Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot
This was Judas Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus, the same
with Jude the apostle, the author of the epistle which bears his
name; and is said to be "not Iscariot", to distinguish him from
the betrayer. The question put by him, Lord,
how is it,
(ti gegonen) , which
answers to (ad yam) , or
(yah yam) , or
(whm) , with the
Talmudists, "what is this thou sayest"; what is the meaning of
it? how can it be? or what is the reason of it,
that thou wilt manifest thyself to us, and not unto the
world?
arises either from ignorance of what Christ was speaking,
imagining he meant a spectre, or some apparition of himself after
his death, which should be visible to his disciples, and not to
others; and how this could be, he wanted to know; or from that
national prejudice which Judas and the rest of the apostles had
given into, of a temporal kingdom of the Messiah, the glory of
which should be visible to all the world; and therefore he
wonders that he should talk of the manifestation of himself, only
to some, or from an honest hearty desire that the glory of Christ
might not be confined to a few only; but that the whole world
might see it, and be filled with it: or rather from his modesty,
and the sense he had of his own unworthiness, and of the rest of
the apostles, to have such a peculiar manifestation of Christ to
them, when they were no more deserving of it than others: the
question is put by him with admiration and astonishment; and as
not being able to give, or think of any other reason of such a
procedure, but the amazing grace of Christ, his free favour and
sovereign will and pleasure.