The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.
The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. This way of speaking of Jesus-as in John 20:20, and John 21:7 - so suited to His resurrection-state, was soon to become the prevailing style.
But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. The very form of this speech betokens the strength of his unbelief. For, as Bengel says, it is not, 'If I see, I will believe,' but 'Unless I see, I will not believe;' nor does he think he will see, though the rest had told him that they had. How Jesus Himself viewed this state of mind we know from Mark 16:14, "He upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen Him after He was risen." But whence springs this pertinacity of resistance in such minds? Not certainly from reluctance to believe, but as in Nathanael (see the note at John 1:46), from mere dread of mistake in so vital a matter.