The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 2 — Section 13

w118 11 the Holy One of Goel," who he.cl "the fact th11t the Messiah of the nation's hope words of eternal life." Coneeqnently, it is has come? Art thou believing in him? It enough to say the.t, when the authorities of would be,more natural that the more current appellation BO'TI of God, rather than the more the Jowish eccleBia excluded the disciple of recondite idea. of BO'TI of man, should have Obrist, the Lord 11dmitted him to II nobler been held out before the healed m11n. The fellowship; but the followship, the society, "thou" is emphatic, 11nd contrnsts the state h11cl been already formecl. of the mind of this man with that of "the Jews." He had declared that hie Healer was Ver. 35.-Jesus hee.rd the.t they he.d ea.et "from God," that he was "a Prophet," One him out; or, thru•t him forth. Jesus is who "did God's will," and whom "God represented as" bee.ring," not from the man's hee.reth," even when he asked for apparently own lips, but from tbe current report. He impossible things. Christ tests the quality is not said to he.ve become acque.inted with and calibre of hie faith. the circumstance by intuition, but to have Ver. 36.-Xe answered and said,1 And heard by the ordin11ry processes of knowledge. who is he, that (1va) I may believe on him l Thie simple touch shows how consistent the The conjunction adds much to the eager- writer is throughout with the me.in thesis ness of the reply. His faith was ready for of his Gospel touching the perfect .humanity foll expression. He half suspected, as the of the Son of God, the.t he "was made Samaritan woman (eh. iv. 25) did, that Jesus flesh," e.nd he.d "come in the flesh," though was pointing to himself. The -ris; rather he was "from God." The excommunication than -r!; (''who?" rather than "what?") noisily and widely bruited was further proof shows the intensity of the man's desire to of the war to the knife between "the Jews" find and hail and trll!lt "the Son of God." e.nd Jesus. The me.n hns fallen under The disposition, the posture, of his mind is the be.n for practically avowing in the most that of faith. The e.deqne.te object for that public way that Jesus was "the Prophet," faith has not been revealed to him. A pt if not the Christ. And having found him. symbol of many in their passage from dark- So, then, the Lord, as the good Shepherd, ness to light. When receptive, susceptible, sought out the lost sheep in the wilderness, conscious of need, with some notion, though and did not rest until he found him. an obscnre one, of whom and of what they The daylight that had made an altogether most of all need, many are disposed even now new world for one who had aforetime never to ntter the same importunate request. looked on human face, had been strangely Ver. 37.-[And 2] Jesus said, Thon hast both checkered and shadowed. He only saw seen him, with the eyes so recently opened. angry faces and averted glances, and even Hast thon not found out that I a.m thy his cowardly pa.rents would have hesitated Healer, thy Prophet, thy Messiah? The to receive him into their poor abode; but U,pa,ca.s refers to the present interview, not Jesus found him, and ea.id, Dost thou believe to any previoll!I one; for we are not told that on the I Son of God 1 Not "Dost thou wish he had already sought or found his Bene- to beliove?" but" Dost thou put tliy trust in -factor (Liicke, Meyer, Luthardt). Thon the Son of God?" Dost thou recognize the hast seen him with the eyes of thy spirit as well as the eyes of flesh, and, in addi- 1 Tischendorf (8th edit.), Westcott and tion, he that talketh with thee, familiarly as Hort, and Moulton, on the authority of ~. man with man, is he-" that sublime Person B, D, with Se.hidic and lEthiopic Versions, who seems to st11nd far off from thought and read roii avBpcfnrov. But Meyer, Le.chme.nn, experience" (Westcott). The ,,ce'ivo• of this Tregelles, 11nd R.T., with A, L, X, r, .6, passage and eh. x.i.x. 35 also is a fairly and other uncials, I, 33, and all cursives and classical usage for expressing, in the lips of numerous versions, read roii 0eoii. West- the speaker, a reference to himself pointed cott admits the wide early currency of the at and presented objectively as II third latter reading, but thinks that the diffusion person (see Meyer, and our note on eh. xu. and frequent use elsewhere of the term 35, o.nd its bearing on the autliorsliip of the "Son of God" might more n11turally have led to alteration than the alternative reading 1 The introduction of the ,ea/, on tl:ie would have led to the reverse process. The authority of ~. B, D, X, and many otlier very phrase "Son of man " is difficult to uncials and cursh-es and versions, is accepted account for or understand in this connection; by Tischendorf (8th edit.), R.T., Lutha.rdt, but Westcott thinks the use of it due to Meyer, etc. the fact thnt the term meant more than the • Tischendorf (8th edit.) and R.T. omit current Jewish conception of " Son of God," 3~, with ~. B, D, X, 33, and some versions; and that the Lord here suggested to him the oonsideroble authority for oo is renuered "One who, being Man, was the Hope of more doubtful by variation of readings-,cal man." iopij 1 ~e&l efau,, eto. 14 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST., JOHN. [olI, IX, 1-41.