The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 1 — Section 480

boon kindlC'd. It "11·as now reserved under who and wl1at I 11m, nnd surrounded by the throne of God for the MessiAh, iu whose Divine allcs ~-ilion~, charged wil!t t1 con- days it would Ehine once morA." (The sciousness of a whole m·my and legion of J ,ogos wns, in the language of Philo, tho approving witnesses, and, above a.II, with Archetype 1tnd the Outflow of the light.) the Father's own testimony to mo-my Dut the entire meaning of the manifestation witness is true-I satisfy in superlative of the Divine life in the Messiah is the fashion your own demand o.nd o.lso my own diffusion of it in others. All Christ's teach- conceded test-beoause I lm.ow-oIBa, with ing- about himself he.s this practical and clear undisturbed self-consoiousness I know, cthicnl bearing. The •!«-" will have," absolutely, invincibly, with perfect posses- " will be in possession of," light-harmonizes sion of the past and future-whenoe I oame; with all the wonderful teaching which blends and whither I am going. The whole of our the Christ and his followers in one entity, Christian verities turn upon the conscious- "I in tbem, they in me," of eh. xv., xvii.; and ness by Jesus of that which lay before o.nd Paul's" Christ formed in you,"" Christ liveth after that human life of his. He embraced in me" (Col. i. 27; Gal. i. 20). " Light,'' the two eternities in his inward self-con- Fnys Augustine, "reveals other things and sciousness. That " whence " and that its own very self, opens healthy eyes, and is "whither," with all their infinite sublimity its own witness." o.nd solemnity, give adequate evidence and Vers. 13-19.-(2) The refusal of the sufficient weight to his personal claim to be I'harisees to (J,()Cept this cl.aim on his unsup- the Light of the world, because he is the ported testimony, and Christ's reply. temporary Embodiment of the eternal life Ver. 13.-The fact that the Pharisees which was with the Father, but is manifest respond shows that the circumst.a.nces of the to men (cf. 1 John i 4). But ye Im.ow not previous day are changed. They have been whence I oome-am ever coming forth to the secret and organized opponents of Jesus you with Divine judgment and calls of throughout. The synoptic Gospels show mercy-nor 1 whither I am going. "Neither with what perverse ingenuity and dogged- the one nor the other; " not that Christ had ness they followed him from place to place, not repeatedly told them in various and venturing to assail him throngh his dis- most expressive form. They could neither ciples, thro~gh his omissions of ritual, and grasp the origin of bis Personality, nor the bv reason of his Divine freedom in inter- method in which, as Messiah, through anffer- preting the sacred Scripture; nor did they ing, through an equation of his lot with refrain from attributing his miracles to the man's (through the form of a slave and the power of the evil one (Matt. ix.). They were death of a. cross), he was doing the Father's the nucleus of the bitter opposition to him will (cf. notes, ch. vii 27, 28; ix. 29). current among the rulers in Jerusalem, and Ver. 15.-You judge-i.e. yon condemn they reveal here a reminiscence of the dis- me,yourepudiate my claim to be the "Living cussion which had taken place in the temple Water" o.nd the"Light of the world "-after or its neighbourhood after the healing of the the flesh ( Kct-ra. .. ~., aJ.pKci), according to the impotent man (eh. v. 31, etc.). There the outward appearance ; you look at my mere Lord had said that if he bore witness of him- humanity. Our Lord did not accuse them self, without any corroboration, his witness, of the fleshly, blinded, unjust judgments of thns isolated anddeprivedof evidence, would, unregenerate men. The article -r1w, and not on the ordinary grounds of a prima facie tes- the well-known formula Kct-ra. crd.p,ca, pre- timonv, not be true; but he went on to say, vents such an interpretation. He rather further, that his testimony was variously reasons and pleads with them. He suggests corroborated by the m1rnifest presence and that they might, if they would, look below co-operation of the Father. Forgetting thus the surface of his flesh. The evangelist, his own vindication of himself-which many who reports the substance of this discussion, months of varied proof of his persowility had has written. " The Word was made flesh." confirmed for ca.ndid minds-they assail his So if the incarnate Word had always been comparison of himself to the Light of the jndged "after the flesh," we should never world, with : Thou bee.rest witness of thyself; have seen his glory, nor recognized the thy witness-according to the canon he had himself admitted and supplemented; but they 1 The authorities are evenly balanced be- forgetting the supplement, add-(thy wit- tween ;; and Kai. Tregelles, Tischendorf (8th ness) is not true. "If thou art simply making edit.), Alford, R.T., and Godet accept the s ucL exalted claims iu; this, in forgetfnlness former, with B, D, K, T, U, etc., 1, and fifty of the well-known me.xi.m about self-witness, cursives, numerous versions and Fathers. we take the liberty to dispute and reject it." Kci( is the reading of T.R., Griesbach, and Ver. 14.-Jesu IIJlBWered and BBid to Lachmann, with N, E, F, G, H, L. 'fhe dis- them, Even if I bear witnea concerning junctive particle;; is here stronger and more myself-in cue I bear testimony, I, being emphatic than the assertive conjunctive rc11I. OR, vru. 1-69.] THE GOSPEL ACl)ORDING TO ST. JOHN. 353