John 11:16

John 11:16. Thomas therefore (which is called Didymus) said unto his fellow-disciples, Let us also go, that we may die with him. That is, with Jesus (not with Lazarus). It is plain that Jesus cannot be turned aside by their counsels or prayers; He is certainly about to return to Judea, at the peril of His life. As they cannot save Him they may at least share His fate. This is the exhortation of Thomas to his fellow-disciples; and it would seem that they shared his feelings, for the word ‘fellow-disciples' (not found elsewhere in the New Testament), as compared with ‘the other disciples' of John 20:25, binds all the disciples into one. The language is undoubtedly that of fervent love to Jesus, but it is also the language of despair and vanished hope. This is the end of all, death; not the Messianic kingdom, not life. Whether we are right in thinking that this feeling was shared by the other disciples, or not, it is very natural that Thomas should be the one to give expression to it. From chap. John 14:5; John 20:24-25, we clearly perceive that sight is what he wants: when he sees not he gives himself up to despondency. It is remarkable that at every mention of this apostle John adds the Greek interpretation (Didymus, that is Twin) of the Aramaic name. It has been supposed that Didymus is the name with which Gentile Christians became most familiar; but if so it is singular that no other name than Thomas is found in the Synoptic Gospels and the Acts. By others it is urged that the word ‘Twin' is used with symbolic meaning, pointing to the twofold nature of this apostle, in whom unbelief and faith, hope and tendency to despair, were strangely blended. With this statement the first paragraph of this narrative ends. The last words, ‘Let us also go, that we may die with him,' fitly close a section which, as Luthardt remarks, is dominated by the thought of death.