Unabridged Commentarycritical and Explanatory on John (Robert Jamieson)
《Unabridged CommentaryCritical and Explanatory on John》(Robert Jamieson)
Commentator
At a time when the theological winds seem to change direction on a daily basis, the Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible is a welcome breath of fresh air from conservative and orthodox teachers of the Christian faith. This commentary has been a bestseller since its original publication in 1871 due to its scholarly rigor and devotional value. Robert Jamieson (1802-1880), Andrew Robert Fausset, and David Brown(1803-1897) have crafted a detailed, yet not overly technical, commentary of the Bible that holds to the historic teachings of orthodox Christianity. Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible is based on a detailed exegesis of the scriptures in the original languages and is a "must have" for those who are interested in a deeper appreciation of the Biblical text
Published in 1878, this is the unabridged version of Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's Commentary. This version includes the Greek and Hebrew words, along with double the content of the abridged version. Most online versions of JFB are abridged and include only a fraction of what the authors said!
It is worth noting that in the printed version, errors in spelling, punctuation, numbering, cross references have followed throughout the printing history of this one-volume edition of the Commentary. This electronic edition, then, may represent the first corrected edition.
00 Introduction
THE author of the Fourth Gospel was the younger of the two sons of Zebedee, a fisherman on the Sea of Galilee, who resided at Bethsaida, where were born Peter and Andrew his brother, and Philip also. His mother's name was Salome, who, though not without her imperfections ( Matthew 20:20-28 the Lord on one of His preaching circuits through Galilee, ministering to His bodily wants; who followed Him to the cross, and bought sweet spices to anoint Him after His burial, but, on bringing them to the grave, on the morning of the First Day of the week, found their loving services gloriously superseded by His resurrection ere they arrived. His father, Zebedee, appears to have been in good circumstances, owning a vessel of his own and having hired servants ( Mark 1:20 Evangelist, whose occupation was that of a fisherman with his father, was beyond doubt a disciple of the Baptist, and one of the two who had the first interview with Jesus. He was called while engaged at his secular occupation ( Matthew 4:21, Matthew 4:22 ( Luke 5:1-11 ( Matthew 10:2 DA COSTA calls him--and he and James his brother were named in the native tongue by Him who knew the heart, "Boanerges," which the Evangelist Mark ( Mark 3:17 doubt from their natural vehemence of character. They and Peter constituted that select triumvirate of whom But the highest honor bestowed on this disciple was his being admitted to the bosom place with his Lord at the table, as "the disciple whom Jesus loved" ( John 13:23; John 20:2 ; John 21:7, John 20:24 him by the dying Redeemer the care of His mother ( John 19:26, John 19:27 There can be no reasonable doubt that this distinction was due to a sympathy with His own spirit and mind on the part of John which the all-penetrating Eye of their common Master beheld in none of the rest; and although this was probably never seen either in his life or in his ministry by his fellow apostles, it is brought out wonderfully in his writings, which, in Christ-like spirituality, heavenliness, and love, surpass, we may freely say, all the other inspired writings.
After the effusion of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, we find him in constant but silent company with Peter, the great spokesman and actor in the infant Church until the accession of Paul. While his love to the Lord Jesus drew him spontaneously to the side of His eminent servant, and his chastened vehemence made him ready to stand courageously by him, and suffer with him, in all that his testimony to Jesus might cost him, his modest humility, as the youngest of all the apostles, made him an admiring listener and faithful supporter of his brother apostle rather than a speaker or separate actor. Ecclesiastical history is uniform in testifying that John went to Asia Minor; but it is next to certain that this could not have been till after the death both of Peter and Paul; that he resided at Ephesus, whence, as from a center, he superintended the churches of that region, paying them occasional visits; and that he long survived the other apostles. Whether the mother of Jesus died before this, or went with John to Ephesus, where she died and was buried, is not agreed. One or two anecdotes of his later days have been handed down by tradition, one at least bearing marks of reasonable probability. But it is not necessary to give them here. In the reign of Domitian (A.D. 81-96) he was banished to "the isle that is called Patmos" (a small rocky and then almost uninhabited island in the
01 Chapter 1
Verse 1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
As the Fourth Gospel was not written until the other three had become the household words and daily bread of the Church of Christ-thus preparing it, as babes are by milk, for the strong meat of this final Gospel-so, even in this Gospel, the great keynote of it, that "The Word was made Flesh," is not sounded until, by 13 introductory verses, the reader has been raised to the altitude and attempered to the air of so stupendous a truth.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Three great things are here said of The Word: First, He was "in the beginning" [ en (Greek #1722) archee (Greek #746) = b
Verse 2
The same was in the beginning with God.
The same was in the beginning with God. Here the first and second statements are combined into one; emphatically reiterating the eternal distinctness of the Word from God ("the Father"), and His association with Him in the Unity of the Godhead. But now what does this special title "The Word" import? The simplest explanation of it, we think, is this: that what a man's word is to himself-the index, manifestation, or expression of himself to others-such, in some, faint sense, is "The Word" in relation to God; "He hath declared Him" (John 1:18). For the origin and growth of this conception, see Remark 3 at the close of this section. So much for the Person of The Word. Now for His actings.
Verse 3
All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
All things were made by him - that is, "all things" in the most absolute sense; as the next clause is intended to make evident;
And without him was not any thing made that was made , [ oude (Greek #3761) hen (Greek #1520) ho (Greek #3739) gegonen (Greek #1096)]. The statement is most emphatic 'without Him was not one thing made that hath been made.' To blunt the force of this, it is alleged that the word "by" [ dia (Greek #1223)] "by him" here means no more than 'through,' or by means of'-in the sense of subordinate instrumentality, not efficient agency. But this same preposition is once and a sin used in the New Testament of God's own efficient agency in the production of all things. Thus, Romans 11:36, "Of Him" [ ex (Greek #1537)] - as their eternal Source - "and through Him" [ di' (Greek #1223) autou (Greek #846)] - by His efficient Agency - "and to Him" [ eis (Greek #1519)] - as their last End - "are all things." And in Colossians 1:16 the creation of all things-in the most absolute sense and in the way of efficient agency-is ascribed to Christ: "For by Him [ en (Greek #1722) autoo (Greek #846)] were created all things" [ ta (Greek #3588) panta (Greek #3956)] - that is, the entire universality of created things, as the all-comprehensive details that follow are intended to show - "whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him and for Him" [ ta (Greek #3588) panta (Greek #3956) di' (Greek #1223) autou (Greek #846) kai (Greek #2532) eis (Greek #1519) auton (Greek #846) ektistai (Greek #2936)]. See also Hebrews 1:10-12, where creation, in the most absolute sense, is ascribed to Christ.
Verse 4
In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
In him was life. From simple creation, or calling into existence, the Evangelist now advances to a higher idea-the communication of life. But he begins by announcing its essential and original existence in Himself, virtue of which He became the great Fontal Principle of life in all living, but specially in the highest sense of life. Accordingly, He is called "The Word of life" (1 John 1:1-2).
And the life was the light of men. It is remarkable, as Bengel notes, how frequently in Scripture light and life, on the one hand, and on the other, darkness and death, are associated: "I am the Light of the world," said Christ: "he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life" (John 8:12). Contrariwise, "Yea, though I walk," sings the sweet Psalmist, "in the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil" (Psalms 23:4). Compare Job 10:21-22. Even of God, it is said, "Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto" (1 Timothy 6:16). Here "the light of men" seems to denote all that distinctive light in men which flows from the life given them-intellectual, moral, spiritual: "For with Thee," says the Psalmist, "is the fountain of life: in Thy light shall we see light" (Psalms 36:9).
Verse 5
And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
And the light shineth in darkness - that is, in this dark fallen world; for though the Life was the light of men," they were "sitting in darkness and the shadow of death" when He came of whom our Evangelist is about to speak, with no ability to find the way either of truth or of holiness. In this thick darkness, then-in this obliquity, intellectual and moral, the light of the Living Word "shineth;" that is, by all the rays of natural or revealed teaching with which men were favoured before the Incarnation.
And the darkness comprehended it not , [ ou (Greek #3756) katelaben (Greek #2638)] - 'did not take it in.' Compare Romans 1:28, "They did not like to retain God in their knowledge." Thus does our Evangelist, by hinting at the inefficacy of all the strivings of the unincarnate Word, gradually pave the way for the announcement of that final remedy-the Incarnation. Compare 1 Corinthians 1:21.
Verse 6
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. In approaching his grand thesis-the historical manifestation of the Word-our Evangelist begins with him who was at once a herald to announce Him and a foil to set off His surpassing glory. This-by the way-is sufficient to show that the five foregoing verses are not to be understood of the Incarnate Word, or of Christ's life and actions while He was upon the earth; as is alleged, not by Socinians only, but by some sound critics too-over-jealous of anything that seems to savour of the mystical, metaphysical, or transcendental in Scripture.
Verse 7
The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.
The same came for a witness [ eis (G1519) marturian (G3141), rather, 'for witness,'] to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him (John) might believe.
Verse 8
He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.
He was not that Light [rather, 'The Light' to (G3588) Foos (G5457)], but [was sent] to bear witness of that (or 'The') Light. Noble testimony this to John, that it should be necessary, or even pertinent, to explain that he was not The Light! But John found it necessary himself to make this disavowal (John 1:19-21); and certainly none could be more deeply penetrated and affected by the contrast between himself and his blessed Master than he (See the notes at Luke 3:15-16; and at John 3:27-34.) From the very first he saw and rejoiced to think that his own night-taper was to wax dim before the Day-spring from on high (John 3:30).
Verse 9
That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. So certainly this verse may be rendered (with most of the Fathers and the Vulgate; and of the moderns, with Luther, Erasmus, Calvin, Beza, Bengel, Meyer, Van Osterzee). But "coming into the world," besides being rather a superfluous, is in Scripture quite an unusual, description of "every man." [It has been observed too-and the remark has great force-that the article ton (Greek #3588) should in that case have been inserted before erchomenon (Greek #2064)], On the other hand, of all our Evangelist's descriptions of Christ, none is more familiar than His "coming into the world." See John 3:19; John 6:14; John 12:46; John 18:37; and compare 1 John 4:9; 1 Timothy 1:15, etc. In this view of the words the sense will be, 'That was the true Light which, coming into the world, lighteth every man,' or became "The Light of the World." [So substantially Lampe, Lucke, De Wette Tholuck Olshausen, Luthardt, Ewald, Alford, Webster and Wilkinson.] If this be the Evangelist's meaning, it beautifully carries on his train of thought in John 1:4-5 : q.d., 'The Life was the Light of men; and though men resisted it when it shone but faintly before the Incarnation yet when it came into the world (by the Personal assumption of flesh, about to be mentioned), it proved itself the one all illuminating Light.'
Verse 10
He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
He was in the world (as already hinted, and presently to be more explicitly announced), and the world was made by him - for, as has been said "all things were made by him,"
And the world (that is, the intelligent world), knew him not. The language here is hardly less wonderful than the thought. Observe its compact simplicity and grand sonorousness - "the world" resounding in each successive member of the sentence, and the enigmatic form in which it is couched startling the reader, and setting his ingenuity a-working to solve the vast enigma of 'The world's Maker treading on and yet ignored by the world He made!
Verse 11
He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
He came unto his own [ ta (G3588) idia (G2398)], and his own [ hoi (Greek #3588) idioi (Greek #2398)]. It is impossible to give in English the full force of this verse. In the first clause it is 'His own [things]'-meaning 'His own Messianic rights and possessions:' in the second clause, it is 'His own [people];' meaning the special people who were the more immediate subjects of His Messianic kingdom (see the note at Matthew 22:1).
Received him not - that is, as a people; because there were some noble exceptions, to whose case the Evangelist comes in the next clause. As for the nation, they said of Him, "This is THE HEIR, come let us kill Him" (Luke 20:14).
Verse 12
But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
But as many as received him as many individuals out of the mass of that "disobedient and gainsaying But as many as received him - as many individuals, out of the mass of that "disobedient and gainsaying people," as owned and embraced Him in His true character,
To them gave he power , [ exousian (Greek #1849)]; The word signifies either authority (potestas') or ability ('potentia') or both. Here certainly both are included; nor is it easy to say which is the prevailing shade of thought.
To become the sons of God , [ tekna (Greek #5043) Theou (Greek #2316)] - or rather, 'to become children of God; not in name and dignity only, but in nature also, as the next verse makes evident.
Even to them that believe on his name , [ eis (Greek #1519) to (Greek #3588) onoma (Greek #3686) autou (Greek #846)]. This is a phrase never used of any creature in Scripture. To 'believe one' [ pisteuein (Greek #4100) tini (Greek #5101)] means to 'give credit to a person's testimony.' This is used not only of prophets and apostles, but of Christ Himself, to signify the credit due to His testimony (as John 4:21; John 5:46-47). But to 'believe upon one,' or 'on the name of one' signifies that trust which is proper to be placed on God only; and when applied, as it is here and in so many other places, to the Lord Jesus, it signifies that the persons spoken of placed supreme faith in Him. But what kind of sonship is this to which Christ introduces such believers in Him? The next verse tells us.