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Joh_6:45-46 serve more fully to explain ἑλκύειν .
ἐν τοῖς προφ .] in volumine prophetarum, Act_7:42; Act_13:40; Rom_9:24. The passage is Isa_54:13 (a free quotation from the LXX.), which treats of the divine and universal enlightenment of Israel in the time of the Messiah (comp. Joe_3:1 ff.; Jer_31:33-34): “and they shall be wholly taught of God.” The main idea does not lie in πάντες , which, moreover, in the connection of the passage refers to all believers, but in διδακτοὶ θεοῦ (a Deo edocti; as to the genitive, see on 1Co_2:13, and Kühner, II. § 516, b), which denotes the divine drawing viewed as enlightening and influencing. The διδακτὸν θεοῦ εἶναι is the state of him who hears and has learned of the Father; see what follows.
πᾶς ὁ ἀκούων , κ . τ . λ .] The spurious οὖν rightly indicates the connection (against Olshausen); for it follows from that promise, that every one who hears and is taught of the Father comes to the Son, and no others; because, were it not so, the community of believers would not be unmixedly the διδακτοὶ θεοῦ . Ἀκούειν παρὰ τοῦ πατρός is the spiritual perception of divine instruction; the subject-matter of which, as the whole context clearly shows, is the Son and His work. The communication of this revelation is, however, continuous (hence ἀκούων ), and the “having learned” is its actual result, by the attainment of which through personal exertion the ἔρχεται πρός με is conditioned. One hears and has learned of the Father; in no other way is one in the condition which internally necessitates a believing union with the Son. Comp. Mat_11:25 ff.
Joh_6:46. By this hearing and having learned of the Father, I do not mean an immediate and intuitive fellowship with Him, which, indeed, would render the coming to the Son unnecessary; no; no one save the Son only has had the vision of God (comp. Joh_1:18, Joh_3:13, Joh_8:38), therefore all they who are διδακτοὶ θεοῦ have to find in the Son alone all further initiation into God’s grace and truth.
οὐκ ὅτι ] οὐκ ἐρῶ , ὅτι . See Hartung, II. 154; Buttmann, N. T. Gr. p. 318 ff. [E. T. p. 372].
It serves to obviate a misunderstanding.
εἰ μὴ , κ . τ . λ .] except He who is from God, He hath seen the Father (that is, in His pre-existent state).[236] Comp. Gal_1:7.
ὁ ὢν παρὰ τ . θ .] for He is come from the Father, with whom He was (Joh_1:1). See on Joh_1:14, Joh_8:42, Joh_7:29, Joh_16:27.
[236] This clear and direct reference to His pre-human state in God (comp. vv. 41, 42), and consequently the agreement of Christ’s witness to Himself with the view taken by the evangelist, should not have been regarded as doubtful by Weizsäcker. The divine life which was manifested in Christ upon earth was the personal life of His pre-existent state, as the prologue teaches, otherwise John had not given the original sense of the declaration of the Lord regarding Himself (to which conclusion Weizsäcker comes in the Jahrb. f. D. Th. 1862, p. 674), which, however, is inconceivable in so great and ever-recurring a leading point. It is the transcendent recollection in His temporal self-consciousness of that earlier divine condition, which makes itself known in such declarations (comp. Joh_3:11). See on Joh_8:38, Joh_17:5. His certitude concerning the perfect revelation does not first begin with the baptism, but stretches back with its roots into His pre-human existence. See, against Weizsäcker, Beyschlag also, p. 79 ff., who, however (comp. p. 97 f.), in referring it to the sinless birth, and further to the pre-existent state of Jesus, as the very image of God, is not just to the Johannean view in the prologue, and in the first epistle, as well as here, and in the analogous testimonies of Jesus regarding Himself. See on ver. 62. Beyschlag renders: “because He is of God, He has seen God in His historical existence.” The far-fetched thought is here brought in, that only the pure in heart can see God. Comp. rather Joh_1:18, Joh_3:13; Joh_3:31-32, Joh_8:26; Joh_8:38. See, against this view of the continuous historical intimacy with God, Pfleiderer in Hilgenfeld’s Zeitschr. 1866, p. 247 ff.; Scholten, p. 116 ff.