Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - John 9:22 - 9:22
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
22. συνετέθειντο. It does not appear when; but the tense and ἤδη indicate some previous arrangement, and probably an informal agreement among themselves. A formal decree of the Sanhedrin would be easily obtained afterwards. Συντίθεσθαι occurs in Luk 22:5 of the compact with Judas, and in Act 23:20 of the Jews’ compact to kill S. Paul, and nowhere else.
ἀποσυνάγωηος. Put away from the synagogue, or excommunicated. The word is peculiar to S. John, occurring here, Joh 12:42, and Joh 16:2, only. The Jews had three kinds of anathema. (1) Excommunication for thirty days, during which the excommunicated might not come within four cubits of any one. (2) Absolute exclusion from all intercourse and worship for an indefinite period. (3) Absolute exclusion for ever; an irrevocable sentence. This third form was very rarely if ever used. It is doubtful whether the second was in use at this time for Jews; but it would be the ban under which all Samaritans were placed. This passage and ‘separate’ in Luk 6:22 probably refer to the first and mildest kind of anathema. The principle of all anathema was found in the Divine sentence on Meroz (Jdg 5:23): Comp. Ezr 10:8.