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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - John 12:27 - 12:27
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
My soul (hē psuchē mou). The soul (psuchē) here is synonymous with spirit (pneuma) in Joh 13:21.
Is troubled (tetaraktai). Perfect passive indicative of tarassō, used also in Joh 11:33; Joh 13:21 of Jesus. While John proves the deity of Jesus in his Gospel, he assumes throughout his real humanity as here (cf. Joh 4:6). The language is an echo of that in Psa 6:4; Psa 42:7. John does not give the agony in Gethsemane which the Synoptics have (Mar 14:35.; Mat 26:39; Luk 22:42), but it is quite beside the mark to suggest, as Bernard does, that the account here is John’s version of the Gethsemane experience. Why do some critics feel called upon to level down to a dead plane every variety of experience in Christ’s life?
And what shall I say? (kai ti eipō). Deliberative subjunctive which expresses vividly “a genuine, if momentary indecision” (Bernard). The request of the Greeks called up graphically to Jesus the nearness of the Cross.
Father, save me from this hour (pater, sōson me ek tēs hōras tautēs). Jesus began his prayers with “Father” (Joh 11:41). Dods thinks that this should be a question also. Westcott draws a distinction between ek (out of) and apo (from) to show that Jesus does not pray to draw back from the hour, but only to come safely out of it all and so interprets ek in Heb 5:7, but that distinction will not stand, for in Joh 1:44 ek and apo are used in the same sense and in the Synoptics (Mar 14:35.; Mat 26:39; Luk 22:42) we have apo. If it holds here, we lose the point there. Here as in Gethsemane the soul of Jesus instinctively and naturally shrinks from the Cross, but he instantly surrenders to the will of God in both experiences.
But for this cause came I unto this hour (alla dia touto ēlthon eis tēn hōran tautēn). It was only a moment of human weakness as in Gethsemane that quickly passed. Thus understood the language has its natural meaning.