John vii. 12. concerning him: for some said, He is a good man: Jerusalem. others said, Nay; but he deceiveth the people. 13. 14. 15. 16. Howbeit no man spake openly of him for fear of the Jews. Now about the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and taught. And the Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned? Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not 17. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doc- 18. He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: 19. Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you 20. The people answered and said, Thou hast a devil? 21. Jesus answered and said unto them, I have done one 22. 23. Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision; (not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers;) and ye on the sabbath day circumcise a man. If a man on the sabbath day receive circumcision, that 24. Judge not according to the appearance, but judge 25. Then said some of them of Jerusalem, Is not this he, 26. But, lo, he speaketh boldly, and they say nothing unto 27. Howbeit we know this man whence he is: but when 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. Then cried Jesus in the temple as he taught, saying, Ye both know me, and ye know whence I am: I am not come of myself, but he that sent me is true, whom ye know not. me. But I know him; for I am from him, and he hath sent Then they sought to take him: but no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet come. And many of the people believed on him, and said, When Christ cometh, will he do more miracles than these which this man hath done? The Pharisees heard that the people murmured such John vii. 32. things concerning him; and the Pharisees and the Chief Jerusalem. Priests sent officers to take him. 33. 34. 35. 37. 38. 39. Then said Jesus unto them, Yet a little while am I with you, and then I go unto him that sent me. Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come. Then said the Jews among themselves, Whither will he go, that we shall not find him? will he go unto the dispersed among the Gentiles, and teach the Gentiles? What manner of saying is this that he said, Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, `thither ye cannot come ? In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this he spake of the Spirit, which they that believe 40. Many of the people, therefore, when they heard this 41. Others said, This is the Christ. Christ come out of Galilee? But some said, Shall 42. Hath not the Scripture said, That Christ cometh of 43. 44. So there was a division among the people because of him. And some of them would have taken him, but no man 45. Then came the officers to the Chief Priests and Phari- 46. 47. The officers answered, Never man spake like this man. 48. Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on 49. But this people who knoweth not the law are cursed'. 7 How beautiful is the contrast between the humility of our John vii. 50. 51. 52. 53. John viii. 1. Nicodemus saith unto them, (he that came to Jesus by Jerusalem. night, being one of them,). Doth our law judge any man, before it hear him, and know what he doth ? They answered and said unto him, Art thou also of Galilee? Search, and look: for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet. And every man went unto his own house. Jesus went unto the mount of Olives. John viii. 2. SECTION IV. Conduct of Christ to the Adulteress and her Accusers®. And early in the morning he came again into the tem- elevated and enlarged in the next stage of our existence, con- All mankind, like the Pharisees of old, seem to be intent God prefers the heart to the head; piety to parts and capacity and is much better pleased with the right use of the will, than the advantage of the understanding (b). : (a) They had a saying, which is preserved in Pirke Aboth, c. ii. 5. O plebeius non est pius. Schoetgen Hor. Heb. vol. i. p. 363. (b) Spoken of Edward the Confessor, by Collyer, Eccles. Hist. vol. i. p. 225. The genuineness of this passage has been much controverted. The arguments on each side of the question may be seen at great length in Kuinoel (a), who has decided in favour of its authenticity. Erasmus, Calvin, Beza, Grotius, Le Clerc, Wetstein, Semler, Schulze, Morus, Haenlein, Wegscheider, Paulus, Schmidt, and Titman, have impugned its authenticity; and, on the opposite side of the question, may be ranked Mill, Whitby, Heuman, Michaelis, Storr, Langius, Detmersius, and others, with Lightfoot, Dr. A. Clarke, Mr. Horne, and the learned Mr. Nolan (b). This eminent critic has shewn it to be probable, that this passage was omitted for certain reasons by Eusebius, in that edition of the Greek Testament which he was commanded by Constantine to prepare for the public use; and likewise in those subsequent editions which were influenced by John viii. 3. And the Scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a Jerusalem, woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, the name and anthority of Eusebius. The subject of this story, stantine. It is remarkable that Lightfoot (e), in his very brief criticism concerning the genuineness of this passage, has quoted the same passage from Eusebius with Mr. Nolan. The account of the woman is found in the harmonies of Ammonius and Tatian, who lived before Eusebius. Lightfoot supposes that Eusebius rejected it from the canon, either because he ascribed its insertion to Papias, or to the spurious Gospel of the Nazarenes. Dr. Doddridge (f) has justly observed, that the Pharisees who brought the woman to Christ, wished to render him obnoxious either to the people or to the Romans. If he condemned the woman to death, it would be considered as intruding upon the judicial authority of the Romans: if he acquitted her altogether, it would be considered as sanctioning a violation of the Jewish law. On the propriety of our Lord's conduct, in the circumstances here recorded, Bishop Law observes (g), when the woman said to be apprehended in adultery is brought before our Lord, merely with a malicious view of drawing him into a difficulty, whatever determination he should give, ver. 6. we find him stooping down, and writing on the ground. Where it is observable, that all that he does, in as exact conformity as the place would admit to the trial of the adulterous wife prescribed by God in Numb. v. 11, &c. where the priest was to stoop down and take some of the dust from the floor of the tabernacle, ver. 17; and likewise write out the curses denounced upon that occasion, ver. 25. By that act, therefore, Christ declares himself willing to take cognizance of this affair, if they were willing to abide the consequence, viz. according to their own traditions, to be involved in the same curse if they proved equally guilty: on which account this way of trial was abolished by the Sanhedrim about that very time-since that sin, say the Jews, grew then so very common. It is likewise probable that Christ might, by his countenance and gesture, show those hypocrites how well he was aware both of their ill design in thus demanding judgment from him, and of their own obnoxiousness to the same punishmeht which Moses' law John viii. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in Jerusalem. adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded that such should be stoned but what sayest thou? This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. So when they continued asking him, he lift up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had lift up himself, and saw none but She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, John viii.12. SECTION V. Christ declares himself the Son of God. JOHN viii. 12-20. Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. appointed for that crime, and which, through a pretended (a) Comment. in libros Histor. N. T. vol. iii. p. 286. (b) On the 9 Our Lord here claims one of the titles given by the Jews to the Deity. Tanchuma. fol. 63. 3. and Banamidbar rabba, sect. 15. fol. 229. 1. The Israelites said to God, Holy, blessed, Thou art the .אתה הוא נרי של עולם,ILord of the whole world light of the world. If our Lord applied the word in this sense, |