John 12:17-18

“ The multitude therefore who were with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead bore witness to him; 18 and it was for this cause also that the multitude went to meet him, because they had heard that he had done this miracle. ”

John does not have it as his aim to present the complete picture of the entrance of Jesus, but rather to show the double relation of this event to the resurrection of Lazarus (its cause), on the one hand, and to the condemnation of Jesus (its effect), on the other. It is this connection which he brings out in John 12:17-19. If ὅτι, that, is read in John 12:17 with five Mjj. and the most ancient translations, the meaning is: that by coming forward the multitude bore testimony that He had caused the resurrection of Lazarus. There is nothing in this case to prevent the multitude of John 12:18 from being the same as that of John 12:17. John would simply say that the miracle which they were celebrating by accompanying Jesus (John 12:17) was the same one which had induced them to come to meet him (John 12:18). But the reflection of John 12:18 is, with this meaning, an idle one. It is self-evident that the event which they celebrated is also that which made them hasten to Him. If ὅτε (when) is read, with the most ancient Mjj., it is quite otherwise. John relates that the multitude which had been with Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus, and which had been present at his resurrection, by accompanying Jesus bore testimony to this great miracle of which they had themselves been witnesses. And here are the true authors of the ovation of Palm-day. They were there relating to the numerous pilgrims who were strangers what they had themselves heard and seen. We thus understand better this dramatic amplification, which in the former reading makes the effect quite prolix: When he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead. The mere mention of the fact. with the ὅτι, would have been sufficient. If ὅτε (when) is read, the participle ὀ ὤν is an imperfect: “who was with him when...” John 11:42.

In the 18th verse, John speaks of the second multitude the one which came to meet Jesus on the road to Bethany. The διὰ τοῦτο, for this cause, refers to the following ὅτι, because. And it was for this that the multitude came to meet Him, to wit, because. Not only did this miracle form the principal subject of the conversations of those who came; but it was also (καί) this same miracle, which, having come to the knowledge of the whole multitude of pilgrims, impelled them to go and meet Him. The comparison of the words of Luke (Luke 19:37) which we have already cited, shows that which we have so often established: how frequently the outlines of the Synoptic picture are vague and undecided as compared with the so distinctly marked features of the Johannean narrative.