30. Comp. also Sanh. 97 a; Midr. on Cant. ii. 10.
31. See Book II. ch. v. , and Appendix IX.
32. 'Cried.'
33. The word αληθινος has not an exact English equivalent, scarcely a German one
(wahrhaftig ?). It is a favourite word of St. John's, who uses it eight times in his Gospel,
or, if the Revised reading viii. 16 be adopted, nine times (i. 9; iv. 23, 37; vi. 32; vii. 28; viii.
16 ?; xv. 1; xvii. 3; xix. 35); and four times in his First Epistle (ii. 8, and three times in ch.
v. 20). Its Johannine me aning is perhaps best seen when in juxtaposition with αληθης
(for example, 1 John ii. 8). But in the Book of Revelation, where it occurs ten times (iii. 7,
14; vi. 10; xv. 3; xvi. 7; xix. 2, 9, 11; xxi. 5; xxii. 6), it has another meaning, and can
scarcely be distinguished from our English 'true.' It is used, in the same sense as in St.
John's Gospel and Epistle, in St. Luke xvi. 11, in 1 Thess. i 9; and three times in the
Epistle to the Hebrews (viii. 2; ix. 24; x. 22). We may, therefore, regard it as a word to
which a Grecian, not a Judæan meaning attaches. In our view it refers to the true as the
real, and the real as that which has become outwardly true. I do not quite understand,
and, so far as I understand it, I do not agree with, the view of Cremer (Bibl. Theol. Lex.,
Engl. ed. p. 85), that 'αληθινος is related to αληθης as form to contents or substance.'
The distinction between the Judæan and the Grecian meaning is not only borne out by
the Book of Revelation (which uses it in the Judæan sense), but by Ecclus. xlii. 2. 11. In
the LXX. it stands for not fewer than twelve Hebrew words.
34. St. John vii. 29.
So ended the first teaching of that day in the Temple. And as the people dispersed, the
leaders of the Pharisees - who, no doubt aware of the presence of Christ in the Temple,
yet unwilling to be in the number of His hearers, had watched the effect of His Teaching
- overheard the low, furtive, half -outspoken remarks ('the murmuring') of the people
about Him. Presently they conferred with the heads of the priesthood and the chief
Temple -officials.35 Although there was neither meeting, nor decree of the Sanhedrin
about it, nor, indeed, could be,36 orders were given to the Temple -guard on the first
possible occasion to seize Him. Jesus was aware of it, and as, either on this or another
day, He was moving in the Temple, watched by the spies of the rulers and followed by a
mingled crowd of disciples and enemies, deep sadness in view of the end filled His
heart. 'Jesus therefore said' - no doubt to His disciples, though in the hearing of all - 'yet
a little while am I with you, then I go away37 to Him that sent Me. Ye shall seek Me, and
not find Me; and where I am, thither ye cannot come.'38 Mournful words, these, which
were only too soon to become true. But those who heard them naturally failed to
comprehend their meaning. Was He about to leave Palestine, and go to the Diaspora of
the Greeks, among the dispersed who lived in heathen lands, to teach the Greeks? Or
what could be His meaning? But we, who hear it across these centuries, feel as if their
question, like the suggestion of the High-Priest at a later period, nay like so many
suggestions of men, had been, all unconsciously, prophetic of the future.
35. On the heads and chief officials of the Priesthood, see 'The Temple and its Services,'
ch. iv., especially pp. 75-77.
36. Only those unacquainted with the judicial procedure of the Sanhedrin could imagine
that there had been a regular meeting and decree of that tribunal. That would have
required a formal accusation, witnesses, examination, &c.