John 12:15

Joh 12:15. Μὴ φοβοῦ, fear not) The Majesty of so great a King might well excite fear: but His mildness, to which His mode of entry corresponds, takes away fear.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

(15) Fear not, daughter of Sion.—The quotation is made freely, and in an abbreviated form. (Comp. the fuller form in Mat_21:5, and Note upon it there.) It is in the two Hebrew Gospels only that the connection of the fact with the prophecy is mentioned.

Sitting on an ass’s colt.—The Greek (LXX.) has “a young ass.” St. John’s translation is nearer to the Hebrew. (Comp. Introduction, p. 374).

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

15. Fear not, &c. The quotation is freely made; ‘fear not’ is substituted for ‘rejoice greatly,’ and the whole is abbreviated, Zec_9:9. In adding ‘thy’ to ‘king’ and in writing ‘an ass’s colt’ the Evangelist seems to be translating direct from the Hebrew. The best editions of the LXX. omit ‘thy’ and all have ‘a young colt’ for the words here rendered ‘an ass’s colt.’ Comp. Joh_1:29, Joh_6:45, Joh_19:37. If the writer of this Gospel knew the O.T. in the original Hebrew he almost certainly was a Jew.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Fear not, daughter of Zion,.... But rejoice; see Zac 9:9 and See Gill on Mat 21:5.

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John 12:16

joh 12:16

joh 12:16

joh 12:16These things understood not his disciples at the first,.... Or "at that time", as the Syriac and Persic versions render it; or "on that day", as the Ethiopic version; they did not then know the sense of that prophecy, nor that the things which were now doing were a fulfilling of it:

but when Jesus was glorified; was raised front the dead, and ascended to heaven, and was set down at the right hand of God, crowned with glory and honour; and when having received the promise of the Father, the Holy Ghost, and his gifts, he poured them forth in a very plenteous and extraordinary manner upon them; whereby their minds were greatly illuminated, and they had a very distinct knowledge of the Scriptures of the Old Testament; and saw clearly how they severally had their accomplishment in Christ:

then remembered they that these things were written of him; in the prophecies of the Old Testament;

and that they had done these things unto him; both the disciples and the multitude, or that these things were done to him; such as bringing the ass to him, laying their clothes on it, and setting him upon it, attending him with shoutings and hosannas to the city of Jerusalem, &c.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

15 Fear not, daughter of Sion: behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass’s colt.

Ver. 15. Sitting upon an ass] Not upon a stately palfrey, as an earthly potentate; but upon a silly ass, without pomp, to comfort the poorest, and to teach us humility, tolerance, patience. An ass is a beast profitable (whence he hath his name in the original), but born to bear burdens. {a} Oneramus asinum, saith Bernard, et non curat, quia asinus est. But what notorious asses are those superstitious Papists, that show the ass’s tail in Genoa in Italy, whereon our Saviour rode, for a relic, and give it divine worship. Are not these given up to the very efficacy of error?

{a} ονος, παρα το ονηααθαι. Hinc Heradidae Sophistae, πσυου εγκωηρον, ονου dixit εγκωμιον.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John, as well as Matthew, sees here a symbolical fulfillment of what had been declared by one of the latest of the prophets, as the peculiarity of the Messiah: (Zec_9:9) Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass"s colt. This oracle is admitted by commentators of opposite schools to refer to the Messiah. There was no need, in order to fulfill the spirit of the whole passage, that the King should come to his own literally upon the back of a beast of burden. The prophecy does, however, suggest the modesty, the absence of all pomp or display of worldly wealth and power; nay, the humiliation on the part of the true King. Both Matthew and John omit the characteristics of "righteous and saved,i.e. "delivered" from the hands of his cruel enemies. The suffering Servant of God of the great oracle of Isaiah 53. was in the mind of the Prophet Zechariah, and he adds this feature to the triumphant coming of the true Prince of Peace, that he would "cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem," i.e. so act that even the national pride and power and military prowess should come to an end; "Speak peace to the nations; rule from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth." As John and Matthew both see the symbolical fulfillment of the prophecy, they doubtless would have us bear in mind the whole passage. John transforms the "Rejoice greatly, shout," etc., of the prophet into Fear not." He seems to take it at one stage only of fulfillment, when anxiety might momentarily be put to rest. The Fear not" is a lower form of "great rejoicing." It is something for men to dismiss their doubts and hush their unrest, even when they cannot burst into song. Hengstenberg and Godet urge that the "meekness and lowliness" to which the prophet referred, and which Matthew cited from him, was imaged in the lowly beast on which never man sat. But it must not be forgotten that the ass was used by distinguished personages. (Jud_1:5:9, 10 10:4 2Sa_17:23 2Sa_19:26) And all that was really meant by it was the choice of a creature associated rather with daily life than with military display. Meyer and Moulton urge that it was a chosen symbol of peace. (kayhmenov is substituted for the epibebhkw of the LXX and Mat_21:5) Contrary to Keim"s animadversion, our Lord and his disciples adopted here the idea of a Jewish Messiah, stripping it of its worldly characteristics. It should be observed that, while John"s narrative is in harmony with the synoptists, he greatly abbreviates it.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Fear not - For his meekness forbids fear, as well as the end of his coming. Zech. ix, 9.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

15. μὴ φοβοῦ. The quotation is freely made from Zec 9:9: μὴ φοβοῦ is substituted for χαῖρε σφόδρα, and the whole is abbreviated. In writing ὁ βας. σου and πῶλον ὄνου the Evangelist seems to be translating direct from the Hebrew. The best editions of LXX. omit σου, and all have πῶλον νέον. Comp. Joh 1:29, Joh 6:45, Joh 19:37. If the writer of this Gospel knew the O.T. in Hebrew, he almost certainly was a Jew.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

15.] The prophecy is more fully cited by Matt.

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

15. The quotation is from Zec 9:9, in an abbreviated form. The LXX has πῶλον νέον, whereas Jn. has πῶλον ὄνου, a more literal rendering of the Hebrew; for the opening words, “Exult greatly,” he gives μὴ φοβοῦ. Mk. and Lk., while narrating the entry into Jerusalem, do not quote the prophecy. Mt. (21:5) gives it in the form Εἴπατε τῇ θυγατρὶ Σιών, Ἰδού, ὁ βασιλεύς σου ἔρχεταί σοι πραῢς καὶ ἐπιβεβηκὼς ἐπὶ ὄνον καὶ ἐπὶ πῶλον υἱὸν ὑποζυγίου. Jn. notes (v. 16) that the application of this prophecy of Zechariah to the entry of Jesus was not thought of until a later time; but Mt. introduces his account with the formula ἵνα πληρωθῇ τὸ ῥηθὲν διὰ τοῦ προφήτου λέγοντος … (see Introd., p. cliv).

The full quotation, as given by Mt., is misleading. The story, as told by the other evangelists, is simply that an ass’s colt was found and that Jesus rode on it. But Mt., misunderstanding the Hebrew repetition in Zec 9:9,

“… upon an ass,

and upon a colt, the foal of a she-ass,”

where only one animal is indicated, tells us that two animals were fetched,1 and garments put on them that they might be ridden. Jn., on the contrary, gives only that part of the prophecy which is relevant, sc. “sitting on an ass’s colt.”

It is not to be thought that there is any suggestion of humility in riding upon an ass. On the contrary, the ass and the mule were the animals used in peace by great persons for their progresses, as the horse was used in war. The sons of the judges rode upon asses (Jdg 10:4, Jdg 12:14); so did Ahithophel (2Sa 17:23); so did Mephibosheth, Saul’s son, when he went to Jerusalem to meet David (2Sa 19:26); cf. Jdg 5:10. Indeed Zec 9:10 shows plainly that the prophecy was specially of One coming in peace.

The LXX translators did not understand this. They have πώλους only in Jdg 10:4, Jdg 12:14, probably because they thought of an ass as a beast of burden exclusively; thus in Zec 9:9 they have not noticed that אָתוֹן is the regular word for she-ass (Gen 32:15), which may be either used for riding or for carrying loads.

The king, then, in the vision of Zechariah, rode upon an ass to signify that he came in peace, not to destroy but to save; and the entry of Jesus to Jerusalem on an ass was understood by the populace, in like manner, as the entry of the Prince of Peace.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.