Jesus Predicts His Death on the Cross
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John 12:27
My soul (h yuxh mou). The soul (yuxh) here is synonymous with spirit (pneuma) in John 13:21.
Is troubled (tetaraktai). Perfect passive indicative of tarassw, used also in John 11:33; John 13:21 of Jesus. While John proves the deity of Jesus in his Gospel, he assumes throughout his real humanity as here (cf. John 4:6). The language is an echo of that in Psalms 6:4; Psalms 42:7. John does not give the agony in Gethsemane which the Synoptics have (Mark 14:35 f.; Matthew 26:39; Luke 22:42), but it is quite beside the mark to suggest, as Bernard does, that the account here is John's version of the Gethsemane experience. Why do some critics feel called upon to level down to a dead plane every variety of experience in Christ's life?
And what shall I say? (kai ti eipw). Deliberative subjunctive which expresses vividly "a genuine, if momentary indecision" (Bernard). The request of the Greeks called up graphically to Jesus the nearness of the Cross.
Father, save me from this hour (pater, swson me ek thv wrav tauthv). Jesus began his prayers with "Father" (John 11:41). Dods thinks that this should be a question also. Westcott draws a distinction between ek (out of) and apo (from) to show that Jesus does not pray to draw back from the hour, but only to come safely out of it all and so interprets ek in Hebrews 5:7, but that distinction will not stand, for in John 1:44 ek and apo are used in the same sense and in the Synoptics (Mark 14:35 f.; Matthew 26:39; 52:42) we have apo. If it holds here, we lose the point there. Here as in Gethsemane the soul of Jesus instinctively and naturally shrinks from the Cross, but he instantly surrenders to the will of God in both experiences.
But for this cause came I unto this hour (alla dia touto hlqon eiv thn wran tauthn). It was only a moment of human weakness as in Gethsemane that quickly passed. Thus understood the language has its natural meaning.
Other Robertson's Word Pictures (NT) entries containing John 12:27:
Matthew 6:25
Mark 14:35
John 4:6
John 12:2
John 12:28
John 13:21
John 17:1
1 Peter 3:14
3 John 1:2
| << John 12:26 | John 12:28 >> |
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