John 2:17

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 the disciples, is only indirectly Messianic that is to say, the subject contemplated by the Psalmist is not the person of the Messiah (comp. John 2:6: “ Thou knowest my foolishness, and my sins are not hid from thee ”), but the theocratic righteous person, suffering for the cause of God. The highest realization of this ideal is the Messiah. Weiss claims that this quotation finds an explanation only so far as this Psalm was, at that time, exclusively, and through an error, referred to the Messiah. But in order to this, the reading of John 2:6 must have been forgotten. The unanimity of the Mjj. decides in favor of the reading καταφάγεται. This verb is a future; the evangelist substitutes it for the past κατέφαγε, hath eaten up, of the LXX. which is in conformity with the Hebrew text. The disciples are thinking, not of Jesus' last sufferings, which were at that time beyond the thoughts which occupied their minds, but on the consuming force of His zeal, on that living holocaust, the first act of which they beheld at this moment. This also is the meaning of the word hath eaten up, in the Psalm.

While the disciples compare the Scriptures, and this remembrance strengthens their faith, the Jews reason and object, just as the inhabitants of Nazareth do, Luke 4:22. Instead of letting the act of Jesus speak, as every manifestation of holiness should, to their conscience, they demand the external sign which should legitimate this act, as if it did not contain in itself its own legitimation!