John 20:30

FIRST CLOSE OF THIS GOSPEL. (Joh 20:30-31)

many other signs--miracles.

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

(30) And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples.—More exactly, Yea, and indeed many and other signs did Jesus. (Comp. Note on Joh_2:11.) We must understand the “signs” not of the proofs of the Resurrection only, but of the works wrought during the whole life. The writer’s narrative is drawing to a close, and he explains the fact that he has recorded so little of a life which contained so much. There were, indeed, many other signs which he, as an eye-witness, remembered, but which it was not within his purpose to relate.

That he refers to the whole work of Christ, and not to the Risen Life only, is clear, because (1) there were not “many other signs” during the forty days; (2) the words “did Jesus” are not applicable to the manifestation to the disciples; (3) the words “in this book” refer to all that has preceded.

It would seem to follow from this that these verses (Joh_20:30 and Joh_20:31) are the conclusion of the original Gospel, and that John 21 is to be regarded as a postscript or appendix. We shall find reason for believing that, though an appendix, it proceeded from the hand of the Apostle himself.

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

Joh_20:30-31

And many other signs truly did Jesus

The Evangelic record

I.

ITS PARTIALNESS (Joh_20:30).

1. Christ was a worker. He had a wonderful mission to discharge within a brief time. Every day was crowded with deeds.

2. These deeds were signs

(1) Of His preternatural might.

(2) Of His matchless philanthropy.

(3) Of His immeasurable possibilities.

3. The recorded signs were only a small portion of what He accomplished; but

(1) They are sufficient for our purpose.

(2) They suggest a wonderful history for future study.

II. ITS PURPOSE (Joh_20:31). The facts of Christs life are written in order

1. To reveal Him.

(1) His power.

(2) His love.

(3) His transcendent excellence.

2. That men may believe in Him. How could they believe in Him of whom they have not heard. Faith in Him is at once

(1) The most essential, and

(2) The most practicable of all faiths. It is easier to believe in a person than in a proposition, and to believe in a transcendently good person than in any other.

3. That through faith men may have the highest life. What is this: Supreme sympathy with the supremely good. Man lost this at the Fall, and the loss is his guilt and ruin. The mission of Christ is to resuscitate it, and to fill souls with the love of God. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

The miracles of Christ

1. Signs are miracles--a branch of evidence to which our religion appeals. The sufficiency of this evidence appears from universal acknowledgment. That the authors of all false religions have pretended miracles to establish their authority does not weaken the argument; for there could be no counterfeit coin were there no genuine mintage.

2. But what is a miracle? Not every extraordinary event, although popularly so denominated. There may be extraordinary floods, droughts, earthquakes, meteors, &c., and yet all may be resolved into natural laws operating under peculiar circumstances, without any special interposition of Deity. Hence, not every portent which an ignorant people call miraculous, is to be clothed with that character; nor every occasional remarkable effect which cannot be resolved into some known natural law, as the force of imagination in curing certain kinds of diseases and infirmities. But a miracle is the effect of the immediate interposition of God, contrary to or above the ordinary laws of nature, and that for the confirmation of some doctrine or message as from Himself.

3. The miracles of Jesus are presented to our consideration.

I. AS BEARING THE UNEQUIVOCAL CHARACTER OF REAL MIRACLES, AND THEREFORE AUTHENTICATING THE MISSION AND CLAMS OF CHRIST. Consider

1. Their number. A solitary instance might be accounted for by mistake, deception, exaggeration, or coincidence. But the number of the signs which Jesus did shuts out this objection. Many instances are recorded with names, places, times, &c.; whilst we have instances in which our Lord healed multitudes.

2. Their publicity. They were wrought in the sight of multitudes in broad day, and under the eye of a whole nation for nearly four years.

3. The character of the witnesses. Even the disciples were not over credulous; for Christ was the opposite of Him whom their imaginations had depicted as the true Messiah. In the multitude there was no eagerness to proclaim a lowly peasant, the Son of David, the King of Israel. And even the Pharisees and Sadducees, whose eye was sharpened by the mixed passions of hatred, envy, and fear, never denied the facts, and had to account for them by Satanic agency.

4. The nature of the works themselves. No class of events could bear stronger evidence of a supernatural character. They are not of a nature to be referred to the effects of imagination, occult laws of nature, never till then developed, nor to fortunate coincidences. Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind.

5. In the very age and places where these signs were wrought, multitudes believed on Christ who had motives for unbelief but none for credulity; and their conversion can only be accounted for from the overwhelming evidences of the real occurrence of the miracles upon which Christ placed the proof of His Divine mission.

II. AS ACCOMPANIED WITH INTERESTING CIRCUMSTANCES, AND AS MINISTERING POINTS OF IMPORTANT INSTRUCTION. In the works of Christ there are

1. Miracles which declare His Divinity.

(1) He wrought them, not in the name of another, but in His own. I say unto thee, Arise, &c. This distinguishes Him from prophets and apostles.

(2) He associates a miracle of healing with His authority as God to forgive sins.

(3) When He drove the buyers and sellers out of the Temple, He claimed as His own that Temple in which He often appeared as a common worshipper.

(4) And when He cast out devils, they are sometimes constrained to confess Him as the Son of God.

2. Miracles of impressive majesty. He was to appear among men in the utmost lowliness of condition, yet He was to gather a people who were to receive Him as, the Son of God. Such a task had been too difficult for the strongest faith, had there not been signs which should manifest His glory. The cloud which enveloped Him was dark; but it was the cloud of the Shechinah. Under His benediction bread multiplies, and thousands are fed; He walks upon the sea, and the yielding element sinks not beneath His footsteps; amidst the uproar of a storm He utters His simple command, Peace, be still! and the winds hear, and die away. At the mouth of the sepulchre He cries, Lazarus, come forth! And when finally He, the

Conqueror of death in His own dominion, appears, Thomas naturally exclaims, My Lord and my God!

3. Miracles of tenderness. The works of our Lord were uniformly benevolent; but some of them were characterized by circumstances of peculiar compassion, e.g., the feeding of the multitudes; the healing of the nobleman, and the raising of the widows son, &c.

4. Miracles designed to impress upon our minds some important doctrine. When our Lord provided for the tribute-money, He intended to teach subjection to fiscal laws. When He drove the traders from the Temple, He taught that the places and the acts of worship are to be kept free from the intrusions of secular things. The miraculous draught of fishes was designed to indicate the success of the apostles in their work of evangelizing all nations, &c.

5. Miracles involving the duty and necessity of faith; that is, a personal trust in His power and mercy, as in the case of the leper, the centurions servant, the child tormented with an evil spirit (Mar_9:1-50.), and the Syro-Phoenician woman.

6. Typical miracles, which symbolize something higher than themselves, great and illustrious as they were.

(1) Our Lords absolute power over nature indicated that the government of the natural world was placed in His hands as Mediator.

(2) Devils were subject to Him, which showed that He came to establish a dominion which should finally subvert the empire of Satan.

(3) When He was transfigured, He exhibited a type of that glory into which He was Himself about to enter, and into which He purposed to introduce His disciples.

(4) When the band came to apprehend Him, and He by putting forth a supernatural power arrested the arresters, He showed with what ease He can confound His adversaries.

(5) When, whilst in the act of dying, He rent the earth, and opened the graves, so that many of the saints came forth, He gathered the first-fruits of His people from the grave. And the miracle of His own resurrection was the type and pattern of our triumph over death.

Conclusion: Learn

1. The practical character of the holy Scriptures. These are written that ye might believe; but many other works were done which are not written in this book. Enough, however, is recorded for practical uses; the rest are reserved to the revelations of a future state. Let us remember that we are rather to improve what is recorded, than repine that not more has been written to gratify our curiosity.

2. The end for which they are written, that ye might believe, &c. These are the chief foundations of the Christian faith. The Son of God is the Divine designation; the Christ is the official name of the Redeemer of the world.

3. The consequence of a true faith in Christ is life. A mere doctrinal faith, however correct, cannot of itself lead to this result; but the personal trust which is exercised by a penitent heart obtains the life which is promised in Christ. The sentence of condemnation is reversed; and spiritual life, the result of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, becomes the subject of present, daily, and growing experience. By this let us try our faith. (R. Watson.)

The silence of Scripture:

It is a very good old canon that in every work we are to regard the writers end, and if that simple principle had been applied to this Gospel, a great many of the features in it which have led to some difficulty would have been naturally explained. But this text may be applied very much more widely than to Johns Gospel.

I. We have here THE INCOMPLETENESS OF SCRIPTURE.

1. Take this Gospel first. It is not meant to be a biography; it is avowedly a selection, under the influence of a distinct dogmatic purpose. There is nothing in it about Christs birth, baptism, and selection of apostles, ministry in Galilee, parables, ethical teaching, and the Lords supper. Nearly half of it is taken up with the incidents of one week at the end of His life, and of and after the Resurrection. Of the remainder--by far the larger portion consists of conversations which axe hung upon miracles that seem to be related principally for the sake of these.

2. And when we turn to the other three, the same is true. Why was it that after the completion of the Scriptural canon there sprang up apocryphal gospels, full of childish stories of events which people felt had been passed over with strange silence? Is it not strange that the greatest event in the worlds history should be told in such brief outline? Put the Gospels down by the side of the biography of any man that has a name at all, and you will feel their incompleteness as biographies. And yet, although they be so tiny that you might sit down and read them all in an evening over the fire, is it not strange that they have stamped on the mind of the world an image so deep and so sharp, of such a character as the world never saw elsewhere?

3. And then, if you turn to the whole Book, the same thing is true. The silence of Scripture is quite as eloquent as its speech.

(1) Think, e.g., how many things are taken for granted which one would not expect to be taken for granted in a book of religious instruction: the Being of a God; our relations to Him; our moral nature, and the future life. Look at how the Bible passes by, without one word of explanation, the difficulties which gather round some of its teaching: the Divine nature of our Lord, e.g., the three Persons in the Godhead; the mystery of prayer; or of the difficulty of reconciling the Omnipotent will of God with our own free will, or of the fact of Christs death as the atonement for the sins of the whole world. Observe, too, how scanty the information on points on which the heart craves for more light: e.g., the future life!

(2) Nor is the incompleteness of Scripture as a historical book less marked. Nations and men appear on its pages abruptly, rending the curtain of oblivion, and then they disappear. It has no care to tell the stories of any of its heroes, except for so long as they were the organs of that Divine breath. It is full of gaps about matters that any sciolist or philosopher or theologian would have filled up for it.

II. THE MORE IMMEDIATE PURPOSE WHICH EXPLAINS ALL THESE INCOMPLETENESSES.

1. To produce in mens hearts faith in Jesus as the Christ and as the Son of God.

(1) The Evangelist avows that His work is a selection determined by the doctrinal purpose to represent Jesus as the Christ, the Fulfiller of all the expectations and promises of the old Covenant, and as the Son of God. And so it is ridiculous in the face of this statement for critics to say: The author of the fourth Gospel has not told us this, that, and the other incident therefore, He did not know it, consequently this Gospel is not to be trusted; and others might draw the conclusion that the other three Evangelists are not to be trusted because they do give it us; a blunder which would have been avoided if people had listened when he said: I knew a great many things about Jesus Christ, but I did not put them down here because I was not writing a biography, but preaching a gospel.

(2) But that is just as true about the whole New Testament. The four Gospels are written to tell us these two facts about Christ, and the rest of the New Testament is nothing more than the working out of their theoretical and practical consequence.

(3) As for the Old Testament whatever may be the conclusion as to dates and authorship, and whatever a man may believe about verbal prophecies, there is stamped unmistakably upon the whole system an attitude towards good things to come, and of a Person who will bring them. They that went before, and they that followed after, cried, Hosanna! Blessed be He that cometh in the name of the Lord. That Christ towers up above the history of the world and the process of revelation, like Mount Everest among the Himalayas. To that great peak all the country on the one side runs upwards, and from it all the valleys on the other descend; and the springs are born there which carry verdure and life over the world.

2. Christ, the Son of God, is the centre of Scripture; and the Book is a unity, because there is driven right through it, like a core of gold, either in the way of prophecy and onward-looking anticipation, or in the way of history and grateful retrospect, the reference to Christ, the Son of God.

(1) And all its fragmentariness, its carelessness about persons, are intended, as are the slight parts in a skilful artists handiwork, to emphasize the beauty and the sovereignty of that one Central Figure on which all lights are concentrated, and on which the painter has lavished all the resources of his art.

(2) But it is not merely in order to represent Jesus as the Christ of God that these things are written, but that representation may become the object of our faith. Had the former been its sole intention, a theological treatise, e.g., would have been enough. But, if the object be that men should rest their sinful souls upon Him as the Son of God and the Christ, then there is no other way to accomplish that but by the history of His life and the manifestation of His heart. And so let us learn the wretched insufficiency of a mere orthodox creed, and on the other hand, the equal insufficiency of a mere creedless emotion.

III. THE ULTIMATE PURPOSE OF THE WHOLE. Scripture is not given to us merely to make us know something about God in Christ, nor only in order that we may have faith in the Christ thus revealed to us, but that we may have life in His name.

1. Life is deep, mystical, inexplicable by any other words than itself. It includes pardon, holiness, well-being, immortality, Heaven; but it is more than they all.

2. This life comes in our dead hearts and quickens them by union with God. That which is joined to God lives. You can separate your wills and your spiritual nature from Him, and thus separated you are dead in tresspasses and in sins. And the message which comes there is life in His name; i.e., in that revealed character of His by which He is made known to us as the Christ and the Son of God.

3. Union with Him in His Sonship will bring life into dead hearts. He is the true Prometheus who has come from Heaven with the fire of the Divine life in the reed of His humanity, and He imparts it to us all if we will. He lays Himself upon us, as the prophet laid himself on the little child in the upper chamber; and lip to lip, and beating heart to dead heart, He touches our death, and it is quickened into life.

4. The condition on which that great Name will bring to us life is simply our faith. Do trust yourself to Him, as He who came to fulfil all that prophet, priest, and king, sacrifice, altar, and temple of old times prophesied and looked for? Do you trust in Him as the Son of God who comes down to earth that we in Him might find the immortal life which He is ready to give? If you do, then the end that God has in view in all His revelation, has been accomplished for you. If you do not it has not. You may admire Him, be ready to call Him by many appreciative names, but unless you have learned to see in Him the Divine Saviour of your souls, you have not seen what God means you to see. But if you have, then all other questions about this Book, important as they are in their places, may settle themselves as they will; you have got the kernel, the thing that it was meant to bring you. Many an erudite scholar, who has studied the Bible all his life, has missed the purpose for which it was given; and many a poor old woman in her garret has found it. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Things not written and things written

Among thoughtful readers biography is the most popular branch of literature. It is popular in the best sense. It does not captivate the intellect of sensuousness at the expense of the reflective mind. Nor does it stimulate a fugitive moment to be followed by a lapse into deadness of sensibility. But it is popular by virtue of a genuine human quality that delights in a knowledge of others, and passes from their fellowship into a truer and wiser communion with its own private heart. Books are the best interpreters of the race, and biographies are the best of books. No wonder, then, that the basis of Christianity, as a revelation of infinite wisdom, is laid in the biography of the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice

I. The statement THAT THAT RECORD OF OUR LORDS LIFE IS FRAGMENTARY, AND, AS TO ITS DETAILS, INCOMPLETE. The narrative, though four minds wrought on it most sympathetically and skillfully, is not exhaustive. Obviously, the limitation was a part of the plan, for it is uniform, no one of the evangelists transcending a boundary tacitly acknowledged. Nor is this restraint arbitrary as to its mode of action. Observe, then, that this restraint is not isolated as to one class of facts or to any special phase of Christs varied ministrations. It covers all. If we instance the miracles, only thirty-two are given, while we have many allusions to miraculous acts in such words as He healed many and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. We have the Sermon on the Mount, the discourses reported by St. John, and numerous parables, but His preaching is frequently spoken of in a general way, as He preached in their synagogues throughout all Galilee. Of His private instructions, few examples are mentioned, while His domestic life during the three years of His ministry is dimly outlined. The eyes of those who beheld His glory saw more than they reported; and the hand of vigorous description, held in check by a higher Power, was allowed only such freedom of sweep as was consistent with the basic principle of New Testament literature. And what was that principle? Stated in a general way, it was the principle of biography as distinct from history. Biography proposes to interest us in a character. Everything is subordinate to that ruling idea. On this ground, then, we see the philosophy involved in the constructive art of the evangelists. They have but one end in view, and that is to describe a character. By reason of this end, their art must be exclusive no less than inclusive. Exclusive it must be, so as to shut off every divergence in the direction of history. Inclusive it will be, in order to do justice to the character portrayed. But this view may be expanded to a much wider reach. Not only had the evangelists to represent a very unique character in its human relations and aspects, but also the Divine nature underlying this character and imparting a peculiar significance to each and all its manifestations. If the Lord Jesus was the perfected type of humanity, He was also the image of God, the express image of the Father and the brightness of His glory. We are so constituted as to need images. Without them, the mind is inert. The sense-organs are inlets to certain images. Taken into the imagination, they are elaborated into endless shapes of beauty and splendour. Not a faculty, not even the conscience, is independent of them, and the most subtle of all mental operations--a process of abstraction--is an ultimate refinement of some concrete and pictorial idea. To this law of mind, Christ conformed when He appeared amongst men as the image of the Father. This being assumed, the evangelists come before us in a new attitude as biographers. Must the ordinary and accepted art-conditions of biography be fulfilled? Yes; for Christ is amen among men. But He is also a perfect man, an ideal of the human race. If so, the skill of biographical portraiture must be enhanced to meet the exceptional requirement. Is that all? Nay: He is not only an ideal man, but the Divine Man. St. John states the generic idea of them all when He says: Not written and these are written. Inspiration in them reveals itself in two ways: first, they carry the human heart of composition to its highest attainable point, and, secondly, they advance beyond the line of supreme human excellence. Not written applies to whatever would over excite the senses and the intellect acting through the senses. Not written refers to all that would address curiosity, the love of Novelty, and the strong proclivity to sensational gratification. Not written includes every activity of the imagination that terminates in self-luxury and expends itself in emotions that vanish when the thrill of treacherous nerves has subsided. Not written embraces that plethora of argument and logic by means of which no choice is left to the self-determining power of the soul, and its beliefs are created for it and not by its own freedom. Not written asserts the truth, that the inner eye may be dazzled, confused, irritated, and, at last, blinded, till it is dark with excessive light. And, hence, the art of the evangelist fell back into the previous method of the Lord Jesus, who uniformly acted on the law involved in not written. Therefore it was that He who spake as never man spoke adhered so rigidly to the wisdom of moderation. But, on the other hand, St. John says that certain things are written, and, hence, we inquire why are these written? The answer is

II. THAT THE LORD JESUS IS PRESENTED BY MEANS OF THESE THINGS AS THE OBJECT OF SAVING FAITH. St. John is clear and full: That ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name. The object of the evangelists was not to give the history of Christ, but the personality of Christ as seen in His Divine character. A fixed principle of selection governs the evangelists in the incidents they narrate. The type of facts so chosen.is invariable. There is not a solitary exception. All these facts are typical of Him as the Son of Man, the Son of God, the Divine Redeemer of our race; and they ever converge to one point--faith in Him as the Saviour of sinners. So then in the things not written and in those written; in the spirit and mode of the narration; there is one end to which every fact is relative and necessary; viz., faith in Christ. Study Christs life in order to see how wisely and beneficiently He uses the acts of others to commend faith in Himself. This is one of the highest charms of His biography for this feature makes it our biography as well as His. Does He heal the centurions servant? Jesus stands aside, as it were, and puts the centurions faith in the foreground of the scene. I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel (Mat_8:10). So in the case of the Syro-Phoenician woman: O woman, great is thy faith (Mat_15:28). One of the most striking chapters in the Bible is the eleventh of Hebrews, which exhibits in a historic collocation the wonders of faith. Its illustrations, taken from successive ages of the Church, follow in stirring rapidity, and the summons, By faith, allow no break or lapse in attention. See, then, His complete adaptedness to man as the object of saving faith. If we believe in God surely we may and can believe in Him. Nor can we wonder that He reserved (see chap. 14.) this special mode of address to consummate the teaching of faith in Himself. The basis of faith had been laid, the superstructure built up, and now the final touch of strength and beauty is added: Ye believe in God; believe also in Me. Say you, that man is wrecked and ruined? So He is; utterly and hopelessly crushed by sin. But the grandeur of His place in the universe survives, the idea of humanity attests its imperishability in the midst of overthrow, and man walks forth from the gates of Eden a sublimer possibility than when he entered on its magnificence. Ages before the atonement was a fact it was a truth; and one of its glorious characteristics--the most indicative indeed of its Divineness, next to the Godhead of the atoning sufferer, was the power of the doctrine in anticipation of the accomplished reality. How shall we explain this phenomenon? It is to be accounted for by the position that faith occupies in the scheme of redemption. On this ground we see why the Abraham of a rude and idolatrous age could become the father of the faithful, and why Moses should transcend all statesmen and legislators. Through the senses to the soul was the law of Adamic life. Exactly in accord with this economy, the tree of knowledge of good and evil, forbidden to their taste, was good for food, pleasant to the eyes and to be desired to make one wise. The temptation was on the level of Adams dignity and it addressed itself directly to the foremost peculiarities of his constitution. So thus the law in Christ is through the spirit to the soul and its companion senses. Necessarily, therefore, faith is the instrumental means of salvation, since faith is the only possible organ through which the higher nature in man can act, and by which it can be developed. And hence the declaration of John 1Jn_5:4.): This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. It overcomes the senses, wherein dwells in a fastness as old as Eden and as mighty as the god of this world, the tyranny of evil. It overcomes their lusts and appetites. If we believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, we have life through His name. To believe in Him is to believe in His Sonship as divinely, eternally, exclusively His Sonship, and in His humanity as holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. The two natures met and united in Him; they formed one Person; and that Person, after a life of humiliation exceptional in the records of humanity, and a life of service and ministration in all the offices of intelligence, philanthropy, and goodness, still more remarkable in the annals of the race, died as differently from all other deaths as His life had been unlike all other lives. To believe in Him is to believe that His death was vicarious, propitiatory, and satisfying as to all the needs of fallen man, and all the requirements of infinite truth, justice, and holiness. To believe in Him is to believe in the unabated sovereignty of law. Love is never supreme above law, but supreme through law. To believe in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, is to believe, not in mere truths and sentiments, nor simply in doctrines and duties, but in Him whose gracious and ever-blessed personality is the fount whence flows the force of all truth; the charm of all beauty; the wisdom of all knowledge; the tenderness of all benevolence; the sweetness of all sympathy; the largeness of all magnanimity, and the loftiness of all heroism, in the currents of this worlds arteries, and in each and every one of the channels of this new-made universe. To believe in Him is to render repentance efficient to its end, so that they who mourn find a beatitude in their tears. (A. A. Lipscombe, D. D.)

The main matter

I. THE DESIGN OF ALL SCRIPTURE IS TO PRODUCE FAITH. There is no text in the whole book which was intended to create doubt. Doubt is a seed self-sown, or sown by the devil, and it usually springs up with more than sufficient abundance without our care. Holy Scripture is the creator of a holy confidence by revealing a sure line of fact and truth. Observe, no part of Holy Scripture was written

1. To magnify the writer of it. Many human hooks are evidently intended to let you see how profound are the thoughts of their authors or how striking is their style. The inspired authors lose themselves in their theme, and hide themselves behind their Master. A most striking instance of this is found in St. Johns gospel. John was a man above all others fitted to write the life of Christ; and yet he has left out many interesting facts which the others have recorded, who did not actually see the facts as he did. He is silent because his speech would not serve the end it aimed at. And the most striking point is this--he omits, as if of set purpose, those places of the history in which he would have shone--the resurrection of the daughter of Jairus, the Transfiguration, &c. What a lesson is all this to us who write or speak for God!

2. To present a complete biography of Christ. Observe the difference between John and an ordinary biographer. I can point you to biographies stuffed full of letters and small talk, which might as well have been forgotten. How different here! The signs and wonders which Christ did are not written to make a book; they are not even written that you may be informed of all that Jesus did; these are written with the end--that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Matthew leaves out everything that does not bring out Christ in connection with the kingdom. Luke brings forth Jesus as the man; but when John brings forth Jesus as the Son of God he omits numbers of details that show our Lord in other aspects.

3. For the gratification of the most godly and pious curiosity. I would like to have acted to our Lord as Boswell did to Johnson. But the Holy Ghost did not send his servants to gather up interesting details and curious facts. You shall be told that which shall lead you to believe Christ to be the Son of God, but no more.

4. With the view of setting before us a complete example. It is true that the gospel sets before us a perfect character, and we are bound to imitate it; but that was not the first or chief design of the writers. Good works are best promoted, not as the first, but as the second thing. They come as the result of faith. See how John all through keeps to his design. His book contains a series of testimonies borne by persons led to faith in Jesus as the Christ. It begins with Andrews confession--We have found the Messias, and ends with Thomass--My Lord and my God.

II. THE GREAT OBJECT OF TRUE FAITH IS JESUS CHRIST. The text does not say, These are written that ye might believe the Nicene or the Athanasian creed. First, I am to believe in Jesus that He is the Christ, promised Messiah, anointed of God to deliver the human race. Next that He is the Son of God--not in the sense in which men are sons of God, but as the only begotten Son of God. Put the two together, that He, the Divine One, became man and was sent into the world to redeem us, and we have the right idea of Immanuel--God with us.

1. Believe this to be a matter of fact.

2. Accept it for yourself.

3. Yield yourself up to the grand truth which you have received.

4. Receive Jesus as being the Christ and the Son of God on the ground of the written Word. These are written, &c. Oh, says one, I could believe, but I do not feel as I ought. What have your feelings to do with the truth of the statement that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God? Experience cannot make a thing true; and frames and feelings cannot make a thing to be a lie which is in itself true.

III. THE TRUE LIFE OF A SOUL LIES IN CHRIST JESUS AND COMES TO THAT SOUL THROUGH FAITH IN HIM.

1. When a man has been found guilty of death, if by any means that sentence is removed, he obtains life, life in its judicial form. That is the first form of life that every man has who believes.

2. This judicial life is attended with an imparted life. God the Holy Spirit is with believers, breathing into them a new, holy, heavenly life.

3. This life grows. It continues to gather strength, and as it increases it s life more abundantly.

4. This life never dies; it is a living and incorruptible seed which abideth for ever. The life of saints on earth is the same as that of saints in heaven.

5. This life comes with believing.

(1) One person complains, I cannot tell exactly when I was converted, and this causes me great anxiety. Dear friend, this is a needless fear. Turn your inquiries in another direction--Are you alive unto God by faith? The date is a small matter.

(2) Well, says another, but I hardly know how I was converted. That again is minor matter. Our text does not state that the Bible was written that you and I might trace our faith in Christ to John, or to any one else. If you believe sincerely the mode in which you gained your faith need not be inquired into.

(3) But I have such conflicts within, cries one. Ah, there are no conflicts in dead men. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The quickening works:

Every man may be compared to a book, and every day adds a fresh page to it. Notice

I. THE RECORD. These are written.

1. The subjects of the publication are the wonderful works and sayings of our Lord. His deeds were such as no human power could accomplish. The miracles were performed

(1) As proofs of His Divinity.

(2) As acts of humanity.

(3) As illustrations of the works of salvation.

Their publicity is particularly mentioned in the text. They were done in the presence of the disciples. Imposture seeks concealment. The miracles said to every doubter, Come and see. Their number is also noted. Many other signs. And not only are the miracles recorded, but the savings. With what dignity, authority, power, does He speak!

2. The way by which the Divine will has been revealed has been by inspiring certain men to record it in writing. Many advantages are derived from this method--the advantages of

(1) Universality. A mans writings reach further than his voice.

(2) Appeal. To the law and the testimony we appeal. This is the judge that ends strife.

(3) Security and permanence.

The uttered word perishes; the letter written remains. What do we know of ancient history but through books? Let us be thankful, then, for two great blessings--the Book written in our own tongue, and for ability to read it.

II. THE REASON. These things are written that ye might believe

1. In the real existence of Jesus. Some have been so sceptical as to doubt whether such a person ever lived. They never doubt the existence of Caesar or Mahommed. But have we not much stronger proof of the existence of Christ?

2. In the true character of Jesus.

(1) As the Christ.

(2) As the Son of God.

III. THE RESULT. Some write books for pecuniary ends. John wrote that we might have life--not animal or intellectual, but spiritual and eternal. There are five signs of life--sensibility, activity, appetency, appropriateness, superiority to gravitation. Have we these signs spiritually? (D. Thomas, D. D.)

Christ, the source of life:

I remember once conversing with a celebrated sculptor, who had been hewing out a block of marble to represent one of our great patriots--Lord Chatham. There, said he, is not that a fine form? Now, sir, said I, can you put life into it? Else, with all its beauty, it is still but a block of marble. Christ, by His Spirit, puts life into a beauteous image, and enables the man He forms to live to His praise and glory. (Rowland Hill.)

The development of spiritual life:

I plant many seeds in my garden from which I do not look for blossoms the year that I plant them. Yet I nourish them and transplant them; and when the days of November commence to cut them down, I take them up, roots and all, and hide them in a dark frost-proof dwelling for the winter. There they rest till the spring comes, when I go and take those buried roots and stems and bring them forth out of their grave, and put them into a better soil. And before September comes round in the second year of their growth, they will do what they had not time to do in the first. It takes two summers to get a blossom on many plants. It takes I know not how long a series of summers to develop the highest blossoms and the truest fruit that we can bear. God takes us from this life and hides us in the grave; and then, in His good time, transplants us in another soil. The work is not done in this life. It is not done when you are converted, or even when you have gone on for forty years. Such is the pattern of that work which God is carrying forward, such is the majesty of that manhood which He means shall yet flame in glory in us, that He cannot accomplish His purpose in the narrow compass of our present life; so He buries us over the winter of death, and then puts us in a better soil and a better summer to take our next growth. And what there is beyond these, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive; but doubtless there are to be serial developments, infinite and endless. (H. W. Beecher.)

Trusting in Christ a sign of life:

Suppose there is a person here who does not exactly know his age, and he wants to find the register of his birth, and he has tried and cannot find it. Now, what is the inference that he draws from his not being able to tell the day of his birth? Well, I do not know what the inference may be, but I will tell you one inference he does not draw. He does not say, therefore, I am not alive. If he did, he would be an idiot, for if the man is alive he is alive, whether he knows his birthday or not. And if the man really trusts in Jesus, and is alive from the dead, he is a saved soul, whether he knows exactly when and where he was saved or not. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Faith, the sign of life:

See you yonder battle-field strewn with the men who have fallen in the terrible conflict! Many have been slain, many more are wounded, and there they lie in ghastly confusion, the dead all stark and stiff, covered with their own crimson, and the wounded faint and bleeding, unable to leave the spot whereon they had fallen. Surgeons have gone over the field rapidly, ascertaining which are corpses beyond the reach of mercys healing hand, and which are men faint with loss of blood. Each living man has a paper fastened conspicuously on his breast, and when the soldiers are sent out with the ambulances to gather up the wounded, they do not themselves need to stay and judge which may be living and which may be dead; they see a mark upon the living, and lifting them up right tenderly they bear them to the hospital, where their wounds may be dressed. Now, faith in the Son is Gods infallible mark, which He has set upon every poor wounded sinner, whose bleeding heart has received the Lord Jesus; though he faints and feels as lifeless as though he were mortally wounded, yet he most surely lives if he believes, for the possession of Jesus is the token which cannot deceive. Faith is Gods mark, witnessing in unspeakable language, This soul liveth. Tenderly, ye who care for the broken-hearted, lift up this wounded one. Whatever else we cannot see, if a simple trust in Jesus is discernible in a convert, we need fear no suspicions, but receive him at once as a brother beloved. (C. H.Spurgeon.)

Faith in Christ

Look at that locomotive as it snorts like a giant warhorse to its place in the station at the head of the train. You have in that engine power of amplest capacity to drag at swiftest pace the far-stretching carriages. Boiler, tubes, pistons, fire, steam--all are in perfect order; and that broad-brewed man gives assurance of tried ability to guide the charge committed to him. You look I carriage after carriage is filled, the hour has struck, the bell rung; and yet there is no departure, no movement, nor would be till crack of doom, if one thing remained as it now is. Aha! the lack is discovered; the uniting hooks that bind engine and train together were wanting. They have been supplied. Like two great hands they have clasped; and a screw has so riveted engine and carriage that they form, as it were, one thing, one whole; and away through the dark sweeps the heavy-laden train with its freight of immortals. Mark! no one ever supposes that it is the uniting hook, or link, or coupling, that draws the train. A child knows that it is the engine that draws it. Nevertheless, without that hook, or link, or coupling, all the power of the engine were of no avail; the train would stand still for ever. Exactly so is it in the relation of faith to Christ. It is not our faith that saves us, but Christ that saves us. (A. B.Grosart, D. D.)

Saving faith:

It is not the quantity of thy faith that shall save thee. A drop of water is as true water as the whole ocean; so a little faith is as true faith as the greatest. A child eight days old is as really a man as one of sixty years; a spark of fire is as true fire as a great flame; a sickly man is as truly living as a well man. So it is not the measure of thy faith that saves thee, it is the blood that it grips to that saves thee; as the weak hand of a child that leads the spoon to the mouth, will feed as well as the strong arm of a man; for it is not the hand that feeds thee, but the meat. So if thou canst grip Christ ever so weakly, He will not let thee perish. (T. Adams.)

Application of faith:

As it is no advantage for a wounded man to have the best medicine lying by his side unless it is applied to his wound, so little do the mercies of God profit us unless we have faith to apply them to our sinful hearts. (Cawdray.)

The gospel must be applied by faith

The other day a poor woman had a little help sent to her by a friend in a letter. She was in great distress, and she went to that very friend begging for a few shillings. Why, said the other, I sent you money yesterday, by an order in a letter! Dear, dear! said the poor woman, that must be the letter which I put behind the looking-glass! Just so; and there are lots of people who put Gods letters behind the looking-glass, and fail to make use of the promise which is meant for them. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The Son of God:

God has many sons. The children of Israel were called His sons, the judges of the theocracy and angelic existences; but Christ is called the Son of God in a unique sense. He was unique

I. IN HIS AGE. He was from everlasting, in the beginning with God, the First-born.

II. IN HIS CONSTITUTION He was God in a human personality--God-Man. God is in all intelligences, in all creatures; but He was in Christ in a sense in which He is in no other, giving omnipotence to His arm, omniscience to His intellect, ubiquity to His presence.

III. IN HIS MISSION. He is the Mediator between God and man; the only Saviour. There is none other name, &c. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

.

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

Joh 20:30-31. And many other signs truly did Jesus — That is, Jesus wrought many other miracles; which are not written in this book — In this gospel of John, nor indeed in those of the other evangelists; but these are written that ye might believe — That ye, into whose hands soever this narrative shall fall, may believe, that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ — The true Messiah; the Son of God — In a sense in which no creature, man or angel, can be his son, (see Heb 1:4-12,) being not only miraculously begotten, as to his human nature, on which account he is also termed the Son of God, (Luk 1:35,) but that eternal Son, who had glory with his Father, and was beloved by him before the world was, Joh 17:5; Joh 17:24; and who was without beginning of days, as well as without end of life, Heb 7:3 : and that believing — Applying to, and confiding in, him for salvation, as the only person in and through whom it can be attained, (Act 4:12,) and receiving him in all his characters and offices, Joh 1:12 : ye might have life through his name — Spiritual life, the life of grace here, and eternal life, the life of glory, hereafter.

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

§ 157.—ST. JOHN’S FIRST CONCLUSION, Joh_20:30-31.

30. Many other signs—The Greek word for signs here is often rendered miracles; for the miracles of Jesus were all signs, indicating the divinity of their author.

In the presence of his disciples—The appointed witnesses to testify them to the world. See note on Luk_1:2.

This book—The entire Gospel. From which it appears that we are not to infer that the Evangelists were ignorant of a given fact because they omit to notice it. It is no presumption against the truth of the narrative because it is given by but one Evangelist. It is no proof that the Lord’s Supper was not instituted because John does not mention it.

That ye might believe—This ye addresses every reader to the end of the world. It speaks from John to the person that now peruses this commentary, inviting him to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and

have life through his name. Jesus is the Christ—Is the Messiah. Christ lived, his apostles preached, and his Evangelists wrote, that the world might shape its conceptions to the true idea of the Messiah, not as the emancipator of the nation, but as the Saviour of the world. We have in these two verses what the best scholars of modern times consider to be a proper summary and ending of the book. The chapter which follows has been considered a later addition. See introductory note.

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

V

Design Of The Gospels Facts. Testimony Concerning Christ, And Life In His Name

Joh_20:30-31

30And [moreover]34 many other signs truly35 did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: 31But these are [have been] written, that ye might [may] believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might [may] have life36 through [in] his name.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

According to Lücke, De Wette, Meyer, John here closes his entire book, and chap. 21 is an appendix. In our opinion, he here concludes the history of the Passion and Resurrection, insomuch as that history was designed to perfect the faith of the disciples—just as Joh_12:37, he evidently closes the history of the public prophetic ministry of Jesus; as Joh_1:18, He manifestly closes the Prologue, and, similarly, Joh_21:24 the Epilogue. These different concluding formulas betoken a construction of the Gospel so well organized and thoroughly digested, that in view thereof, the conception which regards the verses under consideration as forming a conclusion to the entire Gospel must appear a too external conception of our Gospel.

[Joh_20:30. It is a question how the expression: πολλὰ καὶ ἄλλα σημεῖα, etc., should be interpreted. The word has been referred to resurrection signs, signs in attestation of the resurrection, by Chrysost., Theophylact, etc., Kuinoel, Lücke, Olshausen, etc. Against this view it is remarked by Meyer and others: (1) The term σημεῖα is too general to support such an interpretation. The verse, however, does not touch upon the great mass of the σημεῖα, but upon such as were done by Jesus in the presence of His disciples, in the circle of the eleven in particular; τεκμήρια, Act_1:3. (2) Πολλὰ καὶ ἄλλα is alleged to be contradictory to this interpretation; Christ, according to the Gospel as well as according to 1 Corinthians 15., having appeared a few times only. But the words are not spoken of the appearances in themselves, but of the σημεῖα which occurred on the occasion of these appearances. To these σημεῖα, then, there must be reckoned His making of Himself known to Thomas by means of a miracle of knowledge, to Mary through the word of recognition: Mary. But besides these signs, recorded by St. John, yet others must be added to the list, viz.: His making of Himself known to the Emmaus disciples through the breaking of bread; to Peter, as to James, in a mode with which we are unacquainted; to the five hundred brethren in Galilee, by a majesty of sudden appearance which threw many of them upon their knees; to the disciples on the Mount of Olives, by His ascension; to Paul, by His manifestation from heaven. These instances certainly might justify the expression of the Evangelist; (3) however, ἐποίησεν is said to contradict this view. Tholuck remarks that this term cannot be used concerning appearances. It may, however, be applied to manifestations of miraculous knowledge, of celestial might, of divine Providence, which manifestations accompanied every appearance. Then (4) this view is said to be disfavored by the expression: ἐν τῷ βιβλ. τούτῳ, these words being alleged to prove that John has in view the contents of his entire Gospel. Since, however, the Evangelist is speaking of resurrection-signs, he has reference to that part of the book which contains statements relative to the resurrection.

So early a commentator as Euthymius introduced the other explanation of the σημεῖα (see Lücke, 802). He first interprets them correctly, as significant of the resurrection-signs, but then states that the word may also be generally construed, as signifying the whole mass of the wonderful signs of Christ, previous and subsequent to the resurrection. And thus do Jansen, Wolf, Bengel, Lampe, Tholuck, etc. (see Meyer, 661) now interpret the term. [So also Hengstenberg, Godet, Alford: Miracles in the most general sense, by which Jesus proved His Messiahship.—P. S.] This interpretation is contradicted by (1) The circumstance that John has already submitted his resume relative to the earlier signs, Joh_12:37; (2) the fact that he is here speaking of signs done by the Risen One in the presence of the disciples;—objections irrespective of the necessity involved by this interpretation, for regarding chap. 21 as a foreign addition or clumsily adjusted appendix, and this in the absence of otherwise sufficient grounds.

Joh_20:31. But these have been written [ταῦτα δὲ γεγραμμένα ἵνα, κ. τ. λ.].—These signs—namely, these manifestations of the δόξα of Christ. According to Tholuck and Meyer, the selections from the miracles performed by Jesus presented throughout the entire Gospel. Against this view, see the preceding Exeg. Note. Be it also observed that this Gospel was not written for the purpose of converting to the faith those who were not yet believers (Hilgenfeld), but with a view to confirming believing Christians in the faith. Hence, also, the expression πιστεύσητε is to be taken emphatically, like the exhortation to believe addressed to Thomas, and the chief emphasis lies upon: καὶ ἵνα πιστεύοντες, etc. They are to be confirmed in their faith in Christ by faith in the resurrection, and in that faith have perfect life. [Alford: “The mere miracle-faith, so often reproved by our Lord, is not that intended here. This is faith in Himself, as the Christ the Son of God; and the Evangelist means that enough is related in this book to be a ground for such a faith, by showing us His glory manifested forth.—P. S.]

The Christ, the Son of God. Both in the fullest meaning of the words, in accordance with the Prologue.

May have life in His name [ζωὴν ἔχητε ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι αὐτοῦ].—Entire, perfect life in the name perfected through the resurrection.

[The ὄνομα, the revealed being of Christ, divine essence in human form, is the object of faith, and the ground of the ζωή. The Gospel of John has indeed a tendency, but not such an one as the Tübingen School ascribes to it. Its tendency is the aim of all sound preaching and theological writing, namely, by the faithful exhibition of truth to produce and to strengthen faith in Christ, and thus to lead men to the possession of the true life which is identical with true happiness. To John, his task as an historian was the same with his task as an apostle—salvation in Christ.—P. S.].

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. Here, as well as Joh_21:25, the Evangelist has made a distinct deliverance concerning the principle of his evangelical historiography,—particularly of his presentation of the resurrection-history. His great anxiety was not to write down everything that he knew about Jesus; his aim was, rather, in a selection of significant facts to present his view of the glory of Christ, in order to the quickening, revival, and increase of faith in Christian readers, but especially in order to the furtherance of the full vitality and life-certitude of faith in the ideal knowledge (the name) of Christ.

The same is true, although not in the same degree, of the Synoptists. This is the character of religious, particularly of the evangelical, objective-subjective historiography; it is the first task of modern Gospel criticism to rise to an appreciation of this character. The atomistic conception of chroniclers, book-makers, transcribers, supplemented, human-tendency writers does not reach up to the christological idea of the Evangelist.

2. That ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. This they did already believe, and yet they must believe it now more fully than over. A peculiar emphasis, however, rests upon the following: And that, believing [or, as believers], ye may have life in His name. The name of Christ in believers is the full, clear, ideal contemplation of Christ in lively knowledge; therewith the full truth, certainty, vigor, and blessedness of the new life is given.

3. That which John says of his own writings is true of all the Gospels. Their authors, therefore, are indeed tendency writers, but of a divine tendency, entirely opposed to the human, fraudulous, manifoldly egotistic tendencies which the Tubingen critics have dared impute to them, or, what is still worse, to the Holy Ghost who guided them.

4. The remark of John is in the broadest sense characteristic of Holy Scripture in general. It has a religious purpose, and is therefore written from a religious impulse, in a religious spirit, under the guidance of the Spirit of God. All the religious truth of Holy Writ, however, aims at the truth of God in Christ. Christ the marrow and star of Holy Scripture.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The many signs of Jesus in His showings after the resurrection also.—The immeasurable fulness of the life of Jesus.—The simple presentation of the same in speaking signs.—The unity and-diversity of the four evangelic portraits of Jesus.—In particular, of the Risen One.—Portrait of the Risen One by the hand of John.—Purpose of this resurrection-history.—Of this Gospel.—of the four Evangelists.—Of the whole of Sacred Writ,—How one must read the Holy Scriptures in the same spirit in which they are written.—How perseveringly and devoutly? Until faith has become perfect life in a clear knowledge of Christ.—How many sluggishly stand still in the beginnings of faith, without pressing onward to the full vital consciousness of a certain knowledge. We are to have life in Christ’s name.

Starke: The Holy Scriptures are not imperfect, but perfect unto salvation in all things pertaining to faith and life, 2Ti_3:16-17.—Zeisius: Learn here whereunto the Holy Scriptures (the’ greatest treasure upon earth) are given us by God,—namely, that from them we may learn to believe and be saved.

[Craven: From Chrysostom: Joh_20:31. And that believing ye might have life through His name, i.e. through Jesus, who is Life.—From Burkitt: Joh_20:31. The great point concerning Christ, to be known and believed from the Scriptures, is this, that Jesus, the Son of the Virgin, is the promised Messiah, the Anointed of the Father, He in whom all the types and shadows of the law are accomplished; and that this Jesus is for nature co-essential, for dignity co-equal, and for duration co-eternal with the Father; one in essence, equal in power and glory. Thus believing that Jesus is the Son of God, and accompanying that belief with a holy life, if we believe well, and live well, we shall have life through His name.—From M. Henry: Joh_20:31. The duty of those that read and hear the Gospel: to believe, to embrace the doctrine of Christ, and that record given concerning Him, 1Jn_5:11.—The great gospel-blessedness which we are to hope for—That believing we shall have life through His name.

[From A Plain Commentary (Oxford): Joh_20:31. “It is the real Incarnation of the Eternal Word,—the actual coming in the flesh of the Son of God, born, dead, and risen for our salvation,—which is the sole basis of our religion. This great fact, and not any particular proposition concerning it, in the totality of its objective character, and in the consequent totality of its applicable virtue and influence; this is the real Article of a standing or falling Church.” (Dr. W. H. Mill.)]

[From Owen: Joh_20:31. In His name; “Eternal life is obtained by believers in virtue of Him, upon the claim established by Him in whom they believe.” (Webster and Wilkinson.) ]

Footnotes:

[34]Joh_20:30.—[μὲν οὑ̓ν—quidem igitur, yea and, or moreover. Lange, nun auch. The meaning is, to guard against taking this Gospel as a complete account of the signs of Jesus.—P. S.]

[35]Joh_20:30.—[Truly is intended to give the force of καί after πολλά and before ἁ̔λλα=et quidem alia, and indeed many other signs.—P. S.]

[36]Joh_20:31.—The addition αἰώνιον after ζωήν in C*D. L. Sin., etc., not satisfactorily established. [A. B. C, X., etc., Vulg. Syr. Cyr., etc., omit αἰώνιον, read ζωήν without αἰώνιον, and so do Tischend., Alf., Treg., Westc. Its insertion from other passages is more easily accounted for than its omission.—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.

John

THE SILENCE OF SCRIPTURE

Joh 20:30 - Joh 20:31.

It is evident that these words were originally the close of this Gospel, the following chapter being an appendix, subsequently added by the writer himself. In them we have the Evangelist’s own acknowledgment of the incompleteness of his Gospel, and his own statement of the purpose which he had in view in composing it. That purpose was first of all a doctrinal one, and he tells us that in carrying it out he omitted many things that he could have put in if he had chosen. But that doctrinal purpose was subordinate to a still further aim. His object was not only to present the truth that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, but to present it in such a way as to induce his readers to believe in that Christ. And he desired that they might have faith in order that they might have life.

Now, it is a very good old canon in judging of a book that ‘in every work’ we are to ‘regard the writer’s end,’ and if that simple principle had been applied to this Gospel, a great many of the features in it which have led to some difficulty would have been seen to be naturally explained by the purpose which the Evangelist had in view.

But this text may be applied very much more widely than to John’s Gospel. We may use it to point our thoughts to the strange silences and incompletenesses of the whole of Revelation, and to the explanation of these incompletenesses by the consideration of the purpose which it all had in view. In that sense I desire to look at these words before us.

I. First, then, we have here set forth the incompleteness of Scripture.

Take this Gospel first. Anybody who looks at it can see that it is a fragment. It is not meant to be a biography; it is avowedly a selection, and a selection under the influence, as I shall have to show you presently, of a distinct dogmatic purpose. There is nothing in it about Christ’s birth, nothing in it about His baptism, nor about His selection of His Apostles. There is scarcely anything about the facts of His outward life at all. There is scarcely a word about the whole of His ministry in Galilee. There is not one of His parables, there are only seven of His miracles before the Resurrection, and two of these occur also in the other Evangelists. There is scarcely any of His ethical teaching; there is not a word about the Lord’s Supper.

And so I might go on enumerating many remarkable gaps in this Gospel. Nearly half of it is taken up with the incidents of one week at the end of His life, and the incidents of and after the Resurrection. Of the remainder-by far the larger portion consists of several conversations which are hung upon miracles that seem to be related principally for the sake of these. The whole of the phenomena show us at once the fragmentary character of this Gospel as stamped upon the very surface.

And when we turn to the other three, the same thing is true, though less strikingly so. Why was it that in the Church, after the completion of the Scriptural canon, there sprang up a whole host of Apocryphal Gospels, full of childish stories of events which people felt had been passed over with strange silence, in the teachings of the four Evangelists: stories of His childhood, for instance, and stories about what happened between His death and His resurrection? A great many miracles were added to those that have been told us in Scripture. The condensed hints of the canonical Gospels received a great expansion, which indicated how much their silence about certain points had been felt. What a tiny pamphlet they make! Is it not strange that the greatest event in the world’s history should be told in such brief outline, and that here, too, the mustard seed, ‘less than the least of all seeds,’ should have become such a great tree? Put the four Gospels down by the side of the two thick octavo volumes, which it is the regulation thing to write nowadays, as the biography of any man that has a name at all, and you will feel their incompleteness as biographies. They are but a pen-and-ink drawing of the Sun! And yet, although they be so tiny that you might sit down and read them all in an evening over the fire, is it not strange that they have stamped on the mind of the world an image so deep and so sharp, of such a character as the world never saw elsewhere? They are fragments, but they have left a symmetrical and an unique impression on the consciousness of the whole world.

And then, if you turn to the whole Book, the same thing is true, though in a modified sense there. I have no time to dwell upon that fruitful field, but the silence of Scripture is quite as eloquent as its speech. Think, for instance, of how many things in the Bible are taken for granted which one would not expect to be taken for granted in a book of religious instruction. It takes for granted the being of a God. It takes for granted our relations to Him. It takes for granted our moral nature. In its later portions, at all events, it takes for granted the future life. Look at how the Bible, as a whole, passes by, without one word of explanation or alleviation, a great many of the difficulties which gather round some of its teaching. For instance, we find no attempt to explain the divine nature of our Lord; or the existence of the three Persons in the Godhead. It has not a word to say in explanation of the mystery of prayer; or of the difficulty of reconciling the Omnipotent will of God on the one hand, with our own free will on the other. It has not a word to explain, though many a word to proclaim and enforce, the fact of Christ’s death as the atonement for the sins of the whole world. Observe, too, how scanty the information on points on which the heart craves for more light. How closely, for instance, the veil is kept over the future life! How many questions which are not prompted by mere curiosity, our sorrow and our love ask in vain!

Nor is the incompleteness of Scripture as a historical book less marked. Nations and men appear on its pages abruptly, rending the curtain of oblivion, and striding to the front of the stage for a moment, and then they disappear, swallowed up of night. It has no care to tell the stories of any of its heroes, except for so long as they were the organs of that divine breath, which, breathed through the weakest reed, makes music. The self-revelation of God, not the acts and fortunes of even His noblest servants, is the theme of the Book. It is full of gaps about matters that any sciolist or philosopher or theologian would have filled up for it. There it stands, a Book unique in the world’s history, unique in what it says, and no less unique in what it does not say.

‘Many other things truly did’ that divine Spirit in His march through the ages, ‘which are not written in this book; but these are written that ye might believe.’

II. And so that brings me next to say a word or two about the more immediate purpose which explains all these gaps and incompletenesses.

John’s Gospel, and the other three Gospels, and the whole Bible, New Testament and Old, have this for their purpose, to produce in men’s hearts the faith in Jesus as ‘the Christ’ and as ‘the Son of God.’

I need not speak at length about this one Gospel with any special regard to that thought. I have already said that the Evangelist avows that his work is a selection, that he declares that the purpose that determined his selection was doctrinal, and that he picked out facts which would tend to represent Jesus Christ to us in the twofold capacity,-as the Christ, the Fulfiller of all the expectations and promises of the Old Covenant, and as the Son of God. The one of these titles is a name of office, the other a name of nature; the one declares that He had come to be, and to do, all to which types and prophecies and promises had dimly pointed, and the other declares that He was ‘the Eternal Word,’ which ‘in the beginning was with God and was God,’ and was manifest here upon earth to us.

This was his purpose, and this representation of Jesus Christ is that which shapes all the facts and all the phenomena of this Gospel, from the very first words of it to its close.

And so, although it is wide from my present subject, I may just make one parenthetical remark, to the effect that it is ridiculous in the face of this statement for ‘critics’ to say, as some of them do: ‘The author of the fourth Gospel has not told us this, that, and the other incident in Christ’s life, therefore, he did not know it.’ Then some of them will draw the conclusion that John’s Gospel is not to be trusted in the given case, because he does not give us a certain incident, and others might draw the conclusion that the other three Evangelists are not to be trusted because they do give it us. And the whole fabric is built up upon a blunder, and would have been avoided if people had listened when John said to them: ‘I knew a great many things about Jesus Christ, but I did not put them down here because I was not writing a biography, but preaching a gospel; and what I wanted to proclaim was that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.’

But now we may extend that a great deal further. It is just as true about the whole New Testament. The four Gospels are written to tell us these two facts about Christ. They are none of them merely biographies; as such they are singularly deficient, as we have seen. But they are biographies plus a doctrine; and the biography is told mainly for the sake of carrying this twofold truth into men’s understandings and hearts, that Jesus is, first of all, the Christ, and second, the Son of God.

And then comes the rest of the New Testament, which is nothing more than the working out of the theoretical and practical consequence of these great truths. All the Epistles, the Book of Revelation, and the history of the Church, as embodied in the Acts of the Apostles,-all these are but the consequences of that fundamental truth; and the whole of Scripture in its later portions is but the drawing of the inferences and the presenting of the duties that flow from the facts that ‘Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.’

And what about the Old Testament? Why, this about it: that whatever may be the conclusion as to the date and authorship of any of the books in it,-and I am not careful to contend about these at present;-and whatever a man may believe about the verbal prophecies which most of us recognise there,-there is stamped unmistakably upon the whole system, of which the Old Testament is the record, an onward-looking attitude. It is all anticipatory of ‘good things to come,’ and of a Person who will bring them. Sacrifice, sacred offices, such as priesthood and kingship, and the whole history of Israel, have their faces turned to the future. ‘They that went before, and they that followed after, cried “Hosanna! Blessed be He that cometh in the name of the Lord!”‘ This Christ towers up above the history of the world and the process of revelation, like Mount Everest among the Himalayas. To that great peak all the country on the one side runs upwards, and from it all the valleys on the other descend; and the springs are born there which carry verdure and life over the world.

Christ, the Son of God, is the centre of Scripture; and the Book- whatever be the historical facts about its origin, its authorship, and the date of the several portions of which it is composed-the Book is a unity, because there is driven right through it, like a core of gold, either in the way of prophecy and onward-looking anticipation, or in the way of history and grateful retrospect, the reference to the one ‘Name that is above every name,’ the name of the Christ, the Son of God.

And all its incompleteness, its fragmentariness, its carelessness about persons, are intended, as are the slight parts in a skilful artist’s handiwork, to emphasise the beauty and the sovereignty of that one central Figure on which all lights are concentrated, and on which the painter has lavished all the resources of his art. So God-for God is the Author of the Bible-on this great canvas has painted much in sketchy outline, and left much unfilled in, that every eye may be fixed on the central Figure, the Christ of God, on whose head comes down the Dove, and round whom echoes the divine declaration: ‘This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’

But it is not merely in order to represent Jesus as the Christ of God that these things are written, but it is that that representation may become the object of our faith. If the intention of Scripture had been simply to establish the fact that Jesus was the Christ and the Son of God, it might have been done in a very different fashion. A theological treatise would have been enough to do that. But if the object be that men should not only accept with their understandings the truth concerning Christ’s office and nature, but that their hearts should go out to Him, and that they should rest their sinful souls upon Him as the Son of God and the Christ, then there is no other way to accomplish that, but by the history of His life and the manifestation of His heart. If the object were simply to make us know about Christ, we do not need a Book like this; but if the object is to lead us to put our faith in Him, then we must have what we have here, the infinitely touching and tender Figure of Jesus Christ Himself, set before us in all its sweetness and beauty as He lived and moved and died for us.

And so, dear friends, let me put one last word here about this part of my subject. If this be the purpose of Scripture, then let us learn on the one hand the wretched insufficiency of a mere orthodox creed, and let us learn on the other hand the equal insufficiency of a mere creedless emotion.

If the purpose of Scripture, in these Gospels, and all its parts, is that we should believe ‘that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,’ that purpose is not accomplished when we simply yield our understanding to that truth and accept it as a great many people do. That was much more the fault of the last generation than of this, though many of us may still make the mistake of supposing that we are Christians because we idly assent to-or, at least, do not deny, and so fancy that we accept-Christian truth. But, as Luther says in one of his rough figures, ‘Human nature is like a drunken peasant; if you put him up on the horse on the one side, he is sure to tumble down on the other.’ And so the reaction from the heartless, unpractical orthodoxy of half a century ago has come with a vengeance to-day, when everybody is saying, ‘Oh! give me a Christianity without dogma!’ Well, I say that too, about a great many of the metaphysical subtleties which have been called Doctrinal Christianity. But this doctrine of the nature and office of Jesus Christ cannot be given up, and the Christianity which Christ and His Apostles taught be retained. Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God? Do you trust your soul to Him in these characters? If you do, I think we can shake hands. If you do not, Scripture has failed to do its work on you, and you have not reached the point which all God’s lavish revelation has been expended on the world that you and all men might attain.

III. Now, lastly, notice the ultimate purpose of the whole.

Scripture is not given to us merely to make us know something about God in Christ, nor only in order that we may have faith in the Christ thus revealed to us, but for a further end-great, glorious, but, blessed be His Name! not distant-namely, that we may ‘have life in His name.’ ‘Life’ is deep, mystical, inexplicable by any other words than itself. It includes pardon, holiness, well-being, immortality, Heaven; but it is more than they all.

This life comes into our dead hearts and quickens them by union with God. That which is joined to God lives. Each being according to its nature, is, on condition of the divine power acting upon it. This bit of wood upon which I put my hand, and the hand which I put upon it, would equally crumble into nothingness if they were separated from God.

You can separate your wills and your spiritual nature from Him, and thus separated you are ‘dead in trespasses and in sins.’ And, O brother! the message comes to you: there is life in that great Christ, ‘in His name’; that is to say, in that revealed character of His by which He is made known to us as the Christ and the Son of God.

Union with Him in His Sonship will bring life into dead hearts. He is the true ‘Prometheus’ who has come from Heaven with ‘fire,’ the fire of the divine Life in the ‘reed’ of His humanity, and He imparts it to us all if we will. He lays Himself upon us, as the prophet laid himself on the little child in the upper chamber; and lip to lip, and beating heart to dead heart, He touches our death, and it is quickened into life.

The condition on which that great Name will bring to us life is simply our faith. Do you believe in Him, and trust yourself to Him, as He who came to fulfil all that prophet, priest, and king, sacrifice, altar, and Temple of old times prophesied and looked for? Do you trust in Him as the Son of God who comes down to earth that we in Him might find the immortal life which He is ready to give? If you do, then, dear brethren! the end that God has in view in all His revelation, that Christ had in view in His bitter Passion, has been accomplished for you. If you do not it has not. You may admire Him, you may think loftily of Him, you may be ready to call Him by many great and appreciative names, but Oh! unless you have learned to see in Him the divine Saviour of your souls, you have not seen what God means you to see.

But if you have, then all other questions about this Book, important as they are in their places, may settle themselves as they will; you have got the kernel, the thing that it was meant to bring you. Many an erudite scholar, who has studied the Bible all his life, has missed the purpose for which it was given; and many a poor old woman in her garret has found it. It is not meant to wrangle over, it is not meant to be read as an interesting product of the religious consciousness, it is not to be admired as all that remains of the literature of a nation that had a genius for religion; but it is to be taken as being God’s great Word to the world, the record of the revelation that He has given us in His Son. The Eternal Word is the theme of all the written word. Have you made the jewel which is brought us in that casket your own? Is Jesus to you the Son of the living God, believing on whom you share His life, and become ‘sons of God’ by Him? Can you take on to your thankful lips that triumphant and rapturous confession of the doubting Thomas,-the flag flying on the completed roof-tree of this Gospel-’My Lord and my God’? If you can, you will receive the blessing which Christ then promised to all of us standing beyond the limits of that little group, ‘who have not seen and yet have believed’-even that eternal life which flows into our dead spirits from the Christ, the Son of God, who is the Light of the world, and the Life of men.

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CONCLUSION

Joh 20:30-31. “Then, indeed, Jesus truly performed many other miracles in presence of His disciples, which have not been written in this book; but these have been written, in order that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing, you may have life through His name.” Matthew wrote for the Jews in Judea, fifteen years after the ascension of our Lord. Mark wrote for the Romans, serving as Peter’s amanuensis, in Rome, thirty years after the ascension of our Lord. Luke wrote for the Greeks, while serving as the amanuensis of Paul, in Greece, twenty-five years after the ascension. John wrote for the Christians, while at Ephesus, near the end of his long and useful life, about sixty-five years after the ascension of our Lord. While the first three give a continuous history, John’s Gospel is much detached, as he aimed at nothing but salient, vital, spiritual truth, as he here says that he wrote just what is necessary to salvation. You all remember, the sum and substance of John’s Gospel is perfect love.

Notice the last verse of John’s Gospel, in E. V., chapter 21, verse 25: “But there are many other things, so many as Jesus did, which if they were written every one, I do not suppose that this world could contain the books written.” Of course, you have always looked upon this as an extravagant statement. While it is safe to conclude that only a tithe of our Savior’s miracles and preaching has come to us in the four Gospels — i. e., the salient and essential truths, the multum in parvo — yet you know that if everything had been written, a table a yard square would very conveniently contain the books. Let me settle all solicitude about this verse by simply stating to you that it is not in the original, but has evidently injudiciously been interpolated by a subsequent hand.

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

20:30-31 Many scholars view these words as the conclusion of John’s Gospel, viewing ch 21 as an appendix. John’s account is only a selection from Jesus’ many . . . miraculous signs.

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

Joh 20:30. Πολλὰ, many things) Joh 2:23; Joh 3:2; Joh 6:2; Joh 7:31, “When Christ cometh, will He do more miracles than these, which this man doeth?”—ἐποίησεν, did) before His passion, and after His resurrection: for there is added, in the presence of His disciples. The disciples saw His signs (miracles) more than others did, before His passion; [in such a way, however, as that (though not seeing all) any one of the disciples was spectator of almost all the signs, and therefore a legitimate witness.—V. g.]: they alone saw them after the resurrection: Both are treated of in this Gospel; but those last mentioned are especially referred to in this summary [Symperasma. See Append.] which appropriately, immediately after the mention of Thomas’ faith, recommends faith to all, as the scope of the book.—τούτῳ, this) book of John. Add, in the books also of the other Evangelists.

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

Joh_20:30-31. Conclusion of the entire book (not merely of the main portion of it, as Hengstenberg maintains); for chap, 21 is a supplement.

πολλὰ μὲν οὖν] Multa quidem, igitur.[271] See Klotz, ad Devar. p. 663.

καὶ ἄλλα] On the well-known ΚΑΊ after ΠΟΛΛΆ (et quidem alia), see Baeumlein, Partik. p. 146. Comp. Act_25:7.

σημεῖα] miraculous signs, by which He has proved Himself to be the Messiah, the Son of God (Joh_20:31). Comp. Joh_12:37. To this corresponds in general also the conclusion of the appendix, Joh_21:25. Correctly so, by way of proposition, Euth. Zigabenus, further Calvin, Jansen, Wolf, Bengel, Lampe, Tholuck, De Wette, Frommann, Maier, B. Crusius, Luthardt, Hilgenfeld, Hengstenberg, Godet, Baeumlein, Scholten, and several others. Justly might John, looking back upon his now finished βιβλίον, adduce as its contents from the beginning of his history down to this conclusion, a potiori, the σημεῖα which Christ had wrought, since these form the distinguishing characteristic in the working of Jesus (comp. Joh_10:41), and the historical basis, with which the rest of the contents (particularly the discourses) are connected. Others have taken ΣΗΜΕῖΑ in exclusive, or at least, like Schleiermacher, pre-eminent reference to the resurrection: documenta resurrectionis (comp. Act_1:3). So Chrysostom, Theophylact, Euth. Zigabenus, Ruperti, Luther, Beza, Calovius, Maldonatus, Semler, and several others, including Kuinoel, Lücke, Olshausen, Lange, Baur, Ewald, and several others. But to this corresponds neither the general and absolute σημεῖα in itself, nor the predicate ΠΟΛΛᾺ Κ. ἌΛΛΑ, since Christ, after His resurrection, both in accordance with the accounts in the Gospels, and also with that of 1 Corinthians 15, certainly appeared only a few times; nor, finally, ἘΠΟΊΗΣΕΝ and ἘΝ Τῷ ΒΙΒΛ. ΤΟΎΤῼ, which latter shows that John (for ἘΝΏΠ. Τ. ΜΑΘΗΤ., moreover, does not point to another writer, against Weizsäcker) has in view the contents of his entire Gospel.

ἐνώπ. τ. μαθ.] So that accordingly still many more ΣΗΜΕῖΑ might have been related, as by an eye-witness, by John, who, in truth, belonged to the ΜΑΘΉΤΑΙ; hence this addition is not to be employed as a ground for the interpretation by Chrysostom, etc., of ΣΗΜΕῖΑ, because, that is to say, Jesus performed the signs before His death in the sight of the people, etc. (comp. Joh_12:37).

ταῦτα δέ] sc. τὰ σημεῖα, namely, those recorded in this book, this selection which composes its contents.

ἽΝΑ ΠΙΣΤΕΎΣ.] refers to the readers, for whom the Gospel was designed. Scopus evangelii, Bengel. Comp. Introd. § 5. See also, as regards πιστεύσ., on Joh_19:35. Of the conversion of the Gentiles (Hilgenfeld) to the faith, there is no mention.

ὁ υἱὸς τ. θεοῦ] in the Johannean sense. Without being this, He would not be the promised Messiah.

πιστεύοντες] in your believing. Thus, then, the ζωὴν ἔχειν is conceived of as a possession already beginning with faith; faith, however, as a subjective principle of life, quite as with Paul, although the latter more sharply separates from one another, as conceptions, justification, and life.[272]

ἐν τῷ ὀνόμ. αὐτοῦ] belongs to ΖΩῊΝ ἜΧ. In the name of Jesus, as the object of faith (Joh_1:12), the possession of life is causally founded.

Baur, in accordance with false presuppositions, holds Joh_20:30-31 to be spurious, because the previously-related appearances (which, according to Baur, took place from out of heaven) should in themselves so bring to a close the appearance of the Risen One, that we cannot think of further appearances of this kind (πολλὰ κ. ἄλλα).

[271] It serves as a concluding summary, so as to allow a moment thereby prepared to follow by δέ. Comp. Baeumlein, Partik. p. 178.

[272] Comp. Schmid, Bibl. Theol. II. p. 391.

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 20:30-31 . First conclusion of the gospel

Joh 20:30 . πολλὰ μὲν οὖν … τούτῳ . That this was the original or intended conclusion of the gospel is shown by the use of the words “in this book,” which indicate that the writer was now looking back on it as a whole (Holtzmann). Perhaps τούτῳ is emphatic, contrasted with the Synoptic gospels in which so many other signs were recorded. The expression πολλὰ μὲν οὖν καὶ ἄλλα is necessarily of frequent occurrence and is illustrated by Kypke. Beza says these particles in the usage of John “proprie conclusionibus adhibentur”. “Many other signs therefore” (R.V [96] ) is not an improvement on A.V [97] “And many other signs truly.” “Many other signs indeed did Jesus” is sufficient. Why ἐνώπιον τῶν μαθητῶν ? Probably because they are viewed as the cause of faith. ταῦτα δὲ γέγραπται , “but these have been written,” these, viz. , which have been included in this book, ἵνα … αὐτοῦ , with an object, and this object has determined their selection: “that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God”. The use of the 2nd pers. suggests that the writer had in view some special class. But his object was of universal significance. See the Introduction.

[96] Revised Version.

[97] Authorised Version.

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

The Conclusion: 20:30, 31.

In concluding his narrative, the evangelist gives an account of the manner in which he has proceeded (Joh 20:30) and of the end which he proposed to himself (Joh 20:31) in composing it.

How are we to explain this so sudden ending, after the conversation of Jesus and Thomas? The narrative contained in the appendix, ch. 21, shows clearly that the author was not at the end of the materials which he possessed. It is not to be doubted, therefore, that this ending is in close and essential connection with the design which has governed the whole narrative, with the idea itself of the book. If the author wished to trace out the development of the faith of the disciples and of his own, the birth of this faith must be the starting-point of the narrative—this is indeed the case; comp. Joh 1:19 ff.—and the consummation of this faith must be the end of it. This consummation we find in the exclamation of Thomas.

We need not be astonished, therefore, at not finding in such a gospel the account of the ascension, any more than we have found in it that of the baptism of Jesus. Both the one and the other of these events are situated outside of the limits which the author had drawn for himself. And we see how destitute of foundation are the consequences which an ill-advised criticism has drawn from this silence, to contest both the faith of the author in these events, and the reality of these facts themselves. If John believes in the reality of the bodily resurrection of Jesus—and the preceding chapter leaves no doubt in this regard—and if he cannot have thought that the body of the Risen One was subjected again to death, there remains but one possibility: it is that he attributed to Him, as the mode of departure, the ascension, as the apostolic Church in general accepted it. This is proved, moreover, by the words which he puts into the mouth of Jesus, Joh 6:62 and Joh 20:17. It would be proved, if need were, by his very silence, which excludes every other supposition.

Vv. 30, 31. “Jesus therefore did many miracles, other than these, in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book. 31. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that, believing, you may have life in his name.”

The μέν prepares the way for the following contrast. The apostle desires to set forth clearly the fact that his thought was not to trace out the complete picture of all that he has seen and heard, for the contrary supposition would end in rendering suspicious the facts related in other writings and not mentioned by him, which is far from his thought. He has made, among the multitude of facts included in the history of Jesus, a choice appropriate to the end which he proposed to himself. In the face of this declaration of the author, how can serious critics reason thus: John omits, therefore he denies or is ignorant of, for example, the story of the miraculous birth, the temptation, the healings of lepers or demoniacs, the transfiguration, the institution of the Lord’s Supper, Gethsemane, the ascension, etc.!

According to some interpreters, from Chrysostom to Baur, the words:the signs which Jesus did, designate only the appearances related in this chapter, as signs or proofs of the resurrection; from which it would follow that these verses, Joh 20:30-31, are the conclusion, not of the gospel, but only of the narrative of the resurrection. This opinion is incompatible: 1, with the term ποιεῖν, to do: one does not doappearances; 2, with the two expressions many and others: the appearances were neither so numerous nor so different; 3, the expression in this book shows that the question is of the entire work, and not only of one of its parts.

The signs of which John means to speak are essentially the miracles, but not as separate from the teachings, “which are almost always the commentary on them” (Weiss).

By the terms: in the presence of His disciples, John makes prominent the part appointed for the Twelve in the foundation of the Church. They were the accredited witnesses of the works of Jesus, chosen to accompany Him, not only for the development of their personal faith, but also with a view to the establishment of faith in the whole world; comp. Joh 15:27 and Act 1:21-22. Whatever Luthardt, Weiss and Keil may say, it seems to me difficult not to see in the position of the pronoun τούτῳ, after the substantive βιβλίῳ : “this book,” a tacit contrast to other writings containing the things omitted in this. This expression, thus understood, accords with all the proofs which we have met of the knowledge which John already had of the Synoptics. The apostle therefore confirms by these words the contents of these gospels, which were earlier than his own, and tells us that he has labored to complete them.

And what end did he propose to himself in writing a history of Jesus under these conditions? Joh 20:31 answers this question. He wished to bring his readers to the same faith by which he was himself filled. He consequently selected from the life of his Master the facts and testimonies which had the most effectually contributed to form and strengthen his own faith. From this selection it is that the Gospel of John originated.

In saying you, the apostle addresses himself to certain definite Christians, but persons who, as Luthardt says, represent for him the whole Church. They believe already, no doubt; but faith must ever advance, and at every step, as we have seen, the previous faith appears as not yet deserving the name of faith (see Joh 2:11 and elsewhere).

John characterizes Jesus, the object of faith, in such a way as to indicate the two phases which had constituted the development of his own faith: first, the Christ; then, the Son of God.

The first of these terms recalls to mind the accomplishment of the prophecies and of the theocratic hope. It was in this character that the faith of the disciples had at first welcomed Him (Joh 1:42; Joh 1:46). The solemnity with which this notion of Messiah is called to mind in this verse, the summary of faith, absolutely sets aside the idea of a tendency opposed to Judaism in the author of the fourth Gospel. But the recognition of the Messiah in Jesus had been only the first step in the apostolic faith. From this point John and his associates were soon raised to a higher conception of the dignity of Him in whom they had believed. In this Messiah they had recognized the Son of God. The first title referred to His office; this one refers to His person itself. It is especially since the fifth chapter of our Gospel that this new light finds its way into the souls of the disciples, under the sway of the declarations of Jesus. It has reached its perfection in the words of Thomas: My Lord and my God, which have just closed the Gospel.

If these two terms had the same meaning, the second would here be only a mere tautology. The first refers to the relation of Jesus to Israel and to men, the second to His personal relation to God.

If John proposed to make his readers sharers in his faith, it is because he has learned by his own experience that this faith produces life: that, believing, you may have life. To receive Jesus as the Son of God is to open one’s heart to the fulness of the divine life with which he is himself filled; human existence is thus filled with blessedness and strength in communion with God. The words in His name depend, not onbelieving, but on the expression have life. This name is the perfect revelation which Jesus has given of Himself, by manifesting Himself as Christ and as Son of God.

Either, therefore, the author who speaks thus of the design of his book deceives us, or he did not write in the interest of speculation. He aims, not at knowledge, but at faith, and through faith at life. He is not a philosopher, but a witness; his work as a historian forms a part of his apostolic ministry. In all times, those who have not seen will be able through his testimony to reach the same faith and the same life as himself. We are thus enlightened as to the method and the spirit of his book.

ADDITIONAL NOTES BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.

Vv. 30, 31. This passage is evidently the conclusion of the Gospel as it was originally written, and it sets forth the purpose which the author had in view. We may notice in connection with these verses the following points:—

(a) The writer evidently shows that he prepares his book on a principle of selection (many others are not written, but these are written); (b) The selections which he makes are made with a view to the proving of some truth or doctrine or fact (σημεῖα); (c) The proofs are those which were given in the presence of the disciples—they depend for their force, therefore, in a special sense, upon the experience and personal witness-bearing of these disciples; (d) The disciples are those whose first meeting with Jesus is recorded in the first chapter, and their companions in the apostolic company and the personal friends of Jesus; (e) The doctrine or truth or fact to be proved is that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; (f) This statement, when interpreted as it must be by the Prologue, from which the entire development of the proof begins, must mean that He is the Logos made flesh; (g) The object in view in giving this proof and establishing this doctrine is that the readers may believe what the writer evidently believes; (h) The final purpose is that, through thus believing, the readers may have life—that is, that eternal life of which the book speaks.

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.

To believe in Christ, the Son of God, and our only Savior, is the end of the doctrine of the Gospel, and especially of the history of the resurrection.

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

Verse 30. Many other signs truly did Jesus, c.] That is, besides the two mentioned here. Joh 20:19 Joh 20:26, viz. Christ's entering into the house in a miraculous manner twice, notwithstanding the doors were fast shut: see on Joh 20:19. The other miracles which our Lord did, and which are not related here, were such as were necessary to the disciples only, and therefore not revealed to mankind at large. There is nothing in the whole revelation of God but what is for some important purpose, and there is nothing left out that could have been of any real use.

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

30. Many other signs also Jesus did. If the Evangelist had not cautioned his readers by this observation, they might have supposed that he had left out none of the miracles which Christ had performed, and had given a full and complete account of all that happened. John, therefore, testifies, first, that he has only related some things out of a large number; not that the others were unworthy of being recorded, but because these were sufficient to edify faith. And yet it does not follow that they were performed in vain, for they profited that age. Secondly, though at the present day we have not a minute knowledge of them, still we must not suppose it to be of little importance for us to know that the Gospel was sealed by a vast number of miracles.

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.

30, 31. The Conclusion and Purpose of the Gospel

30. And many other signs truly] The Greek cannot be exactly rendered without awkwardness: Therefore (as might be expected from what has been written here) many and other signs. The context shews that ‘signs’ must not be limited to proofs of the Resurrection: S. John is glancing back over his whole work—‘this book;’ and the ‘signs’ here, as elsewhere in this Gospel, are miracles generally. Comp. especially Joh_12:37. The expression ‘many and other’ points the same way; many in number and different in kind from those related. The signs of the Resurrection from the nature of the case were all similar in kind.

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.

And many other signs truly did Jesus,.... Besides these wonderful appearances to his disciples once and again, when the doors were shut about them: and which signs refer not to what was done before, but after his resurrection; and which he did,

in the presence of his disciples; for he appeared to, and conversed with no other but them after his resurrection:

which are not written in this book; of John's Gospel; though they may be elsewhere; such as his appearing to the two disciples going to Emmaus, and to the eleven on a mountain in Galilee, and to five hundred brethren at once, which other inspired writers speak of: and many there are which he did; which are not particularly written in this, nor in any other book; for he was seen of his disciples forty days, and showed himself alive, by many infallible proofs; all of which are not recorded.

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

30 And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book:

Ver. 30. And many other signs, &c.] If Cicero could say of Socrates (whose words Plato had recorded), and could request the like of his readers, concerning Lucius Crassus, that they would imagine much more good of them than they found written; how much more might St John do the same concerning Christ!

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.

Other signs - Other miracles. Many were recorded by the other evangelists, and many which he performed were never recorded, Joh 21:25.

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

This passage plainly refers to whatsoever signs we read of in any part of St. John’s Gospel; and lets us know, that the evangelist could have added abundance more to the history of the miracles which Christ wrought upon the earth.

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

Vers. 30, 31. (6) The conclusion of he argument of the Gospel. Controversy has prevailed from the days of Chrysostom to our own, as to whether these verses are the summary and conclusion of the Gospel as a whole, or have special reference to the record only of the appearances of Jesus after his resurrection. It cannot be doubted that as St. John sums up in Joh 12 the general teaching of Christ and its effect upon the people, to the termination of his public ministry, so at the close of this chapter, before recording the special bearing of the resurrection-life and spiritual power of Christ on the subsequent condition of the Church a narrative of peculiar interest in itself, corresponding with the prologue of the entire narrative he gathers up the general significance of his Gospel and its relation to other books.

Many other signs therefore did Jesus also in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book. The "many" and "other" refer to those signs with which his readers may be familiar from other sources, and, as it seems to us, in other (biblia) books. We have seen throughout how thoroughly alive the evangelist is to the minutest details of the synoptic narrative. The word "many" seems most accurately to include more than the few appearances after his resurrection which are not mentioned by John, but which are recorded by the synoptists, and the "other" refers most probably to signs of a different class from those which he has selected. The "signs" written in this book are those central facts which formed the theme and starting-points of his discourses. "Signs" do not necessarily mean miraculous works (erga), but all "indications" or "tokens" of his higher nature and Divine commission, such as his appearance in the synagogue of Nazareth; the cleansing of the temple, which had so powerfully affected the mind of Nicodemus; the repeated assertion of his pre-existence and eternal glory; the feeling of the officers of the Sanhedrin, that "never man spake like this Man;" the effect produced by his lofty claims to be "Lord of the sabbath" and "greater than the temple;" the arrogation of power to forgive sins; the discomfiture of the deputation from chief priests and elders; the collapse of the Roman soldiers; and all other proofs of his supreme authority. All these shmeia were not indispensably connected with corresponding terata . "Before the disciples" suggests a special limitation and condition which took powerful hold upon the mind of the evangelist. We hear in one passage that "he could do no mighty works, because of their unbelief." To prepared minds he came with his spiritual revelations and special suggestions of heavenly origin. John sees the memories passing before him, which have already formed the heritage of the Church, and is reminded of "many ethers" which have never found a chronicler.

Vers. 30, 31. The dose of the evangelist"s narrative.

It has an abrupt termination. The Gospel began with an assertion of Christ"s Deity; it ends with a confession of the same blessed doctrine.

I THE EVANGELIST"S METHOD OF WRITING HIS NARRATIVE. "And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.

1. These words imply the existence of the other Gospels, with their fuller narratives of miracle. He thus ratifies the contents of those Gospels.

2. The miracles were wrought in presence of the disciples, because they were to be our Lord"s witnesses to the world.

II THE AIM OF THE EVANGELIST. "But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his Name.

1. It is a blessed security for the faith of the Church of all ages that the gospel was written, and not left to the uncertainties of traditional recollection.

2. The object of Scripture is to minister to faith. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." This faith has:

(1) As its immediate object the proposition that "Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

(2) As its ultimate design salvation: "That believing ye might have life through his Name.

(a) Faith is a fundamental necessity in Christianity.

(b) It brings life to the soul.

"The life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God". (Gal_2:20) This life is "through his Name." He is our Life, and he gives life.

Vers. 30, 31. The purpose of John"s Gospel.

This statement comes in very fitly after the narrative of Thomas"s doubt. Many more things might have been told, but a mere record of actions is nothing in itself; it is precious just as it reveals the nature, the character, and the office of the actor. A record of Jesus more encumbered with details, and longer spun out, might not have given so clear a view of him.

I JOHN"S PURPOSE. Many books have been written to destroy faith; here is a book written to produce it. If a man believes a lie, it is true kindness to destroy his faith in it; equally, if he does not yet believe the truth, it is a duty to do all one can to help him into faith. This was the bright work of John, not to pull down, but to build up; not to destroy faith, but to produce it. Certainly in producing a new faith he destroyed an old one; but the decaying and vanishing of the old was not felt in the joy of welcoming the new. To believe is to be strong, to doubt is to be weak. And now suppose one begins to read through John"s Gospel, musing over the strange things there recorded miracles of healing, language about the life, the light, the bread, the vine, the shepherd, pondering the raising of Lazarus, and still later the raising of Jesus he might be inclined to say, "I cannot make anything of it; it looks utterly inexplicable." Then he comes to the words here, and how he ought to be helped. This work was not written to bewilder; if it does bewilder, such was not the writer"s intent. John, a believing man himself, wanted to lead others to believe. His attachment to Christ was not the blind attachment of a fanatic. It was not an ignorant trust. John was not a hired advocate, not a skilful arranger of facts, hiding away what might be difficult to explain or awkward to reveal.

II THE EVIDENT RESULT. Let us be true to ourselves, giving the book fair play, and the end will be the receiving of eternal life. Out of Christ we are all made to feel that the excellency of our present life is indeed in earthen vessels. A sudden accident, a few hours of disease, and all is gone. Without Jesus we know not where we are going, or what may happen to us. But, believing in Jesus, we are sure of a life hid away from all the perils of this present world. John does not put forward this book as furnishing the best arguments he can supply. It is rather Christ"s own sufficient appeal to all who have an honest desire for salvation and eternal life. If there be not enough in this book to persuade us, neither would we be persuaded if Jesus himself were to come in bodily form. They that love the New Testament will be fullest of eternal life, for they will be fullest of faith and freest from doubts. The words of Jesus will never be to them as common words. Looking round on the widely spread and deeply penetrating evil of the world, they will feel that only he holds in his hands the complete remedy for it. The claim of Jesus is one that can never pass away, seeing it is the claim of the Son of God the claim not merely of his appointment, but of his nature. Y.

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

Jesus wrought many miracles, which are not written in this book - Of St. John, nor indeed of the other evangelists.

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

The purpose of the Gospel of John:

v. 30. And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples which are not written in this book;

v. 31. but these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that, believing, ye might have life through His name.

After recording the indisputable evidences for the greatest miracle of all and the reception of the miracle by the disciples, John here summarizes and states the purpose of his gospel. He expressly writes that he has not nearly exhausted the recital of Christ’s miracles, but has given an account of only so many as are necessary to convince the readers of the gospel and work faith in Jesus the Christ, the Savior, the Son of God, in their hearts. For; this is his thesis, as he distinctly asserts. His aim was to prove the deity of Christ and to work conviction in the hearts of men by such; proof, in. order that they might believe and by faith have the everlasting life which is in Christ and is given by Christ to them that believe in His name. That name, Jesus Christ, is not a mere appellation, a meaningless sound, but is itself glorious, beautiful Gospel which gives to the believers eternal life.

Summary After Mary Magdalene and then Peter and John have inspected the empty grave, Jesus appears to Mary, on the evening of Easter Day to the disciples without Thomas, and eight days later to them all, with the comforting evidence and message of the resurrection.

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

Observe here, 1. The true end for which the miracles of Christ were so carefully recorded; namely, that we might believe. By believing that Christ is the Son of God, we have life; and by the evidence of his miracles, we know and believe him to have been the Son of God. The miracles which Christ wrought, were the best external evidence of his mission.

Observe, 2. That all Christ’s miracles, both before his passion and after his resurrection, were not recorded by the evangelists.

Observe, 3. The great point concerning Christ to be known and believed from the scriptures, is this, that Jesus, the Son of the virgin, is the promised Messiah, the anointed of the Father, he is whom all the types and shadows of the law are accomplished; and that this Jesus is for nature co-essential, for dignity co-equal, and for duration co-eternal with the Father; one in essence, equal in power and glory.

Thus believing that Jesus is the Son of God, and accompanying that belief with a holy life, if we believe well, and live well, we shall have life through his name.

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

30. Many other signs truly did Jesus. Not near all that occurred, either before or after the resurrection, is recorded. Each of the evangelists records some features that the others omit, and they each reveal the fact that they only outline the wonderful story.

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:

As the story is nearing the end, the author comments about the many things Jesus did. (See: End of Story)

signs

The word "signs" refers to miracles that show that God is the all-powerful one who has complete authority over the universe.

signs that have not been written in this book

You can translate this in an active form. AT: "signs that the author did not write about in this book" (See: Active or Passive)

but these have been written

You can translate this in an active form. AT: "but the author wrote about these signs" (See: Active or Passive)

Son of God

This is an important title for Jesus. (See: Translating Son and Father)

life in his name

Here "life" is a metonym that means Jesus gives life. AT: "you may have life because of Jesus" (See: Metonymy)

life

This refers to spiritual life.

translationWords

miracle

disciple

believe

Christ

Son of God

life

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

30, 31. THE CONCLUSION AND PURPOSE OF THE GOSPEL

πολλὰ μ. οὖν κ. ἄλλα σ. Many and other signs, therefore (as might be expected from those which have been recorded in this book). The context shews that σημεῖα must not be limited to proofs of the Resurrection. S. John is glancing back over his whole work, τὸ βιβλίον τοῦτον, and the σημεῖα are miracles generally: comp. Joh 12:37. Πολλὰ κ. ἄλλα points the same way; the signs of the Resurrection were few and similar. Μὲν anticipates δέ in Joh 20:31, and οὖν marks the transition: comp. Mar 16:19-20; Php 2:23-24. Winer, p. 556. With ἐνώπιον τ. μαθητῶν comp. Joh 16:26, Act 1:21-22.

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.

30.] μὲν οὖν—yea, and,—or, moreover: meaning, ‘This book must not be supposed to be a complete account.’

καί, and indeed:—many and other signs.

σημεῖα, not, as Theophyl., Euthym., Lücke, Olsh., “proofs of His resurrection,”—but, as ch. 12:37 and elsewhere in this Gospel, miracles in the most general sense—these after the Resurrection included:—for John is here reviewing his whole narrative, τὸ βιβλίον τοῦτο.

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

30. These verses form the conclusion (clausula, as Tertullian calls v. 31, adv. Prax. 25) of the Gospel as originally planned, c. 21 being a supplement added before the book was issued (see p. 687).

πολλὰ μὲν οὖν καὶ ἄλλα σημειᾶ … For μὲν οὖν, cf. 19:24. Jn. explains that it was not his purpose to write a complete narrative of Jesus’ ministry. Other “signs” were done by Him (cf. 2:23, 4:45, 12:37) which he does not stay to record, although they were done in the presence of the disciples, who were the witnesses of His wonderful works, chosen by Jesus Himself (15:27; cf. Act 1:21, Act 10:41). Such were, e.g., the healings of lepers and demoniacs, of which none is described in the Fourth Gospel. They were not written “in this book,” although some of them were written in other books, such as the Synoptic Gospels, of which Jn. knew Mk. and probably Lk. also.

After μαθητῶν the rec. with אCDLWΘ adds αὐτοῦ, but om. ABΔ. The witnesses of the “signs” were not only the Twelve, but disciples generally. See on 2:2 for the omission of αὐτοῦ.

ἐνώπιον. This prep. occurs only once again in Jn. (1Jn 3:22). It is frequent in Lk., but is not found in Mk. Mt. (see Abbott, Diat. 2335).

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