Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - John 7:4 - 7:4
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Joh_7:4. “For no one does anything in secret, and is thereby personally striving to he of a frank, open-hearted nature;” i.e. no one withdraws himself and his works also into quiet secrecy, and yet strives frankly to assert his personal position (as you must do if you are the Messiah). The two things are, indeed, contradictory! On ἐν παῤῥησ . comp. Joh_11:54; Wis_5:1; and Grimm, Exeg. Handb. p. 110 f.; Eph_6:19; Php_1:20; Col_2:15. The word does not signify “manifest” or “known” (De Wette, Godet, and most others), but it means the opposite of a shy and timid nature, which shrinks from playing the part of a fearless and frank character.
τὶ ] is the simple aliquid, not magnum quid (Kuinoel and others); and καί does not stand for ὅς , so that αὐτός would be superfluous (Grotius, Kuinoel), but is the simple “and,” while air αὐτός [258] is ipse, thus putting the person attributively over-against the work (Herm. ad Vig. p. 735; Fritzsche ad Rom. II. p. 75), and not merely resuming the subject (Lücke, Tholuck), as also it must not be taken in Mat_12:50.
As to εἶναι ἐν , versari in (Bernhardy, p. 210), thus designating the adverbial predicate as permanent, see Buttmann, N. T. Gr. p. 284 [E. T. p. 330].
εἰ ταῦτα ποιεῖς ] answers to the τὰ ἔργα σου ἃ ποιεῖς , Joh_7:3, and to οὐδεὶς … ποιεῖ , Joh_7:4, and therefore, according to the context (comp. also the consequent clause, which corresponds with καὶ ζητεῖ αὐτὸς , κ . τ . λ .), refers to the miracles which Jesus did in Galilee. Ταὐτα has the emphasis: “If thou doest these things, i.e. if thy work consists in such wonderful deeds as thou art performing here in Galilee, do not act so foolishly as to confine thyself with such works within so narrow and obscure a range, but present thyself openly before the world, as thou must do in Judaea, which during the feast is the theatrum mundi.” Σεαυτόν , like the preceding αὐτός , gives prominence to His person, as opposed to His work. But the εἰ is not expressive of doubt (Euthymius Zigabenus: εἰ ταῦτα σημεῖα ποιεῖς καὶ οὐ φαντάζεις ; Lücke, De Wette, and most: as if we were to supply, if it be really as we hear; comp. also Brückner, who considers that it is intended to intimate in a disagreeable manner that the fact was doubtful), it is argumentative; the brothers know that His works are of an extraordinary kind, as was evident to them in Galilee ( ποιεῖς denotes a permanent course of action; Bernhardy, p. 370); and they consider it absurd that He should withdraw Himself personally from the place whither all the world was flocking.
[258] The reading αὐτό (Lachm. following B. D.*) is only an error in transcription. Ebrard, who maintains its genuineness, yet marvellously renders: “but he strives, that it may take place openly.” καί , meaning “but,” is said to be Johannean; it is really neither Johannean nor Greek at all, but simply wrong. The frequent Greek use of it in John in the sense of “and yet” is something quite different; see on ver. 29.