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Joh_11:41-42. Jesus knows that His prayer, that God would suffer Him to raise Lazarus to life,—a prayer which He had previously offered up in stillness, perhaps only in the inarticulate yearnings of His heart,—has been heard, and He thanks God for hearing it. Petition and thanksgiving are not to be conceived as blended in one (Merz in die Wurtemberg. Stud. 1844, 2, p. 65; Tholuck); nor is the latter to be regarded as anticipatory (Hengstenberg), as though He offered thanks in the certain anticipation of the hearing of His prayer (Ewald, comp. Godet). Not that He offers thanks because the hearing of His prayer was unexpected and unhoped for ( εἶπον ); no, He for His part ( ἐγώ ) knew, even whilst He was asking God in stillness, that God always heard Him;[89] but because of the people standing by, etc.
Some have stumbled at Joh_11:42, and looked on it either as spurious (Dieffenbach in Bertholdt’s Krit. Journ. vol. i. p. 8), or as a reflection of the evangelist who puts this “show-prayer” (Weisse), or even “sham-prayer” (Baur), into the mouth of Christ for the purpose of supplying an argument for the story (De Wette; see, on the other hand, Brückner), or for the divinity of Christ (Strauss, Scholten). But it is just He, the One who is most intimate with the Father, who may indulge in reflection even in prayer, if His reflections relate to God, and are prayer. The opposite judgment applies an arbitrary standard to the subject. Moreover, if it had been his own reflection, John would probably have said: διὰ τοὺς Ἰουδαίους instead of ΔΙᾺ Τ . ὌΧΛΟΝ . Comp. Joh_11:45.
ΕἾΠΟΝ ] as in Joh_6:36 : I will have said it, namely the εὐχαριστῶ σοι , etc. To refer to Joh_11:4 (Ewald) is inadmissible even on account of ΔΙᾺ Τ . ὌΧΛΟΝ alone.
ΣΙ ] Thou and no other. They shall be convinced of it by learning from my thanksgiving that my working takes place in Thy strength, in the full certainty of a victory of Thy sending.
[89] Correct reason for this: πάντοτε θέλεις ἃ θέλω (Euth. Zigabenus); but also conversely, πάντοτε θέλω ἃ θέλεις ; see Joh_5:30, Joh_12:27.