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Joh_6:68-69. Peter, according to the position, for which the foundation is already laid in Joh_1:43, makes the confession, and with a resolution how deep and conscious!
ἀπελευσόμεθα ] Future, at any time. “Da nobis alterum Te,” Augustine.
ῥήματα ζωής , κ . τ . λ .] Twofold reason for stedfastness: (1) ῥήματα … ἔχεις , and (2) καὶ ἡμεῖς , κ . τ . λ . Thou hast the words of everlasting life ( ζωὴν αἰώνιον προξενοῦντα , Euthymius Zigabenus; more literally: “whose specific power it is to secure eternal life”); an echo of Joh_6:63. The ῥήματα which proceed from the Teacher are represented as belonging to Him, a possession which He has at His disposal. Comp. 1Co_14:26.
καὶ ἡμεῖς ] and we for our part, as contrasted with those who had fallen away.
πεπιστ . κ . ἐγνώκ .] “the faith and the knowledge to which we have attained, and which we possess, is that,” etc. (Perfect). Conversely, Joh_17:8; 1Jn_4:16. Practical conviction may precede (Php_3:10) and follow (comp. Joh_8:32) the insight which is the product of reason. The former quite corresponds to the immediate and overpowering impressions by which the apostles had been won over to Jesus, chap. 1. Both, therefore, are conformable with experience, and mutually include, and do not exclude, each other.
ὁ ἅγιος τοῦ θεοῦ (see the critical notes): He who is consecrated of God to be the Messiah through the fulness of the Spirit and salvation vouchsafed Him. See on Joh_10:36; 1Jn_2:20; comp. Mar_1:24; Luk_4:34; Act_4:27; Rev_3:7.
The similar confession, Mat_16:16, is so different in its occasion, connection, and circumstances, that the assumption that our passage is only another version of the synoptical account (Weisse and others) is unwarrantable. Who can take exception to the repetition of a confession (of which the apostles’ hearts were so full) upon every occasion which presented itself? Certainly, according to John (see already Joh_1:42 ff., Joh_2:19), it is untenable to suppose that in our passage, according to the right reading (see the critical notes), we have not yet a complete and unhesitating confession of the Messiah (Ewald); or that the disciples had only now attained a full faith in Him (Weizsäcker). We would have to assume in the earlier passages of chap. 1 a very awkward ὕστερον πρότερον on the part of the evangelist,—a view in which even Holtzmann acquiesces (Judenth. u. Christenth. p. 376).