bo.ve boen simply UBed in round numbers world." Not until my MeRsianio claima for the o.go of mo.n'e prime e.nd completed a.re acknowle<lged, and the many nations llfo (Numb, iv. 3, 89; viii. 24). There may become children of Abraham, doe• Abro.- lmve been, even if our Lord wo.s only thirty- bam really become Abraham. does his name thi·ee yeurs of e.ge at the fime of his Passion, derive its full meaniug. This woul<l be tbo.t which apparently o.clded to his years. rabbinice.l trifling (J. P. Smith, 'Script. A trnclition is mentioned (Irenmus, c. ii. Test. to Messiah,' vol. ii.). Beyscble.g thinks ~2. 5) of the more e.dve.nced e.ge of Jesus that our Lord ree.lized in bis Person not o which the Ephcsia.n presbyters preserved, conscious pre-existence before Abraham. e.nd which Irenmus regards os between the or before e.ll worlds, but au impersonal fo1·ty-flfth e.nd fiftieth yce.rs. Ernest de principle, the image of God, which could Bunsen vainly fin<ls o. reference to Christ's only "be" in the eternal mind of God. o.ge ( eh. ii. 20) in the forty-six years of the 'l.'hero is a sense in whicil every man me.y temple; but it is strange that, with the ex- realize such pre-existence as this, not merely ception of the statement in Luke iii. 2i, there "the Son of Gori/' nor the new man in is nothing in the extraneous chronologico.l Christ, but every man whatsoever; but such data, e.g. the death of Herod and recall of a. statement is entirely out of harmony with Pontius Pile.te, which need positively com- the whole passage that precedes. If the press our Lord's life within fifty years Jews had understood it in th ia sense, they (Westcott), A.nd Keim has me.de the sug- would not have taken up stones to stone gestion that our Lord did co.rry on his him, but, after their wont, would have said, ministry for a much longer period than is " So also were we." "Ideas do not see ono commonly supposed. It is far more pro- e.notber." The first ,"fclo ,,µ[ (ver. 12) brought be.hie, however, that the Jews were using an out their e.ngry unbelief, but this excites expression for the term of e. completed life, their murderous assault. We have to ob- e.nd were supplying no chronological de.ta. serve that this remarkable expression does whe.tever. not ste.nd a.lone. :St. John had reasons for Ver, 58.-Thereplyof Jesus to this taunt saying" that the Word was with God, and is one of the most surprising e.nd baffling was God, e.nd wee made flesh" (eh. i. l, 3, H). kind on e.ny hypothesis of our Lord's con- If Jesus, in his Divine consciousnes.s, ba<l sciousness being limited as the.t of all other never elsewhere spoken of having had a of the sons of men. He gives the solemn being before his manifestation ( eh. vi. 46, emphes~ of the Aµ.:i,v, d.µ.:i,v once more- 62; xvii. 5); of having taken part with the, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abra- Fe.ther from the beginning (eh. v. 17), of ham we.s born (ea.me into .being), I e.m. being •• one with the Father" ( eh. x. 30, 33), Abre.ham came into . existence by birth of being greater than the temple or the (the Vulgate translates, Antequam fieTat sabbath, II.:! being the Object of the eternal Abraham: E_qo sum): I am. Numerous love in coming down from heaven, in laying attempts have been made to explain this down his life that he might take it agsiu climacteric utterance on some humani.stio (eh. x. 17, 18); and if the language of the theory. The contrast is very reme.rke.ble apostles (Heb, i. I, 2; Col. i. 17; Rev. i. between "f'"•1r8a., and .lµ.1. Jesus Christ 18) had not entirely prepareJ our mir.<l for decle.red his own timeless existence to have the data on which such conclusions rested, been in bis consciousness before Abre.he.m a. generation before this Gospel was reduced came into being at o.11. The "I am" re- to form, we wig-ht join the effort to resist winds us repeatedly, when used by Jesus, or such e. claim as that of eternal pre-exist- the "I A.lil THAT I AM" of Exod. iii. 1-!, o.nd ence. But the whole tenor of the Gospel the "thou art" of Ps. xc. (lxx:.xix. 2, LXX.); and the entire New Testament teaching are cii. 28. His hume.n consciousness gave ut- seen, more and more, to turn upon 1hi~ terance to the e.wful depths of the eterne.l fundamental position-that in Christ Jwells Ego. Now, some critics have limited it in all the fulness of the Godheetd, that he lrnJ its meaning to "I existed in the counsel of life in himself, and eternity, anJ tilo.t tlrn God." But there are three objectious to manhood has not only been lifte,1 to the this interpreto.tiou : one is (1) tho.t the pre- highest plo.ce iu human remembrance, but sent tense, elµ(, e.nd not the past, ,1v, wo.s to the midst or tho throne. use,l by our Lord ; o.nd (2) ou this inter- Ver. 59.-(7) The confli..t and the victory. pretation Abrnha.m must have o.lso eqmuly Therefore-because he said this, which if it pre-existed in the counsel of God; o.ud (3) had no basis in fact was rank bb.sphemy- tiUCh o. sto.tement would throw no light ou they took up stones of the teruple-cuurt to the previous discourse. 'fhe Racoviu.n oast at (upon) him. "They rusheJ from th.., Conression or Fo.ith, based on the view or porch into the court of the Gentiles, to pick l:5ocinus, explains, "Before Abram becomes up stones to cast them at him; but once more A.bruho.m, i.e. the father of m ..ny nations, • his hour had uot yet come,' aucl their fury I e.m it, the Measiah, the Light of the proved impotent. Hiding hUllilelf in one THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN., [en. vm. 1---;59.
of the m1my p!l~s~gee or gateways of the midst of them, and so pnseed by]. There ie tempi(', he presently pnssed out'' (Eder- no need to imagiue more than the exercise of sheim). Bnt J'eane hid himself, and went his majestic energy before which dmmoniaos forth from the temple l' going through the quailed, and Pilate trembled, cmd the guards of the temple fell abe.ehed. The orisis of 1 This olf\nse of T.R. is not in N, B D a, his ministry in Jerusalem is approaching. b. c, or Vulgate, and appea.re djjf~ren'tly How often would he h11ve g11thered them, worded in the manuscripts which contain it. and given to them eternal life, but the'/J The later corrections of N with C, L, X, would not! numerous uncials and cursives, contain it; . bnt Tischendorf (8th edit.), Meyer, West- Baur defends them, and finds in them a cott ar,d Hort, R.T., and Godet, omit it, on dooetio view of the humanity of Jesus; but the ground that it is a marginal gloss, oooa- the docetio view would have demaJ1ded sioned by the opening words of the next tlf/>a,V'ros ,,,,.,• .,.o, noi l1tp6/J11, ~hapter, and a reminiscence of Luke iv. SO.