Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 7:24
Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.
24. according to the appearance ] ‘According to the appearance’ Christ’s act was a breach of the Sabbath. This is almost certainly the meaning, although the word translated ‘appearance’ may mean ‘face,’ and is rightly translated ‘face’ in Joh 11:44 (see note there). There is no reference here to Christ’s having ‘no form nor comeliness,’ as if He meant ‘Judge not by My mean appearance.’
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Judge not according to the appearance – Not as a thing first offers itself to you, without reflection or candor. In appearance, to circumcise a child on the Sabbath might be a violation of the law; yet you do it, and it is right. So, to appearance, it might be a violation of the Sabbath to heal a man, yet it is right to do works of necessity and mercy.
Judge righteous judgment – Candidly; looking at the law, and inquiring what its spirit really requires.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 24. Judge not according to the appearance] Attend to the law, not merely in the letter, but in its spirit and design. Learn that the law which commands men to rest on the Sabbath day is subordinate to the law of mercy and love, which requires them to be ever active to promote God’s glory in the comfort and salvation of their fellow creatures; and endeavour to judge of the merit or demerit of an action, not from the first impression it may make upon your prejudices but from its tendency, and the motives of the person, as far as it is possible for you to acquaint yourselves with them; still believing the best, where you have no certain proof to the contrary.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Do not judge persons, and condemn me for what I have done, merely out of your hatred, prejudice, and malice against me. Or, do not judge according to the first appearance of this fact. It looketh to you as a violation of the sabbath; it is not indeed so, but the performance of a duty greater than that of sanctifying the sabbath is. Judge righteously, and do not condemn in me what you yourselves do in other causes, because of your hatred to and prejudice against me; nor condemn an action which is in itself a righteous action, and not deserving condemnation.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
24. Judge not, &c.thatis, Rise above the letter into the spirit of the law.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Judge not according to the appearance,…. Or through respect of persons, and so as to please men, the Scribes and Pharisees; who had condemned the action of Christ, in curing the diseased man on the sabbath day, and sought to kill him for it:
but judge righteous judgment; give your sense and judgment of things, according to the truth and evidence of them; and do not find fault with that, which you yourselves allow of, and which Moses and his law, and your own practices, justify.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
According to appearance (‘ ). And so, superficially. See 11:44. Also not “righteous” () judgment.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Appearance [] . Primarily, seeing or sight. In Joh 11:44; Revelation 1 16, face, and hence external appearance. The word occurs only in the three passages cited.
Righteous judgment (thn dikaian krisin). Properly, the righteous judgment; that which is appropriate to the case in hand.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) Judge not according to the appearance.” (me krinete kat’ opsin) “You all judge not according to face appearance,” the outward show and form, according to what appears to the eye, a vice of Phariseeism, Mat 6:2; Mat 6:5.
2) “But judge righteous judgement.” (alla ten dikaian krisin krinate) “But judge a righteous (kind of) judgement,” according to the nature, spirit, and intent of the law-principle. For “he that doeth righteousness is righteous,” 1Jn 3:7.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
24. Judge not according to the appearance. Having concluded his defense, he likewise administers a reproof on this ground, that they are carried away by wicked dispositions, and do not form a judgment according to the fact and the matter in hand. Circumcision was properly held by them in reverence; and when it was performed on the Sabbath-day, they knew that the Law was not violated by it, because the works of God agree well with each other. Why do they not arrive at the same conclusion as to the work of Christ, but because their minds are preoccupied by a prejudice which they have formed against his person? Judgment, therefore, will never be right, unless it be regulated by the truth of the fact; for as soon as persons appear in public, they turn their eyes and senses on them, so that the truth immediately vanishes. While this admonition ought to be observed in all causes and affairs, it is peculiarly necessary when the question relates to the heavenly doctrine; for there is nothing to which we are more prone than to dislike that doctrine on account of the hatred or contempt of men.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(24) Judge not according to the appearance.He has put the case before them in its true light, I and from their own point of view. There was another Positive Precept of Moses which these judges were forgetting, though it, too, formed part of the first section of the Law read at Tabernacles (Deu. 1:16-17). (Comp. Note on Joh. 7:19.) Let them who profess to judge Him by the Law obey it, and form a just and honest opinion, and not be biased by the appearance of a mere technicality. Even if His work did fall under the condemnation of what they held to be the letter of the Mosaic law (comp. Note on Joh. 5:10), they knew perfectly welland their own practice as to circumcision proved thisthat it did so in appearance only.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
24. According to the appearance By the mere external act, as if that settled in all cases its right or wrong.
Righteous judgment Applying the principles of conscience to the nature of the deed and motive. True religion has this proof of its genuineness namely, that it agrees with and truly quickens and strengthens our conscience.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Do not judge by appearances, but judge righteous judgment’.
Jesus acknowledged their right to judge, but stressed that it was incumbent on them to ensure that their judgment was righteous, and not superficial. Those who claimed the right to judge had a special responsibility to ensure that they judged fairly. But they had overlooked the principles of compassion and mercy. As He says in Mat 23:23, ‘You tithe (give a tenth to God of) even such trifles as mint and cummin, yet you have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith’.
Perhaps we could paraphrase this verse as, ‘Do not judge by what appears to you to be right, but by what is truly right’. Their judgment was superficial. They constantly failed to consider the deeper implications. He was now taking the battle to the enemy.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Joh 7:24. Judge not according to the appearance, There may be many wrong judgments of the same matter; but the right can be but one: therefore the latter clause should be rendered, But make the right judgment.”Judge impartiallydivest yourselves of your prejudices, and conceive not an ill opinion of me, on account of the meanness of my birth, appearance, &c.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Joh 7:24 . This closing admonition is general , applicable to every case that might arise, but drawn by way of deduction from the special one in point. According to the outward appearance , that act was certainly, in the Jewish judgment, a breach of the Sabbath; but the righteous judgment was that to which Jesus had now conducted them. Upon , id quod sub visum cadit, res in conspicuo posita , see Lobeck, Paralip . p. 512. It does not here mean visage , as in Joh 11:44 , and as Hengstenberg makes it, who introduces the contrast between Christ “without form or comeliness,” and the shining countenance of Moses . On , comp. Tob 3:2 ; Susannah 53; Zec 7:9 .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
24 Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.
Ver. 24. Judge not according to the appearance ] Nothing is more ordinary with many than to precipitate a censure, to exercise their critics, and to reprehend that which they do not comprehend. Arbitror saith Augustine (de Trim i. 3), nonnullos opinaturos me sensisse quod non sensi, aut non sensisse quod sensi, I suppose that several in reading some places in my books will think that I thought that which never came into my mind to think, and the contrary. This was his fear, and this befell him, as Baronius witnesseth. Compertum est, saith Erasmus. It is well known that many points are condemned as heretical in Luther’s books, which in Augustine’s and Bernard’s books are read and received for good and orthodox. a Hill, in his Quartern of Reasons, saith, the Catholics follow the Bible, but the Protestants force the Bible to follow them. And the author of the Gag for the New Gospel assures his Catholics, that our condemnation is so expressly set down in our own Bibles, and is so clear to all the world, that nothing more needs hereto than that they know to read, and to have their eyes in their heads, at the opening of our Bible. This is their judgment of us. But what among themselves! He that tastes an egg, saith Erasmus, at an undue time, is cast into prison, and made to answer for his heresy; but he that spends all the Lord’s day in drinking, drabbing, dicing, is called a good fellow, and passeth unpunished. Qui totam diem Dominicam vacat temulentiae scortis et aleae audit bellus homo, &c.
a
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
24. ] No stress must be laid on the article ( ) with : it is merely expressive of habit, Let your judgment ( . ) be a just one.
implies habit in all your judgments: whereas the aorist (see var. readd.) would enjoin right judgment on the present occasion, directing the attention on what had just happened.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Judge. See note on Joh 5:22 and App-122.
not. Greek. me. App-105. according to. Greek. kata. App-104.
appearance = sight; i.e. objective or outward appearance.
judge . . . judgment. Figure of speech Polyptoton. App-6.
righteous = the righteous.
judgment. App-177.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
24.] No stress must be laid on the article () with : it is merely expressive of habit,-Let your judgment ( . ) be a just one.
implies habit-in all your judgments: whereas the aorist (see var. readd.) would enjoin right judgment on the present occasion, directing the attention on what had just happened.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Joh 7:24. , , judge not according to the appearance, but judge true judgment) On that Sabbath, which fell among the days of the Feast of Tabernacles (the Sabbath moreover had fallen this year on the fifth day of the feast), there used to be read the book Ecclesiastes, a great portion of which is this very precept as to avoiding superficial judgment and holding to right judgment. [It is also judging according to appearance, or (what is the same) according to the flesh; ch. Joh 8:15, Ye judge after the flesh, when the letter is taken independently of the (spiritual) sense. Christ Himself judges according to truth. Isa 11:3-4, He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of His ears, But with righteousness shall He judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth.-V. g.]-) The judgment that is true, is one.[186] This is the force of the article.
[186] Whilst false judgments are many.-E. and T.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Joh 7:24
Joh 7:24
Judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment.-Do not judge by the external appearance, but by the real standard of righteousness. [The Jews judged by appearance when they condemned Christ for healing the man on the Sabbath, and forgot the eternal principles of righteousness. Some times one law is broken in order to obey a higher law. They should have asked whether this was the case or not before they condemned Jesus, and then judge with righteous judgment.]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
righteous
(See Scofield “1Jn 3:7”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Joh 8:15, Deu 1:16, Deu 1:17, Deu 16:18, Deu 16:19, Psa 58:1, Psa 58:2, Psa 82:2, Psa 94:20, Psa 94:21, Pro 17:15, Pro 24:23, Isa 5:23, Isa 11:3, Isa 11:4, Jam 2:1, Jam 2:4, Jam 2:9
Reciprocal: Deu 13:14 – General 1Sa 16:7 – looketh Job 34:4 – know Pro 31:9 – General Act 4:19 – judge Act 28:4 – No doubt 1Co 4:3 – it is 1Co 11:13 – General 2Co 10:7 – ye look
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
4
There are people who resent being penalized or even criticized for their wrongs, and then will try to make a defense for their acts by quoting Mat 7:1. If they wanted to be fair in the matter, they would consider all that Jesus said on the same subject. In the present passage, the Lord gives more specific information on the act of judging others. Appearance is from oPsis, and Thayer defines it in this passage, “The outward appearance, look.” Robinson defines it, “External appearance, show.” The Englishman’s Greek New Testament translates it by the single word “sight.” The outward or mere appearance of a situation does not always provide all the facts in the case, hence the honest thing to do is to investigate and get the whole truth. Then a judgment rendered on that basis will be a right-eous judgment, and not the kind the first part of this verse says not to do, and the kind that Mat 7:1 says not to do.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Joh 7:24. Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. Righteously had they judged in regard to themselves. So let them judge His work, and they will see that, where they had suspected only the presence of iniquity, there was the highest righteousness.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
From the foregoing argument, Christ draws an inference or conclusion, That there is no making a judgment according to the first appearance of things: and that suddenness or rashness, prejudice or partiality, in judging, overthrows righteous judgment. This is the general application of what Christ had said before: and the particular application of it, as to himself, comes to this, Judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment; as if Christ had said, “Lay aside your prejudices against my person, and compare these cases attentively and impartially with one another; and then see whether you can justly condemn me as a sabbath-breaker, and acquit yourselves.” Such was the perfect innocency of our Saviour’s actions, that he could and did submit them to the reason and judgment of his very enemies.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Ver. 24. Judge not according to the appearance; but pronounce the judgment which is in accordance with righteousness.
, sight, hence appearance, designates here the external and purely formal side of things. It was only from this defective point of view that the healing of the impotent man could be made the subject of accusation. There is no question here of the humble appearance of Jesus which had perverted the judgment of the Jews (Waitz). Righteous judgment is that which estimates the acts according to the spirit of the law. The article before the word , judgment, may denote either the judgment in this definite case, or, in general, the judgment in each case where there is occasion to pass judgment. In the first clause, which is negative, the present is very appropriate: for the question is of the judgment pronounced in this case on the act of Jesus. But in the second, the present is probably a correction in accordance with the first. The aorist, , is perfectly suitable: Judge righteously in every case (without reference to time).
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENT
Joh 7:24-31. Judge not according to sight. The verb here is in the perpetual present, setting forth human proneness to judge people from the outward appearance. But judge righteous judgment. The verb in this clause is in the aorist tense, which means an instantaneous action and a permanent state following, involving the conclusion that instead of these helter-skelter judgments from the outside, we are to deliberately investigate, ascertain the truth, adopt it, and stick to it permanently. Then certain ones of the Jerusalemites were saying, Is not this the One whom they are seeking to kill? And, behold, He speaks boldly, and they say nothing to Him. These people in Jerusalem knew well that the high priests, scribes, and Pharisees had determined and boasted, during His long absence in Galilee, that if He ever came back there, they would kill Him. Whether have the rulers truly found out that He is the Christ. There was a prevalent, popular dogma that when Christ came, the wise rabbis and the Sanhedrin would be the first to find it out and tell the people. Now, as these Jerusalemites had heard them say that if He ever came back there they would have Him arrested and put to death, at the same time predicting that He would never come, alleging that He could do wonders off in Galilee among the ignorant people, but they dared Him to come to Jerusalem; and now that He is here, boldly and powerfully preaching to the multitudes, attending the Festival of Tabernacles, on the Temple Campus, and they do not molest Him; therefore they conclude that their great men must in some way have found out that He is the Christ, and consequently are just letting Him alone. But we know this One, whence He is; but when Christ may come, no one knows whence He is. There was a popular dogma that when Christ comes on tile earth, He will suddenly appear to the people, and no one will know anything about His origin, the prophecies of His conception and birth being mystified, so they did not understand them. Then Jesus cried out, teaching in the temple, and saying, You know Me, and you know whence I am. But I did not come of Myself, but the One having sent Me is true, whom you know not. He had been born at Bethlehem, only seven miles south of Jerusalem, and lived thirty years at Nazareth, only one hundred and fifty miles north of Jerusalem. Of course, He was well known to the Jewish nation, being a native of their country. But while they knew Him personally, though they claimed to be the most godly people in the world, He here frankly informs them that they do not know Him. I know Him, because I am with Him, and He has sent Me. Jesus here uses the present tense, only applicable to His Divinity, which was omnipresent, His humanity at that time being confined to this world. We frequently hear silly twaddle nowadays in reference to the impracticability of His presence on earth and in heaven during the millennium. All this is answered by His own proclamation, stating that while in Jerusalem, He was present with the Father. Then they were seeking to arrest Him, and no One laid his hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come. Jesus was immortal till His work was done, and so are His true followers. Therefore let us fear neither sickness nor death. We shall live till we finish our work. Then heaven will be infinitely preferable. And many of the multitude believed on Him, and continued to say, When Christ may come, will He do more miracles than those which this Man doeth? N.B. Myriads of people were then at Jerusalem who had witnessed His mighty works in Galilee.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
7:24 {9} Judge not {g} according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.
(9) We must judge according to the truth of things, lest men turn us from the truth and carry us away.
(g) By the show that I make: for I seem to be a despicable person from among the rabble of Galilee, and a carpenter’s son, whom no man considers to be very important: but mark the matter itself well, and judge the tree by the fruit.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Jesus concluded by warning His hearers against judging superficially (cf. Deu 16:18-19; Isa 11:3-4; Zec 7:9). Their superficial judgment about what was legitimate activity for the Sabbath had resulted in superficial judgment about Jesus’ work and person. He told them to stop doing that. They needed to judge on the basis of righteous criteria, what was truly right.