{"commentary":{"id":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","website":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamieson-Fausset-Brown_Bible_Commentary","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"db3d4c8b3c1f32ef9d1430a57392e02bda3a17aac1f9bbe398461de021a3cb13","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":66,"totalNumberOfChapters":1187,"totalNumberOfVerses":17056,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"JHN","commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"John","commonName":"John","introduction":"THE author of the Fourth Gospel was the younger of the two sons of Zebedee, a fisherman on the Sea of Galilee, who resided at Bethsaida, where were born Peter and Andrew his brother, and Philip also. His mother's name was Salome, who, though not without her imperfections (Mat 20:20-28), was one of those dear and honored women who accompanied the Lord on one of His preaching circuits through Galilee, ministering to His bodily wants; who followed Him to the cross, and bought sweet spices to anoint Him after His burial, but, on bringing them to the grave, on the morning of the First Day of the week, found their loving services gloriously superseded by His resurrection ere they arrived. His father, Zebedee, appears to have been in good circumstances, owning a vessel of his own and having hired servants (Mar 1:20). Our Evangelist, whose occupation was that of a fisherman with his father, was beyond doubt a disciple of the Baptist, and one of the two who had the first interview with Jesus. He was called while engaged at his secular occupation (Mat 4:21-22), and again on a memorable occasion (Luk 5:1-11), and finally chosen as one of the Twelve Apostles (Mat 10:2). He was the youngest of the Twelve--the \"Benjamin,\" as DA COSTA calls him--and he and James his brother were named in the native tongue by Him who knew the heart, \"Boanerges,\" which the Evangelist Mark (Mar 3:17) explains to mean \"Sons of thunder\"; no doubt from their natural vehemence of character. They and Peter constituted that select triumvirate of whom see on Luk 9:28. But the highest honor bestowed on this disciple was his being admitted to the bosom place with his Lord at the table, as \"the disciple whom Jesus loved\" (Joh 13:23; Joh 20:2; Joh 21:7, Joh 20:24), and to have committed to him by the dying Redeemer the care of His mother (Joh 19:26-27). There can be no reasonable doubt that this distinction was due to a sympathy with His own spirit and mind on the part of John which the all-penetrating Eye of their common Master beheld in none of the rest; and although this was probably never seen either in his life or in his ministry by his fellow apostles, it is brought out wonderfully in his writings, which, in Christ-like spirituality, heavenliness, and love, surpass, we may freely say, all the other inspired writings.\n\nAfter the effusion of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, we find him in constant but silent company with Peter, the great spokesman and actor in the infant Church until the accession of Paul. While his love to the Lord Jesus drew him spontaneously to the side of His eminent servant, and his chastened vehemence made him ready to stand courageously by him, and suffer with him, in all that his testimony to Jesus might cost him, his modest humility, as the youngest of all the apostles, made him an admiring listener and faithful supporter of his brother apostle rather than a speaker or separate actor. Ecclesiastical history is uniform in testifying that John went to Asia Minor; but it is next to certain that this could not have been till after the death both of Peter and Paul; that he resided at Ephesus, whence, as from a center, he superintended the churches of that region, paying them occasional visits; and that he long survived the other apostles. Whether the mother of Jesus died before this, or went with John to Ephesus, where she died and was buried, is not agreed. One or two anecdotes of his later days have been handed down by tradition, one at least bearing marks of reasonable probability. But it is not necessary to give them here. In the reign of Domitian (A.D. 81-96) he was banished to \"the isle that is called Patmos\" (a small rocky and then almost uninhabited island in the Ægean Sea), \"for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ\" (Rev 1:9). IRENÆUS and EUSEBIUS say that this took place about the end of Domitian's reign. That he was thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil, and miraculously delivered, is one of those legends which, though reported by TERTULLIAN and JEROME, is entitled to no credit. His return from exile took place during the brief but tolerant reign of Nerva; he died at Ephesus in the reign of Trajan [EUSEBIUS, Ecclesiastical History, 3.23], at an age above ninety, according to some; according to others, one hundred; and even one hundred twenty, according to others still. The intermediate number is generally regarded as probably the nearest to the truth.\n\nAs to the date of this Gospel, the arguments for its having been composed before the destruction of Jerusalem (though relied on by some superior critics) are of the slenderest nature; such as the expression in Joh 5:2, \"there is at Jerusalem, by the sheep-gate, a pool,\" &c.; there being no allusion to Peter's martyrdom as having occurred according to the prediction in Joh 21:18 --a thing too well known to require mention. That it was composed long after the destruction of Jerusalem, and after the decease of all the other apostles, is next to certain, though the precise time cannot be determined. Probably it was before his banishment, however; and if we date it between the years 90 and 94, we shall probably be close to the truth.\n\nAs to the readers for whom it was more immediately designed, that they were Gentiles we might naturally presume from the lateness of the date; but the multitude of explanations of things familiar to every Jew puts this beyond all question.\n\nNo doubt was ever thrown upon the genuineness and authenticity of this Gospel till about the close of the eighteenth century; nor were these embodied in any formal attack upon it till BRETSCHNEIDER, in 1820, issued his famous treatise [Probabilia], the conclusions of which he afterwards was candid enough to admit had been satisfactorily disproved. To advert to these would be as painful as unnecessary; consisting as they mostly do of assertions regarding the Discourses of our Lord recorded in this Gospel which are revolting to every spiritual mind. The Tubingen school did their best, on their peculiar mode of reasoning, to galvanize into fresh life this theory of the post-Joannean date of the Fourth Gospel; and some Unitarian critics still cling to it. But to use the striking language of VAN OOSTERZEE regarding similar speculations on the Third Gospel, \"Behold, the feet of them that shall carry it out dead are already at the door\" (Act 5:9). Is there one mind of the least elevation of spiritual discernment that does not see in this Gospel marks of historical truth and a surpassing glory such as none of the other Gospels possess, brightly as they too attest their own verity; and who will not be ready to say that if not historically true, and true just as it stands, it never could have been by mortal man composed or conceived?\n\nOf the peculiarities of this Gospel, we note here only two. The one is its reflective character. While the others are purely narrative, the Fourth Evangelist, \"pauses, as it were, at every turn,\" as DA COSTA says [Four Witnesses, p. 234], \"at one time to give a reason, at another to fix the attention, to deduce consequences, or make applications, or to give utterance to the language of praise.\" See Joh 2:20-21, Joh 2:23-25; Joh 4:1-2; Joh 7:37-39; Joh 11:12-13, Joh 11:49-52; Joh 21:18-19, Joh 21:22-23. The other peculiarity of this Gospel is its supplementary character. By this, in the present instance, we mean something more than the studiousness with which he omits many most important particulars in our Lord's history, for no conceivable reason but that they were already familiar as household words to all his readers, through the three preceding Gospels, and his substituting in place of these an immense quantity of the richest matter not found in the other Gospels. We refer here more particularly to the nature of the additions which distinguish this Gospel; particularly the notices of the different Passovers which occurred during our Lord's public ministry, and the record of His teaching at Jerusalem, without which it is not too much to say that we could have had but a most imperfect conception either of the duration of His ministry or of the plan of it. But another feature of these additions is quite as noticeable and not less important. \"We find,\" to use again the words of DA COSTA [Four Witnesses, pp. 238, 239], slightly abridged, \"only six of our Lord's miracles recorded in this Gospel, but these are all of the most remarkable kind, and surpass the rest in depth, specialty of application, and fulness of meaning. Of these six we find only one in the other three Gospels--the multiplication of the loaves. That miracle chiefly, it would seem, on account of the important instructions of which it furnished the occasion (John 6:1-71), is here recorded anew. The five other tokens of divine power are distinguished from among the many recorded in the three other Gospels by their furnishing a still higher display of power and command over the ordinary laws and course of nature. Thus we find recorded here the first of all the miracles that Jesus wrought--the changing of water into wine (Joh 2:1-11), the cure of the nobleman's son at a distance (Joh 4:43-54); of the numerous cures of the lame and the paralytic by the word of Jesus, only one--of the man impotent for thirty and eight years (Joh 5:1-9); of the many cures of the blind, one only--of the man born blind (Joh 9:1-12); the restoration of Lazarus, not from a deathbed, like Jairus' daughter, nor from a bier, like the widow of Nain's son, but from the grave, and after lying there four days, and there sinking into corruption (John 11:1-44); and lastly, after His resurrection, the miraculous draught of fishes on the Sea of Tiberias (Joh 21:5-11). But these are all recorded chiefly to give occasion for the record of those astonishing discourses and conversations, alike with friends and with foes, with His disciples and with the multitude which they drew forth.\"\n\nOther illustrations of the peculiarities of this Gospel will occur, and other points connected with it be adverted to, in the course of the Commentary. \n\n\n\nNext: John Chapter 1\n\n","order":43,"numberOfChapters":21,"sha256":"2a03297b1e3a6f9e0b82a13c39c82e2202f9e979c173750344c480c63057d8a0","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JHN/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JHN","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":21,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JHN/21.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JHN","chapter":21},"totalNumberOfVerses":680},"chapter":{"number":15,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["Every branch in me that beareth not fruit . . . every branch that beareth fruit--As in a fruit tree, some branches may be fruitful, others quite barren, according as there is a vital connection between the branch and the stock, or no vital connection; so the disciples of Christ may be spiritually fruitful or the reverse, according as they are vitally and spiritually connected with Christ, or but externally and mechanically attached to Him. The fruitless He \"taketh away\" (see on Joh 15:6); the fruitful He \"purgeth\" (cleanseth, pruneth)--stripping it, as the husbandman does, of what is rank (Mar 4:19), \"that it may bring forth more fruit\"; a process often painful, but no less needful and beneficial than in the natural husbandry.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["Now--rather, \"Already.\" \n\nye are clean through--by reason of. \n\nthe word I have spoken to you--already in a purified, fruitful condition, in consequence of the long action upon them of that searching \"word\" which was \"as a refiner's fire\" (Mal 3:2-3).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["Abide in me, and I in you; as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, &c.--As all spiritual fruitfulness had been ascribed to the mutual inhabitation, and living, active interpenetration (so to speak) of Christ and His disciples, so here the keeping up of this vital connection is made essential to continued fruitfulness.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["without me--apart, or vitally disconnected from Me. \n\nye can do nothing--spiritually, acceptably.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch . . . withered . . . cast into the fire . . . burned--The one proper use of the vine is to bear fruit; failing this, it is good for one other thing--fuel. (See Eze 15:1-5). How awfully striking the figure, in this view of it!\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["If ye abide in me, and my words . . . in you--Mark the change from the inhabitation of Himself to that of His words, paving the way for the subsequent exhortations (Joh 15:9-10). \n\nask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you--because this indwelling of His words in them would secure the harmony of their askings with the divine will.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["glorified that ye bear much fruit--not only from His delight in it for its own sake, but as from \"the juices of the Living Vine.\" \n\nso shall ye be my disciples--evidence your discipleship.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["continue ye in my love--not, \"Continue to love Me,\" but, \"Continue in the possession and enjoyment of My love to you\"; as is evident from the next words.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love--the obedient spirit of true discipleship cherishing and attracting the continuance and increase of Christ's love; and this, He adds, was the secret even of His own abiding in His Father's love!\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["That ye love one another, &c.--(See on Joh 13:34-35).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends--The emphasis lies not on \"friends,\" but on \"laying down his life\" for them; that is, \"One can show no greater regard for those dear to him than to give his life for them, and this is the love ye shall find in Me.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you--hold yourselves in absolute subjection to Me.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["Henceforth I call you not servants--that is, in the sense explained in the next words; for servants He still calls them (Joh 15:20), and they delight to call themselves so, in the sense of being \"under law to Christ\" (Co1 9:20). \n\nthe servant knoweth not what his lord doeth--knows nothing of his master's plans and reasons, but simply receives and executes his orders. \n\nbut . . . friends, for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you--admitted you to free, unrestrained fellowship, keeping back nothing from you which I have received to communicate. (Compare Gen 18:17; Psa 25:14; Isa 50:4).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["Ye have not chosen me, but I . . . you--a wholesale memento after the lofty things He had just said about their mutual indwelling, and the unreservedness of the friendship they had been admitted to. \n\nordained--appointed. \n\nyou, that ye should go and bring forth fruit--that is, give yourselves to it. \n\nand that your fruit should remain--showing itself to be an imperishable and ever growing principle. (Compare Pro 4:18; Jo2 1:8). \n\nthat whatsoever ye shall ask, &c.--(See on Joh 15:7).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["The substance of these important verses has occurred more than once before. (See on Mat 10:34-36; Luk 12:49-53, &c.).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":22,"content":["(See on Joh 9:39-41). \n\nIf I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin--comparatively none; all other sins being light compared with the rejection of the Son of God. \n\nnow they have no cloak for their sin--rather, \"pretext.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":24,"content":["If I had not done . . . the works which none other . . . did--(See on Joh 12:37).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":25,"content":["that the word might be fulfilled . . . They hated me without a cause--quoted from the Messianic Psa 69:4, applied also in the same sense in Joh 2:17; Act 1:20; Rom 11:9-10; Rom 15:3.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":26,"content":["(See on Joh 14:15; Joh 14:17).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":27,"content":["ye also shall bear witness--rather, \"are witnesses\"; with reference indeed to their future witness-bearing, but putting the emphasis upon their present ample opportunities for acquiring their qualifications for that great office, inasmuch as they had been \"with Him from the beginning.\" (See on Luk 1:2).\n\n\n\n\nNext: John Chapter 16\n\n"]}],"introduction":"DISCOURSE AT THE SUPPER TABLE CONTINUED. (John 15:1-27)\n\nThe spiritual oneness of Christ and His people, and His relation to them as the Source of all their spiritual life and fruitfulness, are here beautifully set forth by a figure familiar to Jewish ears (Isa 5:1, &c.). \n\nI am the true vine--of whom the vine of nature is but a shadow. \n\nmy Father is the husbandman--the great Proprietor of the vineyard, the Lord of the spiritual kingdom. (It is surely unnecessary to point out the claim to supreme divinity involved in this).\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JHN/15.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JHN","chapter":15},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JHN/16.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JHN","chapter":16},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JHN/14.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JHN","chapter":14},"numberOfVerses":20}