The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 1 — Section 486

yon, but I <lue not therefore withhold them. and lack of perception need not astonish ua I au1 <"Clme tCl deli,·er them at auy cost to when we reflect upon the obscurity and non- my .•elf or you. But he that sent me is true, receptivity of the apostles themselves, cmd whether ~·ou hear or forbear; and I am his the like obtuseness of theologians and oul- l\Iouthpiece, 80 I.he truth has to be tolrl. tivnted men of the world in every age from Tlie thought of God, if we can only npproach that day to this. The remark is, moreover, it. is the absolute truth about every thing added doubtless to interpret the following and abciut every man. Jesus is the "'ord of verses, in which the ideas of ver. 26 are God incarnate," and the Utterer of irre,·cr- repeated, with the difference thnt, whereo.a 1ilile judgment. The things whioh I he&rd he had already spoken of him tho.t sent him, from him, these speak I into the world. and who hnd o.uthorized his wordso.nd ju<lg- Eis -,/,,, ,couµov is a remarkable expression. ments, Jesus now gives to him the beloved "Speak i"to, 80 that the words may reach as name of" the Fnther." far as nnd spread through the world" (West- Ver. 28,-But when Jesus turns to them cott). The expression seems to have left again he oe.lls special o.ttention to the main him abo'1e or outside the world, so that heap- source of their continuous misconception pears as" the Mediator between two worlds." and rejection. Not only is he "the Son," Ver. 27.-Theyllll.derstood (perceived) not o.nd "the Son of God," but indubitably he that he spake to them of the Father. This is also " the Son of man." He has come difficult parenthesis of the evangelist calls down from heaven and is before them as a nttention to the fact that, during the imme- Man among men-" one Jesus." He has diately preceding discourse and controversy, taken upon himself the form of a slave, the Jesus had dropped his referenMB to the fashion of man. That the ma.nifesto.tion of Father, and had used the periphrasis, "he the Divine should be perfectly realized in that sent me," probably suggesting to this tho humo.n, though a fundamental truth strangely excited populace, fed with weird lying at the heart of o.ll revelation, is never- fancies e.nd wild expectations, that the theless not the alphabet of Divine teaching; mysterious Being v.ith whom they were nay, it is the very highest a.nd most recon- conversing was but the Delegate of One dite of all truths. This humbled humanity mightier than he, who was hidden in the of the incarno.te Logos led on to other secret place of God's providence until the issues of enormous significance. The eternal hour of his owa manifestation should appear Son in the form of God would become, as to have struck. They might have remem- "Son of man," obedient unto death. The bered the utter deference which the great highest revelation of the Son of God, and prophet John had displayed before a Messiah therefore of the Father, would be effected whom as yet they knew not. They may by the surrender of that mysterions life of have heard that even John himself, at o. later his for the world's behoof. The previous date, sent from the prison two of his dis- announcements of this truth, which we now ciples to propound the query, "Arl thou he see to be the very crown and culmination of tho.t should come, or do we look for an- the gospel, had greatly offended hie hearers other? " lll other words, " Arl thou the fina.l of all kinds, and on distinct grounds. In Manifestation of ell that I hnve predicted the words that follow a touch of deeper o.nd believed? or is another to make his ap- meaning than any which ha.d preceded ls pearance with fire and axe a.nd available supplied when he proceeds to associate this force to compel obedience and to secure uni- death of the Son of man with the wilful aot versal homage ? " It is more than probable of the ecclesiastical authorities in Jerusalem. that the evaugel.i&--t, being persona.lly alive 1esns therefore said (wito tlle'TTI '), When ye to the cross-current.& of passion, enthusiasm, shall ha.va lifted up the Bon of ma.n (eom- 11nd hostility which were at woi:k in the pare here notes on eh. iii. 14 ; vi. 62 ; hearts of the populace, saw by the very xii. 32). The word ~,j,,fo, is nsed with the blankness and confusion on their faces, a.nd twofold sense of exaltation on the cross- the " asides" of the multitude, that they " signifying by what death he should glorify had not perceived that Jesus was throughout God "-a.nd also of the issues of thet lifting in these references speaking of tlui Father of up by means of the tree of ignoble torment all-the supreme Souroe of all power, the and mortal agony to the throne of glory. Lord of hosts. Even when he had said, "Ye The twofold meaning of the word cannot have not knoWD me,nor my Father," they had be excluded here.• Then ye shall oome to not risen to such a conception of the Lord's 1 Tiechendorf and B.T. omit al,.,-ois, with meaning as to suppose that the supreme FatJ1er himself was being suggested to them B, L, T, on the ground that t( and D have aud cited as the corroborative Witness, as other an,! di1Jerent additions. 1 Edershei.m cit88, from ' Pellikta R.,' 10, the supernatural Aid and Divine Pre110nce which was giving validity to all that Christ proof that the Hebrew word N~} occurs (as has said about him88lf. Their ignorance in Gen. n 19, 18) in the B&llle twofold Oll. vm. 1-69.] 'l'HE· GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 369