THIRD SECTION: 2:1-11. THE FIRST MIRACLE. STRENGTHENING OF FAITH. Jesus, after having been declared by John to be the Messiah, manifested Himself as such to His first disciples; an utterance of miraculous knowledge, in particular, had revealed the intimate relation which united Him with God. He now... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there._ ” A distance of somewhat more than twenty leagues, in a straight line, separates the place where John was baptizing, from Nazareth, to which Jesus was probably directing His course. This journey require... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 2. “ _Now Jesus also was bidden to the marriage, as well as His disciples._ ” There is a contrast between the imperfect, _was there_, which is used in speaking of Mary, and the aorist _was bidden_, applied to Jesus and His disciples. Jesus was bidden only on His arrival, while Mary, at that ti... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 3. “ _And when the wine failed_, _the mother of Jesus saith to Him: They have no wine._ ” The marriage feasts sometimes continued several days, even a whole week (Genesis 29:27; Judges 14:15; Tob. 9:12; 10:1). The failure of the wine is commonly explained by this circumstance. However this may... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 4. “ _Jesus saith to her: What is there between me and thee, woman? My hour is not yet come._ ” Jesus makes Mary sensible of her incompetency in the region into which she intrudes. The career on which He has just entered, is that in which He depends only on His Father; His motto henceforth is:... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 5. “ _His mother says to the servants, Whatsoever he says to you_, “ _do it._ ” Something in the tone and expression of Jesus gives Mary to understand that this refusal leaves a place for a more moderate granting of the desire. Perhaps in this narrative, which is so summary, there is here the o... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 6. “ _Now there were there six water-pots of stone, according to the usual manner of purifying among the Jews, containing two or three measures apiece._ ” ᾿Εκεῖ, _there_, denotes, according to _Meyer_, the banqueting room itself. Is it not more natural to imagine these urns placed in the court... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _Jesus says to them, Fill the water-pots with water. And they filled them up to the brim._ 8. _And he says to them, Draw out now and bear unto the ruler of the feast. And they bore it._ ” We should not understand γεμίσατε, _fill_, in the sense of _filling up_, nor allege in support of this meaning... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water which was made wine and he knew not whence it came, but the servants who had drawn the water knew the ruler of the feast calls the bridegroom_, 10, _and says to him, Every one serves first the good wine, and when men have become drunken, then that... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 11. “ _This first of his miracles Jesus did in Cana of Galilee_, _and he manifested his glory, and his disciples believed on him._ ” John characterizes under four important relations the miracle which he has just related. 1. This was _the first_, not only of the miracles performed at Cana, but... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 12. “ _After this, he went down to Capernaum_, _he and his mother and his brethren and his disciples_, _and they abode there not many days._ ” From Cana Jesus undoubtedly returned to Nazareth. For it was the latter place which He had in view when returning from Judea, rather than Cana to which... [ Continue Reading ]
FIRST SECTION: 2:12-3:36. JESUS IN JUDEA. Here again, as in the preceding story, the course of the narrative is steadily continuous and its historical development accurately graduated. Jesus first appears in the _temple_ (John 2:12-22); later He teaches in the _capital_ (John 2:23 to John 3:21), fi... [ Continue Reading ]
SECOND CYCLE: 2:12-4:54. This second cycle is naturally divided into three sections: 1. The ministry of Jesus in _Judea_, John 2:12 to John 3:36; 2. The return through _Samaria: John 4:1-42_; 3. The settling in Galilee, John 4:43-54. We shall see that to these three geographical domains three v... [ Continue Reading ]
ADDITIONAL NOTES BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR. XI. Beginning with John 2:13, the account of the first visit of Jesus to Jerusalem is given. There can be little doubt that the five or six disciples were with Him in this visit. John 2:12 states that they went with Him from Cana to Capernaum, and that they... [ Continue Reading ]
It was at Jerusalem and in the temple, that the Messiah's ministry must open. “The Lord whom ye seek,” Malachi had said (John 3:1-3), “shall enter _into his temple_.... he _shall purify_ the sons of Levi...” That prophecy said to Israel that her King would announce Himself, not by a miracle of power... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 13. “ _And the Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem._ ” John says: _of the Jews_, with reference to his Gentile readers, with whom he identifies himself in the feeling of Christian communion.... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 14. “ _And he found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money-changers sitting._ ” The article _the_ before the terms designating the sellers and money-changers, which _Ostervald_ omits with other translators, sets forth this office as a known one; they are _the_ hab... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 15. “ _And having made a small scourge of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, both the sheep and the oxen; and he poured out the changers' money and overthrew their tables._ ” This scourge was not an instrument, but an emblem. It was the sign of authority and of judgment. If it had been... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 16. “ _And he said to those that sold the doves: take these things hence; make not my Father's house a house of merchandise._ ” With regard to the sellers of doves Jesus limits Himself to speaking. He cannot drive out the doves, as one drives oxen or sheep; and He does not wish to overturn the... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 17. “ _His disciples remembered that it was written: The zeal of thy house shall eat me up._ ” This recollection took place immediately; comp. John 2:22, where the opposite fact is expressly pointed out. Psalms 69, the ninth verse of which presents itself at this moment to the remembrance of th... [ Continue Reading ]
The effect is described in John 2:17-22. We meet here a fact, which will repeat itself at every manifestation of the Lord's glory; a twofold impression is produced, according to the moral predisposition of the witnesses; some find in the act of Jesus nourishment for their faith; for others the same... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 18. “ _The Jews, therefore, answered and said unto him: What sign showest thou unto us, that thou doest these things?_ ” The particle, _therefore_, connects again with John 2:16, after the interruption in John 2:17. The expression “ _the Jews_ ” designates here especially the authorities charge... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 19. “ _Jesus answered and said unto them: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up._ ” This answer of Jesus is sudden, like a flash of lightning. It springs from an immeasurable depth; it illuminates regions then completely unexplored by any other consciousness than His own. Th... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 20. “ _The Jews said, therefore: Forty-six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou raise it up in three days?_ ” The restoration of the temple by Herod had begun in the eighteenth year of his reign, according to Josephus (_Antiqq._ 15.11, 1). In the _Jewish War_, the same historian, b... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 21. “ _But he spoke of the temple of his body._ ” By ἐκεῖνος, _ille vero, he_ opposed to every other, John strongly contrasts the thought of Jesus with the interpretation of the Jews and the want of understanding of the apostles. Only He comprehends perfectly the true sense of His own saying.... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 22. “ _When, therefore, he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this_, _and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said._ ” Into docile hearts the light came, although slowly. The event explained the word, as in its turn the word contributed to di... [ Continue Reading ]
II. JESUS AT JERUSALEM: 2:23-3:21. Jesus, not having been welcomed in the temple, does not force matters forward. The use of violence, even though by divine means, would have led Him to the career, not of a Christ, but of a Mahomet. In presence of the cold reserve which He meets, He retreats; and th... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 23. “ _As he was in Jerusalem, at the Passover, at the feast, many believed on his name, seeing the miracles which he did._ ” The first clause of the verse contains three designations. One is that of _place: in Jerusalem_, at the centre of the theocracy, the normal theatre of His work. The seco... [ Continue Reading ]
are a preamble. It is the general picture of the activity of the Lord at Jerusalem, following after His undertaking in the temple. Then, in the following passage, John 3:1-21, John gives the remarkable example of the teaching of Jesus and of His Messianic testimony, in this earliest period, in prese... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _But Jesus did not trust himself to them, because he knew all men_, 25, _and because he had no need that any one should testify of man; for he knew of himself what was in man._ ” Jesus is no more dazzled by this apparent success, than He had been discouraged by the reverse which He had undergone i... [ Continue Reading ]