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Joh_5:19 ff. Jesus does not deny what the Jews attributed to Him as the capital offence of blasphemous presumption, namely, that He made Himself equal with God; but He puts the whole matter in its true light, and this from a consideration of His whole present and future work, onward to Joh_5:30; whereupon, onwards to Joh_5:47, He gives vent to an earnest denunciation of the unbelief of the Jews in the divine witness to Himself.
Joh_5:19. Οὐ δύναται ] denies the possibility, on account of an inner necessity, involved in the relationship of the Son to the Father, by virtue of which it would be impossible for Him to act with an individual self-assertion independent of the Father, which He could then only do if He were not the Son. Comp. Bengel, in loc., and Fritzsche, nova opusc. p. 297 f. In ἀφʼ ἑαυτοῦ ,, as the subject of the reflexive is the Son in His relation to the Father, there does not lie any opposition between the human and divine wills (Beyschlag), nor an indistinct and onesided reference to the human element in Christ (de Wette); but it is the whole subject, the God-man, the incarnate Logos, in whom the Aseietas agendi, the self-determination of action independently of the Father, cannot find place; because otherwise He must either be divine only, and therefore without the subordination involved in the economy of redemption (which is the case also with the πνεῦμα , Joh_16:13), or else simply human; therefore there is no contradiction between what is here said and the prologue (Reuss; comp. on the other side, Godet).
ἐὰν μή τι , κ . τ . λ .] refers simply to ποιεῖν οὐδέν , and not also to ἀφʼ ἑαυτοῦ . See on Mat_12:4; Gal_2:16.
βλέπῃ τ . πατ . ποιοῦντα ] a familiar description, borrowed from the attention which children give to the conduct of their father—of the inner and immediate intuition which the Son perpetually has of the Father’s work, in the perfect consciousness of fellowship of life with Him. This relation, which is not only religious and moral, but founded on a transcendental basis, is the necessary and immediate standard of the Son’s working. See on Joh_5:20.
ἃ γὰρ ἂν ἐκεῖνος , κ . τ . λ .] Proof of the negative assertion by means of the positive relationship subsisting.
ὁμοίως ] equally, proportionately, qualifying ποιεῖ , indicating again the reciprocity or sameness of action already expressed by ταῦτα , and thus more strongly confirming the perfect equality of the relationship. It is, logically speaking, the pariter (Mar_4:16; Joh_21:13; 1Pe_3:1) of the category mentioned.