Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - John 1:47 - 1:47
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
An Israelite indeed (ἀληθῶς Ἱσραηλίτης)
Literally, truly an Israelite. An Israelite not merely in descent, but in character, according to the ideal laid down in God's law. The word Israelite itself was an honorable designation. See on men of Israel, Act 3:12, and compare remarks on Jews, Joh 1:19.
Guile (δόλος)
Properly, a bait for fish, and related at the root to δελεάζω, to catch with a bait, or beguile. See on beguiling, 2Pe 2:14. The true Israelite would be the true child of Israel after he had ceased to be the Supplanter. It is an interesting fact that in Gen 25:27, Jacob is called a plain man, i.e., as some explain the Hebrew, a perfect or upright man, and others, a man of quiet and simple habits, and that the Septuagint renders this adjective by ἄπλαστος, unfeigned, without disguise, simple, guileless. The Greek here reads literally, in whom guile is not.