The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 2 — Section 456

She we.e in no moocl e.nswering to the ,foubt- This is very subtle, and is e'lui valent to fuln~ea. of t~e cliAoiplca who cleeirecl proof our Lorrl'e ee.ying, "Do not you, Mary, seek of hie 1cle11t1ty, of the fnct of his corporeity, that kind of bodily tangible proof;" "I nm before they coulcl underate.ncl his olnim to not yet a glorified spirit, and have not yet be tholr perpetual Guide nnd his promise the glorified body which you imu.gined." to be with thom "untothe'encl of the world;"The difficulty of this illterpratu.tion is not but she thought nt once of the old life in what Godet says, "Jesus glorified does not Galilee. Her joy knew no bonncls but her become pure spirit," but that Mary is oonception of the renlity of that ~hich we.scredited with a breadth and depth of appre- revealed to her wae moet imperfect. It wne hension so fnr in advance of her apparent the ~ealiznti?n of love re.ther the.n the per- despondency and her email amount of faith ception of rntollect. She rushed he.etily in the dignity of her Lord. (5) Many take to a very limited conolueion; and she suf- the µh µov ,h-rov, " Hold me not fast," as fered an obvious correction, if not repulse,though if.1t-roµ,1.1 were equal to ,cpa-reiv, " to which hll8 been interpreted in mnny ways. hold fast," or to hold for purposes of en- Ver. 17.-J'esua saith unto her, Touch mejoyment, and imply that Mary rnshed to not; for, etc. (1) Some, Bengel and others, "embrace" our Lord (Hengstenherg and make the -ydp govern the whole clnuee that Bruckner), to clasp him by lhe knees or follows, e.nd so give the meaning,'' Stay not to feet; that Jesus warned and repulsed the touoh me, but he.ste to mydisciples,e.nd ae.y," effort, implying that he repressed thi, eto.; but this would render the fi.ret cle.use exuberance of the joy which she manifested, very obscure, unlese the further suppositionpointing to a much higher and holier con- be me.de, e.e by Ba.ur, Bush, See.re, and me.ny tact that would be possible when his g!Qrifica- others, the.t our Lord was just on the pointtion would be complete. Augustine ('Tract. of ascending to heaven, i.e. of one (nay, the in lo.,' cx:1i. 3), " • Touch me not,' that is, Be- first) of his many ascensions to the Father,lieve uot thns on me according to thy pre- e.fter which tho touching, in the sense either sent notions. For how could it be otherwise the.n ca.rn1Uly that she still believed on of worship or of ve1·i.fice.tion, would be pos- sible and rightful, e.nd also the suppositionhim whom she wa.e weeping over as a man? that e.n "ascension " intervened between • For I am not yet ascended to my Father.' the appearance to the Magdalene and the There aha.It thou touch me when thou be- other women, or e.t e.ll events before the lieveet me to be God in no wise unequal to revelation to the disciples e.t Emme.us, to the Father." Leo the Greu.t (' Sermo,' 74. Simon Peter, or to the eleven, e.t all of c. 4, quoted by P. Schaff):" I e.m unwilling that you should approach me (carnaliler) by whioh both verifice.tion of his personality, if not worship at his feet, was permitted or any mere physical touch, that you should re- encouraged. This hypothesis is perilously cogn;ze me by the physical senses (sensu car- near to e.n assumption of a succession of nis). I am drawing you to sublimer things; illusive visions of that whioh had nothing I am preparing greater things for you. but subjectivo reality. (2) Olshe.usen and When I shall have ascended to the Father, then you will handle me more perfectly and Behleiermacher give the utterly naturalietio view, that the Lord's spiritual body was so truly, being ready, as you then will be, to tender that he could not bea.r a vigorous apprehend what you do not touch, a.nd to grasp or phyeice.l touch. Still worse, (3) believe thu.t which you do not perceive." Paulus supposed that he we.a still suffering Many of the most able of modern expositors from hie cruel wounds, whioh, of oourse, adopt this view or some modification of it would only imply an appuent death on the (Calvin, Melancthon, Lampe, De Wette, and oross, and is a denial of the Resurrection Tholuck) ; Lutha.rdt now sees a difficulty in altogether. (4) Meyer'e view seems to imply this interpretation, from the twofold sense that Mary wondered whether he he.d only thus attributed to the word /i,rreo-90:1, a.nd a. glorified spirit without bodily form, andfalls be.ck on the earlier view, " Cling not she wished to verify the latter by handling to me, but go and tell my disciple;," etc. his Person, and "Jesus gives her by his Godet, however, puts it thus: "I have not verbal assurance the certainty she seeks, yet reached the state by means of which J; adding, For I am not yet aeoended to the shall be able to live with you ill the com- (my) 1 Father; therefore e.s yet I u.m not a munion whioh I promised you; " and many glorified spirit who has age.in come down of the ecclesiastical divines discover in the from heaven, whither he had ascended." words an allusion to sacramental commu- nion which will be possible in the future, 1 Thie µou is wanting in B, D, X, and is when the dispenae.tion of the Hcly Spirit rejected by Tiechendorf (8th edit.), Meyer, ehu.11 have been inaugurated. The ascension Weetoott and Hort, and R.T., as the correc- of which he speaks is not of one definitive tion from the omission to the insertion ii e.ot, but of a continual stnte (avaf3•f311Ka, not more probable than the reverse process. dvtf31iv), and so the iuea. of the repe.itcd  THE GOSPEL AOOORDING TO ST. JOHN. [ea. xx.1-,'H,