John 12:20

Honour is here paid to Christ by certain Greeks that enquired or him with respect. We are not told what day of Christ's last week this was, probably not the same day he rode into Jerusalem (for that day was taken up in public work), but a day or two after.

I. We are told who they were that paid this honour to our Lord Jesus: Certain Greeks among the people who came up to worship at the feast, Joh 12:20. Some think they were Jews of the dispersion, some of the twelve tribes that were scattered among the Gentiles, and were called Greeks, Hellenist Jews; but others think they were Gentiles, those whom they called proselytes of the gate, such as the eunuch and Cornelius. Pure natural religion met with the best assistance among the Jews, and therefore those among the Gentiles who were piously inclined joined with them in their solemn meetings, as far as was allowed them. There were devout worshippers of the true God even among those that were strangers to the commonwealth of Israel. It was in the latter ages of the Jewish church that there was this flocking of the Gentiles to the temple at Jerusalem, - a happy presage of the taking down of the partition-wall between Jews and Gentiles. The forbidding of the priests to accept of any oblation or sacrifice from a Gentile (which was done by Eleazar the son of Ananias, the high priest), Josephus says, was one of those things that brought the Romans upon them, War 2.409-410. Though these Greeks, if uncircumcised, were not admitted to eat the passover, yet they came to worship at the feast. We must thankfully use the privileges we have, though there may be others from which we are shut out.

II. What was the honour they paid him: they desired to be acquainted with him, Joh 12:21. Having come to worship at the feast, they desired to make the best use they could of their time, and therefore applied to Philip, desiring that he would put them in a way to get some personal converse with the Lord Jesus. 1. Having a desire to see Christ, they were industrious in the use of proper means. They did not conclude it impossible, because he was so much crowded, to get to speak with him, nor rest in bare wishes, but resolved to try what could be done. Note, Those that would have the knowledge of Christ must seek it. 2. They made their application to Philip, one of his disciples. Some think that they had acquaintance with him formerly, and that they lived near Bethsaida in Galilee of the Gentiles; and then it teaches us that we should improve our acquaintance with good people, for our increase in the knowledge of Christ. It is good to know those who know the Lord. But if these Greeks had been near Galilee it is probable that they would have attended Christ there, where he mostly resided; therefore I think that they applied to him only because they saw him a close follower of Christ, and he was the first they could get to speak with. It was an instance of the veneration they had for Christ that they made an interest with one of his disciples for an opportunity to converse with him, a sign that they looked upon him as some great one, though he appeared mean. Those that would see Jesus by faith now that he is in heaven must apply to his ministers, whom he had appointed for this purpose, to guide poor souls in their enquiries after him. Paul must send for Ananias, and Cornelius for Peter. The bringing of these Greeks to the knowledge of Christ by the means of Philip signified the agency of the apostles, and the use made of their ministry in the conversion of the Gentiles to the faith and the discipling of the nations. 3. Their address to Philip was in short this: Sir, we would see Jesus. They gave him a title of respect, as one worthy of honour, because he was in relation to Christ. Their business is, they would see Jesus; not only see his face, that they might be able to say, when they came home, they had seen one that was so much talked of (it is probable they had seen him when he appeared publicly); but they would have some free conversation with him, and be taught by him, for which it was no easy thing to find him at leisure, his hands were so full of public work. Now that they were come to worship at the feast, they would see Jesus. Note, In our attendance upon holy ordinances, and particularly the gospel passover, the great desire of our souls should be to see Jesus; to have our acquaintance with him increased, our dependence on him encouraged, our conformity to him carried on; to see him as ours, to keep up communion with him, and derive communications of grace from him: we miss of our end in coming if we do not see Jesus. 4. Here is the report which Philip made of this to his Master, Joh 12:22. He tells Andrew, who was of Bethsaida likewise, and was a senior fellow in the college of the apostles, contemporary with Peter, and consults him what was to be done, whether he thought the motion would be acceptable or no, because Christ had sometimes said that he was not sent but to the house of Israel. They agree that it must be made; but then he would have Andrew go along with him, remembering the favourable acceptance Christ had promised them, in case two of them should agree touching any thing they should ask, Mat 18:19. Note, Christ's ministers should be helpful to one another and concur in helping souls to Christ: Two are better than one. It should seem that Andrew and Philip brought this message to Christ when he was teaching in public, for we read (Joh 12:29) of the people that stood by; but he was seldom alone.

III. Christ's acceptance of this honour paid him, signified by what he said to the people hereupon, Joh 12:23, etc., where he foretels both the honour which he himself should have in being followed (Joh 12:23, Joh 12:24) and the honour which those should have that followed him, Joh 12:25, Joh 12:26. This was intended for the direction and encouragement of these Greeks, and all others that desired acquaintance with him.

1. He foresees that plentiful harvest, in the conversion of the Gentiles, of which this was as it were the first-fruits, Joh 12:23. Christ said to the two disciples who spoke a good word for these Greeks, but doubted whether they should speed or no, The hour is come when the Son of Man shall be glorified, by the accession of the Gentiles to the church, and in order to that he must be rejected of the Jews. Observe,

(1.) The end designed hereby, and that is the glorifying of the Redeemer: "And is it so? Do the Gentiles begin to enquire after me? Does the morning-star appear to them? and that blessed day-spring, which knows its place and time too, does that begin to take hold of the ends of the earth? Then the hour is come for the glorifying of the Son of man." This was no surprise to Christ, but a paradox to those about him. Note, [1.] The calling, the effectual calling, of the Gentiles into the church of God greatly redounded to the glory of the Son of man. The multiplying of the redeemed was the magnifying of the Redeemer. [2.] there was a time, a set time, an hour, a certain hour, for the glorifying of the Son of man, which did come at last, when the days of his humiliation were numbered and finished, and he speaks of the approach of it with exultation and triumph: The hour is come.

(2.) The strange way in which this end was to be attained, and that was by the death of Christ, intimated in that similitude (Joh 12:24): "Verily, verily, I say unto you, you to whom I have spoken of my death and sufferings, except a corn of wheat fall not only to, but into, the ground, and die, and be buried and lost, it abideth alone, and you never see any more of it; but if it die according to the course of nature (otherwise it would be a miracle) it bringeth forth much fruit, God giving to every seed its own body." Christ is the corn of wheat, the most valuable and useful grain. Now here is,

[1.] The necessity of Christ's humiliation intimated. He would never have been the living quickening head and root of the church if he had not descended from heaven to this accursed earth and ascended from earth to the accursed tree, and so accomplished our redemption. He must pour out his soul unto death, else he cannot divide a portion with the great, Isa 53:12. He shall have a seed given him, but he must shed his blood to purchase them and purify, must win them and wear them. It was necessary likewise as a qualification for that glory which he was to have by the accession of multitudes to his church; for if he had not by his sufferings made satisfaction for sin, and so brought in an everlasting righteousness, he would not have been sufficiently provided for the entertainment of those that should come to him, and therefore must abide alone.

[2.] The advantage of Christ's humiliation illustrated. He fell to the ground in his incarnation, seemed to be buried alive in this earth, so much was his glory veiled; but this was not all: he died. This immortal seed submitted to the laws of mortality, he lay in the grave like seed under the clods; but as the seed comes up again green, and fresh, and flourishing, and with a great increase, so one dying Christ gathered to himself thousands of living Christians, and he became their root. The salvation of souls hitherto, and henceforward to the end of time, is all owing to the dying of this corn of wheat. Hereby the Father and the Son are glorified, the church is replenished, the mystical body is kept up, and will at length be completed; and, when time shall be no more, the Captain of our salvation, bringing many sons to glory by the virtue of his death, and being so made perfect by sufferings, shall be celebrated for ever with the admiring praises of saints and angels, Heb 2:10, Heb 2:13.

2. He foretels and promises an abundant recompence to those who should cordially embrace him and his gospel and interest, and should make it appear that they do so by their faithfulness in suffering for him or in serving him.

(1.) In suffering for him (Joh 12:25): He that loves his life better than Christ shall lose it; but he that hates his life in this world, and prefers the favour of God and an interest in Christ before it, shall keep it unto life eternal. This doctrine Christ much insisted on, it being the great design of his religion to wean us from this world, by setting before us another world.

[1.] See here the fatal consequences of an inordinate love of life; many a man hugs himself to death, and loses his life by over-loving it. He that so loves his animal life as to indulge his appetite, and make provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof, shall thereby shorten his days, shall lose the life he is so fond of, and another infinitely better. He that is so much in love with the life of the body, and the ornaments and delights of it, as, for fear of exposing it or them, to deny Christ, he shall lose it, that is, lose a real happiness in the other world, while he thinks to secure an imaginary one in this. Skin for skin a man may give for his life, and make a good bargain, but he that gives his soul, his God, his heaven, for it, buys life too dear, and is guilty of the folly of him who sold a birth-right for a mess of pottage.

[2.] See also the blessed recompence of a holy contempt of life. He that so hates the life of the body as to venture it for the preserving of the life of his soul shall find both, with unspeakable advantage, in eternal life. Note, First, It is required of the disciples of Christ that they hate their life in this world; a life in this world supposes a life in the other world, and this is hated when it is loved less than that. Our life in this world includes all the enjoyments of our present state, riches, honours, pleasures, and long life in the possession of them; these we must hate, that is, despise them as vain and insufficient to make us happy, dread the temptations that are in them, and cheerfully part with them whenever they come in competition with the service of Christ, Act 20:24; Act 21:13; Rev 12:11. See here much of the power of godliness - that it conquers the strongest natural affections; and much of the mystery of godliness - that it is the greatest wisdom, and yet makes men hate their own lives. Secondly, Those who, in love to Christ, hate their own lives in this world, shall be abundantly recompensed in the resurrection of the just. He that hateth his life shall keep it; he puts it into the hands of one that will keep it to life eternal, and restore it with as great an improvement as the heavenly life can make of the earthly one.

(2.) In serving him (Joh 12:26): If any man profess to serve me, let him follow me, as a servant follows his master; and where I am, ekei kai ho diakonos ho emos estai - there let my servant be; so some read it, as part of the duty, there let him be, to attend upon me; we read it as part of the promise, there shall he be in happiness with me. And, lest this should seem a small matter, he adds, If any man serve me, him will my Father honour; and that is enough, more than enough. The Greeks desired to see Jesus (Joh 12:21), but Christ lets them know that it was not enough to see him, they must serve him. He did not come into the world, to be a show for us to gaze at, but a king to be ruled by. And he says this for the encouragement of those who enquired after him to become his servants. In taking servants it is usual to fix both the work and the wages; Christ does both here.

[1.] Here is the work which Christ expects from his servants; and it is very easy and reasonable, and such as becomes them.

First, Let them attend their Master's movements: If any man serve me, let him follow me. Christians must follow Christ, follow his methods and prescriptions, do the things that he says, follow his example and pattern, walk as he also walked, follow his conduct by his providence and Spirit. We must go whither he leads us, and in the way he leads us; must follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes before us. "If any man serve me, if he put himself into that relation to me, let him apply himself to the business of my service, and be always ready at my call." Or, "If any man do indeed serve me, let him make an open and public profession of his relation to me, by following me, as the servant owns his Master by following him in the streets."

Secondly, Let them attend their Master's repose: Where I am, there let my servant be, to wait upon me. Christ is where his church is, in the assemblies of his saints, where his ordinances are administered; and there let his servants be, to present themselves before him, and receive instructions from him. Or, "Where I am to be in heaven, whither I am now going, there let the thoughts and affections of my servants be, there let their conversation be, where Christ sitteth." Col 3:1, Col 3:2.

[2.] Here are the wages which Christ promises to his servants; and they are very rich and noble.

First, They shall be happy with him: Where I am, there shall also my servant be. To be with him, when he was here in poverty and disgrace, would seem but poor preferment, and therefore, doubtless, he means being with him in paradise, sitting with him at his table above, on his throne there; it is the happiness of heaven to be with Christ there, Joh 17:24. Christ speaks of heaven's happiness as if he were already in it: Where I am; because he was sure of it, and near to it, and it was still upon his heart, and in his eye. And the same joy and glory which he thought recompence enough for all his services and sufferings are proposed to his servants as the recompence of theirs. Those that follow him in the way shall be with him in the end.

Secondly, They shall be honoured by his Father; he will make them amends for all their pains and loss, by conferring an honour upon them, such as becomes a great God to give, but far beyond what such worthless worms of the earth could expect to receive. The rewarder is God himself, who takes the services done to the Lord Jesus as done to himself. The reward is honour, true lasting honour, the highest honour; it is the honour that comes from God. It is said (Pro 27:18), He that waits on his Master (humbly and diligently) shall be honoured. Those that wait on Christ God will put honour upon, such as will be taken notice of another day, though now under a veil. Those that serve Christ must humble themselves, and are commonly vilified by the world, in recompence of both which they shall be exalted in due time.

Thus far Christ's discourse has reference to those Greeks who desired to see him, encouraging them to serve him. What became of those Greeks we are not told, but are willing to hope that those who thus asked the way to heaven with their faces thitherward, found it, and walked in it.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

SOME GREEKS DESIRE TO SEE JESUS--THE DISCOURSE AND SCENE THEREUPON. (John 12:20-36)

Greeks--Not Grecian Jews, but Greek proselytes to the Jewish faith, who were wont to attend the annual festivals, particularly this primary one, the Passover.

The same came therefore to Philip . . . of Bethsaida--possibly as being from the same quarter.

saying, Sir, we would see Jesus--certainly in a far better sense than Zaccheus (Luk 19:3). Perhaps He was then in that part of the temple court to which Gentile proselytes had no access. "These men from the west represent, at the end of Christ's life, what the wise men from the east represented at its beginning; but those come to the cross of the King, even as these to His manger" [STIER].

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Joh_12:20-33

And there came certain Greeks;…the same came therefore to Philip … saying, Sir, we would see Jesus

The incident and its significance

These Greeks belonged to those numerous Gentiles who, like the Ethiopian eunuch (Act_8:1-40) had embraced Judaism and came to Jerusalem to keep its festivals.

They must be carefully distinguished from the Jews (Hellenists) speaking the Greek language, who dwelt in heathen lands. The spacious court of the Gentiles was devoted to these proselytes according to the words of Solomon (1Ki_8:41-43). If these strangers witnessed the entry of Jesus, and were present at the expulsion of the sellers--an act by which Jesus restored to its proper use the only part of the sanctuary open to them--we can all the better appreciate their desire for nearer acquaintance with such a person. Assuredly they did not, like Zacchaeus, want merely to see Jesus with their bodily eyes; for such a purpose there was no need of Philips intervention, since they might have seen Him as He passed through the court. Besides, the solemnity of our Lords reply obliges us to attribute a more serious intention to this step. What they desired was to have a private conversation on religious subjects. How do we know even whether, having witnessed the opposition He encountered from the rulers of His own nation, they did not desire to invite Him to turn to the Gentiles who would better appreciate such a sage than these bigoted Jews? Eusebius has preserved the memory of an embassy sent to Jesus by Abgarus, king of Edessa, in Syria, to invite Him to take up His abode with Him, and to promise Him such a royal welcome as should compensate Him for the obstinacy with which the Jews rejected Him. This fact is not without resemblance to the one in the text, and in which we behold, in one of the first demonstrations of the heathen world in favour of the Gospel, the first indication of that attraction which its moral beauty was soon to exercise over the whole human race. Jesus was undoubtedly, at the time, in the court of the women, which was entered after crossing that of the Gentiles, and in which He frequently taught. The term approached has a certain tone of gravity and solemnity. The address, Sir, shows the respect they felt for the disciple of such a Master. They desired, expresses an action begun and awaiting its completion, the answer of Philip. Θέλομεν--We have decided to … ; procure us therefore the means--to see. These strangers used the most modest expression: to see Him more closely. The fact that Philip was of Bethsaida may serve to explain why they applied to him. They came perhaps from Decapolis on the other side of the Sea of Galilee, where were several entirely Greek cities. It is remarkable that Philip and Andrew are alone those whose names were of Greek origin. The Greek name went hand in hand with the Greek culture, Mark the cautious character of Philip. He feels the gravity of the step he is asked to take, and before asking Jesus to deviate from His habitual conduct (Mat_15:24) brings the matter before Andrew, who in all the catalogues of the apostles is placed next to Philip, and are mentioned together in chapters 1 and 6. It is probable that the latter, the more vigorous and decided character, was the spokesman, and that this is the reason why his name is placed first. Why did this circumstance make so profound an impression on Jesus? First it aroused within Him the feeling of His sovereignty over the Gentile world. Religious wants expressed by Gentiles and to Him! It is, as it were, the first bursting forth of a new world. But this sovereignty could only be realized so far as He should Himself be freed from His Jewish covering and raised to a new form of existence. Hence His thoughts turned to Calvary. Hence, instead of answering yes or no to the question, He was absorbed in the reflections it called forth, The Gentiles were knocking at the door of the kingdom of God: it was the signal that a decisive hour had come

(1) For Himself (verses 23-30);

(2) For the human race (verses 31-33);

(3) Especially for Israel (verses 34-36). (F. Godet, D. D.)

Seeing Christ

It is one of the many curious things that assure us that the Gospels themselves are substantially fragments out of the real life and times of Jesus Christ, that these men should be Greeks, at that time probably the most inquisitive and newsy race on earth. They had come, I presume, from Corinth or Ephesus; and, when they went back home, the first question would be, Whats the news? Now, the news was Jesus. He was just then the common subject of discussion; and it would be a great thing for them, when they got home, to say, We have seen Jesus, and talked with Him. And the answer of Christ, though it seems at the first glance to be no answer at all, touches the very heart of all such question and answer, and is, beside that, a beautiful instance of the rich, transcendental nature of this Son of God: Except a corn of wheat, etc. As if He would say, These men want to see Me. What can they gain by that? What they will see is not Me. The root is not the flower. This common, footsore man, with this poor brown face, so thin and worn that men think I may be nearly fifty, while I am but thirty--what can I be to men whose ideal is Apollo? My simple words about God and man, and duty and destiny, would be foolishness to them. Let them wait until the world burns with the lustre of what is sprung out of Me. When I have whispered my comfort and confidence to millions of desolate souls; when I have created new homes for purity and peace to dwell in, and brought men and women and children back to the Divine will; when the love and truth and self-sacrifice of which God has made me, though I seem but a poor peasant, shall have done what all the genius of all the ages has failed to do; when I have hushed the fevered heart of the world to rest, and quickened it into a new life--then they can see Me. But I must die to live. (R. Collyer, D. D.)

The two Epiphanies

There were two manifestations of our Lord to the Gentiles. One took place at the beginning and the other at the close of His life. The Magi, the wise men of the East, came to the cradle of Jesus; the Greeks, the wise men of the West, came to His cross. The old world of the East, with its exhausted history and completed revelation, came to the cradle of the Child of Promise to receive a fresh impulse, to share in the new creation of God and rejuvenescence of the world. The new world of the West with its mobile life, its ever expanding history, its glowing hopes and aspirations, came to the cross of the Redeemer that it might receive a deeper earnestness and a higher consecration. In these two Epiphanies we see harmoniously united the two great systems of pagan religion which separately were but a mere fragment of the truth, and contained no hope or promise of blessing for man. The Orientals had the humiliation of the Godhead as dimly shadowed forth in the Avatars of Vishnu and Buddha; the Greeks had the exaltation of manhood as shown in the apotheosis of the heroes of the Pantheon. Thus appropriately the representatives of the wisdom of the East and the West came respectively to the birth and death of Him who, though He was the equal of God, yet took on Him the form of a servant, and whom God had highly exalted, giving Him a name which is above every name. Equally significant were the symbols of the two manifestations. In both cases they were borrowed from the field of nature. The one was a star, the other a corn of wheat. The star of the wise men of the East--the watchers of the midnight heavens--was changeless as the life and religion of the East. It rose and set, and moved in its orbit forever the same. The corn of wheat of the Greeks--those restless searchers into the meaning of everything on earth--grew to more and more, and exhibited all the changes and variations of life. The one was a symbol of the night with its dreams and mysteries and spiritual thoughts; the other of the day with its stern facts and active duties and daily bread. Sir, we would see Jesus was but another form of the old question which the wise men asked, Where is He that is born King of the Jews? The wise men of the East were guided to Christ by a star, a dead silent object of nature. But the Greeks were guided to Him by the living voice and hand of man. And how characteristic was this circumstance of the difference between the Orientals and the Greeks! The Orientals shaped their philosophy and religion in the changeless desert, under the passionless starry heavens, from the calm contemplation of the objects of nature which entered so largely into their worship. The Greeks shaped their philosophy and religion amid the ever-changing haunts of man, and in contact with the busy work of everyday life. Not through the sympathy of nature, but through the fellowship of man, did they rise to their conception of mans origin and destiny, and their solution of the profound mysteries which surround his present and future. It was fitting therefore that they should be guided to Christ, in whom all their hopes should be fulfilled, and all their mysteries solved, not by a star but by their fellow men. (H. Macmillan, D. D.)

East and West coming to Christ

This is a companion picture to the visit of the Magi--science and thought seeking Christ. The Magi, on the one side, are the representatives of the worlds godly scientists, the forerunners of the Galileos, the Keplers, the Newtons, and the Faradays, who never stop at laws but reach to their giver, from nature rise to natures God; who refuse to see the world as a stage only on which man may stand or strut, may display his energy or magnify his pride, but who see it as an altar stair that slopes through darkness up to God, and on which it becomes man to kneel and pray. The Greeks, on the other side, are the representatives of the worlds godly philosophers, the theistic thinkers; they are the forerunners of the Augustines, the Aquinases, the Anselms, and the Pascals--the men who rescue philosophy from being the painted priestess of pride and purify her to be the sweet handmaid of Christ. Where is He that is born King of the Jews? Sir, we would see Jesus. (G. M. Grant, B. D.)

Certain Greeks

I. THE GREEKS. Three peoples prepared for Christs coming and three languages waved above His cross. Jewish religion, Roman arms and government, Greek thought. The philosopher connects preacher and politician.

1. In an age far back, when thought had become enslaved in the falsified civilizations of the Nile and Euphrates, an asylum was found in Greece. For five centuries the Greeks marched at the head of humanity. All gathered round the torch of Greek genius. Meanwhile Greek language had been fashioned into the most perfect vehicle of thought ever developed. Neither Hebrew nor Latin had the copiousness or flexibility necessary to deal with a new world of spiritual realities. And this so rich and copious became all but universal. And what a marvellous intellect wielded this weapon. To them was entrusted the brilliant but sad task of demonstrating for all time the necessary failure of culture to regenerate man. The grandeur of the effort is the measure of the greatness of the failure. Their intellectual labours were those of Titans. Of this mission and failure the apostle reminds the Corinthians (1Co_1:21, etc.)

2. At the hour when the failure was most evident. When instead of being brought nearer to heaven and God man was halting between a superstition which believed everything and a scepticism which believed nothing these Greeks said, We would see Jesus.

3. They were proselytes, Greek correspondents of the Roman centurion, brothers of thousands in India today who are Christian theists halting at the gate of baptism. We can picture the processes by which they reached their position. Born where decorous belief in mythology was professed; then emancipated into a vague scepticism by the speculations and criticisms of the schools (what Western science and literature are doing in India); then plunged into dead, unproductive negation, the spirit protesting, and the longing after positive truth eventually triumphant. The Jewish scriptures reach them, and there they find at least something of that for which they yearned; a warrant for the vague belief throughout the East of the advent of some great one in Judea. The project would be started and carried out to visit Jerusalem. How disillusioned they become at the sight of its secularities. They are permitted to enter the Temple no further than the Outer Court; and how little to solemnize they see there--tables of money changers, cattle, etc. Then comes Palm Sunday, and the benign form riding on an asss colt. Who is this? Jesus. Then follows the cleansing of the Temple. They talk it over. Something more than curiosity awakes within them--a revival of those hopes which the vitiated moral atmosphere had killed. They make up their minds to seek a personal interview, which brings us to

II. THE REQUEST. On two other occasions we hear of a similar desire. Herod, that fox (Luk_23:8), had his wish gratified to his condemnation--for Jesus answered him nothing; to such as he our Lords lips are closed. Zacchaeus (Luk_19:3) was also gratified and salvation brought to his house.

1. The request is marked by directness and simplicity, yet there is more in it than lies on the surface. In their minds a train of possibilities hung upon that seeing. Jesus might turn out to be a Messiah, or only a kindly enthusiast or a popular idol.

2. But there was much more in it than they knew. They occupied a representative position and spoke for a vast constituency--the devout souls of all time who cry for a Saviour.

III. ITS EFFECT. The hour is come must have seemed a strange outburst in such a connection; but we can trace the connection easily.

1. Christ saw in them the first fruits of the full harvest of heathen lands--the advance guard of the multitude which no man can number. All that was needful for Him to do as a teacher was now done; what remained of His regenerative mission could be done only by dying. So He goes on to discourse concerning the life efficacy of His death.

2. Christ does not appeal to the Prophets concerning His death as He does when addressing His disciples, but appeals to the secretly prophesying mystery of nature--the prophecy of a Redeeming Death which they could discern everywhere around them, and on which philosophy had long speculated, the mystery of life through death. Only by dying could His Divine energy be set free and exerted for the life of all.

3. This analogy was appropriate to the Greeks. They had sought their ideal of life, not in self-renunciation, but in beauty, strength, self-satisfaction. Their ideal Was embodied in Apollo, the very opposite of Jesus, who was without comeliness and whose emblem was a cross. The lesson of dying to self was what their race most lacked and therefore most needed.

4. The influence of that interview would never pass away. That grandest prayer, the voice from heaven understood according to spiritual capacity--all that would abide as an instruction and power of life forever. (G. M. Grant, B. D.)

The inquiring Greeks

I. THE LONGING TO SEE JESUS IS A MATTER OF CONSTITUTION NOT EDUCATION (Joh_12:20). These were not Jews, and their visit grew up out of heart want. Mans need and Gods supply must be contemplated together. Religious experience begins in the natural seekings of our constitution, and ends in the gratification of some higher ones which are supernatural. The natural desires demand direct communion with God; but the supernatural are created by the disclosure of a possible purity, and these demand to be led to Christ as a sacrifice.

II. SPIRITUAL INQUIRY AFTER CHRIST IS SOMETIMES LITTLE MORE THAN RESTLESS CURIOSITY (Joh_12:21). These men could not have known just what they wanted. The soul has vague but sincere wishes for something it does not possess--an aching void. Partly from need and curiosity the Greeks came to ask. Fire ascending seeks the sun; we can imagine some flames so buffeted by winds as to render it consistent for them to say, We would see the Day-God; or some compass needles disturbed praying, We would see the North Pole! For these constitutional desires will not long tamely bear to be denied of their proper rest.

III. MANY MEN TAKE THE ROUNDABOUT WAY IN COMING TO JESUS (Joh_12:22). They prefer some intervening Philip, some mediating priesthood. But it is not the Greek name of Philip, nor the experience of Andrew, which is to be relied on for soul rest. Redemption as an individual acquisition is the only reply to the cravings within.

IV. THE MOMENT ONE SEES JESUS HE FINDS THAT HE HAS A WORD TO SAY DIRECTLY FOR HIMSELF (Joh_12:23). Hitherto one may have supposed his own soul to be the object of the atonement. Suddenly he perceives that the glory of God is lying behind the Cross, and it puts a new thought in his mind to learn that the work of the Son of Man was done that the Son of God might have supreme glory. But did not Christ suffer to save souls? Yes; but what was the special need that souls should be saved?

V. THE TERMS OF THE GOSPEL ARE IMPERATIVE AS TO AN ENTIRE SURRENDER OF SELF IN ORDER TO SEE JESUS (Joh_12:24-25). If one wants the grand hope of the gospel in conversion; to attain the full measure of consecration, to know the secret of unfailing success--it is life for life. Jesus means that we are to put our heart into our work, to deny our ease, give our time, money, etc., and sink our selfishness in devotion to Him.

VI. WHEN A SOUL HAS FOUND JESUS IT IS TO MAKE ITSELF PERFECTLY SATISFIED WITH JESUS (Joh_12:25). (C. S. Robinson, D. D.)

What the world owes to the Greeks?

It was the Greeks who first welcomed Christianity, and there cannot be a more striking contrast than between the eagerness with which they received the truth of God manifest in the flesh, and the difficulty which even the Jewish Christians had in realizing its full significance. It was in the Greek tongue that it first addressed its Divine message to the world. It was in the cities and homes of the Greeks that it first displayed its wonderful power of assimilating and transforming all the elements of life, and manifested what it should afterwards become in human society. The gods of Hellas were the first to fall down before the ark of the Son of God; and when He died, it is touchingly said a wailing voice was heard through all the hills and forests of Greece crying, Great Pan is dead. It is indeed difficult to conceive what form Christianity might have assumed had not Greek faith first illustrated its saving truths; or how it would have prospered had not the Greeks of earlier days spread their language and philosophy through all lands. What the world owes to the Greeks no tongue can sufficiently tell. From them we have received the sublime poems and splendid treatises on science and philosophy which have educated all the higher minds of the human race. From them we have received the matchless sculptures, paintings, and architectural glories which have filled mens souls with visions of ideal beauty. From them we have received the inestimable legacy of our Greek New Testament, which is the light of our feet and the lamp of our path to immortality. It is to them we owe the boon for which we should never cease to be thankful, that the sacred Scriptures passed from the calm lonely lethargic scenes of nature in the East, associated with the infancy and early youth of our race, to the busy stimulating scenes of the West, associated with its manhood; that the lofty, vague Hebrew language, the very language of the loneliness and grandeur of nature, has been translated into the quick, precise, many-mooded Greek, the very language of business and active human life; that the stately oracles of prophets living in deserts, addressing men afar off and from pedestals high above them, have become the familiar epistles, of apostles coming constantly into personal contact with the sins, sorrows, and wants of humanity. From them we have received the noble works of the early Greek fathers of the Church, Justin, Origen, Gregory, Chrysostom, Athenagoras, Basil, Cyril of Jerusalem, and John of Damascus, which have proved such invaluable helps in expounding the sacred Scriptures. From them we have received the grand liturgies, the inspiring hymns, the glorious triumph of martyrs, and the devoted lives of saints, which have stimulated the piety and fired the enthusiasm of all Christian churches ever since. The Greeks gathered together, as it were, all that was grandest and most enduring in the world, and, holding it up in their arms for the baptism of Christianity, handed it on thus purified for the blessing of all after ages. (H. Macmillan, D. D.)

The movement of Greek thought toward Christ

In the courteous but eager desire of these Greeks we hear the longing of their whole heathen world for a Redeemer. The old rites and superstitions had lost their hold on mens minds. Jupiter, Mars, Apollo, and Venus, had all faded from the imagination of the upper classes; End the worship of these deities was left to the vulgar and ignorant, or was retained only as a matter of policy. The oracles were dumb; the altars cold and deserted; and some tried in vain to satisfy their wants by changing religion into poetry or philosophy, or sought as a last resource to fill with sensual pleasure the intolerable vacuity of their hearts. Regretful of the past, hopeless of the future, suicide was recommended as the only cure for human misery; the darkness of despair giving place to the deeper darkness of death. But even in the utter blankness of such a night, there were men of nobler instincts who could not do without religion--Memnons waiting for the day. They felt about for the unknown God to whom they might cry for help amid the wreck of every religious system, and the failures and uncertainties of the world around. Some of these seekers after God, men of the stamp of Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, had wandered into Jewish synagogues, which by a providential coincidence at that time were placed in all the chief cities of the world; and there they found to their surprise, in what they had been taught to regard as an execrable superstition, ledges of faith and hope by which they climbed out of the profound darkness into the happy sunshine. They were irresistibly drawn to the new religion by its unity of the Godhead, its high ideal of domestic and social purity, and above all by the hope which it held out of a coming Messiah who should redress all the evils of the world, dispel its ignorance, and bring in not a cold morality, but a righteousness which should be the offspring of a burning love. Not a few of these went up as pilgrims to the annual festival at Jerusalem; and among them were the Greeks who wished to see Jesus. They expressed the longing of the whole heathen world for Him who was the light to lighten the Gentiles. (H. Macmillan, D. D.)

The desire to see Jesus

I. WHAT IS THERE TO SEE IN JESUS?

1. God manifest in the flesh. In any other aspect the Deity is an object of fear not of comfort.

2. God anxious to save the lost.

3. God rejoicing when the lost is found.

4. God receiving before He expects amendment.

5. The way of salvation through Christs Cross and Christs life.

6. God always accessible.

II. HOW ARE WE TO RECEIVE JESUS?

1. With deep penitence.

2. With hungry expectancy.

3. With a longing to do His will. (W. Birch.)

Wishing to see Jesus

These Greeks are

I. ILLUSTRATIONS OF A UNIVERSAL TRUTH--that those who live up to the light they have will be gradually led on to more.

1. They were proselytes, or at least companions of those who feared God, or they would not have been here. They had given up heathenism, and this step was, according to Gods moral government, rewarded by another. A desire came into their hearts, awakened, no doubt, by the resurrection of Lazarus, to become acquainted with Christ.

2. There are differences of opinion how people become Christians. Some say there is first a giving up of what is wrong and false, then an intermediate stage in which one feels nothing and is nothing, and then truth taking occasion by the vacuum enters the mind. Others say there is no middle state. But the true theory is, the wind bloweth where it listeth. In the majority of cases, however, truth comes in and expels falsehood, just as there is no parenthesis between light and darkness, but the moment that it ceases to be dark it is light, and the moment that light has begun darkness is over.

II. EXAMPLES OF A UNIVERSAL CRAVING. Theirs was the language

1. Of the whole Old Testament dispensation. The cherubim bending over the mercy seat, as if to look into the mysteries of the ark, were emblems of all the Mosaic ages. The expected Messiah, the desire of all nations, was the point to which all faces turned. Many prophets and righteous men, etc. As the appointed time drew on the desire was intensified. Simeon and Anna, the Magi and the Greeks, were representatives of the whole Jewish and Gentile world. And during Christs life, the crowds that thronged His steps bore testimony to the feeling, and Zacchaeus was probably not the only man whose pious curiosity was rewarded.

2. Of the Christian Church in regard to Christs Second Advent.

3. Of penitents under a sense of sin groping their way toward the light.

4. Of Christians who have lost the glimpses they once enjoyed, and are now passing under clouds.

5. Of the dying Christian passing home. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)

A sight of Jesus

I. A PERSONAL OR BODILY VIEW. No reliable portrait or representation of our Lord has been handed down to us, and we have reason to believe no such portrait was ever taken. It was, no doubt, in the order of Gods providence that it should be so, or the portrait, and not the Saviour Himself, would probably have been the object of worship.

II. HISTORICAL view. We all know about the incarnation, etc., of Christ, and the other points of His human history, as recorded.

III. THEOLOGICAL view. I and My Father are one human, as well as Divine--hard to some to believe.

IV. BELIEVING view. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, etc. Look unto Him, and be ye saved.

V. IMITATIVE view. After believing, let us go on unto perfection, imitating Christ, doing good.

VI. JUDICIAL view. Christ will sit on His great white throne, etc.

VII. HEAVENLY view. There we shall see His face, and never, never sin, etc. (L. H. Wiseman, M. A.)

A sight of Jesus

Inspiration has given us no description of the personal appearance of Jesus. God did not intend for us to worship Him through an image. We cannot tell His appearance, but we know His spirit which shone through His earthly body. We can see Him

1. IN THE ELEMENTS OF HIS CHARACTER AND LIFE. Infidels deny His divinity, but they admire His character, and present His graces for the emulation of men. His is a unique position in history, the only one in the flesh without defect.

II. IN HIS SYSTEM OF MORAL TEACHINGS. How superior to all human writings not borrowing from Him! Plato and Mohammed taught much that is good with much that is evil. His teachings are without defect.

III. IN THE GLORIOUS SCHEME OF REDEMPTION. By the Cross He graciously solves the problem which baffled the ages, how God can be just and justify the sinner. Man was doomed, but Jesus came to the rescue. The sublime philosophy lies in its supreme adaptedness to the necessities of the case.

IV. IN THE KINGDOM HE ESTABLISHED IN THE EARTH. The Jews expected a temporal kingdom, but He came not to subdue Caesar but Satan. He despised all carnal means, and used nobler methods. The gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

V. IN THE EFFECTS OF HIS RELIGION ON INDIVIDUALS AND THE WORLD. Christianity is a character builder. It alone transforms men. It has blessed whatever it has touched. I lift up before you Jesus Christ and beg you to behold Him. He is God; worship with all adoration. (C. A. Stakeley.)

We would see Jesus

1. We would see Jesus, for we have heard of Him from others. One friend has told of His love, another of His wisdom, a third of His power, a fourth of His faithfulness. Does this second-hand knowledge satisfy you? Has it appeased your spiritual hunger, allayed your discontent, removed the burden of your sins? Oh, let the testimony of others lead you to His feet!

2. We would see Jesus, for we have need of Him.

(1) To release us from the burden of our sins.

(2) To enable us to overcome temptation.

(3) To take away the fear of death.

3. We would see Jesus, for He is so accessible. No barriers stand in the sinners path when he seeks the Saviour. His court is an open audience chamber to all. (G. A. Sowter, M. A.)

Opportunity to be used

These Greeks seem to have seized the only opportunity ever presented to them of coming to Jesus. Shall we, with many opportunities, lose them ally This one may be our last. I have sometimes in passing through a forest seen a tree here and a tree there marked with a line of white paint. What did it mean? Was it a clue to the inexperienced traveller to show him his road? Was it a boundary line between different properties? No; these paint-marked trees were dotted over the whole woods. Then I heard the woodmans axe ringing out in the distance, and I knew that the trees were marked for destruction. The owner had decided which should fall and which should stand a while longer. And the woodman, guided by the marks, was thinning the forest with his deadly axe in obedience to his masters word. Brethren, Gods mark may be set upon some of us, we know not upon whom. Oh, trifle not then with your opportunities! Lay hold on them ere they pass away. Take up the language of these Greek visitors to Jerusalem, and cry out of the yearning depths of your inmost hearts, We would see Jesus. The request will be granted. The heavenly life-giving sight of Him will gladden your eyes, and with that vision the old cry of yearning will change to a new glad shout of hope. No longer we would see Jesus, but we shall see Jesus,--we shall see Him as He is. (G. A. Sowter, M. A.)

The consequences of seeing Jesus

I. REST. There are some objects so calm and restful that the very sight of them is rest. This is the chief of them.

II. PEACE. He is our peace; and to see Him is to have peace with God and conscience.

III. QUICKENING. He is our life; and the sight of Him as such puts life into us.

IV. HEALING. He is the Sun of Righteousness with healing in His wings, and in looking to Him we have health.

V. ENLIGHTENMENT. He is the Light of the world; and to see Him as such is to have day within us.

VI. FREEDOM. He and His truth make free.

VII. STRENGTH. All power is in Him; and the sight of Him draws it out to us.

VIII. FULNESS. In Him is all fulness; and in looking we are filled. Every void disappears.

IX. GLUMNESS. We are made partakers of His joy. (H. Bonar, D. D.)

The great exhibition

Perhaps the sight-seeing instinct was never more fully developed than at present. We live in a sight-seeing age. This instinct has managed to engage the whole world as purveyor to its enjoyments in its periodical exhibitions in this and that great city. But we may profitably turn to another exhibition, not at present more attractive externally, but intrinsically far more interesting. Not works of human art and industry, but of Divine wisdom, justice, and love, are exhibited. Turn aside and see this great sight. Apply it to

I. INTELLECTUAL EXERCISES.

1. In geographical study we may see the vastness of the theatre on which Jesuss faithfulness performs its promises. His wisdom exerts its guidance, His love pours out its treasures, His grace fulfils its plans.

2. In botanical investigation we may see His wisdom and goodness, for He painted the colours of every flower, shaded its tints, and infused its perfume.

3. In historical research we find that personages are His agents, and events are controlled for His purposes.

4. Morals take their image from His example and their vigour from His Spirit.

II. SOCIAL DUTIES.

1. Conversation; and not only in that part which is interspersed with His name. To see Him is to check trifling, levity, garrulity. To see Him is to transform the daily salutation into a benediction; for who can make good day but Jesus?

2. In visiting, business, recreation, etc., He is to have the preeminence. This will make the souls health secure, guard against temptation, encourage righteousness.

III. RELIGIOUS OBLIGATIONS.

1. Searching the Scriptures. Of these Jesus is the Alpha and Omega, and they will be unintelligible unless we see Him. The doctrines centre in Him. In the practical parts His example is the rule, His love the motive, His blood the purifier. The promises are Yea, and amen in Him. His testimony is the spirit of prophecy. The ceremonies and characters are types of Him. Take Jesus out of the Bible, and you have taken the sun from the system, the seal from the body, gravitation from the universe.

2. Baptism. Take Christ away and it is an unmeaning ordinance. To see Him in it is to make it a sacrament of life, promise, and power. Go ye therefore … Lo, I am with you, present, pledging to save.

3. The Lords Supper. This is My body, etc.

IV. FAMILIAR PLACES.

1. The devotional closet. How cold that is without Christ; how radiant with glory when we see Jesus, having expelled all intercepting objects, thoughts, cares, etc.

2. The domestic tabernacle. If in the human family Christ is a brother, how much mere in the believing family. To see Him is to hush all domestic dissensions; to sanctify all family relations, duties, etc.

3. In the public temple. What is Christs Church without Him? Where two or three, etc.

V. RESPECTIVE CHARACTERS.

1. Two characters would gladly see Jesus.

(1) The penitent. Are you sorry for sin? then Behold the Lamb of God, etc.

(2) The believer who now apprehends Christ by faith waits for His full manifestation in glory, and has a desire to be with Christ, etc.

2. Two classes must be exhorted to see Jesus.

(1) The impenitent. Your need is absolute, and your obligation unlimited.

(2) The apostate. The Greeks reprove you. They knew not Jesus but would see Him; you know Him but forsake Him.

VI. TO IMPORTANT STAGES.

1. In discouragement.

2. In temptation.

3. In youth, manhood, and old age.

4. In the hour of death and the day of judgment. (D. Griffiths.)

Manifestations of humanity

I. ITS MORAL CRAVING (Joh_12:21). These Greeks wanted Jesus for their soul as

1. One who could solve their moral problems.

2. One on whom to centre their supreme love.

3. One to guide them rightly on the way of life.

II. ITS GRANDEST WORK (Joh_12:22).

1. To bring men to Christ is something more than to bring them

(1) To science and art. Such a ministry we disparage not, but highly prize.

(2) To a church or sect. Numbers are thus engaged. Their inspiration is sectarianism; and their efforts often immoral and pernicious.

2. To bring them to Christ is to bring them

(1) To the only infallible Physician.

(2) To the only efficient Educator.

(3) To the only qualified Redeemer.

3. To bring to Christ you must be Christlike. You may bring crowds to your church by clap-trap; you can only bring them to Christ by a life of Christly stateliness, inspiration, and influence.

III. ITS SUBLIMEST TYPE (verse 23).

1. Christ speaks with magnanimity in prospect of His death.

2. With triumph at the prospect of His glory--in His resurrection, exaltation, moral victories over all the errors, curses, miseries of the world. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

Andrew: Leading others to Christ

The notices of this apostle are extremely rare, but nearly all of them exhibit Him introducing others to Christ--his brother Peter, the lad with the barley loaves, the Greeks. And this is the prime duty of all Christians; let each ask how he has discharged it. Note the qualifications

I. WE MUST OURSELVES KNOW CHRIST. This is something more than a knowledge of gospel history, of Christian doctrine. We may teach these and bring none nearer to Christ Himself. Nor is it these in union with a moral life. To know Christ is to reverence Him as our Master and to cling to Him as our Saviour. This knowledge alone will help us to make disciples and Christians.

II. WE MUST BE QUICK TO KNOW OUR FELLOW MAN. The physician can tell much of the history and condition of his patients from their very looks. Like readiness is there with the Physician of souls. This quickness depends on

1. Sympathy.

2. Self-knowledge.

III. WE MUST SPEAK FOR CHRIST. We remember this requirement in preaching. But the effort of Andrew was a type of those private ways of doing good which are open to ordinary men and women. There are difficulties in the way of private personal testimony for Christ--the reticence of etiquette and culture, the sense of the shame of the cross, constitutional sensitiveness, etc. But it is astonishing how difficulties may be smoothed before a willing mind.

IV. WE MUST LIVE FOR CHRIST. Words with which the life is inconsistent will lose all attractive power. A life that is wanting somewhat in words may yet bring blessing. The disciples life should be attractive. (T. Gasquoine, B. A.)

Every Christian may be useful

See that well on the mountain side--a small, rude, rocky cup full of crystal water, and that tiny rill flowing through a breach in its brim. The vessel is so diminutive that it could not contain a supply of water for a single family a single day. But, ever getting through secret channels, and ever giving by an open overflow, day and night, summer and winter, from year to year, it discharges in the aggregate a volume to which its own capacity bears no appreciable proportion. The flow from that diminutive cup might, in a drought or war, become life to all the inhabitants of a city. It is thus that a Christian, if he is full of mercy and good fruits, is a greater blessing to the world than either himself or his neighbours deem. Let no disciple of Christ either think himself excused, or permit himself to be discouraged from doing good, because his talents and opportunities are few. Your capacity is small, it is true, but if you are in Christ it is the capacity of a well. Although it does not contain much at any moment, so as to attract attention to you for your gifts, it will give forth a great deal in a lifetime, and many will be refreshed. (W. Arnot.)

A lesson to pastors and teachers

An orthodox clergyman found one Sunday on his Bible a slip of paper, placed there by some members of his congregation, on which was written, Sir, we would see Jesus. The pastor felt distressed, but was not offended. He set to examine himself humbly and sincerely. The result was that he made the sad but happy discovery that the people were justified in making the above request. He thereupon went into a desert place, and within a short time he found in his pulpit another slip of paper with the following words, Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord. (Pastor Funcke.)

One afternoon in the Sabbath school where a lad was asked to repeat what he had learned during the week, he said simply Sir, we would see Jesus. The teacher was strangely conscience smitten. He remembered that he had given excellent lessons on the Creation, the Fall, Israel in Egypt, and similar subjects, but had said little about Christ. He looked at the youth who had spoken these words, and then round on the faces of the others. And then instead of using the lesson he had prepared, he talked to the lads earnestly upon the request made so simply and opportunely. He spoke with such yearning for their souls, that the lads listened as never before; and as he spoke he felt that the Masters presence was in their midst. The want which had unconsciously been felt was met that afternoon, and souls were gathered into the eternal harvest. (W. Baxendale.)

Congregations want to see Christ

On a lovely Sunday morning in August we arrived at Osborne. We were desirous of seeing her Majesty, but did not succeed. We only saw her house, her gardens, and her retainers. Then we went to Whippingham Church, having been told that the queen would attend divine service. But again we were disappointed. We only saw the seat the august lady was wont to occupy. The ladies and gentlemen of the court came to church, and those we saw; we even heard the court chaplain preach, but of the sovereign we saw nothing. Well this was a disappointment we could easily get over. But with me it led to a serious frame of thought. I said to myself: What if the flock committed to your care should come to church to see the King of kings, and yet through some fault of yours not get to see Him! What if you, the great Kings dependent, detain men with yourself, by your words and affairs and all sorts of important matters which yet are trifles in comparison with Jesus I May it not be that we ministers often thus disappoint our congregations. (Pastor Funcke.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh 12:20-22. And there were certain Greeks — A prelude of the Gentile Church. The phrase, τινες Ελληνες, here used, signifies properly, as translators have rendered it, certain Greeks. But all the Gentiles being thus named by the Jews, it was intended to denote their religion, rather than their country: they had been brought up heathen: they were not, however, now idolatrous Gentiles, but proselytes to the Jewish religion, and worshippers of the true God, persons who had come to Jerusalem, it seems, on purpose to worship him; but that they had been circumcised is not certain. It is likely, however, that they had heard of the Messiah, and cherished expectations of his coming: but, being foreigners, they had never seen Jesus. The same came, therefore, to Philip, which was of Bethsaida — This circumstance is mentioned to show how these men came to apply themselves to Philip. Probably they were Syro-Phœnicians, dwelling about Tyre and Sidon, and who, having commerce with Galilee, might be acquainted with Philip. And desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus — Our Lord’s fame, and the general opinion which now prevailed, concurred to persuade these proselytes that he might be the Messiah; for which reason they desired an interview with him. Philip cometh and telleth Andrew, &c. — From Philip’s not venturing to introduce the men himself, it seems that there was some difficulty in the case. Perhaps they were only proselytes of the gate, who, according to custom, could not be admitted into the company of Jews, Act 10:28.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Lord’s address before the Greeks, Joh_12:20-36.

Writing mainly for Greeks, John alone reports this remarkable transaction and discourse. It brings up, dimly but significantly, the anxiety of those representatives of Greece, and the premonitions which their presence drew from Jesus, that his death was to result in the spiritual conquest of the world.

20. Certain Greeks—Men of Hellenic blood, who rejected idolatry and habitually came to the Passover, not indeed fully to participate in the Jewish ritual, but to worship the Supreme. They were monotheists, who saw in Israel’s Jehovah the God of the universe.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

EXPLANATORY AND CRITICAL NOTES

Joh_12:20-36. Certain Greeks coming with a desire to see Him gave our Lord an opportunity of pointing to His atoning work as the hope of salvation for all men, i.e. the world.

Joh_12:20. Greeks.—Ἑλληνες, not simply Grecian Jews (Act_6:1). They were most likely “proselytes of the Gate,” as they had come to Jerusalem to keep the feast.

Joh_12:21. The same came therefore to Philip, etc.—Why therefore? There were many Greeks in the region of Decapolis; and as Philip’s name is Greek, his family may have been connected, at least by trade, with the foreign residents.

Joh_12:22. Andrew.—His is also a Greek name; and he is mentioned before in conjunction with Philip (Joh_1:44; Joh_6:7-8).

Joh_12:23. Jesus answered, etc.—This answer is apparently the substance of what our Lord said to the Greeks and disciples alike. The hour is come, etc.—When the old prophecy should begin to be fulfilled (Isa_60:3) which told of the ingathering of the Gentiles (Joh_10:16).

Joh_12:24-26. These verses show how the glorification of the Son of man is accomplished. It is through death in the case of Christ that the fuller life is reached. And as the disciple must follow his Master, the same great result in their case is attained through self-sacrifice and self-surrender. The similarity of the teaching in St. John and the Synoptists on this point will be seen by a comparison of Mat_10:37-39, etc., with this passage.

Joh_12:27. Now is my soul troubled, etc.—Soul, ψυχή, i.e. life (Joh_12:25), the seat of the natural feelings and emotions (Mat_11:20-25; Mat_26:38, etc.). Can it be wondered at that the Prince of Life should feel it a terrible ordeal to submit to death, even for a time? Even His human nature, “holy, harmless, undefiled,” must have shrunk more from this ordeal than we do who feel “we were not made to die.” What shall I say? etc.—Are the words “Father, save Me,” etc., a prayer like that uttered in Gethsemane? or are they to be read interrogatively, like the opening clause of the sentence? The following sentence seems decidedly to favour the latter view. As Godet says, “It is a hypothetical prayer.” It was the cry of nature, if nature had suffered Jesus to speak. In the words which follow He expresses what really hindered Him from addressing such a request to God: it would be a negation of all that He had yet done and suffered.

Joh_12:28. Father, glorify, etc.—This is the prayer Christ really uttered, and to it a speedy answer was given—a voice from heaven, etc.

Joh_12:29. The people therefore, etc.—This is the record of a veracious witness. One who sought to deceive would not have recorded these doubts. But why was the voice not distinct to all? Perhaps just because, as in the spiritual sphere, those who are prepared simply to receive the truth, joyfully accept it when it is presented to them; whilst others who have no desire for it will find reasons for rejecting it. An angel.—See Act_23:8-9. Those who thus interpreted the sound took a higher view, and one in accordance with Hebrew tradition as well as with Old Testament fact (Gal_3:19; Heb_2:2).

Joh_12:30. Jesus answered, etc.—Our Lord attests the fact of the divine utterance, and shows that it came for the purpose of strengthening the faith of those who heard it.

Joh_12:31. Now is a judgment, etc.—Not ἡ κρίσις. Now is the time coming, is at hand, when “the thoughts of many hearts shall be revealed” (Luk_2:34). The prince of this world.—See Joh_14:30; Joh_16:11; Eph_2:2; Eph_6:12. This “was the regular rabbinic title for Satan, whom they regarded as the ruler of the Gentiles, the Jews not being included in his kingdom” (Watkins). And as the Greeks were listening to Jesus all would understand that He here meant the beginning of the Messianic reign (Gen_3:15, etc.).

Joh_12:32. See Joh_1:29.

Joh_12:34. The people answered, etc.—Christ had claimed to be Messiah (Joh_12:31); how then did He speak of being lifted up out of the earth (ἐκ τῆς γῆς)? Did not the law, at least as interpreted by the Jewish teachers, declare that Christ would abide for ever (see Dan_7:14; Isa_2:2-5; Isa_9:7, etc.; Psalms 110.)? Who is this Son of man who is to be lifted up out of the earth? Surely He cannot be the Son of man of whom the prophets speak?

Joh_12:35. Walk while, etc.—Better “Walk as (ὡς with the majority of great MSS.) ye have the light.” Lest darkness overtake you, come on you, seize on you suddenly (1Th_5:4).

Joh_12:36. That ye may become sons of light.—Eph_5:8; 1Th_5:5. These things spake … and was hidden from them.—These solemn words are the Saviour’s closing words in His public ministry. He departed, because He was rejected. He was hidden from them. They had chosen the darkness rather than the light. It was most likely to Bethany that He went.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Joh_12:20-36

Joh_12:20-23. The desire to see Jesus.—But a few days before the incident here recorded Jesus had come from His retirement in Ephraim to Bethany, and had been just welcomed with shouts of hosanna as the spiritual King of Israel. The last period of probation had been given to the Jewish rulers and the unbelieving section of the people. The end of it still found them hardened against the Saviour, and prepared to take more violent measures against Him when they saw that, in spite of all their threatenings (Joh_9:22; Joh_11:57), the people were being more and more attracted to Jesus (Joh_12:17-19). But in the midst of so much to grieve there was something also to gladden the heart of Jesus.

I. Certain Greeks desire to see Jesus.—

1. There were many pious Gentiles who had become “proselytes of the gate,” men like Cornelius and the chamberlain of Queen Candace (Act_8:26; Act_10:1). No doubt there were not a few such men at this time scattered up and down Palestine, and they might come in even greater numbers from the region of Decapolis.

2. These men, doubtless, came from that region, and recognised Philip and Andrew as fellow-countrymen, i.e. as coming from the neighbourhood of their home. They came first to Philip. He then consulted with his brother Andrew; for had not Jesus said He was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Mat_15:24)? and had He not commanded the disciples not to go into the way of the Gentiles (Mat_10:5)?

3. But our Lord was already looking forward to the moment when the restriction laid on His ministry would be removed, and the Gentiles should be welcomed as members of His flock (Joh_10:16). Therefore this coming of these Greeks to Jesus was to Him a matter of joy, as in the case of the Samaritans (Joh_4:35-46). He was beginning to see the wider fruits of His mission—to see of the travail of His soul, etc. The prophetic word which He fulfilled at the beginning of His ministry (Mat_4:12-17) was receiving its wider fulfilment. The Gentiles were “coming to His light.” The first braird of the coming harvest (Joh_4:35) was visible. And no doubt His soul rejoiced, as seeing these Greeks standing with His disciples, He said, “The hour is come,” etc.

4. The sequel of the incident, so far as the Greeks are concerned, is not stated; for John is bent on the great lessons our Lord founded on the incident. But Jesus does not “send empty away” those who come desiring to see and know Him. From His words in Joh_12:23; Joh_12:31-32, we may gather that they did not thus earnestly seek Him in vain.

II. What awakened this desire?—

1. Those men as proselytes of the gate were no doubt pious, “devout” men (Act_10:2), men more truly religious than many of the chosen race. They had heard of Jesus, had seen perhaps the striking scene in the temple (Mat_21:12-17), and were convinced that here was One who could fill their deepest longings.

2. The beauty of the Saviour’s character, the earnestness and lofty nature of His teaching, and the greatness of His claim—to be the Sent of God—all this, no doubt, impelled them to seek to see Jesus, and to know more of Him.

III. The desire is still expressed by many.—

1. The Greeks came first to the disciples. “It is through the mediation … of the Church of Christ that the heathen attain the personal, saving society of Christ.”

2. And there are many to-day, devout men, not only from among the heathen, but from among those in our modern world, who are “seeking the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him” (Act_17:27), but around whom the mists and darkness of error have been creeping.

3. What responsibility, therefore, rests on the Church—on the disciples of Christ—to show Him in all the beauty of His character and the saving power of His risen life to all men! And how unapostolic, therefore, is the wrangling over trifles that prevails, while all over the world millions are perishing for lack of knowledge!

IV. The Church must herself seek to see Jesus ever more clearly if she is to lead others to see Him.—

1. Christ should ever be the beginning, middle, and end of the Church’s message—Christ as the prophet of His people, who has “the words of eternal life” (Joh_6:68), as the great high priest of His people, by whose high-priestly, sacrificial action (Joh_12:24; Joh_12:32) salvation is made possible for men, and as the King and Head of His Church, who will establish in triumph His universal and eternal dominion (Joh_18:36-37).

2. And in order that the Church may more fully and clearly deliver this message, she must have close communion with her living Head. To the office-bearers and members of the Church Christ must become a living reality. They must not be content with the mere knowledge of doctrines about Christ, though this is needful also. Faith in Him as a living, personal Redeemer, and fellowship with Him through the Spirit, are the essential needs of the Church. Without these all else is vain. Numbers, sanctities of worship, learning, and even outward activity will not serve the end for which they exist.

3. But the presence of the Spirit of Christ in the heart of His people, leading to burning zeal, tender pity, ardent love for those for whom Christ died—for a perishing world—would more and more attract the heathen—make straight the way for the erring, dispel doubts, arouse the indifferent, till men everywhere should come to the Church, saying, We too would see Jesus.

Joh_12:24-25. Through death to life.—Our Lord had been moved deeply by the coming of “certain Greeks” to see Him. He recognised in their advent the earliest tokens of that abundant harvest yet to be reaped. But ere this could be He must depart. His rejection by Israel must be completed. He must die, and in His death become the world’s life. “Verily, verily, I say unto you,” etc. In this familiar image our Lord shows forth the deep meaning of His death and resurrection as the hope of His people, also as their encouragement and example in enduring.

I. The death of Christ is the hope of His people.—

1. The corn of wheat is cast into the ground by the sower, and dies. It dies as a grain of wheat, but is not destroyed. There is a germ of life in the grain which dissolution cannot harm. But the seed must die if that germ is to be liberated and to become fruitful.

2. If it be not cast into the ground it abideth, alone; it cannot accomplish its destined purpose. It must fall into the ground; its wrappings must fall off, its substance be transformed; in short, it must perish as a grain of wheat in order that it may spring up and bring forth fruit.

3. So was it with the Saviour. Whilst He remained on earth, despised and rejected despite His heavenly teaching and wondrous works, He abode practically alone. Only a few faithful ones gathered around Him. The world did not understand Him. Neither, indeed, did those who faithfully clung to Him understand the full significance of His mission. It was necessary that He should die, ere the full meaning of His redemptive work should be known through the teaching of the Spirit, and men should learn that a way of eternal safety through time to eternity had been opened up through the cross.

4. Had Jesus not gone on to Calvary to die for men’s sins, where had been their hope of pardon and reconciliation with God? They would still have pursued the weary quest of the waiting ages, and still the cry had gone up, “Wherewith shall I come before the Lord?” etc., and the plaint, “Oh that I knew where I might find Him!” (Job_23:3). But on the cross the cry of humanity was answered when Jesus said, “It is finished,” and died for men—“the Lamb of God, that beareth away the sin of the world.”

II. The result of Christ’s death is a great spiritual harvest.—

1. The seed-corn cast into the earth dies as a seed-corn. The external wrappings and envelopes are thrown aside. But the unseen germ, hidden safely away, remains not only unharmed, but is helped by the decay of those coverings. Then the living portion of the plant begins to swell and push its way upward through the earth, till the warmer sunshine and refreshing rains of spring draw it from its earthly hiding-place, and it peeps above ground, an earnest of harvests yet to be reaped.

2. So was it with our Lord. He died, and was laid in the tomb; and there, in some fashion we understand not, the body of His humiliation became the body of His glory, and He arose conqueror of death and the grave for His people, the firstfruits of them that sleep in Him—a glorious harvest of humanity rescued from death and the grave unto life eternal.

3. This shall be the final result in that harvest which is the end of the world (Mat_13:39). But now through the power of His risen life—the germ of life eternal in the hearts of those united to Him by faith—the fields of earth are ripening to the harvest.

4. When He died there were but few who followed Him. But how fruitful was that death in the coming days! See how the green blades sprang above the ground all around—how the timid who had hidden themselves came into the light of day, as if some spiritual spring had called them forth! See how in response to Pentecostal showers the hope and promise of the universal harvest germinated in every quarter! And see how in spite of blight and storm and heat of persecution it is spreading worldwide! The idols bow the head and fall never to rise in every quarter of the world, and millions upon millions rise to show forth Christ’s glory.

5. At some far-distant age the first seed-corn was sown in the world, when as yet its fields lay wild and waste. But now every land has its harvest. And thus it has been in the history of Christ’s Church. “There shall be an handful of corn in the earth upon the tops of the mountains: the fruit thereof shall be like Lebanon” (Psa_72:16). It was this Jesus foresaw when the Greeks were led to Him by Andrew and Philip. “The hour had come that the Son of man should be glorified.”

III. Christ’s spiritual seed grows in His likeness.—

1. His people die with Him unto sin, and live with Him unto righteousness. “He that loveth his life,” etc., who keeps and hoards the external wrappings of the soul’s true life, shall remain unfruitful. “And he that hateth,” etc.—he that subordinates the lower and earthly to the higher, inner, spiritual life—“shall keep it unto life eternal.” All that was best even in the lower shall through this abnegation of it be incorporated and intensified in the growth of the higher. “The cross must be our pattern as well as our trust.”

2. And when believers are thus united with Christ in the likeness of His death (Rom_6:5), they grow up in the likeness of His spiritual life. In every faithful heart Christ lives anew. “I have been crucified with Christ: and it is no longer I that live, but Christ that liveth in me” (Gal_2:20).

3. The Christian grows up in spiritual freedom. “Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath dominion over Him no more.… Even so reckon ye yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin,” etc. (Rom_6:9; Rom_6:11). The believer is no more the slave of sin unto death, but is now the happy servant of Christ, the spiritual son of the heavenly Father, whom He will honour (Joh_12:26).

4. The believer grows up in Christ’s spiritual beauty; each advance in growth sees some added grace of character. “He shall grow as the lily,” “he shall be changed into the same image” (2Co_3:18), until finally “he shall be like Him, seeing Him as He is.”

5. And like the Saviour’s self-sacrifice, the Christian’s life of self-denial will be fruitful for good in the world. “The blood of the martyrs has been the seed of the Church.” And the self-sacrificing lives of His true followers best lead men to living faith in Him.

Learn.—Trust in His cross; imitation of His example.

Joh_12:26. Christ our example in spiritual service.—Christ is our example in the service of God; and as He was faithful as the servant of Jehovah, and in all things did His Father’s will, so are we to follow Him. “If any man serve Me, let him follow Me.… If any man serve Me, him will the Father honour.” The type of service which He demands from us is of the same sort as that which He Himself rendered—a willing, trustful, complete obedience in the whole life, and in all its activity. It is to be feared that many of His professed followers fail to rise to this conception of the Christian life; and sometimes popular presentations of the gospel tend to perpetuate this fatal error. “Get your soul saved” is the burden of much of modern evangelical preaching. No doubt this is the chief thing, so far as men personally are concerned; for “except a man be born anew,” etc. (Joh_3:3). But men are not to be left ever in the condition of spiritual children, and fed on milk (Heb_5:12-13): they are to be nourished and built up for the higher life of service. Much of the “spiritual awakening” of recent years has simply been an “awakening” of infantile Christians into a higher life of service. And every agency with such a tendency is to be hailed with joy. What indeed is one great end of revelation—especially New Testament revelation—but to build up believers and fit them for this life of service? For what end was the Spirit sent forth, the means of grace established, the stated ministry of the Church set apart? And our Christianity is weak and ineffective in so far as it does not rise toward this goal. And as Christ said to His Father, “I have glorified Thee on the earth by finishing the work,” etc. (Joh_17:4), so His disciples are to press toward this chief end of their being, in His service. Those who would serve Christ faithfully must, following His example as the servant of Jehovah—

I. Hear His voice.—

1. Beyond question, ere they can begin to obey Him as His servants, they must hear His voice spiritually quickening them. That is what Christ meant when He said, “The hour is coming, and now is,” etc. (Joh_5:25).

2. But having heard that voice speaking to them with quickening power, they must prove that they have done so by obeying His commands, following His instruction. They must have their “ear open morning by morning” (Isa_50:4) to catch the accents of His voice in that divine word which His Spirit has inspired, and in those spiritual impulses to forsake the evil and follow the good; and by entreating Him in earnest prayer to quicken their spiritual ear, so that they may more readily hear and understand.

3. And may it not be that we oftentimes are troubled and perplexed, our way enwrapped in mist, because we are not in this following the example and command of Him who is the light of the world, and who says of His true followers that they hear and know His voice? Further—

II. In the activity of their lives, their speech and action, they serve Him.—

1. To hear, with the true disciple and servant of Christ, is to obey. It was evident this was so in the case of Christ; and so it must be in greater or less degree with His servants. They must not act like the son in the parable, who in answer to his father’s command, “Son, go work,” etc., replied, “I go, sir: and went not” (Mat_21:28; Mat_21:30). And yet are there not too many of this class in the Christian Church? By their professed unity in the Church, openly declared at the table of communion, not a few say, “I go,” in answer to God’s command, “Go work to-day,” etc. “You will search the vineyard in vain for too many of them; some get no nearer than a peep across the hedge,” whilst others deliberately turn their backs on it, and spend their energies in the fields of the world.

2. But Christ’s true followers “do not so learn” Him (Eph_4:20). When they give heed to His word and the teaching of His Spirit, then the “Spirit of the Father” speaketh in them (Mat_10:20), and they use the gift of speech as the Son did for the divine glory. They earnestly endeavour to let “no corrupt communication proceed out of their mouths,” but “that which is good” (Eph_4:29), and to let their speech be “always with grace, seasoned with salt” (Col_4:6).

3. In the work of life, and its every action, Christ’s true servants seek to imitate Him in the divine service. How eagerly did Jesus declare and show it to be His meat to do the will of the Father, and to finish His work! And was not His word to His followers a clear call to imitate Him in this, “We must work the works,” etc. (Joh_9:4)? And is not this one of His most precious promises to the disciples that they should continue His work (Joh_14:12)? “If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love, even as I have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide in His love” (Joh_15:10). “Ye are My friends,” etc.; “Henceforth I call you not servants,” etc. (Joh_15:14-15). Just as there was unity of purpose between the Father and Christ in all Christ’s activity on earth, so Jesus said there would be the same unity between Him and His disciples, and therefore will they be His friends and brethren in the Father; for “He shall make known unto them all things which He heard from His Father.” Therefore will the true disciple of Christ seek in all things ever to do His will and finish His work.

III. Christ’s disciples follow Him and serve Him in the path of suffering.—

1. “Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto My sorrow,” said the prophet in Christ’s name, as He foretold His life of suffering here below. And how did His apostles rejoice “because they were counted worthy to suffer for that name” (Act_5:41)! In Christian lands to-day men have not thus to suffer, although they still have to do so among the heathen. To-day even in many quarters of the world men have to endure tribulations, suffering wrongfully, for the name of Christ and in His service.

2. But we also have our afflictions. The night sometimes darkens around us; the stroke sometimes falls heavily; so that in the darkness, weariness, pain, the spirit is nigh overwhelmed, and from the lips bursts out involuntarily the cry, “Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath He in anger shut up His tender mercies?” (Psalms 77).

3. It is in such hours that the example of our Lord and Master is fitted to cheer and encourage. As He in the hour of deepest darkness, in which He cried “Eli, Eli,” etc. (Mat_27:46), lost not His trust in His Father; so we surely in our hours of sorrow, pain, and perplexity may well trust and fear not, if we are consciously following the Saviour. Did He not in love endure for our sakes? and will He then put on us more than we can bear? Does not “the light affliction which is but for a moment”? etc. (2Co_4:17).

4. For just as the cross of Jesus, the acme of suffering and sorrow, has become the emblem of His glory; so to those who endure, “the proof of their faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, [shall] be found unto praise,” etc. (1Pe_1:7).

Joh_12:25-26. The spirit of true service.—It is a spirit of joyful willingness and self-surrender. Not alone at the beginning, when the soul has just been quickened to the higher life, is the true servant to say, “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” But all along the course of life, even to the end. And during its course there will be manifested:—

I. A growing sense of trust in God and our Redeemer.—

1. The remembrance of the divine love and favour, and that God has in Christ granted the new spiritual life, will lead to the assurance that with Him also He will give all things (Romans 8.).

2. This confidence will increase as life goes on; each day will disclose new mercies, and the divine promises will grow brighter and more assured.

II. A continued confidence that our material needs will be met.—

1. “Whoever serveth as a soldier at his own charges?” (1Co_9:7), asked the apostle when writing to the Corinthians of the duty of upholding the ministry. But at the same time he showed that he did not depend on men for such help, but on God.

2. So every true disciple learns confidently to trust God for all needed help to fit him for and sustain him in his work. God will not send us on a warfare at our own charges. True servants of Christ, who are setting their affections on things above, are ever sustained and strengthened in their arduous endeavour.

III. A constant consecration of all life’s duties and work.—

1. Each day of our life has its special work and duty, its own perplexities and sorrows. But these are not unknown or indifferent to Christ.

2. Nay, it is just in these, as in all things, that we are to serve Him. We are not to wait for some special position here, some outstanding work, or for the future life, in order to render to our God and Saviour our willing service. The future belongs to God. We are to serve joyfully and trustfully as the Saviour did here, by dedicating to Him the duties and labours of the present days.

Joh_12:27-33. Jesus’ prayer and the answering voice from heaven.—The thrill of joyful exultation in the mind and heart of Jesus, as He sees in prospect the travail of His soul, is quickly succeeded by the thought of the awful pathway He must tread ere the mighty work is accomplished. This prayer is the prelude of Gethsemane. It is a definite step toward that mysterious conflict, with its “strong crying and tears,” its “sweat as of great drops of blood,” and its utter self-renunciation.

I. Jesus troubled.—

1. The man Christ Jesus, the Prince of life, recoiled from the awful strife before Him. We can in some measure understand how He, the perfect One, would shrink from death even more than we do.

2. Then there was doubtless the thought of His people, the lost sheep of the house of Israel, who in rejecting Him should be rejected (Joh_12:48), whose rulers were even then engaged in dark plots against Him.

3. And there was also pressing on Him that load of the world’s guilt which He was to bear away, that cup which He was to drain to the bitter dregs, and which was soon to be given Him to drink—the cup of sorrow, pain, and horror, which culminated in that hour of darkness and terrible sense of aloneness on Calvary. Our great High Priest was not untouched with the feeling of our infirmities; and it was He, who was “in all points tempted like we are,” who was thus troubled in prospect of the cross and “all its shame and woe.”

II. The direction in which Jesus turned for relief when troubled.—

1. As the faithful and obedient incarnate Son He turned toward His Father. Jesus prayed; for in trouble and sorrow He was as we are (Heb_2:17). He did not conceal from Himself the terrible nature of the coming conflict, and looked to the Father for strength and comfort.

2. The first cry is a perplexed question, showing the conflict in Jesus’ breast—a question as to the possibility of the cross being lifted from Him, of the hour being averted. “Shall I say, Save Me,” etc.

3. But in a moment this thought is put aside. It is seen to be incompatible with the purpose for which He had come unhesitatingly to face this hour. The passion to be entered upon is indeed the only way in which the divine, eternal purpose He had undertaken to carry out could be fulfilled. Only thus can the world be redeemed and the “prince of this world be cast out.” Therefore Christ casts away all thought of the possibility of being saved from the hour before Him, and in willing submission resolves to carry out the eternal, divine purpose: “For this cause came I to this hour.”

4. And now the loftiest flight of prayer is reached by the Saviour: “Father, glorify Thy name.” To this height of filial submission only the divine Son, and unfallen spirits, and those who in Christ become children of God can truly attain. There could be no diviner prayer, as there can be no higher purpose than the divine glory. “What Thou willest, what Thou desirest, O Father, this is My purpose, though the way to the performance of that will leads by the cross and through the grave.”

5. The conflict is now over, the dark cloud withdraws itself, and the Redeemer is further strengthened to go forward to victory.

III. The audible answer to Christ’s prayer.—

1. “Then came a voice from heaven,” etc. This voice is the third audible utterance from heaven during the sojourn of Jesus on earth—the first at His baptism, the second on Tabor, the third here. All proclaim the glory of the Son, but this utterance is to a wider circle. The time has come when the glory of the divine Name will be manifested through the Son in strange and unexpected manner. Hitherto it had been seen in mighty works and divine teaching; now it would be seen—strange contrast—on the cross.

2. And the answer has been verified. Men glory in the cross as the highest exhibition of divine mercy and love. The essential character of the Eternal shines in it most conspicuously. In it the way of salvation and eternal blessedness for humanity is opened up; for with the cross are bound up the resurrection of the Saviour and His ascension to the heavenly places, whence He rules His Church, and where He reigns till all foes of His kingdom shall be finally vanquished.

3. And in every step of progress made by His kingdom here, in every soul quickened from death to life, in every citadel of the kingdom of darkness overthrown—in short, in every new region of earth made glad with the fruit of righteousness—all is “through Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God” (Php_1:11).

IV. The double purpose of this audible answer to Christ’s prayer.—

1. It was doubtless intended to strengthen the Saviour and comfort Him in view of what lay before Him, as afterward for the same purpose an angel appeared to Him in Gethsemane (Luk_22:43).

2. And that it did cheer and comfort the Saviour we may gather from the firm declaration of His assured expectation of final victory. That assurance was attained in His own willing submission to the Father’s will and desire for the Father’s glory. It was not necessary for Him that the Father should audibly give the answer to this prayer (Joh_11:42). Yet can we doubt that this voice from heaven would cheer and rejoice the ?Song of Solomon 3. We seem to detect an echo of this rejoicing in the triumphant word, “Now is a judgment of this world,” etc. The cross would discriminate. Around it would be gathered the children of light; against it would be marshalled the powers of darkness in vain. “For the prince of this world” would be vanquished (Col_2:14-15). And Christ is drawing all men unto Him (2Co_5:20) by the power of His love—not compelling, not driving—men of every tribe and nation. He brings a salvation free and full for all who will not resist the drawings of His mighty love.

4. But the voice came not only, not chiefly, because of Jesus, but for the sake of those who heard it, especially those who believed, so that the remembrance of this heavenly testimony might strengthen their faith. Indeed, was it not they alone who heard the voice speaking, who heard the words, whilst to others the voice was simply a sound like that of thunder? The unbelieving were not expecting that there would be any divine answer; and when it came audibly, it passed before they caught its import. Others whose spiritual nature was in unison with God both heard and understood, and were confirmed in their faith, as the voice on Tabor confirmed the faith of the disciples (2Pe_1:17-18).

Lessons.—

1. Jesus is our example in prayer: in time of trouble the same blessed source of strength and comfort is open to ns.

2. He is our example in submission to the divine will: acquiescence in the Father’s will is the true source of inward peace and strength to endure.

3. He is our example, as the divine Son, in desiring the highest good—the divine glory.

Joh_12:34-36. Believe in the Light, walk in the Light.—In Joh_12:23 Jesus had spoken of Himself as the Son of man who should be glorified. The Jews understood clearly enough this reference to the Messiah. But when He spoke of dying and being lifted up out of the earth, the people were perplexed; for was it not a commonplace of their teachers that Christ should “abide for ever”? Did not the prophet foresee the Son of man coming to take His kingdom, which was to be an everlasting kingdom (Dan_7:14)? Who is this Son of man? An important question truly, but one which Jesus had often answered. All His life, His teaching, His activity, had been a fulfilment of prophecy concerning Him. The Light had been shining, but their eyes were blinded. Now was their opportunity—the last. In brief space it would pass away, and then the darkness would fall, dense and terrible, on the race of Israel.

I. The traveller to eternity needs light for his journey, and must advance toward his goal while it is day.—

1. The need of spiritual light is admitted by men as a whole; and all the religious and moral systems which men have built up have been designed to light the darksome way through time.

2. And God has given light to men (Joh_8:12). It remains, therefore, that they should advance by that light whilst they have it. The Jews were blinding themselves to the light by seeking to reconcile Christ’s teaching with their preconceived interpretations of law and prophecy, in place of simply looking to the Saviour, and opening their minds to receive the truth as plainly revealed in Him.

3. So also many now concern themselves with matters of secondary importance in religion, its mere externals, its forms and modes, whilst they miss the true meaning, and thus the comfort and guidance which the gospel is designed and fitted to bring them.

4. Others still, whilst professing to know the “Son of man,” altogether fail to walk in His light, and on their way linger entranced by the occupations and pleasures of time, until the solemn night of dissolution descends in awful swiftness, and snatches from them their opportunities for ever.

II. The way of escape from the power and fear of darkness is to become children of light.—

1. This men attain to by believing in the Light. They thus become transformed into the likeness of Christ. They imitate Him, reflect His character, and escape evermore from the darkness of sin, ignorance, error, and above all from that spiritual blindness which is unconscious of the presence of light.

2. This is a call to receive Christ into our hearts by faith, to follow Him in the activities of life, and in the display of acts of Christian love; and thus we shall abide in the light, and there will be none occasion of stumbling in us (1Jn_2:10).

3. With this blessed assurance the public ministry of Jesus closed. Truly He was the Light of men. How great was His patience with the unbelieving! how infinite His compassion! and how terrible was the doom of those who through unbelief had blinded their eyes! And how loud is the warning voice which speaks from these words; and how glorious the prospect of being “light in the Lord” through believing!

HOMILETIC NOTES

Joh_12:21. “We would see Jesus.”—These words were uttered, probably, in the Court of the Gentiles, as He passed from the Court of the Women, which, as the most public place for Jewish assemblies, was the frequent scene of His teaching. On the previous day, the Court of the Gentiles had been cleansed from the traffic and merchandise which had been customary in it, and the temple had been declared to be “a house of prayer for all nations.” The Court of the Gentiles was divided from the inner square of the temple by a stone fence, bearing upon pillars, placed at regular distances, the following words in Greek and Latin: “No alien must pass within the fence round the temple and the court. If any one be caught doing so, he must blame himself for the death that will follow.” This prohibition was known before, from Josephus (Ant., xv. 11, 5); but in our own day one of the very slabs, bearing the exact words, has been discovered by M. Ganneau during the excavations of the Palestine Exploration Fund (comp. Act_22:28-29, and especially Mar_11:17). The events and the words of these days must have brought strange thoughts to the minds of proselytes, men who were worshippers of the one God by personal conviction, and not because of the faith of their ancestors; and with heart filled with wonder as to what these things meant, half grasping, it may be, the truth that this middle wall of partition should be broken down, they ask for a special interview with Jesus (comp. Eph_2:12 et seq.).—H. W. Watkins.

Joh_12:27. “Now is My soul troubled.”—Note the punctuation of this verse, for everything depends upon that: “Now is My soul troubled; shall I say, Father, save Me from this hour?” Put the mark of interrogation after the word “hour”; then you have the whole meaning,—“Now is My soul troubled; shall I say, Father, save Me from this hour?” Then He answers Himself: “For this cause came I into the world; for this cause came I unto this hour”: I will not say, Save Me from this hour; I will say, Father, glorify Thy name. Then there came a voice from heaven, saying, “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. The people therefore, that stood by and heard it, said that it thundered: others said, An angel spake to Him.” Thus it always is: there are always two explanations of events; the vulgar will call the explanation thunder, and the spiritually refined will call it an angel.—Dr. Joseph Parker.

Joh_12:28-29. The voice from, heaven.—Every man hears in God’s voice what he is fit to hear. Obviously there was an objective something, an audible sound. To the deafest there was a vague impression of some majestic noise from heaven, which said nothing, but was grand and meaningless as a thunder-clap. Others, a little more susceptible, caught something like articulate words, but discerned no significance, though they felt their sweetness and dignity, and so thought them an angel’s voice. “Ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.” We can dull our ears till they will not even recognise God’s voice as thunder, and, if it sounds meaningless to us, it is our own fault.—Dr. A. Maclaren.

Joh_12:31-33. Christ victorious through death.—If He thought of Himself only as a martyr, one among many, it was gross exaggeration to say that His death headed the black roll of the world’s sins. On that hypothesis of His person, there have been many other deaths quite as criminal. Only the full-toned view of who and what the victim was warrants such a construction of the guilt of His slaying as is here. Still more extravagant, on the supposition that Jesus is simply the best of men and teachers, is that other triumphant cry of victory over the defeated and cast-out “prince of this world.” Only the full-toned view of the death of Christ as the sacrifice for the world’s sins can warrant such a construction of its power to redeem the world from the tyranny of that usurper, and to dislodge him from his fortress. He and all his hosts hold their own, undisturbed by teachers and martyrs, but they flee before the power of the cross of the Son of God, “who taketh away the sin of the world.” He “made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” The judgment and defeat are immediate results of the cross, but the last issue, which Jesus stays Himself by beholding, is one that begins, indeed, contemporaneously with these, but stretches on through all time, and blesses each coming generation. Of course, the “lifting up” here is primarily a designation of the crucifixion (Joh_3:14); but that is contemplated in connection with the other lifting up from the earth, in His ascension and session at the right hand of God. To draw men to Himself is the work of Christ till the end of the world. His magnet is the cross. That drawing does not imply universal yielding to itself, for there may be resistance to it; but for evermore there stream out from the cross powers which lay hold on hearts, and sweetly and mightily grapple them to Jesus. He Himself, and nothing less, is the centre; and what conquers men to be His, is His death.—Idem.

ILLUSTRATIONS

Joh_12:20. The promise of harvest.—What about the first blade that pierces the dull earth and stands up in green beauty: is it a favourite? No, it is better; it is a harbinger; it says, “I have only come first; they are all coming.” It is not elected in the sense of other green blades having been blighted underground: it is elected in some sense of precedence; it outran the others; they all started together, but this little one came up first, elected to preach the harvest, called, not to singularity, but to expressiveness, to algebraic suggestiveness, saying, This is the indication that you must presently get your sickles ready, for we are all alive and all unfolding and all coming; to-morrow the land will be green, and the day following it will be yellow with corn. The blade is only first, because there are more to follow. It would be neither first nor last if there were no succession; it would stand alone, it would be without an arithmetical indication at all, except there be some word that signifies loneliness, some figure that typifies isolation; it is either first or last, because there are more.—Dr. Joseph Parker.

Joh_12:25. All for Christ.—The glory of a Christian is Christ in heaven, and Christ’s glory is His Church on earth. The believer is a true child of God, who, clothed with Christ’s righteousness, walks in holy fear and willing obedience before his Father. Do not wonder, then, that there meet you in the Church of Christ such a one as Polycarp, who, when threatened with the stake if he would not curse Christ and offer to the gods, replied, “Eighty and six years have I served my Saviour, and He hath done me nothing but good; how could I curse my Lord and King, who hath saved me?”—as an Ignatius, who thus wrote from his Roman prison to his Church: “Let fire and conflict, breaking of the bones and tearing asunder of the members, nay, let the burning of the whole body and all the malice of the devil come upon me, if I may have but Christ with me. I seek Him who died for us; I desire Him who rose again for us. My earthly desires are crucified; the fire of God’s love burns within me with unquenchable glow—it calls, Come to the Father”;—as a Chrysostom, who, after a laborious life for the sake of the confession of the truth, and when dying in exile breathed out his soul with the words, “God be praised for all”;—as a John Huss, who, from the midst of the flames of martyrdom in Constance, thus prayed: “Lord Christ, I will bear this terrible death with joy for the Gospel’s sake, but I pray Thee forgive my foes”;—as a Theodore Beza, who, standing face to face with the ruler of France, thus spoke: “The Church of Christ is indeed like a lamb dumb before her shearers, but she is also like an anvil on which the strongest hammer may he shattered”;—finally, as a Dr. Martin Luther, who, at the imperial diet at Worms before Emperor and Court, in the most decisive moment of his life, finished his heroic confession in these words: “Here I stand—I cannot do otherwise; God help me. Amen.” It is indeed Christ who, in all these standard-bearers of His holy kingdom, radiates forth His power and His life, so that they have overcome through the blood of the Lamb and through the word of their testimony, “and they loved not their lives unto the death” (Rev_12:11).—Translated from F. Arndt.

Joh_12:27. Prayer, a way of deliverance from trouble.—The more we give place to our own thoughts and plans, the more we seek through our own power some opening on this land or on that, so much the more dark will our way appear, our dispeace become greater, our mind more perplexed, and the way of escape more doubtful. Many in this way have fallen into such tortures of anxiety, and even despair, that they have been stupefied, deprived of thought, and thus led to take some foolish step, through their own folly sinking deeper and deeper into misfortune. Often indeed such people have thus lost their reason. It is impossible in our own strength to overcome soul trouble. Take up the task as you will—flee loneliness, amuse yourselves, seek to dull feeling, fly into the face of danger, turn your attention to other things, resolve firmly, I shall no longer give way to these thoughts, I shall resist them, put them aside, root them out, let it cost what it will—it will be of no avail. The heavy thoughts will return again, will follow you into society, will rob you of your nightly slumber. They will become only the more powerful the more you seek with hatred to put them down. One thing only can help you—prayer to the Lord. Prayer enables us to recover ourselves, brings peace, gives assurance, confidence, hope. Prayer opens up the true way of escape and deliverance from all trouble and danger.—Idem.

Joh_12:35. The use of opportunity.—Have we been decided and active in using our opportunities for spiritual improvement and doing good? You remember perhaps the legend of mediæval times, of the young maiden, who, one evening as twilight was falling, rowed out in a skiff on a lake which lay before her father’s castle. As the dreamy twilight descended she fell asleep; and while she slept, the string of her beautiful pearl necklace broke, and one by one the precious gems dropped into the still waters of the lake, till when she woke she found that her gems were lost for ever. This legend is symbolic of many a human life. How many of us have allowed ourselves to slip easily along while we slumbered, not aware or unheeding that golden opportunities were slipping away for ever as the moments sped! or, while we have dreamily hesitated, they have escaped from our grasp! Let us then seek for greater grace and strength, that we may be decided in our Christian calling, that there may be no shirking of duty, no shamefacedness, no wavering; but that we may be able always to stand “strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.”

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

V a

ANTITHESIS BETWEEN THE GENTILE GREEKS FROM ABROAD WHO DO HOMAGE TO CHRIST, AND THE MAJORITY OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE THAT FALL AWAY FROM CHRIST IN UNBELIEF AND OCCASION HIS RETURN INTO CONCEALMENT. SYMBOLISM OF THE JEWISH PASCHAL-FEAST, OF HELLENISM, OF THE GRAIN OF WHEAT. THE GLORIFICATION BY SUFFERING AND DEATH, OR THE SPIRITUAL SELF-SACRIFICE OF CHRIST IN THE TEMPLE

Joh_12:20-36

(Joh_12:24-26. Laurentius-Pericope; Joh_12:31-36. Elevation of the Cross.)

20And [But] there were certain Greeks [Ἕλληνες, Gentile Greeks, not Ἑλληνισταί, Greek Jews] among them that [those who] came up [made pilgrimage up to Jerusalem] to21worship at the feast. The same [These] came therefore to Philip, which [who] was of [from] Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired [asked] him, saying, Sir, we would see22[wish, or, desire to see] Jesus. Philip cometh and telleth Andrew: and again [omit23and again]23 Andrew [cometh] and Philip [, and they] tell Jesus. And [But] Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is [hath] come, that the Son of man should be glori-fied. 24Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn [the grain] of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone [isolated, by itself alone]: but if it die, it bringethforth much fruit. 25He that loveth his life [his own soul, τὴν φυχὴν αὑτοῦ]24 shall lose it; and he that hateth his life [his own soul] in this world shall [will] keep it unto life26[ζωήν] eternal. If any man [any one would] serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall [will] also my servant be: if [ἐάν without χαί]25 any man [any oneshall] serve me, him will my [the] Father honour. 27Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: [!]26 but [But] for this cause27 camel unto [I came to] this hour. 28Father, glorify thy name. [!] Then came there a voice from heaven, saying [omit saying], I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.

29The people [multitude] therefore that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered: others said, An angel spake [hath spoken, λελάληχεν] to him.

30Jesus answered and said, This voice came not because of me [for my sake, δἰν ἐμέ], but for your sakes [δἰ ὑμᾶς]. 31Now is the judgment of this world: now shall [will] the prince of this world be cast out. 32And I, if I [shall]28 be lifted up from the33earth, will [shall] draw all men unto me [myself, πρὸς ἐμαυτόν]. This he said, signifying what death he should die [by what manner of death he was about to die, 34or, what kind of death he was to die]. The people [multitude, therefore, οῦ̓ν] answered him, We have heard out of the law that [the] Christ abideth for ever: and how sayest thou [how then dost thou say], The Son of man must be lifted up? who35is this Son of man? Then Jesus [Jesus therefore] said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you [within you].29 Walk while [as]30 ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you [that darkness may not overtake you, ἵνα μὴ σχοτία ὑμᾶς χαταλάβῃ]: for [and] he that walketh in [the] darkness knoweth not whither hegoeth. 36While ye have [the] light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light [become sons of light, ἵνα υἱοὶ φωτὸς γένησθε].

These things spake [spoke] Jesus, and departed, and did hide [and, having departed, he hid, or, withdrew] himself from them.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Joh_12:20. Certain Greeks [Ἕλληνες].31—By these we are 1. not to understand (after Semler and Baumgarten-Crusius [Calvin, Ewald],) Jews who spoke Greek [Hellenists]; this view is contradicted by the name, comp. Joh_7:35, the whole scene and the deduction of Christ, Joh_12:23; Joh_12:32,—the reference to the universal extension of His ministry. 2. Not perfect or pure heathen (after Chrysostom, Euthymius, Schweizer), against which interpretation ἀναβαίνοντες32 militates,—but, as this very word proves, 3. proselytes of the gate [half Jews, or Judaizing pagans], like the treasurer, Act_8:27. See Comm. on Acts [p. 155, Am. ed.]. “If they were from Galilee, which was partly inhabited by Gentiles, we might imagine them to have been previously acquainted with Philip; yet (Grecianized) Syrians inhabited the country from Lebanon to Lake Tiberias (Josephus, De bello Jud., III. 4, 5); Peræa had Greek cities (Joseph. Antiq., XVI. 11, 4), etc. Philip’s consultation with Andrew must be attributed to the unusualness of seeing the Master hold intercourse with Gentiles (Mat_10:5)—for the uncircumcised proselytes of the gate were still so considered—(Acts 10).” Tholuck. On this we remark that it is not altogether probable that these Gentiles were from Galilee, or from any part of Canaan, because in that case they might easily have had an earlier opportunity of seeing Jesus. Furthermore, Jesus had already had dealings with the Gentile captain at Capernaum, and the Canaanitish woman; the disciples, however, might for reasons of policy, hesitate for a while before bringing the Lord, after He had just been proclaimed King of Israel, into contact with Gentiles, in the sight of all the Jews. For, doubtless, the scene occurred within the area of the temple, i.e., the porch. Perhaps Jesus was, by the mediation of His disciples, to be called back into the court of the Gentiles. This locality is supported by 1. the testimony of the Synoptists, that in the days subsequent to the Palm-entry Jesus abode continually in the temple; 2. the character of these Gentile visitors to the temple; 3. the concourse of people, Joh_12:29. (Contrary to all indications Michaelis and others have shifted the scene to Bethany; Baur places it “in the idea of the author!”) As to the day, the thirty-sixth verse seems to indicate that it was the last of the three days of Jesus’ stay in the temple, i.e., Tuesday (see Doctrinal and Ethical Notes, No. 1).

[These God-fearing Greeks, who (in their groping after “the unknown God,” embraced the monotheism and the Messianic hopes of the Jews, without being circumcised) belonged to the church invisible, to the children of God scattered among the heathen, Joh_10:16; Joh_11:52, and were the forerunners of the Gentile converts. Stier: “These men from the West at the end of the life of Jesus, set forth the same as the Magi from the East at its beginning; but they come to the cross of the King, as those to His cradle.” We find such chosen outsiders under the Old Testament, as Melchisedek, Jethro, Job, Ruth, king Hiram, the queen of Sheba, Naaman the Syrian. Augustine, exclusive as was his system, yet adduces the case of Job as an example of genuine piety outside of the visible theocracy, and infers from it that among other nations also there were persons “qui secundum Deum vixerunt eique placuerunt, per-tinentes ad spiritualem, Jerusalem” (De civit. Dei xviii. 47).—P. S.]

Joh_12:21. These therefore came to Philip.—Philip might be accidentally in the court of the Gentiles, and hence, as the first of the disciples who was forthcoming, be charged with the communication of their request to the Lord. It is still remarkable, however, that both Philip and Andrew had Greek names and, according to tradition, their labors were likewise in part among the Greeks.

Sir, we wish to see Jesus.—[Κύριε, not in the higher sense, yet with reverence]. The expression of their desire is threefold: 1. The solicitation; 2. the respectful manner of addressing even the disciple of the celebrated Master; 3. the strong and yet modest expression of the wish. To see can here mean nothing less than: to speak with. (Goldhorn: They wished to propose to Him that He should go to the Hellenists. A misapprehension of the proselytes and also of the situation. Brückner: They wished merely to see Him. Too literal). As proselytes of the gate they shared Israel’s hope and the enthusiastic feelings of the people.

Joh_12:22. Philip cometh and telleth Andrew.—Meyer: Philip was of a deliberate disposition.33 The other characteristics of Philip are in no wise indicative of a deliberate man. The case was of sufficient importance, as an official question, for two disciples, and Mar_3:18 we find these two in close contact; Joh_6:7-8, however, they even act in concert, as in this place, and in measure, likewise, in “foreign affairs.”—Andrew cometh and, etc.—Andrew seems to take the lead.

Joh_12:23. And Jesus answered them.—The following discourse is framed so decidedly for the Greeks that we cannot assume their request to have been denied by Jesus (Ewald [Hengstenberg, Godet]),—such a proceeding would, moreover, be unprecedented; neither can we hold that the admission of the Gentiles had been resolved upon, but that the voice from heaven changed the scene (Meyer). De Wette thought the answer unsuitable. Tholuck, in accordance with the usual conception, supposes the meeting between Jesus and the Greeks to have preceded this discourse; Luthardt: the disciples had given Jesus occasion to speak in presence of the Greeks. The scene certainly seems to have changed; either the Greeks must have immediately followed the two disciples to Jesus, or else Jesus directly accompanied the disciples to the Greeks. He seems to have intentionally avoided addressing Himself particularly to the Greeks, preferring to discourse in their presence to the circle of disciples, with special reference to them and their desire. For at this moment and in this place it was of the utmost importance that He should withhold from His enemies every pretext for reproach.

Joh_12:23. The hour is come.—From the visit of the Gentiles Jesus deduces the preparation of His mission for the Gentiles, i.e., His resurrection. From the nearness of the period when the bounds which have encompassed Him shall be removed, and His ministry be rendered a universal one, He infers His imminent, death. Universalness and resurrection are for Him reciprocal ideas; universalness and preceding death are for Him inseparably connected, Joh_10:15-16; John 17. And so this saying also again recalls the barrier which hinders Him from surrendering Himself to full communion with the Greeks. But the decisive hour which is to conduct Him across this barrier is at hand; it announces itself in this petition. The hour, however, is not His hour of death by itself, but that together with the hour of His departure out of this world. The two are comprehended in one, as in the idea of exaltation, Joh_12:32; Joh_12:34, and Joh_3:14. Thus Christ saw in the Samaritans (John 4) and in the Gentile centurion (Mat_8:11) a distant indication of the future approach of the believing Gentiles; here the future of the believing Gentile world, the future of its access to Him, is before Him in its nearest representatives as an incipient present (comp. Joh_13:31).

Be it observed that, here it is the glorification of the Son of Man that is spoken of, not simply that of the Son of God, as Joh_11:4. The glorification of the Son of Man is the exaltation of Christ in His human nature above death (a transit from the first stage of human life to the second), above the limits of the servant to the boundless liberty of the lord; above a qualified working by individual words and signs to unqualified activity through the Spirit. It is a development of His inner wealth, according to Joh_12:24; a personal lifting up, according to Joh_12:32; a local, but at the same time a universal one, according to Joh_12:33. For the Greeks, whom we conceive to have been true Hellenes, a peculiar significance attached to the announcement that Christ as the Son of Man should be manifested in His glory. This glorification presupposes a suffering of death, in accordance with a law of nature (Joh_12:24) and in accordance with an ethical law obtaining in this world, Joh_12:25.

Joh_12:24. Except the grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, etc. [ἐὰν μὴ ὁ κόκκος τοῦ σίτου πεσὼν εὶς τὴν γὴν ἀποθάνῃ, αὐτὸς μόνος μένει].—First oxymoron. A fundamental truth is again announced with verily, verily. We assume the subsequent words to have been intended to correct the Greek view of the world, just as those contained in Joh_18:36 are applicable to the ideas entertained by the Romans. Human nature does not attain in this world a true and essentially beautiful appearance by the aid of poetry and art; but it arrives at the true and the beautiful by passing through death into a new life (see 1Jn_3:2). The grain of wheat here symbolizes the new life which must proceed from death in order to appear in its richness, its fruit. Hence the thought is no mere elucidation of the preceding sentence. It advances from the idea of the personal glory of Christ in the new life (the glorification of His human nature) to the idea of His glorification in the universal Church. Thus even nature protests against the Hellenic fear of death, against the Hellenic isolation of the personality in the outward individuality. In the way of death, not only does the single grain of wheat develop into many, but these many, as fruit for nourishment and new seed, appear as an infinite power, a universal life. It is evident that this symbolism of the grain of wheat is indirectly illustrative of simple death in the physical nature itself. This death, however, is in particular a symbolism of the ethical, sacrificial death. [Alford: “The symbolism here lies at the root of that in John 6, where Christ is the Bread of life.”]

Joh_12:25. He that loveth his own life [Lange translates: Eigenleben; better: his own soul, ὁ φιλῶν τὴν ψυχὴν αὑτοῦ], etc.—Comp. Mat_10:39; Mat_16:25; Luk_9:24; Luk_17:33. This is the watch-word of Christ, and it should be that of His people also, Mat_10:38, 1Jn_2:6. The egoism that clings to the outward life of appearance, and lives for that, loses its true life which is conditional on surrender to God; the spirit of sacrifice which does not cleave to its life of self, nay, which hates it in its old form in this old world, i.e., joyfully sacrifices it, the sooner the better, and even hates it, if it be about to become a hindrance—regains it unto a higher, eternal life. That ψυχή must here mean soul in our conception of the word, does not result (as Meyer maintains) from the distinction made between ψυχή and ζωή (αἰώνιος); for the latter is expressive not simply of an endless duration of natural life, but of divine life. The declaration Mat_16:25 [“for whosoever will save his life, τὴν ψυχὴν αὑτοῦ, shall lose it,” etc.] is undoubtedly intended as the rationale of the foregoing ἀπαρνησάσθω ἑαυτόν and hence it is proved that ψυχή means “self” as well as “life” (Tholuck).34 But the reason of this is that the false love of life is one with, and has its root in, false self-love. With the life of self the selfishness of the soul, the false self, must be sacrificed; thus with the life in God, in the true self, new life also is gained. But the point in question is the sacrifice of life, since the opposite is death. On the μισεῖν comp. Luk_14:26. Augustine; “Magna et mira sententia, quemadmodum sit hominis in animam suam amor ut pereat, odium ne pereat; si male amaveris, tunc odisti, si bene oderis, tunc amasti.”—Unto life eternal.—First promise.

Joh_12:26. Follow me.—Indicative of the way of suffering and death, so readily forgotten by the disciples, as they witness the fresh homage rendered him by the Greeks; a way which Hellenic worldly-mindedness in particular must henceforth tread.

And where I am, there, etc.—Not simply on the same road (Luthardt); that is expressed in the preceding sentence; nor only in the Parousia (Meyer), but first in the state of humiliation, of death, then in the state and land of δόξα, beyond death,—the idea of the raising of the servant being thus involved (see Joh_6:39; Joh_6:44; Joh_6:54; Joh_17:24; 2Ti_2:11-12). Second promise.

Him will the Father honour [τιμήσει].—Third promise. The Father Himself will esteem him as a personality connected with Himself and exalted above death.

Joh_12:27. Now is my soul troubled [Νῦν ἡ ψυχή μου τετάρακται].35—The agitation of soul experienced by Jesus has been already introduced by the whole train of thought from Joh_12:24. Primarily, indeed, Jesus fixed His eye upon the great goal of the death-road; now the road itself engages His attention. Another thing the Greeks must learn by His example, viz., neither to be fanatically enthusiastic about the conditions of death, nor to turn away their eyes from them in cowardly dread. He therefore gives free utterance to His emotion. This change of mood is, however, not unlooked for in the life of the Lord. In the perfect life of the spirit the most blissful moods pass, in the sublimest transition of feeling, into the saddest. Thus in the Palm-entry (Luk_19:41), thus here, thus after the high-priestly prayer, thus at the Supper, Joh_13:31. On the other hand, the saddest moods likewise pass into the most blissful. Thus at the departure from Galilee (Mat_11:25), thus at the Supper (Joh_13:31), thus in Gethsemane (Joh_18:15 ff.), thus en the Cross (see Comm, on Matthew, Joh_11:25; comp. Luk_12:49-50). The difference between the ἡ ψυχή μου τετάρακται and the ἐτάραξεν ἐαυτόν, Joh_11:33, does not lie in the antithesis of πνεῦμα and ψυχή (as Olshausen affirms; since the latter passage does not treat of a ταράσσεσθαι τῷ πνεύματι), but in the fact that there the psychico-corporeal agitation is an effect of His indignation in spirit, an act of His spirit (Origen: τὸ πάθος ῆ̓ν ἐρχόμενον τῇ ἐπικρατείᾳ τοῦ πνεύματος), while here it is an affection of suffering inflicted upon Him by the objective situation. It is the horror of death which the contemplation of death brings upon the inward life of feeling. The soul may and must be thus troubled,—prepared, as it were, for its death; but not so the καρδία (Joh_14:1; Joh_14:27). So then, the subject under consideration is neither the trichotomy nor the dichotomy, body and soul (Tholuck), but the antithesis of passive and actual consciousness, or of the life of feeling and the will. The thought of death moves Him as the law of His death, as of the death of all His followers who must be baptized with His baptism into His death. And doubtless this, rightly understood, is a feeling of divine wrath, not as confronting Jesus within His conscience, but as perceived by Jesus in the law of death governing sinful humanity, to which law He has submitted Himself. A “momentary abhorrence of the pains of death, induced by human weakness” (Meyer), must be out of the question, inasmuch as abhorrence involves an active inclination of the will. We might with equal truth talk of an innocent abhorrence of suffering or the cross. (Beza, Calov, Calvin: Mortem, quam subibat, horroris plenam esse oportuit, quia satisfactione pro nobis perfungi non poterat, quin horribile dei judicium sensu suo apprehenderet.) Schleiermacher gives special prominence to the thought, that to Jesus the coming of the Hellenes was attended with the full presentiment of the fact that His people would reject Him, and that the salvation of the Gentiles was conditional upon the great judgment on the Jews. That was the great tragic grief of Paul also (Romans 9; comp. 2Co_12:7). We have seen how, also in Gethsemane, Christ’s sufferings were especially grievous to him as a being betrayed and delivered up (see Comm. on Matthew, Joh_20:17; Note 3).

And what shall I say? etc.—[On the punctuation compare the Textual Note.—P. S.]. It is difficult to suppose with Euthymius [ἀποροώμενος ἀπὸ τῆς ἀγωνίας] and others (Lücke, Meyer, etc., even Calvin [Alford]), that Jesus is uncertain what to pray for; that in this uncertainty He at first prays: Father, save me from this hour; but then, in the subsequent words, retracts “this momentary wish of a human abhorrence of death.” In opposition to this view: 1. the assumption of such an uncertainty on the part of Jesus is not justified by Rom_8:26; Romans 2. the presentation of such a retracted wish would be explained neither by the words, Heb_5:7, nor by the prayer in Gethsemane; 3. the idea of a self-correction is inappropriately applied to Jesus. We prefer, therefore, the interrogative explanation with most Greek exegetes and Erasmus (Lampe, Tholuck [Ewald, Godet], etc.), the interrogative interpretation of πάτερ, etc. After Jesus has revealed His quaking heart to His auditors He can also show them how He works off the affection, that they in like situations may behave similarly. They too should accord to grief its sacred right. We cannot discover that such a reflection is incongruous with this mood replete with emotion, as Meyer maintains. Comp. Joh_11:42. They may thus see that He stands at the junction of two ways. What shall I say? He asks them. Hence the subsequent words are part of the question. Would you advise Me to give utterance to My feeling in these words: Father, save Me? etc.

From this hour.—Meyer: “The hour of suffering is made present to His mind as if He had actually entered into it.” But He has indeed actually entered it, for here as little as in Gethsemane is He speaking of the hour of external death in itself alone (comp. Comm. on Matthew). It is the convulsion itself in its deathlike might. In Gethsemane, when He was similarly and yet more powerfully affected, He could conceal Himself in some measure from His most intimate friends; it humiliates Him to be obliged to stand here before representatives of the Gentile world who are to greet in Him the King of Glory, in this sad figure. [?] But He is directly able to reconcile Himself to this juncture, and with the question there begins already His elevation above the nameless grief which has come upon Him from the historical world.

But for this cause I came into this hour.—[But: Christ controls and corrects the natural shrinking of His true humanity from the horrors of death by the consideration that He came to this world for the very purpose of enduring death for the redemption of the world. To do full justice to the deep commotion of our Lord on this occasion and in Gethsemane of which this was a foretaste, we must keep in view the vicarious nature of His passion by which He bore the sins of the whole world.—P. S.] For this cause [ διὰ τοῦτο], not that by My mortal sufferings Thy name may be glorified (Lücke, Meyer), but in order to be thus troubled, and in order to appear before you in this commotion. He knows: 1. that grief itself has its holy aim, and 2. that the humiliation in His grief, like every one of His humiliations (see the Baptism, the conflict in Gethsemane), is connected with a glorification, to the glorification of the Father. And because in His grief He has just sacrificed Himself to the Father, He can now pray as follows.36

Joh_12:28. Father, glorify Thy name [δόξασόν σου τὸ ὅνομα].—The σου emphatically comes first, yet not in antithesis to an “egotistical “reference of the preceding prayer [Meyer]. It expresses the idea: it is Thy cause and for Thine honor that there should be a compensation for this humiliation also. Whereby is the Father to glorify His name: 1. Greek exegetes [and Alford]: by His death (Comp. chap, Joh_21:18); 2. Bengel: quovis impendio mei; 3. Tholuck: by the bearing of fruit, Joh_12:34; Joh_15:8. The most obvious explanation is: by the issue of this mood itself. By this the name of the Father, i.e., the one God of revelation, must be glorified in presence of the Greeks in particular. And this purpose was served by the heavenly voice, in and for itself, irrespective of its purport; a form of revelation exactly suited to the exigencies of the Gentile disciples.

Then came there a voice from heaven.—The evangelist, in writing οῦ̓ν here, expresses the assurance of his faith. The answer to Christ’s prayer could not fail. We must first distinguish the voice itself from its purport, because the voice, in the abstract, was a glorification at once of the Father and the Son. interpretations of this wonder:

1. “Since Spencer many (Paulus, Kuinoel, Lücke, etc.) have apprehended this heavenly voice to be the Jewish Bath-Kol (בַּת קוֹל daughter of a voice), and this has been regarded as a voice issuing from a peal of thunder—according to modern rationalistic interpretation (as in his time Maimonides) the subjective interpretation of a peal of thunder on the part of Jesus and His disciples.” Tholuck. However “the Bath-Kol itself cannot be traced to a peal of thunder, and how much less the voice mentioned here, where the narrator expressly excluded the idea of thunder” (the same). Still it is remarkable that by the Bath-Kol a derivative voice is to be understood, one developed from another, the echo of a voice, a voice in the second power, i.e., the transformation of an apparently fortuitous sound into a spirit-voice by the interpretation of the Spirit conformably to the situation (comp. Tholuck on this passage; Lübkert Stud. u. Krit, 1835, III. Herzog’s Real-Encyklopædie: Bath-Kol).

2. A voice actually issuing from heaven, considered by John as an objective occurrence.

a. Acoustic. The voice sounds directly over Christ’s head; hence those who stand at some distance from Him perceive only a heavenly talking, those still further removed, but a sound as of thunder (ancient commentators). But in the case of purely objective sounds as loud as thunder, even those at a distance must have understood the words as well. Untenable, likewise, is the interpretation which affirms that the σαρκικοί soon forgot the more exact impression of what they had heard (Chrysostom).

b. Resembling thunder, so that the precise words sounding through these tones were unperceived by the insusceptible (Meyer). There is a lack of clearness in this reasoning in the case of a purely objective voice, for in such case perception would depend upon the acuteness of the hearing, not upon the degrees of spiritual susceptibility.

c. Of an angelic nature, mediated by angelic ministry (Hofmann). Apart from the arbitrary interpretation of an intensified doctrine of angels, this would afford not the slightest explanation of the voice.

d. A spirituo-corporeal [a spiritual and celestial, yet audible] voice, which was understood more or less according to the corresponding frame of mind (Tholuck; my Leben Jesu, II. p. 1207).37

Manifestly, the voice now heard by Jesus is entirely analogous to the voice at His baptism (see Comm, on Matthew, the baptism of Jesus, and at His transfiguration (see Comm. on Matthew, the Transfiguration). Its distinguishing point is the circumstance of its sounding here openly above the temple, in the hearing of all the people and of the Greek proselytes, and the trait of its striking even the insusceptible with the force of a sound like thunder, ringing upon the ears of the more susceptible with a beauty of tone which they can liken only to angelic voices, while Jesus, and with Him doubtless the most intimate of His disciples, perceive the perfectly distinct expression of the words which even contain an antithesis. Just this latter trait of a twofold gradation converts the event into a revelation concerning the nature of celestial voices. In the voice heard by Samuel, and not by Eli (see the note in Tholuck, p. 333), the subjective, ecstatic condition of the voice was clearly conspicuous, as in the case of the two angels seen by Mary Magdalene, and not by the disciples, this contrast became apparent in reference to miraculous visions. In the history of Paul there is a proportional, simple gradation between Paul himself, who sees the Christ within the shining light and hears the word of His voice, and the attendants who perceive only the brilliant light and the sound (see Apostol. Zeitalter, II. p. 115). But here a twofold gradation appears: the hearing of Christ and His intimate friends, the hearing of the people, the hearing of others. The ecstatic conditions of such a hearing are clearly manifest, Act_9:7; comp. Act_22:9. The condition upon which an apprehension of the voice by those not standing in the centre of revelation (as here Christ; Acts 9, Paul) depends, is spiritual connection, fellowship of feeling,—sympathy; this results especially from the rapport between Christ and the Baptist at the baptism in Jordan. But the objectivity of the voice which proceeds from the living God is proved by sensuous evidence which it creates and procures. Tholuck: “Voices from heaven, as in this place, are found also, Dan_4:31; 1Ki_19:11-12; Mat_3:17; Mat_17:5; Act_9:7; Act_10:13; Rev_1:10; Rev_4:5, where we read of φωναί together with βρονταί;—on this Züllich: articulate sounds contrasted with the inarticulate thunderings.”

Purport of the voice: I have glorified it, and will glorify it again [Καὶ ἐδόξασα καὶ πάλιν δοξάσω. Πάλιν is no mere repetition, but an intensification of the glorification]. Meyer makes the first sentence of the voice refer to the works of Jesus hitherto, the second to the impending glorification through death to δό ξα. Taking into consideration the antithesis, chap. 10, and the existing state of matters, we assume that the consummated glorification of the name of God refers to His revelation in Israel, closing of course in the labors of Christ, and the new glorification of His name to the impending revelation of God in the Gentile world, this of course being conditioned by the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Joh_12:29. The multitude therefore, etc. Perception of the voice. 1. The comprehension of it was probably not confined to Jesus, but was shared by His disciples, or by some chosen ones among them. 2. For the surrounding people the voice had a tone like thunder. Is this expressive simply of the third degree of susceptibility? Perchance it contains also an intimation of the judgment impending over the people of Israel. 3. To this hearing the hearing of others seems to form an antithesis. Those hear a voice of thunder; they, on the other hand, angelic speech. Is it not possible that by these others the Greek proselytes are meant? Such a thing is not positively expressed. Be it observed, however, that it is these very men whom Jesus seems to answer in the subsequent speech. At all events, their attitude towards the people is that of a more susceptible minority.

Joh_12:30. This voice came not [was not audibly uttered] for my sake, but for yours.—The disciples were really no longer in need of this attestation of Jesus. Neither was it needed by that portion of the people that believed on Him on account of the raising of Lazarus. From the words immediately following it seems to be spoken with special reference to the Greeks. Hence He continues:

Joh_12:31. Now is the judgment of this world, etc.—The Jewish world is assuredly included; the words, however, relate pre-eminently to the heathen world. Therefore Satan is spoken of as the prince of this world who is now being cast out. The words are explanatory of the heavenly voice: I will glorify it again. Judgment was also now proclaimed to the world. It proclaimed itself with His woful feeling of death; it was put in execution by His death, made manifest by His resurrection, published and appropriated to the world by His Holy Spirit (Joh_16:11). The judgment upon the world should, however, be the world’s salvation; a judgment in which it was judged but as an ungodly world, its prince (2Co_4:4; Eph_2:2; Joh_6:12) being cast out of it and Christ in his stead assuming the sovereignty over it. In the rabbins, Satan, as regent of the heathen world, bears the name; Prince of the world38 (according to Lightfoot, Schöttgen and Eisenmenger. Delitzsch, Bibl. Psychologie, p. 44). The expulsion from heaven (Luk_10:18) is not again meant here. Satan had penetrated into the Paradise of the first man when he tempted the first of the human race; when he tempted Christ in the wilderness he had ventured into heaven itself (the heaven of spiritual life) as a tempter. With the victory of Christ over Satan in the wilderness, the latter fell from heaven like lightning; and upon this transaction rested the victories of Jesus’ disciples over demons in Israel (see Leben Jesu, II. 3, p. 1070; III. p. 428). Now Satan is likewise cast out of the world, the κόσμος οῦ̓τος i.e., the old pre-Messianic and non-Messianic world—with special reference to the Gentile world whose highest cosmical formation is the very Hellenism that is confronting Him. Satan’s empire over the world is shattered with the death and resurrection of Jesus. He is indeed still tarrying and working over the earth (Eph_2:2); here he retains his “Εξω, the air and wind regions of the human world as far as it is not yet spiritual, whence he reacts upon the church of Christ. Subsequently he is cast upon the earth (Rev_12:9), i.e., he possesses himself of traditional, ancient ordinances, now deadened—lifeless. But in time to come he is also cast out of the earth into the bottomless pit, Revelation 20. Thus this saying opens up a perspective of the final judgment, whilst Hilgenfeld has pretended to discover in it a negation of the last judgment (together with other favorite gnostic ideas).

Joh_12:32. And I, if I shall be lifted up [κἀγὼ ἐὰν ὑψωθῶ ἐκ τῆς γῆς]. See chap Joh_3:14; Joh_8:28. As in those passages both events are understood by the lifting up; the lifting up upon the cross and the lifting up upon the heavenly throne; in this place, pre-eminently the latter.39 This double meaning of the word (Erasmus, Tholuck, etc.), is disallowed here by Meyer; he particularly denies that there is any reference to the crucifixion (the Fathers, most of the ancients, Kling, Frommann), maintaining that the ἐκ τῆς γῆς conflicts with such an interpretation, though indeed it is that of John himself. However, the crucifixion itself in its inward essence was an exaltation of Christ above the earth. With the dethroning of Satan, the dark usurper in the world, the enthroning of Jesus corresponds; hence: “And I.” With the breaking of the Satanic principle and the power of the spirits of darkness by the expiatory and redemptive death of Christ, the full power of the Christian spirit releases itself; then comes the Holy Ghost, Joh_7:39; Joh_14:26 ff.

Will draw all men unto Myself [πάντας ἑλκύσω πρὸς ἐμαυτόν].—All is referred: 1. by Chrysostom, Cyril, Calvin, Lampe, to the antithesis of Jews and Gentiles, after Joh_10:16; John 2. by Lutheran theologians to all who hear the preaching of the Gospel and do not resist the drawing of Christ; 3. by individual Reformed theologians to the elect; 4. Meyer: without restriction.40 We suppose it to be indicative of the totality of the nations in antithesis to the firstlings of the Greeks who have here inquired after Him; similarly: I will draw them forms a contrast to the announcement sent by these individuals. It is the attraction of the cross,—its medium the preaching of the crucified One,—made effectual by His Spirit, which draws the nations to baptism and death with Him, and to new life. But the ἑλκύειν of the Son does not here assume the place of the ἐλκύειν on the part of the Father, Joh_6:44 (Tholuck); for the drawing of the Son is the gratia convertens in vocation which joins the drawing of the Father in the gratia præveniens or fore-ordination. All must experience the powerful drawing of calling grace; yet it is a drawing without moral compulsion because it is a drawing of free love calling unto freedom. The emphasis contained in πρὸς ἐμαυτόν (comp. Joh_14:3) signifies of course: to Myself. They will not stay with Philip or Andrew, or require the mediation of a Jewish or priestly church.41

Joh_12:33. Signifying what kind of death he was to die [ποίῳ θάνατῳ ἤμελλεν ἀποθνήσκειν].—Not simply a Johannean interpretation (Meyer) or a mere hint perchance (Tholuck). For the death of the cross was not only objectively the condition of the lifting up of Christ; it is also subjectively the strongest and the single decisive attraction to the exalted Christ (ποῖος θάνατοσς !).

Joh_12:34. That the Christ abideth forever [ὁ Xριστὸς μένει εἰς αἰῶνα].—A people is spoken of that recognizes the Christ in Jesus. They have heard out of the law [ἐκ τοῦ νόμου], i.e., by the reading, as well as by the explanation of the Holy Scriptures generally, that the Messiah should abide forever. This conception was occasioned in them by passages such as Psa_110:4; Isa_9:7, and the like. According to Meyer also Dan_7:13. But with this last passage in their minds, Christ’s being lifted up from the earth could not have appeared strange to them, for there the Son of Man is brought to the Ancient of Days before whom His kingdom is given to Him. Neither was that passage popularly supposed to refer to the Messiah. According to Meyer it was likewise from the Danielic passage that they took the expression: the Son of Man, and put it into His mouth; such an explanation of their use of the term is entirely unnecessary since Jesus has just entitled Himself the Son of Man (see Joh_12:23)—(although even Tholuck can remark, in opposition to Luthardt, that this reference to Christ’s words is too remote).42 Neither is it alone the distinction of the earthly and the spiritual Messianic hope which here comes under consideration, even though an elucidation is found in the fact that Jonathan translates the אֲבִי־עֵד, Isa_9:6, precisely as the people express themselves: “He that abideth forever, the Messiah;” the Septuagint, however, has it: πατὴρ τοῦ μέλλοντος αἰῶνος.” Tholuck. But the people, as also the disciples, lack as yet all discrimination between the first and the second coming of Christ. They imagine that if the Messiah had but come (with the breaking forth of the “Messianic travail-pangs,” perchance) the Kingdom of Glory would at once be ushered in with His residence at Jerusalem. At this they first stumbled,—that their Christ should be removed again from the earth, like Enoch and Elijah. But manifestly at this also, that He has again exchanged the name of Messiah for the designation of the Son of Man. And hence they ask: who is this Son of Man? Meyer considers their meaning to be: Who is this anti-Scriptural Son of Man who is not to abide in accordance with Daniel, but is to be lifted up from the earth? Thus too Tholuck. But in that case they would not ask: who is this Son of Man? but, how does that agree with the Son of Man? The first offence, namely at His being lifted up, concerns the spiritual and heavenly side of the Messianic picture set up by Christ; the second concerns that universality in the idea of the Son of Man, which they doubtless feel. The Greeks, evidently, have again excited their Jewish jealousy, manifested on a former occasion, Joh_7:35. Especially prominent in the response of the people is this practical trait; their carnal Messianic hope prevents them from having the slightest suspicion of what is impending over the Messiah, and hence also over them in their relation to Him during the next days. To this the answer of Christ has reference.

Joh_12:35. Yet a little while is the light among you.—[τὸ φῶς refers to Christ Himself; see Joh_1:4-5; Joh_1:7-8; Joh_7:33; Joh_8:12; Joh_9:4-5.—P. S.] Jesus does not enter upon a theological disquisition with the view of convincing them of their error in stumbling at His sayings, because the reason of their stumbling lies in their want of obedience to His word, in their lack of true surrender to the light. In the path of this surrender they should be freed from stumbling. Thus He practically lays hold of them in the centre, the conscience. They have not the slightest suspicion or presentiment of what awaits Him and them. Therefore: Walk as ye have the light (ὡς stronger than ε͂ως),43 in accordance with the fact that the light is about being taken from you, unless, by submissive faith, ye appropriate it permanently to yourselves as inward light.

That darkness may not overtake you, [ἴνα μὴ σκοτία ὑμᾶς καταλάβῃ].—Namely unprepared, and so to your destruction. The great night of temptation came upon them on the day of crucifixion, and to those who confronted it unsuspiciously, with their outward Messianic hope, it likewise became an inward night of apostasy and ruin.

He that walketh in the darkness.—He that acts then, walks then (comp. Joh_11:10). This περιπατεῖν is expressive of the fault by which outward darkness is converted into inward obscurity.—Knoweth not whither he goeth.—The figure drawn from outside life is strikingly demonstrative of the fate of the Jews. They knew not whither they went—into perdition, into dispersion to the ends of the world, into the curse of judgment until the end of time. Antithesis to Christ’s going to the sure goal of glory.

Joh_12:36. Believe in the light that, etc.—Faith here especially conditional upon obedience. The stumbling of these believers on the Messiah proved that they had not yet true faith in the sense of submissive obedience. The walk should be in conformance to the light, i.e., with trust in the light.—That ye may become [not be] sons of light [ἵνα υἱοὶ φωτὸς γένησθε. It is by believing in the light that men become sons of light]. Then should the inward light of illumination conduct them safely through the outer darkness, Luk_16:8. It is most fitting that these should be the last words of Christ to the believing portion of the people. Nothing but trust in that light which had risen upon them in Him, could lead them safely through the fearful night of trial.

And He departed and hid Himself from them [καὶ ἀπελθὼν ἐκρύβη ἀπʼ αὐτῶν].—This moment coincides, as regards the main point, with the departure from the temple described by the Synoptists (see Comm. on Matthew, p. 415, Am. Ed.) Meyer [and Alford]: “Probably to Bethany [Luk_21:37], in order to spend the last days of His life, before the coming of His hour, in the circle of the disciples.” These last days of His life amounted at the utmost to two. On Tuesday evening Christ left the temple; on Thursday, towards evening, He returned to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. John’s description of the close of the public ministry of Christ forms a most important supplement to the description of the same given by the Synoptists, Mat_23:39; Mar_13:1; Luk_21:38. They depict pre-eminently the departure of Jesus from the hostile portion of the people (with the exception of Luke, whose account in this respect is less definite), while John delineates His departure from the more friendly portion. But if we regard the Palm-entry as the introduction to this history, then John has supplemented an account not only of the immediate occasion of the Palm-procession, but also of the grand acme of it,—the coming of the Greeks and the glorification of Jesus by the voice from heaven within the precincts of the temple itself. In accordance with this presentation of the subject, we should conjecture that the introduction of the Greeks took place on the great, festive Monday when Christ displayed His glory in the temple undisturbed (see Leben Jesu, III. 1, p. 1200). It were possible so to incorporate these words (descriptive of His stay in the temple) with the Johannean account, that we should find in the ἀπελθών Joh_12:36 an intimation of the farewell discourse of Jesus, Matthew 23 together with the preceding great contests on the Tuesday. But since the denunciatory discourse, at all events, which Matthew records as pronounced against the Pharisees by Jesus, was followed by His still longer stay in the temple over against the treasury, according to Mark and Luke,—since Matthew is induced by the order of affairs to alter the historical sequence, not so, however, John,—since, furthermore, the definite announcement, in the temple, of His speedy death, nay, the very presentiment of death which has already entered His soul, seem to presuppose His final, open rupture with the Hierarchs on the great day of contest, Tuesday,—we now assume this conference of Jesus with the Hellenes, the glorification consequent upon it, and His charge to the people, to be significant of the last grand sunbeam which His presence shed on Mount Zion; the very reference to the remnant of day-light still illumining the nation is apparently indicative of the decline of this, the last day of His public ministry. These proselytes of the gate remind one involuntarily of the tradition (protested against indeed) that Luke was one of the seventy disciples. Comp. Luk_24:13 ff.

2. The last facts recorded by John do not present the motive for Christ’s departure from the people and the temple as distinctly as do those related by the Synoptists; nevertheless, the cause is intimated by the final question of the people that recognize Him as the Messiah. They have not the faintest foreboding of the state of matters, and even their lofty enthusiasm of the day of Palms begins to be obscured again by Judaistic expectations. This exhibition of the mind of the multitude seems to the evangelist sufficiently expressive; but he too subjoins his explanation in his epilogue on the public ministry of Jesus and the motive for His retirement.

3. Remarkable is the glorious, threefold climax with which, according to John, the public ministry of Jesus closes: 1. The anointing of Jesus in Bethany before His official Messianic entry into Jerusalem; 2. the Palm-entry itself, originating particularly with festal pilgrims going forth to Bethany out of Jerusalem; contrasted with this, the despair of the Supreme Council; 3. the announcement of the Greeks, and the glorification of Jesus through the voice from heaven, upon Mount Zion itself, in the hearing of the whole nation,—together with the proclamation from His own mouth of His redemptive death, His glorification for all nations, and the universal Gospel.

4. Christ’s last words of farewell to the people on the temple-mount a gentle warning, according to John, and yet also an earnest explanation of Jewish stumblings. Therefore did Jesus return no answer to these stumblings themselves. Obedience from the heart unto truth alone can free from the prejudices of tradition.

5. At the moment of the consummated apostasy of the sacerdotal party from the Christ on Zion, the first Gentiles most significantly made their public appearance as His disciples. The hypothesis of Sepp assuming them to have been a deputation sent to Jesus by king Abgarus of Edessa, after the well-known account of apocryphal sound in Eusebius, cannot avail to enrich this event.

6. The Hellenes. A literal fulfilment of the predictions of the prophets, especially of Isaiah 2; also a fulfilment of the type contained in the history of the wise men from the East. A foretoken of the ensuing conversion of the proselytes of the gate, then of the Gentile world itself.

7. The pure historical truth, the clear picture of the situation in the intercession of the disciples Philip and Andrew.

8. The Hour. To the Lord the presentiment of His death is connected with the presentiment of His glorification. Be it observed that John regards even the humiliation of Jesus unto death as a particular form of Christ’s exaltation, and that not simply in the ironical sense of the being lifted up upon the cross. It is the perfect exaltation of Jesus in His love, to the perfect glorification of the grace of God.

9. Stier very ingeniously remarks: “For this He now appeals—not to the testimony of the prophets, but to a secretly prophetic mystery of nature (as a proof also that His discourse is aimed at the Greeks as well as the Jews) which yet on the instant shines transfigured in His mouth.” Symbolism of the grain of wheat. See Note on Joh_12:24. The word concerning the grain of wheat has a threefold reference: (1) It declares a universal law of life: a death-like metamorphosis, as a condition whereon depends the renewal of life, is a type of the fundamental law in the kingdom of God, which law provides that we by a priestly surrender of our own wills to the will of God do obtain new kingly life in God. (2) The law of life of sinful humanity; in God’s kingdom of this earth real death is a condition of the transition from the old life to the new; a symbol of the propitiatory sacrificial death of Christ for the reconciliation and glorification of the world; likewise of the death of thank-offering in which believers die with Christ in order to walk with Him in new life. (3) In the most special sense, the law of life of the regeneration of Hellenism, whose peculiar essence consists in a fleeing from death and the cross in the embellishment of the present life (Leben Jesu, II. p. 1203; III. p. 665).44 The Greek’s aim is levelled at beauty of appearance. Even these Greeks, religious though they be, betray themselves with the expression: “We wish to see Jesus.” Essentially eternal youth, beauty and glory in the new world are attained by the Christian only through death.

Hence the butterfly alone does not suffice for a symbol of immortality; the symbol of the grain of wheat must be added to it. The butterfly symbolizes the capacity of man for a paradisaical, death-like metamorphosis which yet is not dead and is merely a symbol of an individual renewal; the grain of wheat symbolizes the renewal of life through death,—and that a renewal which is at once its infinite enrichment and extension, and its glorification in spirit. Jesus did not indeed see corruption, but He drew very near to it; and thus it is, at bottom, with the grain of wheat; it passes through the semblance of corruption, but, in respect of its innermost kernel, its life leaps out from corruption into the metamorphosis of the butterfly, just, as on the other hand, the butterfly must strip itself of a corruptible something—the dead pupa. Christ has glorified both forms of transit from the old to the new life. Moreover all the chief moments in the life of Christ are prefigured in the history of the grain of wheat: Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension, Whitsuntide.

10. The two oxymora, Joh_12:24-25; the three promises, Joh_12:24-26. See the Exegetical and Critical Notes.

11. Joh_12:27. The first presentiment of the death of Jesus in the temple a fulfilment of the foretoken of His baptism, the announcement of His baptism of suffering (Luk_12:50); again, a foretoken of the mortal conflict of His soul in Gethsemane, the sure prophecy of His death; crowned, therefore, as a great moment in the pathway of His humiliations, with a glorification,—like the baptism, like the announcement of His sufferings (Mat_16:21 by the transfiguration Joh_17:1), like His conflict in Gethsemane, like His death. We have too mean an idea of the emotional life of Jesus if we refer these moods to a fear of death. See Exegetical and Critical Notes on Joh_12:23 and the conclusion of that on the first clause of Joh_12:27. The present moment denotes nothing less than the mental self-sacrifice of Jesus in the temple.

12. The voice within the precincts of the temple. See Exegetical and Critical Notes.

13. Joh_12:31. The different stages in the subjection of Satan, the prince of this world. See exegetical and critical notes. The death of Jesus a judgment, glorified by the Spirit. See Joh_16:1. The foundation and beginning of the separation between Satan and the world; 2. the foundation and beginning of the separation between believers and unbelievers; 3. the foundation and beginning of the union of all the godly. “The anabaptists cited this verse (31) among others as a proof that the powers that be are not of divine ordinance. See the refutation in Gerhard, Loci theol. 13, p. 260.” Heubner.

14. Joh_12:35. Who is this Son of Man? It was as little their desire to find the doctrine of the Son of Man in their Christology, as to discover in it the doctrine of the Son of God. They would have no true Son of Man, no Redeemer revealing divinity in the perfection of manhood and humanity, no suffering Messiah; they wanted an orientally superhuman and godlike Son of David, displaying the perfect and exact medium of a divinity broken through humanity, of a humanity broken through divinity;—the ideal of all benumbed orthodoxistic systems, a rigid, everlasting -symbol of the God-Man, which should be the central point of the rigid symbolism of the kingdom of God, beyond which symbolism they desired never to pass. (See Leben Jesu, III. p. 608.)

15. Joh_12:35-36. The gentle and impressive farewell words of Jesus to the believing portion of the people in the evening of His public ministry. But once more should He re-appear as a prisoner among the people; like a setting sun, to shed upon them for the last time the radiance of His life. (Ibid. p. 668.)

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

See the Doctrinal Notes.—The Greek proselytes, or Judaism a leading of the Gentiles to Christianity: 1. In the historical sense; 2. in the spiritual sense.—The advance of the Gentiles at the recession of the Jews in the history of the kingdom of God: 1. Historical; 2. typical.—The last discourse of Jesus in the temple for the benefit of the Greeks, compared with the last discourse of Jesus in the temple for the benefit of the Jews (according to Matthew).—The two signs in the meeting of Jesus with the Greeks within the temple limits: 1. The sign seen by Jesus in the appearance of the Greeks: a sign of decision, a sign of death, a sign of life. And that in accordance with the Old Testament and the law of the spirit. 2. The sign given by the Father to the people about Jesus.—How the Lord was troubled also by grief at the impending rejection of His nation when He saw the coming of the Gentiles (see the conclusion of the note on the first clause of Joh_12:27).—The humiliation and glorification of Jesus in the temple an image—a reflection—of His whole life (especially of the baptism, the transfiguration, His soul-passion in Gethsemane, His death).—The great change in the great emotional life of the Lord: 1. How often it appears (see note on first clause of Joh_12:27); 2. what it denotes: the strength, extent, earnestness, buoyancy and holiness of His spirit.—Even the humiliation of Christ already an exaltation of Him, or the beginning of the full revelation of the glory of His inner life: 1. In His obedience; 2. in His confidence; 3. in His love.—Made specially prominent by John as a precursory exaltation.—The anticipatory solemnization of the Christian sacrificial feast upon the eve of the Jewish one.—Christ and the Greeks (Christianity and Hellenism): 1. The application of the Greeks: a. Courteous form (through Philip and Andrew); b. purport: we would see Jesus. 2. The word concerning the grain of wheat. Concerning the life of this world; concerning the following of Christ.—Messianic traits in our history: 1. The teaching Christ (Joh_12:24-26); 2. the high-priestly Christ (Joh_12:27-28, first half); 3. the royal Christ (Joh_12:28-32); 4. the wholly undivided Christ (Joh_12:33-36).—The saying concerning the grain of wheat and the succeeding sayings: 1. A sermon on salvation, as a word concerning Christ; 2. a sermon on repentance, as a word for us; 8. a sermon of consolation, as a word concerning suffering and dying Christians.—The Christian life in three decisive traits: 1. In the three truths concerning the grain of wheat, life, service; 2. in the three demands of Christ; 3. in the three promises.—The soul-passion of Jesus in the temple a foretoken of His soul-passion in Gethsemane.—The self-sacrifice of Christ in the temple: 1. Its occasion: the announcement of the Gentiles; 2. its form: assumption of the feeling of death; by anticipation, therefore, of death itself; 3. its result: the voice, the future of Christ.—The three voices from heaven in attestation of the Lord: 1. By Jordan; 2. on the Mount of Transfiguration; 3. in the temple.—The prospect of death and of glory as one undivided prospect with Jesus. The import of this to the Christian.—The two stumbling-blocks to the believing Jews in the word and life of the Lord: 1. His removal to heaven unto divine glory; 2. His humanity and devotion to mankind.—The farewell words of Jesus to the better portion of the Jews like the solemn, tender, parting gleam of the sinking sun.

Starke: It was not without the special providence of God that so great a multitude of strangers from the Gentiles were at Jerusalem in those days;—to the end, namely, that in this way the truth of the revealed glory of Christ might, through approved witnesses, not from the Jews alone, but also from the Gentiles, be published and corroborated throughout the world.—Lampe: This desire (of the Greeks) typified the fulfilment of the prophecies in which it was predicted that the nations should cleave unto Him (Christ), Gen_49:10; Hag_2:7-8.—O shame, that heathen who have not God’s word, outstrip Christians in inquiring after Christ, though these latter call themselves after His name!—(Philip and Andrew.) Preachers must agree in this, the leading of souls to Christ.

Joh_12:24. Zeisius: Christ’s death is the world’s life.—Hedinger: He who would live in Christ must first die unto flesh and sin.

Joh_12:25. Ibid.: Much lost to gain a thousand-fold more.—Zeisius: How many servants Christ hath and yet so few true and constant followers!

Joh_12:27. Soul, if thou be not cheerful and joyous, but, on the contrary, sad and dejected, look upon thy Saviour,—He in His infirmities was as thou art; courage! as He conquered, thou too shalt conquer in Him.—Ibid.: No better remedy for all suffering, nay, for death itself, than fervent prayer after the example of Christ.—Osiander: Even the cross and tribulation add fresh glory to the name of God; therefore we also should take such upon us with thorough willingness.

Joh_12:29. Lampe: O how diverse are the hearers of the Gospel!

Joh_12:30. (The voice of God.) Canstein: We must take for granted that we too are concerned in everything that it says.

Joh_12:31. Heb_2:14.

Joh_12:32. Cramer: Christ is the true magnet that draweth us after itself.

Joh_12:35. Hedinger: To-day, to-day is certain,—to-morrow is uncertain.—Zeisius: The greater the light was, the thicker the darkness of wrath fallen upon the despisers of grace.—Am I too a child of light?—Gerlach: Jesus warns His disciples likewise not to surrender themselves now to earthly hopes of a carnal glory; He indeed is going to His glorification, but the way lies through death and resurrection.—The goal of suffering and death,—that of Christ and hence His people’s also,—is glorification.—My soul is troubled. To the end that He may the more decisively counteract the carnal hopes of His disciples, He openly announces the state of His feelings.—The voice. As, at the conclusion of the Old Covenant, Moses spake and God answered him aloud (Exo_19:19), so the New Covenant is here solemnly concluded before all the people, the Son offering Himself to the Father and the Father accepting His sacrifice.—The prince of this world. It stands to reason that this is no denial of the devil’s power to tempt the people of Christ after His exaltation; as little do the words of Jesus: “It is finished,” declare that there are no more battles to be fought by Christ and His Church. But the power of the prince of this world has now become impotency in respect to the faithful; individual Christians, as well as the Church of the Lord as a body, are now in faith on Christ sure of their ultimate victory.—He had striven to subdue the carnal transport of joy by the mention of His mortal sufferings (Joh_12:24), and seeks with equal earnestness to show that His death itself, His deepest humiliation, would constitute the strongest centre of attraction for the hearts of men. Hence in this instance the double meaning attaching to the term “lifted up” is expressive of the following facts: His deepest humiliation should be His very exaltation,—the most horrid shame His highest honor; and so afterwards in the incidents attendant upon His death everything significantly came to pass after this fashion (purple, crown, Joh_19:2; kingly title, Joh_19:19-22), which very circumstances are mentioned by John with peculiar emphasis.—Lisco: Fruits of the death of Jesus.—The true and only way to serve Christ is to follow Him.—To the impenitent the Gospel is thunder; to him who thirsts for salvation it is an angel; to him on whom salvation has been bestowed, it is Jesus Himself and His heavenly Father.—By means of the Redeemer’s passion and death, judgment is passed upon the world.

Braune: This scene constitutes most truly the close of Christ’s public ministry. Gentiles approach Jesus, divining that they behold in Him the Light of the Gentiles, whilst His nation rejects Him; here a divine voice attests Him in Jerusalem at the close of His ministry, as by Jordan at its beginning; and before the conflict, He is stirred with a sense of victory.—He speaks here, as at the commencement of the high-priestly prayer, Joh_17:1.—It abideth alone. It doth not increase; no slender verdant stalk, no rich car is given it, wherewith to rejoice in the brightness of the sun, and to make glad the eyes of the world.—Seed-time and harvest, suffering and glory are mated for Himself and His people.—The glimpse of the rich harvest ensuing from the seed of His death, draws His soul into that conflict, whose first traces are perceptible in His lamentation, Luk_12:50, and whose culmination is reached in Gethsemane. The Baptist cried. “Behold the Lamb of God!” This title was given to Christ, not simply under the cross, but from the beginning; and thus, side by side with the assurance of victory, the anguish of conflict threaded His life. Divine life did not stifle or abolish human feeling; and this must needs struggle against the sufferings which were pressing upon Him,—against death. (? But doubtless the struggle consisted 1. in His working off His emotion, and in His submission, 2. in His resurrection.) Jesus was the original man, not an unnatural man; not dis-humanized, but the ideal of pure human nature. His grief was the misery of all who despised Him, etc.—Follow Him. He requires the act of obedience.—Father, glorify, etc. That was a sublime moment on earth, in perfect unison with that heaven, whence a voice resounded.—Are there not, then, organs of perception for the higher regimen of the world? Eph_5:8.——Gossner: Thus He gives death an entirely different form. It is, namely, nothing but a passage; the goal is glorification.—And where i am. Where Christ stayeth, there do we stay also.—Thus it is betwixt the Saviour and the soul. He comes to us with truth, and we go to meet Him with our faith.

Joh_12:37. Gone is gone. One trembles when one sees His blind people upon the very verge of losing the light for over because it loves darkness so much.

Heubner, Joh_12:23 : Everywhere the future opens wider to the God-fearing man than to the common eye.—The hour. Jesus calls the whole period of His final suffering an hour; it was the great hour for the world, when, by His passion and death, the liberty and life of mankind wore obtained; He suffered the natal pangs of the whole world in order that He might bring a new world into being.—The missionary discourse of James is glorious: The attractive power of the cross of Christ, Nuremberg, 1820.—Josephus can not depict in colors dark enough the confusion, the anarchy, into which everything lapsed in the Jewish nation. This was the consequence of the rejection of Jesus.—Any enlightenment that fails to load to a new and holy life is no true enlightenment.

Schleiermacher: On the grain of wheat, reference to Joh_16:7; Joh_16:14; Joh_13:34.—We know that it is only His redeeming and sanctifying love, diffusing itself amongst us and taking root within ourselves, from which depends the fruit that He shall bear.—We should know and love no other honor than that which comes to us from God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of us.—It is still true that we can enter into the kingdom of God only through tribulation.—His soul could not but be troubled by the reflection that the very greatest and most glorious event, the salvation of the human race, should not be brought about without the deepest ruin (of the Jewish nation, in particular),—that heavenly light should force a way for itself only by a hard conflict with the darkness. It is the same sorrow that filled Him when He gazed upon Jerusalem and said: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem,” etc.; the same sorrow that He would fain have communicated to others when He said: “Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not,” etc, And this sorrow—that the word of life could not come unto the Gentiles except after the Jews had rejected Himself, the Prince of life—was natural to His soul at the moment when Greeks desired to see Him.—We too should keep fast hold of the maxim, that for this cause we are come into every hour, namely, that the alone-wise counsel of God may be executed in us and through us, that all things may be fulfilled whereby the glorification of Him whom God has sent for our salvation may be accomplished.—“Glorify Thy name.” In this every wish of ours should centre. To us also the name of the Most High should be glorified in His ways.—In our speculations let us ever hold fast that which is far greater than speculation,—namely, that we walk in the light and believe on the light.

Besser: The glorification of the Son of Man comprehends three things: 1. the perfection of His obedience in the sacrifice of His love; 2. exaltation to the glory proper to Him; 3. the exhibition of His name as that of the Saviour of mankind, the gathering of a holy church, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.——Bengel: “A son of thunder (Mar_3:17) is well able to hear voices of thunder (Rev_4:5; Rev_10:3). The saying of the Lord: ‘now is judgment passed upon the world,’ was deeply graven on his soul.”—Richier: The mission to the Gentiles is a glorification of Christ.—The Father does but see how one is affected towards His Son whom He would have us resemble.—First one walks by the light, then one believes in it, and thus one becomes a child of light.

[Craven: From Augustine: Joh_12:20-21. Lo! the Jews (some of them) wish to kill Him, the Gentiles to see Him.—Behold them of the circumcision (some of them, Joh_12:13), and them of the uncircumcision, once so wide apart, coming together in one faith of Christ.

Joh_12:23. Christ took occasion from this request of some Gentiles to see Him, to announce the approaching fulness of the Gentiles.

Joh_12:24. That grain of wheat was He; to be mortified in the unbelief of the Jews, to be multiplied in the faith of the Gentiles (and in the subsequent faith of the Jews also. E. R. C.)

Joh_12:26. They serve Christ, who seek not their own things but the things of Christ, i.e., who follow Him—love Him for His own sake and think it a rich reward to be with Him.

Joh_12:27. Now is my soul troubled:Thou of Thy love wast of Thine own will troubled to console those who are troubled through the infirmity of nature, that the members of Thy body perish not in despair.

Joh_12:31. There is a judgment, not of condemnation, but of selection, which is the one here meant—the selection of His own redeemed.—Now shall the Prince of this world be cast out: The devil never ceases to tempt believers; but it is one thing to reign within, another to lay siege from without.

Joh_12:32-35. The Jews understood that our Lord spoke of His own death; it was not wisdom imparted, but conscience disturbed, which disclosed the meaning of His words.

Joh_12:36. When He hid Himself, He consulted our weakness—He did not derogate from His own power.——From Chrysostom: Joh_12:26. Where I am, there shall also my servant be; death shall be followed by resurrection.—What greater honor can an adopted son receive than to be where the Only Son is?

Joh_12:27-33. As He draws near to the cross His human nature appears—Christ had a body free from sin, but not from natural infirmities.

Joh_12:22. The Father draws (Joh_6:44) by the Son Who draws.—I will draw, He says, as if men were in the grasp of some tyrant from whom they could not extricate themselves.——From Bede: Joh_12:24. He Himself, of the seed of the Patriarchs, was sown in the field of this world, that by dying, He might rise again with increase; He died alone, He rose again with many.——From Theophylact: Joh_12:25. It were harsh to say that a man should hate his soul, so He adds, in this world, i.e., for a particular time, not forever.

[From Burkitt: Joh_12:33-34. Jesus arms His disciples against the scandal of the cross, by showing the great benefit that would result from His death—1. (to Himself—He was to be glorified, E. R. C.) 2. to all mankind.—As corn unsown never increases, but if sown brings forth a crop; so if Christ had not died He would have had no Church, whereas His death made Him fructify.—Observe how plainly our Lord dealt with His followers.

Joh_12:25. The surest way to attain eternal life is to lay down our temporal life when the glory of Christ requires it.

Joh_12:26. If any man profess himself to be My servant, let his conversation correspond with his profession.—All that will be Christ’s servants must be His followers, i.e., they must—1. obey His doctrine; 2. imitate His example.—Christ’s servants must not expect better usage than their Master received.—God will crown the fidelity of Christ’s servants with the highest honor.

Joh_12:27-28. Their trouble is no sin; Christianity does not make men senseless.—The fear of death, especially when accompanied with apprehension of the wrath of God, is most perplexing and soul-amazing.

Joh_12:31-32. The double effects of Christ’s death—1. the judgment of this world; 2. the drawing all men unto Him.—Learn that—1. Satan is the Prince of this world, not by right but by usurpation; 2. this usurper will not quit his possession unless he be cast out; 3. Christ by His death has cast him out.—There is a twofold lifting up of Christ—1. ignominious, when He was hung upon the cross; 2. glorious, in the preaching of the gospel: meritoriously by His death, instrumentally by the preaching of His gospel, He draws all men unto Himself.—All persons are naturally unwilling to come to Christ, they must be drawn.—All men are not effectually drawn to Christ, but by the preaching of the gospel they are called (so drawn) as to render those who do not come inexcusable.

Joh_12:35. Note—1. A privilege enjoyed, the light is with you, (1) a personal light, Christ, (2) a doctrinal light, the gospel; these brought with them the light (a) of knowledge answering our darkness of ignorance, (b) of holiness answering our darkness of sin, (c) of joy answering our darkness of misery; 2. The time of enjoying this privilege limited, yet a little while is the light with you; 3. A duty enjoined, walk whilst ye have the light, i.e., walk according to—(1) the precepts of the gospel, (2) its privileges, (3) its supplies of grace, (4) its hopes: 4. A danger threatened to neglecters, lest darkness come upon you, a darkness of (1) judicial blindness, (2) error, (3) horror and despair, (4) the blackness of darkness forever.——From M. Henry: Joh_12:20-22. The Greeks having a desire to see Christ were industrious to use the proper means; they that would have the knowledge of Christ must seek it.—They made their application to one of the disciples; they that would see Christ by faith must (should) apply themselves to His ministers.—It is good to know those who know the Lord.

Joh_12:25. Behold—1. the fatal consequence of an inordinate love of life; 2. the blessed recompense of a holy contempt of life.—Our life in this world includes all the enjoyments of our present state; these we must hate, i.e.—1. despise them as vain, 2. dread the temptations that are in them, 3. cheerfully part with them when they come in competition with the service of Christ.

Joh_12:26. The Greeks desired to see Jesus; He lets them know that it was not enough to see Him, they must serve Him.—Christ fixes for His servants both their work and their wages: 1. their work, to attend—(1) His motions—let him follow Me, (2) His repose—where I am, let my servant be, (a) in the assemblies of the saints, (b) in heaven in thought and affection: 2. their wages, they shall be—(1) happy with Him; (2) honored by His Father.

Joh_12:27. Trouble of soul sometimes (often) follows great enlargement of spirit.—Note—1. The sin of our souls was the trouble of His soul; 2. The trouble of His soul was designed to ease the trouble of our souls.—Holy mourning is—1. consistent with spiritual joy: 2. the way to eternal joy.—What shall I say: He speaks like one at a loss; He was in all points tempted like as we are.—When our souls are troubled we must take heed of speaking unadvisedly, and debate with ourselves what we shall say.—It is the duty and interest of troubled souls to pray to God, and in prayer to eye Him as a Father.—Prayer against trouble may consist with patience and submission.—He calls His suffering this hour, intimating that the time of suffering was—1. a set time, 2. a short time.—For this cause came I unto this hour; it should reconcile us to our darkest hours that we were all along designed for them.

Joh_12:28. Father, glorify Thy name; here is—1. More than bare submission, a consecration of His sufferings to the glory of God; 2. A mediatorial word—a tender of His sufferings as satisfaction for the wrong done the Father’s glory by our sin.—What God has done for His own glory, is an encouragement to us to expect what He will yet farther do.

Joh_12:29. God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not, Job_33:14.

Joh_12:30. The supports granted to our Lord in His sufferings were for our sakes.

Joh_12:31-32. Two things designed by the death of Christ—1. that Satan should be conquered; 2. that souls should be converted.—Christ’s death the judgment of this world, a judgment—1. of discovery and distinction; 2. of absolution to the chosen ones; 3. of condemnation against the powers of darkness.—Satan is here styled the Prince of this world, because he rules over the men of the world by the things of the world.—Christ reconciling the world to God by the merit of His death, broke the power of death and cast out Satan as a destroyer; Christ, reducing the world to God by the doctrine of His cross, broke the power of sin, and east out Satan as a deceiver.—The bruising of Christ’s heel was the breaking of the serpent’s head, Gen_3:15.

Joh_12:32. Christ all in all in the conversion of a soul—1. it is Christ who draws; 2. it is to Christ we are drawn.—He does not drive, but draws.

Joh_12:34. Great knowledge in the letter of the Scripture may be abused to serve the cause of infidelity.—In the doctrine of Christ there are paradoxes which to men of corrupt minds are stones of stumbling.—Christ’s dying, was as consistent with His abiding forever, as the setting (eclipse) of the sun is with its perpetuity.

Joh_12:35. The Jews had the light; they had—1. Christ’s bodily presence; 2. His preaching; 3. His miracles.—It is good for us to consider what a little while we have the light.—Walk while ye have the light; as travellers who make the best of their way forward.—Our life is but a day and we have a day’s journey to go.—The best time of walking is while we have the light.—Lest darkness come; lost you lose your opportunities.—The sad condition of those who have sinned away their day of grace—they know not where they go nor whither they go.

Joh_12:36. They that believe in the light shall be children of light—1. sons of God, Who is light; 2. heirs of Heaven, which is light.—Jesus departed and hid Himself: He justly removes the means of grace from those that quarrel with them.——From Scott: Joh_12:20-21. They who are nearest the means of grace often ripen fastest for vengeance, whilst sinners come from afar to inquire after Christ.

Joh_12:31. In the death of Christ faith beholds the world judged, Satan vanquished, his slaves liberated, and his work destroyed.

Joh_12:34-36. An obedient faith is better suited to our condition than disputatious speculations.

[From Stier: Joh_12:23-36. The Lord’s last public declaration concerning His death.

Joh_12:20-21. We would see Jesus, a great missionary text; the Greeks (Ἕλληνες) were heathens (?)—unconsciously they speak in the name of the world of heathenism, the highest desire of which in all times has this for its goal—to find and know a Jesus.

Joh_12:24. The Greeks were to behold the Cross succeeding the triumphant entry—He presents beforehand the solution of the mystery, He explains in brief His (philosophic) system.—Not only prophecy in Israel, and the presentiments of the heathen world, but Nature also speaks of the mystery of a redeeming death.—The inmost kernel of the seed and harvest parables.—Wheat is specified, partly because it is the most precious grain, partly because it more effectually than any other perishes in pushing forward the almost invisible germ, (partly because the most productive).—The germ of St. Paul’s resurrection doctrine in 1 Corinthians 15

Joh_12:25. That which holds good of Christ in its peculiar sense, is a type for us and is fulfilled in us to a similar victory and blessedness.

Joh_12:26. Where I am, there shall or should also My servant be: Both an added condition and a promise.—What shall be done to the man whom the Blessed and Only Potentate, the King of all kings, the Creator of the universe, the Father of Jesus Christ, delighteth to honor!

Joh_12:27-28. A prelude to Gethsemane—the lamentation, the petition, the resignation.—All the typical appeals and supplications of the Psalms reach in the lips of our Lord their Messianic meaning.—The two opposites pressed hard upon Him, perfectly combined but separated in utterance—the cry (desire) for help and (spirit of) submission.—The entering into this hour is the being brought out of it, the suffering is the deliverance (?).

Joh_12:28. The glorification is not of the Father Himself but of His Name—of the revelation of Himself in the Son of Man (see Joh_12:23).

Joh_12:28. The three accrediting voices from heaven—at the beginning, the middle, the end of the Messiah’s course—all in relation to the assumption on His part of His destiny of death.

Joh_12:29. “Before men will see (hear) and believe in God they will resort to all kinds of imaginations of thunder and angels.” Hamann.

Joh_12:31. Our dogmatic theology has much to do before full justice will be done to all the relations of the mystery of the Cross—the revelation of love, the vindication of right, the reconciliation between the world and God, the mortification of sin in the flesh, the abolition of death, the breaking down of Satan’s power.—The ungodly world is in a certain sense judged in its prince, even while it is saved.—The casting out of Satan goes on from age to age down to the final victory.

Joh_12:33. What death (ποίῳ θανάτῳ) comprehensively expresses all that our Lord had said concerning the significance, the power, and the fruit of His death.

Joh_12:32-33. “The attraction of the Cross.” (James, of Birmingham).—I will draw them unto Me, through the Cross—first, to Me on the Cross; ultimately, away from earth into heavenly places.—Before the glorification of Christ, the Father draws to the Son; afterwards the Son Himself draws immediately.—Does not the Lord actually draw all men?—drawing is no enforcement.—Children of light is not a mere Hebraism—a new race (γενεά) was to be born of the light.

[From A Plain Commentary (Oxford): Joh_12:24. The whole World is but one mighty Parable to which the Gospel supplies the clue.

Joh_12:27. The Humanity of our Lord—Soul as well as Body—becomes more and more apparent as His Cross draws nearer in sight.

Joh_12:35. Men walk in darkness because the god of this world hath blinded their minds, 2Co_4:4; the light is around them, the darkness is to them and within them.——From Barnes: Joh_12:20. Let him follow Me, i.e., 1. imitate Me; 2. do what I do; 3. bear what I bear; 4. love what I love.——from Ryle: Joh_12:24. The death of Christ the life of the world.—Death is the way to spiritual life and glory.—“By abiding alone Christ meant that if He did not die, He would be alone in Heaven with the Father and the elect Angels, but without any of the sons of men.” (Gill.)

Joh_12:25. The object of Jesus in thus speaking—1. to prevent His disciples from looking for good things in this world; 2. to teach them that like Him they must sacrifice much in the hope of glory in the world to come.

Joh_12:26. However little we know of the life to come we do know that we shall be with Christ.—Honor from men, Christians may not have; honor from the Father shall make amends for all.—The clearest (and most blessed) conception we can form of Heaven is being with Christ and receiving honor from God.—Never did Jesus keep back the Cross, or bribe men to follow Him by promising temporal comfort or happiness.

Joh_12:27. The possibility of much inward conflict without sin.—The weight of the world’s imputed sin laid on our Lord’s soul.—“By Thine unknown sufferings, good Lord, deliver us.” (Litany of the Greek Church).—“What shall I says? is the language of highest perplexity and anxiety; the Lord found deliverance in prayer.” Rollock).

Joh_12:28. Glorify Thy Name—the highest, greatest thing we can ask God to do.

Joh_12:31. Satan is a vanquished enemy.

Joh_12:32. “The passion of Christ began to draw souls at once, as in the case of the penitent thief and the centurion.” (Euthymius).

Joh_12:34. A half knowledge of Scripture will account for a large portion of mistakes in religion.

Joh_12:35-36. The duty of using present opportunities.—From Owen: Joh_12:25. The import of the mask of discipleship well understood by the early Christians when a profession of Christ was attended with fearful persecution.—Self-sacrifice and a readiness to sacrifice all things for Christ now demanded.

Joh_12:26. A beautiful correspondence between the words follow me and the promise of attainment to the presence of our Lord in His glorified state.

Joh_12:32. All of every nation—both Jew and Gentile.—Unto Me—to the state of dominion and glory to which He was raised—From Whedon: Joh_12:31. The Cross is the test and discriminator of the responsible character and final destiny of the race—the Cross becomes a throne of judgment.)

Footnotes:

[23]Joh_12:22.—Instead of καὶ πάλιν etc. [text, rec], Lachmann and Tischendorf read ἔρχεται Ἀνδρέας καί Φίλιππος, καὶ λέγουσιν in accordance with Cod. Sin., A. B. L., etc.

[24]Joh_12:25.—[ψυχή soul (distinct from πνεῦμα spirit) should be distinguished here from ζωή life, and be translated as in ver 27 Lange renders: sein Eigenleben, his self-life. See the Exeg. Notes.—P. S.]

[25]Joh_12:26. [The text. rec. with A. Y. A., etc., inserts καί before the second ἐάν in א. B. D. L. X. Lat. Syr., etc., καί is omitted, which agrees with the E. V. In Luther’s Vers, the καί is translated, but Lange omits it.—P. S.]

[26]Joh_12:27. [Lange (with Chrysostom, Grotius, Lampe, Thol., Ewald, Godet) takes the words πάτερ, σῶσόν με ἐκ τῆς ὥρας ταύτης interrogatively, as if we had here a reflective monologue, instead of an address to the Father. In this case a colon must be put after say, and an interrogation mark after hour. So also Lachmann in his Greek Testament. But I take the words (with the E. V., Meyer, Alford, etc.,) as a veritable prayer which corresponds to the prayer in Gethsemane. Mat_26:39, and the Messianic prayers in the Psalms: “My soul is troubled, Lord, help me” (Psa_6:3-4; Psa_25:17; Psa_40:12-13; Psa_69:1).—P. S.]

[27]Joh_12:27.—[Lange inserts after this cause the gloss: in order to be troubled. But the meaning of διὰ τοῦτο is disputed. See Exeg. And Crit.—P. S ]

[28]Joh_12:32.—[The rendering of ἐάν by when (ὅταν) instead of if, is inaccurate. It does not necessarily imply doubt. Herrmann (Vig. p. 832) explains the phrase ἐὰν τοῦτο γένηται thus: Sumo hoc fieri, et potest omnino ficri, sed utrum vero futurum sit necne experientia, cognoscam. I cannot quite agree with the note of Alford: “The Lord Jesus, though knowing all this, yet in the weakness of His humanity, puts Himself into this seeming doubt, ‘if it is so to be;’ comp. Mat_26:42” I would say rather that the stress is laid on ἑλκύσω as a certain fact, and ἐὰν ὑψωθῶ expresses, in a conditional form, the necessary antecedent condition. Just so ἐάν is used in Joh_14:3; ἐὰν πορευθῶ καὶ ἑτοιμάσω τόπον ὑμῖν, πάλιν ἔρχομαι, κ. τ. λ—P. S.]

[29]Joh_12:35.—Instead of μεθ’ ὑμῶν (with you, text. rec. with A., Chrys., Cyr.,] should be read ἐν ὑμῖν within you, in accordance with א. B. D. K. I., etc.—P. S.]

[30]Ver 35.—The reading ὡς instead of ἕως [text, rec] has the overwhelming authority of A. B. D. L., etc., in its favor, Lachmann, Teschendorf [Alford]. So likewise, Joh_12:30. The close of Joh_12:36 also recommends ὡς rather than ἕως since Jesus departs with this very word.

[31][Bengel: Præludium regni Dei a judæis ad gentes trasituri.]

[32][The present indicates habitual pilgrimage to Jerusalem. P. S.]

[33][So also Bengel: cum sodali, audet, when associated with a companion, Philip makes bold and does it.—P. S.]

[34][Alford: “The word soul (or, life) is not realty in a double sense: as the wheat-corn retains its identity, though it (lie, so the soul: so that the two senses are in their depth but one. Notice that the soul involves the life in both cases, and must not be taken in the present acceptation of that term.”] P. S.]

[35][Bengel: concurrebat horror mortis et ardor obedientiæ.]

[36][This interpretation of διὰ τοῦτο (to endure this suffering) is also defended by Grotius, De Wette, Luthardt, Ebrard, Godet, Hengstenberg, Wordsworth. Olshausen supplies: that the world may be saved, which is not sustained by the connection, but results necessarily from the atoning death of Christ. Alford, with Lampe and Stier, supplies: ἱ ν α σ ω θ ῶ ἐκ τῆς ὥρας τούτης, I came to this hour for the very purpose that I might be delivered from it, or that, by going into and exhausting this hour, I might pass to My glorification. But this interpretation is not very clear, and would in consistency require the interrogative punctuation of the preceding clause, which Alford opposes.—P. S.]

[37][So also the ancients, and, among modern commentators, Olshausen, Kling, Stier, Meyer, Luthardt, Godet, Alford. Lange mentions only incidentally (sub. 1) the rationalistic interpretation of actual thunder and no more (Paulus, Kuinöl,. Amnion, etc.). Hengstenberg (II., p. 320 ff.), otherwise so uncompromisingly anti-rationalistic, likewise assumes natural thunder which was identical with “the voice from heaven,” and through which God spoke to Christ. But then it could not have been mistaken by some for the voice of an angel. It was clearly a supernatural phenomenon, a spiritual manifestation from the spiritual world, clothed in a symbolic form, an articulate sound from heaven, miraculously uttered, heard by all, but variously interpreted according to the degree of spiritual susceptibility.—P. S.]

[38][שַׂר הָעוֹלָם. Paul calls Satan ὁ θεὸς τοῦ κόσμου τούτου 2Co_4:4, ὁ ἀρχων τῆς ἐξουσίας τοῦ ἀέρος, Eph_2:2.—P. S.]

[39][The deepest humiliation of Christ is at the same time His highest exaltation; His crown of thorns is His crown of glory. The double meaning of ὑψωθῆναι is in keeping with John, comp. Joh_2:19; Joh_3:3; Joh_4:10; Joh_11:51. Alford: The Saviour crucified, is in fact the Saviour glorified; so that the exalting to God’s right hand is set forth by that uplifting on the cross.—P. S.]

[40][Some infer from πάντας the apocatastasis or final restoration of all men. But in all such passages all must be explained in accordance with other passages where faith is expressly laid down as the indispensable condition of salvation. Chrysostom finds in ἑλκύω an intimation of deliverance from the chains of Satan. It rather implies the strong and irresistible power of Christ’s love. This attraction of the cross is one of the richest themes for effective evangelical sermons. See the Homiletical Department.—P. S.]

[41][I add the note of Alford on ἑλκύω: “by the diffusion of the Spirit in the church: manifested in the preaching of the Word mediately, and the pleading of the Spirit immediately. Before the glorification of Christ, the Father drew men to the Son (Joh_6:44), but now the Son Himself to Himself. Then it was, ‘no man can come except the Father draw him;’ now the Son draws all. And, to Himself, as thus uplifted, thus exalted;—the great object of faith; see Joh_11:52.”—P. S.]

[42][Alford refers to the still remoter passage in the discourse with Nicodemus, Joh_3:14, and “perhaps in the other parts of Christ’s teaching which have not been recorded,” The reference to Joh_12:23 ἵνα δοξασθῇ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπον, is sufficient.—P. S.]

[43][Alford: ὡς, as, not exactly “while” (E. V.): walk, according to your present state of privilege in possessing light: which indeed can only be done while it is with you.—P. S.]

[44] [Comp. the beautiful verses of Nic. Lenau (from Savonarola’s Christmas sermon):

“Die Künste der Hellenen kannten

Nicht den Erlöser und sein Licht.

D ‘rum scherzten sie so gern und nannten

Des Schmerzes tiefsten Abgrund nicht.

Dass sie am Schmerz, den sie zu trösten

Nicht wusste, mild vorüberführt,

Erkenn’ ich als der Zauber grössten,

Womit uns die Antike rührt.”—P. S.]

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

THE GREEKS COME TO SEE JESUS

Joh 12:20-36. “And there were certain Greeks of those having come up that they may worship during the festival; then they came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, Sir, we wish to see Jesus. Philip comes and speaks to Andrew; Andrew and Philip come and speak to Jesus.” When Jesus was born, the Magi came from the East to pay Him homage at the manger, and offer valuable gifts, which proved so opportune in the defrayal of the traveling expenses into Egypt. Now, we see men coming from the West, to witness to His Messiahship, and pay Him homage at the cross. Thus the East and the West, representing the whole world, unite their testimony to the Christhood of Jesus, the former testifying at the manger, and the latter at the cross.

“And Jesus responds to them, saying, The hour has come that the Son of man must be glorified.” As the Gentiles were not allowed to enter the Temple Campus, these Greeks awaited Jesus at the gate, where He is now preaching to them, having bidden adieu to the Temple, and left it to return no more till He rides down on a cloud, accompanied by the mighty angels and the trump of God. Jesus was glorified when He died, as you and I will be if faithful to redeeming grace, and in case that our wonderful Savior should not honor us by the translation, which is a nigh-cut to glory, without passing through the portals of death.

“Truly, truly, I say unto you, Unless the grain of wheat, having fallen into the ground, may die, it remaineth alone; but if it may die, it produceth much fruit.” It seems that the presence of these Gentiles, who had come from the far-off land of Greece, to see Jesus and hear Him preach, reminds Him of the speedy call of the whole Gentile world to the gospel feast. As bloody Calvary was then looking Him in the face, the; glorious ascension and victorious Pentecost coming on speedily, consequently our Lord at once moves out into the deep truths of the atonement and experimental salvation. When the grain of wheat is sown in the ground, if it remains solid — i. e., does not soften, germinate, die, and rot — it will produce no crop. If Jesus had not died, His great spiritual posterity would never have existed. So if you do not die — i. e., old Adam die in your heart — you’ll never amount to anything as a soul-saver. That explains the woeful failure of the ministry, only one now and then succeeding as a soul-saver. The germination of your wheat symbolizes the regeneration of the heart. When the wheat sprouts, the old grain must die and rot, in order to give nutriment to the young sprout, which otherwise will die, superinducing a failure in the crop. Now, follow the analogy: When you get converted, old Adam must die, in order to feed the young convert on honey. N.B. — When Sampson slew the lion, he soon found the carcass full of honey, as the bees in that dry climate had utilized it for a hive, and filled it with honey. So if you have the courage to slay the man of sin, you will soon have plenty of honey to eat, which is the only edible on which the new-born soul can subsist. The reason why the Churches abound with backsliders is because the old body did not die, and consequently, as in the case of the wheat, the germ — i. e., the babe in Christ — died. What a deplorable condition! The Church ought to be an embattled army of stalwarts, making it awfully hot for the devil, and running, him out of the community. But what does the devil care for a morgue, filled up with dead babies?

“He that loveth his soul, loseth it. He that hateth his soul in this world, shall preserve it unto eternal life.” It is strange that the E. V. has “life” in every instance in this verse, when the Greek has psyche, “soul,” in the first two, and zoe, “life,” only in the last. The man who. so loves his hereditary, Adamic soul — which is fallen and destined to perdition if not crucified here — as to cling to it with pertinacity to the end of probation, is going to lose his soul eternally; while the man who courageously comes to the cross, and has that old, fallen, depraved, hereditary, Adamic soul crucified, will “preserve his soul unto eternal life.” The solution of the mystery is, Adam the Second gives him a new soul, which, surviving its predecessor, lives on forever.

“If any one may minister unto Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My minister will be also. If any one may minister unto Me, him will the Father honor.” Our Savior, in His preaching to these Greeks, who represent the whole Gentile world, delivered the plan of salvation and discipleship with remarkable clearness.

“My soul is now troubled; and what must I say? Father, save Me from this hour? But on account of this I came to this hour.” This is Wednesday, and, I trow, about 2 P.M. He has spent the entire morning preaching in the Temple Campus. The following day is the last, as at midnight the bloody mob is coming, cruelly and demonically to lacerate and abuse His body.

His case was infinitely different from ours, as we would not have known with certainty what was coming. But in His case, Omniscient Scrutiny contemplated the bloody panorama, even then making haste.

“Father, glorify Thy name. Then a voice came from heaven, I glorified Thee, and I will again glorify Thee. Then the multitude, standing, hearing, said that it had thundered; others continued to say that an angel has spoken to Him. Jesus responded and said, This voice did not come on My account, but on yours.” While Jesus perfectly understood the inaudible voice of His Father from heaven, the multitude, upon hearing the audible voice ringing down from the skies, should have been convinced, confirmed, and established in their faith, appropriative of His Christhood, by all these appeals to their bodily senses. Hence the articulated voice was a signal mercy to the audience. There is no doubt but John, the Writer, along with the spiritual people present, actually understood what was said; while the unspiritual multitude only heard the sound, afraid thought it was thunder; some taking the more intelligent view and concluding that an angel spoke to Him.

“Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the ruler of this world be cast out. And if I may be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people unto Myself.” This is a direct allusion to His crucifixion, elevated high up in a conspicuous place, as Mount Calvary stands in the angle at the intersection of the two most important roads entering Jerusalem i. e. to Damascus and Jericho. Here, we see, Satan is recognized as the ruler of this world, from the fall possessing it for four thousand years, and very largely having his way with it, the people mistaking him for God and worshipping him as God. While the devil stirred up the preachers, and through them the people, to kill Him, thinking His death would consummate His victory, he made the greatest mistake of his history, not understanding the vicarious atonement; as he is utterly destitute of spiritual light, though possessing wonderful intellectual power and sagacity. The death of Jesus redeemed the world and broke the devil’s power forever, thus in that very crisis bringing him down under the crushing verdict of the law which he, and man through him, had violated; but now, through the vicarious atonement, that law is satisfied and magnified, humanity is redeemed, and the devil dethroned and signally defeated. That was the grand culmination of the conflict which had been running four thousand years, Satan now receiving the great and signal defeat of his campaign against humanity, then and there beginning to fall under the crushing wheels of King Immanuel’s triumphant chariot, and destined to suffer defeat after defeat preliminary to his final and eternal discomfiture, ejectment, and imprisonment.

“Then the multitude responded to Him, We have heard from the law that Christ abideth forever; and how do You say, It behooveth the Son of man to be lifted up? Who is this Son of man?” Dan 7:14, describes Christ as coming at the end of the tribulation, and receiving from the Ancient of Days a kingdom “which shall never pass away,” and over which He shall “reign for ever and ever.” You see that this quotation, with many others, applies to Him in His second advent, the Jews having the misfortune to mix the prophecies relative to His two advents, applying them all in one, and consequently settling down in the conclusion that when Christ came lie would abide forever. Even all of His disciples so believed, and were consequently utterly disconcerted and disappointed when they crucified Him.

“Then Jesus said to them, Yet a little while the light is among you. Walk about as you have the light, in order that darkness may not overtake you. He that walketh in darkness does not know whither he goes. As you have the light, believe in the light, in order that you may be the sons of light.” Our Savior in this Scripture alludes to Himself as the Light. He is the glorious Sun of righteousness. As all the light in this world emanates from our sun, the moon and every object on the earth shining by light reflected by the sun, so Christ is the only spiritual Light in all this world, the saints His satellites, shining by light reflected from Him.

“Jesus spoke these things, and having gone away, was hidden from them.” This is Wednesday. Only day before yesterday He entered the city in triumph, amid the grand ovation of the multitude, hailing Him as the royal Son of David. These two days have flown; meanwhile He has been very busy, preaching to the vast multitudes on the Temple Campus, all eyes centered on Him, somehow anticipating His royal coronation during the Passover. They are eager and anxious to expedite the matter, and crown Him King without further delay. How they are foiled when, rendering Himself invisible, He suddenly disappears, and no one can find Him! This He had often done on former occasions in order to prevent them from crowning Him King. Now that Jesus has disappeared, John, the writer, proceeds with his narrative.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

12:20 Among the people drawn to Jesus (12:19) were some Greeks, God-fearing Gentiles who had come to Passover to worship. Jesus’ mission was not simply to Israel but encompassed the entire world (10:16; 11:52). Following Jesus’ resurrection, the church’s mission was to go beyond Judea to Samaria, and ultimately to the ends of the earth (Matt 28:19; Acts 1:8).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Joh 12:20. Ἕλληνες, Greeks) A prelude herein is given of the kingdom of God being about to pass over from the Jews (Joh 12:37, “Though He had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on Him”) to the Gentiles. It is not clear that they were circumcised: certainly, at least, they were worshippers of the One God of Israel.—ἐκ τῶν ἀναβαινόντων) of those who were wont to go up [to worship],—ἐν τῇ ἑορτῇ, in the feast) That feast, of which ch. Joh 11:55 speaks [the Passover].

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

Joh_12:20. The Hellenes are, as in Joh_7:35, not Greek Jews, Hellenists (Calvin, Semler, B. Crusius, Ewald), but Gentiles,proselytes, however, as is shown by what follows (note especially the pres. part. ἀναβαιν.: who were wont to go up), and that of the gate, like the Aethiopian chamberlain, Act_8:27, not pure Gentiles (Chrysostom, Theophylact, Euth. Zigabenus, Salmasius, Selden, and several others, including Paulus, Klee, Schweizer).

Where did the scene take place? Probably in the court of the temple, with which locality, at least, the entry just related, and the connected transactions, onwards to Joh_12:36, best correspond. According to Baur, however (comp. also Scholten), the whole affair is to be referred simply to the idea of the author, who makes Jesus, under the ascendancy of Jewish unbelief, to be glorified by believing heathendom. This idea is that of the history itself. Bengel rightly observes: Praeludium regni Dei a Judaeis ad gentes transituri.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joh 12:20-36 . The Greeks inquire for Jesus .

Joh 12:20 . Ἦσαν δέ τινες Ἔλληνες ἐκ τῶν ἀναβαινόντων … Among the crowds who came up to worship in the feast were some Greeks; not Hellenists, but men of pure Greek extraction; proselytes belonging to Decapolis, Galilee, or some country more remote.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

III. The Last Scene in the Temple: Joh 12:20-36.

Of all the events which occurred between Palm-day and Thursday evening, the evening before the Passion, John mentions but one, which is omitted by the Synoptics: the attempt of a few Greek proselytes to approach Jesus and the discourse in which He expressed the feelings to which this unexpected circumstance gave rise in Him.

If John so specially sets forth this event, it is not in order to relate an event omitted by his predecessors; it is because it has according to him a peculiar importance, and is in direct connection with the purpose of his whole narrative. He had beheld in it, beyond the closing of the public activity of Jesus, the prelude to the agonies of the Passion. It is therefore an essential landmark in his narrative. He does not say at what moment this event must be placed. According to the words of Mark (Mar 11:11), it cannot have taken place on Palm-day. It issued, moreover, in the final rupture of Jesus with the people; and we know that, during the days which followed Palm-day, Jesus resided in the temple, as if in His palace, and exercised there a sort of Messianic sovereignty. The next day after His entrance into Jerusalem, Tuesday, Jesus purified the temple by the expulsion of the traders.

The following day, Wednesday, He coped with the official authorities, who demanded an explanation as to the origin of the power which He arrogated to Himself; then, successively, with the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Scribes, who approached him with captious questions; and in His turn He presented to them, from Psalms 110, the great question of the divinity of the Messiah, which was to be the subject of His judicial sentence; then, after having pronounced the malediction upon the rulers of the people, He withdrew, towards evening, to the mount of Olives, where He displayed before the eyes of four of His disciples (Mark) the picture of the judgment of Jerusalem, of the Church, and of mankind. The last words of our narrative (Joh 12:36): “Jesus said these things; then, departing he hid himself from them,” may therefore lead us to suppose that the scene related by John occurred on this same Wednesday evening, at the moment when Jesus was leaving the temple to go to Bethany (comp. the solemn farewell, Mat 23:37-39). In this case, it must be supposed that Jesus did not return to Jerusalem on Thursday morning, at the time when all the people were expecting Him in the temple, and that He passed the whole of Thursday in retirement at Bethany. This might very well be indicated by the expression: he hid himself from them. But perhaps in this way Wednesday will be too full. It is possible also that Jesus returned again to Jerusalem for a few moments on Thursday morning; it would then be at that time that the scene here related by John took place. Nevertheless, the expression: he hid himself from them, is more easily justified on the first supposition.

ADDITIONAL NOTES BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.

Vv. 20-36.

1. The persons called ῞Ελληνες were undoubtedly Gentiles by birth, but yet Gentiles who had become proselyted Jews, because they went up to celebrate the feast. Whether their request to see Jesus was allowed or not, the narrative does not say. If we may judge from the ordinary readiness of Jesus to meet those who honestly desired to meet Him, we may believe that these representatives of the Gentiles were admitted to His presence. It would seem hardly probable that, after such expressions of His feeling and thought in view of their appearance, He would have refused to speak with them. But the author’s plan moves away from this point. He is looking towards testimony and proof, not towards the history or experience of these few men. Hence he turns the reader to what Jesus said, and leaves him with the impression which comes from His words.

2. The glorification of the Son of man which is spoken of in Joh 12:23 is evidently that which comes through the extending of His kingdom over the world. This is indicated, (a) by the fact that the expression is suggested by the approach of these representatives of the Gentile nations; (b) by the words of the 24th verse; (c) by the reference of Joh 12:31-32 to the overthrow of Satan and the drawing of all men to Himself. This coming glory is suggested to Him, as if in vision, by the approach of these Greeks, and the future appears as if already realized. The future centred itself in the hour of His death for the world, and this hour is so near that it seems to have already come.

3. The words of Joh 12:27-28 correspond somewhat closely with those which were uttered in the garden of Gethsemane. As to the sudden change of feeling indicated by these words as compared with those of Joh 12:23 ff., the following suggestions may be offered:—

(a) The whole passage evidently shows that Jesus was thinking of His death as close at hand. With this in view, it was natural that two sets of feelings should have risen in His mind—now, of the triumph of His work, which even as a prophet or reformer, far more as the Son of God, He must have had before His thought as He looked forward, in His confidence in the Divine truth, into the future; and again, of the trial and suffering which were just coming upon Him in the hour of His crucifixion. It would have been strange, indeed, if it had been otherwise.—

(b) As the Divine messenger to the world, who was to suffer death for its sins, and, through this suffering, was to accomplish the work of redemption, the existence of these two feelings in His mind is yet more fully explained. And to such a Divine messenger they would come in quick succession and in almost immediate connection with each other, as the end drew near. A similar succession of feeling, though not in such nearness of time, is seen in the discourse on the last things, where the coming of the Son of man in power and great glory is declared, and in the scene in the garden.

4. The omission in this Gospel of the words spoken in Gethsemane, which resemble those recorded here, may be accounted for from the fact that the author’s plan made it desirable to bring in this whole matter of Jesus’ victorious and sorrowful feeling at the close of that portion of his book which related to His public ministry. Having once presented the matter here, he had no occasion to repeat it afterwards; and, so far as was related to his plan of proof, etc., the words in Gethsemane were only of the nature of a repetition of what was uttered at this time.

5. The question whether the words Save me from this hour are to be taken interrogatively or affirmatively, is one which cannot be decisively answered. If they are understood in the latter way, they correspond more nearly with the words in Gethsemane, If it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, etc. For this reason, they seem to the writer of this note to have this construction and meaning. Weiss and Keil take them interrogatively, and the latter writer says that the absence here of the if it is possible, and the change from nevertheless, etc., in Matthew, to but for this cause, etc., here, shows that this cannot be an actual prayer, but must be understood as a question. Milligan and Moulton and Alford give the affirmative sense, as also does Meyer.

6. The words of Meyer respecting the voice from heaven seem conclusive as showing that it was an objective occurrence: “John himself, who was an ear-witness, describes it as such; he repeats its express words; to take the first half of these words referring to the past as the product of a merely subjective perception is without any support in the prayer of Jesus; Jesus Himself in Joh 12:30 gives His confirmation to the occurrence of an actual voice; finally, theἄλλοι also, Joh 12:29, must have heard a speech.” Weiss, on the other hand, claims that a voice, the understanding of which depends on spiritual conditions, cannot be a voice of articulate sound. The comparison which Godet makes of the understanding of the human voice by animals and men may, perhaps, be helpful in the way of illustrating this matter; and the condition of mind in different hearers in many ordinary cases has some influence on what they gain from the voice heard—it may even determine whether they think it to be a voice or a mere sound.

7. In Joh 12:30-31 Jesus rises again to the contemplation of the success and triumph of the future. The judgment of the world and the casting of its prince out of his power and dominion seem to His mind to be accomplished, since His death, now at hand, makes it certain that these things will come to pass; and He looks forward to the ingathering of all men into His kingdom. The reference here is probably to the last times, when the Gospel shall be triumphant everywhere, when Jews and Gentiles alike shall be saved (Rom 11:25-26). Towards this consummation the movement would be constant from the day of Christ’s death and resurrection and of the outpouring of the Spirit.

8. The writer explains the words be lifted up as referring to the manner of Jesus’ death— thus, to His crucifixion. It was the hour of His death which was ever before Jesus’ mind at this time. But in the idea of His death we may believe that all was included which belonged with it as essential to His great work—namely, His resurrection and ascension and the descent of the Holy Spirit.

9. In His answer to the people in Joh 12:35 f. Jesus once more calls their minds to Himself as the light, and seems to say that, by putting themselves in connection with the light while it still lingers with them in His personal presence, and thus becoming sons of light, they will discover for themselves, after His removal, how He can be lifted up, and yet can be the Christ who abides forever.

Vv. 20-22. “There were certain Greeks among those who went up to Jerusalem to worship at the feast, 21who came to Philip, who was of Bethsaida in Galilee, and made this request of him: Sir, we desire to see Jesus.22. Philip goes and finds Andrew and tells him; and Andrew and Philip tell it again to Jesus.”

The Greeks belonged to the number of those heathen who, like the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8), had in their own country embraced the Jewish religion and who had come to celebrate the great feasts in Jerusalem. They were not, as some have thought, Jews speaking Greek and dwelling among the heathen (ἑλληνισταί). The spacious court of the Gentiles was designed for these proselytes, according to the words of Solomon, 1Ki 8:41-43. If these strangers had been witnesses of the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem and had been present at the driving out of the traders—that act by which Jesus had restored to its true use the only portion of the sanctuary which was open to them,—we may the more easily understand their desire to enter into a more intimate relation with such a man.

Certainly, they did not desire merely, like Zacchaeus (Luk 19:3) to see Jesus with the bodily eye; which would limit the intervention of Philip to showing Him to them (Bruckner, Weiss). The request, thus understood, would not give a ground for such a step with relation to Philip, nor for Philip’s action as related to Andrew, and that of the two as related to Jesus, nor for the solemn reflections of the latter. What these Greeks desired was certainly to have a private conversation with Him on religious subjects. Who can tell even, whether, as witnesses of the opposition which Jesus encountered from the rulers of His nation, they may not have desired to invite Him to turn to the heathen, who could better appreciate than these narrow Jews did, a sage and teacher like Him. Ecclesiastical history (Euseb., Joh 1:13) has preserved the memory of an embassy sent to Jesus by the King of Edessa, in Syria, to invite Him to come and fix His abode with him and to promise Him a royal welcome, which would compensate Him for the obstinacy of the Jews in rejecting Him. In the circumstance which occupies our attention we must recognize, with the disciples and with Jesus Himself (see what follows), one of the first manifestations of sympathy for the Gospel on the part of the heathen world, the first sign of the attractive power which His moral beauty was soon to exert upon the whole human race. Jesus, at the moment when this request was conveyed to Him, was undoubtedly in the court of the women, which was entered after having crossed that of the Gentiles. He often taught in this place (p. 96).

The article τῶν and the present participle ἀναβαινόντων indicate a permanent and well-known category of persons, the class of proselytes, not only among the Greeks (it is not necessary to supply ῾Ελλήνων) but of every nation, who were ordinarily seen arriving at the time of the feasts. The προσῆλθον, they came to, has in it something grave and solemn. The word of address: Sir, shows what respect they feel for the disciple of such a master. The imperfect ἠρώτων, they asked, expresses an action already begun which waits its completion from the answer of Philip. By the term ἰδεῖν, to see, these strangers present their desire in the most modest form. The appositional phrase: from Bethsaida in Galilee, serves undoubtedly to explain the reason why these Greeks addressed themselves to Philip. They were perhaps from a region in the neighborhood of Galilee, from Decapolis, for example, on the other side of the sea of Galilee, where there were cities which were entirely Greek. It is remarkable that Philip and Andrew, the two disciples who served as intermediaries for these proselytes, are the only ones among the apostles who have a name of Greek origin. The Greek name went, no doubt, hand in hand with Greek culture (Hengstenberg).

We discover here again the circumspect nature of Philip: he feels the gravity of the step which is asked of him. Jesus had always limited His activity to the Jewish people, according to the principle which He had laid down for Himself for the whole period of His earthly ministry (Mat 15:24): “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” He does venture alone to take the initiative in a request which would lead Jesus to turn aside from His ordinary course of action, and he takes the matter into consideration with Andrew, the one of the four disciples, who are placed first in rank in the apostolic catalogues, who is always put nearest to Philip. We have already seen him twice mentioned with Philip, in chaps. 1 and 4; and we are reminded here also that these two apostles, so particularly named by John, seem, according to the tradition, not to have been altogether strangers to the composition of our Gospel. The two together decide to present the request of the Greeks to Jesus. Andrew, more active and decided than Philip, was probably the one who charged himself with making the request; for this reason it is that his name is placed first. Of the three readings, that of א is evidently a mingling together of the two others. That of A B L is the most concise and most probable one (see Meyer). The question is one of no consequence.

This request produces upon Jesus a very profound impression. Why is this? In the first place, it awakens in Him the feeling of His relation to the heathen world, which until now has been in the background in His thoughts. He sees Himself destined to extend His work also over this immense domain. But this spiritual royalty, as He is well aware, can only be realized so far as He shall Himself have been freed from His Jewish environment and raised to a new form of existence; and this transformation implies His death.

Thus the path to Calvary reveals itself to His view as the only one which can lead to the establishment of the new order of things. This is the reason why the request of these heathen agitates Him even to the depths of His soul (Joh 12:27). The heathen knock at the gate...all the bearing of the present hour both on His work and His person, both on the world and on Israel itself, is in this fact. It is a decisive hour, it is the great revolution of the universe which makes itself known. So, rather than reply by a yes or no to the request which is addressed to Him, He becomes absorbed in the reflections which are called forth within Him by this step. Did He receive these heathen? Did He refuse to have an interview with them? The story does not tell us. The following is the inference which Reuss draws from this fact: “The author limits himself to introducing them, then he leaves them there without giving any further attention to them.

From this we may again judge of the degree of historical reality in these conversations which are contained in our Gospel.” A number of jests directed against the commentators who “flounder in the difficulties of a blindly literal interpretation, and who cannot understand that such discourses are addressed not to the interlocutors, not even to the disciples, but only to the readers of the book.” To this lofty mode of discussion we will oppose the words of Renan: “Here are verses which have an unquestionable historical stamp.” And without going as far as Westcott does, who thinks that “the Greeks were immediately admitted, and that it was in their presence that Jesus pronounced the following words,” we regard it as probable that in crossing the court of the Gentiles, on going out of the temple, Jesus would have given to these Greeks a testimony of sympathy which He never refused to any one of those who sought Him. John is silent respecting this point, as he is respecting the return of Nicodemus to his home, because the importance of these scenes is not, for him, in the facts of a material order. As Luthardt says, it is not the external, which concerns him in the history, but the moral substance of the facts. This substance is the impression produced on the soul of Jesus, and the discourse which reveals it.

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

After the solemn custom: the Greeks were first so called by the name of the country of Greece, where they dwelt: but afterward, all that were not of the Jew’s religion, but worshipped false gods, and were also called Heathens, were called by this name.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 20. Certain Greeks] There are three opinions concerning these:

1. That they were proselytes of the gate or covenant, who came up to worship the true God at this feast.

2. That they were real Jews, who lived in Grecian provinces, and spoke the Greek language.

3. That they were mere Gentiles, who never knew the true God: and hearing of the fame of the temple, or the miracles of our Lord, came to offer sacrifices to Jehovah, and to worship him according to the manner of the people of that land. This was not an unfrequent case: many of the Gentiles, Romans, and others, were in the habit of sending sacrifices to the temple at Jerusalem. Of these opinions the reader may choose; but the first seems best founded.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

20. Now there were some Greeks. I do not think that they were Gentiles or uncircumcised, because immediately afterwards it follows that they came to worship. Now it was strictly prohibited by the Roman laws, and severely punished by the Proconsuls and other magistrates, if any person was discovered to have left the worship of his native country and passed over to, the Jewish religion. But Jews, who were scattered throughout Asia and Greece, were allowed to cross the sea for the purpose of offering sacrifices in the temple. Besides, the Jews were not permitted to associate with them in the solemn worship of God, because they thought that the temple, and the sacrifices, and themselves, would in that way be polluted. But though they were the descendants of Jews, yet as they resided at a great distance beyond the sea, we need not wonder that the Evangelist introduces them as strangers and unacquainted with the occurrences which took place at that time in Jerusalem and in places adjacent. The meaning therefore is, that Christ was received as King, not only by the inhabitants of Judea, who had come from villages and towns to the feast, but that the report had also reached men who lived beyond the sea, and who had come from distant countries.

To worship. They might have done this also in their own country; but John describes here solemn worship, which was accompanied by sacrifices. For though religion and the fear of God were not confined to the temple, yet in no other place were they permitted to offer sacrifices to God, nor had they any where else the Ark of the Testimony, which was the token of the presence of God. Every man worshipped God daily at his own house in a spiritual manner; but the saints under the Law were likewise bound to make profession of outward worship and obedience, such as was prescribed by Moses, by appearing in the temple in the presence of God. Such was the design for which the feasts were appointed. And if those men undertook so long a journey at great expense, with great inconvenience, and not without personal risk, that they might not treat with indifference the external profession of their piety, what apology can we now offer, if we do not testify, in our own houses, that we worship the true God? The worship which belonged to the Law has indeed come to an end; but the Lord has left to his Church Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and public prayer, that in those exercises believers may be employed. If we despise them, therefore. it proves that our desire of godliness is excessively cold.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(20) And there were certain Greeks.—Comp. Note on Joh_7:35, where we have the same word in the original, and Act_6:1; Act_9:29; and Act_11:20. They were not Hellenists, i.e., Greek Jews, but Hellenes, i.e., Gentiles.

Among them that came up to worship at the feast.—The words imply that they were in the habit of going up to Jerusalem at the feasts, i.e., that though Greeks by birth, they had been admitted to the privileges of Judaism. They belonged to the class known as “Proselytes of the Gate.” (Comp. Notes on Mat_23:15 and Act_8:27.)

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

20–33. The Desire of the Gentiles and the Voice from Heaven

20. Greeks] The same word is translated ‘Gentiles’ Joh_7:35, where see note. Care must be taken to distinguish in the N.T. between Hellenes or ‘Greeks,’ i.e. born Gentiles, who may or may not have become either Jewish proselytes or Christian converts, and Hellenistae or ‘Grecians,’ as our Bible renders the word, i.e. Jews who spoke Greek and not Aramaic. Neither word occurs in the Synoptists. Hellenes are mentioned here, Joh_7:35, and frequently in the Acts and in S. Paul’s Epistles. Hellenistae are mentioned only in the Act_6:1; Act_9:29 : in Act_11:20 the right reading is probably Hellenes.

that came up to worship] Better, that were wont to go up to worship. This shews that they were ‘proselytes of the gate,’ like the Ethiopian eunuch (Act_8:27): see on Mat_23:15. In this incident we have an indication of the salvation rejected by the Jews passing to the Gentiles: the scene of it was probably the Court of the Gentiles; it is peculiar to S. John.

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.

The same came therefore to Philip,.... Who might know him; they might have been some of his neighbours formerly, for that Philip's parents, though Jews, dwelt among Greeks, seems probable, from the name given to him, which is a Greek one; some have thought, that these Greeks were Syrophoenicians, who dwelt upon the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and were not far off from Galilee, and from Bethsaida, the native place of Philip, and is therefore mentioned as follows:

which was of Bethsaida of Galilee; See Gill on Joh 1:44. This place may be interpreted, "the house of hunting", or "of fishing"; for it is not easy to say which it has its name from, since "saida", signifies both hunting and fishing: and seeing it was in or near the tribe of Naphtali, where was plenty of deer, and a wilderness was near it, where might be wild beasts, it might be so called from hunting: and as it was situated near the lake of Gennesaret, it might have its name from the fishing trade used in it; for Peter and Andrew, who were of it, were both fishermen: but it is yet more difficult to determine, whether this is the same with, or different from the Bethsaida Josephus (s) speaks of, as rebuilt by Philip, and called by him Julius, after the name of Caesar's daughter, as I have observed in See Gill on Luk 9:10, See Gill on Joh 1:44; since this was in Galilee, of which Herod Antipas was tetrarch, and where Philip could have no power to rebuild places, and change their names; and besides, the city, which he repaired, and called Julian, according to Josephus (t) was in lower Gaulonitis, and therefore must be different, unless that, or any part of it, can be thought to be the same with Galilee: wherefore the learned Reland (u) thinks, that there were two Bethsaidas, and which seems very probable; and it is likely, that this is here purposely called Bethsaida of Galilee, to distinguish it from the other, which, by some persons, might still be called Bethsaida, though it had got a new name. Moreover, this Bethsaida is mentioned in other places along with Capernaum and Chorazin, Mat 11:21, which were in Galilee. And Epiphanius says (w), that Bethsaida and Capernaum were not far distant one from another: and according to Jerom (x), Chorazin was but two miles from Capernaum; and who elsewhere says (y), that Capernaum, Tiberias, Bethsaida, and Chorazin, were situated on the shore of the lake of Gennesaret. It is said to be fifty six miles from Jerusalem:

and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus; that is, they entreated him, that he would introduce them into the company of Jesus; they wanted to be admitted into his presence, to have some discourse and conversation with him; and what might make them the more desirous of it, was the miracle he had lately wrought in raising Lazarus from the dead; as also the uncommon manner of his entering into Jerusalem, which they saw; and which shows, that it was not a bare sight of his person they meant, but the enjoyment of his company, for a while; and this favour they ask of Philip, with great respect to him, and in a very polite way, and yet with great sincerity, and strong affection, and earnest importunity; and was a pledge and presage of the future conversion of the Gentiles, when the Jews would be rejected. And it may be observed, that sensible sinners are very desirous of having a spiritual sight of Christ, of the glories of his person, and the fulness of his grace, and to see their interest in him, and to have communion and fellowship with him: he is all in all to them; no object so delightful, and satisfying to them as he is; and they never see him, but they receive something from him, and are made more like unto him.

(s) Antiqu. l. 18. c. 2. sect. 1. Ed. Hudson. (t) De Bello. Jud. l. 2. c. 9. sect. 1. (u) Palestina Illustrata, l. 3. p. 654, 655. (w) Contra Haeres. l. 2. Haeres. 51. (x) De locis Hebraicis, fol. 90. 6. (y) Comment. in Esaiam, c. 9. 1.

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

20 And there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast:

Ver. 20. Greeks] That is, proselytes or transmarine Jews, that read the Greek version, and were called Hellenists.

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.

Certain Greeks - In the original, “some Hellenists” - -the name commonly given to the Greeks. The same name was commonly used by the Jews to denote all the pagan nations, because most of those whom they knew spoke the Greek language, Joh 7:34; Rom 1:16; Rom 2:9-10; Rom 3:9. “Jews and Greeks.” The Syriac translates this place, “Some of the Gentiles.” There are three opinions in regard to these persons:

1.That they were Jews who spoke the Greek language, and dwelt in some of the Greek cities. It is known that Jews were scattered in Asia Minor, Greece, Macedonia, Egypt, etc., in all which places they had synagogues. See the notes at Joh 7:35,

2.That they were proselytes from the Greeks.

3.That they were still Gentiles and idolaters, who came to bring offerings to Yahweh to be deposited in the temple. Lightfoot has shown that the surrounding pagans were accustomed not only to send presents, sacrifices, and offerings to the temple, but that they also frequently attended the great feasts of the Jews. Hence, the outer court of the temple was called the court of the Gentiles. Which of these opinions is the correct one cannot be determined.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Gentiles ... come up to adore. These either were proselytes who had been Gentiles, and now had embraced the Jewish law: or they were such among the Gentiles, who owned and served the one true God, as Cornelius did, (Acts, chap. x.) but did not submit themselves to circumcision, and all the other Jewish rites and ceremonies. These could only enter into that part of the temple, called the court of the Gentiles. (Witham)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

It is not easy to be determined what these Greeks were; whether Jews, who, being scattered in the Grecian country upon the conquests which the Grecians had made upon the Jews under Alexander the Great, and those who succeeded him, still remained in those countries, but kept so much of the religion of their country, as to come up to the passover; or Gentiles, which are ordinarily called Greeks in contradistinction to the Jews, Act 14:1; 16:1; 18:17; Rom 1:16; 1Co 1:23,24; Ga 3:28. But it is most probable that they were Gentiles; for though some say that the Jews would never have suffered the Gentiles to have come into the temple to worship, yet the contrary is plain from the instance of the eunuch, Act 8:27; who was a heathen, and came to Jerusalem to worship. And, Act 17:4, we read of a great multitude of devout Greeks; in the Greek the word is σεβομενων, worshipping Greeks. And it is plain that from the beginning there was a liberty for strangers, not of Israel, but such as came out of a far country, for the Lord’s name’s sake; and Solomon prayeth at the dedication of the temple, that the Lord would hear them, 1Ki 8:41-43; and there was belonging to the temple a court of the Gentiles for that purpose; it is called the court without the temple, Rev 11:2. What worship they there performed is a greater question: some think they only prayed; others think they offered sacrifices in that court, from 2Ma 3:35; but certain it is, that there were divers of the Gentiles devoutly disposed, that, hearing of the Jewish temple, and the solemn worship performed there at their solemn feasts, came, some as spectators at those great conventions, others with a true design to worship the God of the Jews.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Vers. 20-30. 4. The desire of the "Greeks the representatives of the Western world go see Jesus, and his reply. And now a scene is related of transcendent interest the one solitary incident of the Passion week between the triumph and the night of the Last Supper. John assumes here a knowledge of all that, in current tradition and narrative, had taken place between these two events. The cleansing of the temple, the solemn parables by which Jesus repulsed the Sanhedrin, the conflict with Sadducees and scribes, and with the combined forces of Herodians and Pharisees, the denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees, and the prophetic parables, possibly the awful doom of Jerusalem, and the departure from the temple. This event may have occurred towards the close of this solemn and crowded week, and it made profound impression upon John. The Hellenes were probably "proselytes," like the Ethiopian chamberlain. (Act_8:27) Edersheim says they were "proselytes of righteousness," for no others would be allowed to worship at the feast. Whether they came from some Greek city in Ituraea, or from Cyrene or Edessa, Ephesus or Alexandria, we know not. As wise men came from the East to the cradle of the Lord, some can imagine these Hellenes to have been Judaized thoughtful men who were longing for the light and joy found in the Holy Scriptures, and the religious teachings or ceremonial of the temple, into the outer courts of which they would be admitted. When they saw the kind of reception which this mighty Sage was receiving from his own people and from the constituted authorities, they were ready to plead with him to go among them, and to offer his message to the Gentiles. For the most part he had confined his mission to "the lost sheep of the house of Israel," but in his care for the Herodian nobleman, the Roman centurion, the Syro-Phoenician woman, and his references to the "other sheep he had," to the "world" which his Father loved, etc., he partially revealed his ultimate mission to the whole world, though he always implied that such a mission presupposed his cruel cutting off and awful mysterious hour.

Now there were certain Greeks among those that went up to worship at the feast. Tinev implies a group, and a larger company of these anabainontwn , who were and are in the habit of going up (perhaps were still doing it even when John, before writing his Gospel, had first put the narrative into words). They went up with a view to worship in the feast, that is, there were burnt offerings and thank offerings which they were allowed to present. This shows that they were not heathen nor uncircumcised Hellenists, whichever view of that word be accepted.

Vers. 20-36. The interview of the Greeks with Christ.

This is the only incident recorded between the entry into Jerusalem and the institution of the Lord"s Supper.

I THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS INTERVIEW. "And there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast.

1. They were not Gentiles, but-proselytes oft he gate, of Gentile extraction, who had been admitted to Jewish privileges. They came to the Passover as reverent and earnest worshippers.

2. They probably belonged to one of the Greek cities of Decapolis, which were full of Greeks. These cities were on the other side of the sea of Galilee. Thus we understand their application to Philip of Bethsaida in the first instance.

3. It is significant that Philip and Andrew were the only disciples whose names are of Greek origin.

4. The request of the Greeks was for a private conversation with Jesus on religious subjects. "We would see Jesus.

5. It is significant that these Greeks should bring our Lord into relation with the Gentile world at the end, as the Magi from the East did at the beginning.

6. It is still more significant that these proselytes of the Gentiles should be so anxious to see Jesus at a time when the Pharisees were taking steps for his destruction in a spirit of the deepest hate.

7. The interview was readily conceded, after the two disciples consulted cautiously with one another about the matter, as they must have remembered our Lord"s words, "I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

II OUR LORD"S ANSWER TO THE APPLICATION OF THE GREEKS. It is, in substance, that the extension of the gospel to the Gentiles was conditioned by his death.

1. The presence of the Greeks suggests the thought of the scattered sheep for whose gathering the Shepherd must lay down his life. (Joh_10:16-19) Jesus sees already "the other sheep" as ready to be gathered into the fold.

(1) His language implies that the hour of his Passion was at hand. "The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified

(2) It implies that the conversion of the Greeks would be a chief feature in his glorification.

(3) It implies that his human nature would be exalted. It is as the Representative of humanity that Jesus is to be glorified.

2. Jesus states the condition of his communicating blessing to the Gentiles. "Except a corn of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

(1) The principle here stated is true of all life. The particle of grain seems to be dead, but there is lodged in it the possibility of a manifold life. The seed by dying is united to the life that quickens all seeds.

(2) The principle is illustrated in the life of Christ.

(a) His death took him out of the loneliness of his unapproachable glory and connected him with the whole race of man. Through his death a new life went forth to millions.

(b) If he had not died, he would have been confined to one spot of earth, and the Spirit"s influences would have been confined to his own Person. But by his death the Spirit became universally diffused.

(3) The principle is illustrated in Christian life.

(a) Sin isolates the sinner.

(b) But when he "dies unto sin and lives unto God," he is delivered from solitude. He is no longer alone. He is the member of a heavenly family.

3. Jesus asserts his own subjection to that fundamental law which he so often applied to his disciples. "He that loveth his life loseth it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it in life eternal.

(1) There is a love of this mere physical life that imperils the higher life. If Jesus had not died, he would not have been glorified. His life would have been sterile.

(2) There is a reward involved in the sacrifice of the present life in the cause of God.

4. The claims of discipleship.

(1) The Lord"s service implies a close following of the Master. "If any man serve me, let him follow me." They must obey his doctrine and imitate his example.

(2) Faithful service will be rewarded by the servant being eternally associated in glory with the Master. "And where I am, there also shall my servant be.

(3) The Father will crown with dignity those who serve his Son in a holy obedience. "If any man serve me, him will my Father honor.

5. Jesus is deeply moved at the prospect of his approaching sorrows. "Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me out of this hour; but for this cause came I to this hour. Father, glorify thy Name.

(1) The shock had already come. John does not mention the agony of Gethsemane, but it is really true. The very words of that scene occur here.

(2) There is one element of perplexity implied in this deep trouble. "What shall I say?" The thought of deliverance was present to the mind, but not admitted. The prayer which would have delivered him would have been the ruin of the world.

(3) The prayer actually offered was not for deliverance from death, but for deliverance out of death, as the word signifies in the original. It is a prayer to be brought safely out of the conflict.

(4) The real design of this suffering was that he might win a victory over sin and death. "But for this cause came I to this hour.

(5) His exemption from suffering would have been inconsistent with the glory of God. "Father, glorify thou me.

6. The Fathers approval of the Sons Consecration. "Then came there a voice from heaven: I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.

(1) It was a real articulate voice, not a mere sound of thunder, though the multitude may not have understood the words uttered flora heaven.

(2) The glorification past referred to the voices at his baptism and his transfiguration, in which the Father"s character was revealed along with his own Sonship.

(3) The glorification in the future would follow from the universal proclamation of the gospel to a sinful world.

7. Jesus explains what is involved in the glorification of the Fathers Name by himself. "This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes." It was designed to convince the people of the true purport of his mission.

(1) It was for the judgment of the world. "Now is the judgment of this world." The cross would disclose the moral condition of man, and reveal the secrets of all hearts; and, above all, their attitude toward Christ.

(2) It was for the casting out of Satan. "Now shall the prince of this world be cast out.

(a) Satan is a usurper, and thus the "god of this world," "the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience.

(b) It is natural that the judgment of the world should be followed by the casting out of its ruler.

(c) Christ, by his death, will deliver men from the dominion of Satan and the slavery of sin.

(3) It was for the accession of the true Sovereign to his kingdom. "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.

(a) He refers here to the manner of his death. He is to be lifted up on the cross; yet he points likewise to the ascension which is to follow his death. He will thus be freed from all earthly ties, and placed in immediate relation to the whole world of man, that he may become "Lord of all". (Rom_10:12)

(b) The effect of his death and ascension. "I will draw all men unto me.

(i) He is himself the Center of the world"s attraction.

(ii) He will attract, but not force, men into saving relationship withhimself. The language implies that men are at a distance, and alienated from him. "Draw me, we will run after thee." There is a marvelous drawing power in the lifted-up Redeemer.

(iii) He will draw all men unto himself. Not only Jews, but Gentiles.

The words cannot signify that all men will be saved, for there are many already lost, and there will be many at the last day to whom he will say, "Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity.

8. The popular misapprehension of our Lords meaning. "The people answered him, We have heard out of the Law that Christ abideth forever: and how sayest thou, The Son of man must be lifted up? who is this Son of man?

(1) The question implied that they understood their own Scriptures. Yet they had no true insight into their meaning, for they imagined the Messiah would be a temporal prince who would deliver them from Roman bondage.

(2) They could not reconcile their idea of the Messiah with the idea of his death and his transportation from earth, for earth was to he the scene of the achievements of their Messiah.

9. The last appeal of Jesus to the Jews. "Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you.

(1) It is an appeal to the Jews to use their opportunities while the light was among them, and not to trifle with their destinies by captious and idle objections.

(2) The words of Jesus imply that the last hour of Israelite opportunity was at hand. He would be but "a little time" with them.

(3) They imply that progress heavenward was still possible and necessary, for the darkness had not yet descended.

(4) The way to become children of light is to believe in the light. "While we have the light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light.

(a) Believers become like Christ by believing in him.

(b) They will become "light-bearers" (Php_2:15) to the world in proportion as they receive of the light of life.

10. Our Lords farewell. "These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them." Jesus had no other answer to give, and here closed his ministry to the Jews. "He then retired, and. did not reappear on the morrow. This time it was no mere cloud which obscured the sun, but the sun itself had set."

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

Certain Greeks - A prelude of the Gentile Church. That these were circumcised does not appear. But they came up on purpose to worship the God of Israel.

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

The First-Fruits of the Heathen.

The Greeks apply to the disciples:

v. 20. And there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast.

v. 21. The same came therefore to Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus.

v. 22. Philip cometh and telleth Andrew; and again Andrew and Philip tell Jesus.

Certain Greeks there were among the crowds that came up to worship at the feast. They may have been men living in the Decapolis or in Galilee, men of pure Greek extraction, perhaps not even proselytes of the gate; they were heathen. But they had heard of the true God who was adored among the Jews. And they now had ample opportunity to hear also of Jesus, for all men were talking of Him and the great miracle which He had performed. They were acquainted with Philip, since his home was in Bethsaida, and they may have met him often in the North. Their wish was soon stated. They told Philip that they wished to see Jesus. Here was the desire of awakening faith, for they were not so much concerned about seeing Jesus with the eyes of their body as about the consummation of their hope to find in Him the Savior. Philip did not dare to decide the matter of introducing these Greeks to Jesus alone, so he called upon his fellow-townsman Andrew to help him decide. What made them hesitate to lay the request of the Greeks before the Lord was probably the prejudice which they, as members of the Jewish Church, had against all Gentiles. The many passages of the Old Testament which speak of the conversion of the Gentiles were at that tie hidden before their eyes. But after some consultation the two disciples decided to bringthe matter to the attention of the Master. Note: To this day it is often a hard matter for race and language prejudices to be overcome in the work of the Kingdom. It is necessary to be fully and absolutely convinced of the fact that Jesus is the Savior of the whole world in order to carry out one’s missionary duty properly.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [CXII. Greeks Seek Jesus].

CXII. GREEKS SEEK JESUS. HE FORETELLS THAT HE SHALL DRAW ALL MEN UNTO HIM. (In the Temple. Tuesday, April 4, A. D. 30.) dJOHN XII. 20-50.

d20 Now there were certain Greeks among those that went up to worship at the feast [The language indicates that they were Greek converts to Judaism, such as were called proselytes of the gate. It is also noted that as Gentiles came from the east at the beginning of Jesus' life, so they also came from the west at the close of his ministry]: 21 these therefore came to Philip, who was of Bethsaida of Galilee [See 2Co_5:8, Phi_1:23, Rev_21:3, Rev_22:20.] 27 Now is my soul troubled [Thus Jesus admits that it was difficult for him to live up to the principle of sacrifice which he had just enunciated. Had it not been thus difficult for him, he would hardly have been a fitting example for his disciples; for certainly it is and has always been difficult for them]; and what shall I say? [In his trouble Jesus raises the question as to what prayer he shall offer to the Father.] Father, save me from this hour. But for this cause [for this purpose of imparting life through a sacrificial death] came I unto this hour. [Thus Jesus proposes a prayer for deliverance, but repudiates it as contrary to the very purpose of his life.] 28 Father, glorify thy name. [Having refused to ask for deliverance, Jesus prays that he may glorify the Father by suffering according to his original statement contained in Joh_12:23, Joh_12:24. Two two prayers are counterparts to the two offered in Gethsemane [614] ( Luk_22:42). The prayer here is the climax of the thought begun at Joh_12:23. We are first shown that nature is glorified by sacrifice ( Joh_12:24). Then that discipleship is so glorified ( Joh_12:25, Joh_12:26) and this prayer shows that our Lord himself is glorified by the same rule.] There came therefore a voice out of heaven, i saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. [The Father had glorified his name in the Son. By words of commendation at his baptism ( Mat_3:17) and at his transfiguration ( Mat_17:5), and by the performance of miracles ( Joh_11:40), and he would glorify it again by the preaching of the universal gospel, and by making Jesus head over all to the church and the final judge of all men.] 29 The multitude therefore, that stood by, and heard it, said that it had thundered: others said, An angel hath spoken to him. [Those who thought it thundered were nervous persons who were so startled as not to distinguish the words. Gen_3:15. "The meaning of it," says Barnes, "may be thus expressed: Now is approaching the decisive scene, the eventful period--the crisis--when it shall be determined who shall rule this world." In the long conflict which had hitherto been carried on, Satan had earned for himself the name "prince of this world," and it was no empty title ( Mat_4:8, Mat_4:9, 2Co_4:4, Eph_6:12); but by his approaching death Jesus would break down the power of Satan, and cast him out, not suddenly, but by the advancing power of a superior kingdom. The kingdom of darkness recedes before the kingdom of light as the night withdraws before the rising sun.] 32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto myself. 33 But this he said, signifying by what manner of death he should die. [Jesus thrice speaks of his death as a lifting up, a euphemism for being crucified ( Joh_8:28). While the distinctions between the three statements are not to be insisted upon, yet they suggest that the first is a saving sacrifice, a priestly work ( Joh_3:14); the second is mentioned as the convincing credential that he is the prophet sent from God, speaking the message of God ( Joh_8:26-28); and in the passage before us, he is evidently the king who shall wrest his kingdom from the usurping Satan.] 34 The multitude therefore answered him, We have heard out of the law that the Christ abideth for ever: and how sayest thou, The Son of man must be lifted up? who is this Son of man? [The term "law" is used loosely for the whole of the Old Testament Scriptures ( Joh_10:34). The people were persuaded by certain passages such as Isa_9:6, Isa_9:7, Psa_89:36, Psa_110:4, Dan_7:13, Dan_7:14, Eze_37:25, etc. that the Messiah would abide forever. They knew that Jesus in his triumphal entry had received honors which they thought belonged to the Messiah, but when they hear him use words indicating that he should die, and thus (as they construed) not abide forever, they felt that he was openly disavowing all claim to Messiahship. Having heard him style himself the Son of man ( Joh_12:23), they now catch at it as if Jesus had used it to distinguish himself from the true [616] Messiah, and ask with more or less contempt, "Who is this Son of man?" Thus blinded by their preconceived opinions and misconstructions of Scripture, the people wavered in their loyalty to Jesus, and Watkins well says, "This question came midway between the 'Hosanna' of the entry into Jerusalem and the 'Crucify him' of the trial."] 35 Jesus therefore said unto them, Yet a little while is the light among you. [The phrase "little while" stands in contrast with "abideth for ever."] Walk while ye have the light, that darkness overtake you not: and he that walketh in the darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. 36 While ye have the light, believe on the light, that ye may become sons of light. [Jesus did not reply to their question, because it was asked contemptuously and not seriously, and because any effort to make their carnal mind grasp the idea that he could be lifted up, and yet still abide, would have resulted in more contempt. He therefore speaks a solemn warning to them, counseling them to make use of his presence while they had it, even if his fleshly abiding with them was but brief; and promises that a proper use of the light then given them would make them sons of light.] These things spake Jesus, and he departed and hid himself from them. [This was his last public appeal to the people. He now retired, probably to Bethany, and they saw him no more until he was a prisoner in the hands of his enemies.] 37 But though he had done so many signs before them, yet they believed not on him. [the multitude had long oscillated between belief and unbelief, but, despite all his past miracles and the marvelous wisdom shown on this the day of hard questions, they settled down in unbelief]: 38 that the word of Isaiah the prophet [ Isa_53:1] might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? And to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? 39 For this cause they could not believe, for that Isaiah said again [ Isa_6:10], 40 He hath blinded their eyes, and he hardened their heart; Lest they should see with their eyes, and perceive with their heart, And should turn, And [617] I should heal them. [See Rom_10:10); their hearts already being occupied with the love of praise or man-glory. Their disbelief accorded with the words of Jesus ( Joh_5:44). As to expulsion from the synagogue, see Joh_12:36. They are placed here to bring out in stronger light the final unbelief of the Jews and the patient, persistent effort which Jesus had made to win those who were the better inclined], He that believeth on me, believeth not one, but on him that sent me. 45 And he that beholdeth me beholdeth him that sent me. 46 I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me may not abide in the darkness. 47 And if any man hear my sayings, and keep [618] them not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. [See Act_9:7, Act_22:9, Act_26:13.). To the mass, therefore, the voice was a mere sound; to others, the utterance was articulate though incomprehensible, while to John, and perhaps to all the disciples, the voice communicated a thought. "Thus," says Godet, "the wild beast perceives only a sound in the human voice; the trained animal discovers a meaning; a command, for example, which it immediately obeys; man alone discerns therein a thought." (P. Y. P.)

[FFG 613-619]

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

20. And there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast. Among those who came to worship were Greeks, members of the Gentile division of the race which embraced all that were not Jews. These were not Jews who spoke the Grecian language and lived in Greek countries; those are called in the original Greek Hellenistoi. We find the latter in the Jerusalem church in large numbers. See Acts 6:1. These who sought to visit Jesus were Hellenes, a term only used of the Greek race. It is probable that they belonged to the large class of “devout Greeks,” met elsewhere by Paul, who were sick of heathenism and were attracted by the grand Hebrew revelation of the unity of God. On this great national occasion they had accompanied Jews settled abroad as they returned to worship in the city of David.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

Now certain Greeks

The phrase "now certain" marks the introduction of new characters to the story. (See: Introduction of New and Old Participants)

to worship at the festival

John implies that these "Greeks" were going to worship God during the Passover. AT: "to worship God at the Passover festival" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

Bethsaida

This was a town in the province of Galilee.

they told Jesus

Philip and Andrew tell Jesus about the Greeks' request to see him. You can translate this by adding the implied words. AT: "they told Jesus what the Greeks had said" (See: Ellipsis)

translationWords

Greek

worship

festival

Philip, the apostle

Galilee

Andrew

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

20–33. THE DESIRE OF THE GENTILES AND THE VOICE FROM HEAVEN

20. Ἔλληνες. In A.V. translated ‘Gentiles’ Joh 7:35 (where see note), and ‘Greeks’ here. Care must be taken to distinguish in the N.T. between Hellenes or ‘Greeks,’ i.e. born Gentiles, who may or may not have become either Jewish proselytes or Christian converts, and Hellenistae or ‘Grecians,’ as our Bible renders the word, i.e. Jews who spoke Greek and not Aramaic. Neither word occurs in the Synoptists. Ἔλληνες are mentioned here, Joh 7:35, and frequently in the Acts and in S. Paul’s Epistles. Ἑλληνισταί are mentioned only Act 6:1; Act 9:29: in Act 11:20 the right reading is probably Ἔλληνας.

τῶν ἀναβαινόντων. That were wont to go up to worship. This shews that they were ‘proselytes of the gate,’ like the Ethiopian eunuch (Act 8:27): see on Mat 23:15. In this incident we have an indication of the salvation rejected by the Jews passing to the Gentiles: the scene of it was probably the Court of the Gentiles; it is peculiar to S. John, who gives no note of time.

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.

20-36.] Future spread of the kingdom of God among Gentiles from the death of Jesus. Some Greeks desire to see Jesus. His discourse thereupon.

20.] These Ἕλληνες were not Grecian Jews,—who would not have been so called: but Gentiles, ‘proselytes of the gate,’ who were in the habit (implied by the pres. part. ἀναβαινόντων) of coming up to the feast: see ch. 7:35 reff. and note; also Act 8:27.

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

20. The episode of the Greek inquirers is introduced immediately after the complaint made by the Pharisees, “the world is gone after Him.” Among those who were excited and moved by the reports about Jesus and Lazarus were some Greek pilgrims; it was not only Jews and Galilæans who were attracted by what they had heard of the wonderful things that had happened at Bethany, but Greeks as well. And Jn., alone among the evangelists, notes that some of them told Philip of their desire to see Jesus, and that Jesus was informed of it. This incident is naturally recalled in a Gospel written primarily for Greek readers. It is, however, not explicitly said that the request of the Greeks for an interview with Jesus was granted, or that they were present while the sayings of vv. 23-28 were being pronounced.

But, although there is no positive statement to this effect in the text, it has been generally held since the days of Tatian that v. 20 begins a new section of the Gospel, and that vv. 20-22 are to be read in connexion with what follows. On this supposition, it is natural to seek in the words of Jesus here some message which may be taken as specially appropriate to Greeks. It has been suggested, e.g. by Lange, that the tremendous paradox of v. 25, “he that loveth his life loseth it, and he that hateth his life shall keep it,” has a peculiar applicability, if regarded as the judgment of Christ on Greek ideals of life. For the Greek, the ideal of manhood was to reach the fulness of personal life; a man should develop his own personality; the larger and richer his life, the more nearly he approached his highest. There is something of this in Christianity as well as in Greek paganism, for Christianity holds up the Perfect Man as exemplar. But the Christian ideal involves sacrifice, and this was foreign to the philosophy of Greece. Jn. may mean us to understand v. 25 as implying the condemnation by Jesus of Greek ideals of life. Again, v. 32, “I will draw all men to myself,” is a universal promise, including not only Jews but Gentiles like the Greek inquirers. And some have found in the exhortation, “Believe in the light, that ye may become sons of light” (v. 36), an allusion to the prophecy, “The glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. … Nations (ἔθνη) shall come to thy light, and kings to thy brightness” (Isa 60:1, Isa 60:3).

Yet it must be owned that if vv. 23-28 are to be interpreted as addressed in particular to the Greeks whom Jesus now saw for the first time, the use of the Jewish title “Son of Man” (see Introd., p. cxxxii) is puzzling (v. 23); and it is even more difficult to suppose that Jesus revealed to these strangers the anguish of His soul in words like those of v. 27. It is possible that vv. 20-22 should be treated as linked closely with v. 19, but as having no special relation with vv. 23 ff., a new paragraph beginning at v. 23 (where see note).

ἦσαν δὲ Ἕλληνές τινες (this is the reading of אBDLW, as against τινες Ἕλληνες of the rec. text) ἐκ τῶν ἀναβαινόντων (for ἀναβαίνειν of “going up” to Jerusalem, cf. 2:13) ἵνα προσκυνήσωσιν (see on 4:20 for the absolute constr. of προσκυνεῖν ἐν τῇ ἑορτῇ. Among (ἐκ) those who went up to the feast were many strangers (cf. 1Ki 8:41). These men were not Ἑλληνισταί, i.e. Greek-speaking Jews (see on 7:35), but Ἕλληνες, Greeks who had become proselytes of the gate, and accordingly attended the Jewish festivals (see Act 17:4 for “devout Greeks” at Thessalonica; and cf. Act 8:27 for the Ethiopian eunuch who came up to Jerusalem to worship). To such proselytes the Court of the Gentiles in the Temple precincts was appropriated. It was from this court (see on 2:14) that the moneychangers and the cattle were expelled by Jesus on the occasion when He cleansed the Temple; and if this episode is rightly placed by the Synoptists in the last week of Jesus’ ministry (but see on 2:13f.), the Greek inquirers may have been moved to seek speech with Him by the impression which His strong action had made on them, as well as by the reports of the raising of Lazarus.

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

Greeks (%Ellhnev). Gentiles, not Hellenists. See on Act 6:1. Jesus comes into contact with the Gentile world at His birth (the Magi) and at the close of His ministry.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.