{Will he kill himself?} (m(8874)i apoktenei heauton;).
Negative answer formally expected, but there is a manifest sneer
in the query. "The mockery in these words is alike subtle and
bitter" (Vincent). It was a different group of Jews in 7:31 who
cynically suggested that he was going to work among the Greeks in
the Dispersion. Here they infer that Jesus refers to the next
world. They suggest the depths of Gehenna for him as the abode of
suicides (Josephus, _War_ III. viii. 5). Of course the rabbis
could not join Jesus there! Edersheim argues against this view.
|