--- title: "Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation" author: "Adam Clarke" languages: [en] shelf: "Commentaries" section: 339 of 769 url: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/339/ cite: "Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation, section 339. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/339/" --- # 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. ## 339. John · 22 of 57 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/339/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/339/#p-N ### Verse 28 [¶1] Ye both know me, and ye know whence I am - Perhaps they should be read interrogatively: Do ye both know me, and know whence I am? Our Lord takes them up on their own profession, and argues from it. Since you have got so much information concerning me, add this to it, to make it complete; viz. that I am not come of myself; am no self-created or self-authorized prophet; I came from God: - the testimony of John the Baptist, the descent of the Holy Ghost, the voice from heaven, the purity and excellence of my doctrine, and the multitude of my miracles, sufficiently attest this. Now, God is true who has borne testimony to me; but ye know him not, therefore it is that this testimony is disregarded. ### Verse 29 [¶3] But I know him: for I am from him - Instead of εἰμὶ, I am, some editions, the Syriac Hieros. read εἷμι, I came, according to the Attics. Nonnus confirms this reading by paraphrasing the word by εληλυθα, I came. As the difference between the two words lies only in the accents, and as these are not found in ancient MSS., it is uncertain which way the word was understood by them: nor is the matter of much moment; both words amount nearly to the same meaning and εἷμι, I came, seems too refined. ### Verse 31 [¶5] Will he do more miracles - It was the belief of the Jews, and they founded it upon [Isa 35:5], that, when the Messiah came, he would do all kinds of miracles; and, in order that they might have the fullest proof of the Divine mission of Christ, it had pleased God to cause miracles to cease for between four and five hundred years, and that John the Baptist himself had not wrought any. His miracles, therefore, were a full proof of his Divine mission. ### Verse 32 [¶7] The people murmured such things - The people began to be convinced that he was the Messiah; and this being generally whispered about, the Pharisees, etc., thought it high time to put him to death, lest the people should believe on him; therefore they sent officers to take him. ### Verse 33 [¶9] Yet a little while am I with you - As he knew that the Pharisees had designed to take and put him to death, and that in about six months from this time, as some conjecture, he should be crucified, he took the present opportunity of giving this information to the common people, who were best disposed towards him, that they might lay their hearts to his teaching, and profit by it, while they had the privilege of enjoying it. [¶10] The word αυτοις, to them, in the beginning of this verse, is wanting in BDEGHLMS, more than eighty others, both the Syriac, later Persic, Coptic, Sahidic, Armenian, Gothic, Slavonic, Saxon, most copies of the Vulgate and the Itala. It is omitted also by Euthymius, Theophylact, Augustin, and Bede. Our Lord did not speak these words to the officers who came to apprehend him, as αυτοις here implies, but to the common people, merely to show that he was not ignorant of the designs of the Pharisees, though they had not yet been able to put them into practice. ### Verse 34 [¶12] Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me - When the Roman armies come against you, you will vainly seek for a deliverer. But ye shall be cut off in your sins, because ye did not believe in me; and where I am - in the kingdom of glory, ye cannot come; for nothing that is unholy shall enter into the new Jerusalem. In this, and the thirty-sixth verse, εἰμὶ, I am, is read by several εἷμι, I came, as in the twenty-ninth verse; and in these two last places the Ethiopic, Arabic, three copies of the Itala, Nonnus, and Theophylact, agree. See the note on [Joh 7:29]. ### Verse 35 [¶14] The dispersed among the Gentiles - Or Greeks. By the dispersed, are meant here the Jews who were scattered through various parts of that empire which Alexander the Great had founded, in Greece, Syria, Egypt, and Asia Minor, where the Greek language was used, and where the Jewish Scriptures in the Greek version of the Septuagint were read. Others suppose that the Gentiles themselves are meant - others, that the ten tribes which had been long lost are here intended. ### Verse 37 [¶16] In the last day, that great day of the feast - This was the eighth day, and was called the great day, because of certain traditional observances, and not on account of any excellence which it derived from the original institution. On the seven days they professed to offer sacrifices for the seventy nations of the earth, but on the eighth day they offered sacrifices for Israel; therefore the eighth day was more highly esteemed than any of the others. It is probably to this that the evangelist refers when he calls the last day the great day of the feast. See the account of the feast of tabernacles, in the note on [Joh 7:2] (note). It was probably when they went to draw water from the pool Siloam, and while they were pouring it out at the foot of the altar, that our Lord spoke these words; for, as that ceremony pointed out the gracious influences of the Holy Spirit, our Lord, who was the fountain whence it was to proceed, called the people to himself, that, by believing on him, they might be made partakers of that inestimable benefit. ### Verse 38 [¶18] He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said - He who receives me as the Messiah, according to what the Scripture has said concerning me; my person, birth, conduct, preaching, and miracles, being compared with what is written there as ascertaining the true Messiah. Out of his belly - from his heart and soul; for in his soul shall this Spirit dwell. [¶19] Living water - As a true spring is ever supplied with water from the great deep, with which it has communication, so shall the soul of the genuine believer be supplied with light, life, love, and liberty, and all the other graces of the indwelling Spirit, from the indwelling Christ. The Jews frequently compare the gifts and influences of the Holy Spirit to water in general - to rain, fountains, wells, rivers, etc., etc. The Scriptures abound in this metaphor. [Psa 36:8], [Psa 36:9]; [Isa 44:3], [Isa 44:4]; [Joe 2:23]. ### Verse 39 [¶21] Was not yet given - Δεδομενον, given is added by the Codex Vaticanus, (B.) the Syriac, all the Persic, later Syriac with an asterisk, three copies of the Slavonic, Vulgate, and all the Itala but three; and several of the primitive fathers. The word seems necessary to the completion of the sense. [¶22] Certain measures of the Holy Spirit had been vouchsafed from the beginning of the world to believers and unbelievers: but that abundant effusion of his graces spoken of by Joel, [Joe 2:28], which peculiarly characterized the Gospel times, was not granted till after the ascension of Christ: [¶23] 1. Because this Spirit in its plenitude was to come in consequence of his atonement; and therefore could not come till after his crucifixion. [¶24] 2. It was to supply the place of Christ to his disciples and to all true believers; and therefore it was not necessary till after the removal of his bodily presence from among them. See our Lord's own words, [Joh 14:16-18], [Joh 14:26]; [Joh 15:26]; [Joh 16:7-15]. ### Verse 40 [¶26] Of a truth this is the Prophet - The great prophet, or teacher, spoken of by Moses, [Deu 18:15], which they improperly distinguished from the Messiah, [Joh 7:41]. Some no doubt knew that by the prophet, the Messiah was meant; but others seem to have thought that one of the ancient prophets should be raised from the dead, and precede the appearing of the Messiah. ### Verse 41 [¶28] Shalt Christ come out of Galilee? - As the prophets had declared that the Messiah was to come from the tribe of Judah, and from the family of David, and should be born in the city of Bethlehem, these Jews, imagining that Christ had been born in Galilee, concluded that he could not be the Messiah. Had they examined the matter a little farther, they would have found that he had his birth exactly as the prophets had foretold; but, for want of this necessary examination, they continued in unbelief, and rejected the Lord that bought them. Many still lose their souls nearly in the same way. They suffer themselves to be led away by common report, and become prejudiced against the truth, refuse to give it a fair hearing, or to examine for themselves. It is on this ground that deism and irreligion have established themselves, and still maintain their posts. ### Verse 42 [¶30] Where David was? - That is, where he was born, [1Sam 16:1], [1Sam 16:4], and where he was before he became king in Israel. ### Verse 43 [¶32] There was a division - Σχισμα, a schism; they were divided in sentiment, and separated into parties. This is the true notion of schism. ### Verse 44 [¶34] Would have taken him - Or, they wished to seize him. And this they would have done, and destroyed him too at that time, had they been unanimous; but their being divided in opinion, [Joh 7:43], was the cause, under God, why his life was at that time preserved. How true are the words of the prophet: The wrath of man shall praise thee; and the remainder thereof thou wilt restrain! [Psa 76:10]. ### Verse 45 [¶36] Then came the officers - They had followed him for several days, seeking for a proper opportunity to seize on him, when they might fix some charge of sedition, etc., upon him; but the more they listened, the more they were convinced of his innocence, purity, and consummate wisdom. ### Verse 46 [¶38] Never man spake like this man - Though these officers had gone on the errand of their masters, they had not entered into their spirit. They were sent to apprehend a seditious man, and a false prophet. They came where Jesus taught; they found him to be a different person to the description they received from their masters, and therefore did not attempt to touch or molest him. No doubt they expected when they told their employers the truth, that they would have commended them, and acknowledged their own mistake: but these simple people were not in the secret of their masters' malice. They heard, they felt, that no man ever spoke with so much grace, power, majesty, and eloquence. They had never heard a discourse so affecting and persuasive. So Jesus still speaks to all who are simple of heart. He speaks pardon - he speaks holiness - he speaks salvation to all who have ears to hear. No man ever did or can speak as he does. He teaches The Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth. ### Verse 48 [¶40] Have any of the rulers - believed on him? - Very few. But is this a proof that he is not of God? No, truly. If he were of the world, the world would love its own. The religion of Christ has been in general rejected by the rulers of this world. A life of mortification, self-denial, and humility, does not comport with the views of those who will have their portion in this life. It has ever been a mark of the truth of God that the great, the mighty, and the wise have in general rejected it. They are too much occupied with this world to attend to the concerns of the next. ### Verse 49 [¶42] This people - Ὁ οχλος, This rabble. The common people were treated by the Pharisees with the most sovereign contempt: they were termed עם הארץ am ha-arets, people of the earth; and were not thought worthy to have a resurrection to eternal life. Wagenseil and Schoettgen have given many proofs of the contempt in which the common people were held by the Pharisees. Those who were disciples of any of the rabbins were considered as being in a much better state. When they paid well, they purchased their masters' good opinion. ### Verse 50 [¶44] Nicodemus - being one of them - That is, a Pharisee, and a ruler of the Jews: see on [Joh 3:1] (note).