Bible Commentaries

John 20:15. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? He asks the cause of her grief, to set her longing still more. For the mere mentioning His name Whom she sought would inflame her love for Him.—Perhaps, however, the woman was right in believing Jesus to be the gardener; was not He the spiritual Gardener, who by the power of His love had sown strong seeds of virtue in her heart?—But how is it that, as soon as she sees the gardener, as she supposes Him to be, she says without having told Him who it was she was seeking, sir, if thou hast borne Him hence? It arises from her love; when one loves a person, one never thinks that any one else can be ignorant of him.

John 20:18. So the sin of mankind is buried in the very place whence it came forth. For whereas in Paradise the woman gave the man the deadly fruit, a woman from the sepulchre announced life to men; a woman delivers the message of Him who raises us from the dead, as a woman had delivered the words of the serpent who slew us.—From Bede: John 20:18. In that Mary Magdalene announced Christ’s resurrection to the disciples, all, especially those to whom the office of preaching is committed, are admonished to be zealous in setting forth to others whatever is revealed from above.

[From Burkitt: John 20:11. Note Mary’s carriage and behaviour towards her Saviour; this is discovered by her patient attendance; She stood without at the sepulcher; by her passionate mourning, weeping; by her unwearied diligence, she stooped down and looked into the sepulcher.—Learn1. True love to Christ suffers not itself to be stinted or limited, no, not by the greatest examples; the weakest woman that truly loves Christ, may piously strive with the greatest apostle in this point; 2. Strong love is valiant and undaunted, it will grapple and encounter with the strongest opposition; Mary fears nothing in seeking of her Lord, neither the darkness of the night, nor the terror of the soldiers, nor the malice of the Jews: Love is strong as death, and the flames thereof are vehement.

John 20:12. Such as sincerely seek the Lord, shall certainly find, if not the very thing which they seek, yet that which is much better for them; Mary did not find Christ’s dead body, but she finds two angels to testify that He was risen.—It is matter of comfort to the members of Christ, that angels do not wait upon the head only, but upon the feet also; and it ought to be matter of imitation also.

John 20:13. The best company in the world will not satisfy or content such as are seeking for Jesus Christ, when they find not Him whom their souls seek; Mary now enjoyed the presence and company of two angels, but this did not satisfy her in the absence of Christ Himself,

John 20:14. Christ may be present with, and very near unto, His people, and yet not be presently discerned by them; Jesus stood by Mary, but she knew not that it was Jesus; her not expecting a living Christ, was one cause why she did not discern Him.

John 20:15. The soul of a sincere believer, 1. Is full of earnest and longing desires after Jesus Christ; 2. Is yet sometimes at a loss for Christ, and cannot tell where to find Him; 3. Whilst it is at a loss for Christ, its desires are often quicker and more stirring after Him.

John 20:17. Our love to Jesus Christ is best shown, not by our human passionate affection to His bodily presence, but by our spiritual communion with Him by faith here on earth, in order to an immediate communion with Him face to face in heaven.—Christ calls His disciples brethren, after His exaltation and resurrection; thereby showing that the change of His condition had wrought no change in His affection.—God for Christ’s sake has dignified believers with that near and dear relation of His being a Father to them in and through His Son.

[From M. Henry: John 20:11. Where there is a true love to Christ, there will be a constant adherence to Him, and a resolution with purpose of heart to cleave to Him.—Where there is a true desire of acquaintance with Christ, there will be a constant attendance on the means of knowledge.—They that seek Christ must seek Him sorrowing ( Luke 2:48), must weep, not for Him, but for themselves.—Weeping must not hinder seeking; though she wept, she stooped down, and looked in.—Those are likely to seek and find, that seek with affection and in tears.

John 20:14. The Lord is nigh to them that are of a broken heart ( Psalm 34:18), nearer than they are aware. They that seek Christ, though they do not see Him, may yet be sure He is not far from them.—Those that diligently seek the Lord, will turn every way in their inquiry after Him; Mary turned herself back, in hopes of some discoveries.

John 20:15. Whom seekest Thou? When Christ knows that His people are seeking Him, yet He will know it from themselves; they must tell Him whom they seek.—She, supposing Him to be the gardener, saith, etc.; Troubled spirits, in a cloudy and dark day, are apt to misrepresent Christ to themselves, and to put wrong constructions upon the methods of His providence and grace.

John 20:16. Mary; When those whom God knew by name in the counsels of His love ( Exodus 33:12), are called by name in the efficacy of His grace, then He reveals His Son in them, as in Paul ( Galatians 1:16).—Rabboni; Notwithstanding the freedom of communion which Christ is pleased to admit us to with Himself, we must remember that He is our Master, and to be approached with a godly fear.—Mary turned herself from the angels whom she had in her eye, to look unto Jesus; we must take off our regards from all creatures, even the brightest and best, to fix them upon Christ.—The soul that hears Christ’s voice, and is turned to Him, calls Him, with joy and triumph, My Master.

John 20:17. Mary must not stay to talk with her Master, but must carry His message; for it was a day of good tidings, which she must not engross the comfort of, but hand it to others.—My brethren; Though Christ be high, yet He is not haughty; notwithstanding His elevation, He disdains not to own His poor relations.—My Father, and your Father; My God, and your God; There are such an advancement of Christians and such a condescension of Christ, as bring them very near together.

John 20:18. When God comforts us, it is with this design, that we may comfort others.

[From A Plain Commentary (Oxford): John 20:12. Christ’s resting-place is therefore between two Angels, like the mercy-seat, of old. Even in His death, He is found to have dwelt, as in ancient days, “between the Cherubim.”

John 20:13. Woman, why weepest thou? “This case of Mary Magdalene is our case oftentimes: in the error of our conceit, to weep where we have no cause; to joy, where we have as little. Where we have cause to joy, we weep; and whereto weep, we joy. False joys and false sorrows, false hopes and false fears, this life of ours is full of.” (Bishop Andrewes.)

John 20:15. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? “Now, seeing Christ asks it again a second time, we will think there is something in it, and stay a little at it. The rather, for that it is the very opening of His mouth; the very first words that ever came from Him, and that He spoke first of all, after His rising again from death.…Thus say the Fathers; that Mary Magdalene standing by the grave’s side, and there weeping, is thus brought in to represent unto us the slate of all mankind before this Day, the Day of Christ’s rising again; weeping over the dead as do the heathens, who have no hope. But Christ comes and asks ‘Why weepest thou?’ as much as to say, ‘Weep not! There is no cause of weeping now.’ Henceforth, none shall need to stand by the grave to weep there any more.… So that this, ‘Why weepest thou?’ of Christ’s, (a question very proper for the day of the Resurrection,) wipes away tears from all eyes; puts off our mourning weeds, girds us with gladness, and robes us all in ‘white,’ with the Angels.” (Bishop Andrewes.)

John 20:17. Take notice that our Lord makes mention of ascending, twice; of rising, not at all. And it is to teach us that Resurrection is nothing, nor is any account to be made of it, if Ascension go not with it.…“Never take cave for Resurrection! That will come of itself, without any thought-taking of thine. Take thought for Ascension! set your minds there! Better lie still in our graves, better never rise, than rise, and, rising, not ascend.” (Bishop Andrewes.)

[From Barnes: John 20:17. Nothing was better fitted to afford them consolation than this assurance, that His God was theirs.—From Jacobus: John 20:13; John 20:15. Why weepest thou? How different are these words as spoken by Jesus from the same words spoken even by His Angels. Friends often ask the same thing, in our moments of anguish; but they can give no relief, and no arguments of theirs can cure the inward wound. But our blessed Lord reveals Himself in words of grace that go to the heart’s wound, and wonderfully heal.

John 20:15. Whom seekest thou? Thus the adorable Saviour would draw her out to tell what she wants and whom she seeks for. So pleased is He to hear any poor sinner say, I seek Jesus.—Your Beloved is near you, though you have thought Him afar off. Who ever sought and did not find? But oh! instead of finding Him a corpse, you shall find Him a risen, living, glorious Redeemer.

John 20:17. Go to My brethren; “This was a far greater honor than that which was denied her.” The gracious Saviour denies us nothing but for our greater advantage.

[From Owen: John 20:15. I will take him away; She takes all the responsibility upon herself. If no one else will share her pious duty, she is ready to discharge it independent and alone. Noble woman! The Church to the end of time shall embalm thy memory, and point to thee as the most loving and faithful of that devoted band, who

“—While Apostles shrunk, could dangers brave,

Last at His cross, and earliest at His grave.”—

John 20:17. “Do not stay here to embrace Me now, either to pay thy homage to Me, or to confirm thy faith, both which thou wilt have other opportunities of doing; for I am not yet withdrawn from your world, and ascended to the heavenly court of My Father, as you imagine I shall presently do, but I shall yet continue for a little while on earth, and give you further opportunities of seeing Me again; let nothing therefore detain thee any longer, but go immediately to My dear brethren and say unto them,” etc.—“Thou shalt possess Me again, but not as before, it shall be from this time and forever in the Spirit. The time of exalted and divine relationship is come.” (Stier.)]

Footnotes

III

How Christ Frees The Circle Of Disciples From The Old Fear, And, By The Breathing Of His Spirit, Raises Them To A Presentiment Of Their Apostolic Calling

John 20:19-23

( Mark 16:14; Luke 24:36 ff.; John 20:19-31, pericope for Quasi modo geniti).

19Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut [When therefore it was evening on that day, the first of the week, and the doors had been shut, or, the doors being shut, οὔσης οὖν ὀψίας τῇ ήμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ τῇ μιᾷ σαββάτων, καὶ τῶν θυρῶν κεκλεισμένων], where the disciples were assembled [omit assembled] ¹⁸ for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you 20 And when he had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side. [And having said this, he showed unto them both¹⁹ his hands and his side]. Then were the disciples glad [The disciples therefore were glad], when they saw the Lord 21 Then said Jesus²⁰ [he said] to them again, Peace be unto you: as my [the] Father hath sent me, even so send I you 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost23 [lit, Receive Holy Spirit, Λάβετε πνεῦμα ἅγιον] John 21 : Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted [have been remitted, ὰφέωνται]²² unto them; and whosesoever sins [omit sins] ye retain, they are retained [have been retained, κεκράηνται].

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

The parallel-passage in Mark recounts how Jesus after His entrance into the circle of disciples, rebuked their unbelief; the parallel in Luke makes the entrance of the Emmaus disciples into the circle of apostles precede the Lord’s appearance, and makes Peter and the two journeyers to Emmaus exchange Easter-messages; Luke also hints at the gentle reproof of the disciples’ unbelief,—the feature more powerfully brought out by Mark He likewise reports, more explicitly than John, Jesus’ invitation to the disciples to touch His hands and His feet, His eating before them, and His exposition of the Scripture concerning His sufferings and resurrection. Tholuck justly remarks that Luke 24:44-49 bears a relation to John 20:22-23 in our passage. Individual traits in this section of Luke may belong to a later meeting, or have been amplified later; assuredly, nothing but the section beginning with20:50 belongs to the last manifestation of Jesus. The most important thing remaining for John, was to supply the facts of Jesus’ appearing to the disciples as they were sitting with shut doors, His announcing to them His return by bestowing upon them His peace-greeting ( John 14:27), and His Revelation -ratifying of their apostolic calling (forfeited by their flight), accompanying this act by a breathing upon them, which was preparatory to the outpouring of the Spirit.

John 20:19. When therefore it was evening on that day. [Οὔσης οὖν ὀψίας τῇ ῆμέρᾳ ἔκείνῃ τῇ μιᾷ σαββάτων.]—The evening of that Sunday, the first resurrection day.

And the doors had been shut. [καὶ τῶν θυρῶν κεκλεισμένων ὅπου ἧσαν οἱ μαθηταί].—This circumstance is emphasized, as John 20:26; comp. Acts 12:13.

1. Unfounded softening of the expression. Calvin and others, Baumg-Crus.: The doors had suddenly opened ad nutum divinæ majestatis ejus. According to Lücke, the statement is even reducible to a mere unexpected, sudden appearing.

2. Unfounded intensification of the expression. He pressed bodily through the closed doors. In the interest of the [Lutheran] ubiquity-doctrine, Quenstädt.

3. A miraculous appearing, unqualified as to its manner, indicative of the higher condition in which He found Himself subsequently to His transformation ( Luke 24:31 : ἄφαντος γενέσθαι; John 21:1; Mark 16:12 : φανεροῦσθαι. F. Kühn: Wie ging Christus durch die Grabesthür? 1838. Tholuck). A. Tholuck: The description leads to the conception “of an unconfinedness to the limits of space”—bounds of locality.—Primarily it indicates nothing but a simple power of the glorified life of Christ to move unrestrainedly, to appear and disappear;—His local definedness, which is one with bodily circumscribedness, remaining the while undestroyed. According to Baur, an immaterial constitution was ascribed to Jesus; according to Meyer, the body of Christ was not yet glorified; as according to Lücke, who, in opposition to Olshausen (who distinguishes between the docetic and glorified body), remarks that a something intermediate betwixt the ethereal consistency of angels and material, corporeal solidity is to him inconceivable. Nevertheless, the idea of the body as dynamically transformed into the pure organ of the spirit is everywhere established in the New Testament (see 1 Corinthians 15:49).

Peace unto you [Εἰρήνη ὑμῖν].—The customary greeting is here filled with the weight of the resurrection-message and all that proclamation of salvation therewith connected; at the same time it is a fulfilment of the promise, John 14:27. See Exeg. Notes there. [Ministers are messengers of peace.]

John 20:20. He showed unto them [Ἔδειξεν καὶ τὰς χεῖρας καὶ τὴν πλευρὰν αὐτοῖς].—See Luke 24:40. According to Meyer, a difference is constituted by the mention in that passage of the feet instead of the side.

John 20:21. As the Father hath sent Me [καθὼς ἀπέσταλκέν με ὁ πατήρ, κἀγὼ πέμπω ὑμᾶς].—Comp. Matthew 10; John 13; Matthew 16:19; chap18. The second εἰρήνη ὑμῖν solemn, more definitely proclamatory of the infinite import of the salutation,—not, however, a farewell-greeting, as Kuinoel and others have interpreted it.—Even so send I you [κἀγὼ πέμπω ὑμᾶς].—Analogy of dynamical authority. The Father now sends Him out of the kingdom of resurrection and reconciliation to them; so likewise the Son sends them out of this kingdom to the world. That therewith their reinstitution into office is simultaneously expressed, in connection with an amplification of that office (henceforth they are witnesses for the Crucified and Risen One), is obvious, in accordance with the stronger analogy of John 21:15 ff. But as at the first bestowal of apostolic dignity, Peter took precedence of the others, so now the general restitution of the whole body precedes a more explicit restitution of Peter. Comp. John 17:18.

John 20:22. He breathed on them [καὶ τοῦτο εἰπὼν ἐνεφύσησεν καὶ λέγει αὐτοῖς. The verb ἐμφυσάω occurs in the N. T. only here, but is used in the Sept. to express the act of God in the original infusion of the spirit of life into man ( Genesis 2:7 : ἐνεφύσησεν εἰς τὸ πρόσωπον αὐτοῦ πνοὴν ζωῆς, καὶ ἐγένετο ὁ ἄνθρωπος εἰς ψυχὴν ζῶσαν). “This act is now by God incarnate repeated, sacramentally, representing the infusion of the new life, of which He is become by His glorified Humanity the source to His members: see Job 33:4; Psalm 33:6; 1 Corinthians 15:45” (Alford).—P. S.] Different interpretations:

1. Simply the prophetico-symbolical heralding of the Holy Ghost (Theod. Mopsueste, Bullinger, Lampe, etc.). This view is contradicted by: a. the Acts, b. the Aorist Imperative λάβετε, c. the remark that in this case the act were but a repetition of the promise contained in the farewell-discourses.

2. It is the gratia ministerialis, rather than the former gratia sanctificationis, not, however, as yet, the pentecostal communication or gratia χαρισματική (Theophylact, Maldonat and others).

3. It is holy spirit (πνεῦμα ἅ γιον, without the article), but not yet the Holy Spirit, nor yet the Spirit of the new birth, of the world-mighty Jesus (Hofmann and Luthardt [also Gess]; see thereupon Tholuck and Meyer).

4. It is a quantitative, precursive communication of the Spirit, in accordance with Christ’s not yet perfected state of glorification (Origen, Calvin, Neander, Stier, Tholuck. Meyer: A veritable ἀπαρχή of the Holy Ghost). [Similarly Bengel (arrha pentecostes), Brückner, Hengstenberg, Godet, Ewald, Alford. The full communication of the Holy Spirit did not take place before the day of Pentecost, comp. John 7:39; John 16:7; Acts 2.—P.S.])

We have to consider on the one hand the afflation, and on the other hand the design of this bestowal of the Spirit. The afflation is an afflatus with the new life of the resurrection, and so the symbol, as the commencement, of the communication of His resurrection-life, i. e. life in His Holy Spirit. The degree of this communication, however, is determined in accordance with their present need; they must even now have power to gather the Resurrection-Church and to distinguish it from the world, in like manner as it, as the substratum of the people’s Church shortly to be established, is to be thoroughly distinguished from the Israelitish Church. In respect of this consideration, this gratia is doubtless specially ministerialis. They have not yet the gift of communicating the Holy Ghost, but they do possess that of discerning the Holy Spirit when already communicated.

John 20:23. Whose sins ye remit [ἄν τινων ἀφῆτε].—By proclaiming and promising to them forgiveness while ye receive them into your fellowship.—They are (have been) remitted unto them [ἀφέωνταιαὐτοῖς].—See Text. Notes. Meyer’s antithesis: “They become (will be) remitted (according to the reading ἀφίενται) and they are (have been) retained (κεκράτηνται),²³ is to be refuted first by the Codd. which read ἀφέωνται [perf. pass.=ἀφεῖνται.—P. S.], secondly by the exegetical demand that the two terms should form a parallel. Their remitting of sin and. retaining of sin will, as a prophetically ministerial Acts, rest upon corresponding acts of God, already accomplished in the Spirit,—not, however, have these acts as a result or, still less, effectuate them. They will be influenced in these acts by Christ; they will not influence Him.²⁴ The term, remit sins [ἀφιέναι], is akin to the term, loose [λὐειν], Matthew 16:19; the term, retain [κρατεῖν], or retain together, is akin to the term, bind [δέειν]. See Comm. on Matthew at the passage designated, note (Leben Jesu, II, p889). The Lord does here but invert the expression, thereby indicating the now decided, New Testament stand-point, in which redemption [loosing], forgiveness, advances into the foreground. Here, then, as in those other passages, Matthew 16:19; Matthew 18:18, it is the potestas clavium in its broader sense, not merely, in accordance with the Heidelberg Catechism, the preaching of the holy Gospel and Christian penitential discipline (if it were confined to these, the latter branch would have to be considered as having reference also to reception into the Church: open the kingdom of heaven to believers), but in a still more extended sense in accordance with the Artic. Smalc.: Mandatum docendi evangelium, remittendi peccata, administrandi sacramenta, præterea mandatum excommunicandi; in which summing up the second and fourth items should really be regarded as expressed in the third: administrandi sacramenta. In reality the stations of the potestas are these: 1. The preaching of the gospel; 2. establishment of the preliminary conditions of reception; 3. reception into the Church; 4. penitential discipline in the real sense of the term. In a narrower sense it is undoubtedly the potestas of reception through baptism and of reception through repentance and absolution, together with the potestas of the opposite denial of reception, or exclusion. The symbolic prefiguration of the administration of the Church by the administration of the keys of the house of David, Isaiah 22:22, is, in consciously symbolic terms, continued in the Revelation ( John 3:7). See Tholuck, p 441 ff.; Julius Müller, Deutsche Zeitschrift, 1852, p55 [on the power of the keys, in an essay on the Divine Institution of the Ministry, reprinted in Müller’s Dogmatische Abhandlungen (1870), p496 ff.—P. S.].

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. Christ, the Risen One, first appeared unto individual souls, then to the congregation of the faithful. We find a repetition of this in the history of the Church.

2. The night of Christmas, the darkness of Good Friday, the evening of the Supper, the first Easter evening; glorious hours of the ever brighter shining of the Dayspring from on high ( Luke 1:79). At evening time it shall be light, Zechariah 14:7.

3. How Christ, as the Risen One, bursts though, the fear of the company of disciples: (1) the fear of the Jews; (2) the fear of His own ghost-like apparition; (3) the fear of the whole world ( John 20:21); (4) the fear of the power of sin and guilt ( John 20:23); (5) the fear of the terrors of judgment (“whosoesoever sins ye retain,” etc.).

4. The first Easter Church in its changing forms: a. a Church of secret, fugitive disciples, b. a Church of festive, glad believers, c. a Church of anointed and commissioned apostles.

5. How Christ cometh into the midst of His people: (1) in spite of closed doors: (2) with the salutation of peace; (3) with the firstling gift of the Spirit; (4) with the commission of the apostolic embassy; (5) with the bestowal of apostolic plenipotence.

6. The entrance of Jesus whilst the doors were shut, an evidence of His higher, glorified corporeality.

7. The peace-greeting, or the transformation of the every-day formula of salutation into the loveliest, richest Evangel by the mouth of Christ.

8. The mission of the disciples from Christ measured in accordance with the mission of Christ from the Father.

9. The first gift of the Spirit, or how, in the Easter feast of Christ, the last shadows of Good-Friday (fear of the Jews) come in contact with the first light of Pentecost (He breathed on them).

10. The inseparable connection of apostolic plenipotence with the apostolic embassy. See Matthew 16:10; John 18:18.

11. Forgiveness of sins the fruit of the resurrection (and death of Christ). The triumph over death is also a triumph over sin—the cause of death.—P. S.]

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

See Commentary on Mark, p163 f, Luke, p398 f. The Doct. Notes.

Quasi modo geniti: or Christ the First-born from the dead, Colossians 1:18.—The transformation of the apostles’ fear of the Jews into the loftiest feeling of triumph over the whole world ( John 20:21).—How all things ensue from the peace of the Risen One: 1. The joy, the mirth of the disciples; 2. spiritual life; 3. the evangelic mission; 4. apostolic spiritual severity and clemency in the administration of the Gospel.—When the doors are shut to the world, then are they (in the highest sense) open to the Lord.—The union of familiarity and majesty in the first manifestation of the Risen One in the Church.—The first great fulfilment of the promise, Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.—The day of Christ’s heavenly birth from the dead, a birthday of all Christian blessings: 1. Of peace and joy in believing; 2. of Sunday and the feast-days (for now, for the first time, do the remaining festivals receive their true signification); 3. of religious worship (cultus), and of rest from labor, in the Spirit; 4. of the apostolic mission, and of preaching; 5. of New Testament discipline and social consecration.—The life-breath of Christ, the true mission to the world.—The judicial sentence of the apostolic Church: 1. In respect of its divine institution; 2. in respect of its historical obscuration; 3. in respect of its eternal import.—Or: 1. As a sacred power; 2. as an accountable right; 3. as a solemn duty.—The great word: Sent from Christ as Christ from the Father.

Starke: The experience of an afflicted and tempted person may be very different in the evening from what it was in the morning.—The lying in wait of the wicked must conduce to the best interests of the godly, in this respect also, viz. that the godly refrain themselves from them, and hence are not led away by intercourse with them, nor condemned with them.—Zeisius: What a precious and unspeakable fruit of the merit and resurrection of Christ, is peace with God in the conscience!—Yea, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost are two particular, precious fruits of the resurrection of Jesus and of His spiritual kingdom.—Hall: When Christ, the Morning Star, riseth upon the soul and discovereth Himself unto it, nothing but joy can spring up.—Zeisius: So soon as Christ rose from the dead, He instituted the office of the ministry: of what exceeding importance then must this office be.—Hall: He who desires that Christ should entrust to him the great embassy of His Gospel must likewise first receive His Spirit.—A testimony of the divinity of Jesus Christ, for the Holy Ghost is God, and therefore no one can give that Holy Ghost who is not himself God, John 15:20.—In the evening and at night Jesus did take in hand many momentous things for our sake: He was born in the night, He suffered Himself to be taken prisoner in the night, He instituted the Lord’s Supper in the night, and in the evening, when He was risen from the dead, He instituted the ministry of the New Testament. If we pondered these things every evening, we should make a holier use of the evening hours, and not perform so many works of darkness in the night!

Braune: In so far as we are sinful, Christ is sent unto us from the Father, but in so far as we are redeemed, we are sent, as His witnesses, unto others, that we may be co-laborers, not in our, but in His work. Amid the consciousness of our weakness and frailty, we should hold fast the sense of the loftiness of our calling as redeemed ones, and by the former feeling be but the more impelled to suffer ourselves to be redeemed and reconciled to God, to the end that the latter feeling may become true and strong; whoso but suffereth himself to be redeemed will draw others also into this beatific fellowship.—“He breathes on them;” like a friend’s breath upon the cheek, shall the Holy Spirit of God come unto man’s spirit.—Unto sanctified [consecrated] personalities the Redeemer commits the forgiveness of sins; these commissioned ones are a terror and vexation to the wicked, but friends to the good. That which the Redeemer here says concerning the remitting and retaining of sins may be compared with what He says of loosing and binding for the Kingdom of Heaven, Matthew 16:19; Matthew 18:18.—Sanctified [consecrated] personalities are, as St. Paul says of the Gospel, 2 Corinthians 2:16, unto some a savor of life unto life, unto others a savor of death unto death.

Gossner: Hebrews, therefore, who is sent from Christ, who is Christ’s messenger, must needs have received the peace of Christ, which is higher than all reason, must likewise needs have received the Spirit of Christ, and this seal of the Spirit and of peace must give evidence of itself in him by the devolving of peace and anointing from him to others again, by others being filled and anointed therewith. All this is contained in that little word as.—But when ministers make their appearance who have nothing to recommend them save that they are puffed up by the spirit of this world, what will they accomplish? They will puff up others also with the same spirit of the world.

Heubner: In the evening. H. Müller, Herzenssp. p. John 241: The Saviour will visit us in the evening. When the sun of the world hath set in our heart, the Sun of Righteousness ariseth.—Christians have often enough been obliged to assemble in secret; the Waldenses, for example, the Moravians, the Reformed in France, and others.—If Jesus come not into the assembly of Christians, it is cold, heartless, unfruitful.—Christ’s peace-greeting was the spoil of victory—spoil which He won by death and resurrection.—Whoso hath followed Christ unto Golgotha, to him doth He shout His word of peace.—Augustine; Cicatrices tituli gloriarum.—Crucifixion and resurrection are inseparable—one is incomplete without the other. This is the sum of Christianity.—The disciples were glad; Behold the power of the appearing, the peace, of Jesus. From His peace comes joy.—Peace is indispensable to the mission of Jesus. A man must have Jesus’ peace in his own heart if he would be a messenger of peace to others; he must first be redeemed himself, if he would preach redemption to others. Luther, in the postil to Quasimodog. Sunday, XI:1040, writes this to all true Christians, after applying it to the Apostles and the ministry; they can meet these requisites, not by their own strength, but in Christ’s name, in the might of the Holy Ghost.—Schleiermacher, Pred. iii. p563.—Couard, ii. p326.—Marheineke, ii. p45.

[Craven: From Augustine: John 20:19. If thou comprehendest the mode [of entering] it is no miracle: when reason fails, then is faith edified.

John 20:20. The nails had pierced His hands, the lance had pierced His side. For the healing of doubting hearts, the marks of the wounds were still preserved.——From Chrysostom: John 20:21. He shows the efficacy of the cross, by which He undoes all evil things, and gives all good things; which is peace.—To the women above there was announced joy; for that sex was in sorrow, and had received the curse.——From Gregory: John 20:21. I love you, now that I send you to persecution, with the same love wherewith My Father loved Me, when He sent Me to My sufferings.

John 20:23. The disciples who were called to such works of humility, to what a height of glory are they led! Lo, not only have they salvation for themselves, but are admitted to the powers of the supreme Judgment-seat.——From Bede: John 20:21. A repetition is a confirmation: whether He repeats it because the grace of love is two-fold, or because He it is who made of twain one.

[From Burkitt: John 20:19. It has been no strange thing in the Church, that the best members of it have been put to frequent their assemblies with great fear, and been forced to meet in the night with great caution, because of the fury of the persecutors.—Let Christ’s disciples meet together never so privately, and with never so much hazard and jeopardy, they shall have Christ’s company with them.

John 20:21. The repetition of, Peace be unto you, was not more than needful to signify His firm reconciliation to the disciples, notwithstanding their late cowardice in forsaking Him.—As My Father hath sent Me, so send I you; By the same authority, and for the same ends, in part; namely, to gather, govern, and instruct My Church.

John 20:22. He breathed on them, and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost; When Christ sends forth any about His work, He will furnish them with endowments answerable to their vast employment; and the best furniture they can have, is the Holy Spirit in His gifts and qualifications suitable to their work.

John 20:23. There is a twofold power of remitting sins; the one magisterial and authoritative; this belongs to Christ alone: the other ministerial and declarative; this belongs to Christ’s ambassadors.—“Christ first conferred the Holy Ghost upon His apostles, and then said, Whose sins ye remit, they are remitted. Thereby intimating that it is not they, but the Holy Ghost by them, that puts away sin; For who can forgive sin, but God only?” (Augustine). The power of forgiving sin, that man hath, is only to declare that if men be truly and really penitent, their sins are forgiven them for the sake of Christ’s satisfaction.

[From M. Henry: John 20:19. The disciples of Christ, even in difficult times, must not forsake the assembling of themselves together, Hebrews 10:25.—It is a comfort to Christ’s disciples, when their solemn assemblies are reduced to privacy, that no doors can shut out Christ’s presence from them.—His speaking peace, makes peace, peace with God, peace in your own consciences, peace with one another; all this peace be with you; not peace with the world, but peace in Christ.

John 20:20. Conquerors glory in the marks of their wounds.—Christ’s wounds were to speak on earth, that it was He Himself, and therefore He rose with them; they were to speak in heaven, in the intercession He must ever live to make, and therefore He ascended with them, and appeared in the midst of the throne, a Lamb as it had been slain, and bleeding afresh, Revelation 5:6. Nay, it should seem, He will come again with His scars, that they may look on Him whom they pierced.—When Christ manifests His love to believers by the comforts of His Spirit, assures them that because He lives, they shall live also, then He shows them His hands and His side.—A sight of Christ will gladden the heart of a disciple at any time; the more we see of Christ, the more we shall rejoice in Him; and our joy will never be perfect till we come there where we shall see Him as He is.

John 20:21. Christ was now sending the disciples to publish peace to the world ( Isaiah 52:7); and He here not only confers it upon them for their own satisfaction, but commits it to them as a trust to be by them transmitted to all the sons of peace, Luke 10:5-6.—He sent them authorized with a divine warrant, armed with a divine power; sent them as ambassadors to treat of peace, and as heralds to proclaim it; sent them as servants to bid to the marriage:—hence they were called Apostles—men sent.

John 20:22. What Christ gives, we must receive, must submit ourselves and our whole souls to the quickening, sanctifying influences of the blessed Spirit; receive His motions, and comply with them; receive His powers, and make use of them; and they who thus obey His word as a precept, shall have the benefit of it as a promise; they shall receive the Holy Spirit as the guide of their way, and the earnest of their inheritance.

John 20:23. Two ways the apostles and ministers of Christ remit and retain sin, and both as having authority: 1. By sound doctrine; 2. By a strict discipline, applying the general rule of the gospel to particular persons.

[From A Plain Commentary (Oxford): John 20:19. Peace be unto you! Can we forget that this was the salutation of Shiloh (that is, “Peace”), even “the Prince of Peace” Himself? of Him who is delared to be “our Peace:” who bequeathed His peace to the disciples; and promised that Peace should be their abiding portion; and directed them to salute with “Peace” every house into which they entered. Peace was the subject of the angels’ carol on the night of the Lord’s nativity: behold, Peace is the first word He pronounces in the hearing of His disciples now that He is risen from death.

John 20:22. O most solemn and mysterious incident, as well as most solemn and prevailing words! The action of our Saviour here described may have shown emblematically (as Augustine suggests) that the Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Son. It may further have served to show that this was He by the breath of whose mouth all the hosts of heaven were made; and especially (as Cyril supposes), that Christ was the same who, after creating man in the beginning, “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and he became a living soul.” But more than that is here intended. For it is to be thought that, at the time of man’s creation, “together with his soul, or the principle of his natural life, he received also the grace of the Holy Spirit as a principle of the Divine Life to which he was also designed.” (Bishop Bull). That is, the soul of man received from the very first “the peculiar impress of the Holy Spirit super-added,” as Clement of Alexandria writes. And Basil, expressly comparing the Divine insufflation upon Adam with that of Christ upon the Apostles, tells us that it was the same Son of God “by whom God gave the insufflation: then indeed, together with the soul, but now, into the soul.” Eusebius is even more explicit. “The Lord” (he says), “renews mankind. That grace which man enjoyed at first, because God breathed into his nostrils,—that same grace did Christ restore when He breathed into the face of the Apostles, and said, Receive the Holy Ghost.”—At the first institution of certain mysteries of the Faith, there was not wanting the outward emblem of an inward grace; which grace was afterwards conveyed without any such visible demonstration. Thus, at the Baptism of Christ, “the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him.” And now, at the ordination of His Apostles, our Lord is found to have “breathed into” their faces, when He would convey to them the gift of the same Blessed Spirit.

From Barnes: John 20:19. True Christians will love to meet together for worship; nothing will prevent this.

John 20:21. As My Father hath sent Me; As God sent Me to preach, to be persecuted, and to suffer; to make known His will, and to offer pardon to men; so I send you.——From Jacobus: John 20:19. Glad; So He had promised to them ( John 16:20), “Your sorrow shall be turned into joy.”]

Footnotes

V

Design Of The Gospels Facts. Testimony Concerning Christ, And Life In His Name

John 20:30-31

30And [moreover]³⁴ many other signs truly³⁵ did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: 31But these are [have been] written, that ye might [may] believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might [may] have life³⁶ through [in] his name.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

According to Lücke, De Wette, Meyer, John here closes his entire book, and chap 21 is an appendix. In our opinion, he here concludes the history of the Passion and Resurrection, insomuch as that history was designed to perfect the faith of the disciples—just as John 12:37, he evidently closes the history of the public prophetic ministry of Jesus; as John 1:18, He manifestly closes the Prologue, and, similarly, John 21:24 the Epilogue. These different concluding formulas betoken a construction of the Gospel so well organized and thoroughly digested, that in view thereof, the conception which regards the verses under consideration as forming a conclusion to the entire Gospel must appear a too external conception of our Gospel.

[ John 20:30. It is a question how the expression: πολλὰ καὶ ἄλλα σημεῖα, etc, should be interpreted. The word has been referred to resurrection signs, signs in attestation of the resurrection, by Chrysost, Theophylact, etc, Kuinoel, Lücke, Olshausen, etc. Against this view it is remarked by Meyer and others: (1) The term σημεῖα is too general to support such an interpretation. The verse, however, does not touch upon the great mass of the σημεῖα, but upon such as were done by Jesus in the presence of His disciples, in the circle of the eleven in particular; τεκμήρια, Acts 1:3. (2) Πολλὰ καὶ ἄλλα is alleged to be contradictory to this interpretation; Christ, according to the Gospel as well as according to 1 Corinthians15, having appeared a few times only. But the words are not spoken of the appearances in themselves, but of the σημεῖα which occurred on the occasion of these appearances. To these σημεῖα, then, there must be reckoned His making of Himself known to Thomas by means of a miracle of knowledge, to Mary through the word of recognition: Mary. But besides these signs, recorded by St. John, yet others must be added to the list, viz.: His making of Himself known to the Emmaus disciples through the breaking of bread; to Peter, as to James, in a mode with which we are unacquainted; to the five hundred brethren in Galilee, by a majesty of sudden appearance which threw many of them upon their knees; to the disciples on the Mount of Olives, by His ascension; to Paul, by His manifestation from heaven. These instances certainly might justify the expression of the Evangelist; (3) however, ἐποίησεν is said to contradict this view. Tholuck remarks that this term cannot be used concerning appearances. It may, however, be applied to manifestations of miraculous knowledge, of celestial might, of divine Providence, which manifestations accompanied every appearance. Then (4) this view is said to be disfavored by the expression: ἐν τῷ βιβλ. τούτῳ, these words being alleged to prove that John has in view the contents of his entire Gospel. Since, however, the Evangelist is speaking of resurrection-signs, he has reference to that part of the book which contains statements relative to the resurrection.

So early a commentator as Euthymius introduced the other explanation of the σημεῖα (see Lücke, 802). He first interprets them correctly, as significant of the resurrection-signs, but then states that the word may also be generally construed, as signifying the whole mass of the wonderful signs of Christ, previous and subsequent to the resurrection. And thus do Jansen, Wolf, Bengel, Lampe, Tholuck, etc. (see Meyer, 661) now interpret the term. [So also Hengstenberg, Godet, Alford: Miracles in the most general sense, by which Jesus proved His Messiahship.—P. S.] This interpretation is contradicted by (1) The circumstance that John has already submitted his resume relative to the earlier signs, John 12:37; (2) the fact that he is here speaking of signs done by the Risen One in the presence of the disciples;—objections irrespective of the necessity involved by this interpretation, for regarding chap 21 as a foreign addition or clumsily adjusted appendix, and this in the absence of otherwise sufficient grounds.

John 20:31. But these have been written [ταῦτα δὲ γεγραμμένα ἵνα, κ. τ. λ.].—These signs—namely, these manifestations of the δόξα of Christ. According to Tholuck and Meyer, the selections from the miracles performed by Jesus presented throughout the entire Gospel. Against this view, see the preceding Exeg. Note. Be it also observed that this Gospel was not written for the purpose of converting to the faith those who were not yet believers (Hilgenfeld), but with a view to confirming believing Christians in the faith. Hence, also, the expression πιστεύσητε is to be taken emphatically, like the exhortation to believe addressed to Thomas, and the chief emphasis lies upon: καὶ ἵνα πιστεύοντες, etc. They are to be confirmed in their faith in Christ by faith in the resurrection, and in that faith have perfect life. [Alford: “The mere miracle-faith, so often reproved by our Lord, is not that intended here. This is faith in Himself, as the Christ the Son of God; and the Evangelist means that enough is related in this book to be a ground for such a faith, by showing us His glory manifested forth.—P. S.]

The Christ, the Son of God. Both in the fullest meaning of the words, in accordance with the Prologue.

May have life in His name [ζωὴν ἔχητε ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι αὐτοῦ].—Entire, perfect life in the name perfected through the resurrection.

[The ὄνομα, the revealed being of Christ, divine essence in human form, is the object of faith, and the ground of the ζωή. The Gospel of John has indeed a tendency, but not such an one as the Tübingen School ascribes to it. Its tendency is the aim of all sound preaching and theological writing, namely, by the faithful exhibition of truth to produce and to strengthen faith in Christ, and thus to lead men to the possession of the true life which is identical with true happiness. To John, his task as an historian was the same with his task as an apostle—salvation in Christ.—P. S.].

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. Here, as well as John 21:25, the Evangelist has made a distinct deliverance concerning the principle of his evangelical historiography,—particularly of his presentation of the resurrection-history. His great anxiety was not to write down everything that he knew about Jesus; his aim was, rather, in a selection of significant facts to present his view of the glory of Christ, in order to the quickening, revival, and increase of faith in Christian readers, but especially in order to the furtherance of the full vitality and life-certitude of faith in the ideal knowledge (the name) of Christ.

The same is true, although not in the same degree, of the Synoptists. This is the character of religious, particularly of the evangelical, objective-subjective historiography; it is the first task of modern Gospel criticism to rise to an appreciation of this character. The atomistic conception of chroniclers, book-makers, transcribers, supplemented, human-tendency writers does not reach up to the christological idea of the Evangelist.

2. That ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. This they did already believe, and yet they must believe it now more fully than over. A peculiar emphasis, however, rests upon the following: And that, believing [or, as believers], ye may have life in His name. The name of Christ in believers is the full, clear, ideal contemplation of Christ in lively knowledge; therewith the full truth, certainty, vigor, and blessedness of the new life is given.

3. That which John says of his own writings is true of all the Gospels. Their authors, therefore, are indeed tendency writers, but of a divine tendency, entirely opposed to the human, fraudulous, manifoldly egotistic tendencies which the Tubingen critics have dared impute to them, or, what is still worse, to the Holy Ghost who guided them.

4. The remark of John is in the broadest sense characteristic of Holy Scripture in general. It has a religious purpose, and is therefore written from a religious impulse, in a religious spirit, under the guidance of the Spirit of God. All the religious truth of Holy Writ, however, aims at the truth of God in Christ. Christ the marrow and star of Holy Scripture.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The many signs of Jesus in His showings after the resurrection also.—The immeasurable fulness of the life of Jesus.—The simple presentation of the same in speaking signs.—The unity and-diversity of the four evangelic portraits of Jesus.—In particular, of the Risen One.—Portrait of the Risen One by the hand of John.—Purpose of this resurrection-history.—Of this Gospel.—of the four Evangelists.—Of the whole of Sacred Writ,—How one must read the Holy Scriptures in the same spirit in which they are written.—How perseveringly and devoutly? Until faith has become perfect life in a clear knowledge of Christ.—How many sluggishly stand still in the beginnings of faith, without pressing onward to the full vital consciousness of a certain knowledge. We are to have life in Christ’s name.

Starke: The Holy Scriptures are not imperfect, but perfect unto salvation in all things pertaining to faith and life, 2 Timothy 3:16-17.—Zeisius: Learn here whereunto the Holy Scriptures (the’ greatest treasure upon earth) are given us by God,—namely, that from them we may learn to believe and be saved.

[Craven: From Chrysostom: John 20:31. And that believing ye might have life through His name, i.e. through Jesus, who is Life.—From Burkitt: John 20:31. The great point concerning Christ, to be known and believed from the Scriptures, is this, that Jesus, the Son of the Virgin, is the promised Messiah, the Anointed of the Father, He in whom all the types and shadows of the law are accomplished; and that this Jesus is for nature co-essential, for dignity co-equal, and for duration co-eternal with the Father; one in essence, equal in power and glory. Thus believing that Jesus is the Son of God, and accompanying that belief with a holy life, if we believe well, and live well, we shall have life through His name.—From M. Henry: John 20:31. The duty of those that read and hear the Gospel: to believe, to embrace the doctrine of Christ, and that record given concerning Him, 1 John 5:11.—The great gospel-blessedness which we are to hope for—That believing we shall have life through His name.

[From A Plain Commentary (Oxford): John 20:31. “It is the real Incarnation of the Eternal Word,—the actual coming in the flesh of the Son of God, born, dead, and risen for our salvation,—which is the sole basis of our religion. This great fact, and not any particular proposition concerning it, in the totality of its objective character, and in the consequent totality of its applicable virtue and influence; this is the real Article of a standing or falling Church.” (Dr. W. H. Mill.)]

[From Owen: John 20:31. In His name; “Eternal life is obtained by believers in virtue of Him, upon the claim established by Him in whom they believe.” (Webster and Wilkinson.) ]

Footnotes