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John xi. 32.

John xi. 33.

John xi. 34.

John xi. 35.

John xi. 36.
John xi. 37.

John xi. 38.

John xi. 39.

John xi. 40.

John xi. 41.

John xi. 42.

John xi. 43.

John xi. 44.

John xi. 45.

John xi, 46.

that she rose up hastily and went out, followed Bethany.
her, saying, She goeth unto the grave to weep
there.

Then when Mary was come where Jesus was,
and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying
unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my
brother had not died.

When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled,

*

And said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see.

Jesus wept.

*Gr. he troubled himself.

Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him! And some of them said, Could not this man, " which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused y Ch. ix. 6. that even this man should not have died?

Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it.

Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.

Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?

Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.

And I knew that thou hearest me always but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.

And when he had thus spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.

And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave-clothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.

Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on him.

But some of them went their ways to the Pharisees, and told them what things Jesus had done.

Jerusalem.

SECTION XLVII.

The Sanhedrim assemble to deliberate concerning the Resurrection of Lazarus.

JOHN Xi. 47, 48.

Then gathered the Chief Priests and the Pha- John xi. 47. risees a council, and said, What do we? for this

man doeth many miracles.

If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on John vi. 48. him and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation ".

z Chap. xviii. 14.

SECTION XLVIII.

Caiaphas prophesies.

JOHN XI. 49-53.

And one of them, named Caiaphas, being the John xi. 49, High Priest that same year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all,

Nor consider that it is expedient for us, that John xi. 50. one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not.

36

And this spake he not of himself: but being John xi, 51. High Priest that year, he prophesied " that Jesus should die for that nation;

35 There is much difficulty in the reasoning of the Sanhedrim on this occasion. Why should they fear the Romans, even if they had acknowledged our Lord to be the Messiah? They believed that their Messiah was to be a powerful and mighty king, who would overthrow the dominion of the Romans, and restore the kingdom to Israel.

The cause of their apprehension seems to have been the meek and unostentatious pretensions of our Lord, and his severe reproofs of the pride and hypocrisy of the Pharisees and rulers. They demanded a Messiah who should appear with the insignia, as well as the reality of power, and who should not only continue, but even enhance to the utmost, the temporal dominion of the Jews. As our Lord did not possess the external proofs of royalty, they would not believe that He would be able to oppose the Roman power, whose vengeance they would certainly bring upon themselves, if they should acknowledge any other political sovereign; but as the resurrection of Lazarus was the cause of this assembling by the Sanhedrim, it is evident that the miraculous powers of our Lord must have been known to that body: and the supposition of Lightfoot, therefore, that they knew him, is not irrational; they probably knew him as a Prophet, but not as the Messiah.

36 Commentators are divided respecting the meaning of these words. In the

John xi. 52.

And not for that nation only, but that also he Jerusalem. should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.

John xi. 53.

SECTION XLIX.

The Sanhedrim resolve to put Christ to Death.

JOHN XI. 53.

Then from that day forth they took counsel together for to put him to death.

former ages of the Jewish Church, the spirit of prophecy rested with the High Priest. As this was the great year in which the object of the Jewish dispensation was obtained, and the spirit of prophecy, according to the prediction of Joel, quoted by St. Peter, was abundantly poured forth; it is supposed that the High Priest was now inspired to utter certain words, with the full meaning of which he was unacquainted, as was frequently, and, in the opinion of the Jews, uniformly, the case among the ancient prophets. Others interpret the words according to the literal sense in which they were spoken by Caiaphas, and suppose that St. John gave them another signification. Hausenius, in his learned dissertation on this subject (a), endeavours to prove that the words of St. John must likewise be interpreted literally, and that Caiaphas did actually prophesy ; and as High Priest foretell the necessity of Christ's death. The question is admirably summed up by Hausenius, in his seventeenth section.

Hoc modo et Saulus, cum suis inter prophetas relatus, majori violentia spiritus actus est. E quibus constat, modum, quo profano Caiapha vaticinium inditum est, omnibus fere, qui impiis obtigerunt, tenuiorem, lenioremque fuisse.

He then proceeds in his last section to shew that though this expression of Caiaphas must be considered as a real prophecy, yet the High Priest himself was unworthy of the honourable name of prophet. To this purpose he quotes the accurate conclusions of Origen; and thus sums up his remarks--Quamobrem bene horum, de quibus loquimur, congruens in unam sententiam divinatio descripta a Basilio est, catena, a Dan. Heinsio e MS. edita-πç dè xai Baλaàμ προφητεύει καὶ Καϊάφας; ὅτι κἀκεῖνοι τοὺς πειθομένες εἶχον, ὁ μὲν ὡς ἀρχιερεὺς, ὁ δὲ ὡς μάντις· ἐ γὰρ ψυχῆς καθαρότης, οὐδὲ διαύγεια νῦ ἐνορῶντος εἰς θεὸν, καὶ τὴν ἐκεῖθεν δύναμιν σπῶντος· ἀλλ ̓ οἰκονομικὸς ἐν αὐτοῖς ὁ λόγος, & κατὰ τὴν ἀξίαν, ἀλλὰ πρὸς τὸν καιρόν. Idem de Bileamo judicium est R. Isaaci Abarbenelis ad Jos. xiii. 27. ɔp n n'm a

מנכותו דבר שזכה אליו לצורך שעה לכבוד ישרצל וכדי לברכם.

Grotius (b) quotes several curious opinions of the ancients respecting the communion of their chiefs and superiors with an invisible world. Homer tells us that a dream was only to be depended upon when it occurred to Agamemnon. The Spartans esteemed those dreams only as prophetical which were presented

(a) Printed in the collection of tracts which compose the 13th volume of the Critici Sacri, p. 528. (b) Critici Sacri in loc., vol. vii. p. 221. and Joh. Pricai Annotata, at the end of vol. vii. p. 356.

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Ephraim.

SECTION L.

Christ retires to Ephraim, or Ephrata.

JOHN XI. 54.

Jesus therefore walked no more openly among John xi. 54, the Jews; but went thence unto a country near to the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim, and there continued with his disciples.

to the Ephori. Oracular responses were given both to Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar, to Lamech and Balaam. And in the former dispensation it belonged to the kings, or to the chief magistrate, to consult by Urim and Thummin (c).

Dr. Lardner observes on these words, "By prophesying—I understand foretelling the event; which it was, in a peculiar manner, the office of the priest to do, when he was inquired of, or when God was inquired of by him, concerning any important matters under deliberation." See 1 Sam. xxii. 11—13. xxiii. 9-11. and 2 Sam. v. 22-25. He thus paraphrases the whole passage

"Caiaphas, who was the High Priest at that time, when it came to his turn to deliver his opinion, said, You have hitherto talked very weakly and ignorantly; you may proceed in the case before you without hesitation. The taking away the life of this man will be so far from being ruinous to the whole nation in this country, and in other parts, as some of you fear, that it will be much for the advantage of the people of God, every where. This however he said, not merely of himself, but being then High Priest, he foretold the issue and event of their counsels, and of the death of Jesus: and that it would come to pass that Jesus would die for that nation, and not for that nation only; but that through his death he would gather together in one the children of God, which were scattered abroad (d).”

The advice of Caiaphas is such, indeed, as might have been expected from an unprincipled and worldly politician. He recommends them to save the state, by sacrificing the supposed author of their apprehended danger. One man must die for the people—that is, the life of this Jesus, although he has performed mighty works, is of no value when compared with the possibility of danger. The Evangelist certainly refers to this speech of Caiaphas, as if it had been spoken under a divine impulse, of which he was totally unconscious.

Diodati, in his Annotations, writes-"God guided the tongue of the High Priest: so that thinking to utter a speech according to his own wicked meaning, he pronounced an oracle according to God's meaning; as the High Priest had oftentimes inspirations from God." Exod. xxviii. 15. Numb. xxvii. 21.

(c) I may here take the opportunity of observing a contradiction in the folio edition of Lightfoot's works. In his gleanings on Exodus, Lightfoot supports the opinion that the High Priest heard a voice, when consulting the Oracle by Urim and Thummim; but in his sermons he advances the opinion, that he was suddenly inspired by the spirit of prophecy.-Vide Life of Lightfoot, prefixed to his works, folio edition. (d) Lardner's Works, vol. i. 4to. edit. p. 211.

SECTION LI.

State of the public Mind at Jerusalem, immediately preceding the last Passover, at which Christ attended.

John xi. 55.

John xi. 56.

John xi. 57.

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JOHN xi. 55, to the end.

And the Jews' Passover was nigh at hand: and Jerusalem.
many went out of the country up to Jerusalem
before the Passover, to purify themselves.

Then sought they for Jesus, and spake among
themselves, as they stood in the temple, What
think ye,
that he will not come to the feast?

Now both the Chief Priests and the Pharisees
had given a commandment, that, if any man knew
where he were, he should shew it, that they might
take him.

SECTION LII.

Christ comes to Bethany, where he is anointed by Mary. MATT. xxvi. 6-14. MARK XIV. 3-10. JOHN xii. 1-12.

John xii. 1,

Then Jesus six days before the Passover came to Bethany. Bethany, where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead.

37 ON THE TIME OF THE ANOINTING of our loRD AT BETHANY. Harmonists have been much divided on the proper place of the anointing our Lord at Bethany. Some have supposed that this unction was performed twice, Lightfoot and Pilkington have embraced the hypothesis of a Archbishop Newcome supposes that there was one only, which he places two days before the passover. Doddridge and Michaelis have concluded that our Lord was anointed once only, and refer the event to the sixth day before the passover.

others but once. twofold unction.

After an attentive perusal of the several reasons adduced by each harmonist, I have adopted the opinion of Michaelis and Doddridge. The German harmonist, in his chapter on the Rules to be observed in making a Harmony of the Gospels, has selected this event as the example by which to illustrate the position" that two or more relations may be very similar, and yet not the same; and these must be carefully distinguished from each other."-" The following instance," he observes, "may serve to shew the manner in which I apply the rules in question. The Evangelists, St. Matthew (chap. xxvi. 6. 13.) and St. Mark (chap. xiv. 3. 9.) have related that Christ was anointed in the week pre ceding his death, and all the commentators are agreed that both of them mean the same unction. St. John likewise (chap. xiii. 1. 8.) relates that Christ was anointed in the same week; and the unction which he describes, is, in my opinion, the very same with that which St. Matthew and St. Mark have recorded; but, according to others, it was totally different, and happened four days earlier.

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