--- title: "Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation" author: "Adam Clarke" languages: [en] shelf: "Commentaries" section: 338 of 769 url: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/338/ cite: "Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation, section 338. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/338/" --- # Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation *Adam Clarke* Clarke's learned notes on the Hebrew and Greek, verse by verse, from Genesis to Revelation: volume 2 of 2. ## 338. John · 21 of 57 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/338/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/338/#p-N ### Verse 12 [¶1] Some said, He is a good man - The multitude were divided in their opinions concerning him: those who knew him best said, He is a good man. Those who spoke according to the character given him by the priests, etc., said, Nay; but he deceiveth the people. Those who spoke evil of him spoke out, because they had the rulers on their side; but those who spoke good of him were obliged to do it in private, because they feared these rulers. Calumny and slander are among the privileged orders; they stalk abroad with their thousand brazen mouths, and blast the reputation of the followers of God. Benevolence and candor are only on sufferance; and a whisper in secret is the most they are permitted to give in behalf of Christ and his followers, whose laws and maxims condemn a vicious world, and goad it to revenge. ### Verse 14 [¶3] The midst of the feast - Though the canons required him to be there on the first day, for the performance of a great variety of rites, yet, as these were in general the invention of their doctors, he might think it very proper neither to attend nor perform them. ### Verse 15 [¶5] How knoweth this man letters, having never learned? - The Jewish learning consisted in the knowledge of their own scriptures, and the traditions of their elders. In this learning our blessed Lord excelled. No person ever spoke with more grace and dignity, or knew better how to make a more proper use, or a happier application, of Jewish allegories and parables; because none ever penetrated the sense of the Scriptures as he did; none ever cited them more successfully, or ever showed their accomplishment in so complete and satisfactory a manner. As these branches of learning were taught at the Jewish schools, and our Lord had never attended there, they were astonished to find him excelling in that sort of learning, of which they themselves professed to be the sole teachers. ### Verse 16 [¶7] My doctrine is not mine - Our blessed Lord, in the character of Messiah, might as well say, My doctrine is not mine, as an ambassador might say, I speak not my own words, but his who sent me: and he speaks these words to draw the attention of the Jews from the teaching of man to the teaching of God; and to show them that he was the promised Messiah, the very person on whom, according to the prophet, ([Isa 11:2]), the Spirit of Jehovah - the Spirit of wisdom, counsel, understanding, might, and knowledge, should rest. ### Verse 17 [¶9] If any man wilt do his will, etc. - I will give you a sure rule by which ye may judge of my doctrine: If you really wish to do the will of God, begin the practice of it; and take my doctrine, and apply it to all that you know God requires of man; and if you find one of my precepts contrary to the nature, perfections, and glory of God, or to the present or eternal welfare of men, then ye shall be at liberty to assert that my doctrine is human and erroneous, and God has not sent me. But if, on the contrary, ye find that the sum and substance of my preaching is, That men shall love God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, and their neighbor as themselves; and that this doctrine must bring glory to God in the highest, while it produces peace and good will among men; then acknowledge that God has visited you, and receive me as the Messiah promised to your fathers. ### Verse 18 [¶11] He that speaketh of himself, etc. - I will give you another rule, whereby you shall know whether I am from God or not: If I speak so as to procure my own glory, to gratify vanity, or to secure and promote my secular interests, then reject me as a deceiver and as a false prophet. But if I act only to promote the glory of God, to induce all men to love and obey him; if I propose nothing but what leads to the perfection of his law, and the accomplishment of its ordinances, you cannot help acknowledging me at least for a true prophet; and, if you add to this the proofs which I have given of my mission and power, you must acknowledge me as the mighty power of God, and the promised Messiah. [¶12] And no unrighteousness is in him - Or, there is no falsehood in him: so the word αδικια should be translated here; and it is frequently used by the Septuagint for שקר sheker, a lie, falsehood, etc. See in [Psa 52:3]; [Psa 119:29], [Psa 119:69], [Psa 119:104], [Psa 119:163]; [Psa 144:8]. This is its meaning in [Rom 2:8]; where αδικια, falsehood, is put in opposition to αληθεια, truth. ### Verse 19 [¶14] Did not Moses give you the law, etc. - The scribes and Pharisees announced our Lord to the multitude as a deceiver; and they grounded their calumny on this, that he was not an exact observer of the law, for he had healed a man on the Sabbath day, [Joh 5:9], [Joh 5:10]; and consequently must be a false prophet. Now they insinuated, that the interests of religion required him to be put to death: [¶15] 1. As a violator of the law; and, [¶16] 2. as a false prophet and deceiver of the people. [¶17] To destroy this evil reasoning, our Lord speaks in this wise: If I deserve death for curing a man on the Sabbath, and desiring him to carry home his bed, which you consider a violation of the law, you are more culpable than I am, for you circumcise a child on the Sabbath, which requires much more bustle, and is of so much less use than what I have done to the infirm man. But, if you think you do not violate the law by circumcising a child on the Sabbath, how can you condemn me for having cured one of yourselves, who has been afflicted thirty and eight years? If you consider my conduct with the same eye with which you view your own, far from finding any thing criminal in it, you will see much reason to give glory to God. Why, therefore, go ye about to kill me, as a transgressor of the law, when not one of yourselves keeps it? ### Verse 20 [¶19] Thou hast a devil - The crowd, who made this answer, were not in the secret of the chief priests. They could not suppose that any person desired to put him to death for healing a diseased man; and therefore, in their brutish manner, they say, Thou hast a demon - thou art beside thyself, and slanderest the people, for none of them desires to put thee to death. The Codex Cyprius (K), four others, and the margin of the later Syriac, attribute this answer to the Jews, i.e. those who were seeking his life. If the reading, therefore, of οἱ Ιουδαιοι, the Jews, be received instead of ὁ οχλος, the multitude, it serves to show the malice of his enemies in a still stronger light: for, fearing lest their wish to put him to death might not be gratified, and that his teaching should prevail among the common people; to ruin his credit, and prevent his usefulness, they give out that he was possessed by a demon; and that, though he might be pitied as a miserable man, yet he must not be attended to as a teacher of righteousness. Malice and envy are ever active and indefatigable, leaving no stone unturned, no mean unused, that they may win the object of their resentment. See the note on [Joh 7:26]. ### Verse 21 [¶21] I have done one work - That of curing the impotent man, already referred to. See [Joh 5:9]. [¶22] And ye all marvel - or, ye all marvel because of this. Some have δια τουτο, in connection with θαυμαζετε, which the common pointing makes the beginning of the next verse, and which, in our common version, is translated therefore; but this word conveys no meaning at all, in the connection in which it is thus placed. Proof of this construction Kypke gives from Themistius, Strabo, and Aelian. All the eminent critics are on the side of this arrangement of the words. ### Verse 22 [¶24] But of the fathers - That is, it came from the patriarchs. Circumcision was not, properly speaking, one of the laws of the Mosaic institution, it having been given at first to Abraham, and continued among his posterity till the giving of the law: [Gen 17:9], [Gen 17:10], etc. [¶25] Ye - circumcise a man - That is, a male child: for every male child was circumcised when eight days old; and if the eighth day after its birth happened to be a Sabbath, it was nevertheless circumcised, that the law might not be broken, which had enjoined the circumcision to take place at that time, [Lev 12:3]. From this and several other circumstances it is evident that the keeping of the Sabbath, even in the strictest sense of the word, ever admitted of the works of necessity and mercy to be done on it; and that those who did not perform such works on that day, when they had opportunity, were properly violators of every law founded on the principles of mercy and justice. If the Jews had said, Why didst thou not defer the healing of the sick man till the ensuing day? He might have well answered, Why do ye not defer the circumcising of your children to the ensuing day, when the eighth day happens to be a Sabbath? - which is a matter of infinitely less consequence than the restoration of this long-afflicted man. ### Verse 23 [¶27] Every whit whole - The law of circumcision required the removal of a small portion of flesh, which was considered a blot and reproach among the Hebrews, because it confounded them with the nations who were not in covenant with God. Christ, to this, opposes the complete cure of the infirm man, who was diseased throughout his whole body: if the one was permitted on the Sabbath day, for the reason already alleged, surely the other had stronger reasons to recommend it. [¶28] Some think that the original words, ὁλον ανθρωπον, should be translated, the whole man; and that the meaning is, that the blessed Savior made him whole both in body and soul. This makes the miracle the greater, and shows still more forcibly the necessity of doing it without delay. [¶29] Battier ap. Wets. supposes that, instead of ὁλον, χωλον should be read - I have made a Maimed man whole; but there is no countenance for this reading in any of the MSS., versions, or fathers. ### Verse 24 [¶31] Judge not according to the appearance - Attend to the law, not merely in the letter, but in its spirit and design. Learn that the law which commands men to rest on the Sabbath day is subordinate to the law of mercy and love, which requires them to be ever active to promote God's glory in the comfort and salvation of their fellow creatures; and endeavor to judge of the merit or demerit of an action, not from the first impression it may make upon your prejudices but from its tendency, and the motives of the person, as far as it is possible for you to acquaint yourselves with them; still believing the best, where you have no certain proof to the contrary. ### Verse 26 [¶33] That this is the very Christ? - In most of the common printed editions αληθως is found, the Very Christ; but the word is wanting in BDKLTX, twenty-two others, several editions; all the Arabic, Wheelock's Persic, the Coptic, Sahidic, Armenian, Slavonic, Vulgate, and all the Itala but one, Origen, Epiphanius, Cyril, Isidore, Pelusian, and Nonnus. Grotius, Mill, Bengel, and Griesbach, decide against it. Bishop Pearce says, I am of opinion that this second αληθως, in this verse, should be omitted, it seeming quite unnecessary, if not inaccurate, when the words αληθως εγνωσαν, had just preceded it. [¶34] Calmet observes that the multitude which heard our Lord at this time was composed of three different classes of persons: [¶35] 1. The rulers, priests, and Pharisees, declared enemies of Christ. [¶36] 2. The inhabitants of Jerusalem, who knew the sentiments of their rulers concerning him. [¶37] 3. The strangers, who from different quarters had come up to Jerusalem to the feast, and who heard Christ attentively, being ignorant of the designs of the rulers, etc., against him. [¶38] Our Lord addresses himself in this discourse principally to his enemies. The strange Jews were those who were astonished when Christ said, [Joh 7:20], that they sought to kill him, having no such design themselves, and not knowing that others had. And the Jews of Jerusalem were those who, knowing the disposition of the rulers, and seeing Christ speak openly, no man attempting to seize him, addressed each other in the foregoing words, Do the rulers know indeed that this is the Christ? imagining that the chief priests, etc., had at last been convinced that Jesus was the Messiah. ### Verse 27 [¶40] No man knoweth whence he is - The generality of the people knew very well that the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem, in the city, and of the family, of David; see [Joh 7:42]. But, from [Isa 53:8], Who shall declare his generation? they probably thought that there should be something so peculiarly mysterious in his birth, or in the manner of his appearing, that no person could fully understand. Had they considered his miraculous conception, they would have felt their minds relieved on this point. The Jews thought that the Messiah, after his birth, would hide himself for some considerable time; and that when he began to preach no man should know where he had been hidden, and whence he had come. The rabbins have the following proverb: Three things come unexpectedly: [¶41] 1. A thing found by chance. [¶42] 2. The sting of a scorpion: and, [¶43] 3. The Messiah. [¶44] It was probably in reference to the above that the people said, No man knoweth whence he is. However, they might have spoken this of his parents. We know that the Messiah is to be born in Bethlehem, of the family of David; but no man can know his parents: therefore they rejected him: [Joh 6:42], Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?