sense of exalting, as well as of executing. But, besides the verb Nasa, there is also the
verb Zeqaph (Pqa): ), which in the Aramaic and in the Syriac is used both for lifting up and
for hanging - specifically for crucifying; and, lastly, the verb Tela ()laft@: or hlaft@: ), which
means in the first place to lift up, and secondarily to hang or crucify (see Levy, Targum,
Wörterb. ii. p. 539 a and b). It this latter verb was used, then the Jewish expression
Taluy, which is still opprobriously given to Jesus, would after all represent the original
designation by which He described His own death as the 'lifted-up One.'
48. ver. 28.
49. ver. 28 (comp. ver. 24).
50. Not 'my,' as in A.V.
51. A new sentence; and 'He,' not 'the Father,' as in the A.V.
If the Jews failed to understand the expression 'lifting up,' which might mean His
Exaltation, though it did mean, in the first place, His Cross, there was that in His Appeal
to His Words and Deeds as bearing witness to His Mission and to the Divine Help and
Presence in it, which by its sincerity, earnestness, and reality, found its way to the
hearts of many. Instinctively they felt and believed that His Mission must be Divine.
Whether or not this found articulate expression, Jesus now addressed Himself to those
who thus far - at least for the moment - believed on Him. They were at the crisis of their
spiritual history, and He must press home on them what He had sought to teach at the
first. By nature far from Him, they were bondsmen. Only if they abode in His Word
would they know the truth, and the truth would make them free. The result of this
knowledge would be moral, and hence that knowledge consisted not in merely believing
on Him, but in making His Word and teaching their dwelling - abiding in it.52 But it was
this very moral application which they resisted. In this also Jesus had used their own
forms of thinking and teaching, only in a much higher sense. For their own tradition had
it, that he only was free who laboured in the study of the Law.53 Yet the liberty of which
He spoke came not through study of the Law,54 but from abiding in the Word of Jesus.
But it was this very thing which they resisted. And so they ignored the spiritual, and fell
back upon the national, application of the words of Christ. As this is once more
evidential of the Jewish authorship of this Gospel, so also the characteristically Jewish
boast, that as the children of Abraham they had never been, and never could be, in real
servitude. It would take too long to enumerate all the benefits supposed to be derived
from descent from Abraham. Suffice here the almost fundamental principle: 'All Israel
are the children of Kings,'55 and its application even to common life, that as 'the children
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, not even Solomon's feast could be too good for them.'56
53. Ab. Baraitha vi. 2, p. 23 b; Erub. 54 a, line 13 from bottom.
52. vv. 30-32.
54. With reference to Exod. xxxii. 16, a play being made on the word Charuth ('graven')
which is interpreted Cheyruth ('liberty'). The passage quoted by Wünsche (Baba Mets. 85
b) is not applicable.
55. Shabb. 67 a; 128 a.
56. Baba Mets. vii. 1.
Not so, however, would the Lord allow them to pass it by. He pointed them to another
servitude which they knew not, that of sin,57 and, entering at the same time also on their
own ideas, He told them that continuance in this servitude wo uld also lead to national
bondage and rejection: 'For the servant abideth not in the house for ever.'58 On the