The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 1 — Section 313

revelation of the Father, his m1ss1on to cidents and impressive discourso, that his mankind as a whole, and his victory and claim upon the loyalty of the metropolis was drawing of souls to himself. We ee~, repeatedly urged and as repeatedly rejected. moroover, bis relation to the theocmcy nud True thRt in vers. 1-8 we are told that our Lord kft J udrea bcoause the Pharisees, the t,o the outlying world, to the learned rabbi influentittl religious parly, were in e. hostile and to the woman that we.s a sinner. We souse comparing his ministry with that of see the Lord in his glory and in his humilia- the Daptist. This may ouly be nnother tion. A very brief hint is given in the way in which the comparative unfruitful• foilowing verses of the character of his ness of his early ministry in J udwa is stated. " The prophet bath no honour in his own Galilaian ministry, wherein mighty works countrv." If this was the meaningof Christ's and words nlterna.te, and the first storm of recurrence to tl1e proverb, then we can un- direct opposition to him begins to make its dersumd the o3v of ver. 45, as well as the lppeo.ra.nce, upon which, while much light "ya.p of ver. 44. The Go.lilwans who had ls cast by the narrative of eh. v., we have beeu up to Jerusalem, and been favourably impressed-perhaps more so than any Ju- no indistinct trace in the 11ynoptic narrative. dreans, having formed the bulk of those Vere. 43-45.-:Now after the two days who received baptism at his hands-re- -i.e. the two days of our Lord's eojourn in ceived him graciously on his entrance into Sychar (ver. 40 )-he went forth 1 thenoe into Galilee. The whole passage thus would Galilee. Here the author takes up the hang together; a subsequent and similar and narrative of ver. 3. The delay in Se.maria. more acute experience where he was best Wllol! parcntbetica.l to the chief end of hie known by face, in Nazareth, drew from him journey, which we.s to leave Judma. and an expanded form of the proverb, in sad and commence his ministry in Galilee. He now melancholy iteration, " A prophet is not enters it a second time from Judiea.. For without honour save in his own country, Jesus himself testified, that a prophet he.th and amongst hill kindred, and in his own no honour in hls own country. When there- hou.se" (Mo.xk vi. 4 ; Matt. xiii. 57). [In fore he oe.me into Galilee, the Galilmans Luke's enlarged account of the visit to willingly received him, having seen all Nazareth (iv. 16--30), possibly an ~!ent things whatsoever he did in J eruse.lem, at the which is perfectly distinct from the visit to feast : for they themselves e.lso went to the his "own country" cited by Matthew and feast. These words bristle with difficulties, Mark, the proverb appears in its shorter form.] This interpretation is that preferred nnd hn.rd.Jy two commentators entirely agree by Origen, Maldonatus, Wieseler, Baur, etc., in their interpretation of them. Christ's formerly by Ebrard and Liioke, and now by villit to Galilee is here acconnted for by the Westcott, Moulton, and Plummer. In my principle embodied in the proverb, or a part opinion it is the most satisfactory and least at least of the proverb, which he used (ac- encumbered :interpretation. It does not cording to the synoptic narrative) w~th r~ seem satisfactory to Meyer and others, who ference to hill vi£i.t to and reception m urge that ,ra-rpls can only m~an who.~ it N azo.reth, about thill same period in his obviously does in the synoptic na.rre.t1 ve, career. Apa.rt from that reference, the most viz. Galilee e.s represented by Nazareth. simple explunation of the quotation would Meyer also interprets the-yd.pas introduoing be that our Lord regarded Jerusalem and a reason, not only for our L?rd's i:iresent Judrea as in one sense, and a very deep one, return to Galilee, but for h18 earlier de- "his country," not simply his birthplace, and parture from Galilee to Judll!a; and Meyer whi1.,-i:. he felt at twelve years of age was to supposes tho.t he must have uttered the contain his Father's house and kingdom and words then. On this supposition, the Gali- work ; and of which he afterwards said, '' 0 lreans in the first instance must have failed Jerusalem, that killest the prophets, ... how to appreciate his prophetic claims. Christ oft would I , . . but ye would not I " 'fbe had gone to Jerusalem and Judwa, and Fourth Gospel records our Lord'~ :vari~us there acquired the fa.we of a prophet, and J udiaan ministries with such striking Ill· subsequently these Galilma.ns were re~dy to recognize it second hand, on the oooas1on of 1 Kal 4,rij>..Bev is omitted by Griesbach, hill return. Godet adds to this the joyful Tregelles, Tischendorf (8th edit.), Westcott emotion that was felt when the plan of and Hort Revised Version, and bracketed J csus had been successful e.s far as the by Laehr:iann, on the authority of~. B, C, Galilaians were concerned. Moreover, he D 13 69 Curetonian Syriac, Origen, etc. gives a pluperfect sense. t.o lµ_apnlp710-E, Lt' is f~und in A, r, t:.., A, e.nd numerous ver- " he he.d testified." Against thl8 w11 ob- sions. The doubled verb would be contrary serve that our Lord must have soon found to the simplicity of John'11 style (Meyer). that, in a narrower e.nd cioBer sen~e, h ir OH, IV, 1-54.] 'l'HE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 177