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Joh 8:25, etc. Σὺ τὶς εἶ; who art Thou?) They are referring to that expression of His, ἐγώ εἰμι, I am He [Joh 8:24]. They ask the question, but in such a perverse frame of mind, that they have no real intention to believe on Him, when He tells them.-εἶπεν, He said) It is not said, He replied. The Lord addresses Himself less directly to meet the Jews’ interrogatory; but He addresses Himself to the fact itself plainly, and in such a way as to make a further progress in His own discourse. A similar question and reply occur at ch. Joh 10:24, etc., “If Thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered-I told you, and ye believed not; the works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of Me.”-τὴν ἀρχὴν, ὅτι καὶ λαλῶ ὑμῖν, πολλὰ ἔχω περὶ ὑμῶν λαλεῖν καὶ κρίνειν· ἀλλʼ ὁ πέμψας με ἀληθής ἐστι, κἀγὼ ἃ ἤκουσα παρʼ αὐτοῦ, ταῦτα λέγω εἰς τὸν κόσμον) All these words form one complete paragraph, of which both the Protasis and the Apodosis are each double-membered, so as that they most aptly correspond with one another, in this way:
In the beginning, since I also speak to you, [inasmuch as I am even speaking to, or, for you],
I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you: But He, who sent Me, is true;
and what things I have heard from Him, these I speak to the world.
Every word in this passage both ought and can be taken in its own proper signification. I. Τὴν ἀρχήν is not here equivalent in meaning to ὅλως, altogether, but in the strict sense, in the beginning. I have shown it to be so at Chrysost. de Sacerdot, p. 425, etc.: also at 1Co 5:1. Also the Herodotea Raphelii, p. 293, etc., deserve to be well weighed. Nonnus, when he might have retained τὴν ἀρχήν (saith Joach. Camerarius), as the numbers of his verse were no obstacle, yet has changed the words into Ἐξ ἀρχῆς ὅττι περ ὑμμῖν Ἐξ ἀρχῆς ὀάριζον. II. Ὅτι is because, since, inasmuch as; so Joh 8:45, but because, ὅτι, I speak the truth, ye do not believe Me. Let the force of the same particle be weighed at Joh 8:22; Joh 8:43; Joh 2:18, “What sign showest Thou, seeing that Thou doest these things?” Joh 11:47, “What do we? for-inasmuch as-this Man doeth many miracles;” Joh 8:56, “What think ye, that He will not come to the feast?” etc. III. Καὶ about the beginning, and not the very beginning of a clause, has the force of even, also; and in this passage it intensifies the force of the present tense and indicative mood in the verb λαλῶ; Comp. with it καί, even, 1Co 15:29, “What shall they do, that are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? Why are they then [Engl. Vers. καί; rather, even] baptized for the dead?” Php 3:8, “Yea doubtless, and I [Engl. Vers. καί; rather, I even] count all things loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ.” IV. Λαλῶ, I am speaking, not merely I have to speak, not merely I have spoken, but even yet I am speaking [I speak]. V. Ὑμῖν, to you [for you], is the dative of the advantage, i.e. I speak concerning Myself, who I am, in order that ye may believe and be saved. Hardly any point has caused more difficulty to expositors than the stopping after this ὑμῖν. The Codices MSS. quoted in the Apparatus Crit. p. 589, defend the comma; and so also, in addition to Chrysostom, Nonnus, and Scaliger, who are mentioned in the same place, Knatchbull, Raphelius, also James Faber, Corn. Jansenius, and Franc. Lucas. [Engl. Vers. “Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning. I have many things to say,” etc. Vulg. “Principium quia (or, as other copies, qui) et loquor vobis;” [223] [224], ‘quod;’ [225], ‘quoniam;’ Ὁ, τι in Rec. Text. So Lachmann, reading the sentence with an interrogation, making ὅ, τι = διὰ τι, resembling the εἰ interrogative. So Mar 9:11, “They asked, saying, Ὅ, τι λέγουσιν οἱ γραμματεῖς, ὅ, τι Ἡλίαν δεῖ ἐλθεῖν. Alford translates ἀρχήν, etc., I am essentially that same which I SPEAK unto you. Appropriate to Him, as the λόγος revealed. Just as to Moses I am that I am was appropriate of One as yet unrevealed.] VI. Πολλὰ περὶ ὑμῶν, much [multa] concerning you, on account of your much [multam] incredulity. This was the chief point of Jesus Christ’s complaint concerning the Jews everywhere, and especially here, where He begins to make mention as to His departure. VII. Ἔχω λαλεῖν καὶ κρίνειν, I have to speak and to judge. To this appertains the τὴν ἀρχήν, and it has thus somewhat more force than πρῶτον. Now for the first time there was given by the Jews to the Lord by far the greatest reason for His speaking and judging concerning themselves, after that they had heard so many testimonies, and yet had not believed. Similarly νο͂ν, now, is employed, Luk 11:39, in an argument, for which a great handle had been given, “Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup,” etc. Comp. the ἤρξατο, began, Mat 11:20, “Then began He to upbraid the cities,” etc. Here the Protasis ceases, in the whole of which the same thing is said, as at ch. Joh 6:36, I said to you that ye both [also, Engl. Vers.] have seen Me, and do not believe; and at ch. Joh 10:25, etc., where to the same question the same reply is repeated, only in other words. VIII. There follows the Apodosis, beginning with ἀλλʼ, in which He plainly enough intimates, who He is. IX. Ὁ πέμψας με ἀληθής ἐστι· i.e. although you to such a degree refuse to believe, that your incredulity furnishes the strongest reason why I might have judged you; yet He, who hath sent Me into the world, is true. Your unbelief does not set aside His own faithfulness. X. Κἀγὼ, ἃ ἤκουσα παρʼ αὐτοῦ, ταῦτα λέγω· i.e. These things I speak, which He that is true hath committed to Me, for the purpose of saving you, not for the purpose of judging you; the sum and substance of which is, that I have been sent by Him: I speak these things, and these alone, not other things, which would appertain to the judging of you; ch. Joh 3:17, “God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved;” ch. Joh 5:45, “Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father;” ch. Joh 12:47, “If any man hear My words and believe not, I judge him not; for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.” XI. Εἰς τὸν κόσμον. An abbreviated form of expression, i.e. These things, which were before unknown to the world, I have brought into the world, and I speak in the world, in order that they may be distributed by My witnesses throughout the whole world, now a stranger to [alien from] the faith, but, whether you will believe or not, hereafter about to believe. I do not pay any regard to your obstinacy. Out of the four members of this portion, as marked out at the beginning of this note, the first and fourth, the second and third, cohere together in a most suitable χιασμός. In the Protasis, both the first clause, I even speak to you, and the second, I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you, and the connection of both, ought to be regarded. For the words in antithesis are, I even speak, and the expression, to you: corresponding respectively to, I have to speak and to judge, and the expression, concerning you. The Apodosis is easy to perceive, when regarded by itself; but how it stands in relation to the Protasis, they who look less to the sense than to the words, are not likely forthwith to perceive. These will observe, that the unbelief of the Jews is marked in the Protasis; but, that the unshaken perseverance of Jesus in setting forth the truth unto salvation is rather made manifest in the Apodosis, and at the same time the truth itself concerning Jesus, who He is, is summarily brought in by implication. Comp. by all means the whole of Joh 8:28, “When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father hath taught Me, I speak these things.” I might justly make the beginning of My speech, saith He, now even more than heretofore, by a judgment pronounced on your unbelief before that I bring forth the other subjects: but I perseveringly speak not so much severe things of you, as saving things of Myself [tidings of salvation to you in Myself]. Very many take separately these words, τὴν ἀρχὴν ὅ, τι καὶ λαλῶ ὑμῖν: and indeed H. B. Starkius has thus explained the words, In the beginning, to wit, I said, what even still I say to you: which had been previously the explanation of Nic. Hemmingius, from whom John Brentius in his Homilies does not much differ. Others generally in this way: ὃν τινα εἶναί με τὴν ἀρχὴν ἔλεγον, εἰμί, i.e. I am He, whom in the beginning I said to you I was; an interpretation which, however easy a sense it introduces, yet will be found to make many departures from the words of the text, if you compare them together.
[223] Vercellensis of the old ‘Itala,’ or Latin Version before Jerome’s, probably made in Africa, in the second century: the Gospels.
[224] Colbertinus, do.
[225] Cantabrigiensis, do.: the Gospels, Acts , , 3 d Ep. John.