, as well as the tone and spirit of it, does, however, belong to themes which precede in eh. v.-xi., rather than to those which follow, in eh. xiii.- xvii.; e.g. the anointing refers to the animoaity and deadly antipathies of the Jews then rt:aching their culmination, but it is a prophetic anticipation of the "bw·ial." The incident of " the desire of the Greeks " certainly betokens the offer of the Messianic kingdom to the Gentile world, and reflects strong light on more than ono angry retort in the previoUB chapters; but it is also closely intertwined with the myijterious agony  'rim GOSPEL ACCORDING ·ro ST. JOHN. cliii