The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 1 — Section 492

that these Jews began to bn.hble ngninst the whereby is suggested the procession of Christ possibility of thoir being bnstarrl childron into the condition of fellowship with the of Samh, or to protest that they were not eternal Father or that of being ,rpor rlw 0,6v IahmaeliLes or uny collateral bmnch of the or •I• 'rov 1<6A,rov. By i{,A9•i'v /,c he implies sce<l of Abrnhrim, like the l<lnmreons or the an even sublimer conception of the pre-natal sons of Keturah. This is far o.wriy from glory, o.nd that, as the author of the Epistle the context, and unworthy of the contro- to the Hebrews puts it, "he was the Efful- versy. The i<lea is sufliciently explained gence of his glory, and the express Image of by tho second clause. 'fhe covenant rela- his substance." And I am come. I am here tion between J ohovuh and Israel is so con- face to face with you. Meyer and others stantly referred to in the Old Testament would make both verbs depend on he ,,-oii (Hos. i. 2; ii. 4; Isa. i. 21 ; .Jer. ii. 20) unrlcr 0eou: but if we are right in the special the imt1,ge of marririge and the unfaithf'ul- meaning of the preposition, the force of it ncaa of particular generations to Jehovah; would be lost in the second clause. The and their false worship o.ncl idolatry are •{~Aaov refers "'.;o his eternal procession from so often regarded as "fornication" and the very nature of God, and special indica- "adultery" from God, the Husbanrl of the tion of it when he took our human nature up dedicated spouse, so tht1,t nothing i~ more pro- into his own; and the lj,co, refers to his pre- bable, when Jesus charged them with doing sence and appearance in their midst a.a a "Man the works of their father, that they should who told them the truth." For neither have have exclaimed, " Surely we have no idola- I come. The perfect teuse here is nsed in trous sympathies. Noue but Jehovah is our contrast to the present ij,co,, to show that he God. Thou must not charge us with any ho.a the whole past of his career as a divinely compromise with the accursed thing." The sent Messenger present in his consciousness. wild rage which the Jews had shown to And he establishes the fact that he has Pilate in the matter of the shields, their proceeded from God by the dismission of abhorrence of the defilement of idols in the every other alternative. I have not come matter of food, their avoidance even of the from myself, as an act of self-det.ermination·: supreme court of Roman justice under fear 1 ho.ve not come to do my own will, but the of idolatrous contamination, explain the Father's. I have not come on e.ny self. outflash of this indignant rejoinder. This chosen, self-hononring path, with motives view is, in the main, advocated by De Wette, of self-interest ; but in strict obedience to Lampe, Lucke, Lange, and Hengstenberg; the Father's injunction-he sent me. You but opposed by Meyer. Westcott: "We do wonld have loved me, not hated mP., you not owe our position to idolatrous desertion would have trusted me and rejoiced in me, of Jehovah. We are the offspring of the and not sought to kill me, if God were your union of God with his chosen people. Our Father; for you wonld then have felt all spiritual descent is as pure as our historical through my career that that One Father, of descent." Godet modifies it:" We have no whom you boast an intimate knowledge, wo.s idolatrous blood in our veins; we are Hebrews revealing himself e.s One near to you, close to of the Hebrews." They claim to be the yon, in the bare fact of my presence among children of God, as well as children of you. Abraham (Deut. xx.xii 6; Isa. lxiii. 16; Ver.. 43.-Why do ye not understELD.d- Mai. ii. 10). come to appreciate and penetrate the signi- Ver. 42.-But Jesus will not allow them ficance of-my speech 1 There is delicate to clo.i.m the full privilege of sons of God. subtle distinction between Ao.Au:& and Ao-yos, Said unto them, If God were your Father, ye corresponding to that between 1'.a.A.,., and would be loving me, not seeking to slay me. Ae-yo,. The former word connotes the form, Seeing tho.t you do not love me, God is not manner, and _tone of utterance, and the latter your Father in the sense in which you are its inner substance and power. """"'- is a boasting such relation to him. The reason word used for any manifestation of sound, a is: For I oame forth oot ( ,,c) of God. This voice, the babble of children, the cries and expression only occurs in one other passage songs of beasts or birds, for which purpose (eh. xvi. 28), and thern the texts vruy be- A<"f"' and AO")'os are not used (Trench, 'Syn. tween ,,c, ,brh, and ,ra.pc!.. It point9 to the of N. T.'). Pater's Aa.A.ac!. betrayed him to momentous and unique fact of his incarna- the Jerusalem orowd (Mo.tt. :uvi. 73). iion, o.s the projection from the very essence A6"fo• is the substo.nce of the message, the of God involved in the essence of his being. burden of the revelation. The speech (Aa.A.d) The Father is tho eternal Source of Christ's of Christ refers to the appropriate and signi- Divine nature. There are two other forms of fioa.nt clothing which he gave to his word expression used by our Lord. In eh. xiii. 3 (Ao-yo,). He mournfully asks why they had and xvi. 30 i{eA8ei'v a.,r& is adopted, whioh de- failed to get to understand the method of scribes rather the 11ct of the inoornated Oue; his converse; why they perpetually failed auJ in oh. xvi. 27 and xvii. 8 i!•AB•iv ,ra.pd, to appreciate his discourse ; why they  866 THE GOSPEL AOOORDING TO S'l'. JOHN. [cH. vm. 1-611. ---------------------·------------- persiet('ntiy put wrong ronstrootione npon b11.t- sinfoter on your esoutoheon; you ea.y hie phmM. snrl imsgined. him to be epeaking that religiously as well 1\8 historically you of mrt.hly thin~ when be WRS disroureing to are not born of any fornication-there is them of heavenly ones. Why? Beoa11111 no t1tint in your theological position ; but ye cannot hea.r my word-the Divine com- I tell you plainly that yo" are from, yon muni('ation I have made to vou. They were are manifesting the very essence o.nd sub- momlly so fe.r from him "t.hRt they· couM etanoo of, 1.he fotber wlio is the prime enemy not listen 110 aa to receive his revehition. of God nnd lllRn. Tlie phrase is iu perfcot The inwsrd organ of receptivity we.s laoking, keeping with many synoptic pbre.ses (Matt. a.nd "so the spiritne.l idiom in which he spa.ke xiii. 88; xxiii. 15; of. J obn the Bnptiet'e WIMI not spiritm1.lly undel'8tood" (Alforrl). !ringuage, Matt. iii. 7). And the lusts of your The Divine significance of the whole word father-those of falsehood and murder, lying of Christ. the new e.nd strange doctrines of e.nd slaughter, being the top and chief of e.ll Mel!l!ish, of rt>demption, of the Father, of a his evil pllSsions-ye are willing, deeiro111 to Merifice and death on the part of the Son of do. He has engendered these very Juste man for the se.lve.tion of the world excited within you. The paternity of your angry their animosity and bitter e.ntipe.thies. They passions, your incapacity to see nnd accept were not oonecioue of any of the need he my word, a.re both alike explained. There is came to ea.tisfy, and so they failed to appre- no more terrible rebuke in the wliole compass hend the entire manner of hie revelation. of revelation. The disciple whom Jesus loved, They were from beneath (ver. 23). He is in preserving these words, shows very de- disclosing heavenly things. " Their ears cidedly that he was a "Son of Thunder," and have they closed, lest they shonld bee.r." call~ down fire from heaven (a very storm) Ver. 44.-Ye are of the father who is the which has been ever since descending upon devil. In this way the great bulk of the the hee.ds of these and all other bitter best oommente.tors tre.nsla.te this difficnlt antagonists of the Son of man. lie was a claUBe. Hilgenfeld, Voll..-me.r, and Davidson murderer (literally, a manslayer) from the translate, "You are of the father of the beginning. Thie has often been referred to devil;" o.nd suggest that here the evangelist the spirit which animated Cain in the betrays his fierce Gnostic (Ophite )antagonism slaughter of bis brother Abel. There is to the Jews, and adopts the view that the some corroboration of such a reference in God of the Old Testament, the "Creator," l John iii. 12, " Cain was /,c -roiJ woV11pov of was tlie Father of the serpent. This is that wicked one, and slew his brother; " and surely untena.hle. The Creator of e.11 thin,.,"11, in the language of 1 John iii. 15, "Whoso in the prologue., is none other than the hateth his brother is a murrlerer.'' (So Father acting through the Logos. In the Liicke, Reuse, De Wette, and others.) But tlii.rd, fourth, and fifth chapters, the greatest the narrative of tlie dee.th of Abel makes no honours are &BCribed to the God of the Jewish reference to the agenoy of the devil, but people, and not the faintest hint given of rather indicates the.t the sin of Ca.in was ori- such re.diaaJ. divergence from the stand- ginated by hie having been begotten in the point of Judaism. In this very passage the image of the fe.llen Adam. The better in•· father of the faithful Jews is spoken of with terpret.ation and reference of the words may profound revereuoe. " The seoond-century be seen in 1 John iii 8, "He that doeth sin Gnostic" must have so cleverly oonoealed his is from the devil ( /,c -rov li,a./Jdll.ov), for the aentimente, and have refuted his position so devil einnethfrom the beginning(lr."' lr.pxiis)." treqnently, that it is inexcUBahly inept for And sin entered into the world through the him t.o have shown his cloven foot on this seduction and false ste.temente of the devil, occa.eion. Thoma ignores the wild conjec- by which the first man was veritably slain, ture of Hilgenfeld. Our Lord was not his moral ne.ture killed outright. Grace was dee.ling witl.t tlie parent.age of the devil, but not shut out, but Ada.m died. In the day with the moral and religi.OUB parentage of that he ate of the forbidden tree, man most those Jews who were manil'esting the most surely and in the deepest sense died. " God bitter ant.agoniem to bimaelf and plotting created man to be immortal, e.nd made him to his destruction. For them to claim spiritual bean image of his own eternity. N everthelese, kinship and child.like feeling to the Father through envy of the devil came death into whose holy nature and whose love t.o them the world : and they that do hold of its aide he wu revealing, wu a et.range contradic- do find it" (Wied. ii. 23, 24: Rev. xii. 9): tion in terms. Our Lord repudiated it in " Sin entered into the world, and death by this terrible language. He hii.d worsted the sin" (Rom. v. 12). The work of destrnotion aeductive suggestions of the devil, and when at the beginning of humanity upon earth he saw and heard them repeated and set has never been exhausted. In murderous forth as Di vin.e propotl&ls, he gave them their propensity, in lying and seductive word■ true name. "Yon disclaim the faintest and ways, the children of wrath a.re ever •ympo.thy with other godB: you reBent the 1howing their parentage. To this statement  on. vrur. 1-59,] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. ,JOHN. 367