ye will do--are willing to do; not of any blind necessity of nature, but of pure natural inclination.
He was a murderer from the beginning--The reference is not to Cain (as Locke, De Wette, Alford, &c.), but to Adam [Grotius, Calvin, Meyer, Luthardt, &c.]. The death of the human race, in its widest sense, is ascribed to the murderous seducer of our race.
and abode not in the truth--As, strictly speaking, the word means "abideth," it has been denied that the fall of Satan from a former holy state is here expressed [Locke, &c.], and some superior interpreters think it only implied [Olshausen, &c.]. But though the form of the thought is present--not past--this is to express the important idea, that his whole character and activity are just a continual aberration from his own original truth or rectitude; and thus his fall is not only the implied basis of the thought, but part of the statement itself, properly interpreted and brought out.
no truth in him--void of all that holy, transparent rectitude which, as His creature, he originally possessed.
When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own--perhaps his own resources, treasures ([Mt 12:35]) [Alford]. (The word is plural). It means that he has no temptation to it from without; it is purely self-begotten, springing from a nature which is nothing but obliquity.
the father of it--that is, of lying: all the falsehood in the world owes its existence to him. What a verse is this! It holds up the devil (1) as the murderer of the human race; but as this is meant here in the more profound sense of spiritual death, it holds him up, (2) as the spiritual parent of this fallen human family, communicating to his offspring his own evil passions and universal obliquity, and stimulating these into active exercise. But as there is "a stronger than he," who comes upon him and overcomes him ([Lu 11:21], ), it is only such as "love the darkness," who are addressed as children of the devil ([Mt 13:38]; [1Jo 3:8-10]).
45-47. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not--not although, but just because He did so, for the reason given in the former verse. Had He been less true they would have hailed Him more readily.
48-51. Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?--What intense and virulent scorn! (See [He 12:3]). The "say we not well" refers to [Joh 7:20]. "A Samaritan" means more than "no Israelite at all"; it means one who pretended, but had no manner of claim to the title--retorting perhaps, this denial of their true descent from Abraham.
52-53. Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a devil, &c.--"Thou art now self-convicted; only a demoniac could speak so; the most illustrious of our fathers are dead, and Thou promisest exemption from death to anyone who will keep Thy saying! pray, who art Thou?"
54-56. If I honour myself, my honour is nothing, &c.--(See on [Joh 5:31], &c.).
57-59. Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old--"No inference can be drawn from this as to the age of our Lord at the time as man. Fifty years was with the Jews the completion of manhood" [Alford].
and hast thou seen Abraham?--He had said Abraham saw Him, as being his peculiar privilege. They give the opposite turn to it--"Hast Thou seen Abraham?" as an honor too great for Him to pretend to.
Chapter 9
Joh 9:1-41. The Opening of the Eyes of One Born Blind, and What Followed on It
1-5. as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from birth--and who "sat begging" ([Joh 9:8]).
6-7. he spat on the ground, and made clay ... and he anointed the eyes of the blind man--These operations were not so incongruous in their nature as might appear, though it were absurd to imagine that they contributed in the least degree to the effect which followed. (See [Mr 6:13] and see on [Joh 7:33].)
8-15. The neighbours therefore ... said, Is not this he that sat and begged--Here are a number of details to identify the newly seeing with the long-known blind beggar.
16-17. This man is not of God, &c.--(See on [Joh 5:9]; [Joh 5:16]).
Others said, &c.--such as Nicodemus and Joseph.
18-23. the Jews did not believe ... he had been born blind ... till they called the parents of him that had received his sight--Foiled by the testimony of the young man himself, they hope to throw doubt on the fact by close questioning his parents, who, perceiving the snare laid for them, ingeniously escape it by testifying simply to the identity of their son, and his birth-blindness, leaving it to himself, as a competent witness, to speak as to the cure. They prevaricated, however, in saying they "knew not who had opened his eyes," for "they feared the Jews," who had come to an understanding (probably after what is recorded, [Joh 7:50], &c.; but by this time well known), that whoever owned Him as the Christ would be put out of the synagogue--that is, not simply excluded, but excommunicated.
24-34. Give God the praise; we know that this man is a sinner--not wishing him to own, even to the praise of God, that a miracle had been wrought upon him, but to show more regard to the honor of God than ascribe any such act to one who was a sinner.
35-38. Jesus heard--that is, by intelligence brought Him.
that they had cast him out; and when he had found him--by accident? Not very likely. Sympathy in that breast could not long keep aloof from its object.
he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God?--A question stretching purposely beyond his present attainments, in order the more quickly to lead him--in his present teachable frame--into the highest truth.
39-41. Jesus said--perhaps at the same time, but after a crowd, including some of the skeptical and scornful rulers, had, on seeing Jesus talking with the healed youth, hastened to the spot.
that they which see not might see, &c.--rising to that sight of which the natural vision communicated to the youth was but the symbol. (See on [Joh 9:5], and compare [Lu 4:18]).
that they which see might be made blind--judicially incapable of apprehending and receiving the truth, to which they have wilfully shut their eyes.
Chapter 10
Joh 10:1-21. The Good Shepherd
This discourse seems plainly to be a continuation of the closing verses of the ninth chapter. The figure was familiar to the Jewish ear (from [Jr 23:1-40]; [Eze 34:1-31]; [Zec 11:1-17], &c.). "This simple creature [the sheep] has this special note among all animals, that it quickly hears the voice of the shepherd, follows no one else, depends entirely on him, and seeks help from him alone--cannot help itself, but is shut up to another's aid" [Luther in Stier].
1-2. He that entereth not by the door--the legitimate way (without saying what that was, as yet).
into the sheepfold--the sacred enclosure of God's true people.
climbeth up some other way--not referring to the assumption of ecclesiastical office without an external call, for those Jewish rulers, specially aimed at, had this ([Mt 23:2]), but to the want of a true spiritual commission, the seal of heaven going along with the outward authority; it is the assumption of the spiritual guidance of the people without this that is meant.
3. To him the porter openeth--that is, right of free access is given, by order of Him to whom the sheep belong; for it is better not to give the allusion a more specific interpretation [Calvin, Meyer, Luthardt].
and the sheep hear his voice--This and all that follows, though it admits of important application to every faithful shepherd of God's flock, is in its direct and highest sense true only of "the great Shepherd of the sheep," who in the first five verses seems plainly, under the simple character of a true shepherd, to be drawing His own portrait [Lampe, Stier, &c.].
7-14. I am the door of the sheep--that is, the way in to the fold, with all blessed privileges, both for shepherds and sheep (compare [Joh 14:6]; [Ep 2:18]).
15-18. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father--What claim to absolute equality with the Father could exceed this? (See on [Mt 11:27]).
and I lay down my life for the sheep--How sublime this, immediately following the lofty claim of the preceding clause! It is the riches and the poverty of "the Word made flesh"--one glorious Person reaching at once up to the Throne and down even to the dust of death, "that we might live through Him." A candid interpretation of the words, "for the sheep," ought to go far to establish the special relation of the vicarious death of Christ to the Church.
19-21. There was a division ... again among the Jews for these sayings--the light and the darkness revealing themselves with increasing clearness in the separation of the teachable from the obstinately prejudiced. The one saw in Him only "a devil and a madman"; the other revolted at the thought that such words could come from one possessed, and sight be given to the blind by a demoniac; showing clearly that a deeper impression had been made upon them than their words expressed.
Joh 10:22-42. Discourse at the Feast of Dedication--From the Fury of His Enemies Jesus Escapes beyond Jordan, Where Many Believe on Him
22-23. it was ... the feast of the dedication--celebrated rather more than two months after the feast of tabernacles, during which intermediate period our Lord seems to have remained in the neighborhood of Jerusalem. It was instituted by Jude Maccabeus, to commemorate the purification of the temple from the profanations to which it had been subjected by Antiochus Epiphanes 165 B.C., and kept for eight days, from the twenty-fifth Chisleu (December), the day on which Judas began the first joyous celebration of it (1 Maccabees 4:52,56,59; and Josephus, Antiquities, 7.7.7).
it was winter--implying some inclemency. Therefore,
24. Then came the Jews--the rulers. (See on [Joh 1:19]).
How long dost thou make us to doubt?--"hold us in suspense" (Margin).
If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly--But when the plainest evidence of it was resisted, what weight could a mere assertion of it have?