John 14:27

John 14:27 . εἰρήνην ἀφίημι ὑμῖν , “peace I bequeath to you”. The usual farewell was given with the word “peace”. And Jesus uses the familiar word, but instead of uttering a mere wish He turns it into a bequest, intimating His power not only to wish but to give peace in the further description εἰρήνην τὴν ἐμὴν δίδωμι ὑμῖν , “my peace I give unto you”; the peace which He had attained by means of all the disturbance and opposition He had encountered. Leaving them His work, His view of life, His Spirit, He necessarily left them His peace.— οὐ καθὼς ὁ κόσμος δίδωσιν , ἐγὼ δίδωμι ὑμῖν , “not as the world gives give I to you”. This is referred by Grotius to the difference between the empty form of salutation and Christ’s gift of peace. (“ Mundus , i.e. , major pars hominum, salute alios impertit sono vocis, nihil saepe de re cogitans; et si cogitet, tamen id alteri nihil prodest.”) So too Holtzmann and Bernard. Meyer considers this “quite out of relation to the profound seriousness of the moment,” and understands the allusion to be to the treasures, honours, pleasures which the world gives. There is no reason why the primary reference should not be to the salutation, with a secondary reference to the wider contrast.

This gift of peace, if accepted, would secure them against perturbation, and so Jesus returns to the exhortation of John 14:1 , μὴ ταρασσέσθω … “Observing that the opening sentence of the discourse is here repeated and fortified, we understand that all enclosed within these limits is to be taken as a whole in itself, and that the intervening words compose a divine antidote to that troubling and desolation of heart which the Lord’s departure would suggest.” Bernard. He now adds a word, μηδὲ δειλιάτω , which carries some reproach in it. Theophrastus ( Char. , xxvii.) defines δειλία as ὕπειξίς τις ψυχῆς ἔμφοβος , a shrinking of the soul through fear. With this must be taken Aristotle’s description, Nic. Eth. , iii. 6, 7, ὁ δὲ τῷ φοβεῖσθαι ὑπερβάλλων δειλός . It may be rendered “neither let your heart timidly shrink”.

Peace "These are last words, as of one who is about to go away and says 'good-night' or gives his blessing" (Luther). Peace! was the ordinary oriental greeting at parting. Compare John 20:21. My peace Igive Compare 1 John 3:1. "It is of his own that one gives" (Godet). Let it be afraid (δειλιάτω) Only here in the New Testament. Properly it signifies cowardly fear. Rev., fearful. The kindred adjective δειλός fearful, is used by Matthew of the disciples in the storm (Matthew 8:26), and in Revelation of those who deny the faith through fear of persecution (Revelation 21:8). The kindred noun, δειλία, occurs only in 2 Timothy 1:7, "God hath not given us the spirit of fear," contrasted with the spirit of power, love, and a sound mind.

27. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you—If Joh 14:25, 26 sounded like a note of preparation for drawing the discourse to a close, this would sound like a farewell. But oh, how different from ordinary adieus! It is a parting word, but of richest import, the customary "peace" of a parting friend sublimed and transfigured. As "the Prince of Peace" (Isa 9:6) He brought it into flesh, carried it about in His Own Person ("My peace") died to make it ours, left it as the heritage of His disciples upon earth, implants and maintains it by His Spirit in their hearts. Many a legacy is "left" that is never "given" to the legatee, many a gift destined that never reaches its proper object. But Christ is the Executor of His own Testament; the peace He "leaves" He "gives"; Thus all is secure. not as the world giveth—in contrast with the world, He gives sincerely, substantially, eternally.

Peace be with you, or to you, was the Jewish common salutation, 1 Samuel 25:6 ; under that general name they comprehended all manner of good: with this good wish they both saluted their friends when they met them, and took their farewell of them when they left them. Christ, being now about to take his leave for a time of his disciples, wishes them peace; nay, he doth not only wish it to them, but he leaves it to them; he giveth it them as a legacy; and that in another kind of peace, and in another manner, than was common. He therefore calls it his peace revealed in the gospel, Ephesians 6:15 ; purchased with his blood, Romans 5:1 ; brought to the soul by his Spirit, by which we are sealed to the day of redemption. Christ’s peace is either union or reconciliation with God, or the copy of it, which is a quiet of conscience, and assurance of his love; or a union with men by brotherly love, so often commended and pressed by Christ. Nor doth Christ give this peace as the men of the world give peace; who often wish peace earnestly, never considering what it is they say; often falsely, formally wishing peace, when they are about to strike those to whom they wish it under the fifth rib; and when they are most serious, wish it, but cannot give it. Christ leaves it to his disciples for a legacy, giveth it to them as a gift; if they want it, it is their own fault: therefore, as in the first verse, so here again he saith, Let not your heart be troubled; and adds, neither let it be afraid

. Fear is one of those passions which most usually and potently doth disturb the hearts and minds of men; but there was no reason it should have this ill influence on Christ’s disciples, because he had left them peace for his legacy, and the gifts of God are without repentance; and, if God be for us, (saith the apostle, Romans 8:31 ), who, or what, can be against us?

John 14:27 . Εἰρήνην ) שלום , peace in general (the genus); the peace of reconciliation. [Such as ye might have enjoyed as Israelites (as distinguished from “My peace”).—V. g.]— ἀφίημι ) I leave, at My departure. The same verb occurs in John 14:18 , Matthew 22:25 [ ἀφῆκε τῆν γυναῖκα , said of the man dying without issue, and leaving his wife to his brother].— εἰρήνην τὴν ἐμὴν ) My peace, in particular (the species): the peace of sons. So τὴν χαρὰν τὴν ἐμὴν , My joy, ch. John 17:13 . All things in Christ are new; even the commandment of ‘love,’ ch. John 13:34 , and in some measure faith itself. See note, John 14:1 [The old faith in God receives as it were a new colour from the Gospel, which orders faith in Christ].— δίδωμι , I give) even now. See ch. John 16:33 , “These things have I spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace.” To the gradation in the nouns, peace, My peace, there corresponds the gradation in the verbs, I leave, I give.— ὁ κόσμος , the world) in its empty salutations [which in Hebrew were generally wishes for ‘peace’ to the person saluted], or in merely external benefits, which do not reach the heart, and which, simultaneously with the presence, cease from the sight and life of mortal men. The world so gives, as that it presently after snatches away; it does not leave.— μὴ ταρασσέσθω , let not—be troubled) by fears from within.— μηδὲ δειλιάτω , nor let it be afraid) by terrors from without.

27 . Peace I leave with you ] “Finally the discourse returns to the point from which it started. Its object had been to reassure the sorrowful disciples against their Lord’s departure, and with words of reassurance and consolation it concludes. These are thrown into the form of a leave-taking or farewell.” S. p. 226. ‘Peace I leave with you’ is probably a solemn adaptation of the conventional form of taking leave in the East: comp. ‘Go in peace,’ Jdg 18:6 ; 1 Samuel 1:17 ; 1 Samuel 20:42 ; 1 Samuel 29:7 ; 2 Kings 5:19 ; Mark 5:34 , &c. See notes on James 2:16 and 1 Peter 5:14 . The Apostle of the Gentiles perhaps purposely substitutes in his Epistles ‘ Grace be with you all’ for the traditional Jewish ‘Peace.’ my peace I give unto you ] ‘My’ is emphatic; this is no mere conventional wish. Comp. John 16:33 , John 20:19 ; John 20:21 ; John 20:26 . The form of expression, peace that is mine , is common in this Gospel.

Comp. the joy that is mine ( John 3:29 , John 15:11 , John 17:13 ); the judgment that is mine ( John 5:30 , John 8:16 ); the commandments that are mine ( John 14:15 ); the love that is mine ( John 15:10 ). not as the world giveth ] It seems best to understand ‘as’ literally of the world’s manner of giving, not of its gifts , as if ‘as’ were equivalent to ‘what.’ The world gives from interested motives, because it has received or hopes to receive as much again ( Luke 6:33-34 ); it gives to friends and withholds from enemies ( Matthew 5:43 ); it gives what costs it nothing or what it cannot keep, as in the case of legacies; it pretends to give that which is not its own, especially when it says ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace ( Jeremiah 6:14 ). The manner of Christ’s giving is the very opposite of this. He gives what is His own, what He might have kept, what has cost Him a life of suffering and a cruel death to bestow, what is open to friend and foe alike, who have nothing of their own to give in return. Let not your heart be troubled ] See on John 14:1 . Was He not right in giving them this charge? If He sends them another Advocate, through whom both the Father and He will ever abide with them, if He leaves them His peace, what room is there left for trouble and fear? The word for ‘be afraid’ is frequent in the LXX. but occurs nowhere else in the N.T. ‘ Be fearful ’ is the literal meaning.

(27) Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. —The immediate context speaks of His departure from them ( John 14:25 ; John 14:28 ), and it is natural therefore to understand these words as suggested by the common Oriental formulas of leave-taking. Men said to each other when they met and parted, “Shalom! Shalom!” (Peace! Peace!) just as they say the “Salaam! Salaam!” in our own day. (See 1Samuel 1:17 ; Luke 7:50 ; Acts 16:36 ; James 2:16 ; Ephesians 6:23 ; 1Peter 5:14 ; 3John 1:14 .) He will leave them as a legacy the gift of “peace.” And this peace is more than a meaningless sound or even than a true wish. He repeats it with the emphatic “My,” and speaks of it as an actual possession which He imparts to them. “Peace on earth” was the angels’ message when they announced His birth; “peace to you” was His own greeting when He returned victorious from the grave. “He is our peace” (Ephesians 2:14), and this peace is the farewell gift to the disciples from whom He is now departing. (Comp. John 14:27; John 16:33; John 20:19; John 20:21; John 20:26.) Not as the world giveth, give I unto you.—The contrast is not between the emptiness of the world’s salutations and the reality of His own gift, but between His legacy to them and the legacies ordinarily left by the world.

He gives them not land or houses or possessions, but “peace;” and that “His own peace,” “the peace of God which passeth all understanding.” Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.—These are in part the words of the first verse, and are now repeated as a joyous note of triumph. Possessing the peace which He gives them, having another Advocate in the person of the Holy Spirit, having the Father and the Son ever abiding in them, there cannot be, even when He is about to leave them, room for trouble or for fear. The word here rendered “be afraid” occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It points especially to the cowardice of fear. The cognate substantive is used in 2Timothy 1:7, and the adjective in Matthew 8:26; Mark 4:40; and Revelation 21:8.