John 12:28-29

Vv. 28b, 29. “ Whereupon there came a voice from heaven, I have both glorified it and I will glorify it again. 29. The multitude therefore that stood by and heard it, said that it thundered; others said, An angel has spoken to him. ”

Each time that the Son performs a great act of self-humiliation and personal consecration, the Father answers by a sensible manifestation of approval. What had happened at the baptism and the transfiguration is now renewed. At this hour which is the closing of Jesus' ministry, and in which He devoted Himself to death, is the time or never for the Father publicly to set the seal of His satisfaction upon His person and His work.

Lucke, de Wette, Hengstenberg, Weiss, regard this voice from heaven as a simple thunder-clap. By reason of the coincidence of this external phenomenon with His prayer, Jesus, in their view, interpreted it freely in the sense indicated by the evangelist. Is not thunder often called in the Old Testament, the voice of the Lord? The Rabbis gave a name to these prophetic voices, these mysterious inspirations which a word accidentally heard calls up in the hearts of believers, namely, Bath-Kol (daughter of the voice). But the text does not favor this interpretation of the phenomenon here related. According to John, it is not a clap of thunder taken to be a voice from heaven; it is, on the contrary, a voice from heaven which a part of the multitude regard as a clap of thunder; comp. Meyer.

How could Jesus say: this voice (John 12:30)? How could this voice be translated by Him or by John into a definite expression in words? Whence would arise in these words the contrast between the past (I have glorified) and the future (I will glorify), a contrast which has no connection with anything in the prayer of Jesus? How, finally, could one part of the multitude itself discern in this sound an articulate language which they attribute to an angel? The text permits us to think only of a divine phenomenon. As to the Rabbinical superstition called Bath-Kol, it cannot be cited here, since one would infer from such signs only a human voice. The past I have glorified refers to the ministry of the Lord in Israel, which is close upon its end; the future I will glorify, to the approaching action of Jesus on the whole world, when from the midst of His glory He will enlighten the heathen. Between these two great works which the Father accomplishes through the Son, is placed precisely the hour of suffering and death which is the necessary transition from the one to the other. There is no ground therefore to draw back before this hour. It is, moreover, well surrounded. Before, the name of God glorified in Israel; after, the name of God glorified in the whole world. Here indeed is the most consoling response for the filial heart of Jesus (John 17:1-2; John 17:4-5). The two καί, and, and, bring out the close connection between the work done and the work to be done: “I who have accomplished the one, will also accomplish the other.”

The whole multitude hear a sound; but the meaning of the voice is perceived by each one only in proportion to his spiritual intelligence. Thus, in human speech the wild beast perceives only a sound, the trained animal discovers in it a meaning, a command, for example, which it immediately obeys; man only discerns in it a thought. ῎Οχλος : the greater number; ἄλλοι : others in smaller numbers; comp. Acts 9:7 with Acts 22:9; Acts 26:13-14, where an analogous phenomenon occurs at the time of the appearance of Jesus to Paul. In order to understand a vision, there must be an internal organ and this organ may be more or less favorably disposed. At Pentecost, where some see only the effects of drunkenness, others discern a revelation of the glorious things of God (Acts 2:11-13). The perfect λελάληκεν, instead of the aorist, signifies that to their view Jesus is for the future a person in possession of this heavenly sign.