Cornelius a Lapide

John V

Table of Contents

Synopsis of the Chapter

First, Christ heals at the Pool of Bethesda a man sick for thirty-eight years. Second, at verse 16, when the Jews accuse Him of healing on the Sabbath day, He responds that He works all things together with the Father — that is, that He healed the sick man on the Sabbath by the Father's authority, indeed by His help and power. Third, at verse 20, He asserts that He gives life to the dead together with the Father, and that He has been appointed by the Father as judge of all. Fourth, at verse 33, He proves by three testimonies that He is the Messiah: first, by the testimony of John the Baptist; second, by the testimony of His own works and miracles; third, by the testimony of Moses.

Vulgate Text: John 5:1-47

1. After these things there was a festival day of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2. Now there is at Jerusalem a pool called Probatica, which is surnamed in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes. 3. In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, and withered, waiting for the moving of the water. 4. For an angel of the Lord descended at certain times into the pool, and the water was stirred. And he who first went down into the pool after the stirring of the water was made whole of whatever infirmity he had. 5. And there was a certain man there who had been in his infirmity for thirty-eight years. 6. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, He said to him: Do you wish to be made well? 7. The sick man answered Him: Lord, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred; for while I am coming, another goes down before me. 8. Jesus said to him: Rise, take up your mat, and walk. 9. And immediately the man was made well; and he took up his mat and walked. Now it was the sabbath on that day. 10. The Jews therefore said to him who had been healed: It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat. 11. He answered them: He who made me well, He said to me: Take up your mat, and walk. 12. They therefore asked him: Who is the man who said to you: Take up your mat, and walk? 13. But he who had been made well did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn from the crowd gathered in that place. 14. Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him: Behold, you have been made well; sin no more, lest something worse befall you. 15. The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. 16. For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, because He did these things on the sabbath. 17. But Jesus answered them: My Father works until now, and I work. 18. For this reason therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the sabbath, but also called God His own Father, making Himself equal to God. Jesus therefore answered and said to them: 19. Amen, amen, I say to you: the Son cannot do anything of Himself, except what He sees the Father doing; for whatever He does, the Son also does likewise. 20. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel. 21. For as the Father raises the dead and gives life, so also the Son gives life to whom He wills. 22. For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, 23. that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. 24. Amen, amen, I say to you, that he who hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. 25. Amen, amen, I say to you, that the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear shall live. 26. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son also to have life in Himself: 27. and He has given Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. 28. Do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs shall hear the voice of the Son of God: 29. and those who have done good shall come forth to the resurrection of life; but those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment. 30. I cannot do anything of Myself. As I hear, I judge, and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 31. If I bear witness of Myself, My witness is not true. 32. There is another who bears witness of Me, and I know that the witness which He bears of Me is true. 33. You sent to John, and he bore witness to the truth. 34. But I do not receive testimony from man; but I say these things that you may be saved. 35. He was a burning and shining lamp. But you were willing for a time to rejoice in his light. 36. But I have a testimony greater than John's. For the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish — the very works that I do — bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me; 37. and the Father who sent Me, He has borne witness of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form; 38. and you do not have His word abiding in you, because you do not believe Him whom He sent. 39. Search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness of Me: 40. and you are unwilling to come to Me that you may have life. 41. I do not receive glory from men. 42. But I know you, that you do not have the love of God in you. 43. I have come in the name of My Father, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive. 44. How can you believe, who receive glory from one another, and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? 45. Do not think that I shall accuse you before the Father; there is one who accuses you — Moses, in whom you hope. 46. For if you believed Moses, you would perhaps believe Me also, for he wrote about Me. 47. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?

Verse 1: After These Things There Was a Festival Day of the Jews

1. AFTER THESE THINGS THERE WAS A FESTIVAL DAY OF THE JEWS, AND JESUS WENT UP TO JERUSALEM. — Note: John here omits many deeds of Christ in Galilee, namely very many miracles, the calling of the Apostles, the Sermon on the Mount, and other things which Matthew narrates from chapter 4 through chapter 12. For what Matthew narrates in chapter 12 about Christ's disciples plucking ears of grain happened after the following feast, as will shortly be evident. So say Jansenius, Toletus, Francisco Lucas, and others.

A festival day. — St. Chrysostom, Cyril, Theophylact, Euthymius, and Maldonatus think it was Pentecost. Better, St. Irenaeus, Book II, chapter 39; Rupert, Jansenius, Toletus, and Francisco Lucas judge it to have been Passover, and this is proven first because in chapter 4, verse 35, Jesus said that four months still remained until the harvest; therefore at that time Passover had not yet come, but the first great feast to come was Passover: therefore that is what is meant here, for in Judea the harvest takes place between Passover and Pentecost.

Second, because Passover was the feast of feasts. Therefore when it is said absolutely: "There was a festival day," he means Passover; for this is called the feast par excellence and preeminently.

Third, because Christ preached for three and a half years after His baptism, as the common opinion of the Doctors holds. Hence it is necessary that four Passovers of this period — that is, of these three and a half years — be found in the Gospels: the first Passover John expressly mentions in chapter 2, verse 13; the second is here; the third in chapter 6, verse 4; the fourth shortly before His death, chapter 19, verse 14. Otherwise, if this feast day was not Passover, you could gather only three Passovers of Christ from John.

Fourth, because, as I said just before, Christ could not have accomplished so many things from Passover to Pentecost, which is a space of only seven weeks — namely all the things that John narrated from chapter 2, verse 39, up to this point, and Matthew from chapter 4 through chapter 12. Therefore those deeds were done earlier, namely from January until Passover.

Here therefore end the deeds of the first year and three months of Christ's preaching, which flowed from the 6th day of January, on which He was baptized by John, until Passover, which they celebrated in Nisan, that is, in March. Here therefore end the acts of Christ from His baptism until the second Passover. See the chronological table which I prefixed to the Gospels.

Verse 2: The Pool Probatica, Called Bethesda

2. NOW THERE IS AT JERUSALEM A POOL CALLED PROBATICA, WHICH IS SURNAMED IN HEBREW BETHESDA, HAVING FIVE PORTICOES. — "Probatica" is a Greek word, meaning the same as "for cattle" or "for sheep," for πρόβατον means sheep. This pool was so called partly because it was near the gate adjacent to the temple, through which flocks of sheep were brought in to be sacrificed in the temple, about which see 2 Esdras, chapter III, verses 1 and 32; and second, because in that pool sheep to be sacrificed to God daily, morning and evening, were gathered and washed. So say Theophylactus, Bede, Jansenius, and St. Jerome in his On Hebrew Places.

Pool — that is, a reservoir of water which contained fish, or at least could contain them, even if it did not actually do so. Hence in Greek it is called kolumbethra, that is, a swimming pool, because fish and even people could swim in it, even if they did not actually do so. So says St. Augustine, Tractate 20. This pool was built by Solomon for the service of the temple; hence Josephus, in Book VI of the War, chapter 6, calls it "the Pool of Solomon," for in it the Nethinim washed the victims which they handed over to the priests to be offered in the temple. A remarkable origin of this pool, from an ancient manuscript codex, is related by Genebrardus, at the end of Book I of the Chronicle, in the Paris edition published by Sebastian Nivelle, in the year of Christ 1600, page 174 — namely, that on the day Christ was conceived, the temple was shaken by a great earthquake, and this spring burst forth from the earth, endowed with a hidden power, so that after the scab of cattle was washed off, it could also heal any sick persons washed there; and that it dried up when the cross on which Christ was crucified was fashioned from cedar, palm, and olive wood found there. But these things seem fabulous, and smell of rabbinism; for the Rabbis are fanciful, and architects of fables. Less improbable is what the same Genebrardus says in his Chronological Notes, Bede on 2 Esdras, and from them Serarius, on 2 Maccabees chapter 1, Question 14 — namely, that the Sheep Pool is that place in which Jeremiah hid the sacred fire of the temple, which the Jews, seeking it after their return from Babylon, found instead of fire a thick water, which when poured by Nehemiah upon the stones of the temple was turned again into fire; and therefore the king of Persia, Darius Hystaspis, or his grandson Artaxerxes, in that place, as St. Ambrose says in Book I of the Offices, chapter 14, built a temple — in Greek hieron, that is, a sacred building — which this pool was, and enclosed it with its porticos, as the Greek text has it, in 2 Maccabees chapter 1, verse 24. But this pool was older than Nehemiah's time, and was erected by Solomon for the washing of temple cattle; hence it is also called a work of Solomon by Josephus, as I said. Unless someone says that the pool had indeed existed before, but at that time when Jeremiah hid the sacred fire in it, and Nehemiah turned the thick water found there back into fire, it received this gift of healing all manner of diseases from God; and therefore was enlarged and adorned with porticos, columns, and other structures by the king of Persia. But these things are uncertain, and not handed down by any of the ancients. Some Greek codices have pule (gate) instead of "pool"; but St. Chrysostom, Theophylactus, Cyril, Euthymius, St. Jerome, and others generally read kolumbethra, that is, a swimming pool or reservoir. The Syriac translates it as "baptistery," that is, a bath.

Bethsaida. — So read the Roman codices, and among the Greeks, St. Chrysostom and Cyril, and aptly so; for "Bethsaida" in Hebrew is the same as "house," that is, a place (for the Hebrews call every place a "house") of hunting or fishing: beth means "house," tsaiid means "hunting," which here was of fish, that is, fishing in a pool. And this is what the Greek kolumbethra means, that is, a swimming pool, in which fish are accustomed to swim, or can swim; for kolumban means "to swim." But the Greek codices have Bethesda. Hence St. Jerome, in his On Hebrew Places, reads Bethesda, that is, "house of pouring out" (for esda means "pouring out," from the Chaldean seda, that is, "he poured out"), because rainwater from rooftops and other water from aqueducts was poured into it. Furthermore, the Syriac reads beth-chesda, that is, "house of mercy" (for the Hebrew chesed means "mercy"), because God declared His mercy there upon the wretched sick whom He healed, or because good men supported the poor sick lying there with their alms. Furthermore, the Arabic has: which is called in Hebrew Bethsaida, whose interpretation is "pool of sheep," in which — not fish, but washed sheep — they hunted and caught, to offer them in the temple.

HAVING FIVE PORTICOS. — Porticos are places covered above and open below for walking, also for lying down or resting, so that the sick might rest in them, protected from rain as well as from the heat of the sun, and from there might immediately leap into the nearby pool when the angel stirred its water.

Verse 3: A Great Multitude of the Sick Waiting for the Moving of the Water

Whence follows: 3. IN THESE LAY A GREAT MULTITUDE OF SICK (in Greek asthenounton, that is, of those who were ill) BLIND, LAME, AND WITHERED (those whose hand, arm, foot, or other part of the body had withered, so that it was without life and movement and unfit for use) WAITING FOR THE MOVING OF THE WATER. — Nonnus says: "Always watching for the leaping of the stirred and moved water, so that in the all-healing water they might dispel their troublesome disease, knowing that there was an escape from all diseases, even those incurable by human knowledge."

Tropologically, Bede says: The blind are those lacking the light of knowledge; the lame are those who do not have the strength to fulfill what they see should be done; the withered are those who lack the richness of heavenly love. Only Christ can heal these by the power of His grace.

Verse 4: An Angel of the Lord Descended at a Certain Time

4. FOR AN ANGEL OF THE LORD DESCENDED AT A CERTAIN TIME INTO THE POOL; AND THE WATER WAS STIRRED. AND WHOEVER WENT DOWN FIRST INTO THE POOL AFTER THE STIRRING OF THE WATER WAS HEALED OF WHATEVER INFIRMITY HELD HIM. — "An angel," whether Raphael or some other. For Raphael, because he presides over the healing of bodies, is called Raphael, that is, "medicine" or "physician of God." Hence he cured Tobias of his blindness.

At a certain time — that is, at some definite time at a time appointed by God or by the designated angel, but unknown to men. Hence it does not seem well-founded what Cyril and Tertullian say, in the book On Baptism, that only once a year, namely at Pentecost, the angel descended into the pool; for then the sick would not have been lying near it, but at their homes, and would have gone to the pool only when Pentecost approached. Hence Euthymius says: "By saying 'at a certain time,' he taught that the miracle did not always happen, but at certain times, unknown to men indeed, but frequently, as I think, throughout the year; for on this account a great multitude of the sick was lying in the porticos."

THE WATER WAS STIRRED. — In Greek etarasse to hudor, that is, "he troubled the water." So the Syriac; the Arabic has "he moved the water." "The sound of the movement signified that angels were present to sanctify the water," says Cyril. "So that there might be an indication that the angel had descended, the water was moved," says St. Ambrose, in the book On Those Who Are Initiated into the Mysteries, chapter 14.

AND WHOEVER WENT DOWN FIRST INTO THE POOL AFTER THE STIRRING OF THE WATER WAS HEALED — to show the value of effort and diligence, and how swift and agile we should be in seizing the benefits of God. Hence it was necessary to rise at dawn to gather manna; for when the sun rose it melted, "so that it might be known to all that one must anticipate the sun for Your blessing, and worship You at the rising of the light," as Wisdom chapter 6, verse 28 says. See what I said there. For God offers His gifts to the watchful and diligent, not to the slow and drowsy. So in the stadium, only he who outruns all the others receives the prize, 1 Corinthians chapter 9, 24. Julius Caesar used to say that speed was of the greatest value in wars, and that through it he had accomplished so many great things. Hence that saying of his: "I came, I saw, I conquered," as Plutarch testifies in his Apophthegms of the Romans.

OF WHATEVER INFIRMITY HELD HIM. — From this it is clear that this healing power of the pool did not come from the victims washed in it, nor from the timbers lying at its bottom from which the cross of Christ was supposedly fashioned, as some have suggested, but that it was supernatural and miraculous. Namely, God wished to exhibit this public benefit to the faithful people around the time of Christ (for before Christ, in the Old Testament, no mention is made of it), so that Christ, healing the sick man there, might show that He was God, who had given this power to the pool, and therefore could cure the sick without it. It therefore seems that God took away this gift from the ungrateful Jews when they killed Christ; for no subsequent memory of it exists.

Hence Tertullian, in the book Against the Jews, chapter 13: "The pool of Bethsaida," he says, "which up until the coming of Christ used to heal illnesses in Israel, ceased from its benefits thereafter because of their persistent fury."

Allegorically: God willed that this pool be a sign of Christ's Passion and of His baptism. For just as the angel descended into the water, so Christ descended to His Passion and torments, and was, as it were, immersed and overwhelmed by them as by waters. Hence, just as the pool was reddened with the blood of the victims that were washed in it, so Christ was made ruddy with His own blood and was crucified, as in Isaiah 63:2, so that by His merit He might establish baptism (hence the Syriac translates "pool" as "baptistery"), by which the faithful, washed in the waters, would be cured of every spiritual infirmity. So says Tertullian, in the book On Baptism, chapter 5; St. Ambrose, Book I of On the Holy Spirit, chapter 7; and St. Chrysostom here, whom hear: "Indeed, since God wished to teach us to believe in the approaching baptism, He drove out not only defilements but also diseases through water; for the images and figures closer to the truth were more illustrious than the older ones," etc. And Augustine says: "To descend into the troubled water means to believe humbly in the Lord's Passion. There one was healed, signifying unity; afterward, whoever came was not healed, because whoever is outside the unity will not be able to be healed."

You may ask, why after the stirring — or, as it is in Greek, the "troubling" — of the water, was only the one who first descended into the water healed? I answer: The literal reason was to signify that this healing power did not come from the nature of the water, but from the angel's stirring and from God's command. Moreover, this stirring by the angel did not imprint any power or physical quality for healing all manner of diseases; for neither could the angel produce such a quality, nor could the water receive it. This stirring, therefore, was only a sign of the divine power, preparation, and action, which was going to heal that sick person who by his own diligence had first moved himself and descended into the water, and there, as if running to meet the divine benefit and miracle, had been the first to receive it. This stirring, therefore, was an invitation to the sick to seize their healing in the stirred water.

For the angel's stirring excited all the sick to move themselves, so that each might outstrip the other and be the first to descend into the water. In this there was great haste and commotion among all of them.

The angel aptly employed this sign of stirring, because the power of water is sharpened when it is moved and becomes effective and lively. For life consists in movement, while death lies in rest and torpor. Hence "living waters" are those that move and flow, as those of springs and rivers; while "dead" waters are those that stand still and stagnate, like those of lakes and pools. Furthermore, when health is at hand, the sick person tends to be disturbed; for nature struggles with the disease until it overcomes it. Therefore the disease at that time exerts and expels its utmost and final forces.

The tropological reason was to signify that a sinner, when he is converted and healed by God, first tends to be agitated and troubled in his conscience by various movements of fear, shame, and hope; for by these God moves him to repentance and contrition, so that through it he may be healed, as the Council of Trent teaches.

The allegorical reason was to signify that Christ was to be agitated and troubled in the waters of His sufferings, through which He merited and obtained for us all spiritual and bodily healing. More on this shortly.

Verse 5: A Certain Man Who Had Been Sick Thirty-Eight Years

5. NOW A CERTAIN MAN WAS THERE WHO HAD BEEN IN HIS INFIRMITY FOR THIRTY-EIGHT YEARS. — In Greek en astheneia, that is, in sickness, in illness; the Arabic has: now there was a man there infirm for thirty-eight years; the Syriac: who was in his thirty-eighth year of ill health. That this infirm man was a paralytic is asserted by St. Chrysostom, Euthymius, and Leontius here, and St. Ambrose, Book II of On the Sacraments, chapter 1; and therefore he allegorically bore the type of the human race, which from the fall of Adam, through five thousand years, is continually afflicted with very many infirmities of body and soul.

Tropologically: this paralytic represents anyone grown old in the habit of sinning, and therefore languid through his own vice and habit, and powerless for every good. For just as paralysis dissolves the connection and firmness of the limbs, so also the habit of sinning enervates the powers of the soul, dislocates and dissolves them, so that they cannot rise from it or resist it unless they are raised up and strengthened by the powerful grace of God. From this it is clear that this paralysis was naturally incurable, and could not be cured by any skill over 38 years. Therefore Christ took upon Himself the healing of this disease above the other diseases of the sick, to show His immense power as well as His mercy in it. Just as chief physicians and excellent doctors take upon themselves to cure those who are most gravely ill and whom others could not cure, to display in them the excellence of their art. For this reason Christ claimed for Himself the healing of Paul, who was suffering from the gravest spiritual disease of unbelief, above other unbelieving and impious Jews, as Paul himself teaches at the beginning of his first Epistle to Timothy. See what I said there: "A great physician," says St. Augustine, "descended from heaven, because a great sick man lay on earth." For the symbolism of the number 38, see St. Augustine here, Tractate 17, where among other things he says it is a symbol of infirmity, just as forty is a symbol of health and perfection. "If therefore," he says, "the number forty contains the perfection of the law, and the law is not fulfilled except in the twofold commandment of charity, why do you wonder that he was infirm who fell short of forty by two?" For the twofold love was lacking — that is, the love of God and of neighbor.

Verse 6: Do You Wish to Be Made Well?

6. WHEN JESUS SAW HIM LYING THERE, AND KNEW (both from the sick man himself and those standing by, and from the divine knowledge infused into His soul by God) THAT HE HAD BEEN THERE A LONG TIME (of infirmity and illness), HE SAID TO HIM: DO YOU WISH TO BE MADE WELL? — Christ knew perfectly well that he desired to be healed; yet He asked this of him, first, to provide an occasion and beginning for conversation, and thereby for healing. In this He showed His remarkable clemency, in that without being asked by the sick man, He anticipated him and strove to heal him. "It is a great proof," says Cyril, "of Christ's mercy, not always to wait for the prayers of those who suffer, but to anticipate them with His mercy."

Second, to arouse in the sick man the desire for health, and hope that Christ would bring him help. For this was a fitting disposition for receiving healing.

Third, to sharpen his attention to the imminent miracle of healing; that is, to make the sick man attentive to the words and deeds of Christ, and from them to know with certainty that he had been cured not by the pool, nor by medicine, but by Christ alone, who surpasses all the power of the pool and of medicine. And therefore he should believe in Him as a Prophet and the Messiah, and, repenting, should seek and obtain the forgiveness of sins. Hence He healed him near the healing pool, but without touching the pool, to show that He was the One who had given this power to the pool, and therefore could heal by His word alone, without the pool — and consequently that He was almighty, and the true God.

Verse 7: Lord, I Have No Man to Put Me Into the Pool

7. THE SICK MAN ANSWERED HIM: LORD, I HAVE NO MAN TO PUT ME INTO THE POOL WHEN THE WATER IS STIRRED; FOR WHILE I AM COMING, ANOTHER STEPS DOWN BEFORE ME. — The sick man does not answer Christ's question directly; for he presupposes, as known to all, that he desires health, but introduces the topic of the way to obtain it through the pool, as if to say: Because of my paralysis I cannot go to the pool; I have no one to carry me there, for I am poor. If You can help me in this matter, help me. For he thought that by asking "Do you wish to be made well?" Christ meant this: Do you wish Me to carry you into the pool when the angel stirs the water, so that you may be healed in it? For he did not yet know Jesus and His power and virtue, because he had never seen Him.

I HAVE NO MAN. — Somewhat differently the Syriac has: "Yes, Lord (I wish to be healed), but I have no man"; and the Arabic: "Indeed, Lord, but there is no man for me." Beautifully St. Augustine says: "Truly, that Man (Jesus) was needed for salvation, but that Man who is also God."

Tropologically: the poor often have no man to help them; but the rich and powerful, whose favor and purse everyone eagerly pursues.

Verse 8: Rise, Take Up Your Bed, and Walk

8. JESUS SAID TO HIM: RISE, TAKE UP YOUR BED, AND WALK. — "Rise" — healed from your disease; "take up your bed" — that is, your couch (as I explained on Mark 2:4), which has carried you until now — "and walk," so that as a strong bearer of your bed, you may return home with it. This command of Christ was practical and effective. For by saying "Rise," He raised up the sick man and healed him. "It was not a command for a task," says Augustine, "but an operation of healing." And St. Cyril says: "Such power and virtue do not belong to man; it is proper to God alone to command thus." Christ ordered him to take up his bed so that it would be evident to all that he had been healed by Him — indeed, made suddenly strong and vigorous, so as to be a carrier of his bed. Hence Euthymius notes here that Christ used to add something to the miracles He performed, from which the truth and greatness of the miracle might be discerned. So here He ordered the paralytic to take up his bed, which only a healed man — indeed, a strong and vigorous one — could have done. So after He multiplied the loaves, He ordered the fragments, larger than the original loaves, to be gathered, Matthew 14:20. So to the leper He had healed He said: "Go, show yourself to the priest," Matthew 8:4. So to the girl He had raised from the dead He ordered food to be given to eat, Mark 5:43. So the water He had changed into wine He ordered to be brought to the master of the feast, who pronounced it to be the best wine, John 2:8.

Morally, Bede says: Rise from the torpor and sloth in which you previously lay, and strive to advance in good works.

Tropologically: St. Gregory, Homily 12 on Ezekiel, applies these words to sinners justified through penance, who still suffer the temptations of their former sins by God's just judgment: "To the sick man," he says, "restored to health it is commanded: 'Take up your bed,' that is, carry the couch on which you were carried; because it is necessary that everyone who is healed should bear the disgrace of the flesh, in which he previously lay sick. What then does it mean to say: 'Take up your bed and go to your house,' except: Bear the temptations of the flesh in which you have lain until now, and return to your conscience, that you may see what you have done?"

So St. Mary of Egypt for seventeen years suffered grave temptations of the flesh after her conversion, because she had previously lived unchastely for the same number of years, as her Life records. Sins, therefore, are their own executioners and just avengers. What formerly pleased, afterwards torments; what you did willingly, you will hereafter suffer unwillingly.

Symbolically, St. Augustine, Tractate 17: "Rise," he says — that is, love God, who is on high; "take up your bed" — that is, love your neighbor, bearing his infirmities, according to the saying: "Bear one another's burdens, and so you will fulfill the law of Christ," Galatians 6. "When you were sick," says St. Augustine, "your neighbor carried you; now you are healed, carry your neighbor, etc. Therefore carry the one with whom you walk, so that you may arrive at Him with whom you desire to remain."

Verse 9: Immediately the Man Was Made Well; It Was the Sabbath

9. AND IMMEDIATELY (the Syriac has: at that very moment; for Christ, because He is God, healed instantaneously, to show that this healing was accomplished not naturally, but by supernatural power, through a miracle of God's omnipotence) THE MAN WAS MADE WELL, AND HE TOOK UP HIS BED (Nonnus says: the burdensome shoulder-load) AND WALKED. NOW IT WAS THE SABBATH ON THAT DAY. — Christ deliberately healed on the Sabbath, first because the Sabbath was the greatest feast among the Jews, which therefore ought to be sanctified above all others with good works, such as was the healing of so afflicted a sick man — a healing so beneficent, so powerful and divine; second, because through this He wished to show the Jews that He was the Lord of the Sabbath, by commanding that on it the man should carry his bed, which was forbidden by the law, and therefore that He was the Messiah and God; third, because the Sabbath was a day dedicated to rest and to the praise of God. Christ bestowed rest from pains upon this sick man, and thereby on the same day furnished a great occasion for praising God.

Verse 10: It Is the Sabbath; It Is Not Lawful to Carry Your Bed

10. THE JEWS THEREFORE SAID TO HIM WHO HAD BEEN HEALED: IT IS THE SABBATH; IT IS NOT LAWFUL FOR YOU TO CARRY YOUR BED. — Nonnus says: "And they said, uttering with a cry an accusing voice: It is the Sabbath, which every man must spend entirely in rest. It is not permitted to you to carry your bed." In general they speak the truth; for among the Jews the observance of the Sabbath was of the highest importance, and therefore all work on it was forbidden, as is clear from Exodus 20:8; and specifically the carrying of burdens on that day is prohibited by Jeremiah, chapter 17, verse 21 and following: "Do not," he says, "carry burdens on the Sabbath day, and do not bring them in through the gates of Jerusalem"; and by Nehemiah, 2 Esdras 13:45. Christ, however, here commands the contrary to the sick man He had healed, first because He Himself was the Lord of the Sabbath, and therefore could dispense with its law; and especially because the work forbidden by the law on the Sabbath was servile work, not a pious and divine work, such as this was — that the healed man should carry his bed. For Christ ordered him to do this so that all who on the Sabbath flocked in crowds to the temple might recognize this miracle, and from it recognize Jesus as its author, conclude that He was the Messiah, give Him thanks, and believe in Him. Whence follows:

Verse 11: He Who Made Me Well Said to Me, Take Up Your Bed

11. HE ANSWERED THEM: HE WHO MADE ME WELL, HE SAID TO ME: TAKE UP YOUR BED AND WALK. — Supply: but that man was a divine person, and he healed me by divine power. Therefore he is dear to God and God's friend, and he commands nothing that displeases God, but what he knows to be pleasing to God; for he works with God and from God. "Should I not accept the command," says St. Augustine, "from the One from whom I had received my healing?" This was a just excuse by the sick man, which the Jews should have understood and accepted; but blinded by pride, they refused to grasp it, and therefore they sinned, and by persecuting Christ they fell into guilt and hell.

Verse 12: Who Is the Man Who Said to You, Take Up Your Bed?

12. THEY THEREFORE ASKED HIM: WHO IS THAT MAN WHO SAID TO YOU: TAKE UP YOUR BED AND WALK? — They say this with indignation and threatening, as if to say: Who is that bold and insolent man who dares to command you, contrary to the law, to carry your bed on the Sabbath? Surely that man is not from God, who does not keep the Sabbath sanctified by God. So they reasoned, from a blind prejudice about their law, which they did not understand. But on the other hand, they should have considered that the one who had healed the sick man by a miracle could not have done so except by the singular authority and help of God, and therefore had likewise received from God the right to tell the man on the Sabbath: "Take up your bed and walk."

Verse 13: He Did Not Know Who It Was, for Jesus Had Withdrawn

13. BUT HE WHO HAD BEEN HEALED DID NOT KNOW WHO IT WAS, FOR JESUS HAD WITHDRAWN FROM THE CROWD GATHERED IN THAT PLACE. — As if to say: The healed man was unable to point out his benefactor, because Jesus, having performed the miracle, withdrew from the assembled crowd, lest He give occasion for tumult or vainglory.

Verse 14: Sin No More, Lest Something Worse Befall You

14. AFTERWARD JESUS FOUND HIM IN THE TEMPLE AND SAID TO HIM: BEHOLD, YOU HAVE BEEN MADE WELL; SIN NO MORE, LEST SOMETHING WORSE BEFALL YOU. — Recall the saying of Sirach: "He who sins in the sight of Him who made him, shall fall into the hands of a physician." See what was said there. I have said often; for from time to time God sends diseases upon holy men, to test, increase, and crown their patience, as He sent them upon St. Job, whose entire disputation with his friends revolves around this point: that while his friends pressed him that he had given cause for so many diseases by his sins, he on the contrary maintained that he was free from sins, and had not deserved those diseases. And God in the last chapter adjudicates the cause to him, and condemns his friends. Likewise it was evident in the man born blind, chapter 9, verse 3, of whom Christ says: "Neither did this man sin, nor his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him."

Moreover Christ, just as He healed the body of this sick man at the pool, so by His internal inspiration and this external admonition, He healed his soul in the temple: for He inspired the memory of the sins of his youth, by which he had merited so long a disease, and He moved his heart, so that he might be contrite over them and seek pardon from God, and thus be justified; indeed Christ healed his body precisely so that He might heal his soul, as He did for St. Magdalene: as I said on Luke 7 and 8. "He who outwardly healed him from infirmity, Himself also inwardly saved him from wickedness," says Bede.

LEST SOMETHING WORSE BEFALL YOU. — "For he who has not been corrected by a prior punishment," says Theophylactus, "is reserved for greater torments, as one who is insensible and contemptuous"; and this "whether in the present life, or in the future, or in both," says Euthymius: "a relapse of a disease is worse than the disease itself." So a relapse into sin is worse than the original sin, because of greater ingratitude, audacity, and shamelessness; likewise because the repetition of sin induces a tendency to commit that sin frequently, and finally a custom and habit, which the sinner can scarcely resist.

Verse 15: He Told the Jews That It Was Jesus Who Had Made Him Well

15. THAT MAN WENT AWAY, AND TOLD THE JEWS THAT IT WAS JESUS WHO HAD MADE HIM WELL. — "He told," not out of malice, but from a feeling of gratitude, lest he conceal the author of so great a benefit. So St. Augustine, Chrysostom, and others. "He went and told," says Euthymius, "not as one who was wicked, to betray Him, but as one who was grateful, to make his benefactor known. For because he thought he would incur guilt if he remained silent, he proceeded to proclaim the benefit." Cyril adds, "so that they would not be ignorant of the physician, in case any of them also wished to be healed."

Verse 16: The Jews Persecuted Jesus Because He Did These Things on the Sabbath

16. THEREFORE THE JEWS PERSECUTED (especially the Scribes and Pharisees. Some Greek codices add, likewise the Syriac and Arabic: And they sought to kill Him) JESUS, BECAUSE HE DID THESE THINGS ON THE SABBATH.

"Therefore," that is, on that pretext; for the true cause was envy. Hence Euthymius: "As far as what appeared," he says, "on account of this; but as far as what was hidden, on account of envy." For they envied Jesus this glory, and were grieved that He was preferred to them by the people: they were indignant that their crimes were reproved by Him and refuted by His holiness. For they themselves wished to be regarded and revered as Rabbis and doctors of the law, and as oracles of wisdom and holiness: therefore they hated Christ, who exposed their crimes, as if He were defaming them, and they persecuted Him with calumnies, slanders, threats, and finally drove Him to the cross.

Verse 17: My Father Works Until Now, and I Work

17. BUT JESUS ANSWERED THEM: MY FATHER WORKS UNTIL NOW, AND I WORK.

"The Father works," says St. Augustine, book IV On Genesis Literally, chapter 12, "both providing fitting governance to His creature and possessing in Himself eternal tranquility (because, as the same author says elsewhere, He works while at rest, and rests while working)"; and after some intervening remarks: "For the power and might of the Creator is the cause of the subsistence of every creature: if this power were at any time to cease from governing the things that have been created, their form would simultaneously cease, and all nature would collapse." Just as light in the air ceases and vanishes if the sun withdraws its rays, by which it produces and preserves the light. The meaning is, as if He said: You, O Scribes, object to Me the law of sabbatical rest, which God prescribed for you, on the ground that He Himself rested on the Sabbath from all His work, Genesis 2. But I reply that God rested on the Sabbath only from producing new species of things, but not in such a way that He has not worked through all Sabbaths up to now and continues to work; namely by governing the world and all things in it, preserving them, moving the heavens, producing one thing from another, nourishing living things, healing, etc. This is a work of the highest beneficence, and it is a work not servile but liberal, pious and divine, and therefore lawful on the Sabbath, indeed adorning and sanctifying the Sabbath: so also I, who am the Son of God the Father, equal to Him and consubstantial, work the same works with Him, and have always worked: neither can I work without the Father, nor the Father without Me. So St. Augustine, Cyril, Chrysostom, Bede, and others.

Note the Hebraism: "And I work," that is, thus or similarly, or likewise I work; for the particle et, when it is a note of conjunction, when it joins similar things, is a note of comparison and similitude, and means the same as thus, as is frequently the case in Proverbs.

Verse 18: He Called God His Own Father, Making Himself Equal to God

18. THEREFORE THE JEWS SOUGHT ALL THE MORE TO KILL HIM; BECAUSE HE NOT ONLY BROKE THE SABBATH, BUT ALSO CALLED GOD HIS FATHER, MAKING HIMSELF EQUAL TO GOD. JESUS THEREFORE ANSWERED AND SAID TO THEM.

"His Father"; in Greek πατέρα ἴδιον, that is, His own Father, because His natural Father. For Christ alone is the proper and natural Son of God; but angels and holy men are sons of God only by adoption, and gratuitously adopted by God. So Cyril. Hence the Arabic translates, because He said that God is My Father.

MAKING HIMSELF EQUAL TO GOD, — because He had said that He works not similar things, but the very same things that the Father works, and therefore cooperates with Him in all things, not as a servant, but as a Son consubstantial with the Father. So Chrysostom. And Cyril: "Seeing Him to be a man, and not recognizing God dwelling in Him, they could not bear that God should be called His Father in a singular manner": namely, as Bede says, "because He whom they had known to be a true man through the weakness of His flesh, wished to be believed to be the true Son of God, that is, not adopted by grace, like the other Saints, but equal to the Father in all things by nature, distinct not in substance but in person; because they thought that Jesus by preaching was making Himself what He was not, not truly declaring what He was. The Jews were therefore moved and indignant; justly indeed, that a man dared to make Himself equal to God; but therefore unjustly, because in the man they did not understand the God." The chief priests and Scribes therefore wished to kill Jesus, because they feared that as the glory of Jesus increased, their own authority would decrease, indeed that Jesus, persuading the people that He was God, would be preferred by the people to the chief priests, and finally be placed in charge, and thus depose them, and introduce His own new priests and chief priests, as we see was in fact done by Him.

Verse 19: The Son Cannot Do Anything of Himself

19. AMEN, AMEN I SAY TO YOU: THE SON CANNOT DO ANYTHING OF HIMSELF, UNLESS HE SEES THE FATHER DOING IT: FOR WHATEVER THE FATHER DOES, THE SON ALSO DOES IN LIKE MANNER.

"Cannot," "not from a lack of power," says Euthymius, "but because of inseparability; for it is impossible for the Son to do anything that the Father does not do." So also St. Chrysostom and St. Augustine. "Unless": this word here is not exceptive, but adversative, and means the same as but only. The same meaning occurs in Matthew 12:4; Galatians 2:6, and below in chapter 15, verse 4.

WHAT HE SEES. — In Greek βλέπῃ, that is, He may see; the Syriac and Arabic has He sees; for not before He works, but simultaneously He sees the Father working, while He works with Him: for Christ as God produces not a similar, but numerically the same work with the Father. For the action of the Father and the Son is the same, which both simultaneously see and simultaneously work. The action, however, not the hypostatic union, nor those things which follow from it, because this union has the character not of an action, but of a terminus. Therefore, although the entire Holy Trinity, namely the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, by Their divine action brought about this union, nevertheless the union itself was terminated in the Son alone, not in the Father and the Holy Spirit. For this reason the Son alone became incarnate, suffered, died, etc., not the Father or the Holy Spirit.

Note: Christ here only wishes to say that He receives from God the Father His divine essence, power, knowledge, and operation, as from His author, and therefore He uses the word sees, as if the Son does nothing except what He sees the Father doing, or what He sees to be the work of His Father. For sons and disciples are accustomed to observe and imitate the will and deeds of their parents and teachers; for they are, as it were, their imitators. For Christ speaks anthropopathically, that is, in the manner of men, moderately, and fittingly for a son, that is, as it is proper among men for a son to speak about his father, especially among arrogant and captious Jews, lest He further provoke those already sufficiently irritated against Him, and goad them to His death.

Add that theologically and properly Christ uses the word sees, because He Himself proceeds from the Father as the Word, which is the terminus of the notional vision and knowledge of God the Father. For the Father, seeing and understanding Himself and all things, produces and begets the Word, and by this very fact communicates to Him His own vision and action. Therefore the Son sees or does nothing except what He sees the Father seeing or doing. For He Himself is the Word and the idea: in which, as in a terminus, the Father expresses and impresses all His vision and knowledge, both speculative and practical. The meaning therefore is, as if He said: Whatever I work, the Father also works the very same thing, and indeed by exactly the same vision, knowledge, will, power, and action; therefore if you accuse Me of healing the paralytic on the Sabbath, you also accuse God the Father: for He worked this with Me, because He Himself works all things in Me and through Me; indeed I have received every work of Mine from the Father. Therefore if you believe that God the Father works all things rightly, wisely, and holily, you must believe the same of Me; and consequently that this healing of the sick man on the Sabbath was a work done prudently, holily, and divinely.

DOES IN LIKE MANNER, — namely in a similar, indeed in exactly the same way, with the same freedom, the same power, the same dominion, the same authority, says St. Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 2 On the Son. Hence St. Augustine: "Not," he says, "when the Father has done something, does the Son do other things in like manner; but whatever the Father has done, these the Son also does in like manner. If the Son does these things which the Father has done, the Father does them through the Son." And Cyril: "Those work in like manner," he says, "who are altogether of the same nature: but those which have different modes of being, in these the same mode of operation cannot exist. As therefore God of true God, He can do the same things as the Father in like manner."

Verse 20: The Father Loves the Son and Shows Him All Things

20. FOR THE FATHER LOVES THE SON, AND SHOWS HIM ALL THINGS THAT HE HIMSELF DOES: AND HE WILL SHOW HIM GREATER WORKS THAN THESE, THAT YOU MAY MARVEL.

"Shows," not as a teacher to a pupil, says Euthymius, but as a father to a son, and as God to God. "Shows" therefore means gives, communicates, especially because, as I said, the Son proceeds from the Father through showing, that is, through the intellect and vision, as the Word. Thus to show is taken to mean to give, to exhibit, to bestow, in 1 Kings 14:12; Exodus 33:19; Psalm 4:8; Psalm 19:5. That this is the meaning is clear from what follows. Moreover the Father "shows," that is, communicates all things to the Son, both as God, not by free choice of love, but naturally from the fecundity of the divine nature, the greatest sign of which among men is love: for he who communicates all his things to a son among men, by that very fact gives evident proof that he loves him supremely;

and He also communicates all things to the Son as incarnate and as man, of which communication the cause, not merely the sign, is love: "For the Father to show to the Son," says Bede, "is to do through the Son what He does." St. Athanasius says magnificently, in his Disputation Against Arius, book I: "The almighty Father gave," he says, "omnipotence to the Son, majesty to majesty, He gave power to power, prudence to the prudent, foreknowledge to the foreknowing, eternity to eternity, divinity to divinity, equality to equality, immortality to immortality, invisibility to invisibility, a kingdom to the king, life to life; and He did not give something other than what He has, and as much as He has, so much He gave."

You ask, why is to show and to demonstrate taken here and elsewhere as meaning to give and to communicate? I reply: First, because God by showing to the Son Himself and His works, communicates to Him His knowledge, and consequently His essence. For the knowledge of God is the same as His essence. Furthermore, by showing He illuminates the Son, that is, He communicates to Him the light of His wisdom and of every good, and His entire self: for God is uncreated and immense light, as St. John teaches, epistle 1, chapter 1, verse 5. Finally, by showing, that is, by understanding, He produces the Word, that is, the Son, because in God the noblest thing is the intellect, and the noblest action is to understand, to illuminate, to demonstrate. For the noblest and chief power of the soul is the intellect and reason, which commands the will and directs it when it is blind, and through the will moves and governs all the senses and the other powers of the soul. Hence those axioms of the wise: The mind accomplishes all things. It belongs to reason to govern. As much as each person excels in intellect, so much does he have of authority. For the intellect, by conceiving and understanding things, through its concept and understanding vividly incorporates them all into itself, and as it were possesses them; for it conceives all things within itself in a certain living manner, and forms their likeness within itself, which represents to it all the goodness and beauty of things. Therefore the intellect is the eye of the mind; just as therefore the eye in the body is the noblest, most active, and most effective sense, which incorporates into itself the forms of all things; so much more does the intellect do the same in the mind. Therefore the Blessed in heaven, by understanding and seeing God through the intellect, incorporate Him into themselves, possess Him, and are made blessed by Him. This therefore is the reason for this phrase, by which to show and to demonstrate is taken to mean to give, to communicate, and to bring into possession of the thing shown and demonstrated. It is a catachresis and metalepsis. This is what Aristotle and the philosophers say: "The intellect by understanding becomes all things," because through a living conception of things, it assimilates itself to them and them to itself, and so holds and possesses them, and causes them to exist in itself more excellently and more nobly than they exist in themselves; for in themselves they are often inanimate and dead, but in the intellect they are animated and living, and they live by an act that is supremely vital and most excellent.

Finally Christ here aptly, against the Jews who slandered Him for having healed the sick man on the Sabbath, in order to give greater weight and force to His argument, uses the verb to demonstrate, as if to say: God most wise demonstrated to Me that this work of healing on the Sabbath is His own work, that is, divine, most pious and most holy; why then do you, O Scribes, reprove and cavil at it? For who would dare to be the critic of that whose demonstrator is God? Are you then wiser than God, and do you wish to teach God Himself, indeed to chastise Him? O madness! O insane rashness and pride!

AND HE WILL SHOW GREATER THINGS THAN THESE, — and by showing will give and communicate. These "greater" things are the more illustrious mysteries and miracles, and especially the resurrection of the dead, and the judicial power of judging all men. These two things Christ adds here.

THAT YOU MAY MARVEL, — He does not say, that you may believe; because the Scribes and Jews, having seen so many of Christ's miracles, marveled at His power and might, but nevertheless, blinded by hatred and envy, refused to believe in Him as the Messiah: yet Christ performed them with this intention and purpose, that they might believe in Him. So Cyril. So likewise heretics do even now; namely they marvel at the wisdom, holiness, and miracles of the orthodox Saints; but nevertheless they refuse to follow their faith and imitate their conduct. This is the blindness, obstinacy, and malice of heresy and error.

Verse 21: As the Father Raises the Dead, So the Son Gives Life

21. FOR AS THE FATHER RAISES THE DEAD AND GIVES LIFE: SO ALSO THE SON GIVES LIFE TO WHOM HE WILLS.

Behold, this is the first greater work, which Christ said the Father would show, that is, communicate, to Him the Son. For, as St. Augustine says: "Greater works are raising the dead than healing the sick." And St. Cyril: "Do not marvel," He says, "at this, that one man weakened by a long illness, strengthened by a word, even took up his bed and departed, since I am going to destroy death altogether and judge the whole world."

SO ALSO THE SON GIVES LIFE TO WHOM HE WILLS. — He tacitly signifies that He is God, equal to the Father in the power and freedom of raising and giving life to whomever He wills. "That particle, As the Father," says Chrysostom, "shows undivided power; but that other, Whom He wills, shows equal power." Similarly Theophylactus: "The word, Whom He wills, indicates the equality of His power with the Father's."

Whom He wills. — The Father does not will to give life to some and the Son to others; but to the same persons, because His will is conformed to, indeed numerically the same as, the will of the Father. So St. Augustine.

GIVES LIFE. — That is, He raises from death, both in this life, as He raised Lazarus and the widow's son; and on the day of judgment He will raise absolutely all: the Saints indeed to eternal life, but the wicked to hell and eternal death, as will be clear in verses 25 and 28.

Verse 22: All Judgment Has Been Given to the Son

22. FOR NEITHER DOES THE FATHER JUDGE ANYONE, BUT HE HAS GIVEN ALL JUDGMENT TO THE SON.

The word for the Arabic omits, but the Greek has it, and fittingly; for it introduces a new argument. For this is the second reason by which Christ proves Himself to be God, and it is the second greater work, which He said in verse 20 the Father would show, that is, give to Him. For the first is to raise the dead; the second is judicial power, which Christ alone as man received from the Father in His incarnation, and which He alone will visibly exercise over all on the day of judgment. So Bede, Chrysostom, and Cyril, whom hear: "He brings another certain divine and excellent argument, by which He shows Himself to be God by nature and truly. For to whom does it belong to judge the whole world, other than to God alone, whom alone the divine Scripture calls to judgment, saying: Arise, O God: judge the earth?" Psalm 81, verse 3. And again: "For God is the judge, He humbles one and exalts another," Psalm 47, verse 6.

TO HIS SON, — who is one God with Him, but who became man through the incarnation. "As if it were said," says Augustine, book 1 On the Trinity, 13, "no one will see the Father at the judgment of the living and the dead, but all will see the Son, because He is the Son of Man, so that He can be seen even by the wicked, since they too will see Him whom they pierced."

You will say: Christ was constituted judge as man, according to that text: "Who was appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead," Acts 10:42; therefore Christ does not rightly prove from the fact that He is judge that He is God. I reply that He does rightly prove it, because judicial power is proper to God; for it is supreme and of the most ample jurisdiction: therefore God was unwilling and could not fittingly communicate it to a mere man, but to Christ alone, who is God and man. For He as God has the supreme authority to judge; but as man, He has the capacity to exercise this judgment visibly before men who are to be saved and damned; for the judge must be seen by the accused and his sentence must be heard by him.

Verse 23: That All May Honor the Son as They Honor the Father

23. THAT ALL MAY HONOR THE SON, JUST AS THEY HONOR THE FATHER: HE WHO DOES NOT HONOR THE SON DOES NOT HONOR THE FATHER, WHO SENT HIM.

For the Jews who here refused to honor the Son of God, and to acknowledge Him as such, on the day of judgment seeing His majesty and His divine power in judging, will be compelled unwillingly to acknowledge, honor, and adore Him as God.

JUST AS THEY HONOR THE FATHER. — The word just as signifies equality, not similarity, because it equates those who are of the same nature, that is, it makes them mutually equal, namely the Son to the Father. "For," as St. Cyril says, "if He is everything that the Father is, as far as pertains to the majesty of the Divinity, how will it not be fitting for Him to be honored equally with the Father, to whom nothing at all is lacking for identity of substance?" So also St. Augustine, Chrysostom, Theophylactus, and others. Hence against the Arians it is clear that Christ is God, and therefore must be adored with the same adoration with which the Father is adored, namely latria.

HE WHO DOES NOT HONOR THE SON DOES NOT HONOR THE FATHER, WHO SENT HIM, — both because by denying the Son, he denies the Father also; for father and son are correlative terms, and he cannot be a father who does not have a son. In God, moreover, he who denies that the Son of God is the Son, denies that God the Father is truly and properly the Father and has begotten; and tacitly asserts that He lacked the power to beget a Son consubstantial and equal to Himself. Also because the Father "sent the Son" into the world, so that through Him He might be honored, that is, so that He might be acknowledged to be a Father in the proper sense, and to have begotten a Son homoousios with Himself, and to be adored together with Him in the same worship of latria. Therefore he who denies the Son to be God, denies that the Father begot God, which is the supreme injury and blasphemy against the Father. For it takes away from the Father a generation equal to and worthy of Himself, and instead of a divine and uncreated one, attributes to Him a created and feeble one: therefore it denies that He is a proper and divine Father.

Verse 24: He Who Hears My Word Has Eternal Life

24. AMEN, AMEN I SAY TO YOU, THAT HE WHO HEARS MY WORD, AND BELIEVES HIM WHO SENT ME, HAS ETERNAL LIFE, AND DOES NOT COME INTO JUDGMENT, BUT HAS PASSED FROM DEATH TO LIFE. — "Amen, amen." This doubling arouses attention. For it signifies that the matter He asserts is not only most certain, but also supremely necessary for eternal salvation. See what was said at chapter 3, verse 3. "That" (quia), that is, "which" (quod). "Hears," in such a way that he believes and obeys My word. Hence He adds: "And believes Him who sent Me," and consequently believes Me as the Son, sent by the Father into the world for its salvation. He does not say: "And believes Me," but something greater. For by saying: "And believes Him who sent Me," He involves the mystery of the Holy Trinity and of the Incarnation: which two are the principal articles of faith and supremely necessary for salvation. For He who sent the Son is God the Father: now the Father and the Son joined together necessarily spirate the Holy Spirit: behold for you the entire Holy Trinity.

Has eternal life. — "Has," by right, by merit, and in hope, but not yet in reality. "Has" therefore, that is, will certainly have, if he perseveres in the faith and lives in conformity with it until death. See what was said at chapter 3, verse 16.

And does not come into judgment (that is, into condemnation, namely into hell) — does not go. See what was said at chapter 3, verse 17.

Has passed (that is, will certainly pass — He uses the past tense for the future because of the certainty of the matter, as if to say: He will certainly and infallibly pass over, just as if he had already passed) from death (the temporary death of the body) into eternal life — blessed in heaven. For although the reprobate who are to be damned will also be raised to life, so that they may burn in hell, nevertheless this life of hell will be a continual death rather than life. For, as St. Augustine says, in book 6 of The City of God, chapter 12, "there is no greater or worse death than where death does not die." In hell, therefore, there will be a living death and a dying life, that is, one always dying, yet never dead. Again, more plainly, as if to say: He who believes and obeys God the Father and the Son sent by Him, "has passed from the death" of the soul dead through sin, to the spiritual life of grace, so that after natural death he may pass to the life of glory.

Verse 25: The Hour Is Coming When the Dead Shall Hear the Voice of the Son of God

25. AMEN, AMEN I SAY TO YOU, THAT THE HOUR IS COMING, AND NOW IS, WHEN THE DEAD SHALL HEAR THE VOICE OF THE SON OF GOD, AND THOSE WHO HEAR SHALL LIVE. — "Lest you think this is far in the future," says Chrysostom, He adds: "And now is." For if He were announcing only future things, there would not unreasonably be room for doubt, but while He Himself is conversing with them on earth, He says these things will come. For, as Theophylact says: "He speaks here of those (three) whom He was going to raise, such as the son of the widow, the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, and Lazarus," and especially of Lazarus; for He was going to raise him in Judea, but the other two in Galilee. For Christ is speaking here in Judea to the Jews, and this is what "and now is" signifies. For Christ rises from the spiritual resurrection of souls from sin to the life of grace accomplished by Himself, to the resurrection of bodies accomplished by Himself while He was still living on earth, and then in verse 28, He rises to the full resurrection and glory of bodies, which He will accomplish on the day of judgment. For from the power of raising souls from the death of sin to the life of grace, as from a greater and more difficult matter, Christ proves that He has the power of raising bodies: which is lesser and easier. So say Toletus, Jansenius, and Franciscus Lucas, following St. Chrysostom and Theophylact; although St. Cyril, Maldonatus, and others, holding that this passage treats of the common and universal resurrection, take "and now is" as referring to the day of the last judgment. For St. John, in his first epistle, chapter 2, verse 18, calls the entire time of the new law the last hour (that is, the last time); because, namely, this is the final state of mankind, and therefore all things that happen in it seem to be present, as if happening now, at this very hour.

Others add that Christ speaks of the Saints whom, by dying and rising, He raised from death, Matthew chapter 27, verse 52. The fullest sense will be obtained if you understand it of absolutely all who have been raised and are to be raised by Christ.

And those who hear — that is, who experience the power of the voice of Christ, or who obey Him, just as if they were hearing the voice of the Son of God, who calls things that are not as though they were. This is a catachresis. For it is evident that the dead do not hear, and must first be raised from death before they can hear a voice.

Shall live. — They shall rise by the force and power of the voice of Christ.

Verse 26: As the Father Has Life in Himself, So Has He Given the Son

26. FOR AS THE FATHER HAS LIFE IN HIMSELF; SO HE HAS GIVEN TO THE SON ALSO TO HAVE LIFE IN HIMSELF. — "To have life in Himself" signifies three things. First, to have life from Himself and from His own essence, not from another; for God's essence is life, and life is His essence. God therefore is essentially and through His essence life itself — essential, uncreated, and immense. So says St. Augustine here, in tract. 19: "What does it mean," he says, "'The Father has life in Himself'? He does not have life elsewhere, but in Himself: for His living is in Him, and is not from another source. It is not something foreign, nor does He borrow life, as it were, nor is He a mere participant in a life that is not what He Himself is, but He has life in Himself, so that life itself is Himself."

Second, for God to have life in Himself is to be the font of all life, from which, that is, all the life of angels, humans, animals, and plants flows forth as from a most abundant and living fountain, nor can it flow from any other source. So says St. Euthymius. "To have life in Himself," he says, means to cause life to spring forth in the manner of a fountain, according to that text: "For with You is the font of life," Psalm 35, verse 10. Third, which follows from the first and second, "to have life in Himself" is to have life in one's own power, to be the Lord of life, to have dominion over all living beings, so as to be able to give, preserve, and take away life at will. From this the unity of essence, that is, of the Deity, in the Father and the Son is evident: for otherwise, if the Son had a different essence from the Father, He would have life in another, namely in the Father, who gave Him life; but in fact He has life in Himself, that is, in His own divine essence, which He therefore has as entirely the same with the Father. So Chrysostom says: "Behold," he says, "how in nothing at all does He differ," except that one is the Father, the other the Son.

So He has given to the Son also to have life in Himself, — because the Son is God, and this according to the three modes just reviewed. "So that His life would not be in need of life," says Augustine, "lest it be understood that He has life by participation; for if He had life by participation, He could also lose it and be without life: do not accept this of the Son, do not think it, do not believe it. Therefore the Father remains life, and the Son also remains life: the Father, life in Himself, not from the Son; the Son, life in Himself, but from the Father."

Furthermore, St. Cyril explains this same point of Christ, not as God, but as man, as if to say: Christ, as man, has life in Himself, that is, He has power of life and death over all, He is the lord of the life and death of all; for He has been appointed by the Father as judge of the living and the dead. Hence there follows:

Verse 27: He Has Given Him Power to Execute Judgment, Because He Is the Son of Man

27. AND HE HAS GIVEN HIM POWER TO EXECUTE JUDGMENT, BECAUSE HE IS THE SON OF MAN. — As if to say: Because Christ as God has life in Himself, hence as man He has the power of judging all. For the word "because" here is taken specificatively, not reduplicatively, and therefore means the same as "insofar as," as if "because" is taken for "in that"; yet secondly and more forcefully, you may take "because" reduplicatively and causally, as it sounds. For it gives the reason why God gave Christ judicial power. The reason is that Christ is the Son of Man, that He deigned to become incarnate and be made man, as if to say: God willed to judge men through Christ as man, so that the judgment might be fitting, and might be conducted in a fitting manner, namely in a sensible and human way, and so that just as He saves the world through Christ as man, so also He might judge it through the same; that man, I say, who though He was God, put on human life and laid it down and lavished it for the salvation of men unto death.

Therefore by His very great self-emptying, by which He willed to become man and die for men, He merited this exaltation of judicial power, so that He is the judge of all, who was the savior of all. So say Toletus, Jansenius, Maldonatus, and others. Hear St. Augustine: "According as He is the Son of God, as the Father has life in Himself, so He has given to the Son to have life in Himself; but according as He is the Son of Man, He has given Him power to execute judgment." And shortly after: "According to this He received the power of judging, because He is the Son of Man; for according as He is the Son of God, He always had this power." He adds a twofold reason. The first is: "It was added," he says, "so that those who are to be judged might see the judge; now both good and evil were to be judged: it remained that in the judgment the form of a servant be shown to both good and evil, while the form of God be reserved for the good alone." The second: "That form will be the judge which stood before a judge: that form will judge which was judged; for it was judged unjustly, and it will judge justly."

Verse 28: All Who Are in the Tombs Shall Hear His Voice

28. DO NOT MARVEL AT THIS, FOR THE HOUR IS COMING, IN WHICH ALL WHO ARE IN THE TOMBS SHALL HEAR THE VOICE OF THE SON OF GOD. — "Hour," that is, the time of the Gospel law, which is the last and final of all, at whose end the resurrection of the dead and the universal judgment will take place, as I said at verse 25.

Who are in the tombs, — namely the dead and buried, under which understand also the unburied dead. For, as St. Augustine says, "by those who are naturally buried, He also signified those who are not naturally buried."

Shall hear, — that is, they shall experience the sentence, the power and efficacy of the voice of Christ.

The voice of the Son of God. — This will be the trumpet-like voice of the Archangel, perhaps Michael: "Arise, O dead, come to judgment," with the trumpets and voices of other angels sounding and harmonizing together. It is called the voice of God and of Christ, because by His command, but through the ministry of angels, it will be formed in the air, so that it resounds throughout the whole world, and from Him it will receive the efficacy of raising the dead, as His instrument, at least morally. For it is not necessary to attribute to this trumpet the physical power of raising the dead. On this voice and trumpet I have said more at 1 Thessalonians 4:16.

Verse 29: The Resurrection of Life and the Resurrection of Judgment

29. AND THOSE WHO HAVE DONE GOOD SHALL COME FORTH TO THE RESURRECTION OF LIFE (blessed and eternal): BUT THOSE WHO HAVE DONE EVIL, TO THE RESURRECTION OF JUDGMENT, — that is, of condemnation and hell, as if to say: The good shall rise to glory, the wicked to hell.

Shall come forth. — In Greek ekporeuontai, that is, they shall go out, namely from their tombs and sepulchers they shall rise, and shall proceed to the valley of Josaphat near Jerusalem, where the universal judgment will take place, so that there by Christ the Judge they may be assigned to heaven or hell according to their merits.

Here Christ casts before the Jews, who were unbelieving and rebellious toward Him, His judicial power, so that by fear of it He might terrify, crush, and convert them, just as He did at the end of His life, when, adjured by Caiaphas the High Priest whether He was the Son of God, He answered that He was, and therefore, when about to be condemned to death, He added: "Nevertheless I say to you, hereafter you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the power of God, and coming in the clouds of heaven," Matthew 26:64.

For nothing is more terrible and more effective for moving the hearts of men to do penance and to establish a holy life, than a vivid representation of the last judgment. Therefore Christ, ascending into heaven, commanded the Apostles through angels to preach His return for judgment, Acts 1:11; and for this reason Paul impressed the same upon the Areopagites, and among others converted St. Dionysius, Acts 17:31. For in the judgment the die of eternity will be cast for each person, whether most blessed or most wretched. "In all your works, therefore, remember your last end, and you will never sin," Sirach 7:40. See what was said there. Truly that fateful last day of the world will be decisive, and the horizon of eternity, which will divide the virtuous from the wicked and separate them as far as possible, and will heap every happiness upon the virtuous, and overwhelm the wicked with every calamity, and that for eternity. Ponder this wondrous and pitiable separation constantly, strive for holiness, live for eternity.

Verse 30: My Judgment Is Just; I Seek Not My Own Will

30. I CANNOT DO ANYTHING OF MYSELF. AS I HEAR, I JUDGE, AND MY JUDGMENT IS JUST: BECAUSE I DO NOT SEEK MY OWN WILL, BUT THE WILL OF HIM WHO SENT ME. — Christ demonstrates that His judgment, by which as man He will judge all men, will be just, from the fact that He cannot judge or will anything other than what the Father judges and wills. For He Himself, as God, has numerically the same judgment, the same mind and divine will that the Father has: but as man, He is entirely governed by the divinity and the Word dwelling within, so that He cannot judge or will anything other than what His divinity, as a presiding authority, judges and wills. So say St. Augustine, St. Chrysostom, Euthymius, and others.

As I hear (from the Father, who most truly judges what ought to be judged), so I judge — always, and especially so I will judge on the day of judgment. "I hear" therefore means the same as I know, I understand, I see; for in divine matters, hearing and seeing are the same, indeed they are the same in the mind; for the mind eminently contains sight, hearing, and the other senses. He shows that His judgment, by which He will judge all, will be true, because He will judge not from His own judgment, but from that of God the Father, which is known to be most true and most equitable. Hence He adds: "And," that is, therefore, or for this reason, "My judgment is just." So says St. Chrysostom: "By hearing," he says, "nothing else is understood than that He can do nothing other than what the Father does, as if to say: I judge in such a way as if the Father Himself were the judge."

Because I do not seek My own will (that is, My will alone, or a will different from the Father's, for I do not have such a will), but the will of Him who sent Me, — for My divine will is numerically the same as the will of the Father; and My human will is perfectly conformed to the divine will, and is in all things directed by it; therefore it cannot will or judge anything different from it. So says St. Augustine: "Not because," he says, "He has no will of His own in judging, but because His will is not so proper to Himself as to be alien from the Father's will." For, as Cyril says, "He follows the Father's will as a rule in all things," and therefore, says Euthymius, "His will is also My will." He gives an a priori reason why His future judgment will be just; because, namely, His will is entirely subject and conformed to the divine will, inasmuch as it subsists in the divine person of the Word, and is governed by it. For the will bends and governs the intellect and its judgment, wherever it wills. Therefore if the human will is conformed to the divine will, the human intellect and judgment will also be conformed to the divine intellect and judgment; especially because in God, the intellect and judgment are in reality entirely the same as the will; for in God all powers and all attributes are in reality the same as the divine essence, from which, as from its font, or rather as from the ocean of all good, they flow forth, and in it they essentially converge and are united. Therefore God's essence itself is the infallible norm and rule of all truth and justice, which Christ follows in all things, and from which He cannot deviate even a hair's breadth; and therefore both His will and His intellect and judgment are most right, most true, and most just, and will be so forever.

Verse 31: If I Bear Witness of Myself, My Witness Is Not True

31. IF I BEAR WITNESS OF MYSELF (that I am the Son of God, and therefore as man, in all things conformed to God's judgment and will), MY TESTIMONY IS NOT TRUE, — that is, not legitimate, not juridical, and not worthy of belief. For "true" here is not opposed to false, but to illegitimate, untrustworthy, uncertain; for it corresponds to the Hebrew neeman, that is, faithful, fitting, and worthy of belief. For it can happen that someone speaks a most true testimony about himself, yet among men it lacks credibility, because of the suspicion of excessive self-love, says Euthymius.

This is a prolepsis, or anticipation, by which Christ meets the tacit objection of the Scribes who would say: You, O Jesus, preach that You are the Son of God, and therefore that You follow God's judgment in all things; but we do not believe You, unless You prove it by the testimony of God or of men worthy of trust; for Your testimony, in a matter that is Your own and personal to You, seems suspect to us and not worthy of belief. Jesus answers: I acknowledge and concede to you that My testimony about Myself is not legitimate, nor worthy of belief, if I alone testify to this by Myself: I grant you, therefore, that you should not believe Me alone; but I am not alone, for several other trustworthy witnesses testify the same thing about Me, as will be clear in the following verse. For Christ speaks more from concession and from the common understanding of the Jews than from His own position, as is evident from John 8:13. Where the Jews throw in Christ's face and say: "You bear witness of Yourself, Your testimony is not true." To which Christ responds, in verses 14 and 16: "My testimony is true, etc., because I am not alone, but I and the Father who sent Me." So say St. Cyril, Chrysostom, Leontius, Theophylact, Euthymius, and others.

Verse 32: There Is Another Who Bears Witness of Me

32. THERE IS ANOTHER WHO BEARS WITNESS OF ME: AND I KNOW THAT THE TESTIMONY WHICH HE BEARS OF ME IS TRUE. — "Another," namely God the Father, who from heaven thundered at My baptism: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased," Matthew 3:17. So say St. Cyril, Bede, and Rupert. Again, "another," namely John the Baptist, bears witness to Me, as follows. So say St. Chrysostom, Leontius, Theophylact, Euthymius, Jansenius, Maldonatus, and others. "Another" therefore, that is, there are others who testify that I am the Son of God; namely God the Father, John the Baptist, Moses, the Prophets, and My own divine and miraculous works; for Christ brings forward all these witnesses in what follows to prove that He is the Messiah and the Son of God.

And I know that it is true. — As if to say: I for My part do not need these witnesses; for I know from My own proper and divine knowledge that what they testify is true, namely that I am the Son of God. Therefore I produce their testimony not for My own sake, but for yours, so that you may give faith to Me, having been proven by so many testimonies.

Verse 33: You Sent to John, and He Bore Witness to the Truth

33. YOU SENT TO JOHN (chapter 1, verse 19), AND HE BORE WITNESS TO THE TRUTH. — As if to say: You sent envoys to John, as to a man whom in your opinion was holy and worthy of all trust, to ask him whether he himself was the Messiah. John answered that not he, but I was the Messiah, and he gave this testimony not out of friendship or favor toward Me (for he had not seen Me before), but to "the truth." For you yourselves judged that he gave nothing to favor, but everything to truth, when you wanted to accept him as the Messiah: "therefore you cannot refute his testimony," says Euthymius. Here Christ plainly convinces the Scribes from John's testimony — which among the Jews was certain and irrefutable — that He is the Messiah.

Verse 34: I Do Not Receive Testimony From Man

34. BUT I DO NOT RECEIVE TESTIMONY FROM MAN. — As if to say: I for My part do not need John as a witness; for I am God and the Son of God, to whom John, Moses, and the Prophets ought to give belief, and from whom they should be taught, and receive all grace and authority. Again, as Cyril says: "He shows that the testimony of no man is necessary for Him, since He is demonstrated to be God by nature from the splendor of signs and glory," as if to say: Since I am God, I do not need the testimony, commendation, or celebration of men. So say Theophylact, Leontius, Maldonatus, Jansenius, and others.

But I say these things that you may be saved. — That is, as St. Chrysostom says: "I do not need the testimony of a man, since I am God: but since John is of such great authority among you, since you admire him as a Prophet, yet do not believe Me though I work miracles; therefore I recall his testimony to your memory, and I do everything to attract you and save you."

Verse 35: He Was a Burning and Shining Lamp

35. HE WAS A LAMP (in Greek ho lychnos, that is, that lamp, namely an outstanding and singular one) BURNING AND SHINING. BUT YOU WERE WILLING TO REJOICE FOR A TIME IN HIS LIGHT. — John was not the light itself shining from himself (for that was Christ Himself, John 1:9), but he was a lamp, which, having received its light from Christ, burned within itself with the knowledge and love of God, and shone before others by the example of holiness and the fervor of preaching. For God sent John after a long silence of all the Prophets over many centuries, as a heavenly Prophet, who might illuminate the darkness of the Jews' ignorance like a lamp, and show them the true light, namely Christ the Lord, and bear a torch before Him. So say St. Cyril, Leontius, Theophylact, and Euthymius. Christ therefore is the sun of justice, John is like a star and moon illuminated by the sun. For the Only-begotten is naturally light, who shone forth from the light, that is, from the substance of the Father, says Cyril. But John was a lamp, because he shone with a light derived and participated from Him; he shone, I say, with oil, that is, with the grace of the Holy Spirit, which like oil, entering our souls as lamps, nourishes, preserves, and increases them. Hence his type was the lamp burning with oil in the temple, before God dwelling in the Holy of Holies; for thus John shines before Christ. Therefore John the Baptist was the lamp burning and shining always in the tabernacle of testimony, says Cyril. See what was said at Exodus 25:31.

Morally: St. Bernard, in his sermon On St. John the Baptist, teaches that holy men and preachers must first burn within themselves with charity and zeal, before they shine by preaching to others. "For," he says, "merely to shine is vain, merely to burn is too little; to burn and shine is perfect." And further: "He was a lamp burning and shining. He does not say: 'Shining and burning,' because John's splendor proceeded from his fervor, not his fervor from his splendor; for there are those who do not shine because they burn, but rather burn in order to shine. But these plainly do not burn with the spirit of charity, but with the pursuit of vanity." And then, assigning a threefold ardor and splendor in John, he adds: "For he was burning in himself with the vehement austerity of his way of life; toward Christ with a certain intimate and full fervor of devotion; toward sinning neighbors with the free constancy of rebuke. He shone nevertheless, to speak briefly, by example, by his pointing finger, and by his word; both showing himself for imitation, and showing the greater luminary, who was hidden, for the remission of sins, and illuminating even our very darkness." And then: "Consider a man promised by an angelic oracle, conceived by a miracle, sanctified in the womb, and marvel at the new fervor of penance in a new man." Hear Alcuin here: "John was a lamp, illuminated by Christ the light, burning with faith and love, shining by word and action; who was sent ahead to confound the enemies of Christ, according to that text: 'I have prepared a lamp for My Christ, I will clothe His enemies with shame.'"

Such was St. Athanasius; hence St. Gregory Nazianzen, in oration 21, which is in praise of Athanasius, calls him the eye of the world, the prelate of priests, the leader and teacher of Confessors, a sublime voice, a firm pillar of faith, after John the Baptist a second lamp shining and burning. And he adds: Athanasius "was a diamond to those who struck him (through invincible patience), a magnet to those who disagreed," drawing them to himself and reconciling them with one another. And further: "Let virgins," he says, "praise him as a bridegroom's attendant, married couples as a moderator, anchorites as a stimulator, cenobites as a lawgiver, the simple as a guide, those devoted to contemplation as a theologian, the cheerful as a bridle, the afflicted as a consoler, the aged as a staff, the young as a pedagogue, poverty as a benefactor, riches as a steward, the sick as a physician, the healthy as a guardian of health; in short, all praise him who became all things to all, that he might gain all, or as many as possible." And earlier: "He himself," he says, "embracing in his own single soul the virtues of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Samuel, Elijah, Elisha, and the rest of the Saints, produced from all of them one image of virtue, perfect in all its parts." Such also was St. Basil, of whom the same Nazianzen says, in oration 20: "The voice of Basil," he says, "was thunder, because his life was lightning." Because his life flashed like lightning, therefore his voice thundered.

But you were willing to rejoice for a time (for a brief period) in his light. — As if to say: At first, when John was preaching with such holiness of life and zeal, you rejoiced and exulted that so great a Prophet had arisen from heaven, whom you hoped would be your Messiah; but when John began to condemn your crimes and to point to Me as the Messiah — Me, I say, poor and humble — you despised John, and did not believe his testimony about Me; for if you had believed, you would have received Me as the Messiah. This is what Luke says, chapter 7, verse 30: "But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the counsel of God in themselves, not being baptized by him," namely by John. So say St. Cyril, Chrysostom, and others.

Verse 36: I Have a Testimony Greater Than John's; the Works of the Father

36. BUT I HAVE A TESTIMONY GREATER THAN JOHN. FOR THE WORKS WHICH THE FATHER HAS GIVEN ME TO ACCOMPLISH; THE VERY WORKS THAT I DO BEAR WITNESS OF ME, THAT THE FATHER HAS SENT ME. — "Greater than John," that is, greater than the testimony of John. "Greater," that is, more certain, more efficacious, more convincing that I am the Messiah, the Son of God, sent by God for the salvation of men. This greater testimony consists of My works, that is, miracles, "which the Father has given Me," so that by them I might prove that I was sent by Him. For "anyone could slander John's testimony as given out of favor," says Euthymius; "but the works, free from all suspicion, stop every contentious mouth." "For the works would persuade even madmen," says Chrysostom. St. Cyril adds: "Since, therefore, John does not seem to you worthy of belief, I offer a greater witness, whose splendor may so dazzle the eyes of your mind that you can say absolutely nothing: for I do not prove My case by words or by the authority of men, but by the splendor and grace of miracles, I show that I am from God by nature and God by nature."

The works (miracles) that I do bear witness of Me, — because the miracles (such as the recent healing of the paralytic, for example, says Theophylact) are My supernatural works, which can be performed by no created cause, but are proper to God alone. Hence they are, as it were, the seal of God, by which He Himself bears witness to Me and seals and confirms My teaching. "Because they are the works of divine power alone," says Euthymius. Hence Lyra says: "A firm testimony is through works possible to God alone, who cannot be a witness to falsehood." So also say St. Chrysostom, Cyril, and others.

From this it follows that the Jews could and should have known with certainty that Jesus was the Messiah, that is, the Christ and the Son of God, from the miracles He performed. First, because Jesus performed them with this end and purpose, that by them He might prove Himself to be the Christ and God. This was therefore evident in the one giving testimony, namely in the miracles, which testified that He spoke the truth, namely that He was God and the Son of God. Second, because Jesus performed all the miracles that the Prophets foretold the Christ would perform, as He Himself showed, Matthew 11, verses 4 and 5. Third, because although some Prophets and holy men performed certain miracles, they were not so many or so great as those Jesus performed. Moreover, the Prophets performed miracles not by their own power, but by invoking God; but Christ performed them by His own power, His own authority, His own command and sovereignty, as Lord. From this, therefore, it was easy to know that He was the Messiah and God. So says St. Athanasius, in his book On the Incarnation of the Word. Hence also many of the Jews recognized Him as such; others, however, especially the rulers and Scribes, although when secretly and calmly considering all the deeds of Jesus, they were convinced by them that He was the Messiah; nevertheless, driven and blinded by anger and envy against Him, did not acknowledge Him as such, or rather refused to acknowledge Him.

Therefore, in two principal ways the miracles of Jesus prove that He is God. First, by reason of the manner of performing them, as I said, in that He used that supremely powerful force, proper to Himself, in performing miracles. Second, He also reserved certain miracles for Himself which by their very nature convince and demonstrate that He is God: such as, that He was born of a Virgin; that He knew the secrets of hearts, and what was in man, and knew all things — which was the reason why the Apostles said they believed that He had come forth from God. Likewise, that He foretold all future things that were going to happen in His passion, death, and after His resurrection according to the Scriptures; that, when He willed, He laid down His soul on the cross, and then on the third day took it up again; that He ascended into heaven; that He sent the Holy Spirit; and finally that He poured forth that marvelous power of working miracles into the Apostles and the seventy-two disciples. This too is singular in Christ, and reserved to Him alone, which I am about to say: namely, the force and power always and everywhere at the ready and nowhere restricted, for performing such great miracles, so incredible and surpassing the capacity of nature, so full and perfect, so salutary, so true, so certain and clear, so divine and befitting the Son of God. Among which there especially stands out that saving and immediate power of healing all diseases of all people, as we have said, however many came to Him for the sake of recovering health, in all places, at all times. This absolute power and perpetual virtue belongs to Christ alone. It was never granted in the Old Testament to Elijah, or to Elisha, or even to Moses in the promulgation of the law, or to angels: for they only performed miracles at intervals, as is evident from a comparison of the histories. Moreover, their miracles were comprised within a definite number: but the miracles of Christ formed a continuous series, and no number could be reckoned. So say St. Augustine, epistle 3 to Volusian; St. Cyril and Chrysostom, whom St. Thomas cites and follows, III part, Question 43, article 4. To which add those things that followed Christ's death as its effects, such as the conversion of the whole world to Christ through the twelve Apostles who were fishermen, the fervor of the faithful of the primitive Church, Acts 2 and following, the invincible strength of innumerable Martyrs, indeed their exultation in torments, even of boys, virgins, and women, etc. All of which cry out that Christ is to be worshipped, loved, and adored as the Son of God, inasmuch as He alone accomplished these divine works proper to God. This is the glory of the incarnate Word, which St. John celebrates in chapter 1, verse 14 of the Gospel.

Verse 37: The Father Who Sent Me Has Borne Witness of Me

37. AND THE FATHER WHO SENT ME, HE HIMSELF HAS BORNE WITNESS OF ME: YOU HAVE NEVER HEARD HIS VOICE, NOR HAVE YOU SEEN HIS FORM. — "Has borne witness," when He thundered from heaven at My baptism: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased," Matthew chapter 3, verse 17. So says St. Chrysostom. Again, "He has borne witness of Me" through the Scriptures, namely through Moses and the Prophets, who prophesied about Me and My works many hundreds of years ago, as Christ soon explains, verse 39. So say Theophylact, Nonnus, Euthymius, and others. St. Augustine and St. Hilary, in book 6 of On the Trinity, add that the Father bears witness to Jesus that He is the Son of God, when He cooperates with His works, that is, with His miracles, and gives Him the power to perform them. But this testimony is included in the miracles themselves, which He treated in the preceding verse.

Note: Christ here, besides the testimony of John, brings forward three other greater testimonies by which He proves Himself to be the Messiah: first, from miracles, verse 36; second, from the voice of the Father at His baptism; third, from the Scriptures, verse 39.

Verse 38: You Do Not Have His Word Abiding in You

38. AND YOU DO NOT HAVE HIS WORD ABIDING IN YOU (the Arabic version: it is not established in you), BECAUSE THE ONE WHOM HE SENT, YOU DO NOT BELIEVE. — The connection, and consequently the argumentation, of these words is obscure, which therefore various interpreters explain in various ways.

First, you may explain it plainly and genuinely as an anticipation and concession, as if to say: You, O Scribes, when I allege the testimony of God the Father about Me, will object that you did not hear it, because you did not hear the proper and natural voice of God, nor did you see His form and face, as Moses saw, when receiving the law from God on Sinai, Exodus 19, whom accordingly you claim to believe. I answer: I concede what you say, but I add that no one — not even Moses, nor your ancestors receiving the law from God on Sinai — heard the proper voice of God, nor saw His form and face; but they only saw the abundant fire with which God was covered, and heard a voice formed in the air by an angel in God's place. For I alone, who am the natural Son of God, and therefore intimate with God, have heard His proper voice, and have seen His form, that is, His divine face, and I see it continually; but nevertheless I press and convict you that you have heard the word of God testifying about Me, when at My baptism God the Father declared with a public sound: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased," Matthew 3:17. Again, you have heard the word of God about Me in the Holy Scriptures, namely in Moses and the Prophets, who testify that I am the Messiah and God. But you, although you have heard this word and testimony of God about Me, nevertheless do not have it abiding in you, because you do not penetrate it with your mind, you do not grasp it, you do not understand it, you do not comprehend it, you do not believe it, because you refuse to believe Me as one sent by God the Father: in which matter you gravely err and sin. For if you heard the word of an angel speaking in God's place with Moses as His servant, and you believe it, much more ought you to hear and believe the word of God testifying about Me that I am His Son, especially since Moses bears witness to Me and commands you to hear Me, as follows.

So says Euthymius: "Since the word," he says, "which was given through the law and the Prophets, cries out that the Father is going to send His Son for your salvation, and that you ought to believe in Him, you, by not believing in the one whom He sent, do not heed His foretold word, and therefore you do not have it abiding in you." This sense seems clear, plain, and genuine.

Second, however, St. Hilary, in book 9 of On the Trinity, connects and explains this entire passage as follows, as if to say: For this reason you have not heard His voice, nor seen His form, nor does His word abide in you, because you do not believe in Me, as if it were said: If you believed in Me, you would hear the voice of the Father, and would see His appearance; for he who sees Me, sees also the Father; likewise he who hears Me, hears also the Father, and the word of the Father remains in him.

Third, St. Cyril and Chrysostom consider these words to have been spoken by Christ to confound the Jews, who boasted that they had heard and seen God at Sinai promulgating the Decalogue, as if to say: You err, and falsely boast, O Jews, that you heard and saw God at Sinai; for God is a pure spirit, who has neither a proper voice nor a proper appearance, as man has. Therefore that voice which you heard, and that appearance of fire which you saw at Sinai, was not the true and proper voice or appearance of God, but merely a corporeal symbol and sign, representing to you, who were corporeal and unrefined, the hidden and invisible deity, like a shadow.

Fourth, St. Athanasius, in Book 4 Against the Arians, by "word," in Greek logos, understands Christ the Son of God, who is the Word of the Father, whom he says is fittingly joined with the appearance and form of God, because He is the character and living image of the Father, and the meaning is, as if to say: You have not heard the voice of God, nor seen His form, and when there remained to you one way — namely, to believe in Me, who am the Word of the Father and the image of His substance, and whoever sees Me, sees also the Father — you despise this way and do not believe in Me. Therefore you do not have knowledge of the Father, and you are deprived of divine knowledge.

Fifth, Toletus, as if to say: You, O Jews, terrified by the trumpet-like voice of the angel and the flashing fire at Sinai, asked that this terrible voice no longer be heard, nor that horrible fire be seen, but that God should speak to you through Moses as an intermediary, and you obtained this from God. But the word and covenant to which you bound yourselves, you do not keep: you accepted indeed His covenant, namely that you would hear the Prophet whom He would send from your nation; but His word and covenant does not remain in you, because what you covenanted, you refuse to fulfill. For behold, I am the one whom He sent, and you do not believe Me, nor hear Me, as you promised.

But the first interpretation seems most fitting and appropriate.

Verse 39: Search the Scriptures; They Bear Witness of Me

39. SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES, BECAUSE YOU THINK IN THEM TO HAVE ETERNAL LIFE; AND IT IS THEY THAT GIVE TESTIMONY OF ME. — "SEARCH," both in Greek and in Latin, can be either indicative or imperative mood. In the indicative mood Cyril takes it, as if to say: You, O Scribes, are constantly searching and turning over the Scriptures, which give testimony of Me; but you do not care to grasp and understand that testimony, because you do not wish to come to Me. Better, St. Augustine, St. Chrysostom, Theophylactus, Euthymius, and others take it in the imperative, as if to say: Search the Scriptures, and in them you will find God the Father bearing testimony to Me.

Moreover, by the force of "search," Christ, says Chrysostom, "directed the Jews not to a simple and bare reading of the Scriptures, but to a most diligent investigation; for He did not say: Read the Scriptures, but search them," that is, seek diligently, and as it were dig out the treasures concerning Me and divine things hidden in them, just as those who search for veins of gold and silver dig the earth to find gold. "He commands them to dig deeper, so that those things which are hidden deep like a treasure may be found," says Euthymius, following St. Chrysostom. So also Theophylactus. "He had said to them," he says, "the word of God, that is of Scripture, which testifies of Me, is not in you. How then will they be able to have the word of God? He says: Search the Scriptures." So those to whom Paul preached searched the Scriptures, Acts 17:11, but sincerely and with the sole desire of knowing the truth: therefore they found in the Scriptures Christ, whom Paul was preaching to them.

BECAUSE YOU THINK IN THEM (that is, in their understanding, belief, and observance) TO HAVE ETERNAL LIFE. — For if anyone believes and does what Scripture commands, he will attain eternal life. From this it is clear that most Jews, and especially the Pharisees, believed in the immortality of the soul and that another life remains after this one, in which eternal life is to be bestowed by God upon the good, and eternal death upon the wicked. I say most; for the Sadducees denied all these things, as is clear from Acts 23:8.

And (that is, "for"; for the Hebrew vav, that is "and," is often causal, and means the same as "for," "because," "for indeed." So Euthymius; for he gives the reason why He said: "Search the Scriptures;" because namely) IT IS THEY THAT GIVE TESTIMONY OF ME, — namely many in the literal sense, more in the allegorical and mystical sense; because "the end of the law is Christ," Romans 10:4; for, as Peter says, "to Him all the Prophets give testimony, that through His name all who believe in Him receive remission of sins," Acts 10:43. Therefore the reader of Sacred Scripture, and especially the interpreter, teacher, and preacher, should search the Scriptures, and in all of them he will find Christ, either openly revealed in truth, or hidden, concealed, and veiled under shadows and figures. See our Joseph Acosta, in the book On Christ Revealed, and St. Cyprian, in the book On the Testimony against the Jews.

Verse 40: You Will Not Come to Me That You May Have Life

40. AND (yet) YOU WILL NOT COME TO ME THAT YOU MAY HAVE LIFE, — as if to say: You do not wish to adhere to Me, to believe in Me, to embrace My doctrine and law, so that you might acquire the eternal life preached by Scripture. For to that life I alone am the way, the truth, and the life, John 14:6.

Verse 41: I Receive Not Glory From Men

41. I RECEIVE NOT GLORY (in Greek doxa, that is, glory) FROM MEN. — This is an anticipation of an objection; as if to say: You, O Scribes, suspect and object to Me that I preach such magnificent things about Myself, and try so earnestly to prove My dignity and authority, out of a desire for vain glory, namely that I court the favor of the people, and wish to be glorified by them and considered great, indeed the Son of God. I respond: I preach these things about Myself not for My own sake, to chase the glory of men, but for your sake, namely to save you; for I am eager for your salvation, and I thirst for it. For I know that no one can be saved and possess eternal life except through Me, inasmuch as God has constituted Me the Savior of the world. So St. Chrysostom, Cyril, Leontius, and others, and this is clear from what follows.

Verse 42: You Do Not Have the Love of God in You

42. BUT I KNOW YOU, THAT YOU HAVE NOT THE LOVE OF GOD IN YOU, — as if to say: I know and penetrate the innermost depths of your hearts (for I am a knower of hearts and an inspector of minds, because I am God), and I see that in them there is nothing of divine love, but they are full of ambition, avarice, and pride. This is the reason why you refuse to accept the clear testimonies that I bring forward on My behalf, and to believe in Me, as if to say: The root of your unbelief and obstinacy is not My ambition for glory, but your own defect of charity. For if you truly loved God and strove to please Him alone, you would certainly recognize Me as sent by Him and so clearly described in Scripture. So also today, the cause of heresy in many is corrupted love; because many love the liberty of the flesh, which heresy teaches, and do not love God, who restrains and forbids it.

Cyril connects these words with the preceding differently, as if to say: I have not preached these great things about Myself for glory, namely to chase human praise, but so that you may know (as I know) that the love of God is not in you, and deprived of it, how will you be able to come to Me, who am the Son of God?

Chrysostom and Euthymius interpret it differently again, as if to say: You, O Scribes, persecute Me not out of zeal for God, because you love God and God's honor, but out of hatred and envy; for I have proved by so many testimonies that I am sent by God.

Finally, Toletus and Maldonatus interpret it differently, as if to say: I preach that I am the Messiah and the Son of God, not because I seek the vain glory of men, but because I know — that is, I recognize — that you do not have the love of God, which leads to eternal life; so that I might bring you to this love through the faith by which you believe in Me.

Verse 43: If Another Comes in His Own Name, Him You Will Receive

43. I AM COME IN THE NAME OF MY FATHER, AND YOU RECEIVE ME NOT: IF ANOTHER SHALL COME IN HIS OWN NAME, HIM YOU WILL RECEIVE. — "In the name of the Father," as the Son sent by God the Father, to fulfill in His name and authority, and for His sole praise and glory, those things which He promised you concerning the Messiah; namely, that through Him He might bestow upon you knowledge of God, grace, salvation, and eternal life; and this I have clearly proved to you by the many testimonies which the Father has given Me; and yet "you receive Me not," but reject Me as a false prophet. Therefore, by the just judgment of God, it will come to pass that if another false prophet comes to you, not sent by God, but "in his own name," that is, by his own authority, his own ambition, his own audacity thrusting himself forward, pretending and boasting that he is the Messiah, you will receive him as such. This "other" therefore will be the Antichrist, whom the Jews will believe, having rejected Christ, according to the word of Paul, 2 Thessalonians 2:10: "Therefore God shall send them the operation of error, that they may believe a lie, that all may be judged who have not believed the truth, but have consented to iniquity." See what is said there. So St. Chrysostom, Cyril, Augustine, Bede, Leontius, and generally the ancient Fathers.

Again, this "other" can be understood as any false prophet, pretending to be the Christ, and therefore a precursor of the Antichrist, such as was, shortly after Christ, that Egyptian who led thirty thousand men after him to destruction, about whom Josephus writes in Book 2 of The Wars, chapter 12. Likewise Ben Chosba, that is, "son of the lie," who falsely called himself Barchocabas, that is, "son of the star," under the Emperor Hadrian, about whom Eusebius writes in Book 4 of the History, chapter 6.

Verse 44: How Can You Believe, Who Receive Glory From One Another?

44. HOW CAN YOU BELIEVE, WHO RECEIVE GLORY ONE FROM ANOTHER; AND THE GLORY WHICH IS FROM GOD ALONE, YOU DO NOT SEEK? — As if to say: You chase after human glory, brief and paltry; therefore you despise Me, who despise human glory and teach that it should be despised, and that divine and eternal glory should be pursued, which God begins in His Saints on earth, but will perfect in heaven, where He will crown them with all glory and make them blessed. So Theophylactus.

Again, as if to say: You wish to be venerated by the people as the wisest and greatest doctors of the law, and its most religious observers; therefore you do not wish to submit to Me and become My disciples. It is ambition, then, that blinds you and hardens you in your unbelief.

Verse 45: There Is One Who Accuses You, Moses, in Whom You Trust

45. DO NOT THINK THAT I WILL ACCUSE YOU TO THE FATHER: THERE IS ONE THAT ACCUSES YOU, MOSES, IN WHOM YOU TRUST. — Hear Cyril: "There is no need for another accuser, but even with all others silent, He asserts that the law of Moses alone suffices for the condemnation of the Jews who do not believe in Him." He names Moses because the Jews placed all their faith and hope in Moses. Whence they said: "We are disciples of Moses: we know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this man, we know not whence He is," John 9:28. Therefore Christ "shrewdly turns this back upon their own heads," says Euthymius. Whence it follows:

Verse 46: If You Believed Moses, You Would Believe Me; for He Wrote of Me

46. FOR IF YOU DID BELIEVE MOSES, YOU WOULD PERHAPS BELIEVE ME ALSO: FOR HE WROTE OF ME. — "PERHAPS": so our Translator usually renders the Greek an, that is, "certainly"; which is therefore confirmatory, not dubitative, as if to say: If you believed Moses, you would certainly believe Me also. Therefore some of the ancients do not read the word "perhaps." See what was said at Matthew 11:23.

FOR HE WROTE OF ME, — both in Leviticus and in the entire Pentateuch; for nearly all its ceremonies and histories prefigured Me, as St. Chrysostom and Cyril say; and he also wrote of Me clearly and explicitly in Deuteronomy 18:15 and 18, saying: "I will raise up for them a prophet from among their brethren, like you, and I will put My words in his mouth; and whoever will not hear his words, which he shall speak in My name, I will be the avenger." For Moses wrote these things about Christ. And he assigns the time of the coming Messiah from the oracle of Jacob, saying: "The scepter shall not be taken away from Judah, nor a ruler from his thigh, until He comes who is to be sent." But now the scepter had departed from Judah and been transferred to Herod; therefore the time of the Messiah's coming had already arrived.

Verse 47: If You Do Not Believe His Writings, How Will You Believe My Words?

47. BUT IF YOU DO NOT BELIEVE HIS WRITINGS, HOW WILL YOU BELIEVE MY WORDS? — This is an argument ad hominem; for the Jews preferred Moses to Christ; therefore He rightly argues against them: If you do not believe the writings of Moses, whom you esteem most highly, which he wrote about Me, much less will you believe My words. Therefore I bring forward so many testimonies in vain, since I see you hardened and obstinate in hatred and rebellion against Me. Therefore I end My discourse, fall silent, and depart.