John 12.1-50 will tell us about a dinner at the house of Lazarus, and Mary anointing the feet of Yeshua; Judas objects to this as a waste; Yeshua defends Mary and explains why she did it; the plot by the rulers to kill Yeshua and Lazarus; the entering of Jerusalem by Yeshua as the Passover lamb on Nisan 10; the multitude come after Yeshua making it seem like the whole world has gone after him; how the non-Jewish Godfearers who came to the festival wished to see Yeshua; why Yeshua was willing to lay his life down and his steadfastness to do so; a voice from heaven testifying that Yehovah will glorify his name; a Torah question about how the Messiah will live forever if Yeshua must die; John explains their unbelief by quoting Isaiah; some of the rulers believed but had a weak faith; Yeshua’s final call to belief to the multitude.
v 1…Yeshua, therefore, six days before the Passover (in the first century, the first day of Unleavened Bread was considered the beginning of the Passover season, which began at sundown of Nisan 14. Nisan 15 was a high Sabbath, so this verse is around Nisan 9), came to Bethany (house of figs), where Lazarus was, whom Yeshua raised from the dead.
v 2… So they made him a supper there; and Martha was serving; but Lazarus was one of those reclining with him (as a guest of honor possibly).
v 3…Mary (John is the only one who names her as the one who does the anointing) therefore took a pound of very costly, genuine spikenard ointment (in Hebrew thought, spikenard relates to a man who dies before his time because of the good things he has done), and anointed the feet of Yeshua, and wiped his feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment (this was normally done to a corpse).
v 4…But Judas Iscariot, one of his talmidim, who was intending to betray him (later that evening he struck the deal), said,
v 5… “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii (a year’s wages), and given to the poor?”
v 6… Now he said this, not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put into it (but Judas wasn’t the only one who didn’t like this, they all were indignant about it in Matt 26.8).
v 7…Yeshua therefore said, “Let her alone, in order that she may keep it for the day of my burial.
v 8… For the poor you always have with you; but you do not always have me (Deut 15.11).”
v 9…The great multitude therefore of the Jews (Jewish people, not the rulers) learned that he was there; and they came, not for Yeshua’s sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus (he became a celebrity), whom he raised from the dead.
v 10… But when chief priests (they were Sadducees and didn’t believe in a resurrection) took council that they might put Lazarus to death also (he was evidence of a resurrection);
v 11… because on account of him many of the Jews were going away (from them) and believing in Yeshua (“going away” means “to go” but it is an idiom meaning “to progress more and more” so they were trusting more and more, God was working in their hearts).
v 12…On the next day (the 10th of Nisan was the day the congregational lamb was selected and separated and examined for four days to make sure it can be slain on the 14th) the great multitude who had come to the feast (as required by the Torah), when they heard that Yeshua was coming to Jerusalem (the Passover lamb had to be eaten in Jerusalem, so Yeshua had to die in Jerusalem, on the Temple mount-Gen 22.14)
v 13… took branches of the palm trees (called “lulavim” and used at other festivals, not just Sukkot-1 Maccabees 13.52; 2 Maccabees 10.7), and went out to meet him and to cry out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel-Psa 118.25-26).”
v 14… And Yeshua, finding a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written,
v 15… “Fear not, daughter of Zion (the towns around Jerusalem); Behold, your king comes sitting on a donkey’s colt (in the Jewish Encyclopedia, under the article “Antichrist,” it says that in the Talmud, Sanhedrin 98a, the Messiah “will appear when the world is entirely wicked or righteous. If it is wicked, he will appear on a donkey, if it is righteous, on a horse”).
v 16…These things his talmidim did not understand at the first (they did not associate what he was doing with Zech 9.9 or Gen 49.11); but when Yeshua was glorified (when they received the Holy Spirit in power and he opened their eyes-Luke 24.31, 45), then they remembered that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things to him.
v 17…And so the multitude who were with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb (these would be the rulers from Jerusalem and others from around Bethany), and raised him from the dead, were bearing him witness (of that miracle, they were there).
v 18… For this cause also the multitude went and met him, because they heard that he performed this sign.
v 19… The Pharisees therefore said to one another, “You see that you are not doing any good (by turning the people against him by their schemes, like separating those who confessed belief in him from the synagogue, etc), look, the world has gone after him (meaning “a great number”).”
v 20…Now there were certain Greeks (probably “phoubemenoi” or God-fearers, who were non-Jews in the process of becoming Jews. They kept the festivals, ate kosher, and were learning the Torah as it applied to them, like Cornelius-Acts 10.2) among those who were going up to worship at the feast;
v 21… these (with these non-Jews inquiring about him, he knows it is time to lay down his life for the “other sheep not of this flock”-John 10.16-17) therefore came to Phillip (he had a Greek name and lived among the Gentiles, they identified with him); who was from Bethsaida (house of fishing) of Galilee, and ask him, saying, “Sir, we wish to see Yeshua.”
v 22… Phillip came and told Andrew (he was from the same town as Phillip and may have known these people); Andrew and Phillip came and they told Yeshua.
v 23… And Yeshua answered them, saying, “The hour has come for the Son of Man (a messianic title from Dan 7.13 that means “Bar Enosh”) to be glorified (what he gave up in heaven-John 17.4-5).
v 24… Truly, truly (amen, amen in Hebrew. The word “amen” is related to the word for faith in Hebrew, “Emunah”, which means confidence, action), I say to you, unless a grain of wheat (Leviticus chapters 19-20 are called “the kernel of the Torah” because they have the essentials of the Torah. Yeshua is the Torah) falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
v 25… He who loves his life (this temporary life) loses it (all his covetousness and fleshly desires as a priority in this life are in vain), and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to eternal life.
v 26… If anyone serves me (as a talmid in service), let him follow me; and where I am, there shall my servant also be; if anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.
v 27… Now my soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, “Father, save me from this hour? But for this purpose I came to this hour (John 18.37 says something similar. This is what the Aramaic “sabachtani” means in Matt 27.46, see notes on this verse; and Mark 15.34-When he said “Eli, Eli, lama sabachtani” he was not quoting the Psalms or he would have said it in Hebrew, and forsaken is “azavtani”-see “Idioms in the Bible Explained and A Key to the Original Gospels, p 102-104 by George Lamsa; he was saying “To this end I was born” meaning this was his destiny).
v 28…Father, glorify thy name.” There came therefore a voice (a “bat kol” or “daughter of the voice”) out of heaven: “I have both glorified it (through Yeshua’s entire ministry) and I will glorify it again (by his death, burial, resurrection, and ascension).”
v 29… The multitude therefore, who stood by and heard it, were saying that it thundered; others were saying, “An angel has spoken to him.”
v 30… Yeshua answered and said, “This voice has not come for my sake (benefit), but for your sake (their benefit so they would believe he was in communication with Yehovah).
v 31… Now judgment (Greek “krisis” meaning a decision, turning point, or response is going to have to be made concerning Yeshua-Luke 12.49-53) is upon this world; now the ruler of this world shall be cast out (like Azazel on Yom Kippur, this will be true in principle, giving Yeshua the right to cast him out, but not just yet-1 John 5.19).
v 32… And I, if lifted up from the earth (to be suspended between heaven and earth was seen as judgment), will draw (literally “drag” because even the elect would never come to faith unless the Lord initiated the whole process, so in a sense, we are “dragged” at first-John 6.44; Rom 5.8) all men to myself (gather the elect to him, or “collect them”).”
v 33… He was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which he was to die.
v 34… The multitude therefore answered him, “We have heard out of the Torah (the Torah can include the Prophets and the Writings) that the Messiah is to remain forever (like in Psa 110.4); and how can you say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up.’ Who is the Son of Man (they did not understand Dan 9.26; Isa 53 and Psa 22 which point to the Messiah and his suffering. Some had a concept of the Messiah Ben Joseph, the suffering servant Messiah, but not all)?”
v 35… Yeshua therefore said to them, “For a little while longer the light is among you (Messiah-Mal 4.2; Psa 19.4-5; John 8.12). Walk while you have the light, that darkness may not overtake you (the darkness of ignorance and unbelief that would come upon many, and still does to this day); he who walks in darkness does not know where he goes.
v 36…While you have the light (himself), believe in the light so that you may become sons of the light (enlightened by the Ruach ha Kodesh).” These things Yeshua spoke, and he departed and hid himself from them (for his safety. He knew what he just said and how it irritated them. They would not see him anymore ministering the word to them, leaving them and their house desolate).
v 37… But though he had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in him;
v 38… that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke, “Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord (an idiom for the Messiah) been revealed?”
v 39… For this cause they could not (notice that they didn’t have the ability to believe; it says “could not” not “would not”) believe for Isaiah said again,
v 40… “He (God-2 Cor 4.4) has blinded their eyes and he (God) hardened their heart lest they see with their eyes, and perceive with their heart, and be converted, and I heal them (it is the Lord that opens our eyes to the truth. We are born again because it was the will of the Lord).”
v 41… These things Isaiah said, because he saw his glory (the Yomot Mashiach or “days of the Messiah” is Isaiah’s principle prophecy reference point; remember there are six reference points: historical; Messiah’s first coming; Messiah’s second coming; the Birth-pains; the Messianic Kingdom; the Olam Haba or “world to come”), and spoke of him.
v 42… Nevertheless many even of the rulers (the Jews) believed in him (they had a faith in him, like Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus), but because of the Pharisees, they were not confessing (him openly), lest they should be put out of the synagogue (cherem, excluded from public worship and services),
v 43… for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God.
v 44…. And Yeshua cried out and said, “He who believes in me does not believe in me, but in him who sent me (there is no “disconnect” between the Father and Yeshua).
v 45… And he who beholds me beholds the one who sent me.
v 46… I have come (he had a being before he came) as light into the world, that everyone who believes in me may not remain in darkness (all of God’s elect were in darkness until the “sun of righteousness” rose upon them).
v 47… And if anyone hears my sayings, and does not keep them, I do not judge him (right now); for I did not come to judge the world (in his first coming), but to save the world (the redemption involves man and the creation).
v 48… He who rejects me (as Messiah), and does not receive my sayings (Deut 18.15), has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day (the Day of the Lord, the Sabbath of God, the Messianic Kingdom).
v 49… For I did not speak on my own initiative (as a man or separate from the Father), but the Father himself who sent me has given me a commandment (doctrine or mandate contained in the Basar-Psa 19.8), what to say, and what to speak.
v 50… And I know that his commandment (doctrine or mandate contained in the Basar to those who are lost-Psa 19.8) is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told me.”
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