Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 7:53
And every man went unto his own house.
53. That this verse, as well as Joh 8:1-2, is omitted in most MSS. shews that prudential reasons cannot explain the omission of the paragraph in more than a limited number of cases. Some MSS. omit only Joh 8:3-11.
every man went unto his own house ] To what meeting this refers we cannot tell: of course not to the meeting of the Sanhedrin just recorded by S. John. It is unfortunate that the verse should have been left as the end of this chapter instead of beginning the next.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And every man went unto his own house – There is every mark of confusion and disorder in this breaking up of the Sanhedrin. It is possible that some of the Sadducees might have joined Nicodemus in opposing the Pharisees, and thus increased the disorder. It is a most instructive and melancholy exhibition of the influence of pride, envy, contempt, and anger, when brought to bear on an inquiry, and when they are manifestly opposed to candor, to argument, and to truth. So wild and furious are the passions of men when they oppose the person and claims of the Son of God! It is remarkable, too, how God accomplishes his purposes. They wished to destroy Jesus. God suffered their passions to be excited, a tumult to ensue, the assembly thus to break up in disorder, and Jesus to be safe, for his time had not yet come. The wrath of man shall praise thee; the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain, Psa 76:10.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Joh 7:53
And every man went to his own house.
Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
If we group together the scenes of these chapters we might treat them.
1. A day with Jesus; in which we have not merely His answers to the disputing Jews, but His proclamation of love.
2. A night with Jesus on the Mount of Olives.
3. Dawn with Jesus in the Temple, listening to tits early teaching.
4. Sunrise with Jesus, as pointing to the East, He says, I am the light of the world. These two verses suggest–Man at home, Jesus not at home:
The crowd which had surrounded Him all the day gradually drops off,one by one, as the evening draws on, and Jesus is left alone. Each one has a home to go to, and retires to rest with his family; Jesus has nowhere to lay His head; they go one way, He goes another; they keep within the city walls, tie goes without the gate to Olivet, there to spend the night in prayer. He is not at home; even in the Temple which is His Fathers house, He must not stay; its gates are closing, and He is shut out. He can only go to the places where man is not; to the solitudes where, outside of Jerusalem, outside even of Bethany, He can meet with God. This homelessness was for us; that we might have a home in His Fathers house. He went without the gate that we might enter in. He became an exile, taking our place and life of banishment, that we might enter the celestial city, the paradise of God. Hast thou entered in? Or art thou still an exile from God though at home on earth? (H. Bonar, D. D.)
The Saviour and the Sanhedrim
We have here a notable instance of the injury done to the Scriptures by the arbitrary division into chapters and verses. The severance here diverts the attention from the object which the writer had in view. The greater part of chap. 7. is occupied with the conflicting opinions of the populace respecting Christ, and closes with a striking representation of a scene which took place in the council chamber of the metropolis. The officers had returned without their prisoner, and one of their own number dared to protest against their injustice. The distracted council break up and go home to concoct fresh schemes; the tranquil Saviour quietly departs to Olivet to meditate and pray. What a contrast! Those seventy men crossed in their cruel project; that one harmless wanderer, sustained by the conscious rectitude of His life! They seeking new channels for the pent up torrent of their wrath; He calm in the rich tides of peace that filled His soul; they to their luxuriant dwellings, whose enchantments were all marred by the days discomfiture; He to the mountain and the midnight, whose dark shadows threw into bold relief the presence of God and His glory. On their side all worldly influence; on His side all heaven. Their purpose, murder, and suppression of the truth; His purpose, salvation, and Gods eternal glory by His own self-sacrifice. (W. G. Lewis.)
The moral tangent
This parting of the ways exhibited
I. THE SEPARATENESS OF CHRIST AMID HIS OWN PEOPLE. It bears out chap
1:11. How could it have occurred in a region and amongst a race so notedfor hospitality? Such experiences may have begotten the realization Mat 8:20). Some offer may have been made, but, if so, it was either too half-hearted to tempt the great solitary, or still, night-wrapped Olivet exercised an irresistible fascination.
1. That the Founder of society in its true conception should have been Himself an outcast; imagination dwells on such a paradox.
2. To take the mildest view of the circumstance it was not to the credit of the social life of Jerusalem. Some defect in those home circles rendered them uncongenial. Hearts there were that hated Him, but the general sentiment was indifference.
3. And how did He regard their attitude? It was impossible for Him to be unconcerned. Not yet was the passionate wail, O Jerusalem, etc., but the woeful sorrow of which it was the outcry was even then gathering. Incarnate love could not but desire to be loved by those for whom He had descended to such depths; but it must be on His own terms.
II. A DIFFERENCE IN SPIRITUAL TENDENCY AND AIM.
1. The isolation of Christ did not arise from obscurity or insignificance. His departure must have been observed and felt. That lonely form, the centre of so much observation as with calm dignity it stepped from the wrangling crowd into the quiet fields, did it not judge them?
2. The mere departure convicted them of a lack of moral earnestness. The deadly conspiracy which had been hatched in their midst, and which had been arrested just when success seemed easy ought to have put every true man upon his honour, and made him open his doors to the homeless One. He had disturbed Judaean thought and life to its core. To an onlooker it might have seemed as if a moral revolution were impending. How near they were to the kingdom of God! But assenting to Christs lofty truths their hearts were indisposed to receive them. They lacked the courage of their convictions. Good men! it did not impair their digestion nor break the continuity of their little life. How trifling the spirit that can shelve the greatest question and stifle the grandest inspiration thus.
3. Not so easy was it for the Son of Man to put behind Him the strenuous controversy in which He had engaged. With Him heart as well as intellect were enlisted. Stung by their indifference, or horror-struck at their villany, the Great Sensitive Soul hurries forth to the only house of prayer where He can be alone with His Father, and to brace Himself for the effort of tomorrow. Yet how incomprehensible it must have been to minds so besotted with earthliness! They knew not that commerce with the skies. Conclusion: In every life there is such a moment quick with spiritual issues. Shall we follow Christ to Olivet or go to our own house? (St. John A. Frere, M. A.)
Diverging paths
I. EVERY MAN WENT TO HIS OWN HOUSE. A symbol of the general conduct of humanity. We have turned every one to his own way.
1. Our house is where we live, and represents all that we live for.
(1) Some men live for wealth and adorn their noble houses with elegant furniture and costly pictures.
(2) Some men live for pleasure, and their houses will be supplied with all that gratifies the senses–luxurious couches, expensive wines, and elaborate menus.
(3) Some men live for learning, and the principal room in the house will be the well-furnished library, and every department will proclaim, A scholar lives here.
(4) Some men live for friendship, and keep open house for their boon companions.
(5) Some men live for domestic felicities, and consult the comfort and fellowship of wife and children in all the appointments of the house.
2. We may go to our own house without Christ. A Christless house, a Christless life is that in which something else besides Christ predominates. Where wealth, pleasure, etc., are supreme Christ is not. He has gone to the Mount of Olives.
II. JESUS WENT TO THE MOUNT OF OLIVES.
1. Jesus went
(1) To cool His fevered brain and heart after the anxieties and labours of the day.
(2) To pray, and realize more deeply His union and communion with the Father. To brace Himself for the efforts of the coming day.
2. Jesus went alone, yet every member of the crowd He left needed to go with Him–and for the same reason. So do we. Only with Jesus shall we find rest, communion, strength.
3. Jesus came back to judge those who had forsaken Him (chap. 8:16), and will come to judge those who are forsaking Him now.
III. THE ALTERNATIVE
1. Is not house or Christ. He does not require us to break up our homes or desolate our lives. Let it be remembered that one reason for going to Olivet was because there was not a home in Jerusalem that would take Him in. He would have supped with the meanest who would have accorded Him a welcome.
2. The alternative is house without Christ or house with Him. We must take our Saviour into our house, and then take our house to Olivet–make Him the sacred centre round which wealth, pleasure, etc., may cluster, and sanctify all by sympathy with Him, prayer and consecration.
3. Thus the alternative sharply put is self or Christ. Which?
Conclusion:
1. If we let Christ alone He will let us alone. Hell in this life and in the next is abandonment by Christ.
2. Christ ascended Olivet–the Jews descended from Moriah. With Christs companions it is ever a going up till heaven at last is reached. With Christ-forsakers it is ever down–down until the depths of the bottomless pit are fathomed. (J. W. Burn.)
Chapter 8
Introduction to Joh 8:1-11
These verses, with Joh 7:53, form, perhaps, the gravest critical difficulty in the New Testament.
I. THE ARGUMENTS AGAINST the passage.
1. That it is not found in some of the oldest and best MSS.
2. That it is wanting in some of the earlier versions.
3. That it is not commented on by Greek Fathers, Origen, Cyril, Chrysostom, and Theophylact, in their exposition of St. John, nor quoted or referred to by Tertullian and Cyprian.
4. That it differs in style from the rest of St. Johns Gospel, and contains several words and forms of expression which are nowhere else used in his writings.
5. That the moral tendency of the passage is somewhat doubtful, and that it seems to represent our Lord as palliating a heinous sin.
II. THE ARGUMENTS IN FAVOUR of the passage are as follows:
1. That it is found in many old manuscripts, if not in the very oldest and best.
2. That it is found in the Vulgate Latin, and in the Arabic, Coptic, Persian, and Ethiopian versions.
3. That it is commented on by Augustine in his exposition of this Gospel; while in another of his writings he expressly refers to and explains its omission from some manuscripts; that it is quoted and defended by Ambrose, referred to by Jerome, and treated as genuine in the Apostolical constitutions.
4. That there is no proof whatever that there is any immoral tendency in the passage. Our Lord pronounced no opinion on the sin of adultery, but simply declined the office of a judge.
I lean decidedly to the side of those who think the passage is genuine, for the following reasons:
1. The argument from manuscripts appears to me inconclusive. We possess comparatively few very ancient ones. Even of them, some favour the genuineness of the passage. The same remark applies to the ancient versions. Testimony of this kind, to be conclusive, should be unanimous.
2. The argument from the Fathers seems to me more in favour of the passage than against it. On the one side the reasons are simply negative. Certain Fathers say nothing about the passage, but at the same time say nothing against it. On the other side the reasons are positive. Men of such high authority as Augustine and Ambrose not only comment on the passage, but defend its genuineness, and assign reasons for its omission by some mistaken transcribers. Let me add to this, that the negative evidence of the Fathers is not so weighty as it appears. Cyril of Alexandria is one. But his commentary on this chapter is lost, and what we have was supplied by a modern hand in 1510. Chrysostoms commentary on John consists of popular public homilies, in which we can easily imagine such a passage as this might possibly be omitted. Theophylact was notoriously a copier and imitator of Chrysostom. Origen, the only remaining commentator, is one whose testimony is not of first-rate value, and he has omitted many things in his exposition of St. John. The silence of Tertullian and Cyprian is, perhaps, accountable on the same principles by which Augustine explains the omission of the passage in some copies of this Gospel in his own time. Some, as Calovius, Maldonatus, Flacius, Aretius, and Piscator, think that Chrysostom distinctly refers to this passage in his Sixtieth Homily on John, though he passes it over in exposition.
3. The argument from alleged discrepancies between the style and language of this passage, and the usual style of St. Johns writing, is one which should be received with much caution. We are not dealing with an uninspired, but with an inspired, writer Surely it is not too much to say that an inspired writer may occasionally use words and constructions and modes of expression which he generally does not use, and that it is no proof that he did not write a passage because he wrote it in a peculiar way. The whole discussion may leave in our minds, at any rate, one comfortable thought. If even in the case of this notoriously disputed passage–more controverted and doubted than any in the New Testament–so much can be said in its favour, how immensely strong is the foundation on which the whole volume of Scripture rests! If even against this passage the arguments of opponents are not conclusive, we have no reason to fear for the rest of the Bible. After all, there is much ground for thinking that some critical difficulties have been purposely left by Gods providence in the text of the New Testament, in order to prove the faith and patience of Christian people. They serve to test the humility of those to whom intellectual difficulties are a far greater cross then either doctrinal or practical ones. To such minds it is trying, but useful, discipline to find occasional passages involving knots which they cannot quite untie, and problems which they cannot quite solve. Of such passages the verses before us are a striking instance. That the text of them is a hard thing it would be wrong to deny. But I believe our duty is not to reject it hastily, but to sit still and wait. In these matters, he that believeth shall not make haste. (Bp. Ryle.)
The internal evidence in favour of the passage
It bears the same relation to revelation as a ray of light does to the sun. Its consummate knowledge of the human heart; its masterly harmonizing of the demands of the Mosaic law with the gospel; its triumphant turning of the tables in the presence of insolent foes; its matchless teachings of mercy, mingled with the sternest rebuke to sin; its complete and glorious victory in their terrible defeat and shame, all point out and prove the handwriting of God. Gods Word is a great fact in the moral world, as the Alps are in the natural. A fragment of granite taken from the Alps proves God its Creator quite as fully as the mountain range. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.)
The intrinsic truthfulness of the passage
Were the critical evidence against its genuineness far more overwhelming than it is, it would yet bear upon its surface the strongest proof of its authenticity. It is hardly too much to say that the mixture which it displays of tragedy and tenderness–the contrast which it involves between low, cruel cunning, and exalted nobility of intellect and emotion–transcends all power of the human imagination to have invented it; while the picture of a divine insight reading the inmost thoughts of the heart, and a yet diviner love which sees those inmost secrets with larger eyes than ours, furnish us with a conception of Christs power and person at once too lofty and too original to have been founded on anything but fact. No one could have invented, for few could even appreciate, the sovereign purity and ineffable charm–the serene authority of condemnation and pardon–by which the story is so deeply characterized. The repeated instances in which, without a moments hesitation, He foiled the crafty designs of His enemies, and in foiling them taught forever some eternal principles of thought and action, are among the most unique and decisive proofs of His more than human wisdom; and yet not one of those gleams of sacred light which were struck from Him by collision with the malice of man was brighter or more beautiful than this. The very fact that the narrative found so little favour in the early centuries; the fact that whole Churches regarded the narrative as dangerous in its tendency; the fact that eminent Fathers either ignore it or speak of it in a semi-apologetic tone–in these facts we see the most decisive proof that its real moral and meaning are too transcendent to admit of its having been originally invented or interpolated without adequate authority into the sacred text. Yet it is strange that any should have failed to see that, in the ray of mercy which thus streamed from heaven upon the wretched sinner, the sin assumed an aspect tenfold more hideous and repulsive to the conscience of mankind. (Archdeacon Farrar.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 53. And every man went, c.] The authority and influence of Nicodemus, in this case, was so great that the Sanhedrin broke up without being able to conclude any thing. As the feast was now ended, they were not obliged to continue any longer in or about Jerusalem and therefore all returned to their respective dwellings.
This verse and the first eleven verses of the following chapter are wanting in several MSS. Some of those which retain the paragraph mark it with obelisks, as a proof of spuriousness. Those which do retain it have it with such a variety of reading as is no where else found in the sacred writings. Professor Griesbach leaves the whole paragraph in the text with notes of doubtfulness. Most of the modern critics consider it as resting on no solid authority.
The following in the left-hand column, is a literal translation of the whole as it stands in the Codex Bezae. That on the right is a connected view of it from other manuscripts.
John 7:53; John 8:1-11.
td{vertical-align:top}
| From the Codex Bezae. | From other MSS. |
| Joh 7:53. And every one went to his own house. | 53. And every one went away to his own people. () Al. place. |
| Joh 8:1. And Jesus went to the mount of Olives. | 1. And Jesus went out to the mount of Olives. |
| 2. But he came again early into-the temple, and all the people came unto him. | 2. But very early in the morning Jesus came again into the temple, and all the people came; and having sat down he taught them. |
| 3. And the scribes and Pharisees brought a woman unto him, taken in sin; and, setting her in the midst, | 3. And the chief priests and the Pharisees bring unto him a woman taken in adultery; and, having set her in the midst, |
| 4. The priests say unto him, tempting him, that they might have an accusation against him, Teacher, this woman was taken committing adultery, in the very act: | 4. They spoke, tempting him, Teacher, we found this one committing adultery, in the very act: |
| 5. Now Moses, in the law, gave orders to stone such: but what dost thou say now? | 5. And in the law Moses commanded us to stone such: What dost thou say concerning her? |
| 6. But Jesus, having stooped down, wrote with his finger upon the ground. | 6. But this they spoke tempting him, that they might find an accusation against him: but he, knowing it, stooped down,
(Al. bowed down,) and wrote with his finger upon the ground, seeming as if he did not hear. (Al. pretending.) |
| 7. But as they continued asking he lifted up himself, and said unto them, Let him who is without sin among you first cast a stone at her. | 7. But as they continued asking him, having looked up, he saith, Let him who is without sin among you, first cast stone at her. |
| 8. And stooping down again, he wrote with his finger upon the ground. | 8. And stooping down again, he wrote with his finger upon the ground (the sins of every one of them.) |
| 9. And each of the Jews went out, beginning from the oldest, so that all went out: and he was left alone, the woman being in the midst. | 9. And each one of them went out, (Al. and hearing these things they departed one by one,) beginning from the oldest; and Jesus was left alone, and the woman in the midst of them. |
| 10. And Jesus lifting up himself, said to the woman, Where are they? Hath no one condemned thee? | 10. Jesus therefore looking up, saw her, and said, Woman, where are thy accusers? Hath no one condemned thee? |
| 11. Then she said unto him, No one, sir. Then he said, Neither do I condemn thee; go, and from this time sin no more. | 11. Then she said, No one, sir. And Jesus said, Neither will I judge thee; go away, and henceforth sin no more. |
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
As little as Nicodemus said for Christ, it put a stop to their further proceedings against Christ at present. Some think that the party of the Sadducees in the council, who valued not the Pharisees rites and traditions, took part with Nicodemus; so as by the overruling hand of God Christ at this time escaped their wicked counsels against him. So much is certain; but what parties in the council concurred in it, is uncertain.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
53. every man went unto his ownhomefinding their plot could not at that time be carriedinto effect. Is your rage thus impotent, ye chief priests?
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And every man went unto his own house. The officers not bringing Jesus with them, and the sanhedrim being posed with Nicodemus, broke up without doing any business, and every member of it went home: this we may suppose was about the time of the evening sacrifice: for
“the great sanhedrim sat from the time of the morning daily sacrifice, to the time of the evening daily sacrifice b:”
and it is said c, that
“after the evening daily sacrifice, the sanhedrim went,
, “to their own houses”;”
as they now did, and not to their booths, the feast of tabernacles being now over.
b Maimon. Hilchot Sanhedrin, c. 3. sect. 1. c Piske Tosephot Sanhedrin, art. 35.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
This verse and through 8:12 (the passage concerning the woman taken in adultery) is certainly not a genuine part of John’s Gospel. The oldest and best MSS. (Aleph A B C L W) do not have it. It first appears in Codex Bezae. Some MSS. put it at the close of John’s Gospel and some place it in Luke. It is probably a true story for it is like Jesus, but it does not belong to John’s Gospel. The Canterbury Version on which we are commenting puts the passage in brackets. Westcott and Hort place it at the end of the Gospel. With this explanation we shall proceed.
They went (). First aorist passive indicative of used as a deponent verb without passive idea. In this context the verb has to refer to the Sanhedrin with a rather pointless contrast to Jesus.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
This verse, and the portion of Chapter 8, as far as ver. 12, are generally pronounced by the best critical authorities not to belong to John’s Gospel.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And every man went,” (kai eporeuthesan hekastos) “And they went out and away from each one,” having been sharply rebuked by the words of Nicodemus, of their own accord, they withdrew from the council, the arresting officers, Nicodemus, and the beloved John, who heard and gave this account, Joh 21:24.
2) “Unto his own house.” (eis ton oikon autou) “Unto and into his own residence,” with the words of Nicodemus cutting to their souls, words they will meet in the judgement, as all will who hear and reject the Word of the Lord concerning themselves, Act 7:54; Act 9:5; Joh 12:48; Rom 14:11-12.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
53. And every man went to his own house. Now follows an astonishing close of the transaction. If any one take into account what was the reign of the priests at that time, with what rage they were excited, and how vast was their retinue, and, on the other hand, if he consider that Christ was unarmed and defenceless, and that there was no body of men to protect him, the conclusion must be, that it was all over with him a hundred times. When so formidable a conspiracy is dissolved of its own accord, and when all those men, like waver of the sea, break themselves by their own violence, who will not acknowledge that they were scattered by the hand of God? But God always continues to be like himself; and therefore, whenever he pleases, he will bring to nothing all the efforts of enemies, so that, while they have everything in their power, and are ready and prepared to execute their design, they will depart without having done their work. And we have often found that, whatever contrivances our enemies have made to extinguish the Gospel, yet by the amazing kindness of God, it immediately fell powerless to the ground.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CHRIST AND THE SINFUL WOMAN
Joh 7:53 to Joh 8:11.
And every man went unto his own house (Joh 7:53).
When Jesus had lifted up Himself, and saw none but the woman, He said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more (Joh 8:10-11).
NOTWITHSTANDING our much boasted civilization, the Magdalenes of the earth multiply. The strange woman still infests the streets. Polluted herself, she is the temptress of the individual, the menace of the home, a blot on society and an enemy of the state. And yet she is a woman possessed of human capabilities and endowed with immortal interests, and it is well-nigh insane for society to attempt to ignore her conduct on the one side, or to despise her soul interests on the other.
If one would find the solution of any problem, let him hear what Jesus has to say upon the same, for never man spake as this Man. If one would discover an ensample of conduct toward the unfortunate or the sinful, let him watch Jesus at His work with the one or both, for never man wrought as He wrought. It is a singular thing that although twenty centuries have passed since Jesus met this Magdalene, heard the charges against her, and disposed of her case, society seems not yet to know what to do with the adulteress.
In the hope of making suggestions alike helpful to the sinful woman and to social order, I bring to you the text of this evening and ask you to think of The Womans Crime, The Womans Critics, and The Womans Christ.
THE WOMANS CRIME
And the scribes and the Pharisees bring a woman taken in adultery (Joh 8:3, R. V.). The Scriptures do not seek to cover away her sin, nor do they employ soft terms in the description of the same. Adultery is a word of bad repute. It voices a disregard of God; it despises the most sacred relations between men and women; it ignores domestic interests; it imperils social order; it strikes a blow in the face of God. The charge laid against this woman was not disputed; and Christ, while revealing sympathy for the sinner, in no wise condoned her crime.
It was a crime against herself. Dr. Jowett, one of Englands noble preachers, calls attention to Matthew Arnolds statement that sin is not a monster, but an infirmity, and justly repudiates that definition, saying, If I take Matthew Arnolds statement into my own soul, into my own secret consciousness, I know that it is not true. If it were an infirmity only, there would be no sense of responsibility for it. If my eyes have an infirmity I do not feel guilty, but when I sin I am conscious of more than infirmity. I know that the happening might have been otherwise, and to me was given the choice. When I seek to label my sin as infirmity my soul rejects the same in a consuming sense of shame. And Jowett is right. Sin, as the Apostle put it, is exceeding sinful. Primarily it is a self wrong. Mrs. Sims, the society woman who was converted from the polite gambling of bridge-whist and related behavior, says, with reference to her former course, I not only lost my money but my self-respect. I felt that my character was going. What greater loss can one sustain?
I have heard of a young woman who attempted to defend her attendance at places of very doubtful amusements by saying, I think a Christian can go anywhere. Certainly she can, replied her friend, but I am reminded of a little incident that occurred when, with a party of friends, I was going down into one of the mines. One of the young girls appeared clad in a white dress. When some of the party remonstrated with her for wearing it, she appealed to the old miner who was to conduct the party, asking if she could not wear a white dress into the mine. Yes, Maam, there is nothing to keep you from wearing a white frock down, but there will be a good deal to keep you from wearing one back. And when once white is soiled it is not easy to remove the stain whether it be on a womans dress or a womans soul; and there is scarce a sin of which a woman is capable, which stains her more deeply than that with which the woman of the text was charged. Some one has written very truthfully:
Not in the clamor of the crowded street,Not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng,But in ourselves are triumphs or defeat.
It was a crime against society. Society has always been compelled to so regard this sin, and the state that does not both legislate against it, and then execute its laws, is doomed. This was the sin that wrecked Rome; it was the moral gangrene of this sin that made for the death of Greece; and today governments of the world, without exception, are threatened by the social vice as by no other iniquity, the accursed saloon evil not excepted. The intense hatred of this iniquity felt by the Puritans is past. The fallen woman is no longer compelled to walk the streets with a scarlet letter blazing her shame to every onlooker; nor does she take her place on the block and suffer stripes for the same.
And yet, common as is the transgression of the seventh commandment, society looks with disfavor upon the known guilty; and, in America at least, and most of the states of Europe, the statutes speak against it in no uncertain terms, and every man who takes the oath of office and is in position of considerable power in village, city or commonwealth, pledges his opposition to this iniquity. And yet how easy some of these same officials forget that oath!
What the mayor of a city can do by way of deterring adultery was shown in Philadelphia when Weaver held that office in the Quaker City. It was illustrated in Denver just a year ago when forty young women, supposed to have good reputations, were pulled out of wine-rooms in one evening and sent weeping to the lockup at the order of chief of police, Delaney. The morals of Minneapolis in this matter are absolutely in the hands of its mayor. The moment he gives an order to raid the houses of ill-fame, and the institutions that, under the names of hotels, are known to be nothing other than places of assignation, the wine-room saloons, that in plain violation of the law, are producing social havoc, he could gather in one night hundreds of offenders, and fling into thousands of others a scare from which they would not recover in six months. If I had such a power at my command, not for all the money in the banks of Minneapolis would I fail in the execution of it. The wrecked lives, the broken hearts, the destroyed homesthese would haunt me whether asleep or awake if I did not seek to end it.
I read a little while ago a letter from one of our ministers, published in a leading magazine, describing a Chinese scene. A great crowd is on the river bank. In the center two men are holding a pole across their shoulders to which a scale is attached, and on it a girl is being weighed. The man at the scale is shouting, What will you give for her? And an old womana very haganswers, 6p. per pound. What, says the auctioneer, only 6p.? Look; she is plump; she has on good clothes and bracelets thrown in. What is the good of bracelets and such trash to me, replies the old woman. I want her. In the end 6 p., 1\2 penny a pound, is agreed upon, and she is actually sold at 1 10s 3d by weight, to be sent away to Canton to be sold again for 5. What for? The end is unmentionable but perfectly understood; and the benign officials of China, who are talking eloquently about forbidding the exporting of cattle for fear of impoverishing the country, are making no mention whatever lest the sale of the souls of girls should doom and damn it forever. And in the average city of America, the men in the places of authority behave but little better than these Chinese politicians. And adultery, societys most undermining sinthe modern leprosy of the individual life, goes unchecked and almost unrebuked.
It was a crime against a Holy God. He who had home interests at heart, and who must maintain His own righteous character, had said, Thou shalt not commit adultery. His right had been trampled under foot by this Magdalene; His honor had been forgotten; the suffering of His heart for righteousness sake had been despisedand her name is legion.
Of course we have people now who tell us that the Ten Commandments are out of date anyhow; but I find that those who have grown so wise as to be clearly convinced that the Word of God is not inspired, and that the decalogue is nothing better than a social code which came about under evolution of human life, and that only the feeble-minded are bound by it, are quite unwilling to put in practice their own theories when personal interests are thereby imperiled. No man whose wifes honor is involved will talk after that manner; no man, worthy the name of man, whose daughters purity is despoiled, will talk after that manner. I read a little illustration the other day that reveals the fallacy of such folderol. In the East end of London a Vicar, Rev. Walsh Ditchfield went into a shoemakers shop and invited the cobbler to come to church. No, indeed, said the man, I am not going to hear the Ten Commandments and then say, Lord, incline our hearts to keep these laws. Those Ten Commandments are all gone now! The critics have clearly shown that the Bible has no authority. All that old belief about an inspired Book is successfully disputed and is past. So? replied the Vicar, I declare that is good! I badly want a pair of new shoes, and that pair there are just my size, and instantly picking them up, he walked away. Why not, if God never said Thou shalt not steal?
Ah, you men who boast that you are hard-headed business men, and that the old system of theology does not appeal to you, let me tell you that you could not be in business for two hours to-morrow morning if it were not for Gods Divine Law. At the store you would be robbed. In your own home wife and daughters would be despoiled. Abroad men would lie to you until you should not know what to depend upon; or, coveting your portion, strike you down and leave you to die in your own blood while they rifled your pockets. Remember that when one commits a crime against Gods Law he involves himself in destruction and disorganizes society and destroys the state. Such was this womans sin!
In the next place I call your attention to
THE WOMANS CRITICS
And the scribes and the Pharisees bring a woman taken in adultery; and having set her in the midst, they say unto Him, Teacher, this woman hath been taken in adultery, in the very act. Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such: what then sayest Thou of her (Joh 8:3-5, R.V.)?
They criticised in unsparing speech. They use the darkest word known to their tongue with which to tell the Lord of her iniquity. They waited until Jesus was in the Temple and was thronged on every side and had sat down to teach, and then they dragged this unwilling subject before His righteous eyes and into the midst of the multitude. It may be bad enough for a sinner to fall into the hands of an angry God; it seems to be worse for one to fall into the hands of fellow-men. The Bible enjoins upon us to confess our faults one to another; we seem to have the custom of translating it into, Confess the faults of one another. The story goes that a gentleman, thinking to discover the particular denomination of a little girls church without the direct question, asked her, What do they do in your church, my dear? Please, sir, she replied, they confess one anothers faultsan answer which left him at sea as to the particular denomination to which she belonged; and I want to tell you that outside of the church the speech of critics is more unsparing still.
I have no doubt that the scribes and the Pharisees were about as well behaved as any people of their time, but they took particular pleasure in parading the iniquities of others, under the impression, doubtless, that they were thereby proving their own righteousness. It is a false impression. A gentleman, riding on top of a jaunting car in Dublin some years ago, says he looked and saw on a building the words, Post no ills. Doubtless at one time it had read, Post no bills, but some mischievous boy had rubbed out the b and made it read now, Post no ills. The boy had improved it. There are all too many people that are engaged in the business of posting the ills of others. As this writer says, One would sometimes almost think that the Masters command to Love one another! was now to be translated Label one another!
They criticised in unsympathetic spirit. This woman hath been taken in adultery, in the very act. There was not a suggestion of sympathy in the direful indictment. God forbid that I should say one word that condones sin; but on the other hand, let me remind you that God has reserved the right of pronouncing final sentence upon the same. And the man who goes into Gods temple and thanks God that he is not a sinner, and looks with contempt upon some offending publican whose vices are not denied, is not justified. His hard spirit and his Pharisaical statements are as offensive in Gods sight as is violation of the moral law. There is a legend of two saints in the Greek churchCassianus, a type of monastic asceticism, and St. Nicholas, the type of a genial, unselfish Christianity. When St. Cassianus enters heaven and Christ says to him, What hast thou seen on earth, Cassianus? he replies, I saw a peasant floundering with his wagon in a marsh. Didst thou help him? No. Why not, asks the Master. I was coming before Thee, said Cassianus, and I was afraid of soiling my white robes. Then St. Nicholas enters heaven all covered with mud and mire. Why so stained and soiled, St. Nicholas? asks the Master. I saw a peasant floundering in a marsh, and I put my shoulder to the wheel and helped him out, he makes answer. Blessed art thou! Thou didst well! Thou didst better than Cassianus! says the Lord. It is only the parable of the Good Samaritan repeated in another form, and it is well for us to remember that that parable originally passed the lips of Christ. Frederick W. Faber once wrote:
Time was when I believed that wrong In others to detect,Was part of genius, and a gift To cherish, not reject. Now better taught by Thee, O Lord,Make me all light within,Self-hating and compassionate,And blind to others sin!
They demanded the severest penaltydeath. Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such: what then sayest Thou of her? And this they said, trying Him, that they might have whereof to accuse Him (Joh 8:5-6, R. V.). It is a good thing that the interests of sinners are with God rather than with their fellow offenders. Not that God ever condones sin. As Campbell Morgan once said, The severity of the Law of God is the necessary sequence of His infinite love. To condone sin in any way or excuse it would be to make impossible the realization of Gods own purpose, namely, the perfection of every human being. And yet the God who is just is also compassionate. That is the ground of the sinners hope. A. J. Gordon once said, I have long ceased to pray, Jesus have compassion on a lost world. I remember the day and the hour when I seemed to hear the Lord rebuking me for making such a prayer. He seemed to say to me, I have had compassion on a lost world and now it is time for you to have compassion. I have given My heart; now give your heart.
Listen to the reply of Jesus and get a vision of
THE WOMANS CHRIST
His reply is not all in words. It is partly in deeds. What Jesus did was as great as what Jesus said.
He shielded her from unnecessary shame. Jesus stooped down, and with His finger wrote on the ground. His holy eyes could have pierced her soul through; that is why He turned them away. The sight of a sinful woman is the revelation of the character of the onlooker. The wicked stare at her, particularly if her iniquity has been exposed. The righteous turn their faces away, seeking to save her from further humility and shame. Herein the righteous are like their Christ. Augustine once wrote, When a man uncovers his sin, then God covers it. The unrighteous are eager to know the particulars of her iniquity. The righteous are so absorbed with compassion that they despise the prurient questions as to when, with whom, and where this sin was committed. We are told that when Elizabeth Fry visited Newgate Prison in London, where the women were packed in one room like cattle, without any attention to sanitation, she was much interested in a girl who had committed a terrible crime. When a woman asked her what crime the girl had committed, Elizabeth Fry declared, I do not know; I never asked. All that she wanted to know was that this poor, unfortunate girl had made a mistake, and that she needed love to heal the wound and help her to reform. I do not know of any touch in the Scriptures that makes me love Christ more than this that makes Him turn away His eyes from this woman, engaging Himself by writing in the sand, instead of humiliating her by fixing His gaze upon her. Oh, sinner, Christ is doing His utmost to shield you from unnecessary shame!
Mark again, Christ suggests equal codes for the sexes. 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 a stone at her (Joh 8:7, R. V.). Up to that time men had not supposed that they were to answer for their conduct as surely as a woman; did not imagine that their sin was just as shameful as hers. When they told Judah that Tamar had sinned and was with child, he got the stake ready for her at once; but when she showed him his rings and bracelets, given in exchange for her virtue, while he consented to let her off, he never said a word in self-condemnation. I know men to-day who spend a part of their time with harlots, but who, when they appear in the social circles, would spurn a sister who was known to have taken a single misstep. They actually believe that adultery on the part of a man is to be condoned, but when committed by a woman is to be condemned even to the point of her social death. With such views Christ had no part. He rose superior to the prejudices of His times, and pronounced righteousness for all centuries; He put the sexes on a common level. And I say tonight to the man who in the past has transgressed the seventh commandment, that you have no more moral right to offer your hand in marriage to a pure woman, than the harlot of yonder streets has the right to expect to be courted and married by the wholesome man. In Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female, and God is no respector of persons.
But one thing moreHe pronounced absolution for her sin. There is a remarkable touch in this Scripture. After having looked upon her accusers, it is said, And again He stooped down, and with His finger wrote on the ground. I think He was so compassionate as to also pity men. He knew that every scribe and Pharisee before Him was a sinner. Having brought His indictment to that effect, He could have burned it in by having looked them through with eyes that were as flames of fire. But even these He would not unnecessarily embarrass, and so He bowed Himself toward the earth and let them deal directly with God in the secret chamber of the soul. And in this chamber, they were condemned and
They, when they heard it, went out one by one, beginning from the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the midst. And Jesus lifted up Himself, and said unto her, Woman, where are they? did no man condemn thee? * * And she said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said, Neither do I condemn thee: go thy way; from henceforth sin no more (Joh 8:9-11, R. V.).
Oh, what a wonderful Saviour! It was His Law she had transgressed; He had a right to condemn. It was against His holiness she had offended; He had a right to be grieved. Judgment belongeth unto Him; He had a right to pronounce it. The sentence of death is with Him, and with Him alone; He might have spoken it! But doubtless, back of the burning cheeks, He knew there was a penitent heart; neath the shame with which she was clothed, He understood there was a great sense of sin, and no penitent sinner ever yet came to Christ to be either put away or to receive the sentence of death. Compassion, rather, is His common conduct. Absolution from sin is the speech in which He most delights. The helpless condition of humanity is the surest appeal to the heart of the Son of God.
We have read the story of that Russian officer who could not make his accounts come right. There was a heavy balance against him. In the rigid court of the Empire he feared the consequences; could he not somehow make it up? Poring over the figures until midnight, weary and despondent, he finally began to scribble and wrote on the paper before him, Who will make up this difference? And then, exhausted, he fell asleep. The Czar, passing through the room and wondering what the officer was doing, came and looked over his shoulder. Reading the words, he picked up the paper and wrote, I, even I, Alexander. Ah, for the bankrupt soul it is our only hope that the Emperor himself, even Christ, will meet the debt. Paul faced it in the seventh chapter of Romans, and after having finished the catalogue of sins, breaks into the piteous appeal, O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death (Rom 7:24, R. V.)? to answer it in a few seconds by faith, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. That was his one and his only hope.
To be saved from sin is a great work. To be enjoined to sin no more, shows the expectation of Christ. And yet He, knowing our weakness, promises assistance. Men say to me, We are afraid to begin lest we cannot hold out, but Christ answers, My grace is sufficient for thee. Men say, But the old sins have so weakened and scarred us that we cannot hope to recover. Remember the words of Peter, neas, Jesus Christ hath made thee whole. He is able! Aye, He is willing! Aye, His work is a scientific demonstration of His power to remove from sin and to recover from scars!
Some of you know the story of Burke, the ex-burglar. When he gave himself to Christ, his pastor recorded that so bad was he that for months he was without employment, suffering shame and sorrow. But he kept bravely on until by and by somebody sympathized with and lent him assistance.
Mr. Moody, telling the story, says, His sin-blurred features were against him, and he one day cried out in prayer, Oh, make me a better looking man that I may get a job! Moody says, You may smile at the prayer, but I bless God that he made it, for after a time that very man Burke was as fine a looking fellow as could be seen in Chicago, and I cannot help thinking, said the great evangelist, that it was the Lord Himself who did, in answer to the childlike faith of the man, answer his petition. It was during those days of hardship that Burke kept steadily on his way, suffering much and oft discouraged, but never turning back to his sin. He had gone from Chicago to New York, and from New York to St. Louis, when one day there came a message from the sheriff that he wanted to see him at the court-house. Burke, with a heavy heart, started, saying as he went, Some old case theyve got against me. But if Im guilty, Ill tell them so. Im done lying. The sheriff greeted him kindly and asked, Where have you been Burke? What have you been doing in those cities? Have you kept a good grip on the religion you told me about? Yes, answered Burke, looking him steadily in the eye. Ive had a hard time, sheriff, but I havent lost my religion. Burke, said the sheriff, I have had you shadowed every day you were in New York. I suspected that your religion was a fraud, but I want to say to you that I know youve lived an honest, Christian life, and I have sent for you to offer you a deputyship under me. And you can begin at once. He began! He set his face like a flint! Steadily this old burglar went on until honorable business men by and by tipped their hats to him as they passed, talking about him as they sat at their tables. One day Moody called on him and found Burke in the sheriffs office. He had a sack of gems in his lap worth $60,000.00. Moody, said he, see what the grace of God can do for a burglar. Look at this! These diamonds had been stolen and the sheriff recovered them, and he has put me to guard them. And he cried like a child as he held up the stones for Moody to see.
Yes, He can absolve from sin! And He can keep men so that they can obey His Word and sin no more!
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
EXPLANATORY AND CRITICAL NOTES
Joh. 7:1-12. For the general exposition of this section see Homiletic Notes, pp. 233235.
Joh. 7:2. Early in the morning ().St. Johns usual word is (Joh. 20:1, and comp. Luk. 21:38).
Joh. 7:3. The scribes and Pharisees.St. John does not name the scribes in his Gospel; they are included under the general name the Jews.
Joh. 7:6. As though He heard them not.Omitted in best copies.
Joh. 7:12. Again.See Joh. 7:37. Our Lord here perhaps makes use of the other great symbolical feature of the feast of tabernaclesthe lighting of the candelabra at night in the Court of the Women. There were divided opinions regarding Him among the people, and He gave them another opportunity of arriving at the truth.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Chap. Joh. 7:53 to Joh. 8:12
The Light of the World as Revealer.Whatever view be taken of the position of this narrative in the gospel, its authenticity is generally held. The feast of tabernacles, with all its joyousness, was past. The joyous morning assemblages were over, the lights at eventide blazed no more in the temple courts. But the Saviour came early to the temple intent on His great work; and as the crowds of festival worshippers still remaining in Jerusalem gathered round Him, assuming the position of an authoritative teacher (Mat. 5:1) He sat down and taught.
I. Jesus is the light of the world in revealing the evil in mens hearts.
1. Whilst engaged in teaching He was interrupted by His ever-vigilant foes. They brought before Him a poor creature, who, instead of having her heart brought nearer God in the religious and joyous feast just ended, had given herself over to sin of the grossest and most debasing nature. The guilty wretch had evidently been brought before the Sanhedrin for judgment; and it was so clear a case that had they dared they would have carried out the old sentence of capital punishment. Hearing that Jesus was teaching in the temple, they brought the guilty woman before Him, hoping thereby to entrap Him, and gain for themselves the name of being zealous for the law.
2. The Pharisees had formerly tempted Him on this subject (Mar. 10:2-12), and had been sharply reproved for the laxity of their conceptions regarding the holiness of the marriage tie. On this occasion they probably thought they might turn the tables on Christ, by entrapping Him either into giving a too lenient judgment, or by answering their question in the affirmative, thus bringing Himself under the penalties of the Roman law.
3. And, moreover, they either misread their own law, or presumed that Jesus was ignorant of it. The punishment for adultery was stoning only in special circumstances (Deu. 22:23-24). In what form the punishment was to be carried out in other cases was not specified (Lev. 20:10). Here, then, Jesus seemed forced to occupy a position opposed either to the law of Moses or to the Roman authority (Luthardt). It was the same kind of snare into which they endeavoured to draw Him on the question of the tribute money (Mat. 22:17).
4. But Jesus knew the hearts of these men (Joh. 2:24-25). Their hypocrisy could not hide their true feelings and motives from Him. They professed to revere the law; but in reality this law, like others, had become a dead letter to them. The whole Jewish community, during our Lords time on earth, had become more or less corrupted by Roman licentiousness, and the sanctity of the marriage tie was disregarded. The more enlightened and spiritual custom of the time was to deprive the guilty woman of her dowry and divorce her; and our Lord seems to have stamped this method with His approval so far (Mat. 5:31-32). But He sternly disapproved of the granting of divorce for trifling causes, and with so much facility as seems to have obtained. But these Jews did not want any direction or guidance as to their procedure; they simply wished to entrap the Saviour, and to render Him obnoxious to the people as a subverter of the law, or to the Roman authorities, as recommending the exercise of the power of life and death to the Jews.
II. Jesus is the light of the world in the revelation of the higher and spiritual law.
1. The divine wisdom of the Saviour defeated the evil purpose of His enemies. He came not to judge the worldnot to usurp the functions of human justice, but to reveal the higher law toward which human law and justice should ever be more closely conformed as men come under the influence of the gospel. He raised the case above a merely human level; and did He not perhaps point to what is too often forgotten, even among Christian communities, that the framers and administrators of the law should model their enactments and actions as nearly as possible to the revealed and eternal law of righteousness?
And earthly power doth then show likest Gods
When mercy seasons justice. Consider this
That in the course of justice none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach as all to render
The deeds of mercy.
Shakespeare.
2. These men had no true sense of this divine attribute of justice; in brutal fashion they dragged in this poor criminal before the assembled people. They were therefore not the men to administer the law, since they had no true sense of the spirit of the law. Our Lord did not say that human justice in this and other cases should not be carried into effect; but the men who carry it into effect must have true ideas concerning it.
3. He, therefore, raised the case to a higher tribunal. He brought accusers and accused alike before the bar of conscience. Stooping down, He wrote on the ground (Joh. 7:6), as if intimating that a judicial sentence such as they desired was to be delivered; for such sentences were not only spoken, but written. And when the sentence came it was with crushing effectnot first on the accused, but on the accusers: He that is without sin, etc. (Joh. 7:7). Here the claims of the holy law were vindicated perfectly; and those self-constituted judges, conscience-smitten, stole away one by one in utter confusion.
III. Jesus is the light of the world in that He points out the way of safety.
1. When the last footfall of the baffled and retreating conspirators had died away on the ear, our Lord turned to the poor sinner brought thus before Him in shame and disgrace.
2. The question, Where are? etc. (Joh. 7:10), does not mean, Has no man accused and convicted thee of this crime? That, alas! was evidently plain enough. The meaning is, Hath no man offered to carry out the death sentence they threatened? Therefore His further words, Neither do I, etc., simply mean, Neither do I pronounce that sentence. He gave her indeed an opportunity for repentance, as His closing words show, while at the same time He intimated the enormity of her guilt: Go and sin no more.
3. He condemned the sin; and it is noteworthy there is no word of forgiveness and peace, such as we find at Luk. 7:48. As in the case of the woman of Samaria, our Lords manner of reference to the sin stamps it with its true nature.
4. Thus the judges were made to feel that freedom from outward guilt is no claim to sinlessness; and the offender, in her turn, was led to see that flagrant guilt does not bar hope (Westcott).
5. We learn that human justice should be modelled on the divine righteousness; that those who carry into effect the decrees of human justice should be men of a righteous, God-fearing disposition; that there is another bar before which men, even though acquitted or condemned by human law, must stand; and that men must forsake sin ere they can have forgiveness and peace.
Joh. 7:12. The worlds need of Christ, the Sun of righteousness.How important is the material sun in its relation to our world! Without its light and heat-rays darkness and death would reign. The worlds existence, humanly speaking, depends on the continuity of our earths relation to that star. It is the most important to us of all the starry hosts. It would, therefore, be a bold assertion for any man to make that he was as important to the moral and spiritual life of men as the sun to their physical life. Yet here we have such an assertion made. Jesus came, as it appears from the narrative as it stands, over-night from Bethany to the temple early in the morning. The sun had lately risen, clothing in light the mountains round Jerusalem, and gladdening all nature by its rising. Jesus, in view of the glorious scene, seems to say, Just as the sun has awakened animated nature to new life in a new day, so am I come to give spiritual awakening to those slumbering in the darkness of sin and error. [Or if the narrative is to be continued from Joh. 7:52 to Joh. 8:12, then His reference may have been to the candelabra in the temple court, and His meaning somewhat similar.] And Jesus had given good reason to those who heard Him for this claim of His. His works of power, His words of wisdom, marked Him out as more than humanto be what He claimed to be, the Messiah, the promised Sun of righteousness, the Light of the world. Notice:
I. The world needed such a light.
1. There are some questions which have in all ages engrossed, and will engross, the minds of men, and which cannot be answered by unaided reason. There are problems that puzzle and perplex which no merely human intellect has solved or can solve. These subjects lie in lofty regions, on heights to which philosophy and science vainly attempt to climb. They have been shrouded in darkness, like earth at midnighthave been dimly discerned, as through a mist, distorted, etc.
2. This has been so with the knowledge of God, of the means of approach to Him, of a future life. By reason men have attained to only dim and illusory conceptions of these great subjects, and it has been long felt that reason alone cannot here pronounce decisively.
3. By the light of natural religion men can go only a little toward the verification of such great truths; and even when they seem to have attained to a clearer view, the mists of doubt roll down, and it vanishes from their ken.
II. Jesus is the light of the world in that He leads men to a true knowledge of the nature and character of God.
1. Among the nations at large, as regards this, darkness prevailed. The most cultured nations of antiquity had not risen above idolatry. Only a few voices called men to a better knowledge, and they were either unheeded or stopped.
2. Amongst barbarous tribes the darkness was such as might be felt.
3. There was but one exceptionIsrael; and in their case tradition had encrusted the windows of the soul and darkened their spiritual vision.
4. The further men had gone from the primitive revelation, the further they had fallen from the true knowledge and love of God. They bowed down to all the hosts of heaven, and finally came to worship devils (1Co. 10:20). And this description is still true of the great heathen world.
5. But in the gospel of Christ there is given such a view of the nature and character of God as satisfies the heart. The existence of such a Being clears up the enigmas of life, and makes what at first sight seems a dubious maze without a plan to appear full of meaning and order. There is revealed to us One immeasurably removed above our highest uninspired conceptions. His government is seen to be founded on laws which are the expression of His own perfect character, and obedience to which is seen to be for the welfare of the race, etc.
III. Jesus is the light of the world in that He made known the way by which men can approach to God acceptably.
1. It is not enough for sinful men to know that there is a God; they must know how they stand related to Him. All the religions of the world were framed with a view to this end.
2. Even the chosen people, when Jesus came to earth, needed light on this subject of subjects. They had retained the letter of their law, but had lost the spirit of the law (Joh. 7:23-24). They misapprehended the prophets. Tradition and ritual were what the Pharisee trusted in; whilst the Essene leaned to asceticism and the Sadducee to rationalism. But in none of these ways was there any true approach to God (Mic. 6:6).
3. Jesus has shown us the way of access to the Father. He revealed God as holy, abhorring sin, by no means clearing the guilty; and as the sinner, gazing on His revelation of the Holy One, cries out, Depart from me, etc., Jesus presents Himself as the Lamb of God, etc. (Joh. 1:29). Sinners are shown that, though eternal Justice forbids that a free, unconditional escape from the guilt and penalty of sin should be granted, yet a way has been found whereby justice and mercy can be and are reconciled. It is true certain conditions are affixed to this boon. Men are required to repent of and renounce sin, and accept the pardon and peace offered in Christ.
4. Thus Christ enlightened the world on this fact of such importance. The Morning Star of promise gleamed in sacrifice and rite and prophecy in the early Church. But it was when He came to earth that the full light shone on our world; and in view of His redemptive work He could say, I am the light, etc.
IV. Jesus is the light of the world in revealing to men the existence and eternity of life beyond the grave.
1. For the assurance of the existence of a future life men have ever longed. This has been to them a supreme question. Reason can offer no final solution of the problem. The disproportion in the allotment of rewards and punishments here, and the longing after immortality, deep seated in the human heart, may lead to a presumption that there is a life beyond. But reason has no absolute authority, and cannot state definitely whether that life she longs and hopes for will be eternal.
2. Revelation tells us of a future spiritual life. In patriarchal times Gods people lived in the consciousness of that higher life. He was the God of the living, and not of the dead (Mat. 22:32). But it was reserved for Jesus Christ, not only by His teaching, but by His actual rising from the dead, to bring life and immortality to light.
3. In view of all this Jesus has proved Himself to be the light of the world. But the knowledge of the truth will not avail unless He is to each individual the Sun of righteousness. He who enters some gloomy cell, shutting himself in from the brightness of noonday, may indirectly benefit from the sun, for its heat rays will warm even the air of his prison; but he cannot rejoice in its light. So if men shut themselves up in their sin and self-righteousness, the radiancy of the Light of the world will be well-nigh vain, so far as they are concerned. They must open their hearts to receive Him, if they would be blest by the brightness of His rising. And those on whom He has risen will shine in ever-increasing light until the perfect day of which Christ is the eternal light.
HOMILETIC NOTES
Joh. 7:1-11. Pericope adulter.Most Biblical scholars are now agreed that this narrative forms no part of the original text of this Gospel. Their conclusions rest not only on external but on internal grounds. Several great scholars, however, admit its genuineness, and defend it as part of the sacred text. The evidence for and against its retention may be briefly stated.
1. It must have existed as a part of the Gospel narrative in the third or even in the second century; for it is quoted in the Apostolic Constitutions.
2. The Church fathers Jerome, Ambrose, Augustine, etc., admit the genuineness of the passage, and comment upon it.
3. It is contained in MSS. ranging from the fifth to the eleventh century (D, F, G, H, etc.), and in about three hundred cursives; and, of course, some of these may be copies of earlier MSS. than any now known. Jerome, e.g., mentions that it was found in many MSS. of his time. And his evidence here is unimpeachable. It appears also in early MSS. of the Vulgate and Ethiopic versions, among others. Such are the main facts of the evidence for its genuineness as part of this Gospel. On the other hand, there is a great weight of evidence which seems to exclude it from its position here.
1. It is not found in the great uncial MSS. , (A), B, (C), L, X, etc.; for although A and C are defective at this point, it is considered from an estimate of the extent of the portions missing that it was not in the complete copies. It is omitted also in fifty cursives.
2. The passage is marked with asterisks, etc., in several of the MSS. which contain it; whilst in others its position is altered. In one document it is placed after Joh. 7:36; in others at the end of the Gospel; and in others still after Luk. 21:3. It is not commented on by Origen, Cyril, Chrysostom, and others.Scrivener, Intro., etc.
Internal evidence.
1. There is great variation in the texts where it is admitted. Griesbach distinguished three distinct texts: (a) the Textus Receptus, (b) that of Codex D, and (c) what might be called a composite text (see Godet).
2. There are in the narrative forms of expression which seem to distinguish the passage from the Gospel as a whole. But this part of the internal evidence must not be pressed too strongly. The occurrence here of one or two words and phrases nowhere else found in this Gospel is not conclusive against the authenticity of the passage. If , e.g., occurs here only, so does in Joh. 18:1. Nor must what seems a want of harmony between the spirit of the narrative and the context of St. John (Godet) be too much insisted on. Many scholars have failed to see this want of harmony. A consideration of the evidence for and against the passage seems to lead, at all events, to the conclusion that the narrative is a genuine apostolic tradition; and there is much force in the suggestion of Augustine that it was kept out of the text by those of little faith, who were afraid it might lead to moral laxity. It is not impossible that it was first bracketed in some MSS., as not to be read in the public assemblies, and in copies of the MSS. omitted. The following weighty words of Dr. Reynolds wisely sum up the controversy: Though the spirit, atmosphere, and phrase suggest the Synoptic tradition rather than the Johannine, yet it must not be forgotten that there are many Synoptic passages in Johns Gospel, and Johannine phrases in the Synoptists. The criticism proceeding from moral timidity has failed to recognise the grandeur of the entire proceeding. It contains no palliation of incontinence, but a simple refusal of Jesus to assume the position of a civil judge or executor of the law, in face of the established political supremacy of Rome; while the Lord made a demand for personal holiness, and an appeal to conscience so pungent that, in lieu of condemning to death a sinful woman, He judged a whole crowd of men, convincing them of sin, while He gave the overt transgressor time for repentance and holier living. Bishop Wordsworth (Greek Testament in loc.), whilst concluding that the passage contains a true history, in all probability from St. John, and delivered by him orally, considers that it was not a part of his written Gospel, and was probably added first on the margin of MSS., and thence crept into the text. And he draws from the investigation of the whole difficulty these moral inferences: a. Thankfulness to God for the solid foundation on which the proof of the genuineness and inspiration of the canon of Scripture rests. This passage consists of twelve verses only. Few doubt its authenticity. But its canonicity is the question at issue. How much and minutely has this been discussed! How rigid has been the scrutiny to which the canonical Scripture has been subjected before being received as the work of the Holy Spirit by the universal Church! And, in proportion to the rigidness of the scrutiny, how solid the ground of our belief in the inspiration of Scripture! b. It reminds us of our privilege in possessing so many MSS. belonging to an early age of the Churchs historyproofs of the genuineness of the text. c. It leads to a careful examination of the grounds on which our belief in the inspiration of Scripture is based. d. It excites us to thank Him who not only gave Scripture, but founded the Church universal to guard Scripture and assure us of its inspiration.
Joh. 7:1-12. Illumination of the temple court at the feast of tabernacles.One of the features of the joyful feast of tabernacles was the illumination of the city at nightfall, on at least the first evening of the festival, but probably on the other evenings as well. Large candelabra were lighted in the court of the women, and threw their radiance afar. Probably a partial illumination of the city took place; at all events, many in the assembly carried flambeaux. The wicks of the lamps in the temple court are said to have been furnished from the cast-off garments of the priests. Festivities were kept up for some time after the lighting of the lamps, the light of which was seen far and wide. Very striking must have been the spectacle on such occasions. And the ceremony had a meaning. Just as the pouring out of the water of Siloam in the morning reminded the people of Gods goodness to them at the rock in Horeb, so the sudden lighting up of the darkened temple court, and adjacent parts of the city, reminded the festive crowds of the pillar of fire by night (Exo. 13:21) which guided them in the wilderness. If the passage Joh. 7:53 to Joh. 8:11 is not retained as part of this Gospel, then it may be held that in Joh. 7:12 our Lord was referring to the preparations for lighting the candelabra or the actual lighting of them. He would thus call attention to Himself as the true guide over lifes pilgrim ways in the darkness of our present state: He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness. If, however, the pericope be retained (from Joh. 7:53 to Joh. 8:11), we should infer that our Lord, entering the temple in the early morning and pointing to the rising sun, then drew attention to Himself as the true and only light of the world of men. Both images may be legitimately referred to Him (Isa. 4:5; Mal. 4:2).
ILLUSTRATIONS
Joh. 7:12. The manner in which mankind had wandered from the light.The early fathers of the race would hand down to their children the knowledge of God they possessed as the framer of the heavens and earth, which continually tell of His glory. But, as one has beautifully said, this precious truth was vitiated among their hands. By dint of admiration for the works of God they took them in the end for God Himself; and the stars which appeared to announce His glory became in turn their divinities (Massillon).
Joh. 7:12. Men by nature have wandered far from the light and knowledge of God.
Chaldean shepherds, ranging trackless fields,
Beneath the concave of unclouded skies
Spread like a sea, in boundless solitude,
Lookd on the polar star, as on a guide
And guardian of their course, that never closed
His steadfast eye. The planetary five
With a submissive reverence they beheld;
Watchd, from the centre of their sleeping flocks,
Those radiant Mercuries, that seemd to move,
Carrying through ether, in perpetual round,
Decrees and resolutions of the gods;
And, by their aspects, signifying works
Of dim futurity, to man reveald.
The imaginative faculty was lord
Of observations natural; and, thus
Led on, those shepherds made report of stars
In set rotation passing to and fro,
Between the orbs of our apparent sphere
And its invisible counterpart, adornd
With answering constellations, under Earth,
Removed from all approach of living sight,
But present to the dead, who, so they deemd,
Like those celestial messengers, beheld
All accidents, and judges were of all.
The lively Grecian, in a land of hills,
Rivers, and fertile plains, and sounding shores,
Under a cope of variegated sky,
Could find commodious place for every god,
Promptly received, as prodigally brought,
From the surrounding countries, at the choice
Of all adventurers. With unrivalld skill,
As nicest observation furnishd hints
For studious fancy, did his hand bestow
On fluent operations a fixd shape;
Metal or stone, idolatrously served.
And yet, triumphant oer this pompous show
Of art, this palpable array of sense,
On every side encounterd; in despite
Of the gross fictions chanted in the streets
By wandering rhapsodists; and in contempt
Of doubt and bold denials hourly urged
Amid the wrangling schoolsa spirit hung,
Beautiful region! oer thy towns and farms,
Statues and temples, and memorial tombs;
And emanations were perceived, and acts
Of immortality, in natures course,
Exemplified by mysteries that were felt
As bonds, on grave philosopher imposed
And armd warrior; and in every grove
A gay or pensive tenderness prevaild
When piety more awful had relaxd.
Wordsworth
Joh. 7:12. Reason not the light of men.
Dim as the borrowd beams of moon and stars
To lonely, weary, wandering travellers,
Is reason to the soul: and as, on high,
Those rolling fires discover but the sky,
Not light as here; so reasons glimmering ray
Was sent, not to assure our doubtful way,
But guide us upward to a better day.
And as those nightly tapers disappear
When days bright lord ascends our hemisphere;
So pale grows reason at religions sight;
So dies, and so dissolves in supernatural light.
Some few, whose lamp shone brighter, have been led
From cause to cause, to natures secret head,
And found that one first principle must be;
But what or who, that UNIVERSAL HE;
Whether some soul encompassing this ball,
Unmade, unmoved, yet making, moving all;
Not even the Stagirite himself could see,
And Epicurus guessd as well as he.
As blindly groped they for a future state,
As rashly judged of Providence and fate,
But least of all could their endeavours find
What most concernd the good of human kind.
Thus anxious thoughts in endless circles roll,
Without a centre where to fix the soul:
In this wild maze their vain endeavours end:
How can the less the greater comprehend?
Or finite reason reach Infinity?
For what could fathom God were more than He.John Dryden.
Joh. 7:12. Christians in Christ are lights in the world.Every Christian is a light of the world; for he should know and be assured what manner of man he is, and what is his standing with Godthat he comes from God, and in Christ has a holy standing, having become a new man, and shall eternally abide with God. In this condition I live and bear the cross; therefore I know whence I have come. I am truly no more the old Hans or Claus, who was descended from Adam; but I am a Christian. I bear a name common to all, with all those who are new born. And at the end of this life heaven stands open for me, so that with all the saints I may go thither. I am sure of my position; my glory has a most precious foundation. But the evil men and seducers stand in great peril; they know not whence they come and whither they go, are uncertain of their condition, and pass on as in a dream.Luther, quoted by Besser.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
See the chapter comments for Joh. 8:1-59.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(53) The section which follows (Joh. 7:53 to Joh. 8:11) is one of the most striking instances of an undoubted addition to the original text of the Gospel narratives. We shall find reason to believe that it belongs to the Apostolic age, and preserves to us the record of an incident in the life of our Lord, but that it has not come to us from the pen of St. John. (Comp. Excursus B: Some Variations in the Text of St. Johns Gospel.) While, therefore, it is printed in the text here, our text being a reprint of the Authorised version, without addition or alteration, the reader will observe that it is an insertion which breaks the order of the discourse, and in working out the line of thought will bear this in mind.
And every man went unto his own house.This is not to be taken, then, as marking the close of the discussion in the Sanhedrin. It joins the inserted section with something which has preceded, but we have no means of judging what this was.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
53. Every man went These words are of the same disputed character as the first eleven verses of the following chapter, upon which see our notes.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And they went every man to his own house but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives’.
This proposed closure of the previous section clearly reflects the contrast between the One who goes aside to pray and those have no such intent, those who live in accordance with the world. It is being made clear that He is determined to keep in close touch with His Father, while they follow the ideas of the world. He is thus being seen as the spiritual One. Perhaps because of this, humanly speaking, He is able to do what He does.
In context those who go to their own houses are the Pharisees. They possess their own houses, and live in the world, and do not live lives of prayer (which is not to say that they do not pray). Jesus on the other hand possesses nothing and has nowhere to lay His head, and yet He is seen to have riches divine of which they know nothing.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Joh 7:53. And every man went unto his own house. So that this short plain question of Nicodemus’s spoiled all their measures, and broke up the council. A word spoken in season how good is it, especially when God gives it his blessing! Our Lord, having perfect knowledge of the designs of the council, left the city, and went to lodge in the mount of Olives, that he might be out of their reach. The first verse of the next chapter is generally, by the best expositors, joined to this; and the particle , in that verse, but Jesus went, seems strongly to point out the propriety hereof. See Luk 21:37.
Inferences.We see how little the greater external advantages can do without the divine blessing, when some of the nearest relations of Christ himself, by whom he had been most intimately known, were not prevailed upon to believe in him. Who then can wonder if some remain incorrigible in the most regular and pious families? How much more valuable is the union to him, which is founded on a cordial and obedient faith, than that which arose from the bonds of nature; and how cautiously should we watch against those carnal prejudices, by which even the brethren of Christ were alienated from him!
Our Lord, we see, used a prudent care to avoid persecution and danger, till his time was fully come; and it is our duty to endeavour, by all wise and upright precautions, to secure and preserve ourselves, that we may have opportunities for further service, except where the good of the church loudly and clearly calls us to make a sacrifice of ourselves. In the course of such service we must expect, especially if we appear under a public character, to meet with a variety of censures. But let us remember, that Jesus himself went through evil report and good report; by some applauded as a good man, by others condemned as deceiving the people. Learn we of our great Master, patiently to endure such injurious treatment; always endeavouring so to behave ourselves, that we may have a testimony in the consciences of men, and in the presence of God, that, after the example of our divine Forerunner, in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world. Then will our names be had in remembrance, and the honour and reward of our faithful obedience continue, when the remembrance of those who reviled us is perished with them.
We may learn again, from our meek and humble Master, to refer the honour of all that we know and do, to the divine instructions communicated to us, and the divine grace working in and by us; that, seeking the glory of God, we may have the surest evidence that we are truly his. Integrity and uprightness will be a certain security to us against dangerous mistakes in matters of religion. If the light that we already have be faithfully improved, we may humbly hope that more will be bestowed; nor shall we then fail of convincing evidence, that the doctrine of the gospel is of God. For the experience of its power on our hearts, will check our passions, and destroy the prejudices which would prevent the truth from taking place in our minds.
Our Lord was reviled as a demoniac and a lunatic. But, instead of rendering railing for railing, he replied in the words of gentleness and sobriety. Thus should we endeavour to conquer the rudeness of those attacks which we may meet with in his cause; that we may, if possible, remove the prejudices so fatal to those who entertain them, and form men to that equitable and impartial judgment, which would soon turn all their cavils against Christ into admiration, praise, and obedience.
How confident is error in its own decisions, and how vain in its self-applauses! These unhappy people of the Jews imagined themselves, no doubt, exceedingly wise in rejecting Christ, while they blindly took it for granted, that he was the son of Joseph; and had not patience to wait for the authentic history of his miraculous conception. Surely men had need to look well to the force of those arguments, on which they venture their souls by rejecting the gospel.
Our Lord answered their secret reasoning in a manner which might justly have alarmed them; charging them with ignorance of that God, whom they pretended to know, and whom with a presumptuous confidence they claimed as theirs: and would to God it may not be found at last, that many who have appeared most confident of their interest in the Lord, neither know him, nor are known by him! The blessed Jesus, who is the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, has the completest knowledge of the Father. May we be so wise, and so happy, as to seek instructions from him; that the eyes of our understanding may be enlightened, and the temper of our hearts proportionably regulated by all the discoveries of the Divine Being which he makes.
How obstinately and desperately hardened were the hearts of those, who, notwithstanding all the proofs which Jesus gave of his divine mission, were yet so far from hearkening to him, as to seek opportunities to destroy him! So dangerous and fatal is the prevalence of error, in such as like not to retain God in their knowledge! How constantly ought we to pray, that God would preserve us from a spirit of delusion, and fill us with such wisdom, that we may know the things belonging to our peace; and, being ready to receive the truth in the love of it, may acknowledge and attend to Christ as sent of God, and as the eternal Son of his love.
With what delight and thankfulness should we listen to the gracious proclamations of Christ, which he made in the temple, Joh 7:37 and some time after repeated from the throne of his glory, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink:yea, whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely, Rev 22:17. Blessed Jesus, had we been allowed to have prescribed to thee a form of words, in which thy kind purposes towards us should have been expressed, what could we have invented more pathetic, more condescending, or more reviving?May we thirst for the blessings of thy grace, and, in the confidence of faith, apply unto thee for them; and particularly for those communications of thy Spirit, which are so highly excellent and desirable, and indeed so necessary for us: supply us with them; we entreat thee, supply us in so rich an abundance, that we, in our different spheres, may supply others; that from us there may flow rivers of living water!
Well might such gracious words as those of our Lord, disarm the rage of enemies and persecutors. Let us add our testimony to theirs, and say, Never man spake as Jesus speaks. Let us hear him with calm and thankful attention, while his voice still sounds in his word.
Happy they who know the joyful found! The Pharisees, like deaf adders, stopped their ears to the voice of the charmer, and while they censured the populace as a brutal herd, and gloried in their own superior wisdom, they rejected the counsel of God, rashly judging without serious inquiry, and weakly borne down by vulgar, senseless prejudices against names and places, which is all that the senate of Israel opposes to the solid arguments of Nicodemus. That good man, already considerably improved by his interview with Jesus, was undoubtedly confirmed in his adherence to him by observing the methods of their opposition: and where magistrates arm their authority to overbear argument, they will probably, in the judgment of impartial men, produce a suspicion at least, that they know their cause to be incapable of a rational defence.
REFLECTIONS.1st, As the inveterate malignity of the chief priests and Pharisees led them to determine the death of Jesus, by popular fury or by form of law; to avoid their devices, he continued in Galilee. They who have obstinately refused the light of truth, have it justly withdrawn from them; and where our enemies rage, and our safety is in danger, it is prudent to depart, and carry that gospel of God to others, which sinners against their own souls reject and persecute, unless the existing church of God would be injured thereby. We have,
1. The conversation which passed in Galilee between Jesus and some of his relations. The feast of tabernacles being at hand, when a great concourse of people would be assembled in Jerusalem:
[1.] They urge him to make his public appearance there, and not stay in that obscure part of the country, but go up to the metropolis, and shew himself and his wondrous works, if really they would bear the test of examination: since this could not fail of getting him disciples among the great men at Jerusalem, and of confirming those he had already made, who would be assembled there on this solemnity. And they suggest that this would be the way most effectually to advance his own reputation and honour, which they sinfully imagined he, like the men of the world, designed. For neither did his brethren believe in him. As he did not answer their expectations in erecting a temporal kingdom, they began to suspect that he was not the Messiah, which they at first hoped; and therefore wanted him to declare himself, and produce his credentials, or go up to Jerusalem, where his pretensions, if false, might be detected. Note; (1.) Many appear at public ordinances to shew themselves; not to ascribe glory to God, but to secure reputation to themselves. (2.) They who want a temporal kingdom, evidently prove that they are faithless followers of Christ.
[2.] Christ mildly replies to their perverse suggestions, My time is not yet come for going up to the feast; but your time is alway ready, you may appear there at any time without any danger; they seek not your lives, as they do mine. The world cannot hate you, because your spirit, temper, and conduct, are but too conformable thereto; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil, which cannot but exasperate those who determine not to part with their beloved sins. Go ye therefore up unto this feast without delay: I go not up yet unto this feast, for my time is not yet full come. Note; (1.) Sinners hate the light of truth, and cannot but be exasperated with those reproofs, to which they obstinately refuse to submit. (2.) Whatever pretences men make for their enmity against the gospel and the preachers of it, the true cause is this, they cannot endure the testimony borne against their evil deeds. (3.) They who go to ordinances with a hypocritical spirit, may never expect the comfort of Christ’s presence in them.
2. The journey of Jesus to Jerusalem. He stayed a while longer in Galilee, till his brethren were gone up to the feast; and then, when his time was come, he went himself, not openly, but as it were in secret, that he might give no offence to the ruling powers, who, if he came with a multitude, might interpret it into a seditious design. Note; Though the cause of Christ cannot be carried on without notice, we need not provoke needless opposition: it will come fast enough upon us, if we are faithful.
3. The expectation which was raised of him. The Jews sought him at the feast, and said, Where is he? Some wished to see him out of curiosity; some out of malice, hoping to destroy him; and some out of better motives, expecting to receive some gracious instructions from him. And there was much murmuring among the people concerning him, their sentiments being greatly divided: some said he is a good man, convinced by his miracles, struck with his exemplary life, and influenced by his holy doctrine; others, hardened in infidelity, though they had not one single charge of evil to produce against him, said, Nay, but he deceiveth the people, as if there was some latent imposture under these specious appearances. Howbeit, no man spake openly of him, for fear of the Jews. Whatever good opinion any formed of him, they were very cautious how they spoke their sentiments, it being highly dangerous to appear among his approvers, when those who were in power were known to be the avowed enemies and bitter persecutors of him and his disciples. Note; (1.) Christ’s ministers, like himself, must expect to pass through evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true. (2.) They who are obstinate in rejecting the truth, will find something to quarrel with in the most spotless characters, and suppose that those who act with the greatest simplicity for God’s glory, are carrying on some design of their own.
2nd, When Christ was come up to Jerusalem, about the midst of the feast, we find him, where indeed we might expect to meet him, in the temple, teaching the people. He would shew, that he was neither ashamed of the doctrine he preached, nor afraid of the enemies who threatened him. We are told,
1. The admiration which the hearers expressed at his preaching, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned? Though he had been brought up in none of their schools, he appeared so wise in the scriptures, opened them with such evidence, and reasoned upon them with such force of argument, as could not but astonish them; and probably led some to conclude, that such extraordinary gifts were not attained without diabolical assistance.
2. The reply of Jesus, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. As Mediator, he received his mission, and ability to discharge his office, from his Father, and needed no human assistance, nor advanced ought of his own invention. What he taught was divine in its original, and designed ultimately to advance the glory of God, from whom it came. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself: he that, laying aside his prejudices, as a humble inquirer, comes, desiring to be taught, shall find such evidence in the gospel, as to demonstrate the divine authority of its author; and shall experience such powerful and blessed effects produced thereby, as shall most indubitably prove it to be the word (not of man, but) of God. He that speaketh of himself, seeketh his own glory: an impostor would seek to advance his own reputation and interests, as the false teachers did: but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, as Christ did, and all his faithful ministers do, the same is true, he evidences hereby the simplicity of his heart; and no unrighteousness is in him, no fraud or falsehood in his preaching or designs. They pretended indeed great zeal for the law of Moses, and founded their suggestions of his being an impostor, on the supposition that he violated the sabbath, and taught men to disregard the Mosaical institutions; when in fact, they themselves were living in the grossest violation of the plainest precepts of it: Did not Moses give you the law? and yet none of you keepeth the law. Why go ye about to kill me? purposing to murder him, because of the miracle that he had wrought on the impotent man on the sabbath-day. Note; (1.) They who speak of themselves, without a divine call, and for themselves, with a view to their own honour and advantage, evidently shew the falsehood of their religious pretensions: these God hath never sent. (2.) Many pretend a great zeal for the interests of morality, and a jealousy lest the grace of the gospel should entrench upon them, who live themselves in the open violation of the divine law.
3. The common people, who were really ignorant of the designs of the enemies of Jesus, or at least affected to be so, express their surprise at the accusation which he brought against them. They answered and said, Thou hast a devil; thou talkest as one possessed: Who goeth about to kill thee? They would insinuate that his fears were groundless, the charge unjust, and himself a liar. Let us not wonder, if we suffer the most vile aspersions, are counted madmen, liars, devils. The Son of God was thus reproached before us.
4. Overlooking their perverseness and abuse, our Lord proceeds to vindicate that action which they had so much condemned, and for which they went about to kill him. I have done one work, in healing the impotent man; and ye all marvel, because it was done on the sabbath-day; as if this was inconsistent with the character which he professed as a teacher sent from God. And yet they themselves commonly practised what might much more justly be regarded as a breach of the sabbath, than his healing a cripple by the speaking of a word. Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision, as an ordinance to be observed among them, (not because it is of Moses, instituted by him; but of the fathers, being commanded of God to Abraham long before the days of Moses) and ye on the sabbath-day circumcise a man. If a man on the sabbath-day receive circumcision, that the law of Moses should not be broken; which enjoins it to be performed on the eighth day, whenever that happened; are ye angry with me, because I have made a man every whit whole on the sabbath-day? where they allowed themselves to circumcise and dress a wound on that day, how could they, with any shew of reason, censure him, who, without the least trouble, merely by a word, had cured an object so miserable? Partial judges were they indeed, and justly therefore does he rebuke them, Judge not according to the appearance, with respect of persons, condemning that in him which they allowed in their own countrymen; or, because of the meanness of his outward circumstances, paying a higher respect to the decisions of their own more specious and pompous rabbies than to his; but judge righteous judgment, weighing the real merits of the case without prejudice, and then they would be convinced that their own practice would be a full vindication of his conduct. Note; (1.) Unreasonable and wicked men they are indeed, who censure and condemn others for what they allow, nay, approve, in themselves. (2.) Such is the force of prejudice, that it often blinds the eyes against the most glaring conviction. (3.) We must look farther than appearance, if we would learn the true character of men. (4.) Christ’s words and works demand nothing but an impartial examination to prove their excellence.
5. Some of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to whom the designs of the chief priests and rulers were no secret, were exceedingly astonished at the boldness of Christ’s discourse, and wondered that they did not immediately attempt to seize him; suggesting as if their withholding their hands from him gave suspicion that they had changed their sentiments concerning him, and began themselves to think him the Messiah. As for themselves, they could entertain no such imagination, because they knew whence he was: but, when Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence he is; the scriptures having spoken of him as like Melchizedek, whose descent is unknown; as one whose goings forth have been from everlasting, and whose generation none can declare. Their reasoning however was fallacious: for, though these scriptures were true with regard to his divine nature, and his designation to his mediatorial office, it had been expressly determined of whom he should spring, and where he should be born, in respect to his human nature. Note; (1.) God hath restraints upon the hands and hearts of wicked men, and marvellously withholds them from the evil which they design and have an opportunity to perform. (2.) They who mistake the scriptures in essential points, err most dangerously, as they support themselves in their own imagination with the conceit of divine authority.
6. Christ replies to these cavils. It was true, they knew his earthly descent; their grand mistake lay in not looking higher, to his original from above, and his mission from God. I am not come of myself, assuming this honour; but he that sent me is true, and all his promises made of and to the Messiah; whom ye know not; for, though they speculatively believed in one eternal Jehovah, they did not truly and experimentally know him; but I knew him, his perfections and purposes; for I am from him, by essential emanation; and he hath sent me, in the character of Mediator, to accomplish the salvation of his faithful saints.
7. Very different were the effects produced upon his hearers. Some were highly incensed by his declarations, and would have instantly seized him; but they were under a divine restraint; the sacred time to finish the atonement not being yet come. Others, especially of the common people, struck with what they heard and saw, could not withhold from expressing their persuasion that this must be the Christ: for it could not be conceived, whenever he came, that he would do greater miracles than Jesus wrought. Note; (1.) Though the enmity of wicked men be ever so great against us, it is a comfortable consideration that they can do nothing without a divine permission; and all their power or policy must prove abortive to oppress the faithful ministers of Christ, who bear testimony to his truth, unless he be pleased to suffer it for a time. (2.) They who receive the gospel of Jesus, are in general such as man despiseth, as being of the poor and unlearned multitude. What therefore the world accounts their reproach, that they are chiefly followed by such, the ministers of the gospel should esteem their honour.
8. The Pharisees and rulers, jealous lest his credit and influence with the people should increase, could not hear these murmurs without indignation, and therefore immediately dispatched officers to arrest him, and to bring him before the sanhedrim. Note; Wicked instruments will not be wanting, where power is in the hands of persecutors.
9. Christ, who knew what was plotting against him, addressed the officers and people, saying, Yet a little while am I with you, and till that time was expired, all their malicious attempts were impotent: and then I go unto him that sent me, to my Father, from whom I came. Ye shall seek me; when your calamity comes, you will wish for the Messiah; and shall not find me, nor obtain the least relief or respite, looking for help from heaven in vain: and where I am, thither ye cannot come, banished for ever from that glory where I am. Though Christ’s human nature was on earth, he was still in his divine nature enthroned in light. Note; (1.) It is too late to cry for mercy, when it is the time of judgment. They who reject the Saviour upon earth, and die faithless and impenitent, must never hope to be with him where he is, in heaven. (2.) A little while will deliver the faithful out of all their troubles. Let us therefore patiently endure. The time is short.
Lastly, mistaking his meaning, they bewildered themselves in idle and vain reasonings whither he would go, that they should not find him; whether among the dispersed Jews, or among the Gentiles; as if he could find no disciples among those, who were judges of his pretensions; or as defying him to go where they could not follow him.
3rdly, The officers returned without executing their commission, and Jesus went on in the public exercise of his ministry. We have,
1. His discourse on the last day of the feast, when a vast concourse attended at the temple, and they used with great solemnity to draw water from the pool of Siloam, and pour it out with great rejoicings: on which he took occasion to speak of himself as the living water. He cried, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. Earnest to invite poor sinners to partake of his rich grace, he lifted up his voice aloud, and urged them to come to him and be happy. The invitation is general, to any man that thirsts: and none can truly come to Christ but those who feel their want of him, and therefore hunger and thirst after him and the holiness which he has to bestow: to such Christ is a fountain of living waters, refreshing and satisfying the longing desires of their souls. He that believeth on me, as the only Saviour, and reposes his entire confidence on my all-sufficiency to supply his every want, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water; such an abundance of spiritual gifts, graces, and consolations, shall be bestowed upon him, that, like a perpetual and copious fountain, they shall flow forth in streams of righteousness, and diffuse blessings on every side, Isa 41:18; Isa 43:20; Isa 44:3. Joe 2:28.
2. The evangelist explains the meaning of Christ’s words. This spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive, in a more abundant and glorious manner than had been ever vouchsafed before: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, in that most plentiful effusion of his divine influences which was promised, Joe 2:28 because that Jesus was not yet glorified: and it was needful that he should first pass through his state of humiliation, and enter into his glory; when on the day of Pentecost the most astonishing out-pourings of the Spirit should attest the Saviour’s exaltation; and not only the miraculous powers communicated by him should evidence the divine authority under which the apostles acted; but the strongest demonstrations of his power should accompany their preaching; and under the gospel dispensation the souls of those who were converted, should be filled with the largest measures of light, holiness, and joy.
3. The people were divided greatly in their sentiments concerning Christ. Many, struck with his divine teaching, could not help expressing their persuasion of his mission from God, as one of the prophets risen from the dead, as a forerunner of the Messiah. Others went farther; thinking him not the harbinger, but the king Messiah himself. But others, prejudiced by their national pride and false notions of the Messiah, objected that he came out of Galilee, whereas Christ was to descend from the lineage of David, and to come from Bethlehem, the residence of David’s ancestors; as he did, though they knew it not. Thus, while the sentiments of the people were divided, the officers and his enemies, though they would fain have arrested him, were restrained by a divine power, and offered him no violence. Note; (1.) The gospel of Christ often creates great divisions; for, though it breathes nothing but peace, they who refuse to receive the truth, cannot but oppose it. (2.) Many flatter themselves that they have right on their side for want of examining into facts and evidence, when their conclusions would often be found utterly unsupported.
4thly, While the chief priests and Pharisees, as in duty bound, should have been in the temple, leading the devotions of the people, we find them maliciously consulting how to destroy the Lord of that sacred place, for which they professed so high a veneration.
1. The officers returned without the prisoner, and are sharply questioned, why they have not executed their orders. They honestly acknowledged that they could not; they were so overawed with the majesty of Jesus, and with the power and evidence of his discourse, that their hearts failed them. Never man spake like this man. Note; There is a power accompanying the preaching of the gospel, which has often disarmed the rage of the bitterest enemies, and made those bow down before the word of truth, who came to disturb the preacher.
2. The Pharisees with indignation upbraided them with their weakness. Are ye also deceived? Can men of your sense and rank be imposed on by such a delusion? Have any of the rulers, or of the Pharisees, believed on him? men of the greatest abilities, fashion, and reputation; the wisest and most devout? but this people, who knoweth not the law, the vulgar herd, are cursed, abandoned of God to every impostor, and through their ignorance of the law unable to judge of his pretensions. Note; (1.) Few of the rulers and Pharisees, the great men, and few of the self-righteous devotees who value themselves on their own goodness, ever embrace the gospel in its power. (2.) Many are prejudiced against the gospel, because they see the profession of it is unfashionable, and not the way of this world’s preferment. (3.) It is common with this world’s wise men to treat the poor disciples of Jesus as an ignorant, contemptible, deluded set of creatures; yet to the babes hath God revealed, what they, who boast of their superior wisdom, never knew. (4.) The causeless curse will not fail, but upon the head of him that utters it.
3. Nicodemus, who had visited Jesus by night, Ch. Joh 3:2 and was secretly a disciple, could not hear those infamous and unjust reflections, unmoved; and therefore, assuming courage, he remonstrated against their unreasonable and illegal manner of proceeding. They condemned unheard, contrary to all rules of justice and equity; whereas, at least, they should have given Christ an impartial hearing, and examined thoroughly into facts, before they decided on the merit of the case. Nothing could be more sensible and just than the maxim, but it does not appear that any seconded or supported the motion. Note; (1.) Christ has some who dare own his cause, even among the great and noble. (2.) It is highly wicked and unjust to condemn any man till he has had a fair hearing, and liberty to speak in his own defence.
4. Instead of refuting the force of his argument, they fell to reviling; Art thou also of Galilee? A disciple of this despicable Galilean? Search, and look; for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet. They concluded that Jesus had been born in Galilee, because he had made it his chief abode; and as false was their assertion concerning the scriptures; for Jonah was of Galilee, and probably Nahum and Elijah also. Note; (1.) It is a sure sign of a bad cause, when men have recourse to abuse in the stead of argument. (2.) Many confidently appeal to the scriptures, as if it was the same thing to assert and prove; but we must examine for ourselves, and not take the scripture upon trust.
5. Hereupon the council separated, and each retired to his own home, unable to answer Nicodemus, and ashamed to proceed farther, where the injustice was so glaring. Note; One faithful man, who dares make a stand for Christ, will often silence and confound a whole company of gainsayers.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Joh 7:53 . Belonging to the spurious section concerning the adulteress. “ And every one went ” every one, that is, of those assembled in the temple to his own house ; so that the end of the scene described in Joh 7:37 f. is related. Chap. Joh 8:1 is against the view which understands it of the members of the Sanhedrim , who separated without attaining their object (against Grotius, Lampe, etc., even Maier and Lange). Chap. Joh 8:2 forbids our taking it as referring to the pilgrims at the feast returning to their homes (Paulus).
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
REFLECTIONS
Reader! behold the glories of the Lord Jesus, as set forth in this chapter. Say! do not the accumulated testimonies to his eternal power and Godhead, shine like the rich constellation of the heavenly bodies, in one full cluster? And in his Mediator-character no less, behold, what rich and splendid proofs the Lord manifested, that his doctrine was of God! But yet we are told, that even his brethren believed not on him! How should they, who were no brethren in the grace-union of his body the Church, but only brethren in the Jewish nation and character, after the flesh? Ah! no. All are not Israel, which are of Israel; neither because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children. What hath the Ishmaels, and the Esaus, to do with the covenant? Oh! the distinguishing grace of God! oh! the blessedness of the children of promise!
Dearest Lord Jesus! do thou condescend still to come to our feasts, by the sweet manifestations of thy Spirit. For without thy presence, the richest ordinances have no savor. All the stars in the firmament to our world, will not make one sun. And where Jesus, the Sun of Righteousness is not, it is in vain to look for light, or warmth, from all our services. But if my Lord come up to his banquetting house the Church, and cause his redeemed to sit under his shadow with great delight, then shall the whole Jerusalem of our God upon earth, like the Jerusalem of our God which is above, be feasted with the same love of Jesus. Then shall that scripture promise be fulfilled; we shall suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations, and milk out and be delighted with the abundance of her glory!
Reader! let you and I be continually seeking grace from the Lord, that under this divine discourse of Jesus, brought home to our warmest affection by the gracious teachings of God the Holy Ghost, we may each for ourselves be enabled to set our seals that God is true. And Surely, my brother, if so be you have tasted that the Lord is gracious, however you behold Jesus as a stumbling block, and a rock of offence to those blind rulers in Israel, to you he will be more precious, more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey. everyone who is made partaker of the grace in Jesus, will confess his graciousness, and know that never man spake like this man! Dearest Master! may it be my portion to derive all that is truly blessed and desirable in the present life from thee; for sure I am all that is truly glorious in another can only flow from thee. And be it, my honored Lord, my supreme happiness to live upon what Jesus is to me, and hath done for me, and not upon any supposed attainments of mine in following after thee. Indeed, indeed, thou Almighty Savior, the sole joy of the Church, both above and below, can only be in thyself, as that sweet scripture most blessedly confirms, In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
53 And every man went unto his own house.
Ver. 53. And every man went, &c. ] Nicodemus, with one word seasonably put in, dissolves the council; and keeps them, for this time, from attempting against Christ. See what one man may do against a mischievous multitude otherwise. Ille regit dictis animos, et pectora mulcet. (Virgil.) What a stickler was Nehemiah at Jerusalem, Paphnutius at the Nicene Council, Wycliffe, Huss, Luther, in their generations. It is good to be doing, though there be few or none to second us; and though we be asked, as that good Bishop Liberius was by the Arian emperor Constantius, Quota pars es tu orbis terrarum? (Theodoret, ii. 16.) It is said of Luther, Quod unus homo solus totius orbis impetum sustinuerit.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
53. ] The circumstance that this verse is included in the dubious passage is remarkable, and seems to shew, as remarked above, that the doubt has not arisen from the ethical difficulty , as Aug [118] hints (var. readd.), for then the passage would have begun with ch. Joh 8:1 . Nor can this verse have been expunged to keep up the connexion with ch. Joh 8:12 for that is just as good with it , if understood, as usually, of the members of the Sanhedrim. We must now regard it as fragmentary, forming the beginning of the account of the woman taken in adultery. It is therefore not clear to what the words apply. Taken in conjunction with what follows (see on ch. Joh 8:5 ), I should say that they indicate some time during the last days of the Lord’s ministry, when He spent the nights on the Mount of Olives, as the date of the occurrence. Certainly the end of Luk 21 . seems to be its fitter place.
[118] Augustine, Bp. of Hippo , 395 430
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
And every man, &c. From Joh 7:53 — Joh 8:11 is omitted by L T Tr. [A] The Revised Version note questions it. WH place it in double brackets at the end of the Gospel. As to ancient MSS., A (the Alexandrine, London) and C (Ephraemi, Paris), are defective here, so that the oldest omitting it are (Sinaitic, Cent. v), B (Vatican, Cent. iv). The oldest containing it is D (Bezae, Cent. vi). It is contained in the Vulgate (383), and Jerome (378-430) testifies (adv. Pelag. ii. p. 762) that it is found in many Greek and Latin Codices. It is also found in the Jerusalem Syriac (Cent. v), the Memphitic (Cent. iii or iv), Aethiopic (Cent. iv). Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea (315-320), quotes (Hist. Ecc. iii. 39) Papias, Bishop of Hierapolis (in Phrygia, 130), as refering to it. Ambrose (374-397) quotes it, as does Augustine (395-430), de adult. coniugiis (lib. ii, cap. 7). Though WH omit it, Dean Burgon (1883) quotes: “Drs. W. and H. remark that ‘the argument which has always told most in its favour in modern times is its own internal character. The story itself has justly seemed to vouch for its own internal truth, and the words in which it is clothed to harmonize with other Gospel narratives’ (The Revision Revised, p. 311, note). We may ask: How is it that all the MSS. which do contain it (including 300 Cursives) agree in placing it here? It was another attempt following on Joh 7:32, and referred to in Joh 8:15.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
53.] The circumstance that this verse is included in the dubious passage is remarkable, and seems to shew, as remarked above, that the doubt has not arisen from the ethical difficulty, as Aug[118] hints (var. readd.),-for then the passage would have begun with ch. Joh 8:1. Nor can this verse have been expunged to keep up the connexion with ch. Joh 8:12-for that is just as good with it,-if understood, as usually, of the members of the Sanhedrim. We must now regard it as fragmentary, forming the beginning of the account of the woman taken in adultery. It is therefore not clear to what the words apply. Taken in conjunction with what follows (see on ch. Joh 8:5), I should say that they indicate some time during the last days of the Lords ministry, when He spent the nights on the Mount of Olives, as the date of the occurrence. Certainly the end of Luke 21. seems to be its fitter place.
[118] Augustine, Bp. of Hippo, 395-430
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Joh 7:53. And every man went unto his own house.
Joh 8:1. Jesus went unto the mount of Olives.
That is, as every man went to his own house to rest, so Jesus found rest in secret prayer on the Mount of Olives. There is a very striking contrast here; it is a pity to have brought the dividing saw right through the middle of such charming consecutive sentences.
Joh 8:2. And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them.
That is always the posture in the East; the teachers sit, and the hearers stand. We may have to try that plan one of these days; it might be better for me, and also for you. There might be less drowsiness, perhaps, if the congregation had to stand to listen to the preachers message.
Joh 8:3-4. And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, they say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.
They did this only to entangle the Saviour, not because they wanted to learn anything of him, or to do this woman any good, or even to vindicate morality; but it was simply an effort to entrap him.
Joh 8:5-6. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him.
They could accuse him either way. If he sanctioned their stoning the woman, they would charge him with violating the Roman law; but if he said that she should not be stoned, then they would say that he differed from Moses, and set aside the law of God.
Joh 8:6-7. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let Him first cast a stone at her.
That sentence must have flashed like a drawn sword, keen as a razor, through the very midst of them. Here were men who had probably been living in abominable sin, yet they had brought this poor sinful woman to Jesus, and laid this accusation against her.
Joh 8:8. And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.
After be had fired that one red-hot shot, he waited until it had produced its due effect.
Joh 8:9. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last; and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
They left her alone with Jesus in the midst of the place that the guilty crowd had forsaken in silent shame.
Joh 8:10-11. When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.
He condemned the sin, his own pure and holy life was the best condemnation of that; but, as for the sinner, he had not come to condemn, but to forgive. His own declaration was, The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
This exposition consisted of readings from Joh 7:53; and Joh 8:1-11.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Joh 7:53. ) Ant. Blackwall de Classicis Sacris, p. 497, ed. Woll., is of opinion, that these words ought to form the beginning of the chapter next following. If any change is to be made, you might end the 7th chapter with [ch. Joh 8:1], of Olives, in order that the conclusions of the days in the action, and of the divisions in the text, may coincide. A matter of trifling moment; but yet the ancient division is most conveniently retained, in order that the departure of Jesus to the mount of Olives may he connected closely with His entry into the temple on the following day.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Joh 7:53
Joh 7:53
And they went every man unto his own house.-[The session of the Sanhedrin broke up and each member went to his own home.]
Questions on John Chapter Seven
E.M. Zerr
1. Why did Jesus avoid Judea?
2. What feast was at hand?
3. State the advice of his brethren.
4. Does this mean his religious brethren?
5. What reason given why his works should be public?
6. What prompted this speech of his brethren?
7. Why had he yet not worked more publicly?
8. Whose opportunity was always present?
9. Why did the world hate Jesus?
10. State his direction to his brethren.
11. Why not do this himself?
12. Where did he do this waiting?
13. In what way did he finally attend the feast?
14. Who sought for him?
15. What sentiments were expressed concerning him?
16. Why were they not spoken openly?
17. What did Jesus finally do?
18. At what did the Jews marvel?
19. How did Jesus account for the situation?
20. How might a man test the doctrine?
21. What indicates a man seeks his own glory?
22. State the contrast in the conduct of Jesus.
23. What were these people seeking to do?
24. In so doing what command would be violated?
25. Who did he say had given them this law?
26. How did they resent the accusation of Jesus?
27. What was the “one work” of 21st verse?
28. With whom did circumcision begin?
29. What had Moses done about it?
30. How about circumcision and the sabbath?
31. In what were the Jews inconsistent?
32. What constitutes unrighteous judgment?
33. State the inquiry some made.
34. What were they observing?
35. What did they ask of the rulers?
36. Concerning whom did they express doubt?
37. On what familiarity was this doubt based?
38. What did Jesus say about this common knowledge?
39. Tell whom he said they did not know.
40. Why did Jesus know him?
41. What did they then seek to do?
42. Tell why they failed.
43. How were many of the people affected?
44. State their significant question.
45. Whose ears did these remarks reach?
46. Upon hearing them what did they do?
47. Tell the announcement Jesus made to the officers.
48. Who were confused by this statement?
49. What explanation did they suggest among themselves?
50. On what subject did Jesus now speak?
51. How far along is the feast?
52. Who is antecedent of “his” in Joh 7:38?
53. What was he going to bestow?
54. Upon whom?
55. Why had this not yet been bestowed?
56. At this saying what did many people remark?
57. Why did others question it?
58. Explain their confusion at this point.
59. On their return what was asked the officers?
60. Give their explanation.
61. What answer did the Pharisees make to this?
62. State their anxious inquiry about the rulers.
63. Upon whom did they pronounce a curse?
64. What counsel did Nicodemus exprcss?
65. With what argument did they reply to him?
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
and every man
Joh 7:53 to Joh 8:11; is not found in some of the most ancient manuscripts. Augustine declares that it was stricken from many copies of the sacred story because of a prudish fear that it might teach immorality! But the immediate context Joh 7:12-46 beginning with Christ’s declaration, “I am the light of the world.” seems clearly to have its occasion in the conviction wrought in the hearts of the Pharisees, as recorded in; Joh 7:9; as also, it explains the peculiar virulence of the Pharisee’s words (Joh 7:41).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Job 5:12, Job 5:13, Psa 33:10, Psa 76:5, Psa 76:10
Reciprocal: 2Ch 10:16 – So all Israel Joh 20:10 – went Act 21:6 – they
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
3
The meeting “broke up” without any formal action being taken against Jesus, and the people all went to their places of stay.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Joh 7:53. And they went each one unto his own house. The first words of the section confirm the doubts which we have expressed as to its genuineness. They are not a natural mode of describing the breaking up of the Sanhedrin which had been in assembly (Joh 7:45); and other persons have been mentioned to whom it is possible to apply them.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Joh 7:53 to Joh 8:11. 53. And every one went away to his own house. Joh 8:1. But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2.And at the break of day, he came again into the temple; and all the people came to him;and he sat down and taught them. 3. Now the scribes and the Pharisees bring to him a woman taken in adultery;and having set her in the midst of the company, 4 they say to him, Master this woman has been taken in adultery, in the very Acts 5 now, in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such persons; as for thee therefore, what dost thou say? 6. They said this to test him, that they might be able to accuse him;but Jesus, stooping down, wrote with his finger on the ground. 7. As they continued asking him, he lifted himself up and said to them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast the stone at her. 8. Then he stooped down again and wrote on the ground. 9. They having heard this and being reproved by their conscience, went out, one by one, beginning with the eldest even to the last;and Jesus was left alone with the woman who was standing in the midst of the company. 10. Then Jesus, lifting himself up and no longer seeing any one but the woman, said to her, Woman, where are thine accusers?Did no one condemn thee?11. She said, No one, Lord. Jesus said to her, Neither do I condemn thee; go, and sin no more.
Ver. 53. Does the expression: every one went away refer, as seems natural from the context, to the members of the Sanhedrim, who return to their homes after the meeting, Joh 7:45-52? In that case, the remark is an idle one. Or does it refer to the whole people who, when the feast was ended, returned from the temple to their dwellings. This meaning would in itself be more acceptable. It was perhaps the meaning of this verse in the context from which the story has been detached. But in the narrative of John nothing leads us to this meaning of the word every one. Herein is an indication of a foreign intercalation.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
LXXIX.
THE STORY OF THE ADULTERESS.
(Jerusalem.)
dJOHN VII. 53-VIII. 11.
[This section is wanting in nearly all older manuscripts, but Jerome (A. D. 346-420) says that in his time it was contained in “many Greek and Latin manuscripts,” and these must have been as good or better than the best manuscripts we now possess. But whether we regard it as part of John’s narrative or not, scholars very generally accept it as a genuine piece of history.] d53 And they went every man unto his own house [confused by the question of Nicodemus, the assembly broke up and each man went home]: 1 but Jesus went unto the mount of Olives. [Probably crossing the mountain to the house of Lazarus and sisters.] 2 And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down [as an authoritative teacher did– Mat 5:1], and taught them. 3 And the scribes and the Pharisees bring a woman taken in adultery; and having set her in the midst, 4 they say unto him, Teacher, this woman hath been taken in adultery, in the very act. [The woman had probably been brought to the rulers for trial, and they had seen in her case what appeared to be a promising means of entrapping Jesus. In the presence of the woman and the form of their accusation we see their coarse brutality. The case could have been presented to Jesus without the presence of the woman, and without a detailed accusation.] 5 Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such [It was a case under Deu 22:22. Stoning was the legal method of capital punishment]: what then sayest thou of her? 6 And this they said, trying him, that they might have whereof to accuse him. [They were placing Jesus in a dilemma. They reasoned that he [451] could not set aside the law of Moses and clear the woman without so losing the confidence and favor of the people as to frustrate his claim to be Messiah. They thought he would therefore be compelled to condemn the woman. But if he ordered her to be put to death, he would be assuming authority which belonged only to the Roman rulers, and could therefore be accused and condemned as a usurper.] But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground. [His act was intended to make them vehement, and to give his answer greater effect. What he wrote is unimportant and immaterial, and hence was not told.] 7 But when they continued asking him [they insisted on an answer, hoping that he would so explain away the seventh commandment as to encourage them in breaking the sixth], he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. [Under the law ( Deu 17:7), the witnesses were to cast the first stone. Jesus maintained and vindicated the law, but imposed a condition which they had overlooked. The one who executed the law must be free from the same crime, lest by stoning the woman he condemn himself as worthy of a like death. There is no doubt that the words of Jesus impressed upon them the truth that freedom from the outward act did not imply inward purity or sinlessness– Mat 5:27, Mat 5:28.] 8 And again he stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground. [Thus giving them the opportunity to retire without the embarrassment of being watched.] 9 And they, when they heard it, went out one by one, beginning from the eldest, even unto the last [the oldest was first to be convicted of his conscience, because his experience of life’s sinfulness was necessarily the fullest]: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the midst. [I. e., in the midst of the court, where the crowd had been.] 10 And Jesus lifted up himself, and said unto her, Woman, where are they? did no man condemn thee? [This question is asked to pave the way for the dismissal of the woman.] 11 And she said, No man, Lord. [“Lord” is ambiguous; it [452] may mean “Master” or simply “sir.”] And Jesus said, Neither do I condemn thee: go thy way; from henceforth sin no more. [The woman did not ask forgiveness, so no words of pardon are spoken. Compare this case with Luk 12:14. Jesus did not come as an earthly judge; neither did he come to condemn, but to save. The narrative shows how Jesus could deal with malice and impurity in a manner so full of delicacy and dignity as to demonstrate the divine wisdom which dwelt within him.]
[FFG 451-453]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
PERICOPE ADULTERS.
Joh 7:53 to Joh 8:11. Jesus and the Woman Accused of Sin.The well-known story of the woman taken in adultery has no claim to be regarded as part of the original text of this gospel. It breaks the close connexion between John 7 and Joh 8:12 ff., and in style and vocabulary it is clearly Synoptic rather than Johannine. Of early Greek MSS the Cambridge MS (D) alone contains it, and in a text which differs considerably from that of the later Greek MSS from which it passed into the Received Text. Of early VSS the Latin alone contains it, and it was absent from some forms even of the Latin. It is supported by no early Patristic evidence. The evidence proves it to be an interpolation of a Western character. It is found in various places, after Joh 7:36 in one Greek MS, after Joh 7:44 in the Georgian Version, at the end of the gospel in other MSS. In one important group of Greek cursives it is found attached to Luk 21:37.
Eusebius (H.E., iii. 39) tells us that Papias recorded a similar story of a woman accused before the Lord of many sins, which was also in the Gospel according to the Hebrews. This suggests as the most probable explanation of its association with the Fourth Gospel that the story, which bears every mark of preserving a true tradition, found a place in Papias books of Expositions of the Dominical Logia, as illustrating the Lords saying (Joh 8:15), I judge no man (see Light-foot, Essays on Supernatural Religion, pp. 203ff.).
The evidence of Codex D and other textual phenomena suggest perhaps that it existed in more than one Greek translation. If so the original was not Latin, as the Latin texts show clear traces of translation from Greek. Its insertion in certain MSS in Lk. is due to the similarity between Joh 8:1 f. and Luk 21:37 ff.
The incident is not one which early Christian opinion would have been likely to invent. It is beyond the power of the sub-apostolic age to produce. As Lightfoot says, they had neither the capacity to imagine, nor the will to invent, an incident which, while embodying the loftiest of all moral teaching, would seem to them dangerously lax in its moral tendencies.
Like other questions addressed to the Lord the tempting consisted in the endeavour to catch Him in a dilemma. If He pronounced against the strict carrying out of the Mosaic Law He would be discredited with the people. If He counselled action contrary to the decrees of the Roman authorities, who had withdrawn from the Jews the power of inflicting capital punishment, His enemies would get material for accusation against Him. The answer contained nothing which disparaged legal punishment, and it threw on the accusers the responsibility of taking action. It left untouched the question of Jewish and Roman relations, and it raised the deeper moral issues of the right to condemn and the true end of punishment.
[Joh 8:9. when they heard it: C. R. Gregory (ET, x. 193) quotes an ancient MS as giving when thay read it.A. J. G.]
(See also Supplement)
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
7:53 {19} And every man went unto his own house.
(19) There is no counsel against the Lord.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
This verse suggests that the story that follows was originally the continuation of another narrative. "Everyone" apparently refers to people at a gathering in Jerusalem. This could refer to the Sanhedrin and the officers mentioned in Joh 7:45-52. However it could also refer to other people on a different occasion.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
4. The woman caught in adultery 7:53-8:11
The textual authenticity of this pericope is highly questionable. Most ancient Greek manuscripts dating before the sixth century do not contain it. However, over 900 ancient manuscripts do contain it including the important early so-called Western text (uncial D). We have about 24,000 ancient manuscripts of the New Testament or parts of it. This number, by the way, contrasts strongly with the number of early copies of the writings of other ancient writers. For example, we have about 643 copies of the writings of Homer, 8 of Herodotus, 9 of Euripides, 8 of Thucydides, 7 of Plato, 49 of Aristotle, and 20 of Tacitus. Furthermore, the earliest copy of the New Testament that we have dates about 125 years after its composition whereas the earliest copy of one of the extrabiblical writings referred to above dates about 400 years after its composition.
None of the church fathers or early commentators referred to this story in their comments on this Gospel. Instead they passed from Joh 7:52 right on to Joh 8:12. Several later manuscripts identify it as special by using an asterisk or obelus at its beginning and ending. An obelus is a straight horizontal stroke either simple or with a dot above and another below it. Writers of ancient manuscripts used obeli to mark a spurious, corrupt, doubtful, or superfluous word or passage. Some old copies have this pericope after Joh 7:36 or Joh 7:44 or Joh 21:25 or Luk 21:38. Its expressions and constructions are more similar to Luke’s writings than they are to John’s. [Note: For a discussion of the evidence, see Hoskyns, pp. 563-64; B. M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, pp. 219-22. For an alternative view, see Zane C. Hodges, "The Woman Taken in Adultery (John 7:53-8:11): The Text," Bibliotheca Sacra 136:544 (October-December 1979):318-32.]
"This entire section, Joh 7:53 to Joh 8:11, traditionally known as the pericope adulterae, is not contained in the earliest and best MSS [manuscripts] and was almost certainly not an original part of the Gospel of John. Among modern commentators and textual critics, it is a foregone conclusion that the section is not original but represents a later addition to the text of the Gospel." [Note: The Net Bible note on 7:53.]
The event described here may have occurred, though the passage may represent a conflation of two different accounts (cf. Joh 21:25). [Note: See Bart D. Ehrman, "Jesus and the Adulteress," New Testament Studies 34 (1988):24-44.] Perhaps it was a piece of oral tradition that later scribes inserted here to illustrate the sinfulness of the Jewish leaders (cf. Joh 7:24; Joh 8:15; Joh 8:46).
"It may be accepted as historical truth; but based on the information we now have, it was probably not a part of the original text." [Note: Tenney, "John," p. 89.]
Then did the Holy Spirit inspire it? Probably He did not. It is similar to some of the apocryphal stories, which some Christian traditions accept as inspired but which others do not. How should the modern Christian use this story? Some expositors do not preach or teach the passage publicly because they believe it is uninspired. However other Christians disagree and accept it as equally authoritative as the rest of Scripture. Roman Catholics accept it because it was in Jerome’s Latin Vulgate translation (late fourth century A.D.), which they regard as authoritative.
If I do not believe it was part of the inspired text of John’s Gospel, why have I bothered to expound it below? I have done so because most English Bibles contain this pericope, and many Christians have questions about it. It is possible that, though not a part of John’s original Gospel, the Holy Spirit inspired it, though this view has problems connected with it.