Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him.

“He was in the world, &c.--The language here is nearly as wonderful as the thought. Observe its compact simplicity, its sonorousness--"the world" resounding in each of its three members--and the enigmatic form in which it is couched, startling the reader and setting his ingenuity a-working…”

But to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God—

“But as many--individuals, of the "disobedient and gainsaying people." gave he power--The word signifies both authority and ability, and both are certainly meant here. to become--Mark these words: Jesus is the Son of God;”

John testified concerning Him. He cried out, saying, “This is He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because He was before me.’”

“(Anything lower than this His words cannot mean); that is, "My Successor is my Superior, for He was my Predecessor."”

For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

“For, &c.--The Law elicits the consciousness of sin and the need of redemption; it only typifies the reality. The Gospel, on the contrary, actually communicates reality and power from above (compare Ro 6:14).”

“Then who are you?” they inquired. “Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” He answered, “No.”

“Elias--in His own proper person. that prophet--announced in De 18:15, &c., about whom they seem not to have been agreed whether he were the same with the Messiah or no.”

asked him, “Why then do you baptize, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

“Why baptizest thou, if not, &c.--Thinking he disclaimed any special connection with Messiah's kingdom, they demand his right to gather disciples by baptism.”

Jesus turned and saw them following. “What do you want?” He asked. They said to Him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are You staying?”

“What seek ye--gentle, winning question, remarkable as the Redeemer's first public utterance. (See on Mt 12:18-20.)”

“Come and see,” He replied. So they went and saw where He was staying, and spent that day with Him. It was about the tenth hour.

“Come and see--His second utterance, more winning still. tenth hour--not ten A.M. (as some), according to Roman, but four P.M., according to Jewish reckoning, which John follows. The hour is mentioned to show why they stayed out the day with him--because little of it remained.”

Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard John’s testimony and followed Jesus.

“His great sensitiveness is touchingly shown in his representation of this first contact with the Lord; the circumstances are present to him in the minutest details; he still remembers the very hour.”

“How do You know me?” Nathanael asked. Jesus replied, “Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.”

“Whence knowest thou me--conscious that his very heart had been read, and at this critical moment more than ever before. Before Philip called thee--showing He knew all that passed between Philip and him at a distance. when . . .”

“Rabbi,” Nathanael answered, “You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”

“How much loftier this than anything Philip had said to him! But just as the earth's vital powers, the longer they are frost-bound, take the greater spring when at length set free, so souls, like Nathanael and Thomas (see on Joh 20:28), the outgoings of…”

Jesus performed this, the first of His signs, at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.

“(2) As the miracle did not make bad good, but good better, so Christianity only redeems, sanctifies, and ennobles the beneficent but abused institution of marriage; and Christ's whole work only turns the water of earth into the wine of heaven.”

On account of this, the Jews demanded, “What sign can You show us to prove Your authority to do these things?”

“What sign showest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things?--Though the act and the words of Christ, taken together, were sign enough, they were unconvinced: yet they were awed, and though at His very next appearance at Jerusalem they "sought to kill Him"…”

Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”

“Nicodemus probably thought he had gone a long way, and expected, perhaps, to be complimented on his candor.”

“How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time to be born?”

“How, &c.--The figure of the new birth, if it had been meant only of Gentile proselytes to the Jewish religion, would have been intelligible enough to Nicodemus, being quite in keeping with the language of that day; but that Jews themselves should need a new…”

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.

“Already had the symbol of water been embodied in an initiatory ordinance, in the baptism of the Jewish expectants of Messiah by the Baptist, not to speak of the baptism of Gentile proselytes before that; and in the Christian Church it was soon to become…”

Flesh is born of flesh, but spirit is born of the Spirit. Do not be amazed that I said, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes.

“That which is born, &c.--A great universal proposition; "That which is begotten carries within itself the nature of that which begat it" [OLSHAUSEN].”

Do not be amazed that I said, ‘You must be born again.’

“Ye must--"Ye, says Jesus, not we" [BENGEL]. After those universal propositions, about what "a man" must be, to "enter the kingdom of God" (Joh 3:5) --this is remarkable, showing that our Lord meant to hold Himself forth as "separate from sinners."”

“You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and you do not understand these things?

“Nor is it merely as something that should be experienced under the Gospel that the Old Testament holds it forth--as many distinguished critics allege, denying that there was any such thing as regeneration before Christ.”

Truly, truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, and yet you people do not accept our testimony.

“The "we" and "our" are here used, though Himself only is intended, in emphatic contrast, probably, with the opening words of Nicodemus, "Rabbi, we know," &c.”

Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life.

“Yet was the warrant in both cases to expect a cure equally rational and well grounded. As the serpent was God's ordinance for the cure of every bitten Israelite, so is Christ for the salvation of every perishing sinner--the one however a purely arbitrary ordinance…”

Then a dispute arose between John’s disciples and a certain Jew over the issue of ceremonial washing.

“25, 26. between some of--rather, "on the part of." and the Jews--rather (according to the best manuscripts), "and a Jew." about purifying--that is, baptizing, the symbolical meaning of washing with water being put (as in Joh 2:6) for the act itself.”

So John’s disciples came to him and said, “Look, Rabbi, the One who was with you beyond the Jordan, the One you testified about—He is baptizing, and everyone is going…

“Rabbi, &c.--"Master, this man tells us that He to whom thou barest such generous witness beyond Jordan is requiting thy generosity by drawing all the people away to Himself. At this rate, thou shalt soon have no disciples at all."”

The One who comes from above is above all. The one who is from the earth belongs to the earth and speaks as one from the earth.

“And who does not perceive it? The words of prophets and apostles are undeniable and most precious truth; but in the words of Christ we hear a voice as from the excellent Glory, the Eternal Word making Himself heard in our own flesh.”

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever rejects the Son will not see life. Instead, the wrath of God remains on him.”

“Note.--How flatly does this contradict the teaching of many in our day, that there neither was, nor is, anything in God against sinners which needed to be removed by Christ, but only in men against God!”