The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 2 — Section 376

Fomth Goepel was wrilton truth allied to now dawning on him. Saying, .&mwerest tho tonching of the upper ohe.mber. thou the high priest 10 l Ver. 21.-Why aakeat thou mel If thou Ver. 23.-J'e&118 anawered him, U I have "l'a.n_toRt evidence touching my design, my 1poken evil, oome forward s.a a witness of rt1ec1ples, or my teaching, ask, interrogate,' the evil which thou haRt heo.rd. Tims he those who have heard me, what I have said took no notice of the charge brought age.inst to them. Lo, these (pointing to num hers in him. But it I have spoken well, why 1mitest the nngry crowd around him) know what thou me l A quiet appeal to the conscience I spake unto them (the i-y,J, nt the encl of this of the wretched upstart who dared to insult eeutenco is very empha.tic ). Christ thus the Lord of glory. It is thuR tho.t the Lord rebukes the oro.l"Linees nnd hypocritical explo.ined the spirit of his own injunction, enclenvour of his enemies to induce him to "Whosoever ehe.11 smite thee on the one inculpnte his clieciplee, or to give his pro- cheek, turn to him the other alao" (Matt. v. secutors mntter nge.inst him. To fa.lee 39). Nothing we.e gained by this private witnessos he preservecl e.n invincible silence, interrogatory except an e.ppee.l to the outsicle nnd before Ce.inpbe.s e.ncl Pile.to he e.nswerecl world of his hearers, e.nd e. call for testimony; to mnny of their queries not e. single word, and no decision coulcl be lega.llyta.ken against insomuch the.t these governors marvelled him without incriminating evidence. Dr. greatly. However, tbe Cll80 we.11 altered Farrar (' Life of Christ') has pointed out when Ce.iaphas, in full Se.ndedrin, officie.lly with great force that the chief priests auu challenged him to say whether he was the Pharisees, from their intestine animosities, Christ, and adjured him to declare whether bad gree.t difficulty in formulating e.ny he we.s the Son of God. Then, on the most specific charge. The Pharisaic party, if they public see.le, knowing well the issues of his made a point of his doctrine and practice con- decle.re.tion, e.nd of his oath-bound word, he cerning the sabbe.tb, would have been foiled did not hesitate to confess the.t he we.s the by the_ Sadtlucea.n latitudinarians ; and the Son of Goel, e.nd would come in the glory of priests did not dare to eall in question his his Father, e.nd that he was no lt,ss the.n the imperial cleansing of the temple, knowing Christ of God. On the present occasion, that the Pharisees would immediately have when Anne.a was seeking to justify his own justified the e.ct. Consequently, Annas ere.ft, e.nd to utilize the disgraceful betwyal limited his inquiries to the supposed esoterio which he had diplomatically and cruelly character of some private teachings to bis contrived, J esua refused to incriminate initiated disciples-a. charge that Wll.9 refutecl either himself or hi~ disciples. Reuan he.s by the continual publicity and openness of the temerity to say that this great announce- e.11 his teaching. ment we.a quite superfluous, and probably was Ver. 24.-The oiJv 1 is quite in John's style, never made. Any conclusion whatever me.y and the verse should read, .A.nnu therefore be derived from historice.l documents, if sent him bonnd to Caiapllas the high priest ; such liberties me.y be taken with impunity. i.e. to the full court of the Sa.ndedrin, under Ver. 22.-And when he he.d said these the presidency of Caie.phas, now got togethe:r things, one• of the offioers standing by, for the judicial sifting and verdict. If John anxious to win with his officious zeal the had intended e. pluperfect sense to be given approve.I of his master, ga.ve J'eaus a pd,rnrµa. to the verb, why not use tbat tense? 'fhs (Meyer ss.ys it cannot be settled whether this relative clauses, where the aorist is uaed for word means a stroke with e. rod (as Godet, the pluperfect., a.re not relevant here (Meyer). Bengel) or a blow on the cheek or ear, which In other cases the context clearly reveals we.a the current punishmeut for a word sup- the occasion of such e. sense (see Matt. xvi. posed to be insolent; but S,p.,s of ver. 23, 5; x.xvi. 48). John is not nnawa.re of the which means "to flay," implies e. more momentous oonsequeuces of this act of severe punishment than e. blow on the face Annas, seeing that be refers to them, nor of with the he.nd.) This is the beginning of the fact of the accusation macle by the false the coarse nod terrible mockery which we.s witnesses, nor of the judicial condemnation the lot of the sublime Sufferer through tho which followed Christ's own claim to be the remaining hours of the awful day which is Son of God. 'fbe subsequent narrative im.- 1 The compound verb is used in both 1 The text as read by Tischendorf (8th clauses in the T.R.; the simple form is pre- edit.), Meyer, Alford, Westcott e.nd Hort., ferred, Ii<, B, C, eto., by R.T., Westcott and and R. T., on the authority of B, c•, L, X, .:1, n, Hort, eto. I, 33, retnins ouv in this sentence, though ~ • T.R. e.nd R.T. place 1rap<O'T1J1<,J,s after here joins the cursives 13, 69, with T.R. /,,r71p,.,.;;,v, with A, 0 3, D; ,Ts 1rap<O'T1J1CWs Twv Tre.,elles puts it iu. the margin. Some of v7r71p<Twv is the reading of ~• • B, followed the versioll8 suppose Be in its place. Gries, by Westcott and Hort ; Tiin, ,rap,u.,.,J,.,..,v is be.eh e.nd Scholz, with A, C', D•, and m&ny in the mo.rgin of La.chmann and Tregelles. cursives, he.ve no particle.  THE OOSPEL AOOORDING TO ST. JOHN. [oe. xvm. 1---40. ----,---- pli<"s pn~h oondemnRtion (vere. 29, 80, !I~: nry multipli<'e.tion ot the denln.ls thom. oh. xiL 11). Theauthorofthianarrativeduea selves. Mn.tthew and Mark represent Peter not ignore the fa.ot of the appeal'Rnoe before aa overhearing the conVllrae.tlonof the maids O..iRrh1111, nor the il!llffle: but in MnAeqnenoe with those who were there ( o'rt,i), showing tho nf the wide dift'neion or the aynoptio Gospels, obvious oooasion for some eager lnpos to he merelv Mlled attention t.o the fa.oh! whioh take up their statement as an e.oouse.tion. t.he,r hRa' omitted 80 far a.ethey bore directly The difficulty of plaoo is not 80 easily re- nn the humRn oha.racter of the Lord. The solvod, for Matthew and Me.rk speak of the th!'OlogfoRI biM with whioh the evRngelist '' gato," ""'"-cl,,,, or trpoaOA,ov, u porch," out.or is <"redited by Mme would be strRngely hall of the oourt, and John of the flro whore ,mbserved both bv the omiMion of the eoene Peter first sat in Rpp1ueut unconcern. We before Cllie.phas, ~nd by the faithful reoord of do not know how near the flro was to the this rurely human and bea.utiful trait in the ,n,;\.Sv, whether it wes not indeed between rersonal ohamcter of Jesus. The fact that the IJupa. and the wv;\""• in the wpoa.o;\101'. l the fourth evangelist should have reoorded AC'OOrdiug to Me.tthew he was moving facts of whioh he wa.e eye-witneea, and t.owe.rds the ,n,;\.S11, probably in the stir of omitted others whioh would have forcibly the procession from the house of Annas to suste.ined his main theeie, is an invincible the court of Caiaphas. The four eve.ngeliets c'l"idonce of bistoricitv. agroe in the declamtion made by Peter. Ver. 25.-'Hv &,. in 8t&rtling contrast t.o Ke denied, and aaid, I am not ; i.e. I am not this Mene, aud while Annas bad completed one of the disciples concerning whom Annas his bad-hearted but foiled inquisition, possibly asks. "I do not know the Man." even while our Lord was being transferred Vere. 26, 27.-Betwcen the eecoud and from the one court to the other-an event third denials some time elnpsed. Thus ac- which provided an opportunity for the cording to Matthew and Mark "after a searching. loving, compa.esionate glance little while," according to Luke "a.bout the which broke Peter'e bee.rt-the 8eoond and space of one hour after," an effort was me.de third denials of Peter were also being to identify Peter by_ some sign of hie Rseo- enacted. JTow Simon Peter, who bad been ciation with Jesus. All the eynoptiets re- challenged by the doorkeeper, was standing present it as turning on hie provincial, Gali- -d warming himself (a form of verbal oon- lman, speech, but John gives a closer point struction of auxiliary verb with participle of identification. There were thouse.nds of to which John is addioted. and especially in Gnlilmaus in Jerueo.lem, and this was a those portions of hie Gospel which represent feeble ground of proof, though it mo.y have his personal composition; oh. i 6, 9, 24, 27: corroborated the suspicion of the maidens iii. 24, 27)-" standing," not "sitting," o.s and others, that Peter was an a.ocomplice of Luke describes his position at the firBt the hated Ne.zarene; but the charge co.me denial, having, we might suppose, impetu- home in terrible earnest and verisimilitude ously changed his position. They aid there- es recorded by John. His account is far more fore 1IDtO him, Art thou also one of hie lifelike, foroible, and ci.rcumstantie.1. The diariple111 This 8entenoe of John really fourth enngelist says, One of the aervanta gathers up another moment of Peter'e (5011;\.;i11) of the high priest, being a kinsman ierrible fo.ll, variously and even discrepantly of him whoae ear Peter out oil', says, Did I not put by the synoptic no.rrative, aud is 'rirtnally o.coordant with them o.11 three. 1 The diagram may explain how J eeus According to Matthew "another me.id," was hurried from one court to e.nother, Rnd according to Mark " the maid" who bad tl.ie ple.ce and probable occasion of Peter's :fi.nrt challenged him, returned to the 8.SBault. Nothing more likely than that what wo.e denials. 1118.id by one womo.n should be eagerly to.ken up by another, and therefore that both 11to.tementB a.re true. Luke, however, de. scribes the event thus : i.,-Epos, "another ID.l!.n " (perhaps " a differei:t person ") saw him and so.id, " Thou a.rt one of them." John's statement embraoes the substance of e.11 three statements, " They said unto him." The general re;,e~blo.noe of the seoo11 \ charge brought age.inst the apostle, as stated by o.11 four evangelist.s, is remarkable. The different personages by whose lips the charge wo.s urged co.n best be explained by the occurrence of simultaneous and widely spreading conviction, insteo.d of an UDD608II- on. xvm. 1-40,] 'l'HE GOSPEL AUUORDlNG TO ST. JOHN. 380