What does it mean in John 2:24-25 when it says that Jesus would not entrust himself to them for he knew all men. 25 He did not need man’s testimony about man for he knew what was in a man. ?
Simply that He could read their minds and hearts and didn’t trust their conversion very far. He knew that their faith was shallow. Thus, He didn’t place Himself physically within their power.
In John 18:6- When Jesus said, “I am he”, they drew back and fell to the ground.
Is this referring to the soldiers and chief priests? What does that mean, why did they fall to the ground?
It is often suggested that because the pronoun is implied in an inflected language like Aramaic, Jesus’ statement would’ve been equivalent to saying “I AM,” the personal name of God from Exodus 3, and the soldiers and chief priests fell back stunned at Jesus’ implicit claim to be God.
The problem with that is Jesus actually made the same statement on numerous occasions without producing that result. So I think it was really just Jesus’ calm, confident, submission that had them floored. You would expect somebody in Jesus’ position to fight, run, or try to fast talk his way out of the situation. Instead Jesus said essentially “Here I am, come arrest me.”
If I were one of the soldiers, I’d be thinking “What? Is He just giving up? Who would do that? Is it a trap? Is He going to strike us all blind or something when we get near Him? They say He has the power to do miracles. This would be so much easier if He acted guilty! If He tried to resist I could convince myself that I’m just putting down a rebellion instead myself rebelling against God’s messenger. He acts like He’s the Messiah, the King of Israel, and maybe He is! I’m not going to be the first one to lay hands on Him, I know that much!”
Ultimately, the point is that we can see in the crowd’s reaction that Jesus was totally in control of the situation. He wasn’t intimidated by the soldiers, the soldiers were intimidated by Him. He allowed Himself to be arrested Willingly, for us, by His own plan and full foreknowledge.
Bethlehem Bible Reading 
What does it mean in John 2:24-25 when it says that Jesus would not entrust himself to them for he knew all men. 25 He did not need man’s testimony about man for he knew what was in a man. ?
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Simply that He could read their minds and hearts and didn’t trust their conversion very far. He knew that their faith was shallow. Thus, He didn’t place Himself physically within their power.
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In John 18:6- When Jesus said, “I am he”, they drew back and fell to the ground.
Is this referring to the soldiers and chief priests? What does that mean, why did they fall to the ground?
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It is often suggested that because the pronoun is implied in an inflected language like Aramaic, Jesus’ statement would’ve been equivalent to saying “I AM,” the personal name of God from Exodus 3, and the soldiers and chief priests fell back stunned at Jesus’ implicit claim to be God.
The problem with that is Jesus actually made the same statement on numerous occasions without producing that result. So I think it was really just Jesus’ calm, confident, submission that had them floored. You would expect somebody in Jesus’ position to fight, run, or try to fast talk his way out of the situation. Instead Jesus said essentially “Here I am, come arrest me.”
If I were one of the soldiers, I’d be thinking “What? Is He just giving up? Who would do that? Is it a trap? Is He going to strike us all blind or something when we get near Him? They say He has the power to do miracles. This would be so much easier if He acted guilty! If He tried to resist I could convince myself that I’m just putting down a rebellion instead myself rebelling against God’s messenger. He acts like He’s the Messiah, the King of Israel, and maybe He is! I’m not going to be the first one to lay hands on Him, I know that much!”
Ultimately, the point is that we can see in the crowd’s reaction that Jesus was totally in control of the situation. He wasn’t intimidated by the soldiers, the soldiers were intimidated by Him. He allowed Himself to be arrested Willingly, for us, by His own plan and full foreknowledge.
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