--- title: "Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation" author: "Adam Clarke" languages: [en] shelf: "Commentaries" section: 354 of 769 url: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/354/ cite: "Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 2: Lamentations to Revelation, section 354. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/354/" --- # 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. ## 354. John · 37 of 57 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/354/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-2-lamentations-to-revelation/354/#p-N ### Verse 37 [¶1] Yet they believed not on him - Though the miracles were wrought for this very purpose, that they might believe in Christ, and escape the coming wrath, and every evidence given that Jesus was the Messiah, yet they did not believe; but they were blinded by their passions, and obstinately hardened their hearts against the truth. ### Verse 38 [¶3] That the saying of Esaias - Or, Thus the word of Isaiah was fulfilled. So I think ἱνα (commonly rendered that) should be translated. For it certainly does not mean the end the Pharisees had in view by not believing; nor the end which the prophet had in view in predicting the incredulity of the Jews; but simply, such a thing was spoken by the prophet, concerning the Jews of his own time, and it had its literal fulfillment in those of our Lord's time. [¶4] Our report - The testimony of the prophets, concerning the person, office, sufferings, death, and sacrifice of the Messiah. See [Isa 53:1], etc. [¶5] The arm of the Lord - The power, strength, and miracles of Christ. ### Verse 39 [¶7] Therefore they could not believe - Why? Because they did not believe the report of the prophets concerning Christ; therefore they credited not the miracles which he wrought as a proof that he was the person foretold by the prophets, and promised to their fathers. Having thus resisted the report of the prophets, and the evidence of Christ's own miracles, God gave them up to the darkness and hardness of their own hearts, so that they continued to reject every overture of Divine mercy; and God refused to heal their national wound, but, on the contrary, commissioned the Romans against them, so that their political existence was totally destroyed. [¶8] The prophecy of Isaiah was neither the cause nor the motive of their unbelief: it was a simple prediction, which imposed no necessity on them to resist the offers of mercy. They might have believed, notwithstanding the prediction, for such kinds of prophecies always include a tacit condition; they may believe, if they properly use the light and power which God has given them. Such prophecies also are of a general application - they will always suit somebody, for in every age persons will be found who resist the grace and Spirit of God like these disobedient Jews. However, it appears that this prediction belonged especially to these rejecters and crucifiers of Christ; and if the prophecy was infallible in its execution, with respect to them, it was not because of the prediction that they continued in unbelief, but because of their own voluntary obstinacy; and God foreseeing this, foretold it by the prophet. Should I say that, they could not believe, means, they would not believe, I should perhaps offend a generation of his children; and yet I am pretty certain the words should be so understood. However, that I may put myself under cover from all suspicion of perverting the meaning of a text which seems to some to be spoken in favor of that awful doctrine of unconditional reprobation, the very father of it shall interpret the text for me. Thus then saith St. Augustin: Quare autem non Poterant, si a me quaeratur, cito respondeo; Quia Nolebant: Malam quippe eorum Voluntatem praevidit Deus, et per prophetam praenunciavit. "If I be asked why they Could not believe? I immediately answer, Because They Would Not. And God, having foreseen their Bad Will, foretold it by the prophet." Aug. Tract. 53, in Joan. ### Verse 40 [¶10] And I should heal them - This verse is taken from [Isa 6:9], and, perhaps, refers more to the judgments that should fall upon them as a nation, which God was determined should not be averted, than it does to their eternal state. To suppose that the text meant that God was unwilling that they should turn unto him, lest he should be obliged to save them, is an insupportable blasphemy. ### Verse 41 [¶12] When he saw his glory - [Isa 6:1], etc. I saw Jehovah, said the prophet, sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphim; and one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is Jehovah, God of hosts; the whole earth shall be full of his glory! It appears evident, from this passage, that the glory which the prophet saw was the glory of Jehovah: John, therefore, saying here that it was the glory of Jesus, shows that he considered Jesus to be Jehovah. See Bishop Pearce. Two MSS. and a few versions have Θεου, and του Θεου αὑτου, the glory of God, or of his God. ### Verse 42 [¶14] Among the chief rulers - many believed on him - We only know the names of two of them, Nicodemus, and Joseph of Arimathea. [¶15] But - they did not confess him - Or it: they were as yet weak in the faith, and could not bear the reproach of the cross of Christ. Besides, the principal rulers had determined to excommunicate every person who acknowledged Christ for the Messiah; see [Joh 9:22]. ### Verse 43 [¶17] They loved the praise of men - Δοξαν, the glory or honor that cometh from men. [¶18] How common are these four obstacles of faith! says Quesnel: [¶19] 1. Too great a regard to men. [¶20] 2. Riches and temporal advantages. [¶21] 3. The fear of disgrace. [¶22] 4. The love of the praise of men. [¶23] Abundance of persons persuade themselves that they love God more than the world, till some trying occasion fully convinces them of their mistake. It is a very great misfortune for a person not to know himself but by his falls; but it is the greatest of all not to rise again after he has fallen. This is generally occasioned by the love of the praise of men, because in their account it is more shameful to rise again than it was to fall at first. ### Verse 44 [¶25] Jesus cried and said - This is our Lord's concluding discourse to this wicked people: probably this and the following verses should be understood as a part of the discourse which was left off at the 36th verse. [¶26] Jesus cried - he spoke these words aloud, and showed his earnest desire for their salvation. [¶27] Believeth not on me, (only), but on him that sent me - Here he asserts again his indivisible unity with the Father: - he who believes on the Son believes on the Father: he who hath seen the Son hath seen the Father: he who honors the Son honors the Father. Though it was for asserting this (his oneness with God) that they were going to crucify him, yet he retracts nothing of what he had spoken, but strongly reasserts it, in the very jaws of death! ### Verse 46 [¶29] I am come a light into the world - Probably referring to what his forerunner had said, [Joh 1:5]. Before the coming of this Savior, this sun of righteousness, into the world, all was darkness: at his rising the darkness is dispersed; but it only profits those whose eyes are open to receive the rays of this sun of righteousness. See on [Joh 1:5] (note); [Joh 3:19] (note); [Joh 8:12] (note); [Joh 9:5] (note). ### Verse 47 [¶31] And believe not - Και μη φυλαξῃ, And keep them not, is the reading of ABL, seven others; Syriac, Wheelock's Persian, two of the Arabic, Coptic, Sahidic, Ethiopic, Armenian, later Syriac, Vulgate, six of the Itala, and some of the fathers. [¶32] A man must hear the words of Christ in order to believe them; and he must believe, in order to keep them; and he must keep them in order to his salvation. [¶33] I judge him not - I need not do it: the words of Moses and the prophets judge and condemn him. See the notes on [Joh 3:17]; [Joh 5:45]. ### Verse 48 [¶35] The word that I have spoken - shall judge him - Ye shall be judged according to my doctrine: the maxims which ye have heard from my mouth shall be those on which ye shall be tried in the great day; and ye shall be condemned or acquitted according as ye have believed or obeyed them, or according as ye have despised and violated them, See this proved, [Mat 25:35] (note), etc. ### Verse 49 [¶37] For I have not spoken of myself - I have not spoken for my secular interest: I have not aimed at making any gain of you: I have not set up myself as your teachers in general do, to be supported by my disciples, and to be credited on my own testimony. I have taught you, not the things of men, but the deep, everlasting truths of God. As his envoy, I came to you; and his truth only I proclaim. [¶38] Gave me a commandment - Or, commission. So I understand the original word, εντολη. Christ, as the Messiah, received his commission from God; what he should command - every thing that related to the formation and establishment of the Christian institution: and what he should speak - all his private conversations with his disciples or others, he, as man, commanded and spoke through the constant inspiration of the Holy Spirit. ### Verse 50 [¶40] I know that this commandment is life everlasting - These words of our Lord are similar to that saying in St. John's first epistle, [1Jn 5:11], [1Jn 5:12]. This is the record, that God hath given unto us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life. God's commandment or commission is, Preach salvation to a lost world, and give thyself a ransom for all; and whosoever believeth on thee shall not perish, but have everlasting life. Every word of Christ, properly credited, and carefully applied, leads to peace and happiness here, and to glory hereafter. What an amiable view of the Gospel of the grace of God does this give us? It is a system of eternal life, Divinely calculated to answer every important purpose to dying, miserable man. This sacred truth Jesus witnessed with his last breath. He began his public ministry proclaiming the kingdom of God; and he now finishes it by asserting that the whole commission is eternal life; and, having attested this, he went out of the temple, and retired to Bethany. [¶41] The public work of our Lord was now done; and the remnant of his time, previously to his crucifixion, he spent in teaching his disciples - instructing them in the nature of his kingdom, his intercession, and the mission of the Holy Spirit; and in that heavenly life which all true believers live with the Father, through faith in the Son, by the operation of the Holy Ghost. [¶42] Many persons are liberal in their condemnation of the Jews, because they did not believe on the Son of God; and doubtless their unbelief has merited and received the most signal punishment. But those who condemn them do not reflect that they are probably committing the same sort of transgression, in circumstances which heighten the iniquity of their sin. Will it avail any man, that he has believed that Christ has come in the flesh to destroy the works of the devil, who does not come unto him that he may have life, but continues to live under the power and guilt of sin? Paradoxical as it may seem, it is nevertheless possible, for a man to credit the four evangelists, and yet live and die an infidel, as far as his own salvation is concerned. Reader, it is possible to hold the truth in unrighteousness. Pray to God that this may not be thy condemnation. For a farther improvement of the principal subjects of this chapter, see the notes on [Joh 12:24] (note), [Joh 12:32] (note) and [Joh 12:39] (note). ### Introduction [¶44] Christ washes the feet of his disciples, and gives them instructions concerning humility and charity, vv. 1-17. He tells them that one of themselves will betray him, [Joh 13:18-20]. The disciples doubting of whom he spoke, Peter desires John to ask him, [Joh 13:21-25]. Jesus shows that it is Judas Iscariot, [Joh 13:26]. Satan enters into Judas, and he rises up and leaves the company, [Joh 13:27-30]. Christ shows his approaching death, and commands his disciples to love one another, [Joh 13:31-35]. Peter, professing strong attachment to Christ, is informed of his denial, [Joh 13:36-38].