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Joh_8:56. Εἶτα κατασκευάζει καὶ ὅτι μείζων ἐστι τοῦ Ἀβρ ., Euth. Zigabenus, and, indeed, in such a manner, that He, at the same time, puts the hostile children of Abraham to shame.
ὁ πατὴρ ὑμῶν ] with a reproving glance back to Joh_8:39.
ἠγαλλιάσατο , ἵνα ἴδῃ ] he exulted to see; the object of his exultation is conceived as the goal to whose attainment the joyous movement of the heart is directed. He rejoiced in the anticipation of seeing my day, i.e. of witnessing the day of my appearance on earth.[39] As to its historical date, ἠγαλλιάσατο does not refer to an event in the paradisaical life of Abraham; but, as Abraham was the recipient of the Messianic promise, which described, on the one hand, the Messiah as His own σπέρμα , himself, however, on the other hand, as the founder and vehicle of the entire redemptive Messianic development for all nations, the allusion is to the time in his earthly life when the promise was made to him. His faith in this promise (Gen_15:6) and the certainty of the Messianic future, whose development was to proceed from him, with which he was thus inspired, could not but fill him with joy and exultation; hence, also, there is no need for an express testimony to the ἠγαλλ . in Genesis (the supposed reference to the laughing mentioned in Gen_17:17 which was already interpreted by Philo to denote great joy and exultation, and which Hofmann also has again revived in his Weissag. und Erfüll. II. p. 13, is inadmissible, on a correct explanation of the passage). So much, however, is presupposed, namely, that Abraham recognised the Messianic character of the divine promise; and this we are justified in presupposing in him who was the chosen recipient of divine revelations. For inventions of the Rabbis regarding revelations of future events asserted, on the ground of Gen_17:17, to have been made to Abraham, see Fabric. Cod. Pseudepigr. I. p. 423 ff. The seeing of the day (the experimental perception thereof through the living to see it, Luk_17:22; Polyb. x. 4. 7; Soph. O. R. 831, 1528; and see Wetstein and Kypke on the passage) to which ( ἵνα ) the exultation of Abraham was directed, was, for the soul of the patriarch, a moment of the indefinite future. And this seeing was realized, not during his earthly life, but in his paradisaical state (comp. Lampe, Lücke, Tholuck, De Wette, Maier, Luthardt, Lechler in the Stud. u. Krit. 1854, p. 817, Lange, Baeumlein, Ebrard, Godet), when he, the ancestor of the Messiah and of the nation, learnt that the Messianic age had dawned on the earth in the birth of Jesus as the Messiah. In like manner the advent of Jesus on the earth was made known to Moses and Elias (Mat_17:4), which fact, however, does not justify us in supposing that reference is here made to occurrences similar to the transfiguration (Ewald). In Paradise Abraham saw the day of Christ; indeed, he there maintained in general a relation to the states and experiences of his people (Luk_16:25 ff.). This was the object of the καὶ εἶδε καὶ ἐχάρη ; it is impossible, however, to determine exactly the form under which the ΕἾΔΕ was vouchsafed to him, though it ought not to be explained with B. Crusius as mere anticipation. We must rest contented with the idea of divine information. The apocryphal romance, Testamentum Levi, p. 586 f. (which tells us that the Messiah Himself opens the gates of Paradise, feeds the saints from the tree of life, etc., and then adds: τότε ἀγαλλιάσεται Ἀβραὰμ καὶ Ἰσαὰκ κ . Ἰακὼβ κἀγὼ χαρήσομαι καὶ πάντες οἱ ἅγιοι ἐνδύσονται εὐφροσύνην ), merely supplies a general confirmation of the thought that Abraham, in the intermediate state of happiness, received with joy the news of the advent of Messiah. Supposing, however, that the relation between promise ( ἨΓΑΛΛΙΆΣΑΤΟ , ἽΝΑ ἼΔῌ , etc.) and fulfilment ( ΚΑῚ ΕἾΔΕ Κ . ἘΧΆΡΗ ), expressed in the two clauses of the verse, do require the beholding of the day of Christ to be a real beholding, and the day of Christ itself to be the day of His actual appearance, i.e. the day of the incarnation of the promised One on earth, it is not allowable to understand by it, either, with Raphelius and Hengstenberg, the appearance of the angel of the Lord (Genesis 18), i.e. of the Logos, to Abraham; or, with Luther, “the vision of faith with the heart” at the announcement made in Gen_22:18 (comp. Melancthon, Calvin, and Calovius);[40] or, with Olshausen, a prophetic vision of the δόξα of Christ (comp. Joh_12:41); or, with Chrysostom, Theophylact, Euth. Zigabenus, Erasmus, and most of the older commentators, also Hofmann, the beholding of an event which merely prefigured the day of Christ, a typical beholding, whether the birth of Isaac be regarded as the event in question (Hofmann; see also his Schriftbew. II. 2, p. 304 f.), or the offering up of Isaac as a sacrifice, prefiguring the atoning sacrifice and resurrection of Christ (Chrysostom, Grotius, and many others). According to Linder, in the Stud. und Krit. 1859, p. 518 f., 1867, p. 507 f., the day of Christ denotes nothing but the time of the birth of Isaac, which was promised in Gen_18:10, so that Christ would thus appear to have represented Himself as one of the angels of the grove of Mamre (comp. Hengstenberg), and, by the expression ἡμέρα ἡ ἐμή , to have denoted a time of special, actual revelation. Taken thus, however, the day in question would be only mediately the day of Christ; whereas, according to the connection and the express designation τὴν ἡμέραν τὴν ἐμήν , Christ Himself must be the immediate subject of the day, as the one whose appearance constitutes the day emphatically His
His κατʼ ἐξοχὴν , analogously to the day of His second advent (Luk_17:24; 1Co_1:8; 1Co_5:5; 2Co_1:14; Php_1:6; Php_2:16; 1Th_5:2; 2Th_2:2); hence, also, the plural had not to be employed (in answer to Linder’s objection).
ΚΑῚ ἘΧΑΡΗ ] appropriately interchanged for ἨΓΑΛΛ ., the latter corresponding to the first outburst of emotion at the unexpected proclamation.
[39] ἡμέρα ἡ ἐμή expressly denotes (hence not τὰς ἡμέρας τὰς ἐμάς , comp. Luk_17:22) the exact, particular day of the appearance of Christ on earth, i.e. the day of His birth (Job_3:1; Diog. L. 4. 41), from the Johannine point of view, the day on which the ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο was accomplished. This was the great epoch in the history of redemption which Abraham was to behold.
[40] Bengel also: “Vidit diem Christi, qui in semine, quod stellarum instar futurum erat, sidus maximum est et fulgidissimum.”