John 12:19

Ver. 19. “ Whereupon the Pharisees said among themselves, You see that you prevail nothing; behold, the world is gone after him. ”

Joh 12:17-18 bring out the influence of the resurrection of Lazarus on the scene of Palmday; John 12:19 indicates that of this scene on the final catastrophe. Πρὸς ἑαυτούς, instead of πρὸς ἀλλήλους, because, belonging to the same body, it is as if they were speaking to themselves. ῎Ιδε, behold, alludes to the unexpected spectacle of which they had just been witnesses. There is something of distress in the term ὁ κόσμος, the world, “all this people, native and foreign,” and in the aorist ἀπῆλθεν, is gone: “It is an accomplished thing; we are alone!” θεωρεῖτε may be explained as an imperative; but it is better to take it as an indicative present. These persons mutually summon each other, with a kind of bitterness, to notice the inefficacy of their half-measures. It is a way of encouraging each other to use without delay the extreme measures advised by Caiaphas. It is these last words especially which serve to place this whole passage in connection with the general design of this part of the Gospel.

The more closely the narrative of John is studied, the less is it possible to see in it the accidental product of tradition or of legend. Instead of the juxtaposition of anecdotes which forms the character of the Synoptics, we meet at every step the traces of a profound connection which governs the narrative even in its minutest details. The dilemma is therefore, as Baur has clearly seen, real history profoundly apprehended and reproduced, or a romance very skillfully conceived and executed.