People’s Bible Commentary - Concordia Publishing House

Grow in God’s
Word with the

People’s
Bible
Commentary

Book-a-Month
Program

Subscribe now—
your first volume is FREE!

Created for beginning to intermediate Bible readers

Commentaries offer:
• Christ-centered commentary
• Faithfully Lutheran perspective
• Easy-to-read text
• Practical insights from Lutheran scholars & pastors
• Explanations of complicated passages
• Scripture and commentary on same page
• Maps and charts

Bible truths unfold as you read These trustworthy commentaries
People’s Bible Commentaries. are as readable as a devotional.
Use them for: With People’s Bible Commentaries
you not only understand what
• Devotional reading you’ve read, you learn how it
applies to your life.
• Bible classes

• Bible studies

• Personal Bible study

• Family study

Each page offers fresh
insight from Lutheran
scholars and pastors

• Bible text appears at the top of each
page for easy reference

• Bold type makes Scripture easy to find

• Commentary follows the Bible text so
you learn as you read

• Practical insights build Bible under-
standing and reading confidence

• Learn from commentaries written by
Lutheran Bible scholars & pastors



When you subscribe to this affordable Book-a-Month
program, you automatically receive a new volume of the
People’s Bible Commentary every month. Your first copy
(John) is absolutely FREE when you subscribe.
The program is a 40-month subscription. Add this set
to your personal library and share it with the whole
family for pennies a day. Editions vary in price from
just $11.99 to $16.99, plus shipping. You are billed
monthly. Pay nothing now. Just ask your church
administrator where you can sign up for this special
program.

The People’s Bible Commentary

Book-a-Month Program
Add this 41-volume set to your library and share it

with the whole family—for pennies a day.

PHONE 1-800-325-3040
WEB www.cph.org/pbc

FAX 1-800-490-9889

Order today!

YOUR SATISFACTION GUARANTEE:
Your satisfaction is important to us. If you are not satisfied for any reason at any
time, call us at 1-800-325-3040 and you can cancel your subscription without
further obligation. Your free copy of John is yours to keep.

© 2005 Concordia Publishing House Printed in the U.S.A. 505712-08 75-7401

The following is an excerpt from

People’s Bible Commentary

JOhn

Gary P. Baumler
PBC

Revised edition first printed in 2005.
Copyright © 1997 Concordia Publishing House
3558 S. Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, MO 63118-3968

1-800-325-3040 • www.cph.org

All rights reserved. Used with permission. Other than download-
ing and reproduction for congregational use, no part of this mate-
rial may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form
or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise,
without prior written permission of Concordia Publishing House.
For ordering information, please contact Concordia at 800-325-
3040 or visit Concordia at www.cph.org. Request People's Bible
Commentary John, #12-8229.

Commentary and pictures are reprinted from JOHN (The People’s
Bible Series), copyright © 1997 by Northwestern Publishing
House. Used by permission.

Interior illustrations by Glenn Myers.

Unless otherwise stated, the Scripture quotations in this publication
are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®.
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used
by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Manufactured in the United States of America

ISBN 0-7568-0442-4

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05

CONTENTS

Editor’s Preface v

Introduction to John 1

Keynote: The Word reveals God (1:1-14) 6

John the Baptist witnesses to the first disciples, 20
and they follow Jesus (1:15-51)
38
Jesus begins his public ministry with signs and 76
teachings (2:1–4:54) 110

Jesus encounters doubts and opposition (5:1–6:71)

Jesus faces increasing threats to his life (7:1–11:57)

Jesus prepares his disciples for his death (12:1–17:26) 171
Jesus finishes his ministry on the cross (18:1–19:42) 233

Jesus rises from the dead and strengthens 257
his disciples’ faith (20:1–21:25)

ILLUSTRATIONS 65
95
The woman of Samaria at the well 136
Spiral illustration 1 232
They picked up stones to stone him 248
Jesus prays in Gethsemane
The death of Jesus

Christ appears to Mary Magdalene 256
The unbelief of Thomas 264

APPENDIX 276

Spiral illustrations 2-7

iv

EDITOR’S PREFACE

The People’s Bible Commentary is just what the name
implies—a Bible and commentary for the people. It includes
the complete text of the Holy Scriptures in the popular New
International Version. The commentary following the Scrip-
ture sections contains personal applications as well as his-
torical background and explanations of the text.

The authors of the People’s Bible Commentary are men
of scholarship and practical insight gained from years of
experience in the teaching and preaching ministries. They
have tried to avoid the technical jargon which limits so
many commentary series to professional Bible scholars.

The most important feature of these books is that they
are Christ-centered. Speaking of the Old Testament Scrip-
tures, Jesus himself declared, “These are the Scriptures that
testify about me” ( John 5:39). Each volume of the People’s
Bible Commentary directs our attention to Jesus Christ. He is
the center of the entire Bible. He is our only Savior.

We dedicate these volumes to the glory of God and to
the good of his people.

The Publishers

v

PART ONE

Keynote: The Word Reveals God

(1:1-14)

The Word is God

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning.
3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was
made that has been made.

The words fairly leap off the page to arrest your atten-
tion: “In the beginning . . . the Word . . . God . . . life . . .
light.” As you begin to read this book of God’s Scriptures,
you feel you have entered a new level of God’s truth in
Jesus Christ. John sounds a keynote to his gospel unlike any
of the other gospels. He trumpets the Christ and the glory of
God in him. He switches on the floodlights and opens the
drama of God’s work of salvation.

The drama starts “in the beginning,” before anything
existed. We are reminded of the opening words of Genesis,
which speak of the same period when only God existed and
all creation was but a page in his eternal plan. “In the
beginning” marks an absolute point of reference for all his-
tory—the eternal, prehistoric presence of God.

“In the beginning was the Word.” What follows in rapid
succession defies reason.

John turns our attention to the “Word.” Although that
term is abstract, John will shortly identify the Word as the
Lord Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity. “The
Word,” then, is a title for Jesus and tells us important things
about him.

6

John 1:1-3

“The Word” tells us that Jesus is God. Even before John
says, “The Word was God,” we know Jesus was because
he was “in the beginning” when only God existed. That
Word was God, says John, placing extra emphasis on the
word God in the original language.

Not only was the Word God, he was with God. He was
face-to-face with God. He existed in a mutual relationship
with the Father, distinct, yet one with the Father. Here we
have two divine persons interacting. The Word was together
with God, yet the Word was God. What the Word was, God
was also, and what God was, the Word was: the same
essence. We have here one God and two of the three per-
sons we have come to call the Trinity. The Spirit will be
introduced later in this gospel.

Let all who doubt the divinity of Christ read the
gospel of John and believe. John leaves no room for
doubt. He answered the heretic Cerinthus of his day, who
taught that Jesus was a mere man. He has the answer for
Arius of a later date, who deliberately changed the mean-
ing of this text rather than confess that Jesus was true
God. So Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Unitarians, and
others today who see Jesus only as a special human
being or, at best, “a god,” will find the truth in John’s
gospel, if they will only listen.

But we shouldn’t be surprised at or misled by the oppo-
sition. John has said that the Word was with God and the
Word was God. As Luther says, “In the end only the Holy
Spirit from heaven above can create listeners and pupils
who accept [this] doctrine.” Still, it stands by God’s inspira-
tion, and the Spirit creates faith in us to believe it.

The title “Word” by itself tells us still more about Jesus.
In fact, because it is so full of meaning, some Bible scholars
prefer to use the Greek term here without translating it.

7

John 1:1-3

That term is Logos, from which we get our English
word logic. Logos, or Word—we can only begin to plumb
the depths of its meaning, because in doing so we are try-
ing to penetrate the very essence of God himself. The
“logic” of God comes to us by his Logos.

The Word is the means by which God communicates
with us. It is his message to us, his divine revelation, his
wise counsel. He gives all that to us through his Son. The
student of Scripture will think of the recorded Word: the
many times the “word of the LORD” came to the prophets
(see Jeremiah 1:4; Ezekiel 1:3; Amos 3:1). We think of the
psalmist confessing, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a
light for my path” (Psalm 119:105). We know that God
brings about changes through his Word: “My word that goes
out from my mouth . . . will not return to me empty, but will
accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which
I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11). What we learn of the recorded Word
offers insights into Christ as Word. Then too we see the
unmistakable similarity between the Word in this passage
and divine wisdom, who “was appointed from eternity, from
the beginning, before the world began” (Proverbs 8:23).

God’s Word, which has great meaning and accomplishes
his will, is personified in Christ. Simply put, we cannot know
God without Christ, the Word. Positively put, Jesus Christ
reveals the truth of God to us. If you want to see God, look to
Jesus. If you want to come close to God, come close to Jesus.
If you want to live according to God’s will, live with Jesus.
Jesus Christ is the Word. “The Word was God.” “He is the
image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15; see Titus 2:13).

Messages sent from powerful people can have power, as
you may know. The boss issues a memo; the judge pro-
nounces a verdict; the captain issues a command. Their mes-
sages all carry the power of their offices and personalities.

8

John 1:4,5

Similarly, but to a divine degree, the Word has power. It cre-
ates. It gives and sustains life. It sheds light. For example, the
writer to the Hebrews says, “The Son is the radiance of God’s
glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all
things by his powerful word” (1:3).

We are not surprised to learn, therefore, that “through
him all things were made; without him nothing was made
that has been made.” Only two kinds of essence exist:
created and uncreated. Only two kinds of beings exist:
creatures and their Creator. The Word, Christ, was not
created; he did the creating. He is God. Through him, the
Father “made the universe” (Hebrews 1:2). “By him all
things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visi-
ble and invisible” (Colossians 1:16). The power of the
Word brought all creation into being. “By the word of the
LORD were the heavens made” (Psalm 33:6). When we
hear in Genesis, then, that “God said . . . and it was so”
(see Genesis 1:1-31), we correctly identify Christ as active
in creation. God spoke, and his Word created all things
from nothing.

The Word is light and life

4In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5The light
shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

“In him was life.” As the Word made all things, he gave
life to the created beings. The term life used here, how-
ever, means significantly more than biological life, the
pumping heart, the coursing blood. Here and 35 other
times in his gospel, John uses this particular word as a
spiritual term, often qualified as “eternal life.”

The life John speaks of comes in connection with the
Word. The Word brings God into fellowship with

9