John 20:9 - Exposition

For not as yet did they know ( ᾖδεισαν has an imperfect, not pluperfect tense) the Scripture, which, if rightly interpreted, ought to have made them triumphant in the hour of the Lord's deepest humiliation, and ought to have convinced them that the ideal Sufferer of Psalms 22:1-31 . would prove to be Lord of all; and that the Lamb of God of Isaiah 53:1-12 . must see his seed, and prolong his days; that God's "Holy One" of Psalms 16:1-11 . could not see corruption; that the Messiah of a hundred prophetic hopes must conquer all his foes. The words of Jesus himself, in the memory of John and that of the synoptists, had been dark and confused, and they had not put all together into one glorious conviction that he must ( δεῖ , by a Divine necessity) rise from among the dead ; nor had they grasped the fact that it was not possible that he should be holden in the travail-pangs of death. The signs which John saw now brought all his hopes together.