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57 Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?

58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, 'I am.

T Ex. iii. 14.
Is. xliii. 13.

ch. xvii. 5, 24. Col. i. 17. Rev. i. 8.

greater than Abraham. The Lord meets their inference that the fact of Abraham having died falsifies these words of His, by telling them that Abraham, so far as it was possible for him, kept Christ's word. By a realizing faith in God's promises respecting his Seed, in which all the nations of the earth were to be blessed, he overcame death, for he rejoiced that he should see Christ's day, and so death would be to him deprived of its sting. The words should not be rendered, "rejoiced to see," but "rejoiced that he should see." He rejoiced in the belief that even if he were in the unseen world God would reveal to him the day of Christ.

The day of Christ is properly the time of Christ's coming into the world, but as the completion of Christ's whole redemptive work on earth was involved in His Incarnation and Birth (for what God had undertaken in so wondrous a way He could certainly carry out) we may take it that the seeing the day of Christ includes the seeing of His Life, Death, Resurrection, and Second Coming. "He saw it, and was glad." This does not mean in prophetic vision, but that in his place in Paradise God made him to know His Son's Incarnation and Birth. How he saw it we know not, for we do not know the conditions under which God makes known things occurring in this world to the spirits in the separate state: but we have here Christ's word that Abraham saw it and was glad. This seems to imply more than that he was told of it. In some unknown way he saw it. This answered by implication the question of the Jews," Art thou greater than our father Abraham?" He was infinitely greater because He was the object of Abraham's faith and hope, and religious joy.

57. "Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast," &c. Our Lord then must have been under thirtytwo or thirty-three. It is conjectured that owing to His Life of sorrow at the rejection of His own and His Father's word, He had the appearance of being much older.

58. "Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before

CHAP. VIII.]

JESUS HID HIMSELF.

t

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59 Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.

59. "

ch. x. 31, 39. & xi. 8.

Luke iv. 30.

Going through the midst of them, and so passed by" omitted by N, B., D., Old Latin, Vulg.; retained by A., C., L., X., later Uncials, Cursives, and Syriac.

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Abraham was, I am." Not "I was," but "I am." If he had said "I was it might have been taken to mean that He came into existence some time before Abraham, but "I am" signifies eternal being. By saying this of Himself He claims to be "the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity" of Isaiah, the One "whose goings forth have been from of old, of everlasting," of Micah, The Personal Wisdom "whom the Lord possessed in the beginning of his way, and before his works of old, Who was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the world was," of Solomon. "As the Father useth this expression 'I am,' so also doth Christ: for it signifies continuous-being irrespective of all time" (Chrysostom). "Weigh well the words and note the mystery, 'before Abraham was made' (fieret). Understand the fieret (was made) of the making of man, of man's coming into being, but understand I AM to pertain to the substance of Godhead." (Augustine.) That He used the words as asserting, not simply pre-existence, but Divine Eternal Existence, is evident from the conduct of the Jews. 59. "Then took they up stones to cast at him." If now He had not been Divine in His Nature He was bound to disabuse them. If He had said the words in any of the utterly unreal senses in which they are now understood by Rationalists or Socinians, His truth would have compelled Him to explain Himself; for they believed that He had, by what He said, committed the worst crime in their law, that of blasphemy; but by His silence He accepted their interpretation. Instead of explaining His words so as to rebut the charge, He withdrew Himself in some unknown way. The words going "through the midst of them, and so passing by," are doubtful and probably a gloss, but that under the eyes of an enraged multitude and in a public building, He hid Himself in some ordinary way seems impossible. He acted, no doubt, by the same exercise of superior power as once in Nazareth He passed through a multitude who were bent on destroying Him. (Luke iv. 30.)

A

CHAP. IX.

ND as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.

1. "And as he passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth." Whether this took place immediately on His going out of the temple, mentioned in the last verse of chapter viii., is uncertain. It is not unlikely, and if so, there is a very suggestive parallel between the account which follows and that in St. Luke iv. 36, in which our Lord is said to have "passed through" the midst of those who were seeking His life; for, in both cases, our Lord passed immediately from danger which threatened His Life to the performance of works of mercy. Thus, from that hill of Nazareth He went straight down to Capernaum, and healed in their synagogue a man who had a spirit of an unclean devil, just as on the present occasion, as He passed out of the temple, He wrought the wonderful miracle of the opening the eyes of the man born blind." (P. Young.)

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"He saw a man," &c. He must have stopped to observe him. No doubt He had a secret intimation from His Father that there was now a special work for Him to do. He looked at him attentively, so that the attention of the disciples was also directed to the blind man. Unbelievers and wilful sinners are blind, and are unable to see and to come to Christ, so that Christ must first look upon them, and give them the light in which they may see Him.

"Blind from his birth," and so his case was held to be hopeless. Because no instance had been known of the restoration of sight to one born blind, His enemies investigate the case by sending for his parents. His questioners can allege nothing against what he says in verse 32, "Since the world began, was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind."

The Jews regarded all The words of the Lord

2. "And his disciples asked him," &c. physical evil as the punishment of sin. to the impotent man whom He had healed (ch. v. 14), may have

CHAP. IX.] I MUST WORK WHILE IT IS DAY.

a

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2 And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?

a ver. 34.

3 Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.

4 I must work the works of him that sent

me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.

bch. xi. 4.

ch. iv. 34. &

v. xix. 36. &

xi. 9. & xii. 35.

& xvii. 4.

3. "Neither hath this man sinned." Better, "Neither did this man sin," i.e. so as to bring upon him blindness (Alford and Revisers).

4. "I must work." So A., C., most later Uncials, all Cursives, Old Latin, Vulg., Syriac. "We must work," N, B., D., L. Origen also seems to read "we." "Sent me." So A., B., C. "Sent us," N, L.

suggested the inquiry, "Who committed sin, this man, or his parents?" That the children were punished for the sin of the parents in cases of idolatry is certain from the second commandment, "Visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me." But how could the man himself have sinned? Only, of course, in a former state of existence. Josephus very clearly asserts that the Pharisees, who were the most popular religious sect, believed in the pre-existence of souls. "They say that all souls are incorruptible, but that the souls of good men only are removed into other bodies, but that the souls of bad men are subject to eternal punishment." ("Wars," ii. 8, 14.) It has been asserted that this quotation is not to the point, because Josephus speaks only of the souls of good men after death being born again in other bodies; but probably he states the doctrine very loosely, and this man may be supposed not to have been such a wicked man as to deserve eternal punishment, but one who had committed in his previous life some sin which required expiation.

The Lord, in His answer, in no sense allows the doctrine, but asserts the real reason for the man's blindness-that the works of God might be made manifest in him; first, in the restoration of his organs of sight, and then in the illumination of his soul by the faith of Christ. See also xi. 4.

4. "I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night," &c. The "day" of Christ here, is the time of His

5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

d ch. i. 5, 9. & iii. 19. & viii.

12. & xii. 35,

46.

e

6 When he had thus spoken, he spat on the

Mark vii. 33. ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he

& viii. 23.

5. "As long as I am." Alford and Revisers, "When I am;" Quamdiu (Vulg.). sojourn here in the flesh. During this time He had works to do in manifesting His Father's glory, and attaching to Himself those whom the Father had given to Him (xvii. 4, 6), which could not be done after He left the world. So this was His "day" of work -His day for working in humiliation, and disappointment, and tears the night of rest would soon come in which He must cease from these works, and enter upon a new sphere of Divine action altogether.

Much has been made of the reading of the Neutral Text, "We must work the works of Him that sent me." It has been used to show how Jesus associates his disciples with Himself in all His working; but this can hardly be the significance if it be genuine, for His day of work was about to be cut short by His departure, and then, and not till then, His disciples would enter upon their true and abiding work, as is manifest from chap. xv. 16 (which certainly looks to the future after His departure). Godet asks, "Is it not" [the reading "me "]"evidently a correction intended to generalize the application of verse 4, and to change this saying into an exhortation addressed to the disciples?" Besides the incongruity of "we must work the works of him that sent me." Some MSS., however, and L, follow on the first correction by reading "us;" but surely we must not confound the sending of Christ and that of his Apostles. "As my Father sent me, so send I you." (John xx.)

5. "As long as I am in the world." "Whilst I am in the world, I am the light of the world;" and so He proceeded to perform a miracle, which parabolically teaches us how he conveys His light to us. He does it by giving to us new organs of vision, or at least by wholly renewing what organs of spiritual vision we have.

6. "When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay," &c. What is the significance of this act? for significance it must have. The mixture of earth and spittle could not, of course, have the smallest natural effect on the eye, except to inflame it. If

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