Aware that His disciples were grumbling about this teaching, Jesus asked them, “Does this offend you?
Doth this offend . . . What and if, &c.--that is, "If ye are stumbled at what I have said, how will ye bear what I now say?" Not that His ascension itself would stumble them more than His death, but that after recoiling from the mention of the one, they would not be in a state of mind to take in the other.
61. But Jesus knowing. Christ knew indeed, that the offense which the reprobate had taken up could not be removed; for, to tell the truth, “Pour dire a la verite.” the doctrine does not so much wound them as it exposes the putrid ulcer which they inwardly nourished in their hearts.
It is the Spirit that quickeneth,.... It is the spirit of man that quickens him; or which being breathed into him, he becomes a living soul; for the body, without the spirit, is dead; it is a lifeless lump: and it is the Spirit of God that quickens dead sinners, by entering into them as the spirit of life, and causing them to live: and...