The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 1 — Section 173

B11ur, 'Uber die Ursprung nnd Bcdeutnng felt in the fact that ,John shonlrl have mn,le des Pnsso.h-Fest,' quoted by Liicke, i. 404). such progress in New Testament thought; It was God's sncrillce by pre-eminence, and but the experience throu!!;h which ,fohn has the blood of the lamb wae offered to God to passed during his contact with Jesus, the make atonement, nnd it freed fara.el from sentiment with which he found the Lord the ourse that fell on the firstbom of Egypt. whom he sought coming to bis bnptism, the John, the son of n sacrificing priest, the agony that be foresaw must follow the con- N nzurite, the stom prophet of the wilderness, to.ct of such a One with the prejudices and w11s fomilinr with nil the ritua.1 a.nd the sins of the people, above all, the mode in lessons of that solemn festival; and might which our Lord was treating the current look on the Son of God, selected for this expectation of Messia.b reg1trrling its er<g-erly sacrifice, ns fulfilling in singular and unique desired manifestations M tPmptations of the, fashion the function of the Passover La.mb devil, flashed the whole of Isaiah's oracle• for the whole world. But John would not into sudden splendour. He saw the Lamb be limited by the P11schal associations. Day already led to slaughter, and his blood by day lo.mbs were presented before God as upon the very door-posts of every house; be burnt offerings, as expressions of the desire saw him lifting, bearing, carrying away, the, of the offerers to o.ccept o.bsolutely the sin of the world, all impurity, transgression, supreme will of God. Moreover, the lamb and shame. His atoning sacrifice is already of the trespass offering was sin.in for o.tone- going on. The sins of mankind fall on the, ment (Lev. iv. 35; xiv. 11; Numb. vi. 12), Holy One. He sees him pouring out bis soul either when physico.l defilement excluded unto death, and making gentle intercession the sufferer from temple-worship, or when a for his mur<lerers ; so in a glorious ecstasy Ne.zo.rite ho.d lost the advantage of his vow he cries, "BEHOLD THE LAMB OF Gon ! " by contact with the dead. Even the (see my 'John the Baptist,' eh. vi § 2, pp., ceremonial of the great Day of Atonement, 369-386). though other animal victims were used, Ver. 30.-This is he on behalf of' whom I suggested the so.me greo.t thought of pro- so.id, After me cometh a man (iwf1p is used as pitiatory suffering and deo.th. These various a term of higher dignity than c,v9ponra,, and forms of se.crificio.l worship must have been is made more explicit by the positive appear- in the minds of both Isaiah and John. They ance of the Holy One whom he had just are the key to Isaiah's. prophecy, and this in recognized o.nd pointed out to bis disciples) its turn is the basis of the C1'1J of John. The who became before me-in human and other New Testament apostles and evangelists, activities under the Old Testament cove- whether accurate or not in their exegesis, nant-because he was before me; in the did repeatedly take this oracle of Isaiah's as deepest sense, having an eternal self-con- descriptive of the work of the Lord, a.nd sciousness, a Divine pre-existence, apart from other early Christian writers treated the all his dealings and doings with man (see chapter as though it were o. fragment of notes on vers. 15, 26, 27). If the shorter their contemporaneous evidence and exposi- reading of vers. 26, 27 be correct, then the tion (Matt. viii. 17 ; 1 Pet. ii. 22-25; Acts occasion on which this great utterance was viii. 28; Luke xxii. 37; Rev. v. 6; xiii. 8; first made is not described. If it be not Rom. x. 16; Clement, '1 Ep. ad Cor.,' xvi.). expunged from vers. 26, 27, we may imagine John was standing further back, and on that John is now referring to what he said e.n Old Testament platform, but we have, on the previous d<iy to the Sanhedrin. If in his knowledge of Isnfoh's prophecies, and internal reasons may help to decide e. read- his familiarity with the s1tcrifloial system ing, I should be inclined, with Godet e.s of whioh tho.t oracle foreshadowed the ful- against Meyer, to say tho.t this is the obvious filment, quite enough to account for the reference. Here, too, the 3n 11'porror µ.au ,;. burning words in which he condensed the 1 is added e.s explanation of what was enig- meo.niug of the ancient sacrifices, and saw matice.l in ver. 26. The whole saying has them all transcended in the suffering Son of a.lready found place in the prologue. The God. The author of ' Ecce Homo,' by threefold citation reveals the profound im- identifying the "Lamb of God" with the pression which the words of the Bo.ptist lmagery of Ps. :xxiii., supposed that_ John hnd me.de upon his most susceptible dis- saw, in the inward repose and spnitual ciplo. jolfulness of Jesus, the power he would Vers. 31-34.-{3) The purpose of John'• wield to take nway the sin of the world. "He (John) was one of the dogs of the 1 Tregelles, Tischendorf (8th edit.), R.T., fiook of Jehovah, Jesus was one of the Lambs of the good Shepherd." There is read i,,rep instead of ,..,pl, on the authodty no hint whatever of these ideas in the ps11lm. of to:, B, C, and two quotations of Origen, Thie euriosity of exegesis ho.a not seourcd though tht>re o.re many e.uthorities for ,..,pi nny acceptance. Some difficulty has been of T.R.  32 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. ,10HN. [en. t, 1-51.