What Does John 12:29 Mean?

(29) **The people . . . . said that it thundered.**—Better, *the multitude.* Nothing could be stronger testimony to the fact that this narrative was written by one who was present at the events of which he tells, than the way in which these thoughts of the people at the time are preserved to us. Their insertion by a later hand is all but impossible; and they are, moreover, opposed to what must be assumed as the object of a later writer. In a treatise to prove the divinity of Christ there could be no place for them. In a Gospel which assumes the truth that He is divine, and does not seek to prove it, but to bear witness to the life which carries its own proof (comp. Notes on John 1:7; John 20:30-31), they are evidence that the witness is true. The fact that St. John clearly means us to understand (John 12:28) that a distinct voice spake from heaven does not forbid our understanding also that this voice was heard more or less distinctly, or was as a voice not heard at all, in proportion as the hearts of the hearers were or were not receptive of the voice of God. To some it seemed but as natural thunder, but their own Scripture had taught again and again “God thundereth marvellously with His voice: great things doeth He which we cannot comprehend,” and the religious interpretation of nature hears everywhere the voice of God. Others, and these must have been Pharisees (comp. Acts 23:8-9), recognise a voice which is more than that of nature or of man, and think that an angel hath spoken. (Comp. Note on John 5:4.)