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Joh_10:40-42. Πάλιν .] Joh_1:28.
πέραν τ . Ἰορδ .] He went away from Jerusalem, beyond the Jordan (as in Joh_6:1, Joh_18:1) to Peraea, and, indeed, to the place, etc. Instead of allowing themselves to be won over to faith and redemption, the Ἰουδαῖοι had grown ever more hardened and decided in their hostility, till it had reached the extreme; the Lord then finally gives them up, and knowing that His hour was near, though not yet fully come, He withdraws for a calm and undisturbed, although brief, season of activity to Peraea, where He was safer from the hierarchs (comp. Joh_11:54); and in the place where John was when he baptized for the first time (namely, Joh_1:28; later, in Salim, Joh_3:23), there could be as little lack of susceptible hearts as of quiet, elevating, and sacred memories for Himself.
ἔμεινεν ἐκεῖ ] How long, we cannot precisely ascertain, as He spent also some time in Ephraim before the feast of the Passover (Joh_11:54 f.). In any case, however, the ἔμεινεν ἐκεῖ lasted but for a very short period, as is evident also from the word νῦν in Joh_11:8.
καὶ πολλοὶ , etc.] “Fructus posthumus officii Johannis,” Bengel.
ἔλεγον ] not αὐτῷ , but a bearing of testimony in general.
Ἰωάννης μὲν , etc.] Logically we should expect μέν after σημεῖον ; but even classical writers frequently disregard logical precision in their mode of placing μέν and δέ . See Kühner, ad Xen. Mem. i. 6. 11; Baeumlein, Partik. p. 168.
σημεῖον ἐποίησεν οὐδέν ] A characteristic feature of the history of John, which in this respect also has remained free from fanciful additions; the people, however, referred to the circumstance in view of the σημεῖα which Jesus had wrought, as they had been informed, elsewhere, and probably here also, before their own eyes. In this way we may also account for μέν not occupying its strictly logical position.
The repetition of Ἰωάννης in Joh_10:42 is part of the simplicity of the style, which is here faithfully reflected, and is further in harmony with the feeling of reverence entertained by the people for the holy man whose memory still lived among them.
ἀληθῆ ἦν ] As was actually shown by the works of Jesus. In this way, their experience of the truth of the testimony of John became the ground of faith in Christ. What a contrast to the experiences which Jesus had just had to pass through among the Ἰουδαῖοι ! The ray of light thus vouchsafed to Him in the place where He first commenced His labours, is here set forth in all historical simplicity. Baur, however (p. 182 f., and Theol. Jahrb. 1854, p. 280 f.), maintains that the people are merely represented as speaking these words in order that the entire preceding description of the life and works of Jesus may be surveyed from the point of view of the σημεῖα . John himself gives a comprehensive retrospect, but in the right place, namely, at the close of the activity of Jesus in Joh_12:37 ff., and in how different a manner!
ἐκεῖ (see the critical note), placed emphatically at the end of the verse.