He was a burning and a shining light: and you were willing for a time to rejoice in his light.
εκεινος ην ο λυχνος ο καιομενος και φαινων υμεις δε ηθελησατε αγαλλιαθηναι προς ωραν εν τω φωτι αυτου
12 Church Fathers comment on this verse · 13 commentaries
Lest they say, “Even if John spoke, we did not accept his testimony,” He shows that they did accept what was said. For this reason they sent not ordinary men, but priests and Pharisees.
Thus they respected that man and did not then dare contradict his words. But by the expression “for a little while” He shows their fickleness, since they so quickly withdrew from John.
He calls John “a burning lamp” because he had an earthly origin and did not have the light from himself, but from the grace of the Spirit, and only “for a time.” When the day of the Lord came, that is, the teaching, the lamp was hidden.
They accepted all that he said “for a time” and rejoiced in him. Then they forgot what he said about Me and remained in their former unbelief. For if you had once firmly believed him, he would soon have led you to faith in Me.
He likens the holy Baptist to a lamp, because he shone before His coming according to the measure of strength proper to human nature. Yet he did not use his own light, for in a lamp the light is not its own. It is communicated and brought in from outside.
The same illumination from Christ in the Spirit can be seen in the saints. Therefore, thinking and acting with great wisdom, they themselves confess with their own voice "that from His fullness we have all received" (Jn 1:16). For the Only-begotten is light by nature, since He has shone forth from light, that is, from the essence of the Father.
Creation partakes of Him. Everything capable of reasoning and thought is, as it were, a vessel for being filled with the divine light. It has been excellently fashioned by God, the all-perfect Craftsman of all things.
Therefore, according to the argument already given, the blessed Baptist is a lamp. In saying this, the Savior fittingly calls the senseless Pharisees to remember the words of God the Father, who says somewhere concerning him: "I have prepared a lamp for My Christ" (Ps 131:17).
Christ most profitably and necessarily adds this now to what He has already said. For He was excluding every pretext for the Jews' disobedience and drawing them in every way to faith in Himself. Yet He seemed almost to consent to rejecting John's testimony when He said: "But I do not receive testimony from man."
Therefore, lest they think that the Lord truly and actually judged the Forerunner in the way the outward form of the speech appeared, He usefully introduces here not Himself saying something about him. Rather, He introduces the Psalmist crying out in the Father's words.
He thought that the adversary ought at least to be ashamed out of reverence for God the Father. Otherwise he would appear even more plainly to be fighting against God, once he shamelessly rose up against the very words of God the Father.
Therefore, He says, "he was a lamp, but you were willing to rejoice for an hour in his light." It was necessary not only to show that the Pharisees easily turn aside from duty and thrust from themselves the desire to believe because of their great impiety of manners. It was also necessary to convict them of inconstancy.
They were wholly unaccustomed to strive diligently for the good. They scarcely tasted it, and only with words praised those who seemed worthy of honor. Then they did not hesitate to pass quickly to the opposite disposition. This, I think, is what it means "to be willing to rejoice for an hour in his light."
At first they marveled at the holy Baptist as an ascetic, as a lover of God, and as a model of all piety. Yet while granting him their admiration, they insult him and cannot endure his words: "Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight the paths of your God." Clearly, they are shown to do this because of their disobedience.
Preserving, as I suppose, the commonly accepted and customary manner of interpreting the proposed saying, we have thus set forth its meaning according to our strength. But the Savior's word draws us toward deep reflections. It compels us, as it were, to touch sharper thoughts.
For it indicates that John was not merely a "lamp," but also "burning and shining." Therefore we think it necessary to look more precisely into the meaning of what was said, and to investigate the beauty of the truth.
Let us again set the saying before ourselves: "He was a lamp," He says. This alone would have been enough to indicate the holy Baptist, so that the hearers might come to understand the prophecy about him, which says: "I have prepared a lamp for My Christ" (Ps 131:17).
But since He adds "burning and shining" to the word "lamp," He clearly raises the hearer not only to the prophet's saying. He also raises him to some figure under the Law, which in image and shadow prefigured the shining of John. John fulfilled this beautifully by bearing witness to Christ the Master.
He also again convicts the Pharisees of ignorance. They were constantly occupied with the words of Moses and considered themselves wise. Yet He shows that they are wise more in appearance than truly learned in the Law. Such is the whole aim of the saying.
But I think we must turn to the divine revelation itself and explain now why the blessed Baptist was not merely a "lamp," but also "burning and shining." When God gave commands concerning the holy tabernacle, after the construction of the ten curtains, He said to Moses the high priest:
"And you shall command the children of Israel, and let them bring you olive oil, without sediment, pure, beaten, for kindling the light, so that the lamp may burn always in the tabernacle of testimony outside the veil, which is over the Covenant. Aaron and his sons shall kindle it from evening until morning before the Lord. This is an everlasting ordinance throughout your generations from the children of Israel. And you shall bring Aaron your brother, and his sons with him, from among the children of Israel, to minister as priests to Me" (Ex 27:20-28:1).
Let the divine revelation stop here, and let us pass now to its explanation according to our ability. By pure oil without lees, He seems to signify the most pure and perfect nature of the Holy Spirit. When He enters us in a manner incomprehensible to us, He nourishes, sustains, and increases the illumination in our soul, as oil does in a lamp.
Thus we believe that the divine Baptist shone with the light of testimony concerning our Savior. He did not receive the power of illumination from anywhere else. He received it, as through spiritual oil, capable and fit for kindling the divine light in us.
The Savior Himself also indicated this in veiled fashion when He said: "I came to cast fire upon the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!" (Lk 12:49). Therefore the blessed Baptist was a "lamp," always in the tabernacle of testimony, as again in a type, "burning and shining."
That he shines in the tabernacle of testimony beautifully indicates that illumination has been received from him in the churches. It must not be outside the sacred and divine court of the Savior. Yet the lamp is outside the veil. This indicates that he was to introduce only the simplest and preliminary illumination, saying: "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven has drawn near" (Mt 4:17).
But he does not reveal anything of what is hidden inside the veil, that is, of the mysteries of our Savior. For he did not baptize into participation in the Holy Spirit. Nor did he bring the illumination from Him inside the veil. He was in the outer, first tabernacle, "which still had its standing" (Heb 9:8), according to Paul's word.
If it says that "Aaron and his sons shall kindle it from evening until morning before the Lord; this is an everlasting law throughout your generations," I think these words also must be interpreted in a similar way. Aaron and his sons signify those who serve as priests in their season in the churches, that is, the teachers in them and the ministers of the divine altars.
They are commanded always to keep the spiritual lamp shining, that is, John. This is indicated by the words: "they shall kindle it from evening until morning." For the whole time during which the light of the lamp was to shine is the duration of the night. Through it the measure of the present age is signified, while by the light we understand the age to come.
Yet the lamp burns, or is kept shining, always giving believers in Christ a pleasing illumination of Him. It is testified by the voice of the priests who serve, each in his own season, that the one who says this is true.
To teach you that God was prefiguring the Savior's herald through this, He immediately adds the choice of those who serve as priests. Consider the whole content of the chapter, and you will again come, I think, to a contemplation not without fruit.
At the completion of the tabernacle, the ordinance concerning the lamp is introduced. After this immediately follows the choice and appointment of priests. This is because, at the end of the Law and the Prophets, the voice of the Forerunner shone forth, "the voice of one crying in the wilderness," as it is written: "Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight the paths of our God" (Is 40:3; Mt 3:3).
After him immediately followed the choice and proclamation of the holy Apostles through Christ. For the Lord chose "the Twelve, whom He also named Apostles" (Lk 6:13).
Having finished our discourse about the lamp, let us return again to the Savior's saying: "He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for an hour in his light." Again He accuses and convicts the Pharisees' ignorant and stubborn attitude toward obedience, since they suffered from incomparable coarseness.
They were not able to understand even what they proclaimed themselves to know. They proved very far from exact knowledge of the Law. They were wholly ignorant of what the Lawgiver had prefigured through Moses, as in images.
By the words, "He was a burning and shining lamp," in our judgment He puts to shame those who had not yet understood what had long before been traced in veiled fashion in the types of the Law. And in the words, "But you were willing to rejoice for an hour in his light," He again presents them as always preferring their own will to the decision from above. They were accustomed to follow only their own desires.
The Lawgiver, He says, ordained that the lamp should shine and burn always. But "you were willing" for it to burn not forever, but "for one hour," that is, for the very briefest time. After admiring him at first, you extinguished the light of the lamp, as far as it depended on you.
You did this by madly rising up against the one sent from God. You not only refused yourselves to be baptized, but also hindered others from being baptized. Thus they sent to him, saying: "Why then do you baptize?" (Jn 1:25). That is: why do you illumine unto repentance and the knowledge of Christ?
Therefore, again contending on John's behalf, the Savior lays upon the senseless scribes and Pharisees the charge of folly and lawlessness. I think blessed Luke understood and beautifully discerned this. He accuses their madness, saying: "And all the people who heard," plainly the words of the Savior, "justified God, having been baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him" (Lk 7:29-30).
For every man is a lamp that can be both kindled and extinguished. He alone is not a lamp.
For He is not kindled and is not extinguished, because "as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son also to have life in Himself," Jn 5:26.
Therefore the apostles too are lamps. They are grateful that they have been kindled from the light of truth, burn with the spirit of love, and have enough oil of the grace of God.
If they were not lamps, the Lord would not have said to them, "You are the light of the world," Mt 5:14.
After saying, "You are the light of the world," He shows that they must not consider themselves that light of which it was said:
"He was the true Light, who enlightens every man coming into this world," Jn 1:9.
In one place of the Gospel the Lord says that a prudent hearer of His words should be like a man who wishes to build a house. He digs deep until he reaches solid rock that can serve as a foundation.
Then, being at peace, he decides to build his house upon it, so as to escape the threat of flood. If a flood should come, it will be restrained by the strength of the building rather than destroy that house by its force (cf. Mt 7:24-25).
Let us regard the Scripture of God as a field on which we wish to build something. Let us not be lazy. Let us not be satisfied with the surface. Let us dig deeper until we reach the rock. And the Rock was Christ (1 Cor 10:4).
In today's reading we heard of the Lord's testimony. He has no need of testimony from men, but He had a testimony greater than men. He said what this testimony was: 'The works which I do bear witness of Me.'
He adds to this: 'And the Father who sent Me has Himself borne witness of Me' (Jn 5:36-37). He says that the very works which He does He received from the Father. Therefore the works bear witness to that to which the Father bears witness.
Did John not bear witness? Certainly he did, but as a lamp. It was not to satisfy friends, but to confound enemies. For long before, it had been foretold in the person of the Father: 'I will set up a lamp for My Christ. His enemies I will clothe with confusion, but upon Him My sanctification shall flourish' (cf. Ps 131:17-18).
Imagine that you are in the darkness of night. You used a lamp, admired the lamp, and rejoiced in the light from the lamp. But this lamp tells you that there is a sun in which you ought to rejoice.
Although the lamp burns in the night, it commands you to wait for the day. Therefore one must not say that there was no need for this man's testimony. For why was he sent, if there was no need for him?
Yet lest a man remain with the lamp and think the lamp's light sufficient for him, the Lord does not say that this lamp was unnecessary. Nor does He say that you must remain forever with the lamp.
The Scripture of God gives another testimony: 'He was the true Light, which enlightens every man coming into the world' (Jn 1:9).
This was said of the Lord when it was necessary to distinguish Him from John the Baptist. Of John it was said: 'He was not the Light, but was sent to bear witness to the Light' (Jn 1:8).
And lest you say, 'How was he not light, when Christ says that he was a lamp?' (Jn 5:35), I answer: in comparison with the other Light, he was not light. For He was 'the true Light, which enlightens every man coming into the world' (Jn 1:9).
Therefore, after He said to the disciples, 'You are the light of the world,' He at once added what would prevent them from thinking that something had been assigned to them which should be thought only of Christ.
He did this also so that the lamps might not be extinguished by the wind of pride after His words, 'You are the light of the world.' He immediately added: 'A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.
'Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a vessel, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house' (Mt 5:14-15).
But what if He did not call the apostles a lamp, but rather those who light a lamp in order to put it on a lampstand? Hear how He called them a lamp: 'Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify, not you, but your Father in heaven' (Mt 5:14-16).
He was a burning and shining lamp, which, as it increased, was being prepared to go out. It shone in the night, to teach that the appointed time for the sun’s predominance was gradually passing away and that its rays were disappearing.
"He was a burning and shining lamp": a lamp kindled by the fire of the Spirit of God and shining for those who remained in the darkness of sin.
He called him a lamp because he went out when the stronger light appeared, the Sun of Righteousness. For John himself said of Christ, "He must increase, but I must decrease," Jn 3:30.
He called him a lamp for another reason also, because he did not have the light of teaching from himself, but by the grace of the Holy Spirit.
I think David foretold of him: "I have prepared a lamp for My anointed," τῷ χριστῷ, Ps 131:17.
"But you were willing to rejoice for a time in his light." He reproaches them because they did not show zeal for John to the end.
You wished, He says, to be glad for a little while in the light of his teaching, when people were running to him from every side.
But afterward you grew cold, although even until now you marveled at him.
If you had not grown cold, you would certainly have believed his testimony.
Therefore you are convicted of both recognizing him as trustworthy and not believing his testimony.
"I do not appeal to John, who bore witness to Me as the Son of God, Jn 1:34, because I do not receive testimony from man.
But for you even this testimony has full force and can be saving. You yourselves sent to him.
And John truly was a lamp of God, burning and shining, a prophet with a spirit of flaming zeal and with the light of truth.
Only you did not use his light as you ought. You admired it in the hour of its shining, but did not follow his preaching of repentance or his indications of the One coming after him."
A question now arises in the hearers of Jesus Christ: by what will You confirm such testimony about Yourself and Your dignity?
Answering this unspoken question, He says: "If I gave testimony only about Myself, and if, apart from My words, it received no confirmation in anything, then you would have the right not to believe Me.
But there is another who bears witness to Me, My Father, whose testimony you cannot refuse to believe.
Thus the Father bears witness to His Son through John. You regard John as a true prophet sent by God, and he testified to the truth that I am the Messiah.
Still, I am willing not to assign decisive significance to John's testimony. After all, he was a man, and one could refuse to trust him.
I remind you of him for your own sake, since you regard him as a true prophet and believe his testimony.
And you do well to believe him. He truly was a prophet, abundantly filled with the light of divine revelation and spreading around himself the bright light of the knowledge of truth.
But you are like children who suddenly become excited with joy when a candle is brought into their dark room.
Yet in that joy they forget to use the light in order to do the very thing for which it was brought into the room.
Likewise, for a time you were stirred by the gift of prophecy dwelling in John. Yet you did not make use of the light of his preaching about repentance.
You did not repent. You did not prepare yourselves to receive the Messiah, although this was precisely his purpose for you.
But I have testimony greater than John's. The miracles which I perform irrefutably prove the divinity of My person and that I am sent from the Father.
As the Pharisees and scribes heard all Jesus' explanations of His consubstantiality with the Father, they were already ready to say to Him: 'Who will believe You? You bear witness to Yourself, and according to our law such testimony cannot be recognized as true. It requires confirmation by other witnesses.'
Foreseeing this objection, and as though anticipating it, Jesus says: 'If I bear witness to Myself, then according to your understanding My witness is not true. Although I need no proofs of the truth of My words, still less can I appeal to men as witnesses. Yet to save you from obstinacy in error, I will appeal to a witness whom you cannot refuse to believe.
'You sent chosen men from among yourselves to John to ask him, Who are you? Are you not the Christ? If you regarded John as trustworthy even in his testimony concerning himself, then you must also acknowledge him as trustworthy concerning others.
'And this very witness bore witness concerning Me as the Messiah, the Christ. If this witness is trustworthy, and if the testimony by which he testifies of Me is therefore true, why then do you not believe Me? Is it not because you do not believe John either?
'He was a burning and shining lamp. At first you rejoiced at his appearing, but not for long. The shining lamp illumined your deeds, which you performed in darkness, and those deeds appeared in their true form. He rebuked you for your iniquities, and you hated him.
'Nevertheless, I do not receive testimony from man ... But I have a testimony greater than John's. For the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish, these very works which I do, bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me.
'No one has ever done such works as I do. Only God can do them. If I do them, these very works which I do bear witness that I am sent from God. By these works the Father who sent Me has Himself borne witness concerning Me.'
Chrysostom, interpreting Jesus' words, 'And the Father who sent Me has Himself borne witness concerning Me,' says that the Father bore witness to the Son at His Baptism in the Jordan, by the voice from heaven: 'This is My beloved Son' (Mt 3:17). Blessed Theophylact thinks that God bore witness concerning Him throughout the whole Scripture, in the Law and the Prophets.
But these words cannot be referred to Scripture, because Jesus speaks later of Scripture as an independent testimony (verse 39). Nor can we suppose here the voice from heaven at Jesus' Baptism, because only Jesus Himself and John heard that voice.
Therefore only one possible explanation remains, one that refers these words to the miracles performed by Jesus. In verse 36 Jesus' words are given: 'The very works which I do bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me.' Verse 37 begins by repeating what has been said: 'And the Father who sent Me has Himself borne witness concerning Me.'
In both expressions there is one and the same thought: 'The works done by Me bear witness that the Father has sent Me. Since the Father gave Me these works to accomplish, He Himself bears witness concerning Me through these works.
'In them, in these works done by Me, He appeared to you and spoke with you. But you did not believe Him whom He sent to perform them. Therefore you were deaf and did not hear His voice. You were blind and did not see His manifestation. His word is foreign and incomprehensible to you. It leaves no trace in your hearts.'
'And you were willing to rejoice for a little while in his light.' Why were they willing to rejoice, and in what were they to rejoice? They did not accept John's testimony concerning Christ, and therefore there was nothing to rejoice in.
In answering this question, one must keep in mind that John's departure from the wilderness and his passage through all the country around the Jordan coincided with those significant events that pointed to the Messiah's imminent coming.
The scepter had departed from Judah, according to Jacob's prophecy. That is, royal authority over the Jews had passed to a foreigner. Daniel's weeks were coming to an end.
The chief priests, Pharisees, and scribes knew these prophecies. They had to expect the Messiah's imminent coming, and naturally they had to rejoice that this coming would occur in their lifetime.
Having distorted the prophecies concerning the Messiah, they expected Him as an invincible king and conqueror. He would subdue the whole world to the Jews and set them as kings over the conquered nations.
With such ideas about the Messiah, they hear of a new Prophet preaching in the country of the Jordan. The thought that perhaps this Prophet was the long-awaited Messiah must certainly have occupied the leaders of the Jewish people.
Their dreams of the time when they would reign over the whole world must have delighted them. Thus, giving themselves over to their fantasies, they rejoiced at their speedy fulfillment.
But they did not rejoice for long. They went to the Jordan, where John was baptizing. When they saw him and heard his thunderous rebuke addressed to them as offspring of vipers, they decided that John did not fit the idea of the Messiah they had formed. Therefore they left him, disappointed and embittered.
Yes, their joy was brief. They rejoiced only for a little while.
"He was a burning and shining lamp." He was not self-existent light, compare Jn 1:8, but a lamp lit from that light, burning and shining with that true light.
Compare the note on Jn 1:8. As light and lamps were a sign, and sometimes a foreshadowing, of God's revelation in the Old Testament, so John foreshadowed and signified the coming of the Messiah.
This means the full revelation of God in the person of the Messiah. His teaching was true, for light is a symbol of illumination.
But you did not understand or receive him. "You were willing to rejoice a little while in his light," more exactly, you wished to take brief pleasure in his light.
Instead of understanding the full greatness of his appearance as herald of the approaching new Kingdom, which must be entered through repentance, you treated him lightly.
He preached repentance to you, but you only wished to make merry for a little while, as at a feast.
He sang mournful songs to you, but you did not lament. Compare the note on Mt 11:16-19.
You did not understand him. If "you showed zeal for John, it was only temporary and unstable," says Chrysostom; compare Theophylact.
The Savior speaks of John in the past tense. Therefore his ministry had already ended when the Lord spoke this discourse. That is, he was in prison.
Verses 33-35: "You sent to John..." The Lord recalls how the Sanhedrin sent to the Forerunner to learn about the Messiah. He summons the Jews' own conscience as a witness to His work.
"You sent," I say to you. The Jews' conscience told them that John was a great prophet. From him they had to learn God's will, in order to fulfill it.
According to the voice of conscience, they sent an embassy to the Forerunner. But when John spoke the truth, that Christ was coming after him, did they obey John?
"He bore witness to the truth." Out of modesty it is not said, "to Me," but the thought is evident.
John insistently testified that the One whose sandal strap he was unworthy to loose was already among them. He pointed directly to Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, Jn 1:26-30.
Did they receive the One whom John indicated?
"But I do not receive testimony from man. I say these things, that you may be saved."
John's testimony, as that of a man, is not important for Jesus. Yet the Jews' conscience, as the voice of God, called them to value John's voice.
Still, against their conscience, they disregarded John's testimony. Therefore they are in danger of losing salvation.
Love compels the Lord to remind them of this danger, so that they may repent and hasten to step onto the path of salvation.
Love, seeking the salvation of sinners, explains who the Forerunner is. He is "a burning and shining lamp."
He is burning because he flames with love and is zealous that other hearts also be warmed by love.
He is a shining lamp because by teaching and virtues he pours light around himself, showing the paths by which one must go toward eternity.
John is a prophet. The prophets were called lamps and were such, Prov 4:18; Mt 5:14, 18; 2 Pet 1:19.
"But you were willing to rejoice for a time in his light."
The Jews, like children, amused themselves and took pleasure in the lamp's light, instead of turning his instruction to profit.
They amused themselves with the light προς ωραν, not for long, 2 Cor 7:8; Gal 2:5.
As children cast aside a toy that has bored them, so they, wearied by the Forerunner's strict teaching, sent the teacher of repentance to prison.
In these words the Lord sets before the Jews that, in the state of their souls, they were not pure enough or morally mature enough to understand the higher testimony. Yet they refused to understand even the testimony which, by their own narrow standard, was irrefutable even for their stubborn minds.
'You sent to John,' says the Lord. 'I do not appeal to him, for I do not receive testimony from man, even from so great a prophet as John. But you yourselves sent to him' (Jn 1:19-28).
And he bore witness to the truth, saying: 'I myself did not know Him. But He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, Upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and borne witness that this is the Son of God' (Jn 1:33-34).
'Having this testimony from one so holy as John, and one to whom you yourselves sent,' says the Lord, 'how do you remain in unbelief? I say this,' the Merciful One adds, 'that you may be saved.'
Concerning John, who at that time, as one must suppose, had already been imprisoned and was preparing to appear before the Most High, the Lord already speaks in the past tense: 'He was a burning and shining lamp.' It is very difficult to determine the time of John's martyrdom. Perhaps it was then taking place, or had already taken place. But it is beyond doubt that he was already in prison.
He is called a lamp because, like all men, he was kindled from the eternal Light: 'He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness to the Light' (Jn 1:8). He burned, this lamp kindled by God, until the perishable matter of his body was spent, having fulfilled what the Lord had appointed for him on earth.
For a time he was light for those around him (Mt 5:14). For according to the Lord's word (Lk 12:35), his loins were always girded, and the lamp entrusted to him by God was always burning.
But did the Jews understand him in this way? They rejoiced at John's appearance. In view of the Lord's words, this cannot be doubted. But what did they rejoice in, if they did not believe him (Mt 21:25, 32; Mk 11:31; Lk 20:5)? They went into the wilderness more to see something curious than to learn goodness and righteousness from John (Lk 7:24-26). At first, some of the Pharisees and Sadducees were baptized by John (Mt 3:7). Yet the learned soon seem to have treated him carelessly.
Apparently the Jews' joy rested on the fact that, from the time of Malachi, about 470 years before Christ, no prophet had arisen among the people for more than four centuries. His appearance signified that God had visited His people.
Pursuing their favorite thought of the earthly greatness that was to fall to Israel's lot, the Jews expected that after John's coming the Messiah would appear. Not the Messiah who truly appeared, but the Messiah of their imagination, a king and conqueror.
The Lord answers these very thoughts when He says: 'You were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.' This was utterly fruitless rejoicing. It is depicted by the prophet Ezekiel in Ezek. 33:30, when he portrays the Jews: 'They come to you as people come to an assembly ... and they hear your words, but they do not do them. For with their mouths they make a jest of it ... And behold, you are to them like a pleasant singer with a beautiful voice, who plays well. They hear your words, but they do not do them.'
By reminding the Jews of all this in His words, the Lord wills that they be saved. Yet, as the Apostle says, 'the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it' (Heb 4:2).
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 18 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS