While [Jesus] was in Jerusalem for Passover many gave their allegiance to him when they saw the signs that he performed.
But Jesus for his part would not trust himself to them. He knew men so well, all of them, that he needed no evidence from others about a man, for he himself could tell what was in a man.
2 comments:
Not believing in miracles, I have a harder time with this segment and the "signs" mean little to me. One commentary said the next few sentences were about not believing in a dead faith, which reminds me of George Fox's "what say you."
John 14.17(?): "The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you."
I don't "believe in" miracles; I've simply observed that they happen. I'm not sure why they don't show up in other people's experience to the same degree; maybe reading science fiction & fantasy stretches one's tolerance for "impossibilities?"
Other things about this passage strike me more: for one, the fact that people are giving "allegiance" to him. That's a political word; this guy is either claiming political authority or running for it, and in this gospel he has already performed a demonstration against the Temple. [Re that... one possibility I find plausible is that this was not Passover, but the Feast of Booths, when it was customary for the King of Israel to show up at the Temple to read from the Torah--which might well have led to some prophetic denunciation, like Jeremiah's, of how the current Roman-approved leadership were bypassing it in matters of land-ownership & debt.]
Another--the fact that in the synoptics, the authorities ask Jesus for a sign of his prophetic status, but he refuses (although he also performs many miracles for the sake of people in actual need) to perform any miracle for that purpose.
Another--How does Judas (if he is indeed a non-fictional human being) fit into this?
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