John 7:35

John 7:35. The Jews therefore said among themselves, Whither is this man about to go, that we not find him? Our Lord's words were mysterious, but yet were so closely linked with His earlier teaching, as related in this very chapter, that their general meaning would be clear to every patient listener. John 7:16-17 were alone sufficient to show that ‘to Him that sent me' could only mean ‘to God.' But this impression ‘the Jews' must at all hazards avert: chap. John 8:22 shows how eagerly they sought to blunt the edge of such words as Jesus has now spoken. There they suggest that only by seeking death can He escape their search: here that it is on exile amongst Gentiles that He has now resolved. His teaching has seemed to them a complete reversal of Jewish modes of thought. No learning of the schools prepared Him for His self-chosen office (John 7:15): He accuses all Israel of having broken the law of Moses (John 7:19): He sets at naught the most rigid rules of Sabbath observance: all things show that He has no sympathy with, no tolerance for, the most firmly established laws and usages of the Jewish people. And now He is going, not to return. Where?

Is he about to go to the Dispersion of the Greeks, and teach the Greeks? Can it be that He has cast off Jews altogether and is going to Gentiles? This is said in bitter scorn, but it may have been suggested by words of Jesus not expressly recorded. In answering His brethren just before the feast (John 7:7) He had spoken of ‘the world; ‘before the end of the same feast (John 8:12) He says, ‘ I am the light of the world.' Even if we were not to accept the Jewish tradition which records that in the offering of the seventy bullocks at the feast of Tabernacles there was distinct reference to the (‘seventy') nations of the Gentile world a tradition deeply interesting and probably true we can have no difficulty in supposing that in His teaching during the festival Jesus had repeatedly used words regarding ‘the world ' which enemies might readily pervert. His interest, they say in effect, is not with Jews but with the ‘world: ' is he leaving us? then surely He is going to the world, to the heathen whom He loves. The great difficulty of this verse is the use of such a phrase as ‘the Dispersion of the Greeks.' An explanation is furnished by the thought already suggested, that the Jews, with irony and scorn, would show forth Jesus as reversing all their cherished instincts, beliefs, and usages. If a true Israelite must depart from the Holy Land, he resorts to the Dispersion of his brethren. Not so with this man: He too is departing from us, but it is a Dispersion of Gentiles, not of Israelites, that He will seek, it is Gentiles whom He will teach. As in the case of Caiaphas (chap. John 11:50-51), so here: words spoken in hate and scorn are an unconscious prophecy. He will teach and gather together the children of God that are scattered abroad, this is the very purpose of His coming. The book which is the companion to this Gospel, the Apocalypse, contains many examples of this new and (so to speak) converse application of familiar words. Thus in Revelation 1:7, we find mankind designated as ‘tribes of the earth.' It is right to say that the explanation of ‘Dispersion of the Greeks' which we have given is not that generally received. The common view is that the Jews represent Jesus as going to ‘the Dispersion amongst the Gentiles,' and, from this as a point of departure (like the apostles of Jesus afterwards), becoming a teacher of the Gentiles. We can only briefly give our reasons for dissenting from this view. (1) The meaning can hardly be obtained without straining the original words. (2) As probably many of ‘the multitude' themselves belonged to ‘the Dispersion,' the added words ‘of the Greeks' would be useless if intended as explanatory, insulting if used for depreciation. (3) The first clause becomes almost superfluous: why should they not say at once, Is He about to go amongst the Greeks? (4) The introduction of a ‘point of departure' or connecting link is most unsuitable to the present state of feeling of our Lord's enemies, ‘the Jews.'