Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - John 4:23 - 4:24
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Joh_4:23-24. But[191] this antithesis will also disappear (comp. Joh_4:21) by the προσκυνεῖν of the true (i.e. answering to the ideal of such, comp. Joh_1:19) worshippers of God, whose time is coming, yea, already is present (inasmuch as Jesus had already gathered round Him a small band of such worshippers). He could not add καὶ νῦν ἐστιν to the ἜΡΧ . ὭΡΑ of Joh_4:21.
ἘΝ ΠΝΕΎΜΑΤΙ Κ . ἈΛΗΘ .] expresses the element wherein the προσκυνεῖν is carried on in its two closely connected parts, viz.: (1) In spirit; i.e. the worship does not consist in outward acts, gestures, ceremonies, limitations of time and place, or in anything pertaining to the sphere of sense; it has to do with that higher spiritual nature in man which is the substratum of his moral self-consciousness, and the seat of his true moral life, manifesting itself in thoughts, feelings, efforts of will, moods of elevation, excitements, etc.; otherwise the προσκύνησις would belong to the sphere of the ΣΆΡΞ merely, which is the opposite of true worship. Comp. Rom_1:9 : ᾯ ΛΑΤΡΕΎΩ ἘΝ Τῷ ΠΝΕΎΜΑΤΊ ΜΟΥ . It is self-evident, from both the O. T. and N. T. view, that the ΠΝΕῦΜΑ in which this takes place is influenced by the divine ΠΝΕῦΜΑ (comp. Rom_8:14-16; Rom_8:26); but we must not take ἘΝ ΠΝΕΎΜΑΤΙ (Joh_4:24) to denote objectively the Divine Spirit (Luthardt, Brückner, Bäumlein, following the early expositors). The ΠΡΟΣΚΎΝΗΣΙς ἘΝ ΠΝΕΎΜ . is ΛΟΓΙΚΉ , Rom_12:1; it does not in itself exclude the ritus externos, but it does exclude all mechanical ritualism, and all opus operatum. (2) In truth, not “in sincerity, honesty,” which would be greatly too weak a meaning after οἱ ἀληθινοί , but, so that the worship harmonizes with its object, not contradicting but corresponding with God’s nature and attributes. Otherwise it belongs to the sphere of the ΨΕῦΔΟς , either conscious or unconscious; this ψεῦδος , and not ΣΚΙΆ or ΤΎΠΟΙ , is the antithesis of ἈΛΗΘΕΊΑ .
ΠΡΟΣΚΥΝΗΤΉς , save only in Eustathius and Hesychius, occurs only in Inscript. Chandl. p. 91.
καὶ γὰρ , κ . τ . λ .] for the Father also, etc. The καί denotes that what the ΠΡΟΣΚΥΝΗΤΑΊ do on their part is also what the Father Himself desires. Luther, B. Crusius, Tholuck, Hengstenberg, and most others, erroneously render it as if it were καὶ γὰρ τοιούτους or ΚΑῚ ΓᾺΡ ΖΗΤΕῖ . The emphasis given by ΚΑῚ in ΚΑῚ ΓᾺΡ always rests upon the word immediately following (even in 1Co_14:8); Stallbaum, ad Plat. Gorg. p. 467 B. It does not elsewhere occur in John. Usually the καὶ has been overlooked; but the Vulgate rightly renders: “nam et pater.”
ζητεῖ ] accordingly He desires. Comp. Herod. i. 94; Joh_1:39; Joh_4:27, al. τοιούτους is with marked emphasis put first: of this character He desires His worshippers to be.
πνεῦμα ὁ θεός , κ . τ . λ .] The predicate emphatically stands first (comp. Joh_1:1 : ΘΕῸς ἮΝ Ὁ ΛΌΓΟς ): a Spirit is God, etc. Here God’s nature is added to His will (Joh_4:23), as a further motive for true worship,[192] to which the nature and manner of the προσκύνησις on man’s part must correspond. How utterly heterogeneous would be a carnal and spurious worship with the perfectly pure and holy nature of God, completely raised above every limit of sense, of place, of particularism, and of all need of gifts, simply because He is Spirit! whereas a spiritual and true worship is θεοπρεπὴς κ . κατάλληλος , Euthymius Zigabenus, and is homogeneous with the idea of God as Spirit.
[191] ἀλλὰ , yet, as contrasted, not with the ἡ σωτηρία ἐκ τ . Ἰουδαίων ἐστίν (Hilgenfeld, as if μὲν … δὲ were there), but, as is clear from what follows (the true προσκυνεῖν ), with the ὑμεῖς … οἴδαμεν . Baeumlein regards it as an intensified addition to ver. 21, “yea, the hour is coming.” But thus ver. 22 would be arbitrarily overleaped.
[192] Πνεῦμα ὁ θεός is not to be conjoined with the assumption of a corporeity belonging to God (in answer to the concessions of Hamberger in the Jahrb. f. D. Th. 1867, p. 421). Jesus might take it for granted that every one who belonged to the O. T. monotheism understood that God is a Spirit, according to Exo_20:4, Jer_31:3; and it is by no means necessary to refer to the traces of Samaritan spiritualism, in order to make the expression more intelligible as addressed to the woman (Gesenius, de Theol. Sam. p. 12; de Pentat. Sam. Orig. p. 58 ff). Πνεῦμα must not be regarded as indicating something new in comparison with the O. T. (Lutz, bibl. Dogm. p. 45; Köstlin, Lehrbegr. p. 79), but as something known, and emphasized with corresponding impressiveness on account of its importance. Comp. Hofmann, Schriftbew. I. 68 ff.; Weiss, Lehrbegr. pp. 54, 55.