XIX. [Comp. M't xxv. 14-30; xxi. 1-17.-M'k xi. 1-11, 15-19.— Jo. xii. 12-19. O. T. quotations, Is. lvi. 7; Jer. vii. 11.] 12-14. The parable exhibits a man of rank going to the emperor to ask for kingly authority, while a deputation of citizens follows to remonstrate against it. MINA: one sixtieth of a talent-weight, equal to 100 drachmæ, or 15 dollars. 43. WHEN: Gr. and- a Hebraism. XX. [Comp. M't xxi. 23-27, 33-46; xxii. 15-46; xxiii. 6, 7. — M’k xi. 27-33; xii. 1-40. O. T. quotations from Ps. cxviii. 22; Deut. xxv. 5; Ex. iii. 6; Ps. cx. 1.] 18. SHALL FALL: Win. p. 342. — 47. XXI. See on M'k xii. 40. [Comp. M't xxiv. 1–42; xxi. 17. — M’k xii. 41-44; xiii. 1-37; xi. 19. — Jo. viii. 1, 2.] --- 7. THE SIGN, &c.: This concurrence of Luke with M'k as to the object of the sign, compared with M't xxiv., v., makes the coming of Christ and the close of the age one and the same thing. 12. TO BE BROUGHT: See Goodwin, p. 214, note 1.-19. By "lives", Jesus seems not to mean the earthly alone. 21. VINDICATION: Comp. xviii. 7, 8, and verse 28 below. XXII. [Comp. M't xxvi., M'k xiv., Jo. xiii., Is. liii. 12.] 37. FOR, &c.: his predicted career draws to its close. Perhaps he alluded to the struggle of which he was the central object, and in which he was to fall. The disciples point to their two swords ready for the combat, and one of these was used. But how they misunderstood the Master, interpreting him literally, when in his usual language of metaphor, and even paradox, he meant simply to indicate that the great crisis both for him and for them was now at hand. Nor by his remark that the merely two swords were enough, were they undeceived. Meyer interprets, "With me" (emphatic) "as well as with him of whom it was originally spoken, it is at the end." 44. AS BIG DROPS OF BLOOD: drops of sweat big and clammy, as clots of blood - like a death-sweat forced out by his agony. 51. THUS FAR: some interpret, that he asked permission of those who were holding him to heal the ear. 70. YOU SAY: Meyer and De Wette interpret, I acknowledge the title; I AM the Son of God. It is questionable whether he meant either to affirm or deny, in that presence. He leaves it with his accusers, as in M't xxvi. 25, - You say it, not I, — and escapes the trap they set, to get him to affirm. XXIII. [Comp. M't xxvii., M'k xv., Jo. xviii. 28-40; xix. 1-30, 38-42. O. T. quotation from Ps. xxiii. 46.] 31. If one in whom they had detected no crime be so treated by them, how will it be with themselves, guilty and ready to be consumed as fuel dried for the fire? 38. The order of the words of the inscription in the Greek. 42, 43. This Jew, who had doubtless before heard Jesus when he was teaching, now exercised a faith in him as the Redeemer of Israel, when the chosen disciples were losing it. Jesus in his reply could use the word "Paradise" (as he did other words, such as "resurrection" and "judgment"), with a juster idea than prevailed (which was that of the abode-lit. pleasure-ground — of the blessed in Hades); but he expressed future happy realities. He had affirmed the continuity of life through and past death. He had assured his disciples of reunion with him and with one another. His last word of revelation is, that the believer shall, the very day he dies, join him and resume life in the abode of the blessed. XXIV. [Comp. M't xxviii. 1-8.—M'k xvi. 1-8, 12-14, 19, 20.— Jo. XX. 1-10, 19-25.] 31. DISAPPEARED FROM THEM: this word is used of persons disappearing, with no reference whatever to the mode of it. Xenophon (Anab. i. 4, 7) uses very nearly the same phrase in speaking of some persons embarking with their effects on board a vessel, and being no longer in sight. The latter uses paveic (pl.), and Luke upavros (sing.); but Robinson, and Liddell and Scott, give the same meaning, and both words belong to the same root. There is the opposite phrase, came in sight, used of an army marching (Anab. i. 8, 8). The authorities for leaving out the two clauses in vs 51, 52, of the Received Text, seem too slight, compared with those retaining them, and with Acts i. 2. See V. R. It is noteworthy, that neither in Luke nor in Mark is there any mention of the interview in Galilee between Jesus and his disciples, although Mark (xiv. 28) records the saying of Jesus that he would precede them thither after his resurrection. All is described in a manner which makes a first impression that he continued in Jerusalem up to the time of his final departure. In Matthew and in John is contained the record of the interview in Galilee; and there the history closes, without mention of any return to Jerusalem or of the Ascensionalthough John (xx. 17) records a remark of Jesus which seems to imply it. To doubt the credibility of the records on account of these diversities or deficiencies is less wise, than, from this apparently different estimate by the Evangelists of the comparative value of the facts communicated, to learn a lesson of charity toward others who attach to particular facts, which seem prominent to us, a value less than we ourselves. NOTES ON JOHN. I. [Comp. M't iii. 1, 3, 11. 16. — M’k i. 4, 3, 7, 8, 10. — L’k iii. 2, 4, 16, 22.] This Proem declares that the new order of things through Jesus Christ, equally with the universe, had its origin from God, and that the new "kingdom of God" is the culmination of all previous revelations to man. 1. THE WORD: who or what is it? The first impression on most readers is, that the writer seems to mean a Person: and this interpretation has in its favor many and great names, and the almost universal consent of the Church, both of men and women, who insist on it as one of the essential truths of Christianity, and to whom the Translator has again and again deferred. But independently of the vast difficulty of adjusting such an interpretation to the teachings of the Scriptures elsewhere, and even of the Reason itself, respecting the Divine nature and works, there does not fail to occur to every one, who allows himself to reflect on the subject, a suggestion whether "the Word" may not be, and is not really, here personified? The first step towards a solution of the question is to go to the Scriptures of the Old Testament, with which we know the Evangelist to have been familiar; for there is no writer, however original, whose thought and expression are not greatly modified by the literature with which he is conversant, that has come down from past ages. We find there, in the eighth chapter of the Book of Proverbs, a passage in which "WIS ... DOM" is presented very much as John speaks of “the Word”: -"Jehovah possessed me IN THE BEGINNING of his way, before his works of old. I WAS BY HIM as a masterbuilder (or, foster-child), and I was DAILY his delight, reJOICING ALWAYS BEFORE HIM". So very striking is the resemblance, that many, interpreting "the Word" as a person, insist that the same Being is here described under the appellation of WISDOM. But Professor Tholuck, quoting "the view to which Lücke assents, which is now most commonly entertained, and is in his own judgment the true one,” considers it "merely a personification". Any other treatment detaches it arbitrarily from its connection. ... There is the same personification in Ecclesiasticus (the Wisdom of the Son of Sirach), and in the Wisdom of Solomon, with both of which we may presume John to have been acquainted: "Wisdom shall glory in the midst of her people, in the congregation of the Most High shall she open her mouth, 'He created me FROM THE BEGINNING, before the world, and I shall never fail. In the holy tabernacle I SERVED BEFORE HIM. . . . I am the mother of fair love and fear and knowledge and holy hope. Come unto me all ye that be desirous of me, and fill yourselves with my fruits. They that eat me shall yet be hungry, and they that drink me shall yet be thirsty'" (Ecclesiasticus, xxiv. 1-22). "Wisdom, which is the worker of all things, taught me; for in her is a spirit intelligent, holy, one only, manifold, subtile, lively, clear, undefiled, plain, not subject to hurt, loving the thing that is good, quick, unhindered, ready to do good, loving mankind, steadfast, sure, free from anxiety, all-powerful, allobserving, and penetrating through all intelligent, pure and most subtile spirits. . . . For she is breath of the power of God, and pure efflux of the glory of the Almighty: therefore can nothing defiled light upon her. For she is a reflection of eternal light, and spotless mirror of the energy of God, and image of his goodness. And being one, she can do all things, and abiding in herself makes them all new, and from generation to generation entering into holy souls prepares friends |