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Joh_14:1.[138] From Peter Jesus now turns, with consolatory address in reference to His near departure, to the disciples generally; hence D. and a few Verss. prefix καὶ εἶπεν τοῖς μαθηταῖς αὐτοῦ (so also Luther, following Erasmus). But the cause of the address itself is fully explained in John’s narrative by the situation, and by no means requires the reference, arbitrarily assumed by Hengstenberg, to Luk_22:35-38. The whole of the following farewell discourses, down to Joh_17:26, must have grown out of the profoundest recollections of the apostle, which, in a highly intellectual manner, are vividly recalled, and further expanded. It coheres with the entire peculiarity of the Johannean narrative of the last Supper, that the Synoptics offer no parallels to these farewell discourses. Hence it is not satisfactory, and is not in keeping with the necessary personal recollection of John, to regard him as taking his start from certain primary words of earlier gospels, which he, like an artist of powerful genius, has transfigured by a great, but, at the same time, most appropriate and enchanting transformation (Ewald).
μὴ ταρασσ .] by anxiety and apprehension. Comp. Joh_12:27. It points to what He had spoken in the preceding chapters of His departure, not, as Chrysostom, Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theophylact, Euth. Zigabenus, and many thought, to Peter’s denial, after the prediction of which the rest of the disciples also might have become anxious about their constancy. This is erroneous, because the following discourse bears no relation to it.
πιστεύετε , κ . τ . λ .] By these words Jesus exhorts them not to faith generally (which they certainly had), but to that confident assurance by which the μὴ ταράσσεσθαι was conditioned: trust in God, and trust in me. To take, in both cases, πιστεύετε as imperatives (Cyril., Gothic, Nonnus, Theophylact, Euth. Zigabenus, Bengel, and several others, including most moderns, from Lücke to Hengstenberg and Godet) appears most in conformity with the preceding imperative and the direct character of the address.[139] Others: the first πιστ . is indicative, and the second imperative: ye believe on God, believe therefore on me (Vulgate, Erasmus, Luther in his Exposition, Castalio, Beza, Calvin, Aretius, Maldonatus, Grotius, and several others). Luther, who takes the first sentence as a hypothetical statement, which in itself is admissible (Bernhardy, p. 385; Pflugk, ad Eur. Med. 386, comp. on Joh_1:51), has in his translation taken πιστεύετε , in both cases, as indicatives. According to any rendering, however, the inseparable coherence of the two movements (God in Christ manifest and near) is to be noted. Comp. Rom_5:2.
[138] Luther’s exposition of chap. 14, 15, 16 belongs to the year 1538. He terms these discourses “the best and most consoling sermons that the Lord Christ delivered on earth,” and “a treasure and jewel, not to be purchased with the world’s goods.”—Luther’s book (which originated in sermons, which Casp. Cruciger took down) is among his most spirited and lively writings. How highly he himself esteemed it, see in Matthesius, eilfte Pred. (ed. Nürnb. 1592, p. 119a).
[139] So also Ebrard, who, however, in conformity with a supposed Hebraism (see on Eph_4:26), finds the inappropriate meaning: “Believe on God, so ye believe on me.” Thus the emotional address becomes a reflection. Olshausen arrives at the same sense, taking the first πιστ . as imperative, the second as indicative.