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Joh_20:30-31. Conclusion of the entire book (not merely of the main portion of it, as Hengstenberg maintains); for chap, 21 is a supplement.
πολλὰ μὲν οὖν ] Multa quidem, igitur.[271] See Klotz, ad Devar. p. 663.
καὶ ἄλλα ] On the well-known ΚΑΊ after ΠΟΛΛΆ (et quidem alia), see Baeumlein, Partik. p. 146. Comp. Act_25:7.
σημεῖα ] miraculous signs, by which He has proved Himself to be the Messiah, the Son of God (Joh_20:31). Comp. Joh_12:37. To this corresponds in general also the conclusion of the appendix, Joh_21:25. Correctly so, by way of proposition, Euth. Zigabenus, further Calvin, Jansen, Wolf, Bengel, Lampe, Tholuck, De Wette, Frommann, Maier, B. Crusius, Luthardt, Hilgenfeld, Hengstenberg, Godet, Baeumlein, Scholten, and several others. Justly might John, looking back upon his now finished βιβλίον , adduce as its contents from the beginning of his history down to this conclusion, a potiori, the σημεῖα which Christ had wrought, since these form the distinguishing characteristic in the working of Jesus (comp. Joh_10:41), and the historical basis, with which the rest of the contents (particularly the discourses) are connected. Others have taken ΣΗΜΕῖΑ in exclusive, or at least, like Schleiermacher, pre-eminent reference to the resurrection: documenta resurrectionis (comp. Act_1:3). So Chrysostom, Theophylact, Euth. Zigabenus, Ruperti, Luther, Beza, Calovius, Maldonatus, Semler, and several others, including Kuinoel, Lücke, Olshausen, Lange, Baur, Ewald, and several others. But to this corresponds neither the general and absolute σημεῖα in itself, nor the predicate ΠΟΛΛᾺ Κ . ἌΛΛΑ , since Christ, after His resurrection, both in accordance with the accounts in the Gospels, and also with that of 1 Corinthians 15, certainly appeared only a few times; nor, finally, ἘΠΟΊΗΣΕΝ and ἘΝ Τῷ ΒΙΒΛ . ΤΟΎΤῼ , which latter shows that John (for ἘΝΏΠ . Τ . ΜΑΘΗΤ ., moreover, does not point to another writer, against Weizsäcker) has in view the contents of his entire Gospel.
ἐνώπ . τ . μαθ .] So that accordingly still many more ΣΗΜΕῖΑ might have been related, as by an eye-witness, by John, who, in truth, belonged to the ΜΑΘΉΤΑΙ ; hence this addition is not to be employed as a ground for the interpretation by Chrysostom, etc., of ΣΗΜΕῖΑ , because, that is to say, Jesus performed the signs before His death in the sight of the people, etc. (comp. Joh_12:37).
ταῦτα δέ ] sc. τὰ σημεῖα , namely, those recorded in this book, this selection which composes its contents.
ἽΝΑ ΠΙΣΤΕΎΣ .] refers to the readers, for whom the Gospel was designed. “Scopus evangelii,” Bengel. Comp. Introd. § 5. See also, as regards πιστεύσ ., on Joh_19:35. Of the conversion of the Gentiles (Hilgenfeld) to the faith, there is no mention.
ὁ υἱὸς τ . θεοῦ ] in the Johannean sense. Without being this, He would not be the promised Messiah.
πιστεύοντες ] in your believing. Thus, then, the ζωὴν ἔχειν is conceived of as a possession already beginning with faith; faith, however, as a subjective principle of life, quite as with Paul, although the latter more sharply separates from one another, as conceptions, justification, and life.[272]
ἐν τῷ ὀνόμ . αὐτοῦ ] belongs to ΖΩῊΝ ἜΧ . In the name of Jesus, as the object of faith (Joh_1:12), the possession of life is causally founded.
Baur, in accordance with false presuppositions, holds Joh_20:30-31 to be spurious, because the previously-related appearances (which, according to Baur, took place from out of heaven) should in themselves so bring to a close the appearance of the Risen One, that we cannot think of further appearances of this kind ( πολλὰ κ . ἄλλα ).
[271] It serves as a concluding summary, so as to allow a moment thereby prepared to follow by δέ . Comp. Baeumlein, Partik. p. 178.
[272] Comp. Schmid, Bibl. Theol. II. p. 391.