John 12:44

Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(44) The last few verses (John 12:37-43) have given us the thoughts of St. John as he looked back on the unbelief of Judaism. He had given our Lord’s closing word in John 12:36, and there stated that He hid Himself from them. He now gives other words of our Lord condemning the unbelief of which he had been speaking, and of which the probable explanation is that they are a summary of words previously uttered by our Lord, but grouped together here as specially bearing upon the subject of which he is writing. For the remaining verses of this chapter, the Notes will therefore consist chiefly of reference to earlier passages where the same words have already occurred.

(44) Jesus cried and said.—Comp. Notes on John 7:28; John 7:37. This forbids our understanding these words of any private discourse addressed to the disciples. The phrase implies public teaching addressed to the multitude, and it may be inferred that there was some such teaching after John 12:36.

Benson Commentary

John 12:44-50. Jesus — On some occasion or other, soon after this, in order to strengthen the faith of those timid and diffident disciples (if such they could be called) last mentioned, and to inspire them with courage; cried — Or proclaimed, with a loud voice, when, it appears, a considerable number of people were gathered about him; and said, He that believeth on me — Really and cordially; believeth not on me alone, but on him that sent me — And thereby does honour to the Father himself. As if he had said, My doctrine, declarations, and promises are so evidently from God, that he who believeth on me, may more properly be said to believe on God, by whose authority and whose word I preach. And he that seeth me — He that seeth the miracles which I perform, seeth the operation of his power by whom, as man, I act. Or, He that sees me and regards me with a lively faith, seeth him that sent me — As the perfections of the Father are displayed in me: whereas, he that shuts his eyes against me, excludes the only means of being brought to the true knowledge of the Father. I am come a light into the world — I am the Sun of righteousness, whose beams dispel the darkness of ignorance, folly, and sin, in which men are involved, and am come to deliver all who believe on me out of that darkness. And if any man hear my words — Which I am so frequently and continually speaking; and yet believe not, I judge him not — Rather, I condemn him not; for I came not — I am not at present come; to judge (to condemn) the world — Or to perform any work of wrath and terror, whatever ill usage I may meet with in it; but the design of my present appearance is mild, kind, and gracious, and I am come to save the world — And make its inhabitants happy, in time and in eternity, if they will be so wise as to hearken to the proposals I offer. See! Christ came to save even those that finally perish! Even they are a part of that world which he lived and died to save. He that rejecteth me, &c., hath one that judgeth him — But though I shall not now execute judgment upon those who hear my doctrine and do not believe and obey it, nevertheless they shall not pass unpunished. The word that I have spoken shall judge, &c. — For the doctrine which I have preached shall bear witness against them at the day of judgment; and because it has aggravated their sin, it shall heighten their punishment. For I have not spoken of myself — Either on my own motion, or on any precarious conclusions, drawn from principles divinely taught; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment — Gave me ample instructions; what I should say, and what I should speak — Two words signifying the same thing. The Old Testament prophets sometimes spoke of themselves, but Christ spake by the Holy Spirit at all times. God the Father gave him, 1st, His commission; he sent him, as his agent and plenipotentiary, to concert matters between him and man; to set on foot a treaty of peace, and to settle the articles thereof. 2d, His instructions; which are here called a commandment; for they were like those given to an ambassador, directing him not only what he may say, but what he must say. The Messenger of the covenant was intrusted with a message which it was necessary he should deliver. Christ, as Song of Solomon of man, did not speak that which was of human device or contrivance; and, as Song of Solomon of God, he did not act separately from, but in perfect union with, his eternal Father. Observe, reader, our Lord Jesus, though he were a Son, learned obedience himself before he taught it us. And I know that his commandment — Understood, believed, and obeyed; is life everlasting — That is, is the way to it, and the beginning of it. Whatsoever I speak, therefore — Whatsoever I declare in my doctrine to those that hear me; even as the Father said unto me, so I speak — I alter nothing in the message which he has sent me to deliver. In other words, because I am sensible that the doctrines and precepts which the Father hath commanded me to declare, are the only conditions of eternal life, and that it depends upon the knowledge and observance of them; therefore I have proposed them with the greatest faithfulness, plainness, and confidence. Hence I am worthy of credit; both in respect of my commission, and in respect of the fidelity with which I have executed it. So that the doctrine which I preach should be received as coming from the Father, and you should consider that by rejecting it you will be guilty of despising his authority. Thus, what is contained in this last paragraph appears to be, with St. John, the epilogue of our Lord’s public discourses, and a kind of recapitulation of them.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

12:44-50 Our Lord publicly proclaimed, that every one who believed on him, as his true disciple, did not believe on him only, but on the Father who sent him. Beholding in Jesus the glory of the Father, we learn to obey, love, and trust in him. By daily looking to Him, who came a Light into the world, we are more and more freed from the darkness of ignorance, error, sin, and misery; we learn that the command of God our Saviour is everlasting life. But the same word will seal the condemnation of all who despise it, or neglect it.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Jesus cried and said - John does not say where or when this was; it is probable, however, that it was a continuation of the discourse recorded in John 12:30-36. Jesus saw their unbelief, and proceeded to state the consequence of believing on him, and of rejecting him and his message.

Believeth not on me - That is, not on me alone, or his faith does not terminate on me. Compare Matthew 10:20; Mark 9:37. It involves, also, belief in him that sent me. Jesus uniformly represents the union between himself and God as so intimate that there could not be faith in him unless there was also faith in God. He did the same works John 5:17, John 5:20, John 5:36; John 10:25, John 10:37, and taught the very doctrine which God had commissioned him to do, John 8:38; John 5:30, John 5:20-23.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

44-50. Jesus cried—in a loud tone, and with peculiar solemnity. (Compare Joh 7:37).

and said, He that believeth on me, &c.—This seems to be a supplementary record of some weighty proclamations, for which there had been found no natural place before, and introduced here as a sort of summary and winding up of His whole testimony.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The words, at first view, seem to contain a contradiction, and denying the same act as to the same person; as if any man could believe, and yet not believe on Christ; but there is nothing less in them. By the same figurative way of speaking God tells the prophet Samuel, 1 Samuel 8:7, the people had not rejected Samuel, (that is, not Samuel alone), but they had rejected him. So Mark 9:37, Whosoever receiveth me, receiveth not me, ( that is, not me alone), but him that sent me. So 1 Thessalonians 4:8. Or else thus, He that believeth on me, doth not believe on a mere man, as I appear at present to the world, but he also believeth on God that sent me. The Jews owned one God the Father, and acknowledged him the object of their faith, John 14:1, Ye believe in God; but they were blinded as to Christ, appearing only in the form of a man. So that our Saviour again by these words asserts his Divine nature, his oneness and equality with his Father; so as he was also the object of their faith, as well as his Father.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Jesus cried and said,.... Upon this occasion, on account of the prevailing hardness and unbelief of the Jewish nation, and the non-confession of him by those who did believe him to be the Messiah. He cried with a loud voice, that he might be heard, and his audience left inexcusable; it denotes the concern of his mind, the vehemence of his spirit, and that openness and freedom in which he discharged his ministry, by showing the nature, excellency, and usefulness of believing in him, and the dangerous consequences of unbelief:

he that believeth on me, believeth not on me; which is not to be understood simply and absolutely, for this would be a contradiction in terms: they that believe in Christ, do believe in him, and they do right to believe in him; Christ is the object of faith; he is proposed as such in the Gospel; and it is his Father's will, and his own advice, that his people should believe in him: but then those that truly believe in him, do not believe in him as a mere man, but as God, as the Son of God; and not as separate from, or to the exclusion of his Father: nor do they believe in him as a new, or another God, but as the one God with the Father, and the Spirit; for he and his Father are one: nor do they believe in him "only"; and so the Arabic version reads; but in God the Father also: nor does their faith rest in him, but it proceeds through him, as the Mediator unto God; see 1 Peter 1:21. Besides, he is here to be considered in his office capacity, as being sent of God; and he that believes on him as the sent of God, does not so much believe on him, as on the sender of him, as follows:

but on him that sent me; just as whatever honour or dishonour are done to an ambassador, sent by an earthly king to a foreign court, are not so much done to the ambassador that is sent, as to the king that sends him; for what is done to him, is all one as if it was personally done to his prince: so he that despises Christ, despises him that sent him; and he that receives Christ, receives him that sent him; and he that believes on Christ, believes on him that sent him; see Luke 10:16.

Geneva Study Bible

{11} Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on me, believeth {i} not on me, but on him that sent me.

(11) The sum of the gospel, and therefore of salvation, which Christ witnessed in the midst of Jerusalem by his crying out, is this: to rest upon Christ through faith as the only Saviour appointed and given us by the Father.

(i) This word not does not take anything away from Christ which is spoken of here, but is rather spoken in way of correction, as if he said, He that believes in me does not so much believe in me as in him that sent me. So is it in Mr 9:37.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

John 12:44-45. The closing observations on Jewish unbelief, John 12:37-43, are ended. Over against this unbelief, together with that faith which stood in fear of men, John 12:42-43, John now gives further, John 12:44-50, an energetic summing up, a condensed summary of that which Jesus has hitherto clearly and openly preached concerning His personal dignity and the divinity of His teaching, in condemnation of such conduct (“Jesus, on the other hand, cried and said,” etc.), whereby the reprehensible nature of that unbelief and half—belief comes clearly into view. So substantially Bengel, Michaelis, Morus, Kuinoel, Lücke, Tholuck, Olshausen, Maier, Schweizer, B. Crusius, Reuss, Baur,[120] Lange, Brückner, Weizsäcker,[121] Ebrard, Baeumlein, Ewald, Godet. John 12:36 is decisive for the correctness of this interpretation, according to which Jesus has departed from the public scene of action without any announcement of His reappearance; and it is confirmed partly by the nature of the following discourse, which contains mere echoes of earlier utterances; partly by the fact that throughout the whole discourse there are no addressed persons present; partly by the aorists, ἐλάλησα, John 12:48-49, pointing to the concluded past. This is not in opposition to ἔκραξε καὶ εἶπεν (against Kling, De Wette, Hengstenberg; also Strauss in the interest of the non-originality of the Johannean discourses), since these words (comp. John 7:28; John 7:37, John 1:15) do not of themselves more closely define the point of time which is intended. Hence we are neither to assume, with De Wette, that with John the recollection of the discourses of Jesus shaped itself “under his hand” into a discourse, genuine indeed, but never delivered in such language (what unconsciousness and passivity he is thereby charged with! and see, in opposition, Brückner); nor are we to say, with Chrysostom and all the older commentators, also Kling and Hengstenberg, that Jesus here for once did publicly so speak (ἐνδόντος τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις τοῦ θυμοῦ, πάλιν ἀνεφάνη κ. διδάσκει, Euth. Zigabenus), in accordance with which several lay hold of the explanation, in contradiction with the text, that He spoke what follows in ipso discessu, John 12:36 (Lampe). But when Luthardt (following Besser, in the Zeitschr. f. Luth. Theol. 1852, p. 617 ff.) assumes that Christ spoke these words in the presence of the disciples, and with reference to the Jews, there stands in opposition to this not only the fact, generally, that John indicates nothing of the kind, but also that ἔκραξε is not appropriate to the circle of disciples, but to a scene of publicity. Crying aloud He exclaimed, whereby all His hearers were made sensible enough of the importance of the address, and the excuse of ignorance was cut off from them.

ὁ πιστ. εἰς ἐμὲ, κ.τ.λ.] A saying. which John has not in the previous discourses. Comp., however, as to the thing, John 5:36 ff., John 7:29, John 8:19; John 8:42, John 10:38.

οὐ … ἀλλʼ] simply negativing. The object of faith is not the personality of Jesus in itself,—that human appearance which was set forth in Him, as if He had come in His own name (John 5:43),—but God, so far as the latter reveals Himself in Him as in His ambassador, by means of His words and deeds. Comp. John 7:16; Mark 9:37. Similarly: He who beholds me, etc., John 12:45. Comp. John 1:14, John 14:9. Yet in this connection the negation (οὐ θεωρεῖ ἐμέ) is not expressed, although it might have been expressed; but what had to be affirmed was, that the beholding of Christ was at the same time the beholding of His Sender. In His working and administration, the believing eye beholds that of the Sender; in the δόξα of the Son, that of the Father, John 1:14; Hebrews 1:3.

[120] Baur, however, finds in this recapitulatory discourse only a new proof, that with John historical narration is a mere form of his method of representation. Comp. also Hilgenfeld.

[121] Yet the ideas (against Weizsäcker, in the Jahrb. f. Deutsche Theol. 1857, p. 167 f.) contained in this speech are not different from those of the prologue. The form is different, but not the matter; and the prologue contains more.

Expositor's Greek Testament

John 12:44-50. A summary of the teaching of Jesus regarding the nature and consequences of faith and unbelief.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

44. cried] Comp. John 7:28; John 7:37. The expression implies public teaching.

believeth not on me] His belief does not end there; it must include more. This saying does not occur in the previous discourses; but in John 5:36 and John 8:19 we have a similar thought. Jesus came as His Father’s ambassador, and an ambassador has no meaning apart from the sovereign who sends him. Not only is it impossible to accept the one without the other, but to accept the representative is to accept not him in his own personality but the prince whom he personates. These words are, therefore, to be taken quite literally.

44–50. The Judgment of Christ

The Evangelist has just summed up the results of Christ’s ministry (37–43). He now corroborates that estimate by Quoting Christ Himself. But as John 12:36 seems to give us the close of the ministry, we are probably to understand that what follows was uttered on some occasion or occasions previous to John 12:36. Perhaps it is given us as an epitome of what Christ often taught.

Bengel's Gnomen

John 12:44. Ἰησοῦς, Jesus) This is the epilogue and recapitulation, given in the Gospel of John, of the public discourses of Christ. On this account He says in John 12:48-49, I have spoken, as of a thing past.—ἔκραξε, He cried) eagerly desiring the salvation of men. [The words from John 12:44-50, “He that believeth on Me,” etc., He spake in the very act of departure (John 12:36, ‘departed’), when He was now by this time removed from the men by a considerable interval: wherefore He is said to have cried, no doubt in order that those very persons, with whom He had spoken, might hear, not excluding the rest, who were then standing in the temple. John mentioned His hiding Himself previously (though really subsequent to John 12:44-50), John 12:36, inasmuch as referring to the words, “Yet a little while,” etc, John 12:35-36, “While ye have light, believe in the light.”—Harm., p. 450.]—οὐ πιστεύει εἰς ἐμέ, he does not believe [merely] on Me) His belief is not directed to Me alone: 1 Peter 1:21, “Who by Him do believe in God, that raised Him up from the dead, and gave Him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God.” Christ refers and delegates all things to the Father.—ἀλλʼ εἰς, but on) Faith in the Son is also at the same time faith in the Father, because the Father sent the Son, and because the Son and the Father are one; with which comp. ver. foll., “He that seeth Me, seeth Him that sent Me;” ch. John 14:9, etc., “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father,” etc.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 44-50. -

7. The summation of the supreme conflict between our Lord and the world. The portion of the chapter which follows is regarded by most commentators, Lucke, Meyer, Godet, Olshausen, and Westcott, as a summary of our Lord's teaching, as a reiteration by the evangelist of those salient points of the Lord's ministry which, while they are the life of the world, are nevertheless the grounds on which blinded eyes and hardened hearts rejected him. Vers. 44-46 characterize the believer; vers. 47, 48 emphasize Christ's relation to the unbeliever; vers. 49, 50 the principle upon which both deliverances turn and will continue to turn. There are those who think that these were special private addresses to the disciples, uttered after our Lord (ἐκρύβη) was hidden, but the word (ἔκραξε) "cried aloud," would not then have been used, as it was used for the most public expressions of his doctrine, when given once for all (here comp. John 7:28, 37, with Luke 18:39). Keim, De Wette, Baur, and Hilgenfeld think that, because there is no fresh departure here, it is proof that all the discourses of Christ in John are similarly put together with no historical basis. But if it be so, this differs strangely from all the rest of our Lord's discourses recorded by John in that it has no occasion, or persons, or opportunity to which it seems to fit. Certain aorists suggest the idea that John has here given specimens of our Lord's appeals which had ended in his being rejected by the nation as a whole. Luthardt takes the view of these words being spoken totidem verbis on our Lord's departure, and with him Hengstenberg also agrees. These critics suppose that they form the closing words of our Lord's public ministry, delayed by the intercalary remarks of the evangelist, and really belong to the close of the thirty-sixth verse. Though the expressions flint follow are built upon the discourses elsewhere uttered, we admit, with Hengstenberg, that there is no verbal parallel that is at all close, and that therefore the evangelist must not be quoting from what he had already reported, but giving the substance of a threefold class of observations found from one end of the Gospel to the other, and in words that he had heard the Master use. Verses 44, 45. - Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on me, believeth not on me,PGBR> but on him that sent me; and he that beholdeth me, beholdeth him that sent me. These words do not occur before, but in every form our Lord had exalted "him that sent him." His doctrine or teaching, his purpose in manifestation, the secret food that sustained him, the Divine presence that never left him alone, the entire background of the mission of his human will and life into the world, the object of faith to men as revealed in his humanity, and that which the spiritual eye ought to see, nay - if the beholder did but know it does see, constitute an unveiling of the eternal Father who sent him into the world (see John 4:34; John 5:36; John 6:38; John 7:17, 18, 29; John 8:28, 42; John 10:38; cf. also John 14:1, 9, 24). It becomes, then, of high value to grasp the truth. We actually believe in God when believing in him. His mission is lost in the glory of God who appears in him. So far as he is sent, he was necessarily of lower order and rank than he who sent him. His humanity began to be in time; it was generated in the womb of the Virgin; it was sanctified and sent into the world; and yet through it there was the highest revelation of the Father. We cannot attribute so stupendous a thought to the evangelist, and at the same time we admit the portentous singularity and uniqueness of the consciousness which could thus aver identity of nature with God and the completeness of revelation that the Speaker was making in himself of the Father. John 12:44

Vincent's Word Studies

Cried (ἔκραξεν)

This is not meant to relate a reappearance of Jesus in public. The close of His public ministry is noted at John 12:36. It is in continuation of the Evangelist's own remarks, and introduces a summary of Jesus' past teaching to the Jews.

Believeth - on Him that sent Me (πιστεύει - εἰς τὸν πέμψαντά με)

This is the first and almost the only place in the Gospel where the words believe on are used with reference to the Father. This rendering in John 5:24 is an error. See John 14:1. The phrase is constantly associated with our Lord. At the same time it is to be noted that it contemplates the Father as the source of the special revelation of Christ, and therefore is not absolutely an exception to the habitual usage. The same is true of John 14:1.