John 1

Bethany signifies a ferry house; but this — was not where Lazarus and his sisters lived, but beyond, or “upon the Jordan,” where probably a ferry boat was stationed. Ver. 31. knew him not.—This is differently explained. Doddridge says, “knew him not” personally, which seems difficult to believe, since all the made branches of families used to meet at the three great feasts at Jerusalem, which we know Jesus was accustomed to attend; and Zacharias, the father of John, being a priest, would naturally bring up his family in that duty, (Camp or 70 miles apart,) and never seeing each other, but at the three great festivals, which cut off all reasonable suspicion of confederacy or collusion. Ver.

36. Behold the Lamb.—An allusion to the morning and evening sacrifice, which typified the Lamb of God, who should bear away the sins of the world. — Bagster. Ver. 39. About the tenth hour.—Supposing these hours to be reckoned according to the Roman method, from six in the morning, they bring us to four in the afternoon, which our translators, in their marginal note, remark, was two hours before night, reckoning their day from six to six. “Are they not all thy servants, Lord? At thy command they go and come: With cheerful haste obey thy word, And guard thy children to their home.” — Watts. Chap. I. Ver. 1—11. Our Lord’s ascension.—The excellent Chap. I. Ver. 1. The former treatise.—Or, as logos may be rendered, ac- Ver.

37. A sabbath day’s journey—(Was seven and a half furlongs from Jerusalem; and the town of Bethany was fifteen. But the first region or tract of mount Olivet, called Bethphage, extended from the city a sabbath day’s journey, where the tract called Bethany began; and from this place our Lord ascended. See Lightfoot.—Bagster. Ver. 13. An upper room.—This was either a room in the temple, or (more likely, as we think,) in the house of some friend. Upper rooms were generally large, and adapted for social meetings; and often used, according to Lightfoot, for religious purposes. See note on (John 2:46). This as a parenthesis, and the language of the Evangelist. From an ancient inscription, it seems that the fate of Judas became a proverbial form of cursing.

See Doddridge.—Aceldama—(Also called the Potter’s Field, is situated about half way down the ravine between mount Zion, and the Hill of Evil Counsel, on the side of the hill, and south of Jerusalem. It is described by Maundrell, (Journey, April 6,) as “a small piece of ground, not above thirty yards long, and half as much broad. One moiety of it is taken up by a square fabric, twelve yards high, [an oblong square cavern, about twenty-six paces long, twenty broad, and about twenty feet deep, says Pococke,] built for a

Notes on the verses

Eell thinks that John might have known Jesus to be a prophet, yet not the Messiah; but being himself a very [prophet], even supposing he had not heard of his miraculous conception, or early devotedness to God, (which is scarcely probable,) he must have naturally suspected that he was the person to whom he was appointed forerunner. Ver. 33. knew him not.—There seems to have been a special providence in the circumstance of John and Jesus being brought up at such a distance— one in the desert of Judea, and the other in Lower Galilee, (not less than 60 Ver. 42, Son of Jona—Or Jonas; probably an abridgment of Joanna, or John.—Cephas—In Syriac, agrees with Peter, in Greek, (so our English margin,) both signifying a stone.

See note on (Matthew 16:17-20). Ver. 43. The day following—Or ‘on the morrow,” or “next time;” for the word “day” need not be taken strictly. Ver. 44. Bethsaida—Was at this time a poor fishing village on the lake of Gennesareth, (14)