The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 1 — Section 452

of tho oonncil, they return empty-ho.ndecl, expecting a negative answer, might ho an- cmd to some extent bafHed and chagrined. swered differently. There were Pharisees 'l'hey had !fallen into the domino.nt enthu- who had shown some sympathy with Jesus. siasm of the crowd for o. moment. They he.d Certain steps, moreover, ta.ken by him were heard the shouts which hailed him o.s the not so hopelessly hostile to their own views. greo.t Prophet, no.y, o.s Messio.h himself, o.nd In t~eir momente.ry animosity, blinded by their reply, according to the curto.iled text, pass10n, they are ready to ignore this and was, Never man so spake. 1 It matters little other facts e.s well. Some of the higher whether the additional clo.use," as this Mo.n classes in Galilee he.d already admitted his speaks," was in the original text or not, the claims (see eh. iv. 46; Lnke vii. 36, etc.). idea. is the so.me ; and it confirms the sup- The language of the Pharisees hM been a. position to which we have often refened- stock objection to every great spiritual move- the.t John only gives us the l;l'eat sentences ment in its beginning. The writer thus re- which the Divine Lord made the text of veals a. knowledge of proceedings to which e. discourse. An overwhelming impression he must have had some exceptional means was produced that the Speo.ker had e. deep of access. The obvious familiarity which secret to disclose, vast tree.sure to bestow, he suggests with Nicodemus anrl with friends unlimited power to meet the thirst of man, in the high priest's pa.lace (eh. xviii. 15) is and even to make those who utterly yield the simplest explanation. to his influence the fountains of benedic- Ver. 49.-But this multitude, which know- tioDB to others. An a.we as of unseen things eth not the Law, are accursed.' This is a fell on the officers and the people. They most contemptuous expression-am-ha-'arez, could not resist the sense of benediction equivalent to "this scum of the earth," "the which, like some sacred perfume, some su- unlettered rabble." The Pho.risees were pernatural glamour, fell upon them in his accustomed to show sovereign contempt for royal words. "Never man thus spe.ke." those who had no admission to their own The whole experience is new and wonderful. culture and methods of knowledge. Eder- "'fhese sayings of the Prophet of Nazareth sheim and Wiinsche quote 'Pes.,' 49, b; are more than words; they have living ' Baba,' B. 8, b ; and ' Chetub.,' iii. 6 in proof powers; they have confollllded and diB- of the utter inhumanity of their judgments. armed us." Th.is language did not endorse a formal Ver. 47.~The Pharisees therefore an- excommunication of the multitude-a. sup- swered them. Evidently the Pharisees were position in its own ne.tnre impossible and the lee.ding spirits in this assault upon absurd-but it expressed the brusque and J esns. The guardians of the orthodoxy of Is- harsh contempt with which the Pharisees rael, in the haughty pride of their order, are then present wished to correct the weak piqued and angry. Have ye also-the chosen compliance of their own servants. Lange servants of the august council of the nation presses the utterance too far. We cannot -been led astray 1 In Matt. xxvii. 63 these see in it more than the bitter outburst of Pharisees speak of the Divine Lord as "this their pent-up spite. deceiver (l,c•ivos d ,,-;1.cfvos)." Are folly and Vers. 50, 51.-They were hardly prepared weakness, if not tree.ohery and corruption, for what followed: for one of their own order, at work so near the centre of our authority? one of their "rulers," "the teacher of Israel," Ver. 48.-Hath any one of the rulers be- a chief among the Pho.risees, opens his lieved on him, or of the Pharisees 1 They lips to speak to them, and to ca.11 for a halt soon find they have reckoned on the em- in their rash proceedings. He did not go phatic negative of the query (µ:I, -ras ;) too far, but he directed attention to a fnnda- soon. There is, however, a touch of weak- mente.l principle of that very "Law" whicb. ness in the question. They seem to say, if the Pharisaic party were ignoring. Nicode- one of the rulers, one of the Pharisees, had mus saith to them (he who came to him for- ta.ken a different oourse, there might be merly, although being one of them).' The eome colour for the pusillanimity of the 1 Le.chmann, Tischendorf (8th edit.), officers. The question which they put, thus Westcott and Hort, and R.T. here read 1 t(•, B, L, T, X, 8, 33, read, o~8h-oTE l1rcfpaTol, the classical form, not elsewhere iAdA710'•v oll-r111s d.v8ponros, and they are fol- found in the New Testament, with ~. B, T, lowed by Lachmann, Tischendorf (6th edit.), 1, 83, and one or two quotations; T.R., /.,,,. Westcott and Hort, and R.T.: but ~• ndds ,ca-rdpaTol, with e.lmost all the other authori- the old appendage, ws o~-ros ;\aA•i' d llv8p0r ties. ,ros, which is the reading also of X, r, ~. n, 1 Tischendorf (8th edit.), on the authority and many other uncials and versions, and is of ~•, omits the bracketed clause e.lto- followed by Tischendorf (8th edit.), Tre- gother. Le.chmann, Alford, Tregelles, West- gellee, Alford, Meyer, Godet, etc. Weym. cott and Hort, and R.T. retain ~ iA8wv brackets the ws o~os d ll118p1111ros. ..pos ati-rov wpoTEpov, with B, L, T, and 101118 .JORN, T 822 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. [011. vu. 1-58.