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Joh_7:38. The πίνειν is brought about by faith; hence the statement progresses: ὁ πιστεύων , κ . τ . λ .
καθὼς εἶπεν ἡ γρ .] is simply the formula of quotation, and cannot belong to ὁ πιστεύων εἰς ἐμέ , as if it denoted a faith which is conformable to Scripture (Chrysostom, Theophylact, Euthymius Zigabenus, Calovius, and most); ὁ πιστ ., on the contrary, is the nominative absolute (see on Joh_6:39), and καθὼς εἶπεν , κ . τ . λ ., belongs to the following ποταμοὶ , etc., the words which are described as a declaration of Scripture. There is no exactly corresponding passage, indeed, in Scripture; it is simply a free quotation harmonizing in thought with parts of various passages, especially Isa_44:3; Isa_55:1; Isa_58:11 (comp. also Eze_47:1; Eze_47:12; Zec_13:1; Zec_14:8; Joe_3:1; Joe_3:20; but not Son_4:12; Son_4:15). Godet refers to the account of the rock in the wilderness, Exo_17:6, Num_20:11; but this answers neither to the thing itself (for the subject is the person drinking) nor to the words. To think in particular of those passages in which mention is made of a stream flowing from the temple mount, the believer being represented as a living temple (Olshausen), is a gloss unwarranted by the context, and presents an inappropriate comparison ( κοιλίας ). This last is also in answer to Gieseler (in the Stud. u. Krit. 1829, p. 138 f.), whom Lange, L. J. II. p. 945, follows. To imagine some apocryphal or lost canonical saying (Whiston, Semler, Paulus; comp. also Weizsäcker, p. 518; Bleek, p. 234, and in the Stud. u. Krit. 1853, p. 331), or, as Ewald does, a fragment of Proverbs no longer extant, or of some such similar book, is too bold and unnecessary, considering the freedom with whieh passages of Scripture are quoted and combined, and the absence of any other certain trace in the discourses of Jesus of extra-canonical quotations, or of canonical quotations not now to be found in the O. T.; although, indeed, the characteristic ἐκ τῆς κοιλίας αὐτοῦ itself occurs in none of the above-named places, which is certainly surprising, and not to be explained by an inappropriate reference to Son_7:3 (Hengstenberg). But this expression, “out of his body” considering the connection of the metaphor, is very natural; the water which he drinks becomes in his body a spring from which streams of living water flow, i.e. the divine grace and truth which the believer has received out of Christ’s fulness into his inner life, does not remain shut up within, but will communicate itself in abundant measure as a life-giving stream to others, and thus the new divine life overflows from one individual on to others. As represented in the metaphor, these ποταμοί take their rise from the water which has been drunk and is in the κοιλία , and flow forth therefrom in an oral effusion;[270] for the effect referred to takes plaee in an outward direction by an inspired oral communication of one’s own experience of God’s grace and truth ( πιστεύομεν , διὸ καὶ λαλοῦμεν , 2Co_4:13). The mutual and inspired intercourse of Christians from Pentecost downwards, the speaking in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, the mutual edification in Christian assemblies by means of the charismata even to the speaking with tongues, the entire work of the apostles, of a Stephen and so on, furnish an abundant historical commentary upon this text. It is clear, accordingly, that ΚΟΙΛΊΑ does not, as is usually supposed, denote the inner man, man’s heart (Pro_20:27; Sir_19:12; Sir_51:21; LXX. Psa_40:9, following A.; comp. the Latin viscera), but must be left in its literal meaning “belly” in conformity with the metaphor which determines the expression.[271] The flowing forth of the water, moreover, is not to be understood as something operating upon the subject himself only (B. Crusius: “his whole soul, from its very depth, shall have a continual quickening and satisfaction,” comp. Maier), but as describing an efficacy in an outward direction, as ἐκ τ . κοιλ . shows, and therefore is not the same as the similar passage, chap. Joh_4:14. If we join ὁ πιστ . εἰς ἐμέ with inverts, πινέτω , αὐτοῦ must refer to Christ; and this is the meaning that we get: “He that thirsteth, let him come to me; and he that believeth in me, let him drink of me: for to me refers what the Scripture hath said concerning a river which shall flow forth from Jehovah in the time of the Messiah.” So Hahn, Theol. d. N. T. I. p. 229 f., and Gess, Pers. Chr. p. 166. But against this it is decisive, first, that he who believes on Jesus has already drunk of Him (Joh_6:35), and the call to come and drink must apply not to the believer, but to the thirsty; and secondly, that the expression ἐκ τῆς κοιλίας αὐτοῦ would be unnecessary and unmeaning, if it referred to Jesus, and not to him who has performed the ΠΙΝΈΤΩ (Nonnus, ΔΙᾺ ΓΑΣΤΡῸς ἘΚΕΊΝΟΥ ).
ὝΔΩΡ ΖῶΝ , as in Joh_4:10; ΖῶΝΤΟς ΔῈ , ἬΓΟΥΝ ἈΕῚ ἘΝΕΡΓΟῦΝΤΟς , ἈΕΙΚΙΝΉΤΟΥ , Euthymius Zigabenus.
Observe further the ΠΟΤΑΜΟΊ emphatically taking the lead and standing apart; “not in spoonfuls, nor with a pipe and tap, but in full streams,” Luther.
[270] Comp. ἐρεύξομαι , Mat_13:35.
[271] Already Chrysostom and his followers took κοιλίας as equivalent to καρδίας ; a confounding of the metaphor with its import. Hofmann’s objection (Schriftbew. II. 2, p. 13), “that the water here meant does not go into the belly at all,” rests solely upon the same confusion of the figure with its meaning. According to the figure, it conies into the κοιλία because it is drunk, and this drinking is in like manner figurative. When Hofmann finds indicated in the word even a springing place of the Holy Spirit within the body, he cannot get rid of the idea of something withia the body as being implied in κοιλία , because the text itself presents this figure as being in harmony with that of the drinking; unless, indeed, the concrete expression is to give way to an exegetical prudery foreign to the text itself, and is to be blotted out at pleasure. κοιλία in no passage of the N. T. means anything else than body, belly.—Strangely out of keeping with the unity of the figure, Lange, following Bengel (comp. also Weizsäcker), now finds in κοιλία an allusion to the belly of the golden pitcher (see on ver. 37), and Godet to the inner hollow of the rock whence the water flowed, so that ἐκ τ . κοιλ . αὐτοῦ corresponds with îÄîÌÆðÌåÌ , Exo_17:6. So inventive is the longing after types!