Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - John 1:37 - 1:40
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Joh_1:37-40. And the two disciples heard (observed) him speak. For he had not addressed the words ἴδε ὁ ἀμνὸς τ . θεοῦ directly to them, but in general (comp. Joh_1:29) to those round about him.
ἠκολούθησαν ] not the following of discipleship, nor in a “sens profondément symbolique” (Godet), but simply: “they went after Him” ( ὀπίστεροι ἦλθον ὁδῖται Χριστοῦ νεισσομένοιο , Nonnus), in order to know Him more intimately ( πεῖραν λαβεῖν αὐτοῦ , Euthymius Zigabenus). Nevertheless Bengel rightly says: primae origines ecclesiae Christianae.
στραφείς ] for He heard the footsteps of those following Him.
τί ζητεῖτε ] what do you desire? He anticipates them by engaging in conversation with them, not exactly because they were shy and timid (Euthymius Zigabenus). But no doubt the significant θεασάμενος , κ . τ . λ . (intuitus), was accompanied by a glance into their hearts, Joh_2:25.
ποῦ μένεις ] correlative to the περιπατοῦντι , Joh_1:36; therefore: “where dost thou sojourn?” Polyb. xxx. 4. 10; Strabo, iii. p. 147. They regarded Him as a travelling Rabbi, who was lodging in the neighbourhood at the house of some friend.
ἔρχεσθε κ . ὄψεσθε (see the critical notes); a friendly invitation to accompany Him at once.[121] They had sought only to know where the place was, so that they might afterwards seek Him out, and converse with Him undisturbed. We have not here the Rabbinical form of calling attention, áà åøàä (Buxt. Lex. Talm. p. 248; Lightfoot, p. 968), nor an imitation of Rev_6:1 (Weisse), nor yet an allusion to Psa_66:5; Psa_66:9, and a gentle reference on the part of Jesus to His Godhead (Hengstenberg), for which there was no occasion, and which He could not expect to be understood.
ἦλθον , κ . τ . λ .] shows the simplicity of the narrative.
μένει ] instance of insertion of the direct address, common in dependent clauses. Kühner, II. 594; Winer, p. 251 [E. T. p. 335].
τὴν ἡμέρ . ἐκ .] i.e. the remaining part of that day, not at once from that day onwards (Credner, against whom is Ebrard).
ΔΕΚΆΤΗ ] that is, at the beginning of their stay with Him. We have no reason to suppose in John, as Rettig does in the Stud. u. Krit. 1830, p. 106, as also Tholuck, Ebrard, Ewald, the Roman mode of counting the hours (from midnight to midnight, therefore ten o’clock in the morning) instead of the Jewish, which is followed elsewhere in the N. T. and by Josephus (even Vit. 54), i.e. four o’clock in the afternoon; because there is time enough from 4 P.M. till late in the evening to justify the popular expression τὴν ἡμέρ . ἐκ .; because, moreover, in Joh_11:9 it is plainly the Jewish method which is followed; and because even in Joh_4:6 the same method best suits the context, and is not excluded in Joh_4:52, while in Joh_19:14 it is with a harmonistic view that the Roman method of reckoning is resorted to. The Romans themselves, moreover, frequently measured the day after the Babylonian computation of the hours, according to the twelve hours from sunrise to sunset; and the tenth hour especially is often named, as in our text, as the hour of return from walking, and mention of it occurs as a late hour in the day, when e.g. the soldiers were allowed to rest (Liv. ix. 37), or when they went to table (Martial, vii. 1), etc. See Wetstein.
The great significance of this hour for John (it was the first of his Christian life) had indelibly impressed it on his grateful recollection, and hence the express mention of it here. This consideration forbids our giving, with Hilgenfeld and Lichtenstein, to the statement of time an onward reference to the incident next mentioned, the finding by Andrew of his brother Simon. Brückner, too, imports something that is foreign into this statement of time, when he says that it indicates, in close connection with Joh_1:41 ff., how rapidly faith developed itself in these disciples.
[121] There is nothing to indicate whether the place where He was lodging was near or at a distance, although Ewald would infer the latter from the reading ὄψεσθε .