24. Unto them; i.e., all the Jews, or perhaps those very persons who believed in Him; because, as searcher of hearts (verse 25), He foresaw that they would not remain faithful followers.
| 25. Et quia opus ei non erat ut quis testimonium perhiberet de homine: ipse enim sciebat quid esset in homine. | 25. And because he needed not that any should give testimony of man: for he knew what was in man. |
25. He knew this, not by any external indications, but because He is the searcher of hearts. This is noted as another proof of Christ's Divinity, because this knowledge of the secrets of the hearts of all men belongs to God alone. See 3 Kings viii. 39; 1 Paral. xxviii. 9; Job xlii. 2; Ps. vii. 10; Acts xv. 8. Some of the saints in special cases were able to read the hearts of certain individuals, but no one save God knows the hearts of all.
Chapter III.
1-21. Nicodemus comes to Christ; their discourse.
22-36. Christ begins to baptize; complaints of the Baptist's disciples, and testimony of the Baptist to Christ's divine origin, and to the necessity of faith in Him.
| 1. Erat autem homo ex pharisaeis, Nicodemus nomine, princeps Iudaeorum. | 1. And there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. |
1. This chapter is closely connected with the end of the preceding. Among the many who believed (ii. 23) was a man of the Pharisees (see [i. 24]). The sect, name, and dignity of the man are mentioned, because of his importance, and because of the importance of the discourse about to be narrated.