Verse 26
Ye are not of my sheep - Ye have not the disposition of those who come unto me to be instructed and saved: see what follows.
Verse 27
My sheep hear my voice - But ye will not hear: - my sheep follow me; but ye will neither follow nor acknowledge me. Any person who reads without prejudice may easily see, that our Lord does not at all insinuate that these persons could not believe, because God had made it impossible to them; but simply because they did not hear and follow Christ, which the whole of our blessed Lord's discourse proves that they might have done. The sheep of Christ are not those who are included in any eternal decree, to the exclusion of others from the yearnings of the bowels of eternal mercy; but they are those who hear, believe in, follow, and obey the Savior of the world.
Verse 28
They shall never perish - Why? Because they hear my voice, and follow me; therefore I know, I approve of and love them, and give them eternal life. They who continue to hear Christ's voice, and to follow him, shall never perish. They give themselves up to God - believe so on Jesus that he lives in their hearts: God hath given unto them eternal life, and this life is in his Son; and he that hath the Son hath life, [1Jn 5:11], [1Jn 5:12]. Now it is evident that only those who have Christ living in and governing their souls, so that they possess the mind that was in him, are his sheep - are those that shall never perish, because they have this eternal life abiding in them: therefore to talk of a man's being one of the elect - one that shall never perish - one who shall have eternal life - who shall never be plucked out of the hand of God, etc., while he lives in sin, has no Christ in his heart, has either never received or fallen away from the grace of God, is as contrary to common sense as it is to the nature and testimonies of the Most High. Final perseverance implies final faithfulness - he that endures to the end shall be saved - he that is faithful unto death shall have a crown of life. And will any man attempt to say that he who does not endure to the end, and is unfaithful, shall ever enter into life?
Verse 29
My Father - is greater than all - More powerful than all the united energies of men and demons. He who loves God must be happy; and he who fears him need fear nothing on this side eternity.
Verse 30
I and my Father are one - If Jesus Christ were not God, could he have said these words without being guilty of blasphemy? It is worthy of remark that Christ does not say, I and My Father, which my our translation very improperly supplies, and which in this place would have conveyed a widely different meaning: for then it would imply that the human nature of Christ, of which alone, I conceive, God is ever said to be the Father in Scripture, was equal to the Most High: but he says, speaking then as God over all, I and The Father, εγω και ὁ πατηρ ἑν εσμεν - the Creator of all things, the Judge of all men, the Father of the spirits of all flesh - are One, One in nature, One in all the attributes of Godhead, and One in all the operations of those attributes: and so it is evident the Jews understood him. See [Joh 17:11], [Joh 17:22].
Verse 31
The Jews took up stones - To stone him as a blasphemer, [Lev 24:14-16], because he said he was one with God. The evangelist adds the word again, because they had attempted to do this before, see [Joh 8:59]; but it seems they were prevented from doing this now by the following discourse.
Verse 32
Many good works have I showed you - I have healed your sick, delivered those of you who were possessed from the power of demons; I have fed multitudes of your poor, and I have taught you in all places, at all times, without expense, with patience; and is this my reward?
To show good works or good things is a Hebraism, which signifies to do them really, to give good things liberally. The phrase is similar to the following: Who will Show us any good? [Psa 4:6]; i.e. who shall give us good things. Show us thy mercy, [Psa 85:7]; i.e. give us to feel the effects of thy mercy. Thou hast Showed thy people hard things, [Psa 60:3]; i.e. thou hast treated them with rigor. Thou hast Showed me great and sore troubles, [Psa 71:20]; i.e. thou hast exposed me to terrible hardships.
Verse 33
But for blasphemy - I have elsewhere shown that the original word, βλασφημειν, when applied to men, signifies to speak injuriously of their persons, character, connections, etc.; but when applied to God it signifies to speak impiously, i.e. contrary to his nature, perfections, the wisdom of his providence, or goodness of his works.
Thou, being a man - That is, only a man - makest thyself God. When Christ said before, [Joh 10:30], I and the Father are one, had the Jews understood him (as many called Christians profess to do) as only saying he had a unity of sentiments with the Father, they would not have attempted to treat him for this as a blasphemer; because in this sense Abraham, Isaac, Moses, David, and all the prophets, were one with God. But what irritated them so much was that they understood him as speaking of a unity of nature. Therefore they say here, thou makest thyself God; which word they understood, not in a figurative, metaphorical, or improper sense, but in the most literal meaning of the term.
Verse 34
Is it not written in your law - The words which our Lord quotes are taken from [Psa 82:6], which shows that, under the word law, our Lord comprised the Jewish sacred writings in general. See also [Joh 12:34]; [Joh 15:25].
Ye are gods? - That is, judges, who are called אלהים elohim. That judges are here meant appears from [Psa 82:2], etc., and also from what follows here. And this is probably the only place where the word אלהים is applied to any but the true God. See Parkhurst under the root אלה.
Verse 35
Unto whom the word of God came - Bishop Pearce thinks that "the word λογος, here, is put for λογος κρισεως, the word or matter of judgment, as in [2Chr 19:6], where Jehoshaphat, setting up judges in the land of Judah, says: Take heed what ye do: judge not for men, but for the Lord, who is with you in judgment - λογοι της κρισεως, in the words or matters of judgment, - Sept., which is nearly according to the Hebrew to בדבר משפט bedebar mishpat, in the word or matter of judgment. In [Deu 1:17], when a charge is given to the judges that they should not be afraid of the face of man, this reason is given: for the judgment is God's. Hence it appears probable that λογος is here used for λογος κρισεως: and it is called λογος Θεου, because it is the judgment that properly belongs to God, and which they who give it on earth give only as acting in the stead of God. A way of speaking very like to this is found in [Heb 4:13], where the writer says, προς ὁν ἡμιν ὁ λογος, with whom we have to do, i.e. by whom we are to be judged." But the words λογος Θεου may be here understood for the order, commission, or command of God; and so it properly signifies, [Luk 3:2]; and in this sense it is found often employed in the Old Testament. When it is there said that the word of the Lord came, etc., it means, God gave an order, commission, etc., to such a person, to declare or do such and such things.
And the scripture cannot be broken - Λυθηναι, dissolved, rendered of none effect, i.e. it cannot be gainsayed or set aside; every man must believe this, because it is the declaration of God. If those were termed gods who were only earthly magistrates, fallible mortals, and had no particular influence of the Divine Spirit; and that they are termed gods is evident from that scripture which cannot be gainsayed; what greater reason then have I to say, I am the Son of God, and one with God, when, as Messiah, I have been consecrated, sent into the world, to instruct and save men; and when, as God, I have wrought miracles which could be performed by no power less than that of omnipotence?
Verse 37
If I do not the works, etc. - I desire you to believe only on the evidence of my works: if I do not do such works as God only can perform, then believe me not.
Verse 38
Believe the works - Though ye do not now credit what I have said to you, yet consider my works, and then ye will see that these works prove that I am in the Father and the Father in me; and, consequently, that I and the Father are one. This seems to be the force of our Lord's argument; and every man must see and feel that it is conclusive. There was no possibility of weakening the force of this reasoning but by asserting that these miracles were not wrought by the power of God; and then they must have proved that not only a man, but a bad man, such as they said Jesus was, could work these miracles. As this was impossible, then the argument of Christ had a complete triumph.
Verse 39
They sought again to take him - They could not reply to his arguments but by stones. The evidence of the truth could not be resisted; and they endeavored to destroy the person who spoke it. Truth may confound the obstinately wicked, but it does not convert them; and it is a just judgment of God, to leave those to perish in their gainsayings who obstinately continue to gainsay and disbelieve.
But he escaped - In such a way as we know not, for the evangelist has not specified the manner of it.
Verse 40
Beyond Jordan - Rather, to the side of Jordan, not beyond it. See the note on [Joh 6:22], and [Mat 19:1].
Where John at first baptized - That is, at Bethabara: see [Joh 1:28]. Afterwards, John baptized at Aenon: [Joh 3:23].
Verse 42
Many believed on him there - The people believed on him:
1. because of the testimony of John the Baptist whom they knew to be a good and a wise man, and a prophet of the Lord; and they knew he could neither deceive nor be deceived in this mater; and,
2. they believed because of the miracles which they saw Jesus work. These fully proved that all that John had said of him was true. The scribes and Pharisees with all their science could not draw a conclusion so just. Truth and common sense are often on the side of the common people, whom the insolently wise, the unsanctifiedly learned, and the tyrannically powerful sometimes disingenuously brand with the epithets of mob and swinish multitude.
1. This and the preceding chapter contain two remarkable discomfitures of the Jewish doctors. In the former they were confounded by the testimony of a plain uneducated man, simply appealing to the various circumstances of a matter of fact, at which they cavilled, and which they endeavored to decry. In this chapter the wise are taken in their own craftiness: the Pharisees are confounded by that wisdom which is from above, speaking of and manifesting the deep things of God. Sometimes God himself stops the mouths of gainsayers; at other times he makes the simplest of his followers too mighty for the most learned among the doctors. Ancient and modern martyrologies of the people of God abound with proofs of both these facts. And the persecutions of the Protestants by the Papists in the reign of Queen Mary afford a very large proportion of proofs. In these the mighty power of God, and the prevalence of truth, were gloriously apparent. Both the word of God and the Protestant cause were nobly illustrated by those transactions. May that abomination that maketh desolate never more sit in the holy place!
2. It must be remarked, by every serious reader, that our Lord did frequently speak of himself to the Jews, as being not only sent of God as their Messiah, but as being one with him. And it is as evident that in this sense the priests and Pharisees understood him; and it was because they would not credit this that they accused him of blasphemy. Now, if our Lord was not the person they understood him to state himself to be, he had the fairest opportunity, from their strong remonstrances, to correct their misapprehension of his words, if they really had mistaken his meaning - but this he never attempts. He rather strengthens his assertions in his consequent discourses with them; which, had not his positions been true, he could not have done, even as an honest man. He not only asserted himself to be equal with God, but wished them to believe it to be true; and he amply confirmed this heavenly doctrine by the miracles he wrought.
Introduction
Account of the sickness of Lazarus, [Joh 11:1]. His sisters Martha and Mary send for Christ, [Joh 11:2]. Our Lord's discourse with his disciples on this sickness and consequent death, [Joh 11:3-16]. He arrives at Bethany four days after the burying of Lazarus, [Joh 11:17], [Joh 11:18]. Martha meets Christ - their conversation, [Joh 11:19-27]. She returns and Mary goes out to meet him, in great distress, [Joh 11:28-33]. Christ comes to the grave - his conversation there, [Joh 11:34-42]. He raises Lazarus from the dead, [Joh 11:43-46]. The priests and Pharisees, hearing of this, hold a council, and plot his destruction, [Joh 11:47], [Joh 11:48]. The remarkable prophecy of Caiaphas, and the consequent proceedings of the Jews, [Joh 11:49-53]. Jesus withdraws into a city called Ephraim, [Joh 11:54]. They lay wait for him at the passover, [Joh 11:55-57].
Verse 1
Lazarus, of Bethany - St. John, who seldom relates any thing but what the other evangelists have omitted, does not tell us what gave rise to that familiar acquaintance and friendship that subsisted between our Lord and this family. It is surprising that the other evangelists have omitted so remarkable an account as this is, in which some of the finest traits in our Lord's character are exhibited. The conjecture of Grotius has a good deal of weight. He thinks that the other three evangelists wrote their histories during the life of Lazarus; and that they did not mention him for fear of exciting the malice of the Jews against him. And indeed we find, from [Joh 12:10], that they sought to put Lazarus to death also, that our Lord might not have one monument of his power and goodness remaining in the land. Probably both Lazarus and his sisters were dead before St. John wrote. Bethany was situated at the foot of the mount of Olives, about two miles from Jerusalem. Bishop Pearce observes that "there is a large gap in John's history of Christ in this place. What is mentioned in the preceding chapter passed at the feast of the dedication, [Joh 10:22], about the middle of our December; and this miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead seems to have been wrought but a little before the following passover, in the end of March, at which time Jesus was crucified, as may (he thinks) be gathered from verses 54 and 55 of this chapter, and from [Joh 12:9]." John has, therefore, according to the bishop's calculation, omitted to mention the several miracles which our Lord wrought for above three months after the things mentioned in the preceding chapter.
Calmet says, Christ left Jerusalem the day after the dedication took place, which was the 18th of December. He event then to Bethabara, where he continued preaching and his disciples baptizing. About the middle of the following January Lazarus fell sick: Christ did not leave Bethabara till after the death of Lazarus, which happened about the 18th of the same month.