The NASB translators understood this verse to be parenthetical describing the authorities who had sent the delegation that had been questioning John. The NIV translators interpreted it as identifying some of John"s questioners. Probably the NIV is correct here. It would be unusual for the writer to interrupt the narrative flow with this relatively insignificant detail, but for him to identify some of John"s examiners as Pharisees makes sense. The Pharisees were the strict interpreters of the Jewish laws, and John seemed close to violating these. [1][source]
Context Summary
John 1:14-28 - The Voice Of Promise
Note that the Revised Version changes the words was made to became, John 1:14. Evidently Jesus had existed before this becoming; and evidently there was a process of self-limitation. Dwelt, that is, tabernacled. As the Shechinah light was veiled by the curtain of the Tabernacle, so the divine essence in Jesus was veiled by His humanity, though it shone out at the Transfiguration. He was full of grace, the unmerited love of God; full of truth, coming to bear witness to it; full of glory, that of the only begotten Son. There are many sons, but only one Son.
What a beautiful testimony John the Baptist gave! He was not the Christ, not Elijah (except in spirit), not the expected prophet, but just a voice, announcing the Christ and dying away. He was content to decrease before the greater whom he had been taught to expect and was sent to herald. There is a sense in which the preacher of repentance must always precede the Christ. There must be a putting away of known sin, previous to the recognition of the Lamb of God. But how great must Christ be, when so noble a man as the Baptist felt unworthy to unloose His sandals! [source]
Chapter Summary: John 1
1The divinity, humanity, office, and incarnation of Jesus Christ 15The testimony of John 39The calling of Simon and Andrew, Philip and Nathanael
Greek Commentary for John 1:24
They had been sent [απεσταλμενοι ησαν] Periphrastic past perfect passive of αποστελλω apostellō From the Pharisees As the source (εκ ek) of the committee of Sadducees (John 1:19). [source]
They which were sent were [εὐθύνατε τὴν ὁδον] Literally, those having been sent were. But the best texts omit the article, so that the remaining words form the pluperfect passive: “they had been sent from the Pharisees.” This addition of an explanatory circumstance is characteristic of John. Compare John 1:41,John 1:45; John 9:14; John 11:5,John 11:18; John 13:23. [source]
Reverse Greek Commentary Search for John 1:24
John 1:19And this is the witness of John [και αυτη εστιν η μαρτυρια του Ιωανου] He had twice already alluded to it (John 1:7. and John 1:15) and now he proceeds to give it as the most important item to add after the Prologue. Just as the author assumes the birth narratives of Matthew and Luke, so he assumes the Synoptic accounts of the baptism of Jesus by John, but adds various details of great interest and value between the baptism and the Galilean ministry, filling out thus our knowledge of this first year of the Lord‘s ministry in various parts of Palestine. The story in John proceeds along the same lines as in the Synoptics. There is increasing unfolding of Christ to the disciples with increasing hostility on the part of the Jews till the final consummation in Jerusalem. When the Jews sent unto him John, writing in Ephesus near the close of the first century long after the destruction of Jerusalem, constantly uses the phrase “the Jews” as descriptive of the people as distinct from the Gentile world and from the followers of Christ (at first Jews also). Often he uses it of the Jewish leaders and rulers in particular who soon took a hostile attitude toward both John and Jesus. Here it is the Jews from Jerusalem who sent Priests and Levites Sadducees these were. Down below in John 1:24 the author explains that it was the Pharisees who sent the Sadducees. The Synoptics throw a flood of light on this circumstance, for in Matthew 3:7 we are told that the Baptist called the Pharisees and Sadducees “offspring of vipers” (Luke 3:7). Popular interest in John grew till people were wondering “in their hearts concerning John whether haply he were the Christ” (Luke 3:15). So the Sanhedrin finally sent a committee to John to get his own view of himself, but the Pharisees saw to it that Sadducees were sent. To ask him Final ινα hina and the first aorist active subjunctive of ερωταω erōtaō old verb to ask a question as here and often in the Koiné to ask for something (John 14:16) like αιτεω aiteō Who art thou? Direct question preserved and note proleptic position of συ su “Thou, who art thou?” The committee from the Sanhedrin put the question sharply up to John to define his claims concerning the Messiah. [source]
What do the individual words in John 1:24 mean?
And[those] having been sentwereout fromthePharisees
Greek Commentary for John 1:24
Periphrastic past perfect passive of αποστελλω apostellō From the Pharisees As the source (εκ ek) of the committee of Sadducees (John 1:19). [source]
Literally, those having been sent were. But the best texts omit the article, so that the remaining words form the pluperfect passive: “they had been sent from the Pharisees.” This addition of an explanatory circumstance is characteristic of John. Compare John 1:41, John 1:45; John 9:14; John 11:5, John 11:18; John 13:23. [source]
Reverse Greek Commentary Search for John 1:24
He had twice already alluded to it (John 1:7. and John 1:15) and now he proceeds to give it as the most important item to add after the Prologue. Just as the author assumes the birth narratives of Matthew and Luke, so he assumes the Synoptic accounts of the baptism of Jesus by John, but adds various details of great interest and value between the baptism and the Galilean ministry, filling out thus our knowledge of this first year of the Lord‘s ministry in various parts of Palestine. The story in John proceeds along the same lines as in the Synoptics. There is increasing unfolding of Christ to the disciples with increasing hostility on the part of the Jews till the final consummation in Jerusalem. When the Jews sent unto him John, writing in Ephesus near the close of the first century long after the destruction of Jerusalem, constantly uses the phrase “the Jews” as descriptive of the people as distinct from the Gentile world and from the followers of Christ (at first Jews also). Often he uses it of the Jewish leaders and rulers in particular who soon took a hostile attitude toward both John and Jesus. Here it is the Jews from Jerusalem who sent Priests and Levites Sadducees these were. Down below in John 1:24 the author explains that it was the Pharisees who sent the Sadducees. The Synoptics throw a flood of light on this circumstance, for in Matthew 3:7 we are told that the Baptist called the Pharisees and Sadducees “offspring of vipers” (Luke 3:7). Popular interest in John grew till people were wondering “in their hearts concerning John whether haply he were the Christ” (Luke 3:15). So the Sanhedrin finally sent a committee to John to get his own view of himself, but the Pharisees saw to it that Sadducees were sent. To ask him Final ινα hina and the first aorist active subjunctive of ερωταω erōtaō old verb to ask a question as here and often in the Koiné to ask for something (John 14:16) like αιτεω aiteō Who art thou? Direct question preserved and note proleptic position of συ su “Thou, who art thou?” The committee from the Sanhedrin put the question sharply up to John to define his claims concerning the Messiah. [source]