John 10:22

And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter. AND - or rather, 'Now,' as beginning a new subject, IT WAS AT JERUSALEM THE FEAST OF THE DEDICATION. Recent interpreters, with few exceptions, conclude, from the silence of the Evangelist, that our Lord must have remained during the whole interval between the Feast of Tabernacles and this of the Dedication-a period of about two months and a half-either in Jerusalem or its immediate neighbourhood. But the opening words of this section - "Now it was at Jerusalem," etc.-imply, we think, the reverse. If our Lord remained so very long at the capital at this time, it was contrary certainly to His invariable practice; and considering how the enmity and exasperation of His enemies were drawing to a head, it does not seem to us very likely. But to suppose, with some harmonists, that our Lord went back during this interva...

22._And it was the feast of Dedication. _The Greek word ( ἐγκαίνια) which we have translated _dedication_, (298) properly signifies _renovations_; because the temple, which had been polluted, was again consecrated by the command of Judas Maccabaeus; and at that time it was enacted that the day of the new _dedication _or _consecration _should be celebrated every year as a festival, that the people might recall to remembrance the grace of God, which had put an end to the tyranny of Antiochus. Christ appeared _in the temple _at that time, according to custom, that his preaching might yield more abundant fruit amidst a large assembly of men....

22-30 All who have any thing to say to Christ, may find him in the temple. Christ would make us to believe; we make ourselves doubt. The Jews understood his meaning, but could not form his words into a full charge against him. He described the gracious disposition and happy state of his sheep; they heard and believed his word, followed him as his faithful disciples, and none of them should perish; for the Son and the Father were one. Thus he was able to defend his sheep against all their enemies, which proves that he claimed Divine power and perfection equally with the Father....

Verse 22. _THE FEAST OF THE DEDICATION_] This was a feast instituted by _Judas Maccabeus_, in commemoration of his purifying the temple after it had been defiled by _Antiochus Epiphanes_. This feast began on the twenty-fifth of the month _Cisleu_, (which answers to the eighteenth of our December,) and continued for eight days. When Antiochus had heard that the Jews had made great rejoicings, on account of a report that had been spread of his death, he hastened out of Egypt to Jerusalem, took the city by storm, and slew of the inhabitants in three days _forty thousand_ _persons_; and _forty thousand_ more he sold for _slaves_ to the neighbouring nations. Not contented with this, he sacrificed a great _sow_ on the altar of burnt offerings; and, broth being made by his command of some of the flesh, he sprinkled it all over the temple, that he might defile it to the uttermost. See Prideaux'...

THE FEAST OF THE DEDICATION - Literally, the feast of the renewing, or of the renovation. This feast was instituted by Judas Maccabaeus, in the year 164 b.c. The temple and city were taken by Antiochus Epiphanes in the year 167 b.c. He killed 40,000 inhabitants, and sold 40,000 more as slaves. In addition to this, he sacrificed a sow on the altar of burnt-offerings, and a broth being made of this, he sprinkled it all over the temple. The city and temple were recovered three years afterward by Judas Maccabaeus, and the temple was purified with great pomp and solemnity. The ceremony of purification continued through eight days, during which Judas presented magnificent victims, and celebrated the praise of God with hymns and psalms (Josephus, Ant., b. xii. ch. 11). “They decked, also, the forefront of the temple with crowns of gold and with shields, and the gates and chambers they renewed a...

EXPOSITION JOHN 10:1 5. _Christ the Shepherd of the flock of God_._ _The discourse which now follows was the Lord's parabolic or allegoric reply to the conduct of the Pharisaic malignants. These men, claiming to be infallible guides of the ignorant, to be veritable shepherds of the flock of God, had ignored the advent of the true and good Shepherd, had opposed the Divine call and supreme claim of the Messiah, had set themselves to disturb and dislocate the relations between him and those who saw his glory and found in him the Consolation of Israel. They had excommunicated the adoring disciple who had passed out of lifelong darkness into marvelous light. They had exaggerated the faint glimmer of light which had broken upon their own blindness into true vision. They had said, "We see," and thus shown themselves to be willfully

AND IT WAS AT JERUSALEM THE FEAST OF THE DEDICATION,.... That is, of the temple; not as built by Solomon, as Nonnus in his paraphrase suggests; or as rebuilt by Zerubabel, for there were no annual feasts appointed in commemoration of either of these; and besides, they were neither of them in the winter time; the dedication of Solomon's temple was in autumn, at the feast of tabernacles, about September, 1 Kings 8:2; and the dedication of the house in Zorobabel's time, was in the spring, about February, Ezra 6:15; but this was the feast of dedication, appointed by Judas Maccabaeus and his brethren, on account of the purging the temple, and renewing the altar, after the profanation of them by Antiochus; which feast lasted eight days, and began on the twenty fifth of the month Cisleu, which answers to part of our December

John 10:1. _Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber._ The positiveness of our Lord's teaching is noteworthy. Whatever may be said about dogmatical teaching now, it is certain that his teaching is of that character. He does not raise questions, but he solves them. He does not suggest probabilities, but he declares certainties. This might be taken as the key-word to all the Saviour's teaching, «Verily, verily.» He makes a strong asseveration; he speaks as one having authority, not as the scribes who only claimed to have authority, but as the Sent One of the Father who really has it: «Verily, verily, I say unto you.» Whatever comes to us with the imprimatur of the «Verily, verily,» of the Son of God is not to be questioned or doubted by us for a single moment. «He that entereth not

JOHN 10:22 to,te {B} Of the four variant readings, de. to,te (1321 copsamss, bo, ach2) can be dismissed as a conflation, and the absence of any particle (¦1 565 1010 1344 ita, b syrs geo1 _al_) is due either to an accident in transmission or to deliberate omission at the beginning of a lection. Both to,te and de, are well attested. In view of the preceding evge,neto the origin of either reading (egenetotote or egenetode) is susceptible of explanation on transcriptional grounds (dittography or haplography), followed by confusion (not infrequent in...

CHAPTER 10 _ 1. The Shepherd of the Sheep. (John 10:1 .)_ 2. The Good Shepherd, His Sheep and His Work. (John 10:6 .) 3. At the Feast of Dedication; the Repeated Testimony. (John 10:22 .) 4. Accused of Blasphemy and His Answer. (John 10:31 .) 5. Beyond Jordan; and Many Believed on Him. (John 10:40 .) The teaching of this chapter is closely linked with the preceding event. It has become evident that the true sheep of Christ, belonging to His flock, would be cast out of the Jewish fold. The healed man cast out had become one of