John 2:24-25 - Exposition

But Jesus did not (imperfect) trust himself to them; not even to those who had "trusted on his Name." This remarkable expression corresponds with many actions and methods of Jesus. When he was offered the homage of devils, he forbade them to speak. When those who had been simply healed of bodily disease began garrulously to proclaim his praises, he silenced them. He had no faith in their faith, and consequently did not open to them more of his nature; still less did he assume, as they would have liked him to do, an immediate and outward Messiahship of political revolt. He did not break the bruised reed nor quench the smoking flax, and often made use of the smallest remnant of spiritual apprehension; but even in Galilee, when they would by force have made him a king, "he sent the multitudes away." The apparently arbitrary permission given to others to proclaim his Name (as, e.g., to the healed demoniac of Gergesa, Luke 8:39 ; cf. Luke 9:57-62 ) suggests the precise inquiry which John had felt from the first Jerusalem visit, and which, with profound insight, he thus meets: "He did not trust himself to them," owing to the fact that he knew — ( γινώσκειν by apperceptive and continuous processes)— all ( men ) persons . He penetrated their thoughts, discerned their character, saw the meaning of their faith, the burden of their wishes, the regal passions that consumed them—he knew all. And also because he had no need that any should testify what was in ( the ) man; for he himself —without such aid— knew what was in ( the ) man . The definite articles here may either restrict the meaning to the men who happened one by one to come under his searching glance ( John 7:51 ; Meyer), or it may mean "man" generically, "human nature" in all its peril, weakness, and self-deception. Geikie gives a novel, though entirely indefensible, translation: "He needed not that any should bear witness respecting him as man." The better and more accurate translation is the first; but since his glance is universal and contact with souls continuous—man by man—the statement thus embraces even more than is involved in the generic sense. The knowledge of man ( homo ) "generically" would not embrace his individualities—would leave out the specialities of each ease. The particularism of Christ's penetrative glance gives the stronger and better explanation of the reserve of Christ in dealing with these half-believers, than the generic or rather universal knowledge which is supposed to be involved. N.B.—