- ; lHEN-EW INTERNATIONAL COMMENTARY ONlHE NEW TESTAMENT - L ONMORRIS THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO)OHN THE ENGLISH TEXT WITH INTRODUCTION, EXPOSITION AND NOTES by LEON MORRIS Principal, Ridley College, Melbourne WM. B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING CO. GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN Copyright © 1971 by William ll. Eerdmans Publishing Company All rights reserved Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 70·120845 ISBN 0·8028·2296·7 Printed in the United States of America Reprinted. August 1989 Acknowledgment is made to the following publishers for permission to quote from the publications indicated: Cambridge University Press, New York, 1953: The Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel by C. H. Dodd; Faber & Faber, London, 1947: The Fourth Gospel by Edwin C. Hoskyns and F. Noel Davey; Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1950: Jesus the Revelation by C. J. Wright; Macmillan, London, 1945, and St. Manin's Press, New York, 1945: Readings in St. John's Gospel by William Temple; Oxford University Press, New York, 1956: St. John's Gospel by R. H. Lightfoot; Saint Andrew Press, Edinburgh, 1956, and Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1958: The Gospel ofJ ohn, vols. 1 and 2, truslatcd and interpreted by William Barclay; SCM Press, London, 1"5: Tbe Fourth Gospel by Robert H. Strachan; S.P.C.K., London, I"': Gospel /lCcording to St. John-by C. K. Barrett; T. & T. aark, EdinbulJh, 1928: A Critical..&: Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel according to St. John by J. H. Bernard. THIS BOOK IS FOR CHARLIE CONTENTS Page EDITOR'S FOREWORD IX AUTHOR's PREFACE Xl PRINClPAL ABBREVIATIONS INTRODUCTION . 7 I. AUTHORSHIP. 8 2. DATE • . • 30 3. PURPOSE . . 35 4. HISTORY AND THEOLOGY 40 5. THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE FOURTH GOSPEL TO THE SYNOPTICS 49 6. DISLOCATIONS • . • . . 53 7. SOURCES • . . • • . . 56 8. PLACE OF COMPOSITION • 58 9. BACKGROUND . . . • . 60 ANALYSIS OF THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN 65 TEXT, EXPOSITION AND NOTES . . • • • 71 CHAPTER I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Additional Note A: The Logos (The Word) 115 Additional Note B: The World . . . 126 Additional Note C: The Son of Man . 172 CHAPTER II . 174 CHAPTER III 208 CUM.'TER IV 251 Additional Note D: Truth 293 CHAP 'I. V. . . . . . . 297 Additional Note E: Believing 335 CHAPTER VI . 338 CHAPTER VII . 392 CHAPTER VIII 435 CHAPTER IX 477 CHAPTER X . 498 CHAPTER XI . 532 CHAPTER XII . 571 CHAPTER XIII 610 CHAPTER XIV 636 Additional Note F: The Paraclete 662 CHAPTER XV . . . . . . . 667 Additional Note G: Miracles 684 CHAPTER XVI 692 CHAPTER XVII 716 CHAPTER XVIII 739 Additional Note H: The Last Supper and the Passover 774 Additional Note I: The Right of the Jews to Inflict the Death Penalty . 786 CHAPTER XIX 789 CHAPTER XX . 828 CHAPTER XXI 858 Appendix: The Woman Taken in Adultery (7 : 53-8 : II) 882 INDEXES • . . . . • . . . . . . . . . . . • . . . • 895 EDITOR'S FOREWORD In any series of New Testament commentaries the work on the Fourth Gospel must occupy a position of central importance. When Professor C. H. Dodd delivered his inaugural lecture in the Norris-Hulse Chair at Cambridge in 1936, on The Present Task in New Testament Studies, he suggested that the understanding of this Gospel, "one of the outstanding tasks of our time", might be the crucial test of our success or failure in solving the problem of the New Testament as a whole - that the Fourth Gospel, in fact, might prove to be the keystone of an arch which at present fails to hold together. Many scholars, pre-eminently Professor Dodd himself, have laboured at this task since then, but they have not moved appreciably nearer to unanimity. Not one but several "new looks" on the Fourth Gospel have been presented in recent years: if we have John Robinson's new look, we also have Ernst Kasemann's. We may look hopefully to fresh discoveries in Near Eastern religious history of the relevant period, and in some degree our hopefulness is rewarded (as in the comparative study of the Fourth Gospel and the literature of Qumran), but the heart of the problem of the Fourth Gospel lies within the document itself. One thing is certain: proponents of one interpretation act without warrant when (as they still do at times) they rule another inter pretation out of court or dismiss it as being no longer tenable. The choice of Dr. Leon Morris to contribute the commentary on this Gospel to the New International series was made by the late General Editor, Dr. Stonehouse. It was a wise choice. Or. Morris has over the years given ample proof of his qualities as biblical theologian and exegete. To this series he contributed the volume on the Epistles to the Thessalonians in 1959. In ·the Editor's Foreword to that volume some account was given of Dr. Morris's career until then. At that time he was Vice-Principal of Ridley College, Melbourne. Soon afterwards he came to Cam bridge as Warden of Tyndale House; he returned to Australia in 1964 to become Principal of Ridley College. It will be evident at a glance that a commentary of this scale IX THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN and character is the fruit of many years' study. From time to time in the course of these years Dr. Morris has given us by products of his work in this field - monographs on The Dead Sea Scrolls and St John's Gospel (London, 1960) and The New Testament and the Jewish Lectionaries (London, 1964), and most recently a volume of Studies in the Fourth GOJpel (Grand Rapids and Exeter, 1969). These hors d'oeuvres have whetted our appetite for the main course, and now at last we greet it. If one out of many praise worthy features of the work may be mentioned, it is Dr. Morris's capacity for making up his own mind, after surveying the evidence and the opinions of others, and for telling us unambiguously where he thinks the truth of the matter lies. Here is wealth in which the student of Scripture will r~joice; the General Editor counts him self happy to have had the opportunity of rejoicing in it before Dr. Morris's other readers, to whom he now commends it. F. F. BRUCE x AUTHOR'S PREFACE It is ten years and more since I accepted the invitation of the late Professor N.B. Stonehouse to write this volume. I cannot say that I have worked uninterruptedly on this commentary throughout that period. I have had a number of other commit ments, and the stress of two moves, one from Australia to Eng land and the other from England back to Australia, did not make for concentrated literary activity. Most of all the demands of the post of Principal of a College which is both a University College and a theological College have restricted the time available for writing. But through all these years this book has been con stantly in my thoughts and I have worked at it whenever I could. As it goes forth I am conscious of its many shortcomings. But I am conscious also that I have had a great deal of assistance from many quarters. I have tried to indicate my principal indebtednesses in the footnotes. I have learned a great deal from B. F. Westcott's great commentary. And I never forget that my enthusiasm for Johan nine studies was kindled in the first instance by Archbishop Ber nard's two volumes in the International Critical Commentary series. Of more recent works I have learned most from the com mentaries of Sir Edwyn Hoskyns and Professor C. K. Barrett. A host of friends and several classes of students have stimulated and helped me. To all, though I cannot mention them by name, I express my profound gratitude. Let me also express my appreciation of the courtesy and help fulness shown me by Professor Stonehouse. I greatly appreciated his invitation to contribute this volume and his understanding when its appearance was delayed. I discussed a few points with him and this would have been a better commentary had I had opportunity of doing this more often. He was a fine Christian scholar and I gladly acknowledge my debt to him. Finally I am grateful to the present editor of the series, Pro fessor F. F. Bruce, for his understanding of my difficulties in com pleting this work, for the many valuable suggestions he has made for its improvement and for his steady encouragement. LEON MORRIS Xl PRINCIPAL ABBREVIATIONS AA Matthew Black: An Aramaic Approach to the Gospels and Acts (Oxford, 1946) Abbott Edwin A. Abbott: Johannine Grammar (London, 1906) ABR The Australian Biblical Review AG W. F. Arndt and F. W. Gingrich: A Greek-English Lexicon oj the New Testament (Chicago and Cambridge, 1957) Amplified The Amplified New Testament (Grand Rapids, 1958) ANF Ante-Nicene Fathers (American Reprint of the Edinburgh Edition, Grand Rapids, n.d.) AO C. F. Burney: The Aramaic Origin oj the Fourth GOjpel (Oxford, 1922) ARV The American Revised Version (or, The American Standard Version) AS G. Abbott-Smith: A Manual Greek Lexicon oj the New Testament (Edinburgh, 1954) Augustine Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (American Reprint of the Edinburgh Edition, Grand Rapids, 1956), First Series, Volume VII, Homilies on the Gospel oj John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies AV The Authorized Version BA The Biblical Archaeologist Bailey R. F. Bailey: Saint John's Gospel (London, 1957) Barclay William Barclay: The Gospel oj John, 2 vols. (Edinburgh, 1956) Barrett C. K. Barrett: The Gospel according to St. John (London, 1955) BDF F. Blass and A. Debrunner: A Greek Grammar of the New· Testament, trans. R. W. Funk (Chicago and Cambridge, 1961) Berkeley The Holy Bible, The Berkeley Version (Grand Rapids, 1959) Bernard J. H. Bernard: A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel according to St. John, The International Critical Commentary, 2 vols. (Edinburgh, 1928) BJRL The Bulletin oj the John Rylands Library BNT The Background qf the New Testament and its Eschatology, ed. W. D. Davies and D. Daube (Cambridge, 1956) Brown Raymond E. Brown: The Gospel according to John (i-xii), The Anchor Bible (New York, 1966) BS A. Deissmann: Bible Studies (Edinburgh, 1901) BT The Bible Translator Bultmann Rudolf Bultmann: Das Evangelium des Johannes (Gottingen, 1956) Calvin John Calvin: The Gospel according to St. John, trans. T. H. L. Parker (Grand Rapids, vol. I, 1959, vol. II, 1961) CBQ The Catholic Biblical Quarterly