When I am lifted up from the earth, will draw ALL people to myself. Really?

[tonychanyt]

John 12:32

And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.

Barnes explained:

All men - I will incline all kinds of men; or will make the way open by the cross, so that all men may come. I will provide a way which shall present a strong motive or inducement - the strongest that can be presented to all men to come to me.

Jesus often spoke in poetic hyperbole to emphasize a deeper spiritual reality.

 

[GDL]

God has made Himself known in His creation and holds men responsible for knowing, glorifying & thanking Him.
God's Good News of His Christ is to be spread to all men to draw all men and Christ commanded that all nations be taught all He commands.
The Spirit of Truth was sent by Christ from the Father to testify of Christ and men have continued to collaborate in the effort.
Hyperbole to some degree, but probably broader in scope than we may know. And the ministries of some who are led to go to obscure and remote places and of some who are led to translate His Word into the world's languages are quite the thing.

 

[St_Worm2]

John 12:32
Jesus often spoke in poetic hyperbole or deeper spiritual reality.

Hi Tony, so you believe that the Lord's proclamation to us in v32 (that He will draw ALL men to Himself) is hyperbolic?

Barnes "all kinds of men" does offer one possibility, but it is a 'truly' unpopular notion today (that the Lord's meaning in v32 was 1st Century Jewish in nature or sense, that by "all" the Lord actually meant Jews AND non-Jews, people from both the Jewish Nation AND the Gentile Nations, people from everywhere in the world, from every nation and tribe and tongue and people, etc.), IOW, that the Lord's meaning is, "all men" w/o distinction, NOT "all men" w/o exception.

The former is provably true, but how can the latter, FAR more popular notion of "all" in v32, be shown to be true as well? (outside of saying, "we don't know how it can be true, we just know that it is", or something else along those lines?).

Thanks!

--David
p.s. - if, as you have said, the Lord's true meaning of "all" in v32 is hyperbolic, wouldn't that rule out "all" w/o exception and simply mean "all" w/o distinction instead? Also, when you spoke of a "deeper spiritual reality", what did you mean by that in regard to v32 (IOW, what do you think that it "could" mean)? Thanks again