Chapter Note Matthew Henry Commentary (Complete)
J O H N.
CHAP. XIX.
Though in the history hitherto this evangelist seems industriously to have declined the recording of such passages as had been related by the other evangelists, yet, when he comes to the sufferings and death of Christ, instead of passing them over, as one ashamed of his Master's chain and cross, and looking upon them as the blemishes of his story, he repeats what had been before related, with considerable enlargements, as one that desired to know nothing but Christ and him crucified, to glory in nothing save in the cross of Christ. In the story of this chapter we have, I. he remainder of Christ's trial before Pilate, which was tumultuous and confused, Jeremiah 19:1 - 15 . II. Sentence given, and execution done upon it, Jeremiah 19:16 - 18 . III. The title over his head, Jeremiah 19:19 - 22 . IV. The parting of his garment, Jeremiah 19:23 ; Jeremiah 19:24 . V. The care he took of his mother, Jeremiah 19:25 - 27 . VI. The giving him vinegar to drink, Jeremiah 19:28 ; Jeremiah 19:29 . VII. His dying word, Jeremiah 19:30 . VIII. The piercing of his side, Jeremiah 19:31 - 37 . IX. The burial of his body, Jeremiah 19:38 - 42 . O that in meditating on these things we may experimentally know the power of Christ's death, and the fellowship of his sufferings!
Book Note Matthew Henry Commentary (Complete)
AN
EXPOSITION,
W I T H P R A C T I C A L O B S E R V A T I O N S,
OF THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO
S T. J O H N.
It is not material to enquire when and where this gospel was written; we are sure that it was given by inspiration of God to John, the brother of James, one of the twelve apostles, distinguished by the honourable character of that disciple whom Jesus loved, one of the first three of the worthies of the Son of David, whom he took to be the witnesses of his retirements, particularly of his transfiguration and his agony. The ancients tell us that John lived longest of all the twelve apostles, and was the only one of them that died a natural death, all the rest suffering martyrdom; and some of them say that he wrote this gospel at Ephesus, at the request of the ministers of the several churches of Asia, in opposition to the heresy of Corinthus and the Ebionites, who held that our Lord was a mere man. It seems most probable that he wrote it before his banishment into the isle of Patmos, for there he wrote his Apocalypse, the close of which seems designed for the closing up of the canon of scripture; and, if so, this gospel was not written after. I cannot therefore give credit to those later fathers, who say that he wrote it in his banishment, or after his return from it, many years after the destruction of Jerusalem; when he was ninety years old, saith one of them; when he was a hundred, saith another of them. However, it is clear that he wrote last of the four evangelists, and, comparing his gospel with theirs, we may observe, 1. That he relates what they had omitted; he brings up the rear, and his gospel is as the rearward or gathering host; it gleans up what they has passed by. Thus there was a later collection of Solomon's wise sayings Proverbs 25:1 ), and yet far short of what he delivered, 1 Kings 4:32 . 2. That he gives us more of the mystery of that of which the other evangelists gave us only the history. It was necessary that the matters of fact should be first settled, which was done in their declarations of those things which Jesus began both to do and teach,Luke 1:1 ; Acts 1:1 . But, this being done out of the mouth of two or three witnesses, John goes on to perfection Hebrews 6:1 ), not laying again the foundation, but building upon it, leading us more within the veil. Some of the ancients observe that the other evangelists wrote more of the ta somatika --the bodily things of Christ; but John writes of the ta pneumatika --the spiritual things of the gospel, the life and soul of it; therefore some have called this gospel the key of the evangelists. Here is it that a door is opened in heaven, and the first voice we hear is, Come up hither, come up higher. Some of the ancients, that supposed the four living creatures in John's vision to represent the for evangelists, make John himself to be the flying eagle, so high does he soar, and so clearly does he see into divine and heavenly things.
