John 1:52

52.] ἀμὴν ἀμήν is peculiar to John. The other Evangelists use ἀμήν once only in such asseverations. The LXX do not use it in this sense. Stier remarks (i. 36, edn. 2), that the Verily, verily, I say unto you of the Lord, is spoken in His coequality with the Father: not as the ‘Thus saith the Lord’ of the Prophets.

ὑμῖν] The words following are then spoken to all the disciples present, not only to Nathanael.

With or without ἀπʼ ἄρτι, the meaning will be much the same. The glories of a period beginning from the opening of the Lord’s public ministry, and at this day not yet completed, are described. For it is not the outward visible opening of the material heavens, nor ascent and descent of angels in the sight of men, which our Lord here announces; but the series of glories which was about to be unfolded in His Person and Work from that time forward. Lüther, cited by Lücke, i. 458, beautifully says: “When Christ became man and had entered on His ministerial office and begun to preach, then was the heaven opened, and remains open; and has from that time, since the baptism of Christ in the Jordan, never been shut, and never will be shut, although we do not see it with our bodily eyes … Christ says this: ‘Ye are now heavenly citizens, and have your citizenship above in the heavenly Jerusalem, and are in communion with the holy angels, who shall without intermission ascend and descend about you.’ ”

The opening of heaven is a symbolical expression, signifying the imparting of divine grace, help, and revelation. See Gen 28:10-17: Eze 1:1: Isa 6:1: Mal 3:10: Isa 64:1: also Deu 11:17: 1Ki 8:35.

The words have a plain reference to the ladder of Jacob, and imply that what he then saw was now to receive its fulfilment: that He, the Son of Man, was the dwelling of God and the gate of Heaven, and that through Him, and on Him in the first place, was to descend all communication of help and grace from above.

That no allusion is meant to the Transfiguration, or the Agony, is plain; for all those here addressed did not witness these appearances, but Peter and John only; nor to the Ascension, for they did not see heaven opened, nor did angels ascend nor descend.

The above has (remarks Olsh. ii. 79) been the interpretation of all Commentators of any depth in all times: Origen as well as Augustine, Luther as well as Calvin, Lücke as well as Tholuck: and I may add, De Wette as well as Stier.

τὸν υἱ. τ. ἀνθ.] An expression originally (as appears) derived, in its Messianic sense, from Dan 7:13, Dan 7:14, and thenceforward used as one of the titles of the Messiah (see ch. 12:34). It is never predicated of our Lord by any but Himself, except in Act 7:56 by Stephen, in allusion apparently to Mat 26:64, and—which is hardly an exception—in the passages of the Revelation (ch. 1:13; 14:14) which are almost citations from Daniel.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.