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Joh_12:47-48. Comp. Joh_3:17-18, Joh_5:45 ff., Joh_8:15 ff.
If any one shall have heard the words from me, does not denote hearing in the sense of believing (Lücke), but a hearing which is in itself indifferent (Mat_7:26; Mar_4:15-16; Mar_13:20); and by the κ . μὴ φυλάξῃ which follows (see the critical notes), that very faith which follows hearing is denied. φυλάσσειν , namely, denotes not indeed the mere holding fast, guarding (Joh_12:25), but, as throughout, where doctrines, precepts, and the like are spoken of (see especially Luk_11:28; Luk_18:21; Rom_2:26), the keeping by actual fulfilment. But this takes place simply by faith, which Christ demands for His ῥήματα : with faith the φυλάσσειν comes into action (hence the Recepta κ . μὴ πιστεύσῃ is a correct gloss); the refusal of faith is the rejection of Christ ( ἀθετεῖν , here only in John, but comp. Luk_10:16; 1Th_4:8), and non-adoption of His words, Joh_12:48, is the opposite of that φυλάσσειν so far as its essence is just the ὑπακοὴ τῆς πίστεως .
On ἀκούειν with a double genitive, as in Luk_6:47, Act_22:1, comp. Joh_18:37; and see Buttmann, N. T. Gr. p. 145 [E. T. p. 167].
ἐγὼ οὐ κρίνω αὐτόν ] I, in my person, am not his judge, which is further meant generally, not exclusively, of the last judgment, but in a condemnatory sense, as opposed to σώζειν , as in Joh_3:17
Joh_12:48. ἔχει ] Placed first with great emphasis: he has his judge; he stands already under his trial. But this judge, says Christ, is not Himself, as an individual personally considered in and by Himself, but His spoken word; this and nothing else will be (and therewith all the terror of the last decision breaks in upon the mind) the determining rule of the last judgment. It is Christ, indeed, who holds the judgment (Joh_5:22; Joh_5:27), but as the bearer and executor of His word, which constitutes the divine power of the judgment. Comp. Joh_7:51, where the law judges and takes cognisance. How decisively does the present passage declare against the attempt of Scholten, Hilgenfeld, Reuss, and others, to explain away the last judgment out of John! Comp. Joh_12:28-29; 1Jn_4:17.