xviii. 9, 16, 25); therefore, also here, and hence there must be question

of the judgment of condemnation. *The prince of this world* is plainly the devil. See also 2 Cor. iv. 4; Eph. ii. 2, vi. 12. In the Talmud the same title is given to the prince of devils. By Christ’s death the devil was cast out: that is, deprived of that almost universal sway which he had exercised over men before the coming of Christ. “At nondum diabolus e mundo ejectus videtur esse, cum in eo adhuc grassetur. Ejectus foras dicitur non quod nunc in mundo non sit, et in multis etiamnum dominetur; sed quod, quantum in Christo fuit, ejectus fuerit, ita ut, si homines vellent, nihil prorsus in ipsos haberet potestatis. Homines illi postea portam arcis aperuerunt, et proditione quadam in suam quisque domum admittit. Itaque etiam nunc regnat et operatur, sed in filios diffidentiae, Eph. ii. 2” (Mald. on this verse).

32. Et ego si exaltatus fuero 32. And I, if I be lifted up a terra, omnia traham ad from the earth, will draw all meipsum: things to myself.

32. *And I, if I be lifted up from the earth.* Christ here predicted that after His death on the cross (see next verse) He should become a centre of attraction, and draw all men (πάντας is the more probable reading, not πάντα), both Jews and _Gentiles_ to Himself. This marvellous prophecy began to be fulfilled in the centurion and his companions (Matt. xxvii. 54), and the rest of the multitude that witnessed the crucifixion (Luke xxiii. 48), and is daily receiving its fulfilment still.

33. Hoc autem dicebat, 33. (Now this he said, significans qua morte esset signifying what death he moriturus. should die.)

33. St. John here gives us an authentic interpretation.

34. Respondit ei turba: Nos 34. The multitude answered audivimus ex lege quia him: We have heard out of the Christus manet in aeternum; et law, that Christ abideth for quomodo tu dicis, Oportet ever; and how sayest thou: The exaltari Filium hominis? Quis son of man must be lifted up? est iste Filius hominis? Who is this son of man?

34. The multitude understood Jesus to speak of His death, or at least of His withdrawal from them, and object that He cannot be the Messias, who, as they understood the Scriptures (the law is here put for the whole Scriptures), was to remain for ever. They quote no single text, but probably they had gathered this idea from many passages; _e.g._, Isai. ix. 6, 7; Ps. cix. 4; Dan. vii. 13, 14, &c. It is not unlikely that they had the passage of Daniel specially before their minds, for there the power of the _Son of Man_ is described as “an everlasting power that shall not be taken away, and His kingdom (a kingdom) that shall not be destroyed.” Hence, they argued, if Christ was to die, He could not be the Messias, but must be some other _Son of Man_ than he spoken of by Daniel.

35. Dixit ergo eis Iesus: 35. Jesus therefore said to Adhuc modicum, lumen in vobis them: Yet a little while, the est. Ambulate dum lucem light is among you. Walk habetis, ut non vos tenebrae whilst you have the light, comprehendant: et qui ambulat that the darkness overtake you in tenebris, nescit quo vadat. not. And he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.

35. Christ might have easily replied, showing them from the same Scriptures that the Messias was to suffer and die (see, _e.g._, Isai. liii.; Dan. ix. 26); but probably because He saw that the motive of the multitude in objecting was not to seek light, but to disprove His claim to be the Messias, He did not vouchsafe a reply to their objection, but went on to exhort them to believe, for thus they should find a solution of all their difficulties.

*Yet a little while*; _i.e._, a few days more, the light, which is Himself, is to be among them. He exhorts them, therefore, to walk, that is, to believe, while He is present among them, in order that darkness, that is, the time when He is gone from among them, may not find them still in their unbelief.

*And* (καί = γάρ) *he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth*. Christ does not mean to say that they could not believe after His death; but just as, though it is quite possible to walk during the time of darkness, still it is easier to walk in daylight, so it was easier for them to believe now, when He, the Sun of Justice was corporally present among them, than it would be when He had withdrawn His light. We take, “darkness,” then, with Mald., not of sin, nor of unbelief, but, as opposed to the light which is Christ, of the time when Christ could be no longer present among them, after His death, as in verse ix. 4; xi. 9, 10.

36. Dum lucem habetis, credite 36. Whilst you have the light, in lucem, ut filii lucis believe in the light, that you sitis. Haec locutus est Iesus: may be the children of light. et abiit, et abscondit se ab These things Jesus spoke, and eis. he went away, and hid himself from them.

36. He now explains what He means by telling them to walk. It is that they should believe. *That you may be* (become) *the children of light*. The phrase “children of light” is a Hebraism, meaning those who are to possess the light, who are destined for it. Compare Luke xvi. 8; Eph. v. 8.

*And he went away, and hid himself from them.* SS. Matt. and Mark tell us that He went to Bethania with the twelve and remained there (Matt. xxi. 17; Mark xi. 11).

37. Cum autem tanta signa 37. And whereas he had done so fecisset coram eis, non many miracles before them, credebant in eum: they believed not in him. 38. Ut sermo Isaiae prophetae 38. That the saying of Isaias impleretur, quem dixit: the prophet might be Domine, quis credidit auditui fulfilled, which he said: nostro? et brachium Domini cui _Lord, who hath believed our revelatum est? hearing? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?_ 39. Propterea non poterant 39. Therefore they could not credere, quia iterum dixit believe, because Isaias said Isaias: again. 40. Excaecavit oculos eorum, 40. _He hath blinded their et induravit cor eorum: ut non eyes, and hardened their videant oculis, et non heart, that they should not intelligant corde, et see with their eyes, nor convertantur, et sanem eos. understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them._

37‐40. Before closing this first part of the _narrative_ portion of the Gospel (see Introd. iv.), St. John pauses in the history to note the hard‐ hearted incredulity of the Jews, notwithstanding the fact that Christ had wrought _so many_ miracles; an incredulity, however, which had been foretold by Isaias, which, therefore, came to pass now _in order that_ (ἱνα) the prediction of the Prophet should be fulfilled (verses 37, 38); and which came to pass necessarily (_necessitate consequente_), because, as Isaias declared, they no longer had the abundant graces necessary in order that they might believe (verses 39, 40). Thus the incredulity of the Jews in our Lord’s time was _necessary_ to the end that prophecy might be fulfilled. How then, we may ask, was that incredulity culpable, if those who were incredulous were not free and able to believe? The answer is, that this incredulity was necessary by a necessity consequent upon the prediction of the inspired Prophet, which prediction was itself consequent upon God’s foreknowledge that the Jews would, culpably and of their own free will, remain incredulous. God foresaw this incredulity, predicted it, because He foresaw it was to be; and, of course, it came to pass, as He had foreseen it would. Hence, when God foresees, or His Prophet predicts, the commission of a certain sin, that sin is infallibly, yet freely committed. It is, as if we saw a man walking across a plain; he does so, not because we see him, but we see him because he walks. Similarly, in the boundless plain of His eternal present, God sees all things that are to be, and they happen, not because He sees them, but He sees them because they are to happen.

Note, in verse 38, that *our hearing* means what has been heard _from_ us, for the preachers of the Gospel are represented in Isaias as complaining of the small number of those who listened to them. *The arm of the Lord* is Christ, according to several of the fathers; or we may take it to mean the power of the Lord in the work of man’s redemption.

Note, in verse 40, where the prophecy is cited freely, after neither the Hebrew nor the Septuagint, that it is not meant that God blinded any man _positively_, but only negatively, by the withdrawal of His more abundant graces.

41. Haec dixit Isaias, quando 41. These things said Isaias vidit gloriam eius, et locutus when he saw his glory, and est de eo. spoke of him.

41. See Isaias vi. 1, 9, 10, where the Prophet says: “I saw the Lord” (אדני = the Supreme God), words which are here referred by St. John to the Prophet’s having seen Christ; therefore, according to St. John, Christ is the Supreme God.

It would also seem from this verse that the Son of God Himself, and not merely an angel representing Him, appeared to Isaias on that occasion. It was the common opinion of the fathers, though denied by most of the scholastics, that God sometimes appeared in the O. T. apparitions.

*And spoke of him*, rather, “and he spoke of Him,” for this clause does not depend upon the preceding “when.” It is a statement that it was of Christ Isaias spoke the words just quoted.

42. Verumtamen et ex 42. However many of the chief principibus multi crediderunt men also believed in him: but in eum: sed propter pharisaeos because of the Pharisees they non confitebantur, ut e did not confess _him_, that synagoga non eiicerentur: they might not be cast out of the synagogue.

42. See above on ix. 22.

43. Dilexerunt enim gloriam 43. For they loved the glory hominum magis quam gloriam of men, more than the glory of Dei. God. 44. Iesus autem clamavit, et 44. But Jesus cried, and said: dixit: Qui credit in me, non He that believeth in me, doth credit in me sed in eum qui not believe in me, but in him misit me. that sent me.

44. These words of our Lord recorded in the remainder of this chapter seem to have been spoken on a subsequent day of Holy Week (see verse 36); but on what precise day, it is difficult to determine. *Doth not believe in me* is the Hebrew way of saying: doth not _so much_ believe in Me, as in Him that sent Me. Compare Mark ix. 36.

45. Et qui videt me, videt eum 45. And he that seeth me, qui misit me. seeth him that sent me.

45. In these words Christ declares His unity of nature with the Father. “Sensus est de visione corporali, non quod Deus oculo corporeo videatur immediate, et per se, sed mediante humanitate, cui Divina substantia Patris et Filii est unita” (Tolet.).

46. Ego lux in mundum veni: ut 46. I am come a light into the omnis qui credit in me, in world; that whosoever tenebris non maneat. believeth in me, may not remain in darkness.

46. *Darkness* here means unbelief and sin.

47. Et si quis audierit verba 47. And if any man hear my mea, et non custodierit, ego words and keep them not: I do non iudico eum, non enim veni not judge him: for I came not ut iudicem mundum, sed ut to judge the world, but to salvificem mundum. save the world.

47. *I do not judge him*; _i.e._, I do not _condemn_ him. Compare iii. 17; viii. 15, 50. At his _first_ coming Christ did not come to condemn, but to save.

48. Qui spernit me, et non 48. He that despiseth me, and accipit verba mea, habet qui receiveth not my words, hath iudicet eum: sermo quem one that judgeth him: the word locutus sum, ille iudicabit that I have spoken, the same eum in novissimo die. shall judge him in the last day.

48. *Hath one that judgeth him*; namely, the Father (viii. 50). Hence the sense of the verse is that he that despiseth Me ... hath one that judgeth him _even now_; and moreover, on the last day My words shall rise in judgment against him.

49. Quia ego ex meipso non sum 49. For I have not spoken of locutus, sed qui misit me myself, but the Father who Pater, ipse mihi mandatum sent me, he gave me dedit quid dicam, et quid commandment what I should say, loquar. and what I should speak.

49. This verse gives the reason why the words of Christ shall stand in judgment against the unbeliever; because His words were not merely His own, uttered by His private authority, but spoken by the command of His Father, whom therefore they despise, in despising Him. In our view Christ here speaks of Himself as man.

If *say* and *speak* are to be distinguished, then “say” (εἴπω) refers to the formal discourses, “speak” (λαλήσω) to the ordinary conversations; so that in all His words Christ had spoken to them the words of God.

50. Et scio quia mandatum eius 50. And I know that his vita aeterna est. Quae ergo commandment is life ego loquor, sicut dixit mihi everlasting. The things Pater, sic loquor. therefore that I speak; even as the Father said unto me, so do I speak.

50. To show them their folly, and in the hope of yet inducing them to believe, He tells them He knows with certainty that the command of the Father (that is, what the Father had commanded Him to say and do, and hence, all His own words and works) is the cause of life eternal to mankind. Hence their folly in not believing.

*The things therefore that I speak; even as the Father said unto me, so do I speak.* Thus He concludes, insisting on the fact that He is the legate of God (consubstantial with the Father, verse 45), and as such worthy to be believed.