Jesus cried and said - John does not say where or when this was; it is probable, however, that it was a continuation of the discourse recorded in John 12:30-36. Jesus saw their unbelief, and proceeded to state the consequence of believing on him, and of rejecting him and his message.

Believeth not on me - That is, not on me alone, or his faith does not terminate on me. Compare Matthew 10:20; Mark 9:37. It involves, also, belief in him that sent me. Jesus uniformly represents the union between himself and God as so intimate that there could not be faith in him unless there was also faith in God. He did the same works John 5:17, John 5:20, John 5:36; John 10:25, John 10:37, and taught the very doctrine which God had commissioned him to do, John 8:38; John 5:30, John 5:20-23.

Jesus cried and said - This is our Lord's concluding discourse to this wicked people: probably this and the following verses should be understood as a part of the discourse which was left off at the 36th verse.

Jesus cried - he spoke these words aloud, and showed his earnest desire for their salvation.

Believeth not on me, (only), but on him that sent me - Here he asserts again his indivisible unity with the Father: - he who believes on the Son believes on the Father: he who hath seen the Son hath seen the Father: he who honors the Son honors the Father. Though it was for asserting this (his oneness with God) that they were going to crucify him, yet he retracts nothing of what he had spoken, but strongly reasserts it, in the very jaws of death!

Jesus cried and said,.... Upon this occasion, on account of the prevailing hardness and unbelief of the Jewish nation, and the non-confession of him by those who did believe him to be the Messiah. He cried with a loud voice, that he might be heard, and his audience left inexcusable; it denotes the concern of his mind, the vehemence of his spirit, and that openness and freedom in which he discharged his ministry, by showing the nature, excellency, and usefulness of believing in him, and the dangerous consequences of unbelief:

he that believeth on me, believeth not on me; which is not to be understood simply and absolutely, for this would be a contradiction in terms: they that believe in Christ, do believe in him, and they do right to believe in him; Christ is the object of faith; he is proposed as such in the Gospel; and it is his Father's will, and his own advice, that his people should believe in him: but then those that truly believe in him, do not believe in him as a mere man, but as God, as the Son of God; and not as separate from, or to the exclusion of his Father: nor do they believe in him as a new, or another God, but as the one God with the Father, and the Spirit; for he and his Father are one: nor do they believe in him "only"; and so the Arabic version reads; but in God the Father also: nor does their faith rest in him, but it proceeds through him, as the Mediator unto God; see 1 Peter 1:21. Besides, he is here to be considered in his office capacity, as being sent of God; and he that believes on him as the sent of God, does not so much believe on him, as on the sender of him, as follows:

but on him that sent me; just as whatever honour or dishonour are done to an ambassador, sent by an earthly king to a foreign court, are not so much done to the ambassador that is sent, as to the king that sends him; for what is done to him, is all one as if it was personally done to his prince: so he that despises Christ, despises him that sent him; and he that receives Christ, receives him that sent him; and he that believes on Christ, believes on him that sent him; see Luke 10:16.

Cried (ἔκραξεν)

This is not meant to relate a reappearance of Jesus in public. The close of His public ministry is noted at John 12:36. It is in continuation of the Evangelist's own remarks, and introduces a summary of Jesus' past teaching to the Jews.

Believeth - on Him that sent Me (πιστεύει - εἰς τὸν πέμψαντά με)

This is the first and almost the only place in the Gospel where the words believe on are used with reference to the Father. This rendering in John 5:24 is an error. See John 14:1. The phrase is constantly associated with our Lord. At the same time it is to be noted that it contemplates the Father as the source of the special revelation of Christ, and therefore is not absolutely an exception to the habitual usage. The same is true of John 14:1.

{11} Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on me, believeth {i} not on me, but on him that sent me.

(11) The sum of the gospel, and therefore of salvation, which Christ witnessed in the midst of Jerusalem by his crying out, is this: to rest upon Christ through faith as the only Saviour appointed and given us by the Father.

(i) This word not does not take anything away from Christ which is spoken of here, but is rather spoken in way of correction, as if he said, He that believes in me does not so much believe in me as in him that sent me. So is it in Mr 9:37.

12:44 Jesus said with a loud voice - This which follows to the end of the chapter , is with St. John the epilogue of our Lord's public discourses, and a kind of recapitulation of them. Believeth not on me - Not on me alone, but also on him that sent

44-50. Jesus cried-in a loud tone, and with peculiar solemnity. (Compare Joh 7:37).

and said, He that believeth on me, &c.-This seems to be a supplementary record of some weighty proclamations, for which there had been found no natural place before, and introduced here as a sort of summary and winding up of His whole testimony.

12:44-50 Our Lord publicly proclaimed, that every one who believed on him, as his true disciple, did not believe on him only, but on the Father who sent him. Beholding in Jesus the glory of the Father, we learn to obey, love, and trust in him. By daily looking to Him, who came a Light into the world, we are more and more freed from the darkness of ignorance, error, sin, and misery; we learn that the command of God our Saviour is everlasting life. But the same word will seal the condemnation of all who despise it, or neglect it.