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Joh_14:31. That the world may know, etc. (as far as οὕτω ποιῶ ), rise (from table), let us go hence! In order to bring the world to the knowledge of my love and my obedience to the Father (“ut mundus desinat mundus esse et patris in me beneplacitum agnoscat salutariter,” Bengel), let us away from here, and go to meet the diabolical power, before which I must now fall according to God’s counsel! The apodosis does not begin so early as καὶ καθώς (Grotius, Kuinoel, Paulus), in which case καί would mean also, and a reflection less appropriate to the mood of deep emotion would result. If a full point be placed after ποιῶ (Bengel, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Ewald), which, however, renders the sentence heavy, and makes what follows to stand too abruptly, then after ἀλλʼ a simple ἔρχεται would have to be supplied. Comp. Joh_15:25.
After the summons ἐγείρεσθε , κ . τ . λ ., we are to think of the company at table as having risen. But Jesus, so full of that which, in view of the separation ever drawing nearer, He desired to impress on the heart of the disciples, and enchained by His love for them, takes up the word anew, and standing, continues to address chap. 15 and 16 to the risen disciples, and then follows the prayer of chap, 17, after which the actual departure, Joh_18:1, ensues. This view (Knapp, Lücke, Tholuck, Olshausen, Klee, Winer, Lnthardt, Ewald, Brückner, Bleek, following the older expositors, also Gerhard, Calovius, and Maldonatus) appears to be correct from this, that John, without any indication of a change of place, connects Joh_15:1 immediately with Joh_14:31; while, that the following discourses, and especially the prayer, were uttered on the way (Ammonius, Hilarius, Beda, Luther, Aretius, Grotius, Wetstein, Lampe, Rosenmüller, Lange, Ebrard), is neither in any way indicated, nor reconcilable with Joh_18:1, nor psychologically probable. A pure importation, further, is the opinion of Chrysostom, Theophylact, Euth. Zigabenus, Erasmus, and several others, that Christ, Joh_14:31, went with the disciples to a more secluded and safer place, where He (“sur la pente couverte de vignes, qui descend dans la vallée du Cédron,” Godet) delivered chap. 15, 16, 17; so also is Bengel’s harmonistic device, which Wichelhaus has adopted, that the locality of the discourse from Joh_13:31[158] to Joh_14:31 had been outside the city, but that now He set forth to go to Jerusalem for the passover.[159] Others, while De Wette abides by the hypothesis of an hiatus between chap. 14 and 15, the reason of which remains unknown, have sought to make use of the ἐγείρεσθε , ἄγωμεν , Mat_26:46, Mar_14:42, in spite of the quite different historical connection in Matthew and Mark, in order to charge the author with a clumsy attempt to interweave that reminiscence in his narrative (Strauss, Scholten); in opposition to which Weisse, with equal arbitrariness and injustice, accuses the supposed editor of the Gospel with having placed in juxtaposition, without any link of connection, two Johannean compositions, of which the one closed with Joh_14:31, and the other began with Joh_15:1. Baur and Hilgenfeld, indeed, make the synoptic words, divested of their more definite historical justification, stand here only as a sign of pause. The Johannean words, and those in the Synoptics uttered in Gethsemane, have nothing to do with one another; but the apparent incongruity with the present passage speaks, in fact, in favour of the personal testimony of the reporter, before whose eyes the whole scene vividly presented itself. Comp. Bleek’s Beitr. p. 239.
[158] Bengel on Joh_13:31 : “ λέγει : dicit postridie, nempe mane, feria V.”
[159] So also again Röpe, d. Mahl des Fusswasch., Hamb. 1856, p. 25 f., who, following Bynaeus, assumes that in ἐγείρεσθε , κ . τ . λ . is contained the setting forth from Bethany for Jerusalem, and that chap. 15–17 were then spoken at the paschal meal on the 14th Nisan, in reference to the institution of the Supper.