TRV
Bede
Late Patristic · AD 500–800 · 6,271 passages across 45 books
Commentary
John 11:32
Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.
Mary did not say so much as Martha, she could not bring out what she wanted for weeping, as is usual with persons overwhelmed with sorrow.
John 11:36
Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him!
It is customary to mourn over the death of friends; and thus the Jews explained our Lord's weeping: Then said the Jews, Behold how He loved him.
John 11:38-39
Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it.
A cave is a hollow in a rock. It is called a monument, because it reminds us of the dead.
Jesus said, Take ye away the stone.
(non occ. [Nic.]) Or, these are not words of despair, but of wonder.
Jesus said, Take ye away the stone.
(non occ. [Nic.]) Or, these are not words of despair, but of wonder.
John 11:46
But some of them went their ways to the Pharisees, and told them what things Jesus had done.
By those who went and told the Pharisees, are meant those who seeing the good works of God's servants, hate them on that very account, persecute, and calumniate them.
John 12:1
· 2 passages
Then Jesus six days before the passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead.
Being sure of the glory of his resurrection, Jesus first came to Bethany, a town near Jerusalem, where Lazarus was, whom he had raised from the dead. Then he went to Jerusalem, where he himself was to suffer and rise from the dead. He went to Jerusalem so that he might die there, but to Bethany so that the raising up of Lazarus might be imprinted more deeply on the memory of all.
“The Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus,” who had come down to earth from heaven in order to suffer for the salvation of the human race, as the hour of his passion was drawing near, willed to draw near the place of his passion. Even by this it was to become apparent that he would not be suffering unwillingly but of his own volition.… He willed to come five days before the Passover … that by this again he might show that he was the stainless lamb who would take away the sins of the world. It was commanded that the paschal lamb, by whose immolation the people of Israel were freed from slavery in Egypt, should be selected five days before the Passover, that is, on the tenth day of the month, and immolated on the fourteenth day of the month.
John 12:6
This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein.
Because “a greedy person always is in need,” [Judas], being faithless and wicked, never remembered the trust [placed in him] but went on from the theft of the money that he had been asked to carry to betraying our Lord who showed confidence [in him].
John 12:7
Then said Jesus, Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this.
It is as though Judas were asking an innocent question, and so our Lord simply and gently explained the mystery of what Mary’s action meant, namely, that he himself was about to die and that he was to be anointed for his burial with the spices. It was being granted to Mary (to whom it would not be permitted to anoint his dead body, although she greatly desired this) to render a service [to him while he was] still alive, since she would be unable [to perform it] after his death, for she would be prevented by his swift resurrection.
John 12:10
But the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death;
Blind cunning of the blind, to wish to kill one who had been restored to life! As if [Jesus] could not restore to life one who had been killed when he had been able to restore to life one who had died! And, indeed, he taught that he was about do both, since he restored to life both Lazarus, who had died, and himself, who had been killed.
John 12:13
· 4 passages
Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.
It is a compound of two words; Hosi is shortened into save; Anna a mere exclamation, complete. Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord. The name of the Lord here is the name of God the Father; though we may understand it as His own name; inasmuch as He also is the Lord. But the former sense agrees better with the text above, I am come in My Father's name. (5:43) He does not lose His divinity, when He teaches us humility.
Those who went ahead and those who followed exalted our Lord with one and the same voice of praise, for undoubtedly the faith of those who were approved before our Lord's incarnation and of those after it is one [faith], although they had sacraments that differed according to the customs of the times. Peter bears witness [to this] when he says, "But we believe that we are being saved in the same way as they also were, through the grace of the Lord Jesus." As for their saying, "Hosanna," that is, "salvation to the Son of David," this is the same thing we read in the psalm, "The Lord is [our] salvation, [let] your blessing [be] on your people." It is the same as the chorus that the saints echo with a chant of great praise in the Apocalypse, "Salvation to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb."
"In the name of the Lord" signifies "In the name of God the Father," just as [our Lord] himself said elsewhere to the unbelieving Jews, "I have come in the name of my Father, and you do not receive me; another will come in his own name, him you will receive." Christ came in the name of God the Father because in everything that he did and said he was concerned with glorifying his Father and with proclaiming to human beings that he is to be glorified. The antichrist will come in his own name, and although he may be the wickedest person of all and a great help to the devil, he will see fit to call himself the Son of God while "being opposed to and raised above everything that is said to be God and is worshiped."
The crowd took this verse of praise from the one hundredth and seventeenth psalm, and there is no one who doubts that it is sung about the Lord. Hence it is appropriate that there is previously sung of him in the same psalm, "The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone," for Christ, whom the Jews rejected as they were building the decrees of their own traditions, became a memorial for believers from among both peoples, namely, the Jews and the Gentiles. For as to the fact that Christ is called the cornerstone in this psalm, this is what was being chanted in high praise in the Gospel by the voice of those who followed and those who went ahead.
John 12:20
And there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast:
The temple at Jerusalem was so famous, that on the feast days, not only the people near, but many Gentiles from distant countries came to worship in it; as that eunuch of Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians, mentioned in the Acts. The Gentiles who were at Jerusalem now, had come up for this purpose: And there were certain Gentiles among them who came to worship at the feast.
John 12:24
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
He Himself, of the seed of the Patriarchs, was sown in the field of this world, that by dying, He might rise again with increase. He died alone; He rose again with many.
John 12:27
Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.
i. e. What but something to confirm My followers? Father, save Me from this hour.
John 13:1
· 2 passages
Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.
The Jews had many feasts, but the principal one was the passover; and therefore it is particularly said, Before the feast of the passover.
He loved them so much that by that very love he would end his bodily life for a time and soon pass from death to life, from this world to the Father. "Greater love has no one than this, that he should lay down his life for his friends." And so, each passing over—the one under the Law and the other under the gospel—was consecrated with blood, the former with the paschal lamb, the latter with "Christ, our Passover, who was sacrificed for us." The latter had his blood poured out on the cross, the former had its blood sprinkled in the manner of a cross in the middle of the lintel and the middle of the door posts.
John 13:4
He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself.
He rose from the table and put aside his [outer] garments when, ceasing the fuller sharing of his life in time with human beings, he put aside on the cross the bodily members that he had assumed. He took up a linen towel with which he girded himself, when, after having taken up for us the mandate of suffering that he had received from his Father, he covered his body with the torment of his passion. A linen towel, which is woven by the endless labor of twisting [flax], is usually taken to signify the pain of suffering. When our Lord had laid aside his [outer] garments, he girded himself with a linen towel to signify that he was putting aside the clothing of the body that he had put on, [and that he was doing this] not without the distress of sorrow but with the prolonged anguish of the cross.
John 13:8
Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.
Here it is clearly pointed out that this washing of the feet implies the spiritual purification of body and soul without which we cannot arrive at fellowship with Christ.