Bible Study series: John 12:37-43 Many did not believe, but some rulers did, but they did not confess in public because they were afraid of the Pharisees and kicked out of the synagogue.

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John 12

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In this post, links are provided for further study.

Let’s begin.

Scripture: John 12:37-43

³⁷ Even though he did so many signs in front of them, they did not believe in him, ³⁸ in order that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, who said:

Lord, who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? [Is. 53:1]

³⁹ For this reason they were unable to believe, because Isaiah again said:

⁴⁰ He has blinded their eyes
And hardened their hearts,
So that they may not see with their eyes And understand with their heart and turn,
And I will heal them. [Is. 6:10]

⁴¹ Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke about him.

⁴² Nevertheless, indeed, many even of the rulers believed in him but because of the Pharisees did not profess him so that they might not become “desynagogued,” ⁴³ for they loved the glory of people more than the glory of God. (John 12:37-43)

Comments:

37:

John wrote his Gospel so that the Jews (and Gentiles) would believe. Here is the purpose of the signs, without a complicated commentary:

³⁰ So then Jesus performed many other signs in front of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. ³¹ These were written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (John 20:30-31)

The signs are for us to believe that he is the Messiah (or Christ), the Son of God. They are signposts, which point to Jesus and his glory.

38-40:

Jesus says the same thing in the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew and Mark. I quote from Matthew’s version:

¹³ For this reason I speak to them in parables, because even though they ‘see,’ they do not see, and even though they ‘hear,’ they do not hear, nor do they understand. ¹⁴ Then this prophecy of Isaiah shall be fulfilled about them, saying:

You shall ‘hear’ with the act of ‘hearing,’ and you shall not understand,
And even though you ‘see’ carefully, you shall ‘see’ and not perceive.
¹⁵ For the heart of this people has become dull,
And the ears have become hard of hearing,
And their eyes have shut,
In case they might hear with their ears,
And with their hearts they might understand and might turn
And I would heal them. [Is. 6:9-10]

¹⁶ But your eyes are blessed because they see, and your ears are blessed because they hear. ¹⁷ I tell you the truth that many prophets and righteous people yearned to see what you see and did not see it, and to hear what you hear and did not hear it. (Matt. 13:13-19)

These two passages explain to the earliest church why the Jews refused to believe. Paul quotes similar verses to the Jewish leaders in Rome.

“Well has the Holy Spirit spoken through Isaiah the prophet to your ancestors,
²⁶ saying:

Go to this people and say:
You ever hear and do not understand;
You ever see and do not perceive;
²⁷ For the heart of this people has become dull,
And they hear with ears hard of hearing,
And they close their eyes,
Otherwise, they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their heart
And turn, and I would heal them. [Is. 6:9-10]

²⁸ Therefore let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, and they shall listen.” (Acts 28:25-28)

In Rom. 11:17-25 Paul writes of the temporary and partial hardening which has overtaken Israel.

When Isaiah received his prophetic commission, he was warned that the people would not receive his message. The kings of Israel and Judah before Isaiah lived and afterwards drove the country into the ground, and the people contributed to their own downfall, as well. Their rebellion against his ways was not God’s original plan, but God could foresee it happening. So the blinding of eyes and hardening of hearts comes in the context of judgment on hearts that were predisposed to be hard and eyes predisposed to be blind. This is a passage of judgment. Bruce: “This Hebraic fashion of expressing result as though it were purpose has influenced John’s wording—both in the introductory formula ‘in order that they saying of Isaiah might be fulfilled’ in verse 38 and again in the words ‘This is the reason they were unable to believe’ in v. 39” (comment on vv. 39-41). What Bruce says here is that in Hebrew idiom what appears to be caused by God and purposed by God is actually just the result of the people’s own condition of their eyes and heart.

Jesus was called to proclaim the good news, but judgment is coming, for Jesus was destined to be rejected by the Jerusalem establishment and then judgement would fall.

Beasley-Murray is right. Verse 39 could seem like naked predestinarianism but it was not intended as such, nor would the verse been read in this way. He refers to the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart in Exod. 4:21, yet the Pharaoh himself is said to harden his own heart (e.g. 8:15, 32). God will never reject anyone who earnestly seeks him. The inability of these Jews comes in the context of salvation history. As I will note in vv. 42-43, thousands of Jews did convert.

Morris: About blinding their eyes, “he does not mean that the blinding takes place without the will or against the will of these people. So with the hardening of their hearts. These people chose evil. It is their own deliberate choice, their own fault … Throughout the Gospel, John has insisted on the seriousness of the decision forced on the Jews by the presence of Jesus, on their responsibility and on their guilt” (comment on vv. 39-40). Then he goes on to state the mysteriousness of God’s will and human will.

Carson: “Philosophically, like every major author in the canon, John is a compatibilist” (Carson, comment on v. 38). That is, John, like every NT writer, places God’s sovereignty next to human free will and believes they are compatible. Maybe so, but I like Bruce’s explanation.

The problem for us is to sort it all out. So we have to take each verse as they come.

41:

Isaiah marvelously foresaw the glory of Jesus, just as Abraham did. “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day, and he saw it and rejoiced” (John 8:56). Peter repeats the same idea:

¹⁰ Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, ¹¹ trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. ¹² It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things. (1 Peter 1:10-12, NIV)

The prophets of old caught glimpses of Jesus, but how they did, whether in vision or by another kind of revelation, is an open question.

Now let’s look at the noun glory, more generally, just to get our bearings on the term in the bigger Gospel of John.

“glory” means, in many contexts, the light of God, shining to all the world. This brightness is the glory of God.

1. The Glory of God in the Old Testament

2. What Is the Glory of God in the New Testament?

3. What Does the Glory of God Mean to Us?

Moses experienced the glory of God:

¹⁸ Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”
¹⁹ And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. ²⁰ But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.” ²¹ Then the Lord said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. ²² When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. ²³ Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.” (Exod. 33:18-22, NIV).

Commentator Bruce also sees this connection between the glory which Moses saw and the surpassing glory of Jesus. Further, he connects the glory of the old tabernacle with God pitching his tabernacle through his Son (comment on 1:14). “Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them” (Exod. 25:8, NIV). When the tabernacle was completed, we read: “³⁴ Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. ³⁵ Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle” (Exod. 40:34-35, NIV).

But Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Spirit, says that the glory which Moses experienced, soon faded away.

⁷ Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it was, ⁸ will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? ⁹ If the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! ¹⁰ For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. ¹¹ And if what was transitory came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts! (2 Cor. 3:7-11, NIV)

The glory of the New Covenant, initiated by Jesus, will last forever.

In more general terms, Carson says that Jesus’s glory was displayed in his signs (2:11; 11:4, 40); he was supremely glorified in his death and exaltation (7:39: 12:16, 23: 13:31-32), Yes, he also had glory before he began his public ministry, for in fact he enjoyed glory with his Father before his incarnation and returned to his Father to receive the fulness of glory (15:5, 24). While other men seek their own glory, Jesus’s relationship with his Father meant that he did not need to seek his own glory; he was secure in his relationship with his Father. He sought only God’s glory (5:41; 7:18; 8:50). (comment on 1:14).

Keener also brings focus to John’s definition of glory:

Jesus, in contrast to his opponents, accepts this only from the Father (5:41, 33; 7:18; 8:50, 54; 9:24; 12:41, 43; 16:14; 17:12). The Fourth Gospel applies Jesus’ “glory” to various acts of self-revelation (his signs–2:11; 11:4, 40), but the ultimate expression of glory is the complex including Jesus’ death (12:16, 23, 28; 13:31-32; cf. 21:9), resurrection and exaltation (cf. 7:39; 12:16; 17:1, 5). This glory thus becomes the ultimate revelation of “grace and truth”: where the world’s hatred for God comes to its ultimate expression, so also does God’s love for the world (3:16). If the Johannine [adjective for John] community’s opponents regarded the cross as proof that Jesus was not the Messiah, John regards Jesus’ humiliation as the very revelation of God; his whole enfleshment, and especially his mortality and death, continue the ultimate revelation of God’s grace and truth revealed to Moses (p. 411)

42-43:

The rulers believed, but they were frightened of being “desynagogued” or kicked out of the synagogue. I decided to go with a literal translation (“desynagogued”). Only those who were hungry and perceptive would escape judgment.

Many “regular” Jews followed him during his ministry, but would they be insightful and perceptive enough to grasp the gospel told through parables? We know that thousands converted to the Messiah after Pentecost (Acts 2:41; 4:4; 21:20). They were the insightful and perceptive ones. Acts 6:7 says a large number of priests believed in their Messiah.

The glory of the Lord is a circumlocution for the name of God, but John carried the term to its fullest extent: Jesus himself.

For more about faith, scroll up to vv. 9-11.

GrowApp for John 12:37-43

1. How did your heart become softened and your eyes see so that you believed in the glory of Jesus and convert to him?

2. Did your faith in Christ require you to leave an old religious group without fear?

RELATED

14. Similarities among John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels

12. Eyewitness Testimony in John’s Gospel

4. Church Fathers and John’s Gospel

3. Archaeology and John’s Gospel

SOURCES

For the bibliography, click on this link and scroll down to the very bottom:

John 12