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Joh 18:20. Τῷ κόσμῳ, to the world) Language (i.e. His speaking) very comprehensive. Παῤῥησίᾳ, openly, signifies the manner; πάντοτε, ever, or always, the time; in synagogue and in the temple, the place.-ἐν συναγωγῇ) Editions have ἐν τῇ συναγωγῇ: as presently after we have the expression, ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ. But it is not without good reason that the Evangelist has omitted the article τῇ. Joh. Harduin lays it down that there were only two synagogues at Jerusalem, the one for native Jews, the other for the ‘Libertines,’ Act 6:9; and attempts to infer from this passage of John, that there was but one synagogue of native-born Jews.-Op. Sel. p. 904.[383] But the Lord is speaking of the synagogues of the whole country, not merely of the city; and so, therefore, from this passage the oneness of the synagogue in the city neither is refuted, nor is to be inferred. The noun in the Singular number, ἘΝ ΣΥΝΑΓΩΓῇ, acquires a distributive force [in synagogue, wherever it might happen to be, in every one]: and thence the article τῷ, added to “the temple,” forms an Epitasis [an emphatic addition, in repeating the previous ἘΝ].-ἘΝ ΚΡΥΠΤῷ) in secret, nothing, as far as concerns My doctrine (teaching) before the people. For He also apart taught His disciples many things; the main substance of which, however, He now confessed, even in presence of the Council (Sanhedrim). Mat 26:64, “Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.”
[383] Rabbinical authorities, as Megill. lxxiii. 4, represent the number of synagogues in Jerusalem, 480: T. Hieros. Ctuboth. xxxv. 3, makes it 460. Act 6:9 may imply that each separate tribe and colony had a synagogue in Jerusalem. A omits the τῇ before συναγωγῇ. B, according to Lachm., supports it; but Tisch. questions it, B (?).-E. and T.