Then they sought to take him: but no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet come — the authorities immediately attempt to arrest Jesus in response to his claim of God-knowledge. Yet no one succeeds ('no man laid hands on him'). John attributes this not to the crowd's protection or Jesus's evasion but to the fact that 'his hour was not yet come.' This is John's theology of divine providence: Jesus's life and death are determined by the Father's timing, not by human will. The arrest will come only when the hour comes, and that hour is the crucifixion.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

Publish a note on this verse