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Joh_8:26. The question in Joh_8:25 was a reproach. To this (not to Joh_8:24, as Godet maintains) refers the word πολλά , which is placed with full emphasis at the beginning of the verse; the antithetical ἀλλʼ , however, and the excluding word ταῦτα , inform us that He does not say the πολλά which He has to speak and judge of them (and which He has in readiness, in store); but merely that which He has heard from Him who sent Him. Comp. Joh_16:12; 2Jn_1:12. Similarly Euth. Zigabenus, after Chrysostom and B. Crusius. After the question in Joh_8:25, we must imagine a reproving pause. The paraphrase: “I have very much to speak concerning you, and especially to blame; but I refrain therefrom, and restrict myself to my immediate task, which is to utter forth to the world that which I have heard from God the True, who has sent me (namely, what I heard during my existence with God, before my mission; comp. on Joh_8:28[20])—in other words, to the communication of divine truth to the world.” For divergent views of the course of thought, see Schott, Opusc. I. p. 94 ff. After the example of older writers, Lücke and De Wette take the view that Jesus meant to say: “But, however much I have to judge concerning you, my κρίσις is still ἈΛΗΘΉς ; for I speak to the world only what I have heard from my Father, who is true.” Comp. also Tholuck. In this way, however, the antithesis has to be artificially formed, whilst the expressed antithesis between that which Jesus has to speak ( ἔχω λαλεῖν ) and that which He actually says ( λέγω ) is neglected. This is in answer to Ewald also, who imports into Ἀ ËË ’ the meaning: “Yet I will not therefore be afraid, like a man;” and against Hengstenberg, who, after ΠΟΛΛᾺ … ΚΡΊΝΕΙΝ , supplies in thought: “This is the reason why you will not accept my utterances in relation to my person.”
ΚἈΓΏ ] and I, for my part, in contrast to God; the word is connected with ταῦτα , etc.
ΤΑῦΤΑ ] this and nothing else. As to the main point, Chrysostom aptly says: ΤᾺ ΠΡῸς ΣΩΤΗΡΊΑΝ , Οὐ ΤᾺ ΠΡῸς ἜΛΕΓΧΟΝ .
ΕἸς Τ . ΚΌΣΜ .] See on Mar_1:39. Comp. Soph. El. 596: κήρυσσέ μʼ εἰς ἅπαντας . Not again ΛΑΛᾶ (Lachmann, Tischendorf), but ΛΈΓΩ , because the notion has become by antithesis more definite: what He has heard, that it is which He says; He has something else to say to the world than to speak of the worthlessness of His opponents. The former He does; the latter, much occasion as He has for doing it, He leaves undone.
[20] So also vv. 38, 40. Not as Beyschlag maintains: immediately before my public appearance. Comp. on Joh_6:46.