John 12:23

Joh_12:23-26

The hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified.

The significance of this declaration in connection with the incident

Why should this be such an hour of trouble and glory? How should the appearance of a few strangers have led to a discussion respecting the falling of wheat into the ground, and its death--the saving of life and the losing it? You will remember that when our Lord spoke of those other sheep He connected the formation of the one flock with the death of the one shepherd. The assertion is in strict harmony with the prophecy of Caiaphas. If you turn from St. John to St. Paul you will find that the breaking down of the wall of partition between Jews and Gentiles is effected in the body of Christs flesh through death. If you reflect on these passages, that which we treat as though it were only an accident--the calling in of the Gentiles--the unfolding of a universal society, will be seen to be that wonderful event to which all Gods purposes, from the beginning of the world, had been tending--the unveiling of the deepest mystery of all, in the relations of God to man, in the Being of God Himself. Without sacrifice Jews and heathen had been taught there could be no unity among the members of a race. Sacrifice must bind them to God and to each other. Only he who can give up himself--so the heart of mankind testified--is a patriot; only he obeys the laws; only he can save his country when itis falling. There had been, then, a sure conviction that any larger union must involve a mightier sacrifice. As the conscience was awakened by Gods teaching more and more clearly to perceive that all resistance to God lies in the setting up of self, it began to be understood that the atonement of man with man must have its basis in an atonement of God with man, and that the same sacrifice was needed for both. One thing yet remained to be learned--the most wonderful lesson of all, and yet one of which God had been giving the elements, line upon line, from the beginning: Could sacrifice originate in God and be made, first, not to Him but by Him? All our Lords discourses concerning Himself and His Father--concerning His own acts as the fulfilment of the Fathers will--concerning the love which the Father had to Him because He laid down His life for the sheep--had been bringing these mysteries to light; had been preparing the meek to confess with wonder and contrition that in every selfish act they had been fighting against an unselfish God--that in every self-sacrificing act they had been merely yielding to Him. And so far as they had any glimpses of the accomplishment of Gods promises--that He would bring all into one--that the Gentiles should wait for His law--that He would be a Father of all the families of the earth--so far they had the vision of a transcendent and Divine sacrifice. (F. D. Maurice, M. A.)

The hour of redemption

It was given to St. John long after the other evangelists had described the Passion to add some details of the deepest interest. The Transfiguration and Gethsemane St. John omits, but here records the significance of both. The Lord passed through a season of profound agitation--the earnest of the Garden; but out of the darkness light unspeakable arose--the reflection of the Mount.

I. THE LORD ENTERS INTO THE DARKNESS OF HIS HOUR AND PROCLAIMS ITS GLORY.

1. The hour is the sacred term that marks the Passion as the consummation of the Redeemers work. He entered the world in the fulness of time; He wrought His preparatory work in the days of the Son of Man; and now, after ages of waiting had passed into days of fulfilment, the days are compressed into an hour. From this moment the shadow of the cross throws its sacred gloom upon every incident and word. The Passion has begun, and from that moment went on in its ever-deepening variety of grief, through the indignities of His enemies, the abandonment of His friends, the sense of the worlds guilt, to that infinite woe which took from man his curse. It was the first more direct onset since the temptation. It was the beginning of the awful strain on the resources of His lower nature under which He would fain cry Save me, but that He knows for this purpose, etc.; the same pressure which caused Him to ask that the cup might pass, a prayer the next moment recalled in the submission of perfect victory.

2. The darkness is not past, but the true light already shines. His first word on entering the dark valley is--The hour … glorified. His lowest humiliation was His highest dignity. The cross in which His servants gloried He here glories in. In it He beholds the glorification of the Fathers attributes (verse 28), an exhibition of the glory of Divine justice visiting upon sin its penalty, and the glory of the Divine mercy providing salvation for the sinner. To this the Redeemers final Lo! I come, there is a sublime response from heaven. For the third time the Father proclaims aloud the secret of His constant complacency in the sacrifice of His Son.

3. The record teaches us two errors we must avoid.

(1) We must not by our feeble theories mitigate the sorrow that wrought out our redemption and exchange it into a mere demonstration of such charity and self-sacrifice as man might rival and which could never redeem mans soul.

(2) It tells us, too, that the Redeemer was filled with a sense of His own glory and His Fathers complacency even while He suffered for our sins. He presented Himself as an oblation for mans sin to manifest the love that provided the propitiation, and to declare the glory of the Divine name in the harmony of its perfections.

II. FROM THE HOUR OF THE PASSION TO THE LIFTING UP ON THE CROSS THE TRANSITION IS OBVIOUS. Here also we perceive the blending, of opposite emotions.

1. St. John has already made us familiar with this expression, which serves the double purpose of signifying the crucifixion and the exaltation. But in the gospels it is used to express the act of man that lifted Jesus to His cross. In the beginning of His ministry, our Lord spoke to Nicodemus of this lifting up; in the middle He told the Jews that they would do it; and now He refers to it at the close. But the cross is the symbol here of His own reproach, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree.

2. But while His soul is troubled--and only in His deepest anguish does He mention His soul--Jesus still rejoiced in spirit. On either side is a word of triumph.

(1) The prince of this world is cast out. He had at an earlier time, and in a higher sphere, beheld Satan as lightning, etc. Now He beholds, as the result of His redeeming death, Satan fall from his power on earth--not, indeed, with the swiftness of lightning, but absolutely and surely.

(2) I will draw all men unto Me expresses the tranquil assurance that the virtue of His death would draw in due time--when preached in His word and testified by His spirit--all the children of men to Himself.

3. Here also are two lessons that guard our thoughts.

(1) The reality of Satans relation to our sin and the worlds redemption. A doctrine of atonement finds acceptance, which rejects the personality of the being to whom our Lord alludes. But in so doing they must reconstruct the entire doctrine of the New Testament, wrest the Saviours words to their own peril, and undermine the whole economy of redemption, which assumes that Satan is the representative and ruler of the worlds wickedness, whose power and law is broken.

(2) That through our redemption we are delivered from the reign of sin; that the drawing of Christ is as universal in its influence as the virtue of His atonement; that we may enter into our Masters joy and exult over a vanquished enemy.

III. WE PASS FROM THE HOUR, THROUGH THE LIFTING UP, TO THE SELFSACRIFICING DEATH WHICH GIVES LIFE TO MULTITUDES. Here again we have two contending emotions.

1. All His allusions to the coming end connect His own loss with our gain, His death with our life. So it is here, only the emblem is the most affecting He ever employed, expressive of the entireness of His surrender, and the absolute connection between His death and the abundant life of His people. What in the similitude of the corn of wheat expresses the deep anguish of this prelude to Gethsemane the Lord does not say. There was a mystery in the anguish of His soul that nothing in the secret of human dying will account for.

2. But the rejoicing of His spirit keeps not silence. He passes immediately to the much fruit that would grow from His death, the example He would set to His saints, and the supreme honour which He and His imitators in the self-renouncing charity of holiness would partake together throughout eternity. Nor is His rejoicing marred by the prospect that His death will not give life to all mankind. And should we be discontented when our Master sees of the travail of His soul and is satisfied?

Conclusion:

1. The only word of exhortation that we hear in this solemn hour is, If any man serve Me, let him follow Me. This is the voice of Him who passes through the garden to the cross. There is no loyalty to the Redeemer which does not share His passion. For Him we must sacrifice our sins, and, in imitation of His last example, must live, and, if need be, die for others.

2. Where I am, etc.; for a short season in the gloom of sorrow and conflict, but forever in His glory.

3. If any man serve Me, etc.; heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. (W. B. Pope, D. D.)

The hour of Christs suffering and triumph

(text and Joh_12:27-28)

I. THE HOUR. It stands out from all other hours amid the reminiscences of the past and anticipation of ages to come. Times stream set in to bear upon it. All prophecy met here. One dispensation after another was introduced and completed in relation to it, and derived all their importance from that relation. It was an hour

1. Of intense suffering. Who can tell the physical agony? His soul was troubled within a body of sensibility as keen as ours; and what anguish racked His spirit when He was executed as a malefactor and forsaken of His Father!

2. Of triumph. An hour in which He glorified God and God Him; in which all the Divine attributes harmonized as they never had before, and never could again. They received glory which covered all obscurations that had appeared, and which can never be tarnished to eternity.

II. THE SEEMING RELUCTANCE OF CHRIST TO MEET THIS HOUR (Joh_12:27). His spirit is perplexed, for He was as truly man as God. But wherefore these cries and tears? Because of

1. The death of ignominy which He, innocence itself, was about to die.

2. The unbelief and ingratitude of the Jews. He came to His own, etc.

3. The desertion of His disciples, the denial of Peter, the betrayal of Judas.

4. The buffetings of Satan during the hour and power of darkness.

5. The hiding of the Fathers face (Zec_13:7; Mat_27:45-46). Well might His soul be troubled and say, Father, save Me from this hour--if there is any other way of saving sinners. But God spared not His own Son, and the Son acquiesced.

III. THE GROUNDS ON WHICH HE OVERCAME HIS APPARENT RELUCTANCE. They respect

1. Himself. He knew that on this hour depended all that He came to do, and this consideration dispelled the cloud human nature raised. He had done too much to allow of His retracting. Why the Babe of Bethlehem if He refused to be the Man of Sorrows? He came to finish the work God gave Him to do.

2. His people. If I would save others I dare not save Myself. If they are to have life I must endure death.

3. His Father. To glorify Him was the design of His coming into the world. Lo! I come, etc.

IV. BY WHAT MEANS GOD WAS GLORIFIED IN THE WORK OF CHRIST.

1. In the fulfilment of Messianic prophecy. God had in all the introductory announcements of the Redeemer for four thousand years, connected His glory with the completion of redemption by Christs death as a sacrifice for Heb_1:1-3; Luk_2:7-14).

2. The incarnation. We beheld His glory, etc.

3. The discourses, miracles, and character of Christ.

4. His death, resurrection, and ascension.

5. The spread of the gospel.

6. The resurrection and judgment. (T. Raffles, LL. D.)

The glorification of the Son of Man

1. Christ here displays His broad humanity. Not Son of David. The Jewish side of His mission is no longer prominent. As the Son of Man Jesus is near akin to every man that lives.

2. He speaks of His glory as approaching suggested by the sight of these first fruits among the Gentiles. Christ is glorified in the souls He saves, as a physician wins honour by those he heals.

3. The same visitors led the Saviour to use the metaphor of the buried corn. Wheat was mixed up with Greek mysteries. Christ was undergoing the process which would burst the Jewish husk in which His human life had been enveloped. Aforetime He said He was not sent save to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Note

I. PROFOUND DOCTRINAL TEACHING conveyed in several paradoxes.

1. Glorious as He was, He was yet to be glorified.

(1) Jesus was always glorious--as one with God, in the perfection of His moral character, in His great love, in His complete consecration, and also in the wonders of His birth, baptism, and transfiguration.

(2) But something was to be added to His honour--death, resurrection, ascension, etc.

2. His glory was to come to Him through shame. It is His highest reputation to be of no reputation. His crown derives new lustre from His cross. If we merge the crucified Saviour in the coming King we rob our Lord of His highest honour.

3. He must be alone, or abide alone. Unless He had trodden the winepress alone, and had cried, My God! My God! etc., He could not have saved us. If He had not died He would, as man, have been alone forever: not without the Father, the Spirit, and the angels; but there had not been another man to keep Him company. Our Lord cannot bear to be alone. Without His people He would have been a shepherd without His sheep, a husband without His spouse. His delights were with the sons of men. In order that He might draw all men unto Him, He was lifted up upon the cross alone.

4. He must die to give life, not teach, etc. If the ethical part of Christianity is the most important, why did Jesus die? But since He did fall into the ground and die, we may expect much as the result of it. The travail of the Son of God shall not bring forth a scanty good.

II. PRACTICAL INSTRUCTION. What is true of Christ is in a measure true of Christians.

1. We must die if we would live.

2. We must surrender everything to keep it. We can never have spiritual life except by giving everything up to God.

3. We must lose self in order to find self. The man who lives for himself does not live--he loses the essence and crown of existence: but if you live for others and God, you will find the life of life. Seek ye first, etc.

4. If you wish to be the means of life to others, you must, in your measure, die yourself. The self-sacrificing life and death of saints has always been the life and increase of the Church. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Christs cross, Christs glory

As regards

I. THE GREAT ENEMY. In the wilderness Christ did not achieve a complete victory. The devil departed from Him for a season only, and was actually and finally vanquished on the cross. He who hoped to crush Adam was himself crushed in Christ. Satan had brought ruin and misery into a happy world. Christ brought out the world into happiness tenfold as bright and holy as that which Satan ruined.

II. MAN. On the cross was transacted the central event of mans world. All before had reference to this; all after flow from it. The whole system of types found its end on the cross; the whole state of acceptance in which believers stand before God, the whole dispensation of the Spirit, had its origin here. Wherever there breathes a man, there the cross has a deep and never-failing interest. Here also was the triumph of human nature. You hear of the power and dignity of human nature, its wonderful capacities for knowledge, its high endowments for enterprise; but in none of these did it reach its noblest height, nor bear its fairest fruit. Not in Athens or Rome, in poesy or art, has man been most glorified; but on the cross of Jesus. There manhood bore its fruit of love untouched by a blight, and was honoured with the union of the Godhead, stooping to share its sentence of death and to bring it to glory.

III. HIMSELF (Rom_14:9). Christ was born that He might be a King; and here we have His Lordship established and His kingdom inaugurated. Remember what He said to the dying thief. The cross is Christs throne; His atonement His basis of empire (Rev_5:6); from it proceeds the work of the Spirit, whose office it is to glorify Christ.

IV. THE FATHER. By the counsel of the Fathers will was the plan of redemption directed, and His perfections find their highest example on the cross.

1. Love. Herein is love, etc.

2. Truth. For this end He came into the world, to bear witness unto the truth; and He bore it here.

3. Righteousness. He made Him to be sin for us, etc. (Dean Alford.)

The work and glory of the Saviour

In eternity there are no hours; yet there have been two hours in time which are drawn out over the length of eternal ages. One, pregnant of evil, when Eve plucked the forbidden fruit.

When time shall be no more that unhappy hour will live in the memory and be felt in the misery of the lost. The other hour, pregnant with greatest good, was when the Son of Man said, It is finished, and the head He bowed in death was crowned with its brightest glory.

I. THE VISIBLE GLORY OF THE CROSS. There never was a death like this.

1. Rays of Godhead streamed through the darkest stages of Christs humiliation. Angels attended His humble birth, and a new star rested above the stable. His hands were rough with labour, but at their touch eyes received their sight. His voice cried in infancy and death, but it quelled the storm and burst the fetters of the tomb. His eye was quenched in darkness, but it had read mans heart and penetrated futurity. He wore no costly robes, but the hem of His garment cured inveterate disease. He trod on no luxurious carpets, but His step was on the sea. His simple drink was water, but water changed into wine at His bidding. No sumptuous banquets entertained His guests, but the few fishes and barley loaves in His hands satisfied multitudes.

2. But this glory was still more apparent in His dying hours. Men had left undone nothing to heap shame upon Him. To pour contempt on His kingly claims they crowned Him with thorns; in mockery of His omniscience they asked Him to tell who struck Him; in ridicule of His omnipotence they challenged Him to leave the cross. Yet even ix this dark hour He was glorified. If these should hold their peace the stones would cry out, was now verified. Men were silent, dumb nature spoke. The rocks, whose bosoms, less hard than mans, were rent, cried out on earth; the sun, veiling his face from a scene on which man looked without emotion, cried out in heaven; the dead, disturbed in their graves by so great a crime, cried out from their open tombs; and the temples veil added its solemn testimony to theirs.

II. THE MORAL GLORY OF THE CROSS.

1. Christs death afforded the fullest display of His love. Not that it had not been displayed before. It was when Moses smote the rock that its hidden treasures were unsealed. It was when the alabaster box was broken that its value became known. It is when the clusters of the grape are crushed that they yield the wine. And so Christs gracious attributes were not fully disclosed till His dying hour. But for that it had never been known how He loved. He had been despised and rejected of men, but He died to prove His willingness and power to save the chief of sinners.

2. By His death He conquered hell, death, and the grave. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)

The law of self-sacrifice exemplified in the death of Christ

We shrink too much from investigating the mental struggles of Jesus as though it were a profanation. But in this we commit two errors.

1. We lose sight of Christs proper humanity, of the fact that He had a mind governed like our own, a heart and sympathies which throbbed as ours.

2. A false conception of true reverence. It is reverential to be cautious of approaching too closely an earthly sovereign, because near approach would only produce familiarity, and make us feel that he too is but a frail and sinful man. But the Majesty of Jesus requires no such precautions, because the nearer we get to Him the more we realize His Divine Majesty. Note

I. THE LAW OF THE ATONEMENT.

1. The gloriousness of suffering. There are two ways of looking at every act--at the appearance, and at the reality. Hence what seems mean is often inwardly glorious, and vice versa. Thus there is nothing in the outward circumstances of a soldiers death to distinguish them from an ignoble brawl; but over the soldiers death is shed the glory of that cause for which his life was offered. So in external circumstances Christs death was mean, but in inward principles it was glorified by God. We say that a throne is glorious and a coronet noble; but nothing can ennoble cowardice or selfishness. We say that a dungeon, scaffold, and the lower arts of life are base; but Christs death has sanctified the cross, and His life shed a glory over carpentry.

2. The death of one for the life of many. This is the great law upon which God has constructed the universe. If there is to be a crop, there must first be the destruction of the seed. The lives of vegetables and animals are given for us. So the doctrine of the atonement is no strange, arbitrary principle. The Father who made the law by which the flesh of living things sustains the life of others is the same Being who made and obeyed the law by which the flesh of Christ is to the world meat indeed.

3. Self-devotion (Joh_12:25). The previous parallel fails in one thing. We do not thank the grain of wheat for dying, because its death is involuntary; and therefore to constitute a true sacrifice a living will is needed. Christs sacrifice was a voluntary act, else it had been no sacrifice at all.

II. THE MENTAL STRUGGLE BY WHICH THAT LAW WAS EMBRACED AS THE LAW OF THE REDEEMERS LIFE. It is one thing to understand a law and another to obey it. To admire that which is right is one thing, but to do what is right is another. The Divine life of Christ subordinated innocent human ideas to itself by degrees. Here He was literally distracted between the natural craving for life and the higher desire to embrace the will of God. But the victory was won by prayer, that communion of the mind with God through which our will becomes at last merged into His. And so there was one perfect will, the will of the Father being that of the Son. Father, glorify Thy name. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)

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

Joh 12:23-26. Jesus answered, saying — This phraseology intimates the suitableness of the following discourse to this particular occasion; by attending to which, many of the beauties of it will be discovered. Our Lord might, perhaps, enlarge on some of these hints; and if his hearers took a due notice of them, and made a proper report on their return home, it might prepare the way for the apostles, when they came, by their preaching, more fully to unfold and illustrate these important doctrines. The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified — Meaning, that he should soon be honoured by the conversion of many of the Gentiles. At the same time he told them, that he was to suffer death before he arrived at this glory; and illustrated the necessity of his dying, by the similitude of grain cast into the earth. Verily, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, &c. — As if he had said, As the only way to make grain produce fruit is to bury it in the ground; so, the most proper method of bringing about the conversion and salvation of the world is, that I die and be buried. To omit other things, our Lord’s resurrection, the grand miracle on which the truth of Christianity is founded, and by which the conversion of the world was effected, happened in consequence of his death. The late resurrection of Lazarus gave our Lord a natural occasion of speaking on the subject. “And agreeable to his infinite knowledge, he singles out from among so many thousands of seeds almost the only one that dies in the earth, and which, therefore, was an exceeding proper similitude, peculiarly adapted to the purpose for which he uses it. The like is not to be found in any other grain, except millet, and the large bean.” — Wesley. He that loveth his life — More than the will of God; shall lose it eternally. He further told them, that as he, their Master, was to suffer before his exaltation, so were all they, his disciples; for which reason they were to expect persecution, firmly resolving to lose even life itself, after his example, when called to do it; and in that case he promised them a share in his crown and glory: saying, He that hateth his life — In comparison of the will of God, and therefore exposes it to great dangers in the cause of the gospel; shall keep it unto life eternal — And secure a state of immortal glory and happiness. If any man serve me — If any one would become a faithful servant of mine, would do my will, (for his servants we are whom we obey, Rom 6:16,) and would serve the cause in which I am engaged; let him follow me — Let him attach himself to me as one of my disciples, even although his doing so should expose him to the loss of his life; and let him drink into my Spirit, and imitate my example. And where I am — Where I shall shortly take up mine abode, even in the eternal kingdom of my Father; there shall also my servant be — In the same felicity and glory. Yea, if any man serve me — And live no longer to himself, but unto me, of whatever nation he may be, or whatever his religious profession may before have been; him will my Father honour — Unspeakably and for ever. Perhaps, in speaking thus, Jesus intended tacitly to intimate, that the strangers who wished to be introduced to him, would be greatly disappointed, if their desire of conversing with him proceeded from a hope of recommending themselves to earthly preferments through his favour.

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

12:23 Jesus often said that the time (literally the hour) had not yet come (2:4; 7:30; 8:20), but now it had. The coming of the Greeks also marked the beginning of the key moment in Jesus’ ministry—the time of his glorification. This occurred when Jesus’ sacrificial work on the cross was completed (19:30), he rose from the dead (20:1-31), he gave the Spirit (20:22), and he returned to his place of glory in heaven (17:5, 11). The connection with the Greeks who had come to Jerusalem (12:20) was significant: Jesus’ ministry among the Jews alone was finished and he now belonged to the wider world.

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

Joh 12:23. Ἡ ὥρα, the hour) Of this hour there is frequent subsequent mention: Joh 12:27, “Father save Me from this hour,” Joh 13:1, “When Jesus knew that His hour was come, that He should depart out of this world unto the Father,” Joh 16:32, “Behold the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered,” Joh 17:1, “Father, the hour is come: glorify Thy Son.”—ἵνα δοξασθῇ, that—should be glorified) with the Father: Joh 17:5, “And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was,” and in the sight of every creature. The glorification of Christ and the conversion of the Gentiles fall upon one and the same time.

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

Joh_12:23. The proposal of the Gentiles which had been brought to Him, awakens in Jesus, with peculiar force and depth, the thought of His approaching death; for through His death was His salvation in truth to be conveyed to the Gentiles (Joh_10:16-17).

Accordingly, that wish of the Gentiles must appear to Him as already a beginning of that which was to be effected by His death. Hence His answer to those two disciples (not to the Ἕλληνες, Ebrard), which is pervaded by a full presentiment of the crisis at hand, and at the close, Joh_12:27, resolves itself into a prayer of deep emotion, but, by means thereof, into complete surrender to the Father. This answer is consequently neither inappropriate (De Wette), nor does it contain an indirect refusal of the request of the Greeks (Ewald, Hengstenberg, Godet); nor is the granting of it to be thought of as having taken place before, and as having been passed over in silence by John (Tholuck, B. Crusius, and older commentators), which the text refutes by the words ἀπεκρίνατο αὐτοῖς, which continue the narrative without any further remarks; nor is the petition of the Gentiles to be regarded as indirectly complied with, namely, by the fact that the apostles brought it before Jesus, and that the latter then began to speak (Luthardt)which amounts to the improbability that Jesus, by the following speech, desired to make a display before those Gentiles (whom Ewald also supposes to have been present); but the admission of the Gentiles which was to have taken place after this outpouring of emotion, did not, however, take place, because the voice from heaven, Joh_12:28, interrupted and changed the scene.[108] The theory that in Joh_5:23 ff. the synoptical accounts of the transfiguration, and of the conflict of soul in Gethsemane, are either fused into a historical mixture (Strauss), or formed into an ideal combination (Baur), proceeds from presuppositions, according to which it is possible to adduce even Gal_2:9 as a witness against Joh_12:20 (see against this, Bleek, p. 250 ff.), as Baur has done.

ἐλήλυθεν] Placed first with emphasis.

ἽΝΑ] Comp. Joh_13:1, Joh_16:2; Joh_16:32. The hour is conceived of absolutely (in the consciousness of Jesus the present hora fatalis κατʼ ἐξοχήν), and that which is to take place in it, as the divine appointment for its having arrived.

ΔΟΞΑΣΘῇ] through death, as the necessary passage to the heavenly glory. Comp. Joh_17:5, Joh_6:62; 1Pe_1:11.

[108] According to Ewald, Gesch. Chr. p. 527, Jesus would, in granting the request, be exposed to a temptation, and have done something at this last development out of keeping with His previous ministry, which would have awakened disquiet, furnished a new embarrassment to the hierarchs, etc. But we may also conversely pass the judgment that Jesus, on the very threshold of His death, could not have designed to refuse an actual manifestation of His universal destination, which He, moreover, had expressed in Joh_10:16,offered so accidentally, as it were,especially since the conversion of the Gentiles to the Messiah was grounded in prophecy. To yield to the prayer was, further, by no means to make a full surrender to the petitioners.

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 12:23 . ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς ἀπεκρίνατο αὐτοῖς , “Jesus answers them,” i.e. , the two disciples, but probably the Greeks had come with them and heard the words: Ἐλήλυθεν ἡ ὧρα ἵνα δοξασθῇ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου . ἔρχεται ὧρα is followed by ὅτε in Joh 4:21 , Joh 5:25 , and by ἐν ᾗ in Joh 5:28 . Burton calls it “the complementary” use of ἵνα . “The hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified.” Directly the glorification of the Son of Man or Messiah consisted in His being acknowledged by men; and this earnest inquiry of the Greeks was the evidence that His claims were being considered beyond the circle of the Jewish people.

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

23. ἀποκρίνεται. So אBLW, as against ἀπεκρίνατο (see on 5:17) of the rec. text, with ADΓΔ. Θ fam. 13 have ἀπεκρίθη. The pres. tense does not occur in the Synoptists, and in Jn. only twice again, 13:26, 38.

ἀποκρίνεται αὐτοῖς, sc. He answers Andrew and Philip. The Greeks may have heard what He said, but there is no hint of it in what follows.

For the unusual constr. ἀποκρίνεται λέγων, see on 1:26; and cf. 1:50.

ἐλήλυθεν ἡ ὥρα. The time of the Passion had come. Cf. 13:1 ἦλθεν αὐτοῦ ἡ ὥρα and 17:1 ἐλήλυθεν ἡ ὥρα. The phrase occurs in the Synoptists only in the account of the words of Jesus at Gethsemane immediately before the Betrayal, ἦλθεν ἡ ὥρα, Mar 14:41, Mat 26:45 (cf. ὁ καιρός μου ἐγγύς ἐστιν, Mat 26:18, which was said at an earlier stage, before the preparation of the Last Supper).

The Fourth Gospel is written throughout, as Jesus Himself spoke, sub specie æternitatis. He is represented as knowing from the beginning the time and manner and sequel of the end of His public ministry in the flesh. Twice in this Gospel He is made to say “my time (καιρός) is not yet come” (7:6, 8); and twice Jn. comments “His hour (ὥρα) was not yet come” (7:30, 8:20; see on 2:4).

It will be noticed that, with the possible exception of this passage (12:23), the phrase “the hour has come” is always (13:1, 17:1, Mar 14:41) applied to the hour immediately before the Betrayal. It is not used loosely, as if it only meant “the time is near,” and in every case the verb ἐλήλυθεν (ἦλθεν) comes first, the phrase ἐλήλυθεν ἡ ὤρα being strikingly and austerely impressive and final. Its presence suggests that what is about to be narrated relates to the last scenes, and we shall see (on v. 27) that there are some indications that in what follows Jn. is giving us his version of the prayers of Jesus at Gethsemane.

ἐλήλυθεν ἡ ὥρα ἵνα δοξασθῇ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, “the hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified.” For δοξασθῇ, “glorified,” sc. in His Death, see on 7:39; and cf. 12:16, 13:31. This is quite a different use of δοξάζεσθαι from that at 11:4, where ἵνα δοξασθῇ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ means “that the Son of God might be glorified” by the manifestation of the Father’s power in the recovery of Lazarus. Here, with the Passion in view, Jesus does not speak of Himself as “Son of God,” but as “Son of Man”; cf. 3:14, 6:53, 8:28, and see Introd., p. cxxxii.

The glorification of Jesus as Son of Man would be in His Passion, as He now Himself declares. This is the paradox of the Cross. But it is a paradox only to those who have not considered its threefold illustration in nature and in human life: (1) the seed must die that it may be fruitful, v. 24; (2) the true life of man is achieved only through sacrifice, v. 25; (3) the life of service, of ministry, is the life of honour, of the true glory, v. 26.

ἐλήλυθεν ἡ ὥρα ἵνα δοξασθῇ κτλ. ἵνα seems prima facie to be used as equivalent to “when”; and Burney finds an explanation of this in his suggestion that ἴνα is often a translation or mistranslation of the Aramaic דּ, which may bear this meaning. But if we compare 13:1, 16:2, 32, we see that in each case where ἵνα is used as here, it always follows “the hour has come” or “the hour cometh.” When God’s predestined hour has come, the purpose which He has in view must follow. It has come in order that this purpose may be fulfilled. The use of ἵνα in such passages is an illustration of that view of the sequence of events, which is constantly present to the mind of Jn., and which he does not hesitate to ascribe to Jesus Himself (see on 2:4).

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

Jesus answered them, The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified--that is, They would see Jesus, would they? Yet a little moment, and they shall see Him so as now they dream not of. The middle wall of partition that keeps them out from the commonwealth of Israel is on the eve of breaking down, "and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, shall draw all men unto Me"; I see them "flying as a cloud, and as doves to their cotes"--a glorious event that will be for the Son of man, by which this is to be brought about. It is His death He thus sublimely and delicately alluded to. Lost in the scenes of triumph which this desire of the Greeks to see Him called up before His view, He gives no direct answer to their petition for an interview, but sees the cross which was to bring them gilded with glory.

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

Verse 23. The hour is come, that the Son of man, c.] The time is just at hand in which the Gospel shall be preached to all nations, the middle wall of partition broken down, and Jews and Gentiles united in one fold. But this could not be till after his death and resurrection, as the succeeding verse teaches. The disciples were the first fruits of the Jews these Greeks, the first fruits of the Gentiles.

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

23. The hour is come. Many explain this as referring to the death of Christ, because by it the glory of Christ was manifested; so that, in their opinion, Christ now declares that the time of his death is at hand. But I rather view it as referring to the publication of the gospel; as if he had said, that the knowledge of him would soon be spread through every region of the world. Thus he wished to meet the astonishment which his death might excite in his disciples; for he shows that there is no reason why their courage should fail, because the doctrine of the’ gospel will nevertheless be proclaimed throughout the whole world. Again, that this contemplation of his glow may not soon afterwards vanish, when he shall be condemned to death, hung on the cross, and finally buried. he gives them early information and warning that the ignominy of his death is no obstruction to his glory. For this purpose he employs a most appropriate comparison.

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.

(23) And Jesus answered them, saying.—The words are rather the utterance of the thoughts of His own mind, which this visit of the Greeks suggests, than an answer. They are spoken to the Apostles, but the narrative is too compressed for us to know whether any answer was given to the Greeks apart from this. The explanation which is most probable is that the Greeks heard this discourse, and that it is in reality an answer to the thoughts of their hearts, and to the words they wished to have spoken to Him.

The hour is come.—This approach of men from outside the limits of Judaism who have been admitted within its pale, and who now, when priests and rulers are seeking to kill Him, are seeking to render Him homage, brings back again the thought of the scattered sheep, for whose gathering the Shepherd’s life must be laid down (Joh_10:16-19). They are the first-fruits of the great flocks of humanity, and their presence is as the first stroke of the bell which sounds the fatal but glorious hour. That hour marked out in the counsels of God, and ever present in His own thoughts, has now come.

That the Son of man should be glorified.—This is to be accomplished in His ascension and return to the glory of Heaven. (Comp. Notes on Joh_17:1-2; Joh_17:5.) But the immediate connection implies that He regards the extension of his Messianic work, and the acceptance of His truth by the nations of the earth, as part of the glory of the Son of man. The connection implies also that He regards His own death as the dark path which must be trodden before the path of glory can be entered.

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

23. And Jesus answered] Better, But Jesus answereth. He anticipates the Apostles and addresses them before they introduce the Greeks. We are left in doubt as to the result of the Greeks’ request. Nothing is said to them in particular, though they may have followed and heard this address to the Apostles, which gradually shades off into soliloquy.

These men from the West at the close of Christ’s life set forth the same truth as the men from the East at the beginning of it—that the Gentiles are to be gathered in. The wise men came to His cradle, these to His cross, of which their coming reminds Him; for only by His death could ‘the nations’ be saved.

The hour is come] The verb first for emphasis in the Greek as in Joh_4:21; Joh_4:23 : ‘it hath come—the fated hour.’ Comp. Joh_13:1.

that the Son of man] Literally, in order that, of the Divine purpose, as in Joh_11:50 and Joh_13:1, where see notes. See also the last note on Joh_1:51.

glorified] By His Passion and Death through which He must pass to return to glory. See on Joh_7:39 and Joh_11:4.

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.

Verily, verily, I say unto you,.... This is a certain truth in nature, Christ was about to assert; and what he signifies by it would be a certain fact, and which he mentions, that his death might not be a stumbling block to his disciples, or any objection to his glorification; but was rather to be considered as a means of it, and necessary in order to it:

except a corn of wheat fall into the ground; or is sown in the earth; for sowing with the Jews is expressed by the falling of the seed into the earth; See Gill on Mat 13:4; and is a very fit phrase to set forth the death of Christ by, who fell a sacrifice to justice by the hands of men:

and die; or is corrupted, and putrefies; and which is done in three days time in moist land, but is longer in dry ground ere it perishes (z): and a corn of wheat is almost the only seed, that being cast into the earth, does die; and therefore is very aptly used by Christ:

it abideth alone; a mere single corn as it is:

but if it die; if it wastes, consumes, and rots, as it does, being cast into the earth, in the time before mentioned:

it bringeth forth much fruit; it shoots out, and rises above ground, and appears in blade, and stalk, and ear, and produces many corns or grains of wheat; all which our Lord intends should be accommodated to himself, and to his death, and the fruits of it. He compares himself to a corn of wheat; to wheat, for the choiceness and excellency of it above all other grain, he being the chiefest among ten thousand, angels or men; and for the purity and cleanness of it, he being, even in his human nature, pure, and free from sin; and for its fruitfulness, he being fruitful in himself, and the cause of all fruitfulness in his people; and for its usefulness for food, he being the bread of life, and the finest of the wheat: and whereas the wheat must be threshed, and ground, and sifted, and kneaded, and baked, before it is fit for food; all this may express the sufferings and death of Christ, in order to be proper food for the faith of his people: and Christ here compares himself to a single corn of wheat, because he was of little account among men, and but little or nothing was expected by them from him; and chiefly because he was alone in the salvation of his people. The death of Christ is signified by the falling of the corn of wheat into the ground, and dying, and shows that Christ's death was not accidental, but designed; it was determined in the counsels and purposes of God, and intended for his glory and the redemption of men; even as wheat falls out of the hands of the sower, not casually, but on purpose, that it may die and spring up again, and produce an increase: and also, that the death of Christ was voluntary, both on his Father's part, and on his own; and was real, and not in appearance only, and yet was but for a short time; as the corn of wheat that dies, soon revives again, and is quickly above ground, so Christ, though he really died, did not long continue under the power of death, but rose again the third day, and now lives for ever. Moreover, Christ intimates by this simile, that if he had not died, he should have been alone; not without his Father, and the blessed Spirit; nor without the holy and elect angels, but without any of the sons of men, who all fell and died in Adam; and had not Christ died, none of them would have lived; none of them could have been justified; nor could their sins have been expiated; nor would any of them have been regenerated: Christ must have been without them in heaven; wherefore he chose rather to die for them, that they might be for ever with him, than be alone in the human nature. And he further observes hereby, that his death would be productive of much fruit; which may be understood both of a large harvest of souls, that should be saved, among Jews, and Gentiles, and especially the latter; and of the blessings of grace, as redemption, justification, peace, pardon, and eternal life, that should follow upon it.

(z) Rabbenu Samson & Bartenora in Misn. Celaim, c. 2. sect. 3.

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

23 And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.

Ver. 23. That the Son of man should be glorified] That is, crucified, but he looked through death, and saw heaven beyond it: so must we; then shall we say, "Surely the bitterness of death is past," 1Sa 15:32. This made Simeon sing out his soul, Egredere, o anima mea; Leave oh my soul. Hilarion chode it out; Taylor fetched a frisk, when he was come near the place where he was burned; Bradford put off his cap, and thanked God, when the keeper’s wife brought him word he was to be burned on the morrow; Roper stood in the fire with his arms stretched out like a rood; Hawks clapped his hands over his head three times, when they were all on a light fire. (Acts and Mon.)

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.

The hour is come - The time is come. The word “hour” commonly means a definite part or a division of a day; but it also is used to denote a brief period, and a fixed, definite, determined time. It is used in this sense here. The appointed, fixed time is come - that is, is so near at hand that it may be said to be come.

The Son of man - This is the favorite title which Jesus gives to himself, denoting his union with man, and the interest he felt in his welfare. The title is used here rather than “The Son of God,” because as a man he had been humble, poor, and despised; but the time had come when, as a man, he was to receive the appropriate honors of the Messiah.

Be glorified - Be honored in an appropriate way - that is, by the testimony which God would give to him at his death, by his resurrection, and by his ascension to glory. See Joh 7:39.

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

Christ replies, that the time was now come when he (who was the Son of God)

should be glorified; that is, by the Gentiles receiving of the gospel, according to the many prophecies of it in the Old Testament; but he goeth on telling them that he must first die.

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

23. Them—Namely, the Greeks and his disciples in united audience. His answer was in reply to preliminary conversation not reported by the Evangelist.

The hour—The long-expected hour of his crucifixion, ideally held to be present. See note on Joh_2:4.

Glorified—The entire passion terminating in glory is here presented by him to these Greeks as itself gilded with glory and entirely a glorification. So the cross is soon to be held forth to the Gentile world, not as a dishonour, but a glory.

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

Vers. 23-26. (1) The glorification of the Son of man in and through death.

And Jesus answereththem. Many commentators (Ewald, Godet, Hengstenberg) think that Jesus did not address the following words to the Greeks, that until he had gone through the agony of death, and entered in human nature on his Divine and mediatorial reign, the mission to the Gentiles could not commence. Tholuck supposed that the interview was over, and that the solemn words are addressed to the disciples in the presence both of Greeks and of others afterwards; but there is no such break suggested. It is more probable (with Luthardt, Edersheim, Lunge) that the Greeks were close behind Andrew and Philip, and that our Lord at once, for their advantage, as well as for that of the disciples, proceeded to explain the solemn impression made upon himself by this remarkable desire. Surely it is unnecessary to say that our Lord was anxious not to give umbrage to the priests, or to rouse the animosity of the people. Every word of the terrible address of Mt 23, all the controversies in the temple, even the triumphal entry itself, would and did give mortal umbrage to the priestly party and to the Sanhedrim He had boldly challenged their entire position, tie had smitten down their prejudices and assailed their notions of exclusive privilege, and therefore would not have shrunk, on that ground, from intercourse with devout Greeks worshipping at the feast. The words are surely said to them and about them, but in the main for the instruction of the disciples themselves. The hour is come for which he had been waiting (see Joh_2:4 Joh_13:1) the mysterious "hour" on which his glory would depend, and the destiny of the world turn. God not only contemplates great periods, eons of time, but "acceptable years," "days of the Lord," "moments of time," as parts of the eternal plan. That the Son of man should be glorified. The "Son of man," rather than "Son of God," is the term he uses in reference to, and in the presence of, the Greeks. The highest Man is now about to assume his supreme glory, to go forth, as the mighty Man, to rule the world of men. The Son of man is about to ascend into his eternal throne, to clothe himself with all authority of judgment and mercy in heaven and earth. The glorification of the Son of man is one of the high main themes of the Gospel, and its justification is to be found in the fact that the Son of man is indeed the Loges made flesh, and the Lamb slain, and like the Serpent is being lifted up, and as the true Shepherd is laying down his life that he might take it again. The advent of the Greeks opens prophetic vistas which involve tremendous experiences of his own, and also great principles of service for all his followers. His Passion was so inextricably interwoven with his glory, that the former becomes verily the prelude of his victory and supreme exaltation. His death is but his glory. Moreover, the approach of the Gentiles suggested the universal belief in him which would follow upon his Passion and resurrection, and he" foretells that the hour of his glorification was already come" (Augustine). (See remarks in Introduction, pp. 78-80, on the several epochs in this record of the Lord"s life, where the "hour" seems to strike, but is again and again postponed with a view to fresh revelations, exactly as the climax is deferred throughout the Apocalypse)

The hour of glory.

Our Savior was "a Light to lighten the Gentiles," as well as "the Glory of God"s people Israel." It is remarkable that on the several occasions upon which Jesus was brought into contact with Gentiles, such contact was suggestive of the wide and far-reaching consequences of his mission to mankind. The faith of the centurion prompted the prediction, "Many shall come from the East and from the West, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God." When the Samaritans believed, the Lord saw that the fields were already ripe unto the harvest. The inquiry of certain Greeks gave rise to Christ"s prediction, "I will draw all men unto myself." As at Christ"s birth the wise men came from the East to his cradle, so before his death the Greeks came from the West unto his cross.

I THERE WAS IN THE HISTORY OF IMMANUEL A CRISIS OF SUFFERING.

1. This was a fixed, a certain, an expected hour. If our Lord"s birth was in the fullness of time," it is reasonable to believe the same to have been the case with his death. Hitherto Jesus had said, "My hour is not yet come;" henceforth his language was, "My hour is at hand, is near, is come." He was prepared for it, and for all it might bring.

2. This was a solemn and momentous hour. There are great and memorable hours in the history of nations as when a great act passes the legislature; when a mighty revolution is accomplished; when slavery ceases; when, after a long war, peace is concluded; when some momentous decision upon national policy is formed. So this approaching hour in the Savior"s life was that for which all others had prepared, which had been foretold, expected, and waited for.

3. This was the hour of the apparent success of Christ"s foes. The conspiracy was successful; the innocent was condemned; seemingly the work of Christ was brought to a close and proved a failure.

4. This was the hour of humiliation and of woe. Jesus alone could fully appreciate the magnitude of the crisis, the mysterious import of the great transaction. It was the hour of sacrifice and of redemption.

II THIS CRISIS OF SUFFERING WAS TO CHRIST"S PROPHETIC MIND A CRISIS OF GLORY. He saw not as man sees. Satan appeared victorious; Christ"s enemies seemed to have succeeded in their malignant schemes; his disciples and friends seemed overwhelmed with consternation and despair. But Jesus looked beyond the cruel cross to the immortal crown! The hour was at hand when Jesus should receive his personal glorification the Son of man. As the Word, the Son of God, this exalted Being had enjoyed glory with the Father before the world was. But now his humanity was to be glorified. He loved to call himself the Son of man; in this capacity he was about to be raised to immortal majesty.

1. His glory was to be shown as the accepted of the Father in his resurrection from the dead. God raised him from the dead, and gave him glory. In his ascension Jesus Christ was received up into glory." There was evident humiliation in the cross, and. as evident glory in his exaltation to the throne.

2. His official glory was to be displayed in his kingship and dominion. In heaven he was to receive the homage both of angels and of glorified men; upon earth he was to extend, by his Spirit and by his Word, the empire be had founded by his death.

3. Christ"s truest glory was to consist in the salvation of multitudes of the human race by means of his sacrifice and intercession. The highest glory of an earthly monarch consists in the number and loyalty of his subjects. No earthly king has ever exercised a sway so wide, so beneficent, so enduring, as that of Christ. The kingdoms of this world are to become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ. All foes shall be put beneath his feet. The inclusion of Jews and Gentiles in the "one new humanity" is a triumph of Christ"s spiritual kingship. On his head are many crowns. To an enlightened and spiritual mind there is no proof of royal majesty secured by sacrificial love so convincing as this the subjugation of human hearts and lives to his moral authority, whose "kingdom is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. T.

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

The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified - With the Father and in the sight of every creature. But he must suffer first.

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

answered

He does not receive these Gentiles. A Christ in the flesh, King of the Jews, could be no proper object of faith to the Gentiles, though the Jews should have believed on Him as such. For Gentiles the corn of wheat must fall into the ground and die; Christ must be lifted up on the cross and believed in as a sacrifice for sin, as seed of Abraham, not David Joh 12:24; Joh 12:32; Gal 3:7-14; Eph 2:11-13.

Son of man (See Scofield "Mat 8:20").

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The hour of Christ’s glorification:

v. 23. And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified.

v. 24. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

v. 25. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.

v. 26. If any man serve Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall also My servant be. If any man serve Me, him will My Father honor.

Jesus was deeply moved by the request of the Greeks to become acquainted with Him, to know the Savior. It showed Him that the hour, the time, had come when He was to be taken from the world, the culmination of His life’s work, His glorification through His suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension. For the general reception of the Gentiles into the Kingdom of Grace, according to Scriptures, was to be the work of the glorified Christ; after His entrance into glory He was to gather the scattered sheep among the Gentiles. But the way to this glory lay through death. Most solemnly the Lord declares that the full worth of a grain of seed is accomplished only through its apparent death and decay in the ground. Like a grain sown into the ground and decomposed, so is the death of the Savior. But His resurrection is like the blade which springs Up from the seemingly dead seed; and this blade brings forth an abundance of fruit. The head that was laid into the grave in deep sorrow has now been crowned with glory, and the glory of the exalted Son of Man will convert many Gentiles, Isa 11:1. But herein is an admonition also for the disciples, who are pledged to follow their Master. If any man love his soul, this present life, if he hopes to gain everything for himself in this world, he will lose the true life in and with Christ. It is one of the demands of Christian discipleship that all followers of Christ die unto this present life, with all it has to offer, daily. Only he that hateth his life in this present world, that is willing to give up and sacrifice everything for the sake of the Master, will guard and keep his soul unto life eternal. See Mat 10:39; Mat 16:25; Mar 8:35; Luk 9:24; Luk 17:33. True service of Christ is shown in the following of Him, in emulating His example of unselfish ministry and devotion. And Jesus, in turn, will not permit such deeds of unselfish love to go unrewarded. His servants, those that are in continual attendance upon Him, shall share His place of everlasting bliss. And not only that; but the true servants of Christ, that serve Him in faith, in whatever way He suggests, will be regarded as precious, and be valued very highly in the eyes of God the Father Himself.

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

Observe here, 1. How our blessed Saviour entertains his followers with a discourse concerning his approaching death and sufferings: The hour is coming that the Son of man shall be glorified.

Observe, 2. How he arms his disciples against the scandal of the cross, by shewing them the great benefit that would redound by his death unto all mankind: and this by a similitude taken for grain, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground, and die, it abideth alone.

That is, as corn unsown, lodged in the barn, or laid up in the chamber, never multiples nor increases: but sow it in the field, and bury it in the earth, and it multilplies and increases, and brings forth a plentiful crop; so if Christ had not died, he had remained what he was, the eternal Son of God, but he had had no church in the world; whereas his death and sufferings made him fructify: that brought a plentiful increase of exaltation to himself, and salvation to his people.

Observe, 3. How plainly our Saviour dealt with his followers; he did not deceive them with a vain hope and expectation of temporal happiness, but tells them plainly, that all that will be his disciples must prepare for sufferings, and not think their temporal life too dear to lay down for him when he calls them to it, this being the surest way to secure unto themselves life everlasting. He that loveth his life shall lose it, but he that hateth his life in this world, shall keep it unto life eternal.

Learn hence, That the surest way to attain eternal life is cheerfully to lay down our temporal life, when the glory of Christ, and the honour of religion, requires it at our hand.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

23. The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified. The answer of Christ may have been to Philip and Andrew, and the Greeks may have heard and understood it. The substance is, that the time of his glorification had come and that glorification would draw all men, Greek, Gentiles as well as Jews, to him.

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.

General Information:

Jesus begins to respond to Philip and Andrew.

The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified

Jesus implies that it is now the right time for God to honor the Son of Man through his upcoming suffering, death and resurrection. AT: "God will soon honor me when I die and rise again" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

Truly, truly, I say to you

Translate this the way your language emphasizes that what follows is important and true. See how you translated "Truly, truly" in John 01:51.

unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies ... it will bear much fruit

Here "a grain of wheat" or "seed" is a metaphor for Jesus' death, burial and resurrection. Just as a seed is planted and grows again into a plant that will bear much fruit, so will many people trust in Jesus after he is killed, buried, and raised back to life. (See: Metaphor)

translationWords

hour, hours

Son of Man

glory

amen

wheat

fruit

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

23. ὁ δὲ Ἰ. ἀποκρίνεται. He anticipates the Apostles and addresses them before they introduce the Greeks. We are left in doubt as to the result of the Greeks’ request. Nothing is said to them in particular, though they may have followed and heard this address to the Apostles, which gradually shades off into soliloquy.

These men from the West at the close of Christ’s life set forth the same truth as the men from the East at the beginning of it—that the Gentiles are to be gathered in. The wise men came to His cradle, these to His cross, of which their coming reminds Him; for only by His death could ‘the nations’ be saved.

ἐλήλυθεν ἡ ὥρα. The phrase is peculiar to S. Joh 7:30; Joh 8:20; Joh 13:1; Joh 17:1: contrast Mat 26:45; Luk 22:14. The verb first for emphasis (Joh 4:21; Joh 4:23), ‘it hath come—the fated hour.’ see on Joh 7:6, Joh 13:1. The ἵνα indicates the Divine purpose (Joh 13:1, Joh 16:2; Joh 16:32; Joh 11:50); see Winer, p. 576. Δοξασθῇ, by His Passion and Death, through which He must pass to return to glory (Joh 7:39, Joh 11:4; Joh 1:51).

ἀμὴν ἀμήν. Joh 1:51. Strange as it may seem that the Messiah should die, yet this is but the course of nature: a seed cannot be glorified unless it dies. A higher form of existence is obtained only through the extinction of the lower form that preceded it. Except the grain of wheat fall into the earth and die it abideth by itself alone.

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.

23.] Did the Greeks see (i.e. speak with) Jesus, or not? Certainly not, if I understand His discourse rightly. But they may have been present at, and have understood it. The substance of His answer (αὐτοῖς, to Philip and Andrew, not to the Greeks) is, that the time was now come for His glorification, which should draw all nations to Him:—but that glorification must be accomplished by His Death. The very appearance of these Greeks is to Him a token that His glorification is at hand. Stier strikingly says, “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.” (R. J. v. 69, edn. 2.) The rejection of the Jews for their unbelief is the secondary subject, and is commented on by the Evangelist, vv. 37-43.

ἵνα, not ‘eventual,’ nor ‘for’ any thing, but most strictly of the purpose—the hour has come, that (whose object of preparation, and aim, in the eternal counsels, it has been, that) the Son of Man should be glorified.

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

Answered [απεκρινατο] . The best texts read ajpokrinetai, answereth.

The hour is come, that [εληλυθεν η ωρα ινα] . This is not equivalent to "the hour is come in which." The hour is used absolutely : the critical hour is come in order that the Son, etc.

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

Ver. 23. “Jesus answered them, The hour is come when the Son of man is to be glorified.” The Alexandrian authorities read the present: answers. The T. R., with 13 Mjj. and the ancient Vss., reads the aorist middleἀπεκρίνατο, answered. These two forms are very rare in our Gospel (two or three times, each of them). The aorist middle is more suitable than the aorist passive (the common form). It indicates a meditation to which Jesus gives himself, rather than a direct response.

The words: The hour is come, contain in the germ the whole following discourse, which is intended to reveal the importance of the present hour. And this, first, for Jesus Himself (Joh 12:29-30); then, for the world (Joh 12:31-33); finally, for Israel in particular (Joh 12:34-36).

For Jesus it is the hour of His elevation and His personal transformation by the painful passage of death. That which has just happened has made Him feel the imminence of the crisis. The term δοξασθῆναι, to be glorified, applies here first of all, as in Joh 12:16 and Joh 7:39, to the heavenly exaltation of His person. His recognition as Messiah and the extension of His kingdom among the heathen (Lucke, Reuss) do not explain this term; these facts will be only the consequences of the change accomplished in His person (Joh 17:1-2; Joh 17:5). The term Son of man is here suggested to Jesus by the feeling of His indissoluble connection with humanity, of which He will soon be the glorified representative. It is at that time that He will be able to do what is denied Him at this moment, to communicate without restraint with the Greeks and the whole world. In the 24th verse, Jesus expresses by means of a figure and in Joh 12:25 in plain terms, the painful condition which is imposed with reference to this glorification:

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.