John 7:36

What manner of saying is this that he said, Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come?

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(36) What manner of saying is this . . .?—We get a better sense by omitting the words in italics, and reading, “What saying is this . . .?” Their scorn does not solve their difficulty, and gives place to wonder. They feel His words cannot mean what they have said. “What, then, do they mean? What is the force of His saying?”

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

7:31-36 The discourses of Jesus convinced many that he was the Messiah; but they had not courage to own it. It is comfort to those who are in the world, but not of it, and therefore are hated by it and weary of it, that they shall not be in it always, that they shall not be in it long. Our days being evil, it is well they are few. The days of life and of grace do not last long; and sinners, when in misery, will be glad of the help they now despise. Men dispute about such sayings, but the event will explain them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The dispersed among the Gentiles - To the Jews scattered among the Gentiles, or living in distant parts of the earth. It is well known that at that time there were Jews dwelling in almost every land. There were multitudes in Egypt, in Asia Minor, in Greece, in Rome, etc., and in all these places they had synagogues. The question which they asked was whether he would leave an ungrateful country, and go into those distant nations and teach them.

Gentiles - In the original, Greeks. All those who were not Jews were called Greeks, because they were chiefly acquainted with those pagans only who spake the Greek language. It is remarkable that Jesus returned no answer to these inquiries. He rather chose to turn off their minds from a speculation about the place to which he was going, to the great affairs of their own personal salvation.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

35, 36. Whither will he go, &c.—They cannot comprehend Him, but seem awed by the solemn grandeur of His warning. He takes no notice, however, of their questions.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

This saying stuck in their stomachs, and they knew not what sense to put upon it; owning nothing of the Divine nature of Christ.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

What manner of saying is this that he said,.... It is not easy to be understood; and if that is not meant, which is suggested, what should he mean by saying,

ye shall seek me, and shall not find me, and where I am, thither ye cannot come? repeating the words of Christ just now expressed by him.

Geneva Study Bible

What manner of saying is this that he said, Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come?

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

36. What manner of saying is this] Or, What is this saying? ‘this’ being contemptuous, like ‘this precious saying.’ They know that their scornful suggestion is not true.

Bengel's Gnomen

John 7:36. Οὗτος ὁ λόγος, this saying) They the more readily retain in memory His saying, as moulded in rhythm. Comp. ch. John 16:17, The disciples, “What is this that He saith unto us, A little while, and we shall not see Me, and again a little while, and ye shall see me; and because I go to the Father.”

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 36. - What is this word (λόγος) which he spake, Ye shall seek me, and ye shall not find (me), and where I am, ye cannot come? This verse is simply a repetition of the Lord's sentence, which, notwithstanding their damaging interpretation and unconscious prophecy of great events, haunted them with a weird power, and left them, as his word left the officers who were silenced and paralyzed by it, with a sense of undiscovered and awful meaning. Both here and in ver. 45 we see that the evangelist had access to the ideas and converse of the "Jews," which proves that he had special sources of information to which the ordinary synoptic tradition was strange. The thought grows upon one that John was more than the mere fisherman of the lake. He was a friend of Nicodemus, and known to Caiaphas. It is clear that some further time elapses. This conversation, of which we have the prominent items, the chief utterances, was producing its effect upon the two-sided multitude, upon "the Jews," the "Pharisees," the city party, the chief priests. The Lord probably retired once more to the house of Lazarus or of John. John 7:36

Vincent's Word Studies

What manner of saying is this (τίς ἐστιν ουτος ὁ λόγος)?

Rev., more simply and literally, what is this word?