The Expositor's Bible: The Gospel of St John Volume I Part 1

The Expositor's Bible: The Gospel of St. John.

Vol. I.

by Marcus Dods.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

In order to read the Gospel of St. John with some intelligence, it is necessary to understand its purpose and its plan. For in the whole range of literature there is no composition which is a more perfect work of art, or which more rigidly excludes whatever does not subserve its main end. From the first word to the last there is no paragraph, sentence, or expression which is out of its place, or with which we could dispense.

Part hangs together with part in perfect balance. The sequence may at times be obscure, but sequence there always is. The relevancy of this or that remark may not at first sight be apparent, but irrelevancy is impossible to this writer.

The object which the Evangelist had in view in writing this Gospel we are not left to find out for ourselves. He explicitly says that his purpose in writing was to promote the belief that "Jesus is the Christ, the Son of G.o.d" (chap. xx. 31). This purpose, he judges, he will best accomplish, not by writing an essay, nor by framing an abstract argument in advocacy of the claims of Jesus, but by reproducing in his Gospel those manifestations of His glory which elicited faith in the first disciples and in others. That which had produced faith in his own case and in that of his fellow-disciples, will, he thinks, if fairly set before men, produce faith in them also. He relates, therefore, with the utmost simplicity of language, the scenes in which Jesus seemed to him most significantly to have revealed His power and His goodness, and most forcibly to have demonstrated that the Father was in Him. At the same time he keeps steadily in view the circ.u.mstance that these manifestations had not always produced faith, but that alongside of a growing faith there ran an increasing unbelief which at length a.s.sumed the form of hostility and outrage. This unbelief he feels called upon to account for. He feels called upon to demonstrate that its true reason lay, not in the inadequacy of Christ's manifestations, but in the unreasonable and unspiritual requirements of the unbelieving, and in their alienation from G.o.d. The Gospel thus forms the primary apologetic, which by its very simplicity and closeness to reality touches at every point the underlying causes and principles of faith and unbelief.

The object of the Gospel being kept in view, the plan is at once perceived. Apart from the Prologue (chap. i. 118) and the Appendix (chap. xxi.), the body of the work falls into two nearly equal parts, chaps. i. 19xii., and xiii.xx. In the former part the Evangelist relates, with a singular felicity of selection, the scenes in which Jesus made those self-revelations which it was most important that men should understand, and the discussions in which their full significance was brought out. Thus he shows how the glory of Christ was manifested at the marriage in Cana, in the cleansing of the Temple, in the conversation with the Samaritans, in the healing of the impotent man, in the feeding of the five thousand, in the cure of the man born blind; and how, through these various signs or object-lessons, Jesus makes Himself known as the Life, the Light, the Judge of men, or, in one word, as the Son doing the Father's works, manifesting the Father's presence, disclosing in His various words and deeds "the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."

These manifestations culminate in the raising of Lazarus, recorded in the eleventh chapter. This final sign, while in "many of the Jews" (xi.

45) it produced faith, aggravated at the same time the unbelief of the authorities, who "from that day forth took counsel together for to put Him to death" (xi. 53). The twelfth chapter, therefore, holds a place by itself. In it we have three incidents related, and all related for the same purpose, namely, to demonstrate that there was now no further need of such manifestations of the glory of Jesus as had already been given, and that all things were now ripe for the catastrophe. The incidents in which this became apparent were Mary's anointing of Jesus, His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and the enquiry of the Greeks. By introducing these three incidents together at this point, John wishes to show (1) that Jesus was now embalmed in the love of His intimate friends, (2) that He had found in the untutored instincts of the people a response to His claim, and (3) that even in the still wider circle of the outlying nations His name was known. He may, therefore, now safely finish His self-revelation. It has done its work. And the completeness of its result is seen, not only in this widely-extended impression and firmly-rooted attachment, but also in the maturity of unbelief which now took active steps to take Jesus and put Him to death.

This part of the Gospel therefore appropriately closes with the words: "These things spake Jesus and departed, and did hide Himself from them"

(xii. 36). The public manifestation of Jesus is closed.

Between the first and the second part of the Gospel there is interposed a paragraph (xii. 3750), in which John briefly points out that the rejection of Jesus by the Jews was no more than had been predicted by the prophet Isaiah, and that it reflects no suspicion on the manifestations of His relation to the Father which Jesus had made. He then sums up in one or two sentences the significance and consequences of receiving and of rejecting Jesus.

In the second part of the Gospel the writer is still guided by the same purpose of showing how Jesus manifested His glory. This is obvious not merely from the contents of this second part, but also from the fact that in the language of John the death of Jesus is constantly referred to as His glorification, being the "lifting up" which was an essential step to, or part of, His glorification. Before entering upon the last scenes, which are described in chaps. xiii.xix., Jesus is a.s.sured that in His death the Father is to glorify His Name (xii. 28); and in the prayer recorded in the seventeenth chapter, which closes the explanations which our Lord Himself made of His work, it is still the manifestation of His glory that is in His thoughts. The characteristic which distinguishes this second part of the Gospel is, that Jesus no longer manifests His glory to the people in signs of manifest power, but now, in chapters xiii.xvii., further discloses His glory privately to the Twelve; and in chapters xviii. and xix. pa.s.ses triumphantly through the ultimate trial which still lay between Him and the final consummation of His glory. That this final glory has been achieved is witnessed by the Resurrection, the record of which, and of its results in faith, occupies the twentieth chapter. De Wette has the credit of being the first to discern that the entire Gospel is held together by this idea of the manifestation of Christ's glory, and that "the glory of our Lord appears in all its brightness in the second part of the narrative (xiii.xx.), and that (_a_) inwardly and morally in His sufferings and death (xiii.xix.), and (_b_) outwardly and sensibly, in the triumphant event of the Resurrection."

The best tabulated division of the Gospel with which I am acquainted is that which the Rev. A. Halliday Douglas, M.A., of Huntly, has printed for private circulation. By the kindness of the author I am allowed to publish it here.

THE DIVISIONS OF ST. JOHN'S GOSPEL.

THE PROLOGUE OR INTRODUCTION. Chap. i. 118.

PART I. _The Manifestation of Christ's Glory in Life and Power._ Chap. i. 19xii. 36.

1. Christ's Announcement of Himself, and the Beginnings of Faith and Unbelief. Chap. i. 19iv.

2. The Period of Conflict. Chap. v.xii. 36.

THE EVANGELIST'S PAUSE FOR REFLECTION, AND REVIEW OF CHRIST'S TEACHING. Chaps. xii. 3650.

PART II. _The Manifestation of Christ's Glory in Suffering and Death._ Chaps. xiii.xx.

1. Moral Victory in Suffering:-

_a._ In Antic.i.p.ation. Chaps. xiii.xvii. [_Faith_ finally settled in the disciples, and _unbelief_ cast out from among them.]

_b._ In the Actual Struggle. Chaps. xviii., xix. [Unbelief apparently victorious, faith scarcely saved.]

2. Actual Victory over Death. Chap. xx. [Faith proved right, and unbelief condemned.]

THE EPILOGUE OR APPENDIX. Chap. xxi.

I.

_THE INCARNATION._

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with G.o.d, and the Word was G.o.d. The same was in the beginning with G.o.d. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that hath been made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light s.h.i.+neth in the darkness; and the darkness apprehended it not. There came a man, sent from G.o.d, whose name was John. The same came for witness, that he might bear witness of the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came that he might bear witness of the light. There was the true light, even the light which lighteth every man, coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and they that were His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He the right to become children of G.o.d, even to them that believe on His name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of G.o.d. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father), full of grace and truth. John beareth witness of Him, and crieth, saying, This was He of whom I said, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for He was before me. For of His fulness we all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man hath seen G.o.d at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him."-JOHN i. 118.

In this brief introduction to his Gospel John summarises its contents, and presents an abstract of the history he is about to relate in detail.

That the Eternal Word, in whom was the life of all things, became flesh and was manifested among men; that some ignored while others recognised Him, that some received while others rejected Him,-this is what John desires to exhibit at large in his Gospel, and this is what he summarily states in this compact and pregnant introductory pa.s.sage. He briefly describes a Being whom he names "The Word;" he explains the connection of this Being with G.o.d and with created things; he tells how He came to the world and dwelt among men, and he remarks upon the reception He met with. What is summed up in these propositions is unfolded in the Gospel.

It narrates in detail the history of the manifestation of the Incarnate Word, and of the faith and unbelief which this manifestation evoked.

John at once introduces us to a Being whom he speaks of as "The Word."

He uses the term without apology, as if already it were familiar to his readers; and yet he adds a brief description of it, as if possibly they might attach to it ideas incompatible with his own. He uses it without apology, because in point of fact it already had circulation both among Greek and Jewish thinkers. In the Old Testament we meet with a Being called "The Angel of the Lord," who is at once closely related, if not equivalent, to Jehovah, and at the same time manifested to men. Thus when the Angel of the Lord had appeared to Jacob and wrestled with him, Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, for, said he, "I have seen G.o.d face to face."[1] In the apocryphal books of the Old Testament the Wisdom and the Word of G.o.d are poetically personified, and occupy the same relation to G.o.d on the one hand, and to man on the other, which was filled by the Angel of the Lord. And in the time of Christ "the Word of the Lord" had become the current designation by which Jewish teachers denoted the manifested Jehovah. In explaining the Scriptures, to make them more intelligible to the people, it was customary to subst.i.tute for the name of the infinitely exalted Jehovah the name of Jehovah's manifestation, "the Word of the Lord."

Beyond Jewish circles of thought the expression would also be readily understood. For not among the Jews only, but everywhere, men have keenly felt the difficulty of arriving at any certain and definite knowledge of the Eternal One. The most rudimentary definition of G.o.d, by declaring Him to be a Spirit, at once and for ever dissipates the hope that we can ever see Him, as we see one another, with the bodily eye. This depresses and disturbs the soul. Other objects which invite our thought and feeling we easily apprehend, and our intercourse with them is level to our faculties. It is, indeed, the unseen and intangible spirit of our friends which we value, not the outward appearance. But we scarcely separate the two; and as we reach and know and enjoy our friends through the bodily features with which we are familiar, and the words that strike upon our ear, we instinctively long for intercourse with G.o.d and knowledge of Him as familiar and convincing. We put out our hand, but we cannot touch Him. Nowhere in this world can we see Him more than we see Him here and now. If we pa.s.s to other worlds, there, too, He is concealed from our sight, inhabiting no body, occupying no place. Job is not alone in his painful and baffling search after G.o.d. Thousands continually cry with him, "Behold, I go forward, but He is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive Him: on the left hand, where He doth work, but I cannot behold Him: He hideth Himself on the right hand, that I cannot see Him."

In various ways, accordingly, men have striven to alleviate the difficulty of mentally apprehending an invisible, infinite, incomprehensible G.o.d. One theory, struck out by the pressure of the difficulty, and frequently advanced, was not altogether incompatible with the ideas suggested by John in this prologue. This theory was accustomed, although with no great definiteness or security, to bridge the chasm between the Eternal G.o.d and His works in time by interposing some middle being or beings which might mediate between the known and the unknown. This link between G.o.d and His creatures, which deemed to make G.o.d and His relation to material things more intelligible, was sometimes spoken of as "The Word of G.o.d." This seemed an appropriate name by which to designate that through which G.o.d made Himself known, and by which He came into relations with things and persons not Himself. Vague indeed was the conception formed even of this intermediary Being. But of this term "the Word," and of the ideas that centred in it, John took advantage to proclaim Him who is the manifestation of the Eternal, the Image of the Invisible.[2]

The t.i.tle itself is full of significance. The word of a man is that by which he utters himself, by which he puts himself in communication with other persons and deals with them. By his word he makes his thought and feeling known, and by his word he issues commands and gives effect to his will. His word is distinct from his thought, and yet cannot exist separate from it. Proceeding from the thought and will, from that which is inmost in us and most ourselves, it carries upon itself the imprint of the character and purpose of him who utters it. It is the organ of intelligence and will. It is not mere noise, it is sound instinct with mind, and articulated by intelligent purpose. By a man's word you could perfectly know him, even though you were blind and could never see him.

Sight or touch could give you but little fuller information regarding his character if you had listened to his word. His word is his character in expression.

Similarly, the Word of G.o.d is G.o.d's power, intelligence, and will in expression; not dormant and potential only, but in active exercise.

G.o.d's Word is His will going forth with creative energy, and communicating life from G.o.d, the Source of life and being. "Without Him was not any thing made that was made." He was prior to all created things and Himself with G.o.d, and G.o.d. He is G.o.d coming into relation with other things, revealing Himself, manifesting Himself, communicating Himself. The world is not itself G.o.d; things created are not G.o.d, but the intelligence and will that brought them into being, and which now sustain and regulate them, these are G.o.d. And between the works we see and the G.o.d who is past finding out, there is the Word, One who from eternity has been with G.o.d, the medium of the first utterance of G.o.d's mind and the first forthputting of His power; as close to the inmost nature of G.o.d, and as truly uttering that nature, as our word is close to and utters our thought, _capable of being used by no one besides, but by ourselves only_.

It is apparent, then, why John chooses this t.i.tle to designate Christ in His pre-existent life. No other t.i.tle brings out so clearly the identification of Christ with G.o.d, and the function of Christ to reveal G.o.d. It was a term which made the transition easy from Jewish Monotheism to Christian Trinitarianism. Being already used by the strictest Monotheists to denote a spiritual intermediary between G.o.d and the world, it is chosen by John as the appropriate t.i.tle of Him through whom all revelation of G.o.d in the past has been mediated, and who has at length finished revelation in the person of Jesus Christ. The term itself does not explicitly affirm personality; but what it helps us to understand is, that this same Being, the Word, who manifested and uttered G.o.d in creation, reveals Him now in humanity. John wishes to bring the incarnation and the new spiritual world it produced into line with the creation and G.o.d's original purpose therein. He wishes to show us that this greatest manifestation of G.o.d is not an abrupt departure from previous methods, but is the culminating expression of methods and principles which have ever governed the activity of G.o.d. Jesus Christ, who reveals the Father now in human nature, is the same Agent as has ever been expressing and giving effect to the Father's will in the creation and government of all things. The same Word who now utters G.o.d in and through human nature, has ever been uttering Him in all His works.

All that G.o.d has done is to be found in the universe, partly visible and partly known to us. There G.o.d may be found, because there He has uttered Himself. But science tells us that in this universe there has been a gradual development from lower to higher, from imperfect towards perfect worlds; and it tells us that man is the last result of this process. In man the creature at last becomes intelligent, self-conscious, endowed with will, capable to some extent of meeting and understanding its Creator. Man is the last and fullest expression of G.o.d's thought, for in man and man's history G.o.d finds room for the utterance not merely of His wisdom and power, but of what is most profoundly spiritual and moral in His nature. In man G.o.d finds a creature who can sympathise with His purposes, who can respond to His love, who can give exercise to the whole fulness of G.o.d.

But in saying that "the Word become flesh" John says much more than that G.o.d through the Word created man, and found thus a more perfect means of revealing Himself. The Word created the visible world, but He did not become the visible world. The Word created all men, but He did not become the human race, but one Man, Christ Jesus. No doubt it is true that all men in their measure reveal G.o.d, and it is conceivable that some individual should fully ill.u.s.trate all that G.o.d meant to reveal by human nature. It is conceivable that G.o.d should so sway a man's will and purify his character that the human will should be from first to last in perfect harmony with the Divine, and that the human character should exhibit the character of G.o.d. An ideal man might have been created, G.o.d's ideal of man might have been realized, and still we should have had no incarnation. For a perfect man is not all we have in Christ. A perfect man is one thing, the Word Incarnate is another. In the one the personality, the "I" that uses the human nature, is human; in the other, the personality, the "I," is Divine.

By becoming flesh the Word submitted to certain limitations, perhaps impossible for us to define. While in the flesh He could reveal only what human nature was competent to reveal. But as the human nature had been created in the likeness of the Divine, and as, therefore, "good"

and "evil" meant the same to man as to G.o.d, the limitation would not be felt in the region of character.

The process of the Incarnation John describes very simply: "The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us." The Word did not become flesh in the sense that He was turned into flesh, ceasing to be what He had previously been, as a boy who becomes a man ceases to be a boy. In addition to what He already was He a.s.sumed human nature, at once enlarging His experience and limiting His present manifestations of Divinity to what was congruous to human nature and earthly circ.u.mstance.

The Jews were familiar with the idea of G.o.d "dwelling" with His people.

At the birth of their nation, while they were still dwelling in tents outside the land of promise, G.o.d had His tent among the s.h.i.+fting tents of the people, sharing all the vicissitudes of their wandering life, abiding with them even in their thirty-eight years' exclusion from their land, and thus sharing even their punishment. By the word John here uses he links the body of Christ to the ancient dwelling of G.o.d round which the tents of Israel had cl.u.s.tered. G.o.d now dwelt among men in the humanity of Jesus Christ. The tabernacle was human, the indwelling Person was Divine. In Christ is realized the actual presence of G.o.d among His people, the actual entrance into and personal partic.i.p.ation in human history, which was hinted at in the tabernacle and the temple.