Page images
PDF
EPUB

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
mine, but his that sent me.

17. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doc-
trine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.

18.

He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory:
but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is
true, and no unrighteousness is in him.

19. Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you
keepeth the law? Why go ye about to kill me?

20.

The people answered and said, Thou hast a devil?
who goeth about to kill thee?

21. Jesus answered and said unto them, I have done one
work, and ye all marvel.

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
the law of Moses should not be broken; are ye angry at
me because I have made a man every whit whole on the
sabbath-day?

24. Judge not according to the appearance, but judge
righteous judgment.

25.

Then said some of them of Jerusalem, Is not this he,
whom they seek to kill?

26. But, lo, he speaketh boldly, and they say nothing unto
him. Do the rulers know indeed that this is the very
Christ?

27. Howbeit we know this man whence he is: but when
Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence he is.

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
on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet
given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

40. Many of the people, therefore, when they heard this
saying, said, Of a truth this is the Prophet.

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
the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem,
where David was "?

43.

44.

So there was a division among the people because of him.

And some of them would have taken him, but no man
laid hands on him.

45. Then came the officers to the Chief Priests and Phari-
sees; and they said unto them, Why have ye not brought
him?

46.

47.

The officers answered, Never man spake like this man.
Then answered them the Pharisees, Are ye also de-
ceived?

48. Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on
him?

49.

But this people who knoweth not the law are cursed'.
6 The Jews, both from their traditions and their prophecies,
expected that their Messiah should be born in Bethlehem. As
our Lord's mother remained so short a time at Bethlehem after
our Saviour's birth, it is not surprising that they should have
forgotten this circumstance, after more than thirty years had
elapsed.

7 How beautiful is the contrast between the humility of our
Lord, and the half literary, half spiritual pride, of the Jews.
Christ, whose knowledge of all things, both in heaven and
earth, was superior to that of men and angels, and of which
the human intellect cannot form an idea, even when it shall be

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®.
JOHN Viii. 2-11.

And early in the morning he came again into the tem-
ple: and all the people came unto him; and he sat down
and taught them.

elevated and enlarged in the next stage of our existence, con-
descended to the lowest of the people, and called all who were
meek and lowly "his friends." The Pharisees, on the con-
trary, mistook knowledge for religion, and believed in the future
happiness of the learned, and the condemnation of the igno-
rant. Those who had not devoted themselves to the study of
the law were called yy, the people of the earth: and these
were contrasted with the wp y, the holy people: they con-
sidered the people of the earth as cursed (a).

All mankind, like the Pharisees of old, seem to be intent
upon despising each other. The learned contemn the ignorant
-the gay the sorrowful-the rich the poor-and fashion vio-
lently breaks asunder the nearest and dearest ties of relation-
ship, where the deficiency of wealth is felt. In this world
pride, rank, and affluence, claim the pre-eminence-in the other
the highest rewards of heaven are promised to the most humble
and the most meek, whether they be rich or poor.

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,
says Mr. Nolan, forms as convincing a proof, in support of its
genuineness, as it does in subversion of the contrary notion,
that it is an interpolation. There could be no possible induce-
ment for fabricating such a passage; while there is an obvious
motive for removing it from the canon. It has besides internal
evidence of authenticity, in the testimony of the Vulgate, in
which it is uniformly found; and external, in the express ac-
knowledgment of its genuineness by St. Chrysostom, St. Je-
rome, St. Augustine, and St. Ambrose; and St. Augustine (c)
has specified the reason of its having been withdrawn from the
text of the Evangelist. Eusebius has carefully omitted all re-
ference to this passage in his canons; it is neither discoverable
in the copies of the Greek, nor in those of the Vulgate. And,
in his Ecclesiastical History (d), he has obliquely branded it
with some other marks of disapprobation; apparently con-
founding it with a different story. From these circumstances,
it is evident that Eusebius' copies were made to agree with his
canons, and that this passage was purposely withdrawn from
both, by the authority with which he was entrusted by Con-

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
the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those
thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?

She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her,
Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.

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
zeal, they took upon themselves the power of executing, though
they were no less guilty of the very same sin, as is most pro-
bably implied in his words to them.

(a) Comment. in libros Histor. N. T. vol. iii. p. 286. (b) On the
Integrity of the Greek Vulgate, p. 37. (c) Nonnulli modicæ fidei, vel
potius inimici veræ fidei, credo, metuentes, peccati impunitatem dari
mulieribus suis, illud quod de adultere indulgentia Dominus fecit, au-
ferrent de codicibus suis. St. August. de Adult. conjug. lib. ii. cap. vii.
tom. vi. c. 299. (d) ̓Εκτέθειται δὲ [Παπίας] καὶ ἄλλην ἱτορίαν περὶ
γυναικὸς ἐπὶ πολλαῖς ἁμαρτίαις διαβληθείσης ἐπὶ τῷ Κυριᾶ· ἥν τὸ
καθ' ̔Εβραίες Ευαγγέλιον περιέχει-Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. iii.
cap. xxxix. p. 138, líb. v. (e) Lightfoot's Works, vol. ii. p. 562. fol.
edit. (f) Family Expositor, vol. i. p. 527. (g) Reflections on the
Life of Christ, 12mo. 1803, London, p. 75, 76, note. The same work is
generally printed at the end of the Theory of Religion."

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,
He made himself equal with God. But the expression was some-
times used also as a title of honour to Moses; whom the Jews
called by 18, the light of the world: if our Lord referred

« PreviousContinue »