Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.
Then took they up stones to cast at him - precisely as they did on a former occasion when they saw that He was making Himself equal with God, John 5:18.
But Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, [going through the midst of them, and so passed by].
See the note at Luke 4:30. [These bracketed words-dielthoon dia mesou autoon; kai pareegen houtoos-are excluded from the text, as spurious, by Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Alford; while Meyer, DeWette, Ebrard, and nearly all recent critics, concur in that judgment. Olshausen says it is undoubtedly spurious; even Stier suspects it; only Lucke speaks doubtfully. Yet how stands the evidence? B lacks it; but A has it: D lacks it; but all the other Uncial manuscripts-some of them of the greatest value-contain it, as well as the best cursive manuscripts. The Old Latin and the Vulgate want it-early and weighty evidence, no doubt; but evidence about as early and weighty, that of both the principal Syriac versions, is in its favour. One of the ancient Egyptian versions, the Thebaic, wants it; but the other, the Memphitic, has it. With these facts before us, we must regard the unhesitating rejection of this clause as quite unwarrantable; and whereas it is said to be an unauthorized repetition of Luke 4:30, the words are not quite the same, nor is there anything improbable in our Lord, when precisely the same in circumstances of danger as then, escaping their grasp in the very same way. We certainly think that the clause should be bracketed, as the evidence against it is the very same way. We certainly think that the clause should be bracketed, as the evidence against it is undoubtedly strong; but more than this, in our judgment, it will not warrant.]
Remarks:
(1) What a lurid brightness invests the scene of this long discourse-the majesty of the one party and the malignity of the other combining to give it this aspect; while the welcome which the words of grace found in the breasts of "many," and the encouraging words addressed to them, threw for the moment a heavenly radiance over the scene, though only to be overcast again! Who could have written this, if it had not been matter of actual occurrence? And who but an eye-witness could have thrown in such details as these? And what eye-witness even could have penned it as it is here penned, except under the ever-present guidance of Him Whom Jesus promised that the Father should send in His name, Who should "teach them all things, and bring all things to their remembrance whatsoever He spake unto them?" (John 14:26).
(2) Who can believe that One whose jealousy for His Father's honour even "consumed" Him, should have exposed Himself once and again to the imminent risk of being stoned to death for "making Himself equal with God," if He was not so, and never meant to teach that He was so; when-either by avoiding those speeches from which they drew that inference, or by a few words of explanation-He could so easily have avoided such a construction of His words, or explained it away? But as He did neither, but advisedly did the reverse, that cornerstone of the Christian religion-the essential divinity of the Lord Jesus-must be seen to stand firmer than the everlasting hills.