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Joh_5:28-30. Marvel not at this (comp. Joh_3:7), viz. at what I have asserted concerning my life-giving and judicial power; for[218] the last and greatest stage of this my Messianic quickening work (not the work of the λόγος as the absolute ζωή , to whom Baur refers the whole passage, Joh_5:20 ff.; see, on the contrary, Brückner) is yet to come, namely, the raising of the actually dead out of their graves, and the final judgment.[219] Against the interpretation of this verse (see on Joh_5:21) in a figurative sense (comp. Isa_26:19; Exo_37:12; Dan_12:2), it is decisive that οἱ ἐν τοῖς μνημείοις would have to mean merely the spiritually dead, which would be quite out of keeping with οἱ τὰ ἀγαθὰ ποιήσαντες . Jesus Himself intimates by the words οἱ ἐν τοῖς μνημείοις that He here is passing from the spiritually dead, who thus far have been spoken of, to the actual dead.
ὅτι ] argumentum a majori; the wonder at the less disappears before the greater, which is declared to be that which is one day to be accomplished. We are not to supply, as Luthardt does, the condition of faithful meditation on the latter, for the auditors were unbelieving and hostile; but the far more wonderful fact that is told does away with the wonder which the lesser had aroused, goes beyond it, and, as it were, causes it to disappear.
ἔρχεται ὥρα ] Observe that no καὶ νῦν ἐστιν , as in Joh_5:25, could be added here.
πάντες ] Here it is as little said that all shall be raised at the same time, as in Joh_5:25 that all the spiritually dead shall be quickened simultaneously. The τάγματα , which Paul distinguishes at the resurrection, 1Co_15:23-24, and which are in harmony with the teaching of Judaism and of Christ Himself regarding a twofold resurrection (Bertholdt, Christol. pp. 176 ff., 203 ff.; and see on Luk_14:14), find room likewise in the ὥρα , which is capable of prophetic extension.
οἱ τὰ ἀγαθὰ ποιήσαντες , κ . τ . λ .] that is, the first resurrection, that of the just, who are regarded by Jesus in a purely ethical aspect, and apart from all national particularism. See on Luk_14:14, and comp. Joh_6:39. It was far from His object here to dwell upon the necessity of His redemption being appropriated by faith on the part of the dead here spoken of; He gives expression simply to the abstract moral normal condition (comp. Rom_2:7; Rom_2:13; Mat_7:21). This necessity, however, whereby they must belong to the οἱ τοῦ Χριστοῦ (1Co_15:23; comp. Mat_25:31 sqq.), implies the descensus Christi ad inferos.
εἰς ἀνάστ . ζωῆς ] they will come forth (from their graves) into a resurrection of life (represented as local), i.e. to a resurrection, the necessary result of which (comp. Winer, p. 177 [E. T. p. 235]) is life, life in the Messiah’s kingdom. Comp. 2Ma_7:14 : ἀνάστασις εἰς ζωήν ; Dan_12:2; Rom_5:18 : δικαίωσις ζωὴς .
κρίσεως ] to which judgment pertains, and judgment, according to the context, in a condemnatory sense (to eternal death in Gehenna); and accordingly ἀνάστασις ζωῆς does not exclude an act of judgment, which awards the ζωή .
As to the distinction between ποιεῖν and πράττειν , see on Joh_3:20-21. Joh_5:30 further adds the guarantee of the rectitude of this κρίσις , and this expressed in a general way, so that Jesus describes His judgment generally; hence the Present, denoting continuous action, and the general introductory statement of Joh_5:19, οὐ δύναμαι , etc.
καθὼς ἀκούω ] i.e. from God, who, by virtue of the continual communion and confidence subsisting between Him and Christ, always makes His judgment directly and consciously known to Him, in accordance with which Christ gives His verdict. Christ’s sentence is simply the declaration of God’s judgment consequent upon the continuous self-revelation of God in His consciousness, whereby the ἀκούειν from the Father, which He possessed in His pre-existent state, is continued in time.
ὅτι οὐ ζητῶ , κ . τ . λ .] “I cannot therefore deviate from the κρίνειν καθὼς ἀκούω ; and my judgment, seeing it is not that of an individual, but divine, must be just.”
τοῦ πέμψ . με , κ . τ . λ .] as it consequently accords with this my dependence upon God.
[218] Ewald renders ὅτι that: “Marvel not at this, that (as I said in ver. 1) an hour is coming,” etc. But in ver. 25 the thought and expression are different from our text.
[219] It is not right, as is already plain from the text and ver. 27, to say that in John the judgment is always represented as an inner fact (so even Holtzmann, Judenth. u. Christenth. p. 422). The saying, “The world’s history is the world’s judgment,” only partially represents John’s view; in John the last day is not without the last judgment, and this last judgment is with him the world-judgment. See on Joh_3:18.