《Lange’s Commentary on the Holy Scriptures – John (Ch. 4~Ch. 8》(Johann P. Lange) 04 Chapter 4

Footnotes:

FN#23 - Wordsworth (p309) says that it to found in more than300 cursive MSS—P. S.]

FN#24 - Also E. F. S, but in N. the passage is marked with asterisks in the margin, in S. with obeli. Ten cursive copies put it at the end of John, some insert it at the end of Luke 21—P. S.]

FN#25 - “In multis et Græcis et Latinis codicibus; Adv. Pelag., II:17. It should also be added that moot of the copies of ties Itala and Vulgata contain the section—P. S.]

FN#26 - To which must be added Cod. Sin. Tiechendorf (I, p826) enumerates the following uncial MSS. as witnesses against the section: א.A.B.C. L. T. X. Δ.; but A. and C. are here defective, and L. and Δ. have an empty space, though not sufficient for the whole passage.—P. S.]

FN#27 - Euthymius remarks that the pericope from John 7:53 to John 8:12 παρα τοῖς ἀκιβέ σιν ἀντιγρά φοις ἠ οὐχ εὕρηται, ἥ ὠβέλισται. Διὸ φαί νονται παρέ γγραπτα καὶ προσθή κη—P. S.]

FN#28 - Also Tregelles, Alford and Wordsworth. Godet (II, 199) says: un sari text apostolique n’ a jamais été exposé à des altérations si considérable.—P. S.]

FN#29 - John names the Pharisees twenty times,—four times in connection with the chief priests, but never with the Scribes as here.—P. S.]

FN#30 - Wordsworth also urges this point, especially the severe discipline of the Eastern church towards adultery. According to Bingham (Antiqu. XVI, chap11), S. Basil’s Canons prescribe fifteen years’ penance for adultery, the Council of Ancyra seven years’, the Council of Eliberis (in Spain) five years’ for a single Acts, and ten if repeated. Webster and Wilkinson: “The views of the fathers of the nature and objects of Christ’s mission, and of the distinction between the covenants of the law and the gospel, were imperfect and limited… If the story appeared improbable, from moral considerations, to expositors of the third and fourth century, it would appear far more Song of Solomon, on the same grounds, to those of the seventh and eighth.”—P. S.]

FN#31 - See Leben Jesu, II, p952; Hitzig, Ueber Joh. Mark., p208 sqq.; and Meyer’s designation of it as an “apocryphal document” is therefore extremely unbecoming. [In his fifth edition (p320), Meyer does not call it Song of Solomon, but rather “ein aus der apostolischen Zeit herrührendes Schriftstück, eine ural’e Reliquie evangelischer Geschichle.”—P. S.]

FN#32 - Also the adjective αὐτόφωρος, caught in the very theft, and generally in the very act.—P. S.]

FN#33 - κατέγραφεν or έγραφεν, a descriptive imperfect, He kept writing.—P. S.]

FN#34 - This minute circumstance Hengstenberg considers as a mark of fiction unworthy of Christ; Meyer, Stier and Alford, correctly as a mark of originality. The hypocritical malignant questioners well deserved this contemptuous treatment. Writing or figuring on the ground may indicate ennui or distraction of mind or embarrassment or deep reflection or intentional indifference to what is going on. The last case is the only one that is applicable to Jesus, and the gesture here has the same meaning as His words, Matthew 22:28 : Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites? (Comp. also Luke 12:14.) This disregard and rebuke implied in the act itself, is the thing essential, not the words or signs written; else they would have been recorded. It is therefore idle to ask what he wrote on the ground.—P. S.]

FN#35 - Some MSS. add after the word κατέγραφεν ( John 8:8): the sins of every one of them. Wordsworth: An emblem that the law which He Himself had given, had been written on earthly and stony hearts. Very fanciful. Lightfoot and Besser: the curses written by the priest against unfaithful women, Numbers 5:17. Augustine and others: reference to Jeremiah 17:13 : “They that depart from me shall be written in the earth.” Wolf and Lampe, like Bede, conjecture that he wrote the sentence in John 8:7; Godet: the sentence of the judge which must be written. But Christ evidently did not wish to listen to them or to act as Judges, and when asked the second time, He did not answer their question about the woman, but reminded them of their own sins.—P. S.]

FN#36 - Owen remarks on this verse: “This is one of the most profound and searching remarks to be found in the whole gospel. ‘Who are you that you should be so clamorous for the meting out of punishment to this woman? Have you no sins of your own to be repented of? Is it your appropriate task to sit in judgment upon your fellow-men, as though you yourselves were perfect and deputed of God to do this! Look to your own hearts, inspect your own conduct in the light of God’s law ( Matthew 5:28; Matthew 5:32), and be less solicitous in respect to the exact degree or kind of punishment to be meted out to your fellow-men.’ ”—P. S.]

FN#37 - Or as Lange below explains πρεσβύτεροι from the elders, the presbyters of the synagogue.—P. S]

FN#38 - In his fifth edition, p332, Meyer says on,οὐδὲ ἐγώ σε κατακρ: “This is not a sentence of forgiveness, like Matthew 9:2; Luke 7:48, nor yet mere refusal of jurisdiction,… but a reversal of the condemnation, in the consciousness of His Messianic mission, which was not to condemn, but to seek and to save the lost, John 3:17; John 12:47; Matthew 18:18.”—P. S.]

Verses 1-30

III

Christ, The Light Of The World, The Real Fulfilment Of The Jewish Torch-Light Festivities, As Against The Pretended Seers, The False Lights, In Israel. The Adulteress, And Christ’s Sentence. His Ideal Appearance At The Court Of The Jews, And The Two Witnesses. The Judges Shall Come Into Judgement. A Twofold Lifting Up Of Christ At Hand. Appearance Of Yielding; Or, A Great Vacillation Towards Faith

( John 7:53) John 8:1-30

John 7:53. And every man went unto his own house. [;]

John 8:1 [But]^[FN1] Jesus went unto the mount of Olives: 2And early in the morning lie came again into the temple, and all the people^[FN2] came unto him; and he sat down and taught them.^[FN3] 3And the Scribes and [the] Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery [or in sin],^[FN4] and when they had set her in the midst, 4They say unto him [The priests say unto him, tempting him that they might have to accuse him],^[FN5] Master, this woman was taken^[FN6] in adultery, in the very Acts 5 Now Moses in the law commanded 6us, that such should be stoned: but what [what then] sayest thou? This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him.^[FN7] But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger, wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not [omit as though he 7heard them not]^[FN8] So [But] when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast [be the first to cast] a stone at her 8 And again he stooped down, and wrote [with his finger]^[FN9] on the ground 9 And they which heard it being convicted by their oivn conscience [And when they heard this, they], went out one by one, beginning at [with] the eldest [or, elders, ὰπὸ τῶν πρεσβυτέρων], even unto the last:^[FN10] and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst 10 When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman [omit and saw none but the woman],^[FN11] he said unto her, Woman,^[FN12] where are those thine accusers? [where are they?]^[FN13] hath no man condemned 11thee? [Did no one condemn thee?] She said, No man [no one], Lord. And Jesus [he] said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and [henceforth]^[FN14] sin no more.

12Then spake Jesus [Jesus therefore spoke] again unto them [see John 7:37 sqq.], saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in [the]^[FN15] darkness, but shall have the light of life 13 The Pharisees therefore said unto him, Thou bearest record [witness] of thyself; thy record [witness] is not true 14 Jesus answered and said unto them, Though I bear record [witness] of myself, yet [omit yet] my record [witness] is true: for I know whence I came, and whither I go: but ye cannot tell [know not] whence I come, and [or]^[FN16] whither I go 15 Ye judge after the flesh, I judge no Prayer of Manasseh 16And yet if I judge [But even if I myself judge], my 17 judgment is true:^[FN17] for I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me. It is also [Moreover, it is] written in your law, that the testimony of two men is true 18 I am one that bear [he who beareth] witness of myself; and the Father that sent me, beareth witness of me. Then said they [They said therefore] unto him. Where 19 is thy Father? Jesus answered, Ye neither know [neither] me, nor my Father: if ye had known me, ye should have known [would know] my Father also.

20These words spake Jesus [he]^[FN18] in the treasury, as he taught [while teaching] in the temple: and no man [no one] laid hands on him, for his hour was [had] not yet come.

21Then said Jesus again [Again therefore he said] unto them, I go my way [I go away], and ye shall [will] seek me [in vain], and shall [will] die in your sins [sin]: 22whither I go, ye cannot come. Then [Therefore] said the Jews, Will he kill himself? because he saith, Whither I go, ye cannot come 23 And he said to them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above; ye are of this world; I am not of this world 24 I said therefore unto you, that ye shall [will] die in your sins: for if ye believe not 25 that I am he, ye shall [will] die in your sins. Then [Therefore] said they unto him, Who art thou? And Jesus saith unto them, Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning [For the beginning; or, To begin with (I am) that which I even say to you].^[FN19] 26I have many things to say, and to judge of you [before I fully express myself concerning myself]: but he that sent me, is true; and I speak^[FN20] to the 27 world those things which I have heard of him [what I heard from him]. They 28 understood not that he spake [spoke] to them of the Father. Then [Therefore] said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of Prayer of Manasseh, then shall [will] ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself, but as my^[FN21] Father hath taught me, I speak these things 29 And he that sent me is with me: the Father [he]^[FN22] hath not left me alone; for I do always those [the] things that please him.

30As he spake [spoke] these words, many believed on [in] him.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

[The whole section concerning the adulteress, from John 7:53 to John 8:11, is omitted as spurious, or bracketted as doubtful by the critical editors of the Gr. Test. Hence I have italicized the E. V. to distinguish it from the undisputed text. (The same course should be pursued with Mark 16:9 ff.) Without anticipating the very full and judicious discussion of the genuineness by Dr. Lange in the Exeg. and Chit, below, I shall only state the chief authorities for both opinions, and the conclusion to which I have attained:

1. The section is defended as genuine by Augustine (who comments on it in Tract. xxxiii, and suggests, in another place, De conj. adult., II:7, that it was thrown out of the text by enemies or weak believers from fear that it might encourage their wives to infidelity), Mill, Whitby, Fabricius, Lampe, Maldonatus, Corn. a Lapide, Bengel, Michaelis, Storr, Kuinoel, Hug (R. C.), Scholz, Klee, Maier (R. C.), Home, Owen, Webster and Wilkinson, Wieseler, Ebrard, Stier, Lange.

2. It is rejected as an interpolation (though not on that account as untrue) by Erasmus, Calvin (?), Beza, Grotius, Wetstein, Semler, Paulus, Knapp, Lücke, Tholuck, Olshausen, Bleek, De Wette, Baur, Reuss, Luthardt, Meyer, Ewald, Hengstenberg (who regards it as an apocryphal fiction of some strongly anti-Jewish Christian of the second century), Godet, Wordsworth (?), Scrivener. So also Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Alford, Wescott and Hort.

The prevailing critical evidence, though mostly negative (especially from the Eastern Church), is against the passage, the moral evidence for it; in other words, it seems to be no original part of John’s written Gospel, but the record of an actual event, which probably happened about the time indicated by its position in the 8 th chapter. The story could not have been invented, the less so as it runs contrary to the ascetic and legalistic tendency of the ancient church which could not appreciate it.

It is eminently Christ-like and full of comfort to penitent outcasts. It breathes the Saviour’s spirit of holy mercy which condemns the sin and saves the sinner. It is a parallel to the parable of the prodigal, the story of Mary Magdalene and that of the Samaritan woman, and agrees with many express declarations of Christ that He came not to condemn, but to save the lost ( John 3:17; John 12:47; Luke 9:56; Luke 19:10; comp. John 5:14; Luke 7:37 ff.). His refusal to act as judge in the case, has a parallel in a similar case related by Luke 12:13-15. The conduct of the Scribes and Pharisees in trying Jesus with ensnaring questions is characteristic and sustained by many examples of the synoptical Gospels. Calvin, who is disposed to reject it, admits that it “contains nothing contrary to the apostolic spirit.” Meyer (p321), while disowning its Johannean origin, says: “It entirely agrees with the tone of the Synoptical Gospels, and betrays not the least indication of a dogmatic or ecclesiastical reason which might account for its later invention.” It is moreover so manifestly original, and has so many positive witnesses in its favor, especially in the Western church, that it may be regarded as a genuine relic of the primitive evangelical tradition which was handed down in various recensions, but treated with great caution from fear of abuse in a licentious age, until in the second, certainly in the third, century it found its way into many copies of the Gospel of John. (Comp. Meyer.) Some older critics supposed that it is the same story as that which Papias (perhaps from the mouth of John) related of “a woman taken in many sins” (ἐπὶ πολλαῖς ἁμαρτίαις, not one ἁμαρτία, as in our case), and which was contained in “the Gospel of the Hebrews ”(Euseb. H. E., III:39); but this Judaizing Gospel would hardly have given currency to a story so strongly anti-Jewish. Alford suggests that John himself may have, in this solitary case, incorporated a portion of the current oral tradition into his narrative; Wordsworth and others, that John delivered the story orally, and that another hand wrote it first on the margin from which it afterwards passed into the text. But these are mere conjectures.

The number of readings is unusually large. There are two main recensions, that of the received text (from which the E. V. is made), that of Cod. D. (Cod. Bezæ) which is somewhat abridged; both are given with the lectiones variantes by Tischendorf, ed. VIII, I. pp830–836, and Tregelles, p417. To these may be added a third and more lengthy recension of other MSS. differing from those on which the received text is founded (see Griesbach and Wordsworth, p309).

For the critical details, the reader is referred to Dr. Lange’s discussion below, Lücke's Com., Vol. II, pp243–279; Meyer, pp320–323; Tregelles on the Text of the Gr. Test., pp236–243; Tischendorf (ed. VIII.), Bloomfield’s Recensio Synoptica, Alford (ed. VI), and Wordsworth.—P. S.]

Footnotes:

FN#1 - John 8:1.—[Δέ, unquestioned in the original, does not appear in the English Version.]

FN#2 - John 8:2.—Codd. G. S. U, ὄχλος; not decisive against λαός.

FN#3 - Ibid.—[Cod. D. omits the words of the text. rec. καὶκαθί σας ἐδίδασκεν αὐτού ς. Not decisive.]

FN#4 - instead of ἐν μοιχεία]. Euphony.

FN#5 - John 8:4.—[The insertion is from Cod. D.: λέ γουσιν αὐτῷ ἐκπειράζοντες αὐτὸν οἱ ἱερεῖς, ἵνα ἔχωσιν κατηγορείαν ὐτοῦ The text. rec. omits these words here, but has them in John 8:6. Cod. M. has them at the close of John 8:11.—P. S.]

FN#6 - John 8:6.—[Different readings and spellings: κατειλήφθη (aor. I, with augmentum for κατελή φθη, as εἴληφα stands instead of the unusual λέ ληφα, see Winer, p69), κατελήφθη, κατείληπται, εἴληπται, κατειλημμέ νην, καταληφθεῖσαν.—P. S.]

FN#7 - John 8:6.—[This clause must be omitted here, if it is inserted with Cod. D. in John 8:4.—P. S.]

FN#8 - Ibid.—In e.g. K, μὴ προσποιούμενος is added. In others, καὶ προσπ. Both exegetical.

FN#9 - John 8:8.—[The rec. omits here τῷ δακτύλῳ, which Cod. U. supplies. Cod. D. and others have the strange addition: ἑυὸς ἕκάστου αὐτῶν τας ἁμαρτό ας.—P. S.]

FN#10 - Alford in his version adopts the reading of Cod. D.: “But each of the Jews went out, beginning with the elders, so that all went out.”—P. S.]

FN#11 - John 8:10.—Καὶ γυναικό ς (and seeing none but the woman), is wanting in D. M. S.

FN#12 - Ibid.—Ἡ γυνή wanting in D. E. F, etc.

FN#13 - John 8:10.—[Ποῦ εἰσιν; So Cod. D, etc. The text. rec. inserts ἐκεῖνοι οἱ κατήγοροί σου.—P. S.]

FN#14 - John 8:11.—[The text. rec. reads καί, but Cod. D. ἀπὸ τοῦ νῦν which is more forcible.—P. S.]

FN#15 - John 8:12.—Instead of περιπατήσει, Lachmann and Tischendorf, after Codd. B. C. K. T. have περιπατήσῃ.

FN#16 - John 8:14.—Codd. D. K. T. and many others read ἤ. The καὶ probably comes from the preceding sentence, [Codd. Sin, καὶ.]

FN#17 - John 8:16.—B. D. L, etc., ἀληθινή. So Lachmann, Tischendorf [Alford. Cod. Sin. supports here the text. rec, ἀληθής]

FN#18 - John 8:20.—The ὁ Ἰησοῦς interpolated after ἐλά λησεν.

FN#19 - John 8:25.—[On this difficult passage and its many interpretations, see the Exeg. and Crit. Alford renders τὴν ἀρχὴνὅτι καὶ λαλῶ ὑμῖν. In very deed (or essentially), that which I also speak (discourse) unto you. Noyes: In the first place, I am just that which I speak to you. Am. B. U. (Conant): That which I also say to you from the beginning. Lauge: Fars. Erste das, was ich auch euch sage (sagen mag).—P. S.]

FN#20 - Cod. Sin, λαλῶ.]

FN#21 - John 8:28.—Μου, an interpolation, according to many authorities [Cod. Sin. among them].

FN#22 - John 8:29.—According to B. D. L, etc., ὁ πατήρ should be dropped. [Cod. Sin. has it, but instead of μετ̓ ἐμοῦ ἐστίν• οὐκ ἀφῆκέ με μόνον, reads οὐκ ἀφῆκέ με μόνον• μετ̓ ἐμοῦ ἐστίν.]

Verses 12-30

B. John 8:12-30

[Christ, The Light Of The World.]

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

John 8:12. Again therefore Jesus spoke to them [πάλιν οὗν αὐτοῖς ἐλάλησεν ὁ ̓Ιησοῦς].—The connection varies according as the section on the adulteress is regarded as in its true place or interpolated.

On the supposition of its interpolation Meyer construes thus (and Lücke): “After the Sanhedrin had failed in their attempt to get possession of Jesus, and had become divided among themselves, as is related in John 7:45-52, Jesus was able, in consequence of this miscarriage of the plan of His enemies (οὗν), to appear again and speak to the assembly in the temple.” The πάλιν is supposed to show that the time of the discourse is one of the days following the day of the feast. De Wette, on the contrary, supposes that John has not intended to preserve closely the thread of the history. Tholuck considers it impossible to decide whether the discourse was delivered on the last day of the feast or after it. He says: “If the pericope is genuine, this exclamation must have occurred some hours later.” Rather, a whole night and some hours later.

If the section be genuine, the words following are connected with the affair of the adulteress (Cocceius, Bengel). We have given this connection the preference. In view of the remarks that the repeated πάλιν in John 8:12 and John 8:21 is quite unmeaning without this section, for Jesus has not been interrupted by the history John 7:45-52; only the evangelist has interrupted himself by communicating some things which preceded behind the scenes. But the official state of things after the production of the adulteress must have been essentially changed. The rulers who threatened to take Jesus, and occasioned His saying, I shall soon go away from you,—have given Him an involuntary token of acknowledgment before the people; now He has the field again for a time, and can speak once more. The transactions following took place, accordingly, after the scene just preceding, on the day after the last day of the feast.

I am the light of the world.—Opinions as to the occasion of this figurative utterance: 1. Sunrise, or sunset. But the former was long past, and the latter had not yet come; and Jesus appears here not as antitype of the sun, as in John 9:5, but as the essential light, the light of the night2. The reading of the section Isaiah 42; since the “light of the Gentiles” (φῶς ἐθνῶν) of John 8:6 is equivalent to the “light of the world” (φῶς τοῦ κόσμου) of this place, and designates the Messiah. Jesus, accordingly, here addresses Himself to the hope of the light of Israel and the Gentiles ( Luke 2:32; John 1:4; John 1:9). Against this it has been observed that the reading of Scripture lessons belonged to the synagogues, not to the temple; even the temple-synagogue, which Vitringa adduces, was not in the temple itself (Lücke, p283). 3. The torch-feast, or the illumination at the feast of tabernacles. In the court of the women stood great golden candelabras, which were lit on the evening of the first day of the feast, and spread their light overall Jerusalem, while by the men a torch-light dance with music and singing was performed before these candelabras (see Winer, Laubhüttenfest. These lights are not to be confounded with the large golden lamps in the sanctuary). According to Maimonides this illumination took place also on the other evenings of the festival. Even apart from this, the exhausted lamps in the women’s court, or in the treasury-hall where Jesus according to John 8:20 was speaking, would on the day after the feast as distinctly suggest the symbolical transitory illumination of Jerusalem, as the eighth day of the feast would suggest the cessation of the symbolical streams of water; and this gave the Lord the same occasion for describing Himself as the true enlightener of the night, which the previous day had given for presenting Himself as the opener of the true fountain (Wetstein, Paulus, Olshausen; see Leben Jesu, II, p955). Opinions which lack a full appreciation of John’s symbolization, like Meyer’s, lose their weight by that very lack; though according to them we must take not the torch-light part of the feast, but, with Hug, the sight of the candelabras, as the occasion of our Lord’s expression. Of course the Messianic prophecies in Isaiah 42:6; Malachi 4:2; Luke 2, as well as the rabbinical figures (Lightfoot, p1041), assisted this application. But beyond doubt the illumination was specifically an emblem of the pillar fire which had accompanied Israel at the time of its pilgrimage in the wilderness and its dwelling in tabernacles; therefore also an emblem of the later manifestation of the δόξα of the Lord, the idea of the Shekinah (see Isaiah 4:5). To this was further added, as the immediate occasion, the fact that the adulterous woman had fallen into darkness, and that the tempters of Jesus had come and gone away in spiritual darkness.