Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary

on the Whole Bible

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Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (1721)

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John

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7

Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14

Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21

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AN

EXPOSITION,

W I T H   P R A C T I C A L   O B S E R V A T I O N S,

OF THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO

S T.   J O H N.

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It is not material to enquire when and where this gospel was written;

we are sure that it was given by inspiration of God to John, the

brother of James, one of the twelve apostles, distinguished by the

honourable character of that disciple whom Jesus loved, one of

the first three of the worthies of the Son of David, whom he took to be

the witnesses of his retirements, particularly of his transfiguration

and his agony. The ancients tell us that John lived longest of all the

twelve apostles, and was the only one of them that died a natural

death, all the rest suffering martyrdom; and some of them say that he

wrote this gospel at Ephesus, at the request of the ministers of the

several churches of Asia, in opposition to the heresy of Corinthus and

the Ebionites, who held that our Lord was a mere man. It seems

most probable that he wrote it before his banishment into the isle of

Patmos, for there he wrote his Apocalypse, the close of which

seems designed for the closing up of the canon of scripture; and, if

so, this gospel was not written after. I cannot therefore give credit

to those later fathers, who say that he wrote it in his banishment, or

after his return from it, many years after the destruction of

Jerusalem; when he was ninety years old, saith one of them; when he was

a hundred, saith another of them. However, it is clear that he wrote

last of the four evangelists, and, comparing his gospel with theirs, we

may observe,

1. That he relates what they had omitted; he brings up

the rear, and his gospel is as the rearward or gathering

host; it gleans up what they has passed by. Thus there was a

later collection of Solomon’s wise sayings

(Prov. xxv. 1),

and yet far short of what he delivered,

1 Kings iv. 32.

2. That he gives us more of the mystery of that of which the

other evangelists gave us only the history. It was necessary

that the matters of fact should be first settled, which was done in

their declarations of those things which Jesus began both to do and

teach,
Luke i. 1; Acts i. 1.

But, this being done out of the mouth of two or three witnesses,

John goes on to perfection

(Heb. vi. 1),

not laying again the foundation, but building upon it, leading

us more within the veil. Some of the ancients observe that the other

evangelists wrote more of the ta somatika–the

bodily things of Christ; but John writes of the ta

pneumatika–the spiritual things of the gospel, the life

and soul of it; therefore some have called this gospel the key of

the evangelists. Here is it that a door is opened in

heaven, and the first voice we hear is, Come up hither, come

up higher. Some of the ancients, that supposed the four living

creatures in John’s vision to represent the for evangelists, make John

himself to be the flying eagle, so high does he

soar, and so clearly does he see into divine and

heavenly things.

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Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (1721)

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