Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 3:13
And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, [even] the Son of man which is in heaven.
13. no man hath ascended up to heaven ] No man has been in heaven, so as to see and know these heavenly things, excepting Christ.
came down from heaven ] Literally, out of heaven; at the Incarnation. On ‘the Son of Man’ see on Joh 1:51.
which is in heaven ] These words are omitted in the best MSS. If they are retained, the meaning is ‘Whose proper home is heaven.’ Or the Greek participle may be the imperfect tense (comp. Joh 6:62, Joh 9:25, Joh 17:5), which was in heaven before the Incarnation. It is doubtful whether in this verse we have any direct allusion to the Ascension, though this is sometimes assumed.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And no man hath ascended into heavens – No man, therefore, is qualified to speak of heavenly things, Joh 3:12. To speak of those things requires intimate acquaintance with them – demands that we have seen them; and as no one has ascended into heaven and returned, so no one is qualified to speak of them but He who came down from heaven. This does not mean that no one had Gone to heaven or had been saved, for Enoch and Elijah had been borne there (Gen 5:24; compare Heb 11:5; 2Ki 2:11); and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and others were there: but it means that no one had ascended and returned, so as to be qualified to speak of the things there.
But he that came down … – The Lord Jesus. He is represented as coming down, because, being equal with God, he took upon himself our nature, Joh 1:14; Phi 2:6-7. He is represented as sent by the Father, Joh 3:17, Joh 3:34; Gal 4:4; 1Jo 4:9-10.
The Son of man – Called thus from his being a man; from his interest in man; and as expressive of his regard for man. It is a favorite title which the Lord Jesus gives to himself.
Which is in Heaven – This is a very remarkable expression. Jesus, the Son of man, was then bodily on earth conversing with Nicodemus; yet he declares that he is at the same time in heaven. This can be understood only as referring to the fact that he had two natures that his divine nature was in heaven, and his human nature on earth. Our Saviour is frequently spoken of in this manner. Compare Joh 6:62; Joh 17:5; 2Co 8:9. Since Jesus was in heaven – as his proper abode was there – he was fitted to speak of heavenly things, and to declare the will of God to man And we may learn:
1.That the truth about the deep things of God is not to be learned from men. No one has ascended to heaven and returned to tell us what is there; and no infidel, no mere man, no prophet, is qualified of himself to speak of them.
2.That all the light which we are to expect on those subjects is to be sought in the Scriptures. It is only Jesus and his inspired apostles and evangelists that can speak of those things.
- It is not wonderful that some things in the Scriptures are mysterious. They are about things which we have not seen, and we must receive them on the testimony of one who has seen them.
- The Lord Jesus is divine. He was in heaven while on earth. He had, therefore, a nature far above the human, and is equal with the Father, Joh 1:1.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Joh 3:13
No man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven
Christ comforting Nicodemus
Christ having reproved Nicodemus for his ignorance, now shows the remedy thereof in Himself.
1. Christs sharp word is not His last. Having inflicted a wound He offers Himself, the only remedy, to cure it.
2. It is alike impossible for men, by their own parts and natural endowments, to comprehend spiritual mysteries and enter into Gods counsels, here called an ascending up to heaven.
3. In so far as sinners come to a true and saving knowledge of heavenly mysteries, they are in a sort transported up to heaven. If Capernaum were exalted to heaven by the offer of these things, what are they who embrace them?
4. It is proper in Christ only, in some sense, to ascend to heaven, both for the measure and degree of knowledge which, as God, is infinite, and, as man, is large as human nature is capable of, and for the kind of knowledge which, as God, is of Himself, and can only be mans by communication from Him who came down from heaven.
5. The Son of God in the boson of the Father manifested Himself in our nature, that He might in our nature understand and communicate the heavenly mysteries; therefore it is marked as the ground of His ascending or comprehending these things that He came down, hereby showing that His abasing of Himself did exalt Him as Mediator to that dignity, to be the storehouse of wisdom to His people.
6. Christ, by His Incarnation, did not cease to be God, for He is still in heaven.
7. The Son of God has assumed the human nature into so strict a personal union that what is proper to either nature is ascribed unto the Person under whatsoever name. And hereby Christ shows His love to our nature that under that name, Son of Man, He ascribes what is proper to His Godhead to Himself. (G. Hutcheson.)
The text in relation to error
Three distinct heresies are overthrown by these words.
I. That of the NESTORIANS, who affirm a duality of persons as well as of natures in Christ; for unless our Blessed Lord were one Person, it could not in truth be affirmed that the Son of Man, even whilst on earth, was in heaven.
II. That of the CERINTHIANS and all others who deny the pre-existence and Divinity of Christ; for unless He had been God, it could not have been said that He came down from heaven even whilst still in heaven.
III. That of the MANICHAEANS, who deny the proper humanity of our Blessed Lord; for unless He had been really man, of the substance of His mother, it could not be said that He was the Son of Man. (Toletus.)
The Son of Man
The name is used
I. Not only because of His Incarnation, but also because of the manner of that Incarnation. When He came into this world and manifested Himself, so that we were able to see Him who by nature is invisible, He might have taken new flesh and a body created especially for Him, other than that of man. He, however, took mans flesh, and calls Himself here the Son of Man, and so assures us that He was really born of woman; otherwise He would not be really the Son of Man. These words also declare, not only that He took our flesh, for this alone would not have made Him the Son of Man, but that He took it by being born.
II. These words remind us for our comfort that He is truly our Brother, and that we are all brethren of Christ by virtue of His birth as the Son of Man.
III. He uses these words to certify us of the fulfilment of those promises which declared that He should take our flesh and be the seed of man, the Son of David and of Abraham.
IV. Again, He uses these words in confirmation of our being made the sons of God; for if Christ for our sake became the Son of Man, we through His humiliation and Incarnation were therefore made the sons of God.
V. By using the name, Son of Man, the mark of His humiliation, He would teach us humility. (Toletus.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 13. No man hath ascended] This seems a figurative expression for, No man hath known the mysteries of the kingdom of God; as in De 30:12; Ps 73:17; Pr 30:4; Ro 11:34. And the expression is founded upon this generally received maxim: That to be perfectly acquainted with the concerns of a place, it is necessary for a person to be on the spot. But our Lord probably spoke to correct a false notion among the Jews, viz. that Moses had ascended to heaven, in order to get the law. It is not Moses who is to be heard now, but Jesus: Moses did not ascend to heaven; but the Son of man is come down from heaven to reveal the Divine will.
That came down] The incarnation of Christ is represented under the notion of his coming down from heaven, to dwell upon earth.
Which is in heaven.] Lest a wrong meaning should be taken from the foregoing expression, and it should be imagined that, in order to manifest himself upon earth he must necessarily leave heaven; our blessed Lord qualifies it by adding, the Son of man who is in heaven; pointing out, by this, the ubiquity or omnipresence of his nature: a character essentially belonging to God; for no being can possibly exist in more places than one at a time, but HE who fills the heavens and the earth.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
No man hath so ascended up to heaven, as to know the secret will and counsels of God, for of such an ascending it must be meant; otherwise, Elijah ascended up to heaven before our Saviour ascended. Thus the phrase is supposed to be used, Pro 30:4. None but Christ (who as to his Divine nature came down from heaven) hath ever so ascended thither;
even the Son of man, who was in heaven; we translate it is, but the participle is of the preter imperfect tense, as well as the present tense: or, who is in heaven, by virtue of the personal union of the two natures in the Redeemer; as we read. Act 20:28, the church, which he hath purchased with his own blood. By reason of the personal union of the two natures in Christ, though the properties of each nature remain distinct, yet the properties of each nature are sometimes attributed to the whole person. The Lutherans have another notion, ascribing an omnipresence even to the human nature of Christ, because of its personal union with the Divine nature; and so affirm that Christs human nature, while it was on earth, was also substantially in heaven; as, on the other side, they are as stiff in maintaining that, although Christs human nature be now in heaven, yet it is also on earth, really and essentially present wherever the sacrament of the Lords supper is administered; but this is to ascribe a body unto Christ which is indeed no body, according to any notion we have of a body.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
13. no man hath ascended,&c.There is something paradoxical in this language”Noone has gone up but He that came down, even He who is at once both upand down.” Doubtless it was intended to startle and constrainHis auditor to think that there must be mysterious elements in HisPerson. The old Socinians, to subvert the doctrine of thepre-existence of Christ, seized upon this passage as teaching thatthe man Jesus was secretly caught up to heaven to receive Hisinstructions, and then “came down from heaven” to deliverthem. But the sense manifestly is this: “The perfect knowledgeof God is not obtained by any man’s going up from earth to heaven toreceive itno man hath so ascendedbut He whose properhabitation, in His essential and eternal nature, is heaven, hath,by taking human flesh, descended as the Son of man to disclose theFather, whom He knows by immediate gaze alike in the flesh as beforeHe assumed it, being essentially and unchangeably ‘in the bosom ofthe Father'” (Joh 1:18).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And no man hath ascended into heaven,…. Though Enoch and Elias had, yet not by their own power, nor in the sense our Lord designs; whose meaning is, that no man had, or could go up to heaven, to bring from thence the knowledge of divine and heavenly things; in which sense the phrase is used in De 30:12, and which may be illustrated by Joh 1:18; wherefore inasmuch as Nicodemus had acknowledged Christ to he a teacher come from God, our Lord, would have him know, that he was the only teacher of heavenly things, as being the only person that had been in heaven, and in the bosom of the Father; and therefore, if he, and the rest of the Jews, did not receive instructions from him, they must for ever remain ignorant; for there never had been, nor was, nor could be, any mere man that could go up to heaven, and learn the mysteries of God, and of the kingdom of heaven, and return and instruct men in them:
but he that came down from heaven; meaning himself, who is the Lord from heaven, and came from thence to do the will of God by preaching the Gospel, working miracles, obeying the law, and suffering death in the room of his people, and thereby obtaining eternal redemption for them. Not that he brought down from heaven with him, either the whole of his human nature, or a part of it; either an human soul, or an human body; nor did he descend locally, by change of place, he being God omnipresent, infinite and immense, but by assumption of the human nature into union with his divine person:
[even] the son of man which is in heaven; at the same time he was then on earth: not that he was in heaven in his human nature, and as he was the son of man; but in his divine nature, as he was the Son of God; see Joh 1:18; though this is predicated of his person, as denominated from the human nature, which was proper to him only in his divine nature; for such is omnipresence, or to be in heaven and earth at the same time: just as on the other hand God is said to purchase the church with his blood, and the Lord of glory is said to be crucified, Ac 20:28, where those things are spoken of Christ, as denominated from his divine nature, which were proper only to his human nature; and is what divines call a communication of idioms or properties; and which will serve as a key to open all such passages of Scripture: and now as a proof of our Lord’s having been in heaven, and of his being a teacher come from God, and such an one as never was, or can be, he opens and explains a type respecting himself, in the following verse.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
But he that descended out of heaven ( ). The Incarnation of the Pre-existent Son of God who was in heaven before he came down and so knows what he is telling about “the heavenly things.” There is no allusion to the Ascension which came later. This high conception of Christ runs all through the Gospel and is often in Christ’s own words as here.
Which is in heaven ( ). This phrase is added by some manuscripts, not by Aleph B L W 33, and, if genuine, would merely emphasize the timeless existence of God’s Son who is in heaven even while on earth. Probably a gloss. But “the Son of man” is genuine. He is the one who has come down out of heaven.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
And [] . Note the simple connective particle, with nothing to indicate the logical sequence of the thought.
Hath ascended. Equivalent to hath been in. Jesus says that no one has been in heaven except the Son of man who came down out of heaven; because no man could be in heaven without having ascended thither.
Which is in heaven. Many authorities omit.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And no man hath ascended up to heaven,” (kai oudeis anabebeken eis ton ouranon) “And no one has gone up into the((upper) heaven, “to see and comprehend heavenly things, in a full way. Even on earth, it is not easy for people in torrid zones to understand what is at the north pole, Isa 55:8-9.
2) “But he that cometh down from heaven,” (ei me ek tou ouranou katabas) “Except the one who came down out of and away from that heaven,” to tell and reveal to men what we could not otherwise know of God and heaven, Joh 1:18; Joh 14:9; Heb 1:1-3.
3) “Even the Son of man which is in heaven.” (ho huios tou anthropou) “That one is the Son of man,” the redeeming Messiah, the heir-redeemer of man, who is now in heaven, at the Father’s right hand, Eph 4:9-10; Joh 14:1-3; Eph 1:20-21; Heb 1:3.
THE POWER OF MANY THINGS KNOWN BY
EFFECTS ONLY
Of how many things is it true that their power is only seen in the effects they produce? “Can we see the dew of heaven as it falls on the summer’s evening? But go forth next morning, and you behold every plant sparkling with the dewdrop. Can you see the head of the sower when you go forth in the fields in July and August? No, but yet you do not suppose the harvest came spontaneously; you are consciously, by the fact produced, that the sower’s hand has been there. Or, can you see the magnetic fluid on the needle of the compass? No, but you know it is there, for the hands move steadily on. That the Spirit should dwell in the temple, and His light not shine through the windows of daily life and duty, is an impossibility.”
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
13. No one hath ascended to heaven. He again exhorts Nicodemus not to trust to himself and his own sagacity, because no mortal man can, by his own unaided powers, enter into heaven, but only he who goes thither under the guidance of the Son of God. For to ascend to heaven means here, “to have a pure knowledge of the mysteries of God, and the light of spiritual understanding.” For Christ gives here the same instruction which is given by Paul, when he declares that
the sensual man does not comprehend the things which are of God, (1Co 2:16😉
and, therefore, he excludes from divine things all the acuteness of the human understanding, for it is far below God.
But we must attend to the words, that Christ alone, who is heavenly, ascends to heaven, but that the entrance is closed against all others. For, in the former clause, he humbles us, when he excludes the whole world from heaven. Paul enjoins
those who are desirous to be wise with God to be fools with themselves, (1Co 3:18.)
There is nothing which we do with greater reluctance. For this purpose we ought to remember, that all our senses fail and give way when we come to God; but, after having shut us out from heaven, Christ quickly proposes a remedy, when he adds, that what was denied to all others is granted to the Son of God. And this too is the reason why he calls himself the Son of man, that we may not doubt that we have an entrance into heaven in common with him who clothed himself with our flesh, that he might make us partakers of all blessings. Since, therefore, he is the Father’s only Counselor, (Isa 9:6,) he admits us into those secrets which otherwise would have remained in concealment.
Who is in heaven. It may be thought absurd to say that he is in heaven, while he still dwells on the earth. If it be replied, that this is true in regard to his Divine nature, the mode of expression means something else, namely, that while he was man, he was in heaven. It might be said that no mention is here made of any place, but that Christ is only distinguished from others, in regard to his condition, because he is the heir of the kingdom of God, from which the whole human race is banished; but, as it very frequently happens, on account of the unity of the Person of Christ, that what properly belongs to one nature is applied to another, we ought not to seek any other solution. Christ, therefore, who is in heaven, hath clothed himself with our flesh, that, by stretching out his brotherly hand to us, he may raise us to heaven along with him.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(13) And no man hath ascended up.There can be no other means of receiving heavenly truth. No man hath learnt it, and is able to teach it, except the Son of Man, who ever was, and is, in heaven. The thought has met us before (Joh. 1:18). To Nicodemus it must have come as an answer to the words of Agur, which had passed into a proverb to express the vanity of human effort to know God. Who hath ascended up into heaven or descended?. . . . What is his name, and what is his sons name, if thou canst tell? (Pro. 30:4). No man had so passed to heaven and returned again to earth; but there was One then speaking with him who had been in heaven with God, and could tell him its eternal truths. He had that knowledge which a man could obtain only by ascending to heaven, and He came down from heaven with it. From the human point of view He was as one who had already ascended and descended. (Comp. Note on Joh. 1:51.) This is the evident meaning of the sentence, and the form is quite consistent with it. To explain the perfect tense of the future ascension, or to introduce the idea of the hypostatic union, by virtue of which the human nature may be said to have ascended into heaven with the divine, is, to give an explanation, not of the text, but of a misunderstanding of it. (But comp. Joh. 6:62.)
Which is in heaven.These words are omitted in some MSS., including the Sinaitic and the Vatican. The judgment of most modern editors (not including Westcott and Hort) retains them. It is an instance where it is hard to account for the insertion by a copyist, but where the omission is not unlikely, owing to their seeming difficulty. And yet the difficulty is one which vanishes before the true idea of heaven. If heaven is thought of as a place infinitely distant beyond clouds and sky, or as a time in the far future when this worlds life shall end, then it is indeed hard to understand what is here meant by the Son of Man which is in heaven; and a copyist may well have found in omission the easiest solution of the difficulty. But if heaven is something wholly different from this coldness of distance in space or time; if it is a state, a life, in which we are, which is in usnow in part, hereafter in its fulnessthen may we understand and with glad hearts hold to the vital truth that the Son of Man, who came down from heaven, was ever in heaven; and that every son of man who is born of water and of the Spirit is made a member of Christ, a child of God, and an inheritor (in the present, ) of the kingdom of heaven.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
13. Ascended came down. After the words ascended up to heaven, there is implied the clause, and so no man is able to testify. The words do not mean that the Son of man had then ascended. They deny that any man had. And so the Son of man, which came down from heaven, is the sole authoritative testifier. He alone is the sure witness.
Which is in heaven The Son of man needed not to ascend; for though on earth he is ever in heaven. See note on John 2:51. The person of the Son of man is again a Jacob’s ladder; though its feet are on earth its head is in heaven. The angels of God, that is, the revelations of God’s truth, can thus descend. And they descend with the absolute certainty of truth, because it is a living ladder, and its head has eyes that see things in heaven just as they are. The incarnate Son of man is the conductor from heaven to earth of all those divine facts and truths which the eternal Logos hath seen and known, and evermore will see and know, in his infallible unity with God. Now Nicodemus has first admitted, on the faith of miracles, that Jesus is sent from God; he is bound then to credit his declaration of his insight of heaven, and accept the highest mysteries, even of regeneration, etc.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“And no man has ascended into Heaven, but he who descended out of Heaven, even the Son of Man who is in Heaven.”
In Pro 30:4 the question is asked, “Who has ascended up into heaven and descended?” and the expected answer is ‘nobody’. For as Jesus brings out here, the only One Who can ascend into Heaven is One Who has first descended. Only such a one can ascend to control the ‘ruach’ (Spirit, wind) and the rain (Pro 30:4). Thus the ‘ascending’ refers to Jesus exercising His power over things above. Jesus will later stress that He cannot work without the Father being present with Him. But the writer may well also wish us to gain the hint of His final ascension.
What are the ‘heavenly things’ of Joh 3:11? Firstly that Jesus has come from His glory in Heaven and has been made man. Secondly that He is the Son of man who has access to Heaven and Heaven’s secrets (compare Mat 11:25-27). And thirdly that He alone is able to enter Heaven (compare Joh 6:62) as the glorious Son of Man to receive the kingdom and the power and the glory (Dan 7:13), for ‘no one has ascended up into heaven except He Who descended from heaven, even the Son of Man’.
Jesus has already declared Himself to be the Son of Man (Joh 1:51), and now He links the title with the heavenly Son of Man (Dan 7:13), as He does also in the other Gospels. He Himself is the One Who has come down from heaven, and maintains contact with Heaven (compare Joh 1:51) and can therefore finally return to His heavenly home in triumph as the glorious Son of Man.
‘Who is in Heaven’. This is omitted in many manuscripts, and although it is fairly strongly evidenced the weight of evidence must be seen as against it (p66, Aleph, B, L, W omit it. A Theta f1 f13 include it). However, the idea behind it, that Jesus has access to Heaven’s secrets is unquestionable (Mat 11:25-27).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Joh 3:13 . “And no other than I can reveal to you heavenly things.” This is what Jesus means, if we rightly take His words, not an assertion of His divinity as the first of the heavenly things (Hengstenberg), which would make the negative form of expression quite inexplicable. Comp. Joh 1:18 , Joh 6:46 .
The is simply continuative in its force, not antithetic (Knapp, Olshausen), nor furnishing a basis , or explanatory of the motive (Beza, Tholuck; Lcke, Lange).
, . . .] which, on account of the perfect tense, obviously cannot refer to the actual ascension of Christ [158] (against Augustine, Beda, Theophylact, Rupertus, Calovius, Bengel, etc.); nor does it give any support to the unscriptural raptus in coelum of the Socinians (see Oeder ad Catech. Racov . p. 348 ff.); nor is it to be explained by the unio hypostatica of Christ’s human nature with the divine , by virtue of which the former may be said to have entered into heaven (Calovius, Maldonatus, Steinfass, and others). It is usually understood in a figurative sense, as meaning a spiritual elevation of the soul to God in order to knowledge of divine things, a coming to the perception of divine mysteries, which thus were brought down, as it were, by Christ from heaven (see of late especially Beyschlag); to support which, reference is made to Deu 30:12 , Pro 30:4 , Bar 3:29 , Rom 10:6-7 . But this is incorrect, because Christ brought along with Him out of His pre-existent state His immediate knowledge of divine things (Joh 3:11 ; Joh 1:18 ; Joh 8:26 , al .), and possesses it in uninterrupted fellowship with the Father; consequently the figurative method of representation, that during His earthly life He brought down this knowledge through having been raised up into heaven, would be inappropriate and strange. . . also must be taken literally, of an actual descent; and there is therefore nothing in the context to warrant our taking . . . symbolically . Hengstenberg rightly renders the words literally, but at the end of the verse he would complete the sense by adding, “ who will ascend up into heaven .” This in itself is arbitrary, and not at all what we should look for in John; it is not in keeping with the connection, and would certainly not have been understood as a matter of course by a person like Nicodemus, though it were the point of the declaration: consequently it could not fitly be suppressed, and least of all as a saying concerning the future . Godet does not get beyond the explanation of essential communion with God on the part of Jesus from the time of His birth . The only rendering true to the words is simply this: Instead of saying, “No one has been in heaven except,” etc., Jesus says, as this could only have happened to any other by his ascending thither, “No one has ascended into heaven except,” etc.; and thus the refers to an actual existence in heaven, which is implied in the . And thus Jansenius rightly renders: Nullus hominum in coelo fuit, quod ascendendo fieri solet, ut ibi coelestia contemplaretur, nisi, etc.; and of late Fritzsche the elder in his Novis opusc . p. 230; and now also Tholuck, and likewise Holtzmann in Hilgenfield’s Zeitschr . 1865, p. 222.
. ] which took place by means of the incarnation . These words, like . ., are argumentative , for they necessarily imply the fact of existence in heaven; but , which must be taken as an attributive definition of . ., and not as belonging to , and therefore taking the article, cannot be equivalent to (Luthardt; Hofmman, I. 134; Weiss, etc.), as if , or the like were there, but is equivalent to , whose existence is in heaven , who has there His proper abode, His home. [159]
.] Messianic designation which Christ applies to Himself, in harmony with the fulfilment of the prophetic representation in Dan 7:13 , which began with the (comp. on Joh 1:51 ). Nicodemus could understand this only by means of a fuller development of faith and knowledge.
[158] So also Weizscker, who assumes that we have here an experience belonging to the apostolic age, carried back and placed in the mouth of Christ. An anachronism which would amount to literary carelessness.
[159] Nonnus: . Joh 9:25 is similar: : blind from one’s birth. Schleie macher refers the coming down from heaven to the conception of His mission , and the being in heaven to the continuity of His God-consciousness . See e.g . his Leben Jesu , p. 287 ff.
Note .
According to Beyschlag, p. 99 ff., this verse is utterly opposed to the derivation of Christ’s higher knowledge from the recollection of a pre-existent life in heaven. But we must bear in mind, (1) that the notion of an ascent to God to attain a knowledge of His mysteries (which Beyschlag considers the only right explanation) never occurs in the N. T. with reference to Jesus a circumstance which would surprise us, especially in John, if it had been declared by Jesus Himself. But it was not declared by Him, because He has it not, but knows His knowledge to be the gift of His Father which accompanied Him in His mission (Joh 10:36 ). (2) He could not have claimed such an ascent to heaven for Himself alone , for a like ascent, though not in equal degree, must belong to other men of God. He must, therefore, at least have expressed Himself comparatively: . . . , . . . Even the church now sings:
“Rise, rise, my soul, and stretch Thy wings
Towards heaven, Thy native place.”
But something distinct and more than this was the case with Christ, viz. as to the past, that He had His existence in heaven, and had come down therefrom; and as to His earthly presence, that He is in heaven.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.
Ver. 13. And no man hath ascended, &c. ] Objection. Therefore all but Christ are shut out of heaven. Solution. The Church and Jesus make but one Christ, caput et corpus unus Christus, 1Co 12:12 . He counts not himself full without his members, who are called the “fulness of him that filleth all,”Eph 1:23Eph 1:23 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
13. ] The whole verse seems to have intimate connexion with and reference to Pro 30:4 ; and as spoken to a learned doctor of the law, would recall that verse, especially as the further question is there asked, ‘Who hath gathered the wind in His fists?’ ( ), and ‘What is His name, and what His Son’s name?’ See also Deu 30:12 , and the citation, Rom 10:6-8 .
All attempts to explain away the plain sense of this verse are futile and ridiculous. The Son of Man, the Lord Jesus, the Word made Flesh, was in, came down from , heaven, and was in heaven (heaven about Him, heaven dwelling on earth, ch. Joh 1:51 ), while here , and ascended up into heaven when He left this earth; and by all these proofs, speaking in the prophetic language of accomplished Redemption, does the Lord establish, that He alone can speak of to men, or convey the blessing of the new birth to them. Be it remembered, that He is here speaking proleptically , of results of His course and sufferings on earth, of the way of regeneration and salvation which God has appointed by Him. He regards therefore throughout the passage, the great facts of redemption as accomplished , and makes announcements which could not be literally acted upon till they had been so accomplished. See Joh 3:14 ff., whose sense will be altogether lost, unless this be understood of His exaltation to be a Prince and a Saviour.
. ] See ch. Joh 1:18 and note. Doubtless the meaning involves ‘ whose place is in heaven; ’ but it also asserts the being in heaven of the time then present: see ch. Joh 1:51 . Stier (iv. 68, edn. 2) speaks well of the majestic , by which the Lord characterizes His whole life in the flesh between the and the . As uniting in Himself God, whose dwelling is heaven, with man whose dwelling is on earth, He ever was in heaven. And nearly connected with this fact is the transition to His being the fountain of eternal life, in Joh 3:14 ff.: cf. 1Co 15:47-50 , where the same connexion is strikingly set forth.
To explain such expressions as . ., &c., as mere Hebrew metaphors (Lcke, De Wette, &c.) is no more than saying that Hebrew metaphors were founded on deep insight into divine truth: these words in fact express the truths on which Hebrew metaphors were constructed . Socinus is quite right, when he says that those who take . . . metaphorically, must in all consistency take . . metaphorically also; “qualis descensus, talis etiam ascensus.”
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Joh 3:13 . . The connection is: You have not believed earthly things, much less will you believe those which are heavenly; for not only are they in their own nature more difficult to understand, but there is none to testify of them save only that One who came down out of heaven. The sentence may be paraphrased thus: No one has gone up to heaven and by dwelling there gained a knowledge of the heavenly things: One only has dwelt there and is able to communicate that knowledge He, viz. , who has come down from heaven. “Presence in heaven” is considered to be the ground and qualification for communicating trustworthy information regarding “heavenly things”. Direct knowledge and personal experience of heavenly things alone justify authoritative declarations about them; as in earthly things one may expect to be believed if he can say, “we speak that we do know and testify that we have seen”. But this “presence in heaven” Jesus declares to be the qualification exclusively of one person. This person He describes as “He that came down out of heaven,” adding as a further description “the Son of Man” [who is in heaven]. This description identifies this person as Jesus Himself. He claims therefore to have a unique qualification for the declaration of truth about heavenly things, and this qualification consists in this, that He and He alone has had direct perception of heavenly things. He has been in heaven. By “heaven” it is not a locality that is indicated, but that condition which is described in the prologue as . And when He speaks of coming down out of heaven He can only mean manifesting Himself to those who are on that lower level from which they had not been able to ascend to the knowledge of heavenly things. In short, we have here the basis in Christ’s own words of the statement in the prologue that the Word was in the beginning with God, and became flesh to be a light to men. Why is introduced? It identifies the person spoken of, and it suggests that He who alone had the knowledge of heavenly things now wore human nature, was accessible, and was there for the purpose of communicating this knowledge. The words added in the T.R., , affirm that although He had come out of heaven He was still in it, and they show that a condition of being, not a locality, was meant by “heaven”.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
And, &c. The kai (= And) here is a Hebraism, and does not mark the actual transition. There is nothing whatever in the context to show where the Paragraph breaks should be in this chapter; either in the MSS., or in the Versions. The Authorized Version varies in its different editions. The Authorized Version text in the Revised Version Parallel Bible has a at Joh 3:14 and Joh 3:16. The Camb. Paragraph Bible (Dr. Scrivener) has no break either at verses: Joh 3:3, Joh 3:14 or 16. The Revised Version has a break only at Joh 3:16, with WI and Scrivener’s Greek Text. The Companion Bible makes the important break at Joh 3:13, (1) because the Past Tenses which follow indicate completed events; (2) because the expression “only begotten Son “is not used b y the Lord of Himself; but only by the Evangelist (Joh 1:14, Joh 1:18; Joh 3:16, Joh 3:18; 1Jn 4:9); (3) because “in the name of” (Joh 3:18) is not used by the Lord, but by the Evangelist (Joh 1:12; Joh 2:23. 1Jn 5:13); (4) because to do the truth (Joh 3:21) Occurs elsewhere only in 1Jn 1:6; (5) because “Who is in heaven “(Joh 3:13) points to the fact that the Lord had already ascended at the time John wrote; (6) because the word “lifted up” refers both to the “sufferings ‘ (Joh 3:14; Joh 8:28; Joh 12:32, Joh 12:34) and to “the glory which should follow” (Joh 8:28; Joh 12:32. Act 2:33; Act 5:31); and (7) because the break at Joh 3:13 accords best with the context, as shown by the Structure B, above.
hath ascended = hath gone up (of himself). It does not say: “hath been taken up by God, “as Enoch and Elijah. But Christ had “gone up” when the Evangelist wrote these words. ascended. Greek. anabaino. As in Joh 1:51, Joh 2:13; Joh 5:1; Joh 7:8, &c. Mat 20:17. Mar 6:51. Rom 10:6.
to = into. Greek. eis. App-104. Compare Deu 30:12. Pro 30:4. Act 2:34. Rom 10:6. Eph 4:10.
heaven = the heaven. See note on Mat 6:9, Mat 6:10.
but = except, literal. if not. Greek. ei me.
came down. Greek katabaino. The opposite of “gone up”.
from = out of. Greek. ek. App-104. Not the same word as in Joh 3:2.
the Son of Man. See App-98.
Which is, &c = Who is, &c., and was there when John wrote. This clause is in the Syriac, but is omitted by WI, and put by Revised Version in the margin. Omit “even”.
in. Greek. en. App-104.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
13.] The whole verse seems to have intimate connexion with and reference to Pro 30:4; and as spoken to a learned doctor of the law, would recall that verse,-especially as the further question is there asked, Who hath gathered the wind in His fists? ( ), and What is His name, and what His Sons name? See also Deu 30:12, and the citation, Rom 10:6-8.
All attempts to explain away the plain sense of this verse are futile and ridiculous. The Son of Man, the Lord Jesus, the Word made Flesh, was in, came down from, heaven,-and was in heaven (heaven about Him, heaven dwelling on earth, ch. Joh 1:51), while here, and ascended up into heaven when He left this earth;-and by all these proofs, speaking in the prophetic language of accomplished Redemption, does the Lord establish, that He alone can speak of to men, or convey the blessing of the new birth to them. Be it remembered, that He is here speaking proleptically, of results of His course and sufferings on earth,-of the way of regeneration and salvation which God has appointed by Him. He regards therefore throughout the passage, the great facts of redemption as accomplished, and makes announcements which could not be literally acted upon till they had been so accomplished. See Joh 3:14 ff., whose sense will be altogether lost, unless this be understood of His exaltation to be a Prince and a Saviour.
.] See ch. Joh 1:18 and note. Doubtless the meaning involves whose place is in heaven; but it also asserts the being in heaven of the time then present: see ch. Joh 1:51. Stier (iv. 68, edn. 2) speaks well of the majestic , by which the Lord characterizes His whole life in the flesh between the and the . As uniting in Himself God, whose dwelling is heaven, with man whose dwelling is on earth, He ever was in heaven. And nearly connected with this fact is the transition to His being the fountain of eternal life, in Joh 3:14 ff.: cf. 1Co 15:47-50, where the same connexion is strikingly set forth.
To explain such expressions as . ., &c., as mere Hebrew metaphors (Lcke, De Wette, &c.) is no more than saying that Hebrew metaphors were founded on deep insight into divine truth:-these words in fact express the truths on which Hebrew metaphors were constructed. Socinus is quite right, when he says that those who take . . . metaphorically, must in all consistency take . . metaphorically also; qualis descensus, talis etiam ascensus.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Joh 3:13. And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that come down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.
We are in the stairway now between heaven and earth; Christ has came down; Christ has gone up, and yet he was always there; a mystery, but one that is true, and new. Today we can go up by thought and prayer, and blessings can come down; and Christ is always there. He is at the Fathers side, the Man of Love, the Crucified.
Joh 3:14-15. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
What a glorious word! Here is the gospel in a verse, the whole Bible in a line or two. If we believe in him this morning, we have eternal life; not merely life, but life similar to the very life of God himself eternal life. We have in us that which will outlast the world, the sun, the moon, and the stars; we have a life which, being like the life of God, we shall live for ever and ever.
Joh 3:16-17. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
Condemnation does come to the world through Christ, because the world rejects him; but that was no part of Gods design in sending him. His design is salvation salvation only. Oh! that we might so believe as to answer to the divine purpose in the sending of his Son. He that believeth on him is not condemned, not even now, notwithstanding every sin he has committed, he is not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God. Unbelieving is the condemning sin; it seals upon us the condemnation of every other sin. If thou dost not believe in Christ this morning, my hearer, thou art not in a state of probation, thou art condemned already; he that believes on him is not in a state of probation, he is not condemned, he is already acquitted, he is at this moment free from condemnation before the judgment-seat of God.
Joh 3:19-21. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
You see why men do not come to Christ; they do not want to give up their sin; they do not want to be made uneasy in it; they are afraid of being reproved. You see why saintly men do come to Christ, for they take a delight in beholding him, and in having their faith and their grace made manifest, both to themselves and to onlookers.
Joh 3:22-24. After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judaea: and there he tarried with them, and baptized. And John also was baptizing in Aenon near to Salim, because there was much water there: and they came, and were baptized. For John was not yet cast into prison.
So he was busy until he was cast into prison. He would not waste an hour while he had an opportunity of doing good; he did it with all his heart. John! are you here in this sanctuary at this moment, not yet laid up, not yet obliged to keep your bed? Work while you can then; spend every moment in your Masters service.
Joh 3:25. Then there arose a question between some of Johns disciples and the Jews about purifying.
Is it not a come-down from reading about looking to Christ and loving, to a contention about purifying? There always are in the Church more or less idle quarrels about the dress of the preacher, about the mode of administering sacraments, and so on a discussion about purifying.
Joh 3:26. And they came unto John, and said unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou barest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come to him.
They are leaving you. They felt an envy on behalf of John, because his influence appeared to be declining. John was quite a stranger to this feeling; he loved to see his Master grow, even at the cost of his own effacing.
Joh 3:27. John answered and said, A man can receive nothing except it be given Him from heaven.
No spiritual power, no power to bless his fellow-men, except it come from God. Shall I quarrel with God, therefore, if he gives to this man more power than he gives to me? Shall I dispute about it? It is Gods sovereign will, and he does as he pleases.
Joh 3:28-29. Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him. He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegrooms voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled.
They were vexed, but John was joyful; he loved to hear of Jesus prospering.
Joh 3:30. He must increase, but I must decrease.
So he did. This is Johns one song, last of his utterances almost. He preaches no more sermons that are recorded; he must now go to prison, and there lie in a silence which he could scarcely bear. It was very hard for John to be quiet; he had an active, noble mind, and he became the victim, we fear, of doubts when he was shut up in prison. The breezy air of the wilderness suited him much better than the dull, heavy atmosphere of a prison. I daresay some of you may feel this at this time; do not set it down to spiritual results, to spiritual causes; set it down to the atmosphere, for so it is. We feel dull and heavy often, but heaviest when the heart is in a heavy air; every wind that rises blows away despair. So we must not think too much of our feelings, which even the wind can change.
Joh 3:31. He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: he that cometh from heaven is above all.
However good a man may be, he is earthly; there is flesh and blood about him, akin to the earth; and even if he handles heavenly things, the earthiness of the preacher peeps out every now and then. Christ had nothing of that about him; he was above all.
Joh 3:32. And what he hath seen and heard, that he testifieth; and no man receiveth his testimony.
Sad note! The news that all men went to Christ pleased John, but the fact that none received his testimony, comparatively none, grieved his heart.
Joh 3:33-34. He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true. For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.
There is an infinite spiritual power about the words of Christ; they are the words of God, and the Holy Spirit concentrates all his energy in those words.
Joh 3:35-36. The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
So Johns last words are thunder; his dying speech has in it the word most terrible to all of you who believe not in Christ, The wrath of God abideth on him.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Joh 3:13. ) And; you will see this is properly set down, if you change the interrogation at Joh 3:12, with some little times reflection, into an absolute [categorical] form of expression. In the preceding and present verse we are marked [characterized] as of ourselves aliens to heaven. Without reposing faith in My words and in Myself, saith Jesus, ye cannot understand or attain to heavenly things. The antecedent is put for the consequent. Similarly , and, is used ch. Joh 12:35, Lest darkness come upon you; for he that walketh, etc. [ . The conjunction for the relative, in which darkness he who walketh].-) no man sprung on the earth. Angels evidently are not excluded: ch. Joh 1:51. Believers do not ascend, but are drawn by the Ascending [Saviour] after Himself, whom they have put on in their baptism. [Hence appears the indispensable need of faith.-V. g.]- , to heaven) He most especially speaks of the heaven of the Divine majesty.- , unless) Here, having changed the past time of the verb , hath ascended, into the future, understand , shall ascend: comp. ch. Joh 6:62, What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where He was before? Nowhere before His passion has the Lord spoken more clearly concerning His ascension, than in this passage, and in its parallel, ch. Joh 6:62; where similarly He adduces His ascension, as something much more difficult to be believed than those things were, which were then seeming so incredible to His hearers. On the whole, the two discourses, ch. 3 and 6, have a great similarity to one another; and the one treats of the rise, the other of the nourishment of the new life, [each alike] breathing altogether of heavenly things. The objection made to the Saviour is as to the how, . He [on the other hand] insists on the whence, and the whither [quorsum, whitherwards the new birth tends].- , He who descends from heaven) The Son of man, having assumed human nature, whereas He had previously been in heaven as the Son of God, began to be on earth. Therefore That One, saith Jesus of Himself, can of Himself ascend, and will ascend to heaven. Pro 30:4, Who hath ascended up to heaven, or descended?-What is His name, and what is His Sons name?- ) who was in heaven, and, before the creation of the heavens, [was] with God: ch. Joh 1:1, notes. Thus, we may see, He both descended and will ascend. Comp. evidently , was, ch. Joh 6:62, Where He was before: so , who was [in the bosom of the Father: not which is, Engl. Vers.], ch. Joh 1:18. Frequently is used of the imperfect time: ch. Joh 9:25, Whereas I was blind, , Joh 19:38, Being a disciple [i.e. who was a disciple]; Luk 24:44, I spake whilst I was yet with you, ; 2Co 8:9, Though He was rich,-He became, etc., . So in this passage is interpreted by Raphelius in his Appendix annot. from Herodotus, p. 682. Nor is he alone in this interpretation.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Joh 3:13
Joh 3:13
And no one hath ascended into heaven, but he that descended out of heaven, even the Son of man, who is in heaven.-No one else than Jesus who came down from heaven is competent to teach these things. He calls himself the Son of man, leaving his works to declare him to be the Son of God. His home or citizenship is in heaven. This was written after his ascension.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Son of man
(See Scofield “Mat 8:20”)
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
no man: Joh 1:18, Joh 6:46, Deu 30:12, Pro 30:4, Act 2:34, Rom 10:6, Eph 4:9
but: Joh 6:33, Joh 6:38, Joh 6:51, Joh 6:62, Joh 8:42, Joh 13:3, Joh 16:28-30, Joh 17:5, 1Co 15:47
even: Joh 1:18, Mat 28:20, Mar 16:19, Mar 16:20, Act 20:28, Eph 1:23, Eph 4:10
Reciprocal: Gen 11:5 – General Exo 3:8 – I am Exo 19:11 – the Lord Num 11:17 – I will come 2Ki 2:12 – he saw him Son 8:1 – find thee Isa 45:22 – Look Eze 2:1 – Son Dan 7:13 – one like Luk 5:24 – that the Joh 1:51 – the Son Joh 3:11 – We speak Joh 3:12 – heavenly Joh 3:31 – that cometh Joh 6:50 – the bread Joh 8:23 – Ye are from Joh 16:27 – and have Act 7:34 – and am 1Jo 1:2 – which was
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
3
The thought in this verse is that the Son of man had previously been in Heaven, and hence was in a position to speak on heavenly subjects, such as the new birth. This passage closed up the discussion on the subject of the new birth into the kingdom of God that Jesus was about to set up on the earth.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Joh 3:13. And no one hath ascended up into heaven, but he that came down out of heaven, the Son of man. The connection is this: How will ye believe if I tell you the heavenly things? And it is from me alone that ye .can learn them. No one can tell the heavenly things unless he has been in heaven, and no one has been in heaven and come down to earth save myself. Repeatedly does our Lord in this Gospel speak of His coming down out of heaven (Joh 6:33; Joh 6:38, etc.), using the very word that we meet with here; and hence it is impossible to give the phrase a merely figurative sense. He came forth from the Father, and came into the world (Joh 16:28), that He might declare the Father (chap. Joh 1:18) and speak unto the world what He had heard from Him (chap. Joh 8:26). But this requires that we take the other verb hath ascended up in its literal sense, and then the words seem to imply that Jesus had already ascended into heaven. Hath ascended up cannot refer to His future ascension; and there is no foundation for the view held by some, that within the limits of His ministry on earth He was ever literally taken up into heaven. What, then, is the meaning? There are several passages in which the words save or except present the same difficulty. One of the most familiar is Luk 4:27, where it seems at first strange to read, Many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed saving Naaman the Syrian,no leper of Israel cleansed except a leper who was not of Israel! The mind is so fixed on the lepers and their cleansing, that the other words of them are not carried on in thought to the last clause: none of them was cleansed,indeed, no leper was cleansed save Naaman the Syrian. So also in the preceding verse (Luk 4:26). In other passages (such as Gal 2:16; Rev 21:27) the same peculiarity exists, but it is not apparent in the Authorised Version. The verse before us is exactly similar. The special thought is not the having gone up into heaven, but the having been in heaven. This was the qualification for revealing the truths which are here spoken of as heavenly things. But none (none, that is, of the sons of men; for this is a general maxim, the exception is not brought in till afterwards) could be in heaven without ascending from earth to heaven. No one has gone up into heaven, and by thus being in heaven obtained the knowledge of heavenly things; and, indeed, no one has been in heaven save He that came down out of heaven, the Son of man. Observe how insensibly our Lord has passed into the revelation of the heavenly things themselves. He could not speak of His power to reveal without speaking of that which is first and chief of all the heavenly things, viz. that He Himself came down out of heaven to be the Son of man (on the name Son of man see chap. Joh 1:51). The reference to our Lords humanity is here strikingly in place. He came down from heaven and became the Son of man to reveal these heavenly truths and (Joh 3:14-15) to give the heavenly blessings unto man.
The weight of evidence compels us to believe that the concluding words of this verse, as it stands in the Authorised Version, were not written by John. We can only suppose that they were a very early comment on, or addition to, the text, first written in the margin, then by mistake joined to the text. Were they genuine, they would probably refer to the abiding presence of the Son with the Father; but in such a sense it is very improbable that Son of man would have been the name chosen. At all events, we have no other example of the same kind.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Here our Saviour declares to Nicodemus, That none ever ascended up into heaven, to fetch down from thence the knowledge of divine mysteries, and to reveal the way of life and salvation to mankind by a Mediator, but only Christ himself; who, though he took upon him the human nature, and was then man upon earth yet was he at the same time in his divine nature actually in heaven as God. This text evidently proves two distinct natures in Christ; namely, a divine nature as he was God, and an human nature as man. In his human nature, he was then upon earth, when he spake these words; in his divine nature, he was at that instant in heaven.
Here observe, That the Son of God hath taken the human nature, into so close and intimate a union with his God-head, and what is proper to either nature is ascribed unto the person of our Saviour. The same person who was on earth as the Son of man, who was then in heaven as God, and yet but one person still.
Lord! what love hast thou shown to our human nature, that under that name thou ascribest to thyself what is proper to thy Godhead!
The Son of man which is in heaven. The Socinians produce this text, to prove that Christ after his baptism was taken up into heaven, there to be made acquainted with the will of God, to fit him for the execution of his prophetical office here on earth, and that for this reason he was said to be in the beginning with God, as Moses before him was taken up into the mount, and taught by God.
But, 1. We have not the least word of any such thing in Scripture, though we have a particular account of our Saviour’s birth, circumcision, baptism, doctrine, miracles, death resurrection, ascension, yea, of small things compared with this; as his flight into Egypt, his sitting on a pinnacle of the temple; yet not a word of his assumption into heaven.
2. There was no need of it, because Almighty God could reveal himself to Christ, as well as to other prophets, out of heaven as well as in it: besides, Christ was fitted for his prophetic office by the unction of the spirit he received here on earth; and therefore this ascent was altogether needless.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Ver. 13. And no one hath ascended up to heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven.
The question, how will you believe? (Joh 3:12) implied, in the thought of Him who proposed it, the necessity of faith. Joh 3:13 justifies this necessity. The intermediate idea is the following: Indeed, without faith in my testimony, there is no access for you to those heavenly things which thou desirest to know. : and yet. Olshausen, de Wette, Lucke, Luthardt and Meyer find in Joh 3:13 the proof, not of the necessity of faith in the revelation contained in the teaching of Jesus, but of that in revelation in general. But this thesis is too purely theoretical to find a place in such a conversation. Hengstenberg thinks that Jesus here wishes to reveal His divinityas the first among the heavenly things which Nicodemus has need to know. Meyer rightly answers that the negative form of the proposition is inconsistent with this intention. Besides, Jesus would have employed, in that case, the expression Son of God, rather than Son of man.
The general meaning of this saying is as follows: You do not believe my word…And yet no one has ascended to heaven so as to behold the heavenly things and make them known to you, except He who has descended from it to live with you as a man, and who, even while living here below, abides there also; so that He alone knows them de visu, and so that, consequently, to believe in His teaching is for you the only means of knowing them. But how can Jesus say of Himself that He ascended to heaven? Did He speak of His ascension by way of anticipation (Augustine, Calvin, Bengel, Hengstenberg)? But His future ascension would not justify the necessity of faith in His earthly teaching. Lucke, Olshausen, Beyschlag, after the example of Erasmus, Beza, etc., think that heaven is here only the symbol of perfect communion with Goda communion to which Jesus had morally risen, and by virtue of which He alone possessed the adequate knowledge of God and of the things above. This sense would be admissible if the word ascended had not as its antithesis the term descended, which refers to a positive fact, that of the incarnation; the corresponding term ascend must, therefore, refer to a fact no less positive, or rathersince the verb is in the perfect and not the aoristto a state resulting from a fact quite as positive. Meyer and Weiss, following Jansen, think that the idea of ascending may be regarded as applying only to men in general and that an abstraction from it can be made with reference to Jesus. Ascending is here only as if the indispensable condition for all other men of dwelling in heaven: No one…except he who (without having ascended thither) has descended from it, he who is there essentially (Meyer), or who was there previously (Weiss). This is an attempt to escape the difficulty of the , except; the fact of being in heaven is reserved for Jesus, while suppressing, so far as He is concerned, that of ascending; comp. the use of in Mat 12:4; Luk 4:26-27; Gal 1:19. However, the case is not altogether the same in those passages. We might try to take the in the sense of but, like the Hebrew ki im; but in that case John must have written instead of : No one has ascended, but the Son of man descended.
The Socinians, perfectly understanding the difficulty, have had recourse to the hypothesis of a carrying away of Jesus to heaven, which was granted to Him at some time or other of His life before His public ministry. As for ourselves, we have no occasion to have recourse to such an hypothesis; we know a positive fact which is sufficient to explain thehas ascended when we apply it to Jesus Himself; it is that which occurred at His baptism. Heaven was then opened to Him; He penetrated it deeply by His gaze; He read the heart of God, and knew at that moment everything which He was to reveal to men of the divine plan, the heavenly things. In proportion as the consciousness of His eternal relation as Son to the Father was given to Him, there necessarily resulted from it the knowledge of the love of God towards mankind. Comp. Mat 11:27. Heaven is a state, before being a place. As Gess says: To be in the Father is to be in heaven. Subsidiarily, no doubt, the word heaven takes also a local sense; for this spiritual state of things is realized most perfectly in whatever sphere of the universe is resplendent with all the glory of the manifestation of God. The moral sense of the word heaven prevails in the first and third clauses; the local sense must be added to it in the second. No one has ascended… signifies thus: No one has entered into communion with God and possesses thereby an intuitive knowledge of divine things, in order to reveal them to others, except He to whom heaven was opened and who dwells there at this very moment.
And by virtue of what was Jesus, and Jesus alone, admitted to such a privilege. Because heaven is His original home. He alone has ascended thither, because He only descended thence. The term descended implies in His case the consciousness of having personally lived in heaven (Gess). This word denotes, therefore, more than a divine mission; it implies the abasement of the incarnation, and consequently involves the notion of pre-existence. It is an evident advance upon Nicodemus’ profession of faith (Joh 3:2). The filial intimacy to which Jesus is exalted rests on His essential Sonship, previous to His earthly life. If the word descended implies pre-existence, the term, Son of man, brings out the human side in this heavenly revealer. The love of mankind impelled Him to become one of us, in order that He might speak to us as a man, and might instruct us in heavenly things in a manner intelligible to us. The recollection of Pro 30:4 seems not to be foreign to the expression which Jesus makes use of: Do I know the knowledge of the holy ones? Who ascendeth to heaven and descendeth from it?
The last words: who is in heaven are preserved in the text byTischendorf (8th ed.) and by Meyer, notwithstanding the Alexandrian authorities; Westcott rightly says: They have against them the ancient MSS., and for them the ancient versions. But according to this critic, the testimony of the versions is in this case remarkably weakened by the contrary testimony of the Sinaitic MS. which so often accords with them. The rejection may have been the result of an accidental omission or of the difficulty of reconciling this addition with the idea of the preceding clause;that of having descended. On the other hand, we can understand how these words may have been interpolated, in order to resolve the apparent contradiction between the idea ofbeing in heaven in order to have ascended thither, and that of having descended. At all events, the idea which these words express, that of the actual presence of Christ in heaven, is already very positively contained in the perfect , has ascended. This tense indeed does not signify: has accomplished at a given moment the act of ascending (this would be the sense of the aorist), but He is there, He lives there, as having ascended thither. Thus the preceding antithesis is resolved. Jesus lives in heaven, as a being who has re-ascended thither after having descended in order to become Son of man (Joh 16:28). The Lord led two lives parallel to each other, an earthly life and a heavenly life. He lived in His Father, and, while living thus with the Father, He gave Himself unceasingly to men in His human life. The teaching in parables, in which the heavenly things take on His lips an earthly dress, is the true language answering to that existence which is formed of two simultaneous lives, the one penetrating the other.
Some interpreters (Luthardt, Weiss), understand the participle ( ), in the sense of the imperfect who was (before the incarnation); this word, according to them, expresses the idea of pre-existence as a condition of the, of the act of descending. But this participle ( ), if it is authentic, is rather in relation with the principal verb: has ascended, than with the participle ( ). He lives in heaven, having re-ascended thither, inasmuch as He has descended thence. To express, without ambiguity, the idea of the imperfect, the periphrasis ( ) would have been necessary; Lucke sees in a perpetual present. This idea may be applied to Joh 1:18, where the question is of the Son of God, but not to our passage, where the subject is the Son of man.
Meyer, Weiss and Keil maintain that Jesus explains here the knowledge which He has of divine things by His pre-existence. Such an idea can be found in these words only on condition of denying any application of the idea ofascending to Jesus, a thing which is impossible. The higher knowledge of Jesus is, much rather, presented here as the result of an initiation (has ascended), which took place for Him during the course of His human existence, and through which He received at a certain time the immediate and constant, though truly human, intuition of divine things. And, in fact, this is the impression which every word of Jesus produces: that of a man who perceives the divine directly, but who perceives it with a human consciousness like our own. It is impossible for me to understand how Weiss can, on the one hand, make this higher knowledge proceed from a recollection of His anterior existence, and maintain, on the other, that such knowledge does not go beyond the limits of a truly human consciousness. The Son of man, living in heaven, so as to have re-ascended thither after having descended, is the sole revealer of divine things: this is the first of the , the heavenly secrets, which Jesus communicates to Nicodemus. The second is the salvation of men through the lifting up of this same Son of man, not on a throne, but on a cross, the supreme wonder of divine love to the world: Joh 3:14-16. This is the essential contents of the revelation which Jesus announced to him in Joh 3:13.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
3:13 And no {k} man {l} hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, [even] {m} the Son of man which {n} is in heaven.
(k) Only Christ can teach us heavenly things, for no man ascends, etc.
(l) That is, has any spiritual light and understanding, or ever had any, but only the Son of God who came down to us.
(m) Whereas he is said to have come down from heaven, this must be understood as referring to his Godhead, and of the manner of his conception: for Christ’s birth upon the earth was heavenly and not earthly, for he was conceived by the Holy Spirit.
(n) That which is proper to the divinity of Christ, is here spoken of the whole Christ, to show us that he is but one person in which two natures are united.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Jesus explained why He could speak authoritatively about heavenly things. No teacher had ascended into heaven and returned to teach about heavenly things. Evidently Jesus was referring to being personally present in heaven since, obviously, many prophets had received visions of heaven (e.g., Isaiah 6; cf. 2Co 12:2-4; Rev 1:10-20). However the Son of Man descended from heaven so He could teach about heavenly things. The NIV translation implies that Jesus had already ascended into heaven, but that is not what the Greek text says. The Greek words ei me, translated "but" or "except," contrast a human who might have ascended into heaven and the God-man who really did descend from heaven. Jesus here claimed to be the Son of Man (Dan 7:13-14) who had come from heaven to reveal God to humankind (cf. Joh 1:51).
"Throughout this Gospel John insists on Jesus’ heavenly origin. This is one way in which he brings out his point that Jesus is the Christ. Here his heavenly origin marks Jesus off from the rest of humanity." [Note: Morris, p. 197.]