The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 1 — Section 439

appointed by hie non-appee.re.nca. Some fee.et laet.ed seven or eight do.ye, thie le rea- ui<l one thing, Rnd some Another. One group eonl\bly supposed t.o be on the fourth day. we.e lou<l in hie prni~ee, and another sne- We mRy presume that he had been spending picioue either of hie orthodoxy or his patriot- a few de.ye at Bethany (Luke x. 88), from ism. or both. Some ea.id, He ie a good ma.n; retirement of which he Issued rather e.s a i.e. one who wae uneclfish, kind, true, bene- Prophet and Teacher than o.s the Meaeinh of fioont, e.nd honeet in hie intentions, e.nd one the popular expectation. He went UP-he personally trustworthy. But others ee.id- came suddenly-into the tomple, iuto the or, ,oere 8aying; i.e. the murmur, the hee.d- midst of the orowde where his followors shaking, of othe1'8 wRe e. flAt denial of hie would he found, who would shield him, i\-y,l8o.,-71<--Ne.y ; but ( on the other hand) he humRnly speaking, from the covert designs leadeth the multitude astray. The "multi- of his angry assailants. " He wo.s adorned tude" in this clause is probably the vulgar with the wreath of populo.r vonero.tion, till cr;:,wd, and the contemptuous reference to this wreath was torn and withered by the them may be the la.nguage of the Jerusalem poisonous breath of their enmity" (Lange). popule.oe rather than the provincial M?e.• He went up into the temple, and taught vans. The multitude would eso.'lpe from (l5loau1t•, continuously taught). We co.n the Pha1isaic leading-strings, should they only oonjecture the theme of these instruc- embrace his views either concerning the tions. They must have been sufficiently subb&th or the expected Messiah. varied and peculia.r to have excited much Ver. 13.-Howbeit no man-either those attention. Either parable, or o.pothegm, or who murmured to oach c.ther II favourable stirring appeal, or quotation and interpreta- or II calumnious judgment-spake on(openly tion from the Old Testament, or voice from concerning him, by reason of (their) fear of the fo.thomless depths of his own conscious- the 1ewa. The hierarohy, the guardians ness, may have formed its staple. In his of orthodoxy, the authorities, the rabbis by burning summons to conscience, and his whose verdict the character o.nd claims of gracious offers of mercy, the people who had Jesus must be decided, hr,.d not pnblicly de- listened to him on the mountain-side or livered their opinion. Those who believed lake-side were accustomed to say, "He in the "good.Dees" of Jesus were silenced, speaks with authority, not as the scribes." or did not proceed beyond a feeble murmur Ver. 15.-The J'ews therefore marvelled, 1 of applaUBe, however much some may have saying, etc. "The Jews," as elsewhere, felt the truth of their own impression. Those mee.n the ruling e.nd leo.rncd class, the men who came to an adverse opinion were also so of power and weight in the metropolis, who much cowed by the "Jews," by the ecolesi- must have heard his teaching. The imme- astice.l authorities, that even they did not diate effect of the oppee.rance and words was venture to express themselves save "with great ast.onishment. In spite of themselves, bated breath e.nd whispered humbleness," they are moved by the command he mani- lest they might err in the form of their fested over 1111 the springs of thought and aondemne.tion. feeling. The point of their astonishment is, The section vers. H-36 contains three not that he i.e wise and true, but that he could teach without having been taught in discourses: one of which (vel'B. 14-24) de- their schools. How doth this man know scribes the nature e.nd ground of his human letters 1 (not the "Holy Scriptures," t,pa ministry; vers. 25-29, while treating the -yp&.,.µanJ, nor 'll'a.tTas '"Y/la<f!ds, but simply insolence of the multitude, portray an ani- "YPQfJ-/U'Ta, litero.ture, snob as we teach it; mated scene of conflicting opinion, in the cf. Acts :uvi. 24). He co.n interpret our oracles; he is o.cque.inted with the methods course of which the Lord renewed the e.ssar- of teaching, though he ho.a not learned-ho.s ance of his Divine origin, as well as of the never sat in any of our schools. Saul of To.r- Divine sources of his teaching; vers. 30- sus was brought up at the feet of Gomo.liel. 36 refer to !ii& app:roe.ching death or depar- And ordinarily e. me.n was compelled to ture, as pa.rt of a Divine plan concerning undergo a lengthened novicie.te in the schools before he was allowed to assume the office of him. Throughout, with cli-amatic propriety, a teacher. 'l'he inherited wisdom of the po.et lhe varying opinioll.8 of di1ferent classes of is in the gl'Cat majority of cases the basis of the people are introduced. the most conspicuous teaching of the most Ver. 14.-When it we.a already the midst 1 'E8aoµa(ov o~v is the reading of N, B, D, of the feast; r-r, when alrea<ly the futi1Jal had reael,,ed the middk stage. Since the L, T, X, I, 33, 42, 1111d versions: adopted by Tregelles, Tischendorf (8th edit.), Westcott 1 For this use of ,.,uoiiv, cf. Exod. xii 29 end Hort, R.T.; against 1tcd i8aoµa(ov of and Judith xii. 5; common in the classics, but T.R., which rests on r, A, A, n, and other noiel.oiewhere fouud in the Nuw 'feste.ment. uncials iwd nUtQeroua version@. on. vn. 1--53.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO BT. JOHN. 309