Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 5:43
I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.
43. and ye receive me not ] The tragic tone as in Joh 5:39-40, ‘I come with the highest credentials, as My Father’s representative (comp. Joh 8:42), and ye reject Me.’
come in his own name ] As a false Messiah or as Antichrist. Sixty-four pretended Messiahs have been counted. Comp. Mat 24:24.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
I am come in my Fathers name – By the authority of God; or giving proof that I am sent by him.
If another shall come in his own name – A false teacher setting up himself, and not even pretending to have a divine commission. The Jews were much accustomed to receive and follow particular teachers. In the time of Christ they were greatly divided between the schools of Hillel and Shammai, two famous teachers.
Ye will receive – You will follow, or obey him as a teacher.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Joh 5:43
I am come in My Fathers name, and ye receive Me not.
Whence learn
I. Albeit Christ be God over all, equal with the Father, and Lord over His own house, and so acts in His own name, yet IT PLEASED HIM TO CONDESCEND as Mediator, not only to purchase life to them that come to Him, but to COME into the world CLOTHED WITH A COMMISSION FROM THE FATHER to make offer of this purchased life, that by His condescendence He might commend His love to His people, and teach them humility, and not to run on a calling unsent, and that we might look on Him as approved of the Father, and that such as come to Him the Father will accept them, for saith He, I am come in My Fathers name (see Php 2:3; Php 2:6-7, etc.; Mat 3:17; Heb 5:4-5).
II. CHRIST thus coming IS TO BE RECEIVED, His doctrine to be heard, Himself to be acknowledged for such in His person, offices, commission, and benefits, as He declareth Himself to be; to be rested on and embraced, to be employed and submitted to as such, for so is imported in that they should receive Him.
III. Albeit Christ be the great Ambassador of the Father, not a servant, but the Son (Mat 21:37). And albeit He was singular in His admiration of His office, mad all tending to the good of sinners, YET SUCH IS THE PERVERSENESS OF THE WORLD AS NOT TO MAKE HIM WELCOME; for it is the peculiar privilege of the elect to be drawn to Him, and others, they neither see His excellency, nor feel their need of Him; therefore saith He, I am come in My Fathers name, and ye receive Me not.
IV. SUCH AS REJECT CHRIST ARE DESTITUTE OF THE LOVE OF GOD, nor have they any evidence of respect to Him, since Christ is the clearest image of the Father, and cometh in His name, and the Father will not be acknowledged but in add through Him. Therefore by this doth He prove that challenge (Joh 5:42).
V. WHEN CHRIST MANIFESTS HIMSELF to the world, IT IS USUAL WITH SATAN TO HOUND OUT SEDUCERS AND FALSE TEACHERS, to study to bear him down, to seduce souls, and by their courses to make the way of truth odious; for so is imported that another shall come, pretending either to be the Christ, or to hold Him out to others (see Mat 24:5; Mat 24:24; Act 5:36-37).
VI. ALBEIT FALSE TEACHERS PRETEND TO COME IN GOD AND CHRISTS NAME (Mat 24:5), YET THEY DO BUT COME IN THEIR OWN, as having no commission when they run, as malting themselves, their reputation and advantage, their chief aim in their undertaking, and as speaking the imaginations of their own heart and brain, without any warrant from God; for another shall come in His own name.
VII. SUCH AS EMBRACE NOT CHRIST MAY TAKE WORSE IN HIS ROOM, and will easily receive and embrace false teachers and seducers. Mens nature is propense to evil courses, and is readiest to be affected with what is wrong. And seducers are more ready to serve mens humours than faithful ministers may be, and withal it is Gods just judgment on the world to give them up to such, since they will not receive the love of the truth (2Th 2:10-12). Therefore saith He, If another come in his own name, him ye will receive. This is the heinous sin of men, to affront Christ, to respect Satan in his messengers, before God in His Son, as to prefer lies to truth. And it is their dreadful punishment to be given up to such delusions, because they will not see the light, or do receive it only as it may serve their turn, or weary of the light, and walk not answerable to it. And men should be ashamed of their errors, as being their plague, and a proclamation that they have not received the love of the truth. (G. Hutcheson.)
He who despises the Dove (Joh 1:42) falls a prey to the frogs Rev 16:13). (R. Berser, D. D.)
There is light for those loving light, and darkness for those loving darkness. (Pascal.)
Robert Owen rejected Christianity, and died a believer in spirit-rapping. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 43. I am come in my Father’s name] With all his influence and authority. Among the rabbins, it was essential to a teacher’s credit that he should be able to support his doctrine by the authority of some eminent persons who had gone before. Hence the form, Coming in the name of another.
If another shall come in his own name] Having no Divine influence, and no other authority than his own, him ye will receive. That this was notoriously the case may appear from Josephus, Antiq. b. xviii. c. 14; Ac 5:36-37; Eusebius, Eccl. Hist. b. iv. c. 6. It is by the just judgment of God, that those who will not believe the truth of God shall be so given up as to believe the most absurd of lies. For an account of these false Christs, See Clarke on Mt 24:5.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
I am come clothed with an authority from my Father, sent by him for this very purpose, to reveal his will to men for their salvation; I speak, I do nothing but by the authority of my Father which sent me; nor do I aim at my own glory, but the glory of him that sent me: yet you give no credit to my words, nor embrace me, as him whom God hath sent for the Saviour of man.
If another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive; through the corruption of your hearts, and the just judgment of God, giving you up to strong delusions to believe lies, 2Th 2:11. If any seducers come, without any authority from God, never sent of him, nor speaking his words, nor seeking his glory, or your good, you will readily enough receive them.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
43-47. if another shall come,&c.How strikingly has this been verified in the history of theJews! “From the time of the true Christ to our time, sixty-fourfalse Christs have been reckoned by whom they have been deceived”[BENGEL].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
I am come in my Father’s name,…. Power and authority; by his consent, with his will, and according to a covenant with him: Christ came not of himself, of his own accord, by a separate power and will of his own, but was called, and sent, and came by mutual agree meat; and brought his credentials with him, doing the works and miracles which his Father gave him to finish:
and ye receive me not; notwithstanding this they rejected him as the Messiah, and would not receive him as such; yea, traduced him as an impostor, and a deceiver:
if another shall come in his own name; which some understand of Simon Magus, others of antichrist; rather the false Christs are intended, of whom our Lord speaks, in Mt 24:24, who would rise up of themselves, and not be able to give any proof of their mission; or do anything which might entitle them to the character of the Messiah, or Christ, a name they would take to themselves: and so the Ethiopic version reads, “if another shall come in my name”; saying he is Christ, or the Messiah:
him ye will receive; as thousands of them did receive Barchocab, the false Christ, who rose up some years after in Adrian’s time; and even some of their greatest Rabbins, as particularly the famous R. Akiba, who was his armour bearer: and it is easy to observe, that though they were so backward to receive, and so much prejudiced against the true Messiah, they were always forward enough to embrace a false one: and indeed to follow any, that set up himself for a temporal deliverer of them; as the instances of Theudas, and Judas of Galilee, with others, show; see Ac 5:36. And the true reason why they rejected Christ was, because he did not appear in outward pomp and glory, nor set up a temporal kingdom, or give out that he would deliver them from the Roman yoke.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
In my Father’s name ( ). Seven times Jesus in John speaks of the “Name” of the Father (John 5:43; John 10:25; John 12:28; John 17:6; John 17:11; John 17:12; John 17:26). See 1:12 for use of (Lu 1:49).
And ye receive me not ( ). “And yet ye do not receive me,” as in verse 40, “the Gospel of the Rejection” (John 1:11; John 3:11; John 3:32; John 12:37) often applied to the Fourth Gospel.
If another come ( ). Condition of third class ( and second aorist active subjunctive of ). Note , not , like in 2Co 11:4. Similar prophecies occur in Mark 13:6; Mark 13:22 (Matt 24:5; Matt 24:24), all general in character like Antichrist in 2Th 2:8-12. There is no occasion for a reference to any individual like Barcochba (about A.D. 134) as Pfleiderer and Schmiedel hold. These Messianic upstarts all come “in their own name” and always find a following.
Him ye will receive ( ). “That one,” whoever he is, as Jesus said. Future active indicative of . Credulous about the false Messiahs, incredulous about Christ.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “I am come in my Father’s name,” (ego elelutha en to onomati tou patros mou) “I have come (to you) in the name or my Father,” or by the administrative mandate of my Father, confessing Him, acknowledging Him who sent me, Joh 6:37; Joh 3:17; Joh 20:21.
2) “And ye receive me not:” (kai ou lambanete me) “And you all do not receive me,” or take me not for who I am and whose I am, Joh 1:11.
3) “If another shall come in his own name,” (ean allos elthe en to onomati to idio) “If or when another comes in his own name,” and he will, not having been God-sent, the anti-christ, Dan 9:26-27; Dan 7:1-28; Dan 8:23-27.
4) “Him ye will receive.” (ekeinon lempsesthe) “That one and (that kind of) one you all will receive,” or take to yourselves, 2Th 2:3-8; Rev 19:20.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
43. I have come in my Father’s name The false prophets do indeed boast of this title, as the Pope, in the present day, boasts with open mouth that he is Christ’s Deputy or Vicar; and under this very disguise has Satan deceived wretched men from the beginning. But Christ here means the reality, and not a hypocritical pretense; for when he testifies that he has come in his Father ’ s name, he means not only that the Father has sent him, but that he faithfully executes the commission which he has received. By this mark he distinguishes the lawful teachers of the Church from spurious and pretended teachers. This passage, therefore, teaches that we ought boldly to reject all who exalt themselves, and, in their own name, claim authority over souls; for he who is desirous to be reckoned a servant of God ought to have nothing separate from God. Now, if the whole doctrine of the Pope be examined, even the blind will see that he has come in his own name. (110)
If another come in his own name, him you will receive. That the Jews do not love God, and have no reverence for him, Christ proves by this argument, that they will eagerly receive the false prophets, while they refuse to obey God; for he takes for granted, that it is a sign of a wicked and ungodly mind, when men disregard truth and willingly assent to falsehoods. If it be objected that this is generally done rather through ignorance than through malice, the answer is easy. No man is exposed to the impostures of Satan, except so far as, through some wicked disposition, he prefers falsehood to truth. For how comes it that we are deaf when God speaks, (111) and that Satan finds us ready and active, but because we are averse to righteousness, and of our own accord desire iniquity? Though it ought to be observed that here Christ speaks chiefly of those whom God peculiarly enlightened, as he bestowed on the Jews this privilege, that, having been instructed in his Law, they might keep the right way of salvation. It is certain that such persons lend an ear to false teachers for no other reason than because they wish to be deceived. Accordingly, Moses says that, when false prophets arise, this is intended to prove and try the people if they love the Lord their God, (Deu 13:3.) In many persons, no doubt, there appears to be an innocent and guileless simplicity, (112) but their eyes are undoubtedly blinded by the hypocrisy which lurks within their minds. For it is certain that God never shuts the door to those who knock, (Mat 7:8,) never disappoints those who sincerely pray to him, (Isa 45:19.) Justly, therefore, does Paul ascribe it to the vengeance of God, when the power of deceiving is given to Satan,
that they who have rejected the truth, and taken pleasure in unrighteousness, may believe a lie, and says that they perish who did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved, (2Th 2:9.)
In this manner is discovered the hypocrisy of many who, devoted to the impostures and wicked superstitions of the Pope, burn with envenomed rage against the Gospel; for if they had hearts disposed to the fear of God, that fear would likewise produce obedience.
(110) In transposing the two portions of the exposition of this verse, I have followed the French version of our Author, who, having observed that his observations on the first clause of this verse were placed last, restored the clauses to their natural order. — Ed.
(111) “ Que nous sommes sourds quand Dieu parle.”
(112) “ Une simplicite innocente et sans malice.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(43) I am come in my Fathers name.So far from self-assertion or honour-seeking, He came in the name of, as representing, the Father, guided only by His will, doing only His work (Joh. 4:34). Had they loved the Father, they must have received and reverenced His Son (Joh. 8:42; Mat. 21:37 et seq.). The absence of love is at the root of the rejection. The true Israelite became the true Christian (Joh. 1:47), but these were not true members of the Old Covenant, and could not therefore pass into the New.
If another shall come in his own name.Comp. the direct prophecy of false Christs and prophets in Mat. 24:24, and see Note there. The word come in this clause links the meaning with that of the come in the previous clause, and is to be understood of a false Messianic claim in opposition to the true. Sixty-four false Christs have been enumerated as appearing after the true Christ, and these words are often taken as a prophecy of one of the most famous of these, as Bar-Kochba. Not a few of the Fathers have understood the words of Antichrist. Perhaps the only definite reference is to the mental condition of the Jews. They would receive any other who came in his own authority, and seeking his own glory. There would be no higher principle to which everything must yield. The seeker of power would fulfil their carnal interpretation of Messianic hopes. He would flatter and honour them, and therefore they would receive him.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
43. In my Father’s name The truly sent of God.
In own name Though pretendedly sent of God. No less than sixty-four false Messiahs have risen to deceive and destroy that deluded race.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Joh 5:43. I am come in my Father’s name, He came with a commission from his heavenly Father, to promote his glory, and a spiritual salvation from sin and wrath; and produced several unexceptionable witnesses to establish his divine character and offices; and yet, because he opposed their vices, and did not appear with worldly pomp, nor gave them expectations of secular riches, honour, and power, they would not believe in him. Whereas if any other person came to them in his own name; that is, without a commission from God, they would joyfully embrace him, provided he assumed the majesty of a king, and promised temporal bounties to his followers. The Jews gave many signal proofs of this infatuation during their wars with the Romans, and a little before the destruction of their city; for then, many impostors arose, pretending to be the Messiah, and promising them deliverance; by which they drew away great multitudes, as their own historian Josephus informs us, and we have observed in the note on Mat 24:26.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
43 I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.
Ver. 43. Him will ye receive ] As they did Barchochab; and that Pseudo-Moses (the devil he was) that deceived so many of them in Crete, A.D. 434, persuading them to cast themselves after him into the sea, which should part, and make them way into their own country again, whereby many of them perished.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
43. ] The first clause is clear. In the latter we have a prophetic declaration regarding the Jews in the latter days. This is in strong contrast with the of Joh 5:32 . ‘The testimony of that Other, who is greater than I, ye will not receive; but if another come in his own name, him ye will receive.’ The words are perhaps spoken primarily of the false or Idol-Messiah, the Antichrist, who shall appear in the latter days ( 2Th 2:8-12 ); whose appearance shall be (their father , ch. Joh 8:44 ), , 2Th 2:4 ; and doubtless, in that their final reference, embrace also all the cases in which the Jews have more or less received those false Messiahs who have been foreshadowers of the great Antichrist, and indeed all the cases in which such a spirit has been shewn by them, even in the absence of false Messiahs.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Joh 5:43 . It is just because I have come in the Father’s name that you do not receive me. Not really loving God, they could not appreciate and accept Jesus who came in God’s name, that is, who truly represented God. But , “if another come in his own name,” and therefore seeking only such glory as the Jews could give, him ye will receive; cf. Mat 24:5 ; Mat 24:23-24 . “He did not say, ‘If I had come in my own name,’ because the thing was so inconceivable.” Mason, Conditions of our Lord’s Life , etc., p. 90. Possibly Jesus had here in view Antichrist (see Bousset’s Antichrist , 133); but neither Bar Cochba nor any other definite Pseudo-Christ. Schudt mentions sixty-four.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
him, &c. Compare 2Th 2:4.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
43.] The first clause is clear. In the latter we have a prophetic declaration regarding the Jews in the latter days. This is in strong contrast with the of Joh 5:32. The testimony of that Other, who is greater than I, ye will not receive; but if another come in his own name, him ye will receive. The words are perhaps spoken primarily of the false or Idol-Messiah, the Antichrist, who shall appear in the latter days (2Th 2:8-12); whose appearance shall be (their father, ch. Joh 8:44), , 2Th 2:4;-and doubtless, in that their final reference, embrace also all the cases in which the Jews have more or less received those false Messiahs who have been foreshadowers of the great Antichrist, and indeed all the cases in which such a spirit has been shewn by them, even in the absence of false Messiahs.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Joh 5:43. ) ye receive Me not, through [in] faith.-, another) Any false Christ and Antichrist that may arise. From the time of the true Christ down to our age, sixty-four false Messiahs are reckoned up, by whom the Jews were deceived. See John Jam. Schudt, Jdische Merkwrdigkeiten, [111]. 6, c. 27, 30.
[111] Cod. Reg., Paris, of the Gospels: the text akin to that of B: edited by Tisch.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Joh 5:43
Joh 5:43
I am come in my Fathers name, and ye receive me not:-Jesus came as the representative of his Father to stand in the place and do the work of his Father. This is the meaning of coming in the name of another, to take his place, do his work, and to work for and in place of another. To act for and in the name of another is to ignore self and selfish ends and to act in behalf of him whom he represents. Jesus acted in the name of and for his Father.
if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.-These Jews rejected Jesus, but if another was to come acting in his own name for himself, him they would receive. [They rejected Jesus, their only hope, but would accept with pleasure a deceiver. Their history shows that they did this.]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
come: Joh 3:16, Joh 6:38, Joh 8:28, Joh 8:29, Joh 10:25, Joh 12:28, Joh 17:4-6, Eze 23:21, Heb 5:4, Heb 5:5
if: Mat 24:5, Mat 24:24, Act 5:36, Act 5:37, Act 21:38
Reciprocal: Exo 5:23 – in thy name Mat 24:23 – General Mar 13:6 – many Mar 13:21 – General Luk 21:8 – for Joh 3:11 – ye Joh 5:38 – for Joh 7:28 – and I Joh 8:26 – to judge Joh 8:42 – neither Joh 8:43 – do
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
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It is hard to understand why false teachers can have more suc cess in leading people than the true. Perhaps it is because such characters are unscrupulous about the means they will use to put over their theories.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Joh 5:43. I am come in my Fathers name, and ye receive me not. Referring everything to His Fathers power and presence, in everything doing His Fathers will and not His own, at all times seeking His Fathers glory, Jesus came in His Fathers name. Because that was His spirit, they did not receive Him.
If another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive. So far has self-seeking gone with them, that they can understand no other course of action than that which is animated by this principle. If a man come in the opposite spirit to that displayed by Jesus,setting forth himself alone, seeking his own ends, and guided by no will but his own, though all under the guise of promoting the glory of God,such a man they will be able to understand. They will sympathize with his motives, will even enthusiastically embrace his cause. The other course they cannot comprehend; so far as they do understand it, it is a constant reproach to them. This is a terrible description of those who were then the rulers of Gods people Israel: but, alas! the words apply with perfect fitness to the spirit which in every age of the history of Christs Church has contended against God whilst professing to do Him service; which in every age has tried to stop the progress of truth,sometimes without, at other times within, the Church,as truth has striven to pierce through forms that, once good, have with the course of time stiffened into the rigidity of death. Nothing can save from that spirit but the higher and nobler spirit breathing in the words, glory from man I receive not.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Ver. 43. The result of this contrast between His moral tendency and theirs. While they reject Him, the Messiah, whose whole appearance bears the seal of dependence on God, they will receive with eagerness every false Messiah who will act from his own wisdom and his own force, glorifying man in his person. All glorious with the glory of this world will be the one welcomed by these lovers of human glory. In the name of God: coming by His authority and as His delegate. In his own name: representing only himself, his own genius and power. , comes, in its relation to , I have come, can only denote a pseudo-Messianic appearance. According to the Synoptics also, Jesus expected false Christs (Mat 24:5; Mat 24:24 and the parallels). History has confirmed this prophecy; it speaks of sixty-four false Messiahs, who all succeeded in forming a party among the Jewish people in this way. See Schudt, Judische Merkwurdigkeiten (cited by Meyer). You will receive him; comp. 2Th 2:10-11. The application of this expression; another to the false Messiah Bacochebas (about 132), which some critics have desired to make for the purpose of proving that the composition of our Gospel belongs to the second century (Hilgenfeld, Thoma), is an absolutely gratuitous supposition, which has no authorization in the text.
This vicious tendency with which Jesus reproaches His adversaries went so far as even to destroy in them the faculty, the possibility of believing: Joh 5:44. The pronoun, , you, signifies: men such as you are (Joh 5:42-43). In the last words, the adjective , only, may be connected with the idea of : God who is the only God.Jesus would, in this case, characterize God as having, as only God, the right to bestow the true glory. This is the meaning ordinarily given to this expression. I think that it is more in the spirit of the context to understand, withGrotius and de Wette: the glory which is received from God alone, from God only, and not from men. The idea of these verses is that nothing renders men more unfit for faith than the seeking for human glory. But as necessarily as the current of Pharisaic vainglory bears the rulers of the people far away from faith, so infallibly would the spirit of love for God which inspires the books of Moses have directed them to Jesus and led them to faith.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
Verse 43
Another shall come; some false Christ.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
These critics failed to come to Jesus for life (Joh 5:40) also because they refused to acknowledge that He had come from the Father. In rejecting Jesus they had rejected the Father’s ambassador who had come in His name and, therefore, the Father Himself. If they had known and loved the Father, they would have recognized Jesus’ similarity to the Father. Having rejected the true Messiah the religious leaders would follow false messiahs. Rejection of what is true always makes one susceptible to counterfeits (cf. Luk 23:18-23).