Глава 12

1–8. The Anointing of Christ in Bethany. – 9–19. The solemn entry of the Lord into Jerusalem. – 20–36. Christ's last speech in the church. – 37–50. Review of the results of the Messianic activity of the Lord Jesus Christ. John 12:1. Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was dead, whom He raised from the dead. Since, according to the law, Passover began on the 14th of Nisan in the afternoon, it means that the Lord came to Bethany on the 8th of Nisan (six days before). But on what day did the 8th of Nisan happen? Some say that it was Saturday, since the 14th of Nisan that year happened on Friday. Of course, if we assume that John in the expression “until Easter” understands the “legally” celebrated Passover by the Jews that year and that this “legal” day of Easter fell on Friday that year, then, of course, those who accept such an opinion would be right. But why couldn’t John, in this expression, mean the Passover that Christ celebrated with His disciples a day earlier, i.e. 13th Nisan, Thursday? Such a count of days for John is very possible. Moreover, it is unlikely that the Lord began to unnecessarily disturb the peace of the Sabbath day by traveling with his disciples. In addition, it undoubtedly took a lot of time to prepare the supper for Christ and His disciples - and who would prepare it on the Sabbath? Finally, what John reports could not have happened on one Saturday evening: the arrival of many Jews in Bethany after they learned about the coming of Christ here, and the determination of the high priests to kill Lazarus (verses 9-10). Thus, it remains to be accepted that the Lord came to Bethany on Friday afternoon, and on Saturday He was offered supper. The Jews in general, it seems, loved to have large suppers on Saturdays (cf. Luke 14:1, 5 et seq.). If the evangelist did not consider it necessary to say that the supper was held on the next day after the Lord’s arrival, then in other cases he does not sometimes consider it necessary to make similar distinctions between days (cf. John 1:39). The question of whether this supper was the same one that Matthew (Matt. 26:6 et seq.) and Mark (Mk. 14:3 et seq.) speak about is decided differently by interpreters. Some (for example, Bishop Michael) claim that this was a different supper, and in support of their opinion they refer, firstly, to the fact that the first two evangelists describe a supper celebrated not six, but two days before Easter, secondly, to the fact that the name of the woman is named only in John, thirdly, the name of the householder who hosted the supper is named only in the first two evangelists and, fourthly, to the fact that This is how the suppers are distinguished in church hymns for Holy Week. Others see no need to distinguish between these suppers and argue that all three evangelists are talking about the same thing. The latter assumption is more natural, since it seems highly unlikely that the Lord would come to Bethany twice in the course of one week and that the same event—the anointing of Christ—would be repeated under almost identical circumstances by two different women. As for the objections that are raised against the latter opinion, they have no force. First of all, the second and third objections, pointing to the non-designation of names, no longer have any force: one evangelist considered it necessary to name the character, the other did not. As for the first reason, although it seems strong, it is actually not of much importance. The fact is that the evangelists Matthew and Mark do not speak about the anointing of Christ in the chronological sequence of events, but only remember it on the occasion that after the history of this anointing they report the betrayal of Judas (Matthew 26:14 et seq.), and, as can be seen from the Gospel of John, Judas aroused the other disciples to murmur at the pointless waste of the precious world that Mary did. The Evangelist Matthew, therefore, inserted the story of the anointing into the 26th chapter not at all because it was required by a strict chronological sequence of events, but in order to partly characterize the mood of the disciples in general and Judas in particular, and partly in order to say that the Lord knew about the fate prepared for Him by the enemies (Matthew 26:12). The story of the anointing in the Gospel of Mark stands in exactly the same connection. As for the evidence of liturgical chants, they never set out to establish a chronological sequence of events. This can be seen, for example, from the fact that Christ’s conversation with the apostles about the preparation of Easter took place according to the sticheron on Saturday Vai, when Christ came to Bethany (“before” the six days of Easter); another stichera of the same day says that Christ came before the six days of Easter “to call out Lazarus who died four days ago.” Where did the Lord come from this time to Bethany? In all likelihood, from Jericho, where He visited the house of Zacchaeus (Luke 19:5). From Jericho to Bethany the walk was about six hours. On Bethany, see comments on Mark 11:1. John 12:2. There they prepared a supper for Him, and Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those who reclined with Him. As can be seen from the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, the supper for Christ was prepared “in the house of Simon the leper” (see Matthew 26:6). But Martha was invited by the owner to serve Christ, as a woman from a family to which Christ was disposed. It is remarkable that Lazarus also took part in the feast. It is obvious that he felt so good that he did not shy away from the joyful feast John 12:3. Mary, taking a pound of pure precious ointment of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the world. The Evangelist again clearly contrasts Mary with Martha (cf. John 11:32). While Martha made sure there was plenty of everything at the table, Mary anointed Jesus’ feet with ointment and wiped them with her hair. She forgets that Jewish decency prohibits a woman from appearing bareheaded in the company of men; she even unties her hair to wipe Christ’s feet with it, thus repeating what the sinful wife once did to Jesus (Luke 7:38). Nard - see comments on Mark 14:3. John 12:4. Then one of His disciples, Judas Simon Iscariot, who wanted to betray Him, said: John 12:5. Why not sell this ointment for three hundred denarii and give it to the poor? In John, only Judas Iscariot protests against Mary’s feat, while in Matthew and Mark all the disciples protest. Obviously, John indicates who actually initiated this protest. For other things, see Matthew 26; Mark 14. John 12:6. He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief. He had a cash box with him and wore what was put in there. Judas not only carried the donated money, but also “carried away”, i.e. secretly took a significant part of them for himself. The verb standing here (ἐβάσταζεν), translated in Russian by the expression “carried”, is more correctly translated “carried away” (cf. John 20:15). Why was Judas entrusted with a box of money by Christ? It is very likely that with this manifestation of trust Christ wanted to influence Judas, to inspire him with love and devotion to Himself. But such trust did not have favorable consequences for Judas: he was already too attached to money and therefore abused the trust of Christ. John 12:7. Jesus said: Leave her alone; she saved it for the day of my burial. See comments on Matthew 26:12; Mark 14:8. "Leave" . The older codices read, “leave,” and this reading is more appropriate here, since John says that it was only Judas who condemned Mary. "She saved". The most ancient codes are read here “so that she would preserve” (instead of τετήρηκεν – ἵνα ... τηρήσῃ). The Lord, according to this ancient reading, wants to say that Mary, who has now anointed His feet, should not sell the ointment still remaining in the vessel in order to distribute the money received from the sale to the poor, but save it for the day of His burial, when she can, according to custom, anoint the body of Jesus. John 12:8. For you always have the poor with you, but not always Me. (See comments on Matthew 26:11; Mark 14:7). John 12:9. Many of the Jews knew that He was there and came not only for Jesus, but to see Lazarus, whom He raised from the dead. From the 9th to the 19th verse there is a story about the entry of the Lord into Jerusalem, which (entry) John generally depicts in accordance with the weather forecasters (cf. Matt. 21: 1-11; Mark 11: 1-10; Luke 19: 29-38). But at the same time, John also contains some deviations from the weather forecasters, explained by the peculiarity of the plan of his narrative. While the weather forecasters begin with the procession of Christ to Jerusalem from Jericho, and do not talk about Christ entering Bethany, John does not mention Jericho at all and, on the contrary, Bethany is the main stopping point for Christ in this procession. Even Jews rush here to verify the reality of the resurrection of Lazarus. Obviously, John also adds to the narrative of the weather forecasters. John 12:10. The high priests decided to kill Lazarus too, John 12:11. because for his sake many of the Jews came and believed in Jesus. The high priests, noticing the excitement among the people, seeing how, because of Lazarus, resurrected by the Lord, many of the Jews moved away from them (ὑπῆγον, in the Russian translation inaccurately - “came”) and turned to Christ, they decided to kill Lazarus too. John 12:12. The next day, when the multitude of people who came to the feast heard that Jesus was going to Jerusalem, The events mentioned in verses 9-11, of course, could not have happened in just one day, and therefore the expression “on the next day” must be understood in the sense of designating the day following the day of the supper in Bethany, which was on the Sabbath. Thus, the Lord’s entry into Jerusalem falls on the 10th of Nisan (in our opinion, on Sunday). John 12:13. They took palm branches, came out to meet Him and exclaimed: Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel! (See comments on Matthew 21:9–11). "Palm branches". "Branch" in Greek is βαΐον, a word taken from the Egyptian language. In the Old Testament they are mentioned as a symbol of joy. Kings, conquerors and heroes were met with them (1 Mac. 13:51). They resembled bouquets (Lulab), with which the Jews went to the Feast of Tabernacles based on Lev.23:40. If the people now greet Christ with exclamations of “Hosanna,” they probably do so out of some association of thought. It was the branches in the hands that reminded the people of the joyful feast of tabernacles, when the 117th Psalm was sung, and in this psalm the proclamation “Hosanna” is found. The people here thus expressed their joy at the coming of the Messiah-King to them and greeted Him with joyful cries, believing that Christ had come to reveal His Kingdom. John 12:14. Jesus found a colt and sat on it, as it is written: The fact that Jesus did not find the donkey Himself is clear from the words of verse 16: “they did it to Him,” i.e. of course, His disciples. John 12:15. Fear not, daughter of Zion! Behold, your King is coming, sitting on a colt. John explains the entry of Christ on a donkey in the words of the prophet Zechariah (Zechariah 9:9) as a sign of the meekness of the King Messiah. Now He appears not to punish and judge, but to save His people. However, John, of course, wanted to say that salvation will be given only to the true daughter of Zion, i.e. worthy of this salvation. The quote from the book of the prophet Zechariah is given in abbreviated form. In addition, John replaced the expression “rejoice with joy” (Zechariah 9:9) with the expression “do not be afraid.” He did this in view of the fact that at that time it was too early for the true Israelis, who understood that the Lord was going to suffer and die. On the contrary, the Lord's entry into Jerusalem for the pious Israelites only served to dispel their worries that the messianic salvation was still not accomplished. And John now calms their worries. The Messiah-Savior is coming! John 12:16. His disciples did not understand this at first; but when Jesus became glorified, then they remembered that it was written about Him, and they did it to Him. Just as the disciples did not previously understand Christ’s words about Himself as a church that would first be destroyed and then restored (John 2:19), so in relation to the Lord’s entry into Jerusalem they show a lack of understanding that in this the Old Testament prophecies about Christ were fulfilled. Only after the glorification of Christ did they realize that they themselves served to fulfill these prophecies, bringing to the Lord a donkey on which He entered Jerusalem (“and they did this to Him”). John 12:17. The people who were with Him before testified that He called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead. John 12:18. That is why the people met Him, because they heard that He had performed this miracle. John 12:19. The Pharisees said to each other: Do you see that you do not have time to do anything? the whole world follows Him. "People", i.e. the crowd of people (ὁ ὄχλος) that was in Bethany at the resurrection of Lazarus; explained to the “people”, i.e. again to the crowd (ὁ ὄχλος), which met Christ at the gates of Jerusalem, which the Lord did in Bethany. This explains the evangelist’s delight with which Christ was greeted. It then seemed to the Pharisees that “the whole world” or the whole people was already following Christ, and with these considerations they encouraged each other to take more decisive actions against Christ. John 12:20. Of those who came to worship on the holiday, there were some Greeks. The Greeks whom John mentions here apparently belonged to the so-called “proselytes of the gate” and came to Jerusalem to worship (cf. Acts 24:11). The evangelist does not indicate on what day the next incident occurred. John 12:21. They approached Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying: Master! we want to see Jesus. These proselytes saw how the Jewish people met their Messiah, with whose expectation they could not but be acquainted before, and wished to “see Jesus,” i.e. they could get to know Him (“see” Him before). With a request to introduce them to Christ, they turn to the Apostle Philip. John, saying that Philip was from Bethsaida of Galilee (see Luke 9:10), thereby makes it clear that Philip could be known to these “Greeks”, who, in all likelihood, came from the Decapolis, in relation to which Bethsaida occupied a neighboring place (cf. Matthew 4:25). There is nothing incredible in the assumption that these proselytes were present when Christ expelled the merchants from the church, which took place the day after Christ entered Jerusalem. (And John does not say that the Greeks turned to Philip on the very day of the “entry”). After all, the merchants occupied exactly the same courtyard in the church that was reserved for proselytes to pray, and Christ, having expelled the merchants from here, thereby, as it were, took the proselytes under His protection. Hence, naturally, the proselytes showed sympathy for Him and a desire to get to know Him better. John 12:22. Philip goes and tells Andrey about this; and then Andrew and Philip tell Jesus about this. Philip did not dare to report the desire of the Greeks to Christ himself. Firstly, he could be embarrassed by the memory of the commandment given by Christ regarding the pagans (Matt. 10:5), and the word of Christ regarding the request of the Canaanite woman (Matt. 15:24), and secondly, Philip saw how enthusiastically Christ was received by the Jewish people, and thought that Christ’s conversation, and, moreover, probably in the church, with the Greeks, would arouse irritation towards Him among the Jews and give a reason to expose The accusation against Christ is that He is a soul alien to His people (cf. John 7:35, 8:48). But Andrew, to whom Philip turned for advice, was more decisive and considered it possible to speak about the desire of the Greeks for Christ. Andrew could also recall incidents of this kind, such as, for example, Christ’s healing of the servant of the Capernaum centurion, Christ’s conversation with the Samaritan woman, and, finally, His word: “him who comes to Me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37). John 12:23. Jesus answered and said to them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” Christ did not answer anything about the Greeks’ request. His speech, apparently, is addressed to Philip and Andrew (“he answered them”). In this speech He says that the hour of His departure has come. He now faces death, and the representatives of the pagan world who came to Him seem to remind him that it is time for Him to offer His soul for the good of all mankind. But the accomplishment of atonement, of course, is the highest work of the Messiah, and therefore Christ calls His death His “glorification.” The hour has come for Him to die, but at the same time to “be glorified,” and His glorification so exceeds the humiliation that the Lord will accept in death that He does not even talk about death, but only about glorification. At the same time, He speaks not “to Me,” but to “the Son of Man.” This usual designation of the Messiah in John has a special meaning here. The Lord wants to say by this that He will appear as the redeemer not of just the Israeli people, but of the entire human race: “Son of Man,” He belonged to all humanity. John 12:24. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; and if it dies, it will bear much fruit. Since the disciples, under the influence of Christ’s solemn meeting with the people, could interpret Christ’s words about glorifying Him in the sense of promising some new miracles, the Lord with particular force (twice repeated “truly”) rejects such an understanding of His words. No, it is not external glorification that awaits Him now, but, on the contrary, humiliation, death. But this death is a necessary condition for the emergence of a new, richer and more diverse life. He must give His soul or life so that the salvation He brought would go beyond the limited framework of Judaism and become the property of the whole world. This is the meaning of this parable about the grain, which, dying, i.e. decomposing in the ground, it gives off a new sprout, on which many grains (fruits) appear. Thus, the idea is expressed here that the life of the entire Church is contained in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, that every believer reflects Christ in himself, lives with Him and in Him. It should be noted that if the pagans began to listen to the words of Christ, then they too could somewhat understand their meaning, since grain played a big role in their mysteries as a symbol of life. John 12:25. He who loves his life will destroy it; But he who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life. John 12:26. Whoever serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there will my servant also be. And whoever serves Me, My Father will honor him. The same readiness for self-sacrifice should characterize the disciples of Christ. See comments on Matthew 10:39, 16:25, and parallel passages. As for the reward that the Lord promises to His followers, John here expresses in a somewhat original way what is indicated in Matthew 10:32, 34 and Mark 8:38. John 12:27. My soul is now indignant; and what should I say? Father! deliver Me from this hour! But for this hour I have come. According to Archbishop Innocent, all this, as the very nature of thoughts and words shows, was uttered with an expression of greatness befitting the Son of God. “But suddenly His bright gaze was covered with a kind of darkness of sadness. It was clear from His divine face that in His soul one feeling was quickly replaced by another and there seemed to be some kind of strong internal movement and struggle taking place.” From the thought of a glorious future, the Lord suddenly moves to the thought of the present, and now the “soul,” which should be hated, responds to this thought with a terribly painful sensation. In fact, Christ was sinless, and death, meanwhile, is a consequence of sin. It is clear that she was especially hateful, contrary to the “soul” of Christ, His most holy nature. In addition, the very death that Christ suffered was terrible because it was punishment for the sins of all mankind. Christ, in His death, had to taste all the bitterness of that cup that God’s justice had prepared for sinful humanity. “And what should I say?” The Lord is so shocked by the thought of death, by the anticipation of its bitterness, that he does not find appropriate words to express His feelings. But this state lasts only for a few moments. “Father! deliver Me from this hour!” This is not a request, but a question. The Lord seems to be pondering with Himself: “Shall I tell the Father that He will deliver Me? But for this hour I have come. No, I must go to this mortal struggle, I must complete the work for which I came. Let everything be accomplished that God’s righteous judgment has judged Me.” Christ overcame the involuntary fear of death. It is very likely that John, reporting this short-term “struggle” of Christ with the fear of death, is saying the same thing that the weather forecasters wanted to say with their story about the Gethsemane “struggle” of Christ (Matthew 26:36-46 and parallel passages). John 12:28. Father! glorify Your name. Then a voice came from heaven: I have glorified it and will glorify it again. Christ asks for the glorification of the name of God - glorification, of course, by His death and resurrection, which should be followed by the implementation of Christ’s words about the salvation of all mankind (verse 24). To this request, God Himself answered Christ from heaven that just as He had previously fulfilled His intentions through Christ, so through the death of Christ He would soon glorify His name, i.e. will complete His economy for the salvation of the human race (John 9:3, 11:4). John 12:29. The people who stood and heard it said: it is thunder; and others said: The angel spoke to him. Whenever the Son showed His devotion to the Father on any important occasion of His life, the Father answered Him in the presence of certain witnesses. This happened at baptism, during transfiguration, and this happened this time too. Christ, on this solemn final day of His prophetic ministry, consecrates Himself to the high priestly service ahead of Him - finally enters the path leading to death. Now the Father solemnly declares favor to the Son for such a decision. The Father proclaims glorification to the Son, i.e. the imminent advent of a new era of Christ’s activity - His activity as a King (Gode). There is no doubt that the Father’s words were spoken as articulate sounds, this is evident from the fact that some of those present made out them, but considered them to be the words of an Angel. John 12:30 . To this Jesus said: This voice was not for Me, but for the people. Christ, of course, even without such a sign knew what the Father wanted to tell Him. The voice was for the Jews surrounding the Lord, who should have paid attention to such a wonderful testimony about Christ, but due to their insensitivity (cf. John 5:37) they still did not understand that in this way God Himself was calling them to Christ. John 12:31. Now is the judgment of this world; now the prince of this world will be cast out. After this remark made by Christ in relation to the people, the Lord again returns to the speech about what “His hour” will bring to all humanity. Now that judgment (κρίσις), which began with Christ's coming into ministry (cf. John 3:19, 5:22, 24, 30), is coming to its end. The world, condemning Christ to death, believes that by doing so it will completely remove Him from any influence on its life, but in fact it is not Christ, but this sinful world most hostile to Christ that is now being condemned. At the same time, the ruler of this world (“prince”) or the devil (Eph. 2:2) will be expelled from the world out of the world (according to some ancient codes, “down” – κάτω). The decision about the devil will be pronounced “today,” i.e. at the hour of Christ’s death, but the fulfillment of this decision will be carried out gradually, with the acquisition of more and more new followers of Christ, which is why Christ does not say “expelled”, but “will be expelled” (cf. John 16:11). John 12:32. And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to Me. The Lord uses the expression “I will be exalted” (ὑψωθῶ) here in the same dual meaning as before (see comments on John 3:14): His ascension on the cross will be a means for Him to ascend to heaven. On the other hand, this ascension is a means for bringing all people, including “Greeks” (verse 20), to Christ, under His authority. When Christ is in heaven, He will no longer be within the narrow confines of one nationality to which He belonged by birth, but will be Lord of “all” (Rom. 10:12). John 12:33. He said this, making it clear by what kind of death He would die. The evangelist himself understands the words of the Lord most closely as a foreshadowing of the very image of His death - the crucifixion, in which the Lord, in fact, was ascended or raised above the earth and, stretching out His hands on the cross, as if he wanted to draw the whole world to Himself. John 12:34. The people answered Him: We have heard from the law that Christ abides forever; How then do You say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man? It seemed impossible to the crowd of people to reconcile the recent triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem as the Messiah and these speeches by Him about His imminent death. The Old Testament prophecies said that the Messiah would reign forever (Ps. 109:4; Is. 9:6; Dan. 7:13–14). No, if the Messiah, or the Son of Man, must leave the place of His activity, then this is no longer the Messiah that the Jews expected - this is some kind of special Messiah! Let Christ explain to them who He actually means. John 12:35. Then Jesus said to them: For a little while yet the light is with you; walk while there is light, lest darkness overtake you: but he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going. John 12:36. As long as the light is with you, believe in the light, that you may be sons of light. Having said this, Jesus walked away and hid from them. The Lord again encounters misunderstanding on the part of His listeners, but now does not find it possible to enter into any explanations with the crowd on the question of what the Messiah should be like from the point of view of the prophets. He urges his listeners to take advantage of those few days in which the light of the sun - Christ - will still shine for them (cf. John 7:33, 8:12). But, of course, in order to use this Light (walk with it), you need faith in this Light, and Christ considers it necessary to remind them of this, promising that they can become over time “sons of light” (see comments on Luke 16:8). Having said this, Christ retired, probably to Gethsemane, to the Mount of Olives. From verses 37 to 50, the evangelist glances at the results of the activities of the Lord Jesus Christ among the Jewish people and is surprised at how meager these results were, how few believers in Christ turned out to be. How can we explain this fact? Here, according to the evangelist, God’s threat to the Jewish people, which the prophet Isaiah once uttered, was realized. At the same time, the evangelist briefly summarizes the evidence that is available about Christ in the speeches of Christ to the Jews previously given by John. John 12:37. He performed so many miracles before them, and they did not believe in Him, Speaking of many miracles (“so many miracles”), John obviously means the miracles described by the weather forecasters: he himself speaks only of a few miracles of Christ. John 12:38. may the word of the prophet Isaiah be fulfilled: Lord! who believed what they heard from us? and to whom was the arm of the Lord revealed? The fact that the Jews did not believe – of course, for the most part – in Christ was not some kind of surprise. The prophet Isaiah already predicted this. (Is.53:1, the evangelist quotes from the text of the translation of the Seventy). Christ can now say with the apostles (“heard from us”) that there were very few believers of His preaching. John 12:39. Therefore they could not believe, because, as Isaiah also said, John 12:40 . This people have blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their hearts, and turn, that I might heal them. What is the reason for such a sad and for many incomprehensible phenomenon as the unbelief of the people, who had long been preparing to receive the Messiah? Therefore, the evangelist answers, they could not (the ancient Greek interpreters replaced the expression “could not” with the expression “did not want,” but such a replacement does not find any basis in the very words of the prophet, which are given below) to believe in Christ, because, as Isaiah said, this is a people that is extremely stubborn in its understanding of the tasks that the Messiah was supposed to accomplish. The Jews stubbornly did not want to understand their spiritual weakness, in which they were due to their sins. They found no need for the Messiah as a spiritual Savior and Healer. That is why they did not turn to Christ. The Evangelist cites here a place from the book of Isaiah (Is. 6:9–10) according to the translation of the Seventy, as this place was already given by the weather forecasters (Matt. 13:14–15 and parallel places). But our Russian translation does not quite accurately convey the Greek text: instead of “their eyes” it reads “their eyes” and to the verb “blinded” the subject “this people” is added, whereas this expression is not found in the Greek text. The Slavic translation is more correct and closer to the Greek original: “blind, that is, blinded their eyes,” etc. According to this translation, the subject to the word “blinded” must be recognized as the word “God” or “Lord”, found in the 38th verse (“Lord!”), and the entire verse receives the following meaning: God - as punishment for the fact that the Jews from the very beginning of Christ preaching the Gospel in Judea (John 2:13-14) showed an unwillingness to believe in Christ - blinded their eyes and petrified their hearts, or, in other words, He hardened them so that they would not understand the meaning of the works of Christ. However, as St. Augustine notes, “God does not harden in such a way as to instill stubbornness, but only by taking His grace from a person. He makes salvation difficult in the sense that He Himself does not send relief, and blinds us in that it does not enlighten.” "So that I may heal them." Since we saw that the subject of the verb “blinded” must be the word “God,” it is clear that here by the expression “I” the evangelist could not mean God - then it would be necessary to say, according to the requirement of the construction, “He” healed - but meant Christ the Savior and Healer. Thus the whole verse takes on the character of a complaint which Christ brings against His people. “This people,” as Christ says, “has angered My Heavenly Father with their stubborn unwillingness to listen to Me, and for this My Father has taken from them His gracious help, which is necessary for a person so that he can understand My deeds and consider them as they should. If the people had not fallen into such bitterness, they could have received healing or salvation from Me, but now it’s all over!” John 12:41. This is what Isaiah said when he saw His glory and spoke about Him. Here the evangelist explains the reason why he gives such meaning to the above prophecy of Isaiah, referring it to Christ. The prophet saw the “glory of Christ,” i.e. He saw God seated in all His glory and surrounded by Seraphim, but, seeing God, he, according to the evangelist, also saw Christ, because Christ, as the divine Logos, always abided with God (cf. John 1:1). Therefore, we can say that Isaiah, in the above prophecy about the bitterness of the Jews, had Christ in mind (“speaking of Him”). Wed. comments on Isaiah 6. John 12:42. However, many of the rulers believed in Him; but for the sake of the Pharisees they did not confess, lest they should be excommunicated from the synagogue, John 12:43. for they loved the glory of men more than the glory of God. To show that the mission of Christ did not pass without a trace for the Jews, the evangelist points out that even some of the leaders - he is no longer talking about ordinary Jews, there were many who believed in Christ - were believers in Christ, but because of material and other benefits they did not directly profess their faith. Such were Nicodemus (John 7:50) and Joseph of Arimathea (John 19:38). Greek ancient interpreters believe that from verse 44 a new speech of the Lord begins, but one cannot agree with this opinion, because, according to the evangelist, Christ has already “hidden” from the Jews (verse 36). To whom could He speak this speech? It is better to see here the conclusion that the evangelist himself makes to the history of Christ’s public ministry outlined above. In this conclusion he summarizes the numerous testimonies of Christ about Himself as the Messiah, the Son of God. The connection between this section and the previous one is as follows. The Jews did not believe in Christ, even the leaders who believed in Christ did not openly confess their faith, and meanwhile, Christ loudly proclaimed (“proclaimed”, ἔκραξεν - shouted) what great significance faith in Him has and what terrible consequences unbelief entails. John 12:44. Jesus cried out and said, “He who believes in Me does not believe in Me, but in Him who sent Me.” (See John 7:16 et seq.; John 8:42). John 12:45. And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me. John 12:46. I have come as light into the world, so that whoever believes in Me will not remain in darkness. (See John 8:12, 9:5, 12:35). John 12:47. And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him, for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. John 12:48. He who rejects Me and does not accept My words has a judge for himself: the word that I have spoken will judge him at the last day. “The Word... will judge.” At the final instance, the judgment will be carried out not by Christ personally, but by the word He proclaimed: people will be judged insofar as they have put faith in the “word of Christ” and His Gospel in its entirety. So the Lord said about the Jews that they are judged by their law (John 7:51). John 12:49. For I did not speak from Myself; but the Father who sent Me, He gave Me a commandment, what to say and what to say. John 12:50 . And I know that His commandment is eternal life. So what I say, I say as the Father told me. (See John 3:34, 6:63, 8:47–51). You might be interested in: