John 12:14

And Jesus, when he had found a young ass, sat thereon; as it is written,

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(14) And Jesus, when he had found a young ass, sat thereon.—St. John simply mentions this to introduce the prophecy. The others all give the incidents in detail. “Having found,” does not imply that the colt was found without the search which the other Evangelists record. (Comp. the same word in John 9:35.) It has been noted, as illustrating the fact, that the word “found” includes the sending the disciples to look for the colt, that it is the same Greek word which Archimedes used when he found the object of his search, and cried, Eureka! Eureka!

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

12:12-19 Christ's riding in triumph to Jerusalem is recorded by all the evangelists. Many excellent things, both in the word and providence of God, disciples do not understand at their first acquaintance with the things of God. The right understanding of spiritual nature of Christ's kingdom, prevents our misapplying the Scriptures which speak of it.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See this passage explained in the notes at Matthew 21:1-16. Also Mark 11:1-11; Luke 19:29-44.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

Joh 12:12-19. Christ's Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem.

(See on [1838]Mt 21:1-9; and Lu 19:29-36).

12. On the next day—the Lord's day, or Sunday (see on [1839]Joh 12:1); the tenth day of the Jewish month Nisan, on which the paschal lamb was set apart to be "kept up until the fourteenth day of the same month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel were to kill it in the evening" (Ex 12:3, 6). Even so, from the day of this solemn entry into Jerusalem, "Christ our Passover" was virtually set apart to be "sacrificed for us" (1Co 5:7).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole on "John 12:12"

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And Jesus, when he had found a young ass,.... Which he sent his disciples for, to a neighbouring village, and they brought to him:

sat thereon, as it is written; in Zechariah 9:9 though some part of the words seems to be taken out of Isaiah 62:11; See Gill on Matthew 21:5; and so Nonnus paraphrases it here, "that it might be fulfilled which Esaias said".

Geneva Study Bible

And Jesus, when he had found a young ass, sat thereon; as it is written,

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

John 12:14-15. Εὑρὼν, δὲ κ.τ.λ.] The more detailed circumstances, how He had obtained the young ass (ὀνάριον), are passed over by John; hence he is not in contradiction with the Synoptics (Matthew 21:2 ff. parall.).

καθώς ἐστι γεγρ.] Zechariah 9:9. See on Matthew 21:5. John cites very freely from memory; hence the omission of the other prophetic predicates (even of the πραΐς in Matt.), because he has in his eye simply the point of the riding in upon the young ass, as a Messianic σημεῖον excluding all doubt. All the more fitted to tranquillize, then (μὴ φοβοῦ), in ever more peaceful array, without horse and chariot, is the coming of the King of Zion. Instead of μὴ φοβοῦ, John might also have said χαῖρε σφόδρα (LXX.); but there floated before him, in his citation from memory, simply the opposition to that terror by which otherwise a royal entrance may be accompanied. “The Church’s figure of the cross” (Hengstenberg) did not yet lie on this ass’s foal, otherwise John would not have passed over the עָנִי of the passage, nor have found the emphasis in μὴ φοβοῦ.

Expositor's Greek Testament

John 12:14. Jesus being thus hailed as king by the people, εὑρὼν ὀνάριον … ὄνου, i.e., He accepted the homage and declared Himself king by adopting the prediction of Zechariah 9:9 (John 12:15), “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion (χαῖρε σφόδρα instead of μὴ φοβοῦ), proclaim it aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold the king is coming to thee, just and saving, He is meek and riding on a beast of burden and a young foal”. The significance of the “ass” is shown in what follows: “He shall destroy the chariots out of Ephraim and the horse out of Jerusalem, and the war-bow shall be utterly destroyed: and there shall be abundance and peace”. By riding into Jerusalem as king but on an ass, not on a war horse, He continued to claim to be Messiah but ruling by spiritual force for spiritual, ends.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

14. It is written] See on John 2:17.

Bengel's Gnomen

John 12:14. Εὑρών, having obtained [when He had found]) He was poor [and therefore had not one of His own].—ὀνάριον) ὀνάριον, a young or little ass [asellus], a diminutive, is not so much opposed in this passage to the ass [of ordinary size], as to the fiery horse, which our Lord did not use.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 14. - And Jesus, having found a young ass, sat thereon; as it is written. The whole account of the process by which our Lord secured this ὀνάριον is described at great length by the synoptists (see Matthew 21:2; Mark 11:12; Luke 19:30). The foal implies that the animal had never borne another burden. The account of Matthew refers to the mother and the foal, as though they were inseparable, and together bore the sacred burden. Mr. Holman Hunt, in his picture of the 'Triumph of the Innocents,' has represented the beast bearing Mary and her Child as accompanied by the colt. The entire process of securing both must have taken time, and augmented the excitement. Christ at length, on the eve of his Passion which he so distinctly foreshadowed, allowed the enthusiasm of the people to prevail, and accepted the homage. The Galilee pilgrims take up the demonstration, which was commenced, as we see from John's Gospel, by "the Jews" and those Jerusalemites who had been profoundly moved by the significance of the resurrection of Lazarus. The circumstances thus elucidated from the four narratives, reveal undesigned coincidences. The entry into Jerusalem did not take place till the afternoon, and so we find that all that our Lord did on arrival was to "go to the temple, look round on all things, and, now that the even was come, to revisit Bethany with the twelve" (Mark 11:11). John 12:14

Vincent's Word Studies

A young ass (ὀνάριον)

Only here in the New Testament. Matthew mentions an ass and a colt; Mark and Luke a colt only.