Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
First, Jesus absolves the adulteress accused by the Scribes. Second, verse 12, He asserts that He is the light of the world, and that the Jews, unless they believe in Him, will die in their sins. Third, verse 25, He says that He is the beginning, and that He frees those who believe in Him from sins; but that unbelieving Jews are slaves of sin, verse 34, and born of the devil as father, verse 44. Fourth, verse 49, when the Jews object to Him that He has a demon and is a Samaritan, He answers that He does not have a demon, but that He honors the heavenly Father. Fifth, verse 58, He declares that He existed before Abraham, and therefore when the Jews wish to stone Him, He hides Himself.
Vulgate Text: John 8:1-59
1. But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives; 2. and at dawn He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him, and sitting down He taught them. 3. And the Scribes and Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery; and they set her in the midst, 4. and said to Him: Master, this woman has just now been caught in adultery. 5. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. What then do You say? 6. But this they said testing Him, that they might be able to accuse Him. But Jesus, bending down, wrote with His finger on the ground. 7. When therefore they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them: Let him who is without sin among you be the first to cast a stone at her. 8. And again bending down He wrote on the ground. 9. But hearing this, they went out one by one, beginning from the elders: and Jesus alone remained, and the woman standing in the midst. 10. And Jesus raising Himself up said to her: Woman, where are those who accused you? Has no one condemned you? 11. She said: No one, Lord. And Jesus said: Neither will I condemn you. Go, and sin no more. 12. Again therefore Jesus spoke to them, saying: I am the light of the world; he who follows Me does not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. 13. The Pharisees therefore said to Him: You bear witness about Yourself; Your testimony is not true. 14. Jesus answered and said to them: Even if I bear witness about Myself, My testimony is true; because I know where I came from and where I am going: but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. 15. You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one: 16. and if I do judge, My judgment is true, because I am not alone; but I and the Father who sent Me. 17. And in your law it is written that the testimony of two men is true. 18. I am the one who bears witness about Myself, and the Father who sent Me bears witness about Me. 19. They therefore said to Him: Where is Your Father? Jesus answered: You know neither Me nor My Father; if you knew Me, you would perhaps also know My Father. 20. These words Jesus spoke in the treasury, teaching in the temple; and no one seized Him, because His hour had not yet come. 21. Jesus therefore said to them again: I am going away, and you will seek Me, and you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come. 22. The Jews therefore said: Will He kill Himself, because He said: Where I am going, you cannot come? 23. And He said to them: You are from below, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world. 24. Therefore I said to you, that you will die in your sins: for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sin. 25. They therefore said to Him: Who are You? Jesus said to them: The Beginning, who also speaks to you. 26. I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you; but He who sent Me is truthful, and the things I have heard from Him, these I speak in the world. 27. And they did not understand that He was calling God His Father. 28. Jesus therefore said to them: When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself, but as the Father has taught Me, these things I speak: 29. and He who sent Me is with Me, and has not left Me alone; because I always do the things that are pleasing to Him. 30. As He spoke these things, many believed in Him. 31. Jesus therefore said to the Jews who believed Him: If you abide in My word, you will truly be My disciples; 32. and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. 33. They answered Him: We are the seed of Abraham, and we have never served anyone; how do You say: You will be made free? 34. Jesus answered them: Amen, amen I say to you: everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. 35. Now the slave does not remain in the house forever; but the son remains forever: 36. if therefore the Son shall make you free, you will be truly free. 37. I know that you are children of Abraham; but you seek to kill Me, because My word does not find room in you. 38. I speak what I have seen with My Father; and you do what you have seen with your father. 39. They answered and said to Him: Our father is Abraham. Jesus says to them: If you are children of Abraham, do the works of Abraham. 40. But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has spoken the truth to you, which I heard from God: this Abraham did not do. 41. You do the works of your father. They therefore said to Him: We are not born of fornication; we have one father, God. 42. Jesus therefore said to them: If God were your father, you would indeed love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; for I did not come of Myself, but He sent Me. 43. Why do you not understand My speech? Because you cannot hear My word. 44. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you wish to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he did not stand in the truth; because there is no truth in him: when he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own, because he is a liar and the father of lies. 45. But if I speak the truth, you do not believe Me. 46. Which of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak the truth to you, why do you not believe Me? 47. He who is of God hears the words of God. Therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God. 48. The Jews therefore answered and said to Him: Do we not rightly say that You are a Samaritan and have a demon? 49. Jesus answered: I do not have a demon; but I honor My Father, and you have dishonored Me. 50. But I do not seek My own glory: there is One who seeks and judges. 51. Amen, amen I say to you: If anyone keeps My word, he shall never see death. 52. The Jews therefore said: Now we know that You have a demon: Abraham is dead, and the Prophets; and You say: If anyone keeps My word, he shall never taste death. 53. Are You greater than our father Abraham, who is dead, and the Prophets who are dead? Whom do You make Yourself? 54. Jesus answered: If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing: it is My Father who glorifies Me, whom you say is your God, 55. and you have not known Him; but I know Him; and if I should say that I do not know Him, I would be like you, a liar. But I know Him, and I keep His word. 56. Abraham your father rejoiced that he might see My day: he saw it, and was glad. 57. The Jews therefore said to Him: You are not yet fifty years old, and You have seen Abraham? 58. Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say to you, before Abraham was made, I am. 59. They therefore took up stones to cast at Him: but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.
Verse 1: But Jesus Went to the Mount of Olives
1. BUT JESUS WENT TO THE MOUNT OF OLIVES. — Jesus had taught throughout the whole eighth and last day of the feast of Tabernacles in the temple at Jerusalem, and had confuted the Pharisees: they in the evening returned home to a lavish supper as was their custom, but no one invited Jesus to lodging and supper, out of fear of the Pharisees. Jesus therefore went fasting from the temple to the Mount of Olives, namely into the garden of the villa of Gethsemane, that He might spend the night there under the open sky in prayer, as is gathered from chapter XVIII, verses 1 and 2, and from Matthew XXVI, 36. Food was either sent to Him by Martha from nearby Bethany, or bought by His disciples in Jerusalem. Here therefore Christ chose and designated this garden on the Mount of Olives as a kind of nocturnal lodging, indeed an oratory, six months before His death, on the last day of the feast of Tabernacles, to which from then on He was accustomed to withdraw by night from Jerusalem to pray. Whence Judas, knowing this custom of His, betrayed Him to the Jews in that very place, Matthew XXVI, 36. See what has been said there.
The Mount of Olives is a symbol of oil and of mercy, which Christ showed there, praying and beseeching the Father for pardon and the salvation of sinners, according to that passage: "Through the bowels of the mercy of our God, in which the Orient from on high hath visited us," Luke I. The feast of Tabernacles signified that Christ and Christians are here guests and pilgrims, who dwell in tabernacles, and tend toward their heavenly homeland; and therefore from the opulent and splendid city of Jerusalem they proceed to the mountain of heavenly oil, so that there through prayer they may draw from God grace and glory.
Verse 2: At Dawn He Came Again Into the Temple, and Sitting Down He Taught Them
2. AND EARLY IN THE MORNING HE CAME AGAIN INTO THE TEMPLE, AND ALL THE PEOPLE CAME UNTO HIM, AND SITTING DOWN HE TAUGHT THEM. — Christ therefore gave the night to prayer, the day to teaching and preaching, so that the Apostolic man may learn from Christ to do the same, as did St. Paul, St. Francis Xavier, and the like.
Verse 3: The Scribes and Pharisees Brought a Woman Caught in Adultery
3. AND THE SCRIBES AND PHARISEES BRING UNTO HIM A WOMAN TAKEN IN ADULTERY; AND THEY SET HER IN THE MIDST. 4. AND THEY SAID TO HIM: MASTER, THIS WOMAN WAS JUST NOW TAKEN IN ADULTERY. 5. NOW MOSES IN THE LAW COMMANDED US TO STONE SUCH. WHAT THEREFORE SAYEST THOU? — Note: this story of the adulteress is not found, nor read by St. Cyril, St. Chrysostom and other Greek commentators, nor by the Syriac. Yet all the Latins and the Arabic read it, and the Vulgate version teaches that it ought to be read, which the Council of Trent approved, session 4. Whence it is clear that it is canonical, and a legitimate part of holy Scripture.
To stone. — Note: The law of Moses only commanded that adulteresses be put to death, Leviticus XX, 10, but the princes ordered them to be stoned from the tradition and explication of the Scribes and Rabbis. For the law in a similar case commanded that a woman betrothed to a man be stoned if she committed adultery, Deuteronomy XXII, 24. Whence the Scribes very justly extended this penalty of stoning to an adulterous wife. So the Interpreters, almost universally. But at Leviticus XX, 10, I showed that the death penalty inflicted on adulterers was stoning, which is there named at the beginning of the chapter, and therefore must be extended to the following cases, and consequently to adulterers: whence the same is repeated at the end of the chapter, as if it pertained to the other cases of the chapter. The same is evident from Ezekiel XVI, 38, compared with verse 40. Hence they wanted to stone Susanna as an adulteress; but when her innocence was made known, her elder accusers, convicted of false accusation by Daniel, were condemned by the law of retaliation and stoned, Daniel XIII, 62. So also the Romans, Saxons, Persians, Egyptians, Arabs, Parthians, Turks, Brazilians, and other nations punished adultery with death, as I have shown at Genesis XXXVIII, 24; Numbers V, at the end of the chapter.
Verse 6: Jesus, Bowing Down, Wrote With His Finger on the Ground
6. AND THIS THEY SAID TEMPTING HIM, THAT THEY MIGHT ACCUSE HIM. BUT JESUS, BOWING HIMSELF DOWN, WROTE WITH HIS FINGER ON THE GROUND. — "That they might accuse Him," as contrary to Moses and the law, if He should say the adulteress was not to be stoned; but if He should declare that she was to be stoned, they would denounce Him before the people as rigid and harsh, since He supremely wished to be regarded as merciful. Rather, however, they thought He would say she was not to be stoned, "in order to preserve the appearance of His meekness, lest He lose the favor of the people," says Rupert. So also Bede, Euthymius, and St. Augustine, whom hear: "They had noticed that He was exceedingly gentle, so they said among themselves: If He judges that she should be let go, He will not uphold the justice which the law commands; but if, to avoid losing the gentleness by which He has already become beloved to the people, He says she ought to be let go, we shall thus find occasion to accuse Him: but the Lord, both in His answer kept justice, and did not depart from gentleness." They therefore thought to accuse Him, that by absolving the adulteress He would violate the law, overturn the judgments of tribunals, and open the door to adultery. "Saying, as St. Augustine writes, Thou art an enemy of the law, Thou judgest against Moses, nay, against Him who gave the law through Moses: Thou art guilty of death, and art to be stoned along with her."
BUT JESUS, BOWING HIMSELF DOWN, WROTE WITH HIS FINGER ON THE GROUND. — First, that He might turn away His face, and turn His back not so much upon the disgraced adulteress, as some hold, as upon the Scribes themselves who were accusing her, as if to say: Why do you accuse before Me an adulteress, since I am neither a civil judge, nor a condemner of sinners, but a physician and savior? So St. Augustine, Jansenius, Euthymius, Francis Lucas. Whence some Greek codices add: me prospoioumenos, that is, not drawing attention to Himself, not claiming jurisdiction, turning Himself away from them and from their accusation; though Toletus and others translate it, "not feigning, not pretending" to write, but actually writing on the ground: the Greek word signifies both, and both are true and suit this passage.
Secondly and more likely, Christ alludes to that passage of Jeremiah XVII, 1: "The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, with the point of a diamond;" and, as St. Augustine, St. Jerome and others say more properly, to verse 13: "All that forsake Thee shall be confounded: they that depart from Thee shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the vein of living waters," as if to say: You, O Scribes, Jeremiah has here depicted to the life: you accuse an adulteress, but you have committed crimes greater than hers; therefore you, rather than she, are to be stoned, nay, to be condemned to hell. For your sin of rebellion, unbelief, obstinacy, and persecution against Me is indelible, and as it were written with a pen of iron on a point of diamond, because you have forsaken the Lord and turned your back on Him; hence in turn He has forsaken you and turned His back on you, as I am turning away from you, and He will confound you, according to that of Jeremiah XVIII, 17: "As a burning wind will I scatter them (from the earth) before the enemy; I will show them My back, and not My face, in the day of their destruction." You have sought earthly goods, neglecting heavenly ones, that is, things paltry, brief, vain; and therefore with them you shall shortly pass away and be blotted out, just as what is written in the earth is quickly obliterated either by a blowing wind or by a tramping foot. You have withdrawn from God; therefore you shall be written not in heaven, but on the earth, indeed at the center of the earth, namely in hell; you shall be the bellows and fuel of Gehenna. See the comments on Jeremiah XVII. So St. Augustine, Book IV On the Consensus of the Evangelists, chapter X; St. Ambrose, epistle 76 to Studius: "He wrote," he says, "on the ground with the finger with which He had written the law: sinners are written on the earth, the just in heaven."
Symbolically: St. Augustine in the cited place adds two other reasons. The first is, that He might show that He performs miracles on the earth; because although He was God, He humbled Himself to become man: for miracles are signs performed on the earth. The second, that He might hint that now the time had come in which His law would be inscribed on earth that would bear fruit, not on sterile stone as of old. A third He adds here, in tract 33, that He might signify that He was the same one who had written the old law with His finger on tablets of stone, but that the new law was not to be written in that way, but on fruitful ground.
You will ask: what then was Christ writing on the ground? I answer: Christ did and wrote these things in the court of the temple, which was paved with stones: for which reason He could not trace the characters of letters upon them, but only trace them by moving His finger. But He seems to have traced something which would cast shame and blushes upon the Scribes, or which would reproach their sins; for explaining this writing immediately by word, He adds: "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." Indeed St. Jerome, Book II Against the Pelagians, says that Jesus wrote on the ground "the mortal sins of those who were accusing (the Scribes) and of all." St. Ambrose, epistle 56: "What, he says, was He writing if not that prophetic text, Jeremiah XXII, 30, Earth, write these men as outcasts?" which is written literally of Jechoniah. The same in epistle 79 thinks that Jesus wrote among other things: "Thou seest the mote that is in thy brother's eye; but the beam that is in thine own eye, thou seest not." Others think He wrote: Mene, tekel, phares, which when written brought destruction upon Belshazzar, Daniel V, 25, for He seems to allude to that. But what Christ wrote in particular cannot be determined with certainty.
Verse 7: Let Him Who Is Without Sin Among You Be the First to Cast a Stone at Her
7. WHEN THEREFORE THEY CONTINUED ASKING HIM, HE LIFTED HIMSELF UP, AND SAID TO THEM: HE THAT IS WITHOUT SIN AMONG YOU, LET HIM FIRST CAST A STONE AT HER. — "When therefore they continued," because they could not clearly see what Christ was drawing on the ground, or at any rate pretended not to see. They therefore press Him to answer their captious question explicitly, thinking that Christ could not escape this horned dilemma of theirs, who would either offend against the law, if He absolved the adulteress, or against His own accustomed mercy, if He condemned her.
HE THAT IS WITHOUT SIN. — The Greek anamartetos signifies two things: first, one who is impeccable, such as God alone and the Blessed; second, one who is free from sin. And in this sense it is taken here, as if to say: You, O Scribes, have committed sins similar to, indeed greater than, this adulteress, as your conscience (to which I prudently and modestly refer you) bears witness. Therefore do not so rigidly and importunately urge the condemnation of this adulteress, but rather, conscious of your own crimes, have pity on her and spare her, as sinners to a sinner, as those subject to punishment to one subject to punishment: otherwise if you condemn her, you must equally condemn yourselves; if you want to stone her, you are much more to be stoned, nay, to be burned. See here the prudence of Christ: He concedes to the Scribes that the adulteress is guilty of death, and so supports the law; but He adds that the Scribes ought not so pertinaciously press her death, but rather should have compassion and pity on her, since they themselves, outwardly simulating holiness before the people, but inwardly conscious of greater crimes, want to be pardoned by God and men and to have clemency and forgiveness shown them. Thus St. Augustine: "You have heard," he says, "let the law be fulfilled, let the adulteress be stoned: but is the law in her to be enforced by those who themselves deserve punishment?" And after some intervening words: "Jesus did not say, Let her not be stoned, lest He seem to speak against the law. But far be it that He should say: Let her be stoned; for He came not to destroy what He had found, but to seek what had perished. What then did He answer? He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. O answer of wisdom! how He sent them within themselves! Outside they were calumniating, but they were not searching themselves within." Hear St. Ambrose, epistle 76: "What," he says, "is so divine as that sentence, that he should punish sins, who himself is free from sin? For how could you bear one who is an avenger of another's guilt and the defender of his own crime? Does he not more condemn himself, who in another condemns what he himself commits?"
You will say: Christ here seems to overturn the use and rigor of judgment and tribunals. For if you say to a judge: "He that is without sin, let him first condemn the defendant," no one would dare to condemn him; for all men, because they are men, are weak and sinners. I answer, that Christ does not twist this saying against judges, but against the Scribes, who as private persons out of private zeal were contending that Christ should usurp the judgment of the adulteress to Himself, and condemn her according to the law: which He rightly refused (because He had come to save sinners, not to condemn them) and turned back upon them themselves, as if to say: If you, who are not judges, are urged by such desire or lust to punish this adultery, do you yourselves usurp the judgment of her, and stone the adulteress, if you are so pure and holy that you have neither committed adultery nor any other crime: for if these Scribes had been judges, and had condemned the adulteress according to the law to stoning, Jesus would by no means have freed her, nor absolved her from the deserved penalty of the law. Moreover, the office of a judge is to condemn a defendant if he is convicted of a crime, even if he himself knows he is guilty of the same or a similar crime; yet it is unbecoming that he himself, if he is guilty, should condemn another guilty of the same crime. Therefore Christ here tacitly warns judges to lead an innocent life, so that they may be worthy to condemn the guilty, lest the people cry out against them: If you condemn this man, condemn yourself likewise.
Morally Christ here teaches that he who wishes to judge and criticize the crimes of others ought first to judge his own. The reason is given by St. Gregory, Book IV of the Morals, chapter XIII: "For he who does not first judge himself, does not know how to judge rightly in another. And if perhaps by hearing he knows what he ought rightly to judge; yet he is unable rightly to judge the merits of others, when the conscience of his own innocence provides him no rule of judgment. Hence it is that to certain persons who were lying in wait and leading out the adulteress to be punished, it is said: He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. For they were going forth to punish the sins of others, and leaving their own. They are therefore recalled inward to their conscience, that they may first correct their own, and then rebuke those of others." This is the meaning of those commonly tossed-about proverbs: First prune your own vines; first spit into your own bosom; in others' faults we are lynxes, and in our own, moles; a physician of others, yourself abounding in sores; physician, be a physician to yourself.
Verse 8: And Again Stooping Down, He Wrote on the Ground
8. AND AGAIN STOOPING DOWN, HE WROTE ON THE GROUND. — Both to cast shame upon them once more, and to give the Scribes an opportunity to depart with honor. So St. Jerome, Book II Against the Pelagians: "The most merciful judge," he says, "gave a space for their shame to withdraw." And Bede: "Turning His face another way," he says, "He gave them liberty to go out, those whom struck by His answer He had foreseen would more quickly depart than ask further questions."
Verse 9: They Went Out One by One, Beginning From the Eldest
9. BUT THEY HEARING THIS, WENT OUT ONE BY ONE, BEGINNING FROM THE ELDEST: AND JESUS ALONE REMAINED, AND THE WOMAN STANDING IN THE MIDST. — "Hearing," some Greek codices add: and being convicted by their conscience; the Arabic, But when they had heard this, understanding from it their ignominy, they began to go out: because, evil-conscious, they were ashamed of their crimes, and that they should want to condemn the adulteress, while they themselves were adulterers, or more wicked than adulterers. For Christ had pronounced and dictated a fair sentence, which could have struck and pierced them, indeed anyone. For who would dare say he was immune from sin, so as to presume, as though holy, to condemn other sinners? Whence St. Augustine, epistle 54: "I think," he says, "that when this sentence of the Lord was heard, if the husband himself was present, who demanded vengeance for the violated fidelity of his marriage bed, he also was terrified, and turned his mind from the desire of revenge to the will of sparing."
THEY WENT OUT. "By their very departure," says St. Augustine, "confessing of themselves that they were guilty of similar crimes, and as if stricken by the zeal of justice, looking into themselves and finding themselves guilty, they withdrew," fearing lest Christ should further go on to reveal and criticize their crimes in particular, as He did in Matthew XXIII.
BEGINNING FROM THE ELDEST. — These old men had grown old in sins and were inveterate of evil days, like those old adulterous judges who had condemned the innocent Susanna, as if guilty of adultery, to stoning, against all right, Daniel XIII. The old men therefore went out first, "either because they had more crimes, having lived long," says Ambrose, or because they first understood the force of the sentence, as being "more prudent." And Rupert: "The elders first perceived that the answer was valid and unassailable, such that they could not cavil at it, being more sharp-sighted for understanding, and therefore gave way first."
HE REMAINED ALONE (with the Apostles and the crowd of people, in whose) MIDST (there was) THE WOMAN STANDING, — as follows; for the word "alone" only excludes the Scribes who were urging Jesus to condemn the adulteress. "Two were left," says St. Augustine, "misery and mercy:" for indeed "deep calleth unto deep," the abyss of the adulteress' misery called upon the abyss of Christ's mercy; and therefore she did not flee, because she had experienced Christ's grace, and was hoping for something greater from Him.
Verse 10: Woman, Where Are Those Who Accused You? Has No One Condemned You?
10. THEN JESUS LIFTING UP HIMSELF, SAID TO HER: WOMAN, WHERE ARE THOSE WHO ACCUSED THEE? HATH NO ONE CONDEMNED THEE? — St. Ambrose reads, hath no one stoned thee? "Lifting Himself up," that is, as St. Augustine says, raising upon her the eyes of gentleness, He who by the tongue of justice had driven away her adversaries. "He said to her: Woman:" first, for this reason, that the woman might recognize that her accusers had been driven off by Him, and therefore she might acknowledge the benefit and Jesus who bestowed it, and, stricken with compunction, might ask from Him pardon for her crime; secondly, that Christ might more freely absolve her, since her accusers had dropped their accusation and withdrawn in flight, as if distrusting the equity of their cause.
Verse 11: Neither Will I Condemn You. Go, and Sin No More
11. WHO SAID: NO MAN, LORD. AND JESUS SAID: NEITHER WILL I CONDEMN THEE. GO, AND NOW SIN NO MORE. — "Neither will I condemn thee;" Greek katakrino, that is, I condemn; as if to say: I alone, who am immune from all sin, and appointed by God as judge of all men, could deservedly condemn thee, but I do not wish to, because I came not to judge the world, but to save it, John III, 17. So St. Augustine. Hear St. Ambrose, epistle 76: "Observe how He tempered His own sentence, so that the Jews could bring no calumny against Him about the woman's absolution, but would rather turn the calumny back upon themselves, if they wished to complain. For the woman is dismissed, not absolved, because the accuser was lacking, not because she is approved as innocent. What then would they complain of, who first desisted from the prosecution of the crime and from the execution of the punishment?"
Moreover, Christ by these words absolved the adulteress, both in the court of the forum before the people, and in the court of heaven, that is, in the court of conscience, before God, as is clear from what He adds: "Go (because I forgive thee thy sins), and now sin no more." "Go," as if assured concerning the adultery forgiven her by Me. For so, pardoning Magdalene's crimes, He said: "Go in peace," Luke VII. But Christ does not say this openly; for He speaks covertly, lest the Pharisees should have something to criticize. Wherefore Christ inwardly inspired in this adulteress sorrow for her sins, and an act of contrition, and then, to her contrite and penitent, He remitted her sins, and pardoned the guilt along with the penalty. "He does not condemn," says St. Ambrose, epistle 58, "as redemption, He corrects as life, He washes as a fountain." And Euthymius: "Such public exposure," he says, "and the blushing before so many adversaries was punishment enough, especially since He knew that she repented with her whole heart." So also Toletus, Jansenius, Francis Lucas and others.
AND (that is, but) NOW SIN NO MORE. — Greek, now sin no more; Arabic, go and behold now do not return to sin, as a washed sow to wallowing in the mire, and a dog to its vomit, II Peter II, 22. For so, ungrateful, you will sin yet more and soil your soul; and if no one judges you, I certainly on the day of judgment will condemn you to hell and eternal death. Hear St. Augustine: "Neither will I condemn thee, what does this mean? Lord, dost Thou then favor sins? Not at all. Attend to what follows: Go, from henceforth now sin no more. Therefore the Lord also condemned, but the sin, not the man; for if He were a favorer of sinners, He would have said: Neither will I condemn thee: go, live as thou wilt, be secure of My deliverance." To which Bede adds: "Because He is merciful and kind, He relaxes past sins; because He is just and loves justice, He forbids her to sin any more."
Verse 12: I Am the Light of the World
12. AGAIN THEREFORE JESUS SPOKE TO THEM: I AM THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. — The Gloss connects this immediately with the preceding words about the absolution of the adulteress: "He adds," it says, "what He can do by His divinity, lest it be doubted that He can forgive sins," as if to say: Do not marvel that I free the adulteress from the darkness of sins, because I am the light of the world, not created but uncreated, that is, God. Whence He adds in verse 15: "I judge no man," as if to say: I do not judge the adulteress, nor absolve her in the court of the forum, but only in the court of heaven, namely in the court of internal conscience. More plainly, others refer these words to verse 2: "Sitting He taught them," for this act of Christ's teaching had been interrupted by the Scribes leading in the adulteress so that He should condemn her; soon Christ put the Scribes to shame and drove them off, and absolved the adulteress; which done, as if the dispute with the Scribes were finished, He went on again to teach. Whence He significantly adds "to them," namely to the same whom He had been teaching a little before; and this is suggested by the word "again therefore," as if to say: Because Christ has now ended the question of the adulteress, which had interrupted His teaching, therefore He returned again to teaching, and resumed the interrupted doctrine. So Chrysostom, Theophylact, Leontius, Ammonius and others. Whence the Arabic translates, then Jesus spoke to them again. Chrysostom adds: The Jews objected to Christ Galilee, doubting Him because a Prophet does not arise out of Galilee. Christ therefore shows that He is not one of the Prophets, but the illuminator of the whole world, nay rather God and Lord. So Chrysostom.
I am the Light of the world. — Hence the Manichaeans thought Christ was the sun: for the sun is the light of the world; and the Platonists thought the sun lived and was animated: whence St. Augustine, being a Platonist, at one time doubted about it, as appears in Enchiridion LVIII. Hear St. Augustine recounting and refuting this delirium of theirs here in tract 34: "The Manichaeans thought that this sun visible to the eyes of the flesh, exposed to public view, was Christ the Lord." And soon after: "The Lord Christ is not the sun that was made, but He through whom the sun was made. For all things were made by Him, and without Him was made nothing. There is therefore a light which made this light: let us love this, let us desire to understand it, let us thirst for it, that we may one day come to that light, and in it live so as never at all to die. For this is the light concerning which the prophecy once delivered sang thus in the psalm: Men and beasts Thou shalt save, O Lord, as Thy mercy is multiplied, O God." And lower down: "Through this light the light of the sun was made, and the light that made the sun, under which He also made us, was made under the sun for our sake. It was made, I say, under the sun for our sake, the light that made the sun. Do not despise the cloud of the flesh: the sun is covered by a cloud, not that it may be obscured, but that it may be tempered. Speaking therefore through the cloud of the flesh, the unfailing light, the light of knowledge, the light of wisdom, He says to men: I am the light of the world."
How Christ as God is immense light, whereby no one is truly the created light, enlightening every man that comes into this world, according to that saying of Zacharias in Luke 1: "To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death," as I said on chapter I, 4. Again, how a king is as it were the sun of his own kingdom I have shown through 18 analogies on Isaiah chapter XLV, 1, which apply to Christ; for Christ is the king of the world.
Of the world — that is, not of all Israel and the Jews only, as were Isaiah, Elias, and the other Prophets, but of the whole world, namely of absolutely all nations: by which He silently signifies and predicts the conversion of all the nations to the faith of Christ, and the transferring of the Gospel from the unbelieving Jews to the Gentiles who were to believe in Christ. So Cyril, who also adds that Christ, when saying "I am the light of the world," alludes to the pillar of fire which by night gave light and went before the Hebrews as they journeyed through the desert to the promised land. For in like manner Christ, as a most bright torch, shines before us in the darkness of the errors and vices of the world and leads the way to heaven. Exod. XIII, 21; Num. XIV, 21.
He that followeth Me (by believing in Me as in Christ and obeying My commands) walketh not in darkness — that is, of errors and vices, in which the Philosophers and other wise men of the world walk; as if to say: He who follows Me as the light lives without error and sin, in the light of true faith and virtue.
But shall have the light of life, — now by faith, afterward by sight, says St. Augustine, who also adds: "These words agree with those of the Psalm: In Thy light shall we see light, for with Thee is the fountain of life. In bodily things the light is one thing, the fountain another; but with God what is light is also fountain: He who shines for you that you may see, the same flows for you that you may drink: if you follow this visible sun, it forsakes you at its setting; but from God, if you make no fall, He will never set for you."
"Light of life" therefore, according to Augustine and Bede, is the light of glory, blessing the faithful and the saints of Christ, which they will receive from Him in heaven. Others more plainly understand by "the light of life" the light of Christian faith, wisdom, and prudence, which leads us to the light of glory and to beatitude itself. For faith is as it were a torch which shines before the faithful walking in the darkness of the errors and vices of this world, that they may travel the true road of virtue, by which with unoffending foot they may strive toward heaven unto eternal happiness. So Cyril: "He who follows Me, he says, shall obtain the light of life, that is, the revelation of the mysteries which are in Me, a revelation able to lead him into eternal life." Thirdly, "the light of life" could be expounded as the vivifying light; for faith joined with the grace and charity of God is a divine and supernatural light, which quickens the soul, and here breathes into it the life of grace, and in heaven shall breathe into it the life of glory.
Morally, learn here that the doctrine and life of Christ is to be imitated by every man who wishes to be truly enlightened and cleansed from all blindness of mind: wherefore Thomas a Kempis set this saying of Christ as a kind of axiom, indeed as the foundation of wisdom and holiness, at the head of his golden little book On the Imitation of Christ — a book which has as many maxims as it has sentences, nay, gems of practical and saving truth, which I read daily with great delight and profit, and which I ever desire to read again and again. I have known not a few lovers of perfection who strove to refer each of their actions to some action, teaching, or saying of Christ as to a pattern, and to conform themselves to it, so that gazing upon it as upon an idea they might endeavor to express it in all their acts: which is indeed a pious and useful practice for all holiness. For this is why Christ was given to us, that He might be the mirror of holiness. For what is holier than the Holy of Holies? What is brighter than the sun, than light itself? What is wiser than Wisdom itself?
Verse 13: You Bear Witness of Yourself; Your Testimony Is Not True
13. The Pharisees therefore said to Him: Thou givest testimony of Thyself; Thy testimony is not true. — "True," that is, legitimate, such that it ought to be received and believed. For no one, however holy, is received in a court as a witness concerning himself, but must bring forth other witnesses. See what was said on chapter V, 31.
The Pharisees. — The Pharisees who had accused the adulteress had already withdrawn, shamed by Christ; but besides them there were other Pharisees in the crowd, who, in order to avenge the disgrace of their companions and to show their malevolence against Christ, opposed this to Him, that they might in turn shame and confound Him. So Cyril: "Being nurtured in ignorance, he says, not understanding Emmanuel, they suspect Him of affecting glory itself, and they inveigh against Him as against one of us."
Verse 14: My Testimony Is True, Because I Know Whence I Came and Whither I Go
14. Jesus answered and said to them: Even if I give testimony of Myself, My testimony is true, because I know whence I came and whither I go. — "True," that is, not only truthful in itself, but also legitimate, such that it ought to be accepted and believed by anyone, even by a judge. "The testimony of light is true, whether it show itself or hide itself," says St. Augustine; as if to say: Light itself needs no other witness, because it clearly shows itself by its own light to be lucid, clear, and bright. So Christ is the light of the world, who clearly shows Himself to the world by His divine works and miracles: wherefore Christ needed no other witness; yet on His own behalf He brings forth another witness, and that the highest and most irrefragable, namely God the Father. Whence He adds:
Because I know whence I came and whither I go. — As if to say: My testimony of Myself is "true," that is, legitimate, not in a human but in a divine court, because it is confirmed by the testimony of God the Father, says the Gloss; and this I know, but you know it not, because you will not know it, although you ought to recognize and know it from My miracles and proofs. For I know whence I am — sent, namely, from heaven to earth — and whose ambassador I am, namely of God the Father. For I am the Son of God, and true God of true God; whence, having completed My embassy on earth, I "go," through death, to God the Father, who sent Me — that is, I shall go forthwith and return. So St. Augustine, Ammonius, Leontius, Chrysostom, and Theophylact.
Note: Christ speaks obscurely, partly for modesty's sake, lest He should seem to boast; partly lest He should further inflame the wrath of the offended Jews against Himself. Otherwise He could have said plainly: I am the Son of God and God; therefore My testimony is true and legitimate, because you ought to believe God and the Son of God. For the testimony of God, who is the first and irrefragable Truth, is irrefragable. He wished the Father to be understood, says St. Augustine, from whom He did not depart by coming, nor forsake us by returning. And just as this sun lights the face both of the seeing and of the blind, but the one sees and the other does not; so the wisdom of God is everywhere present, even to the unbelieving; but these, though the wisdom is there for them to see, have no eyes of the heart. Whence He adds: You judge according to the flesh, etc., as if distinguishing between His faithful ones and His enemies. So Augustine.
Verse 15: You Judge According to the Flesh; I Judge No One
15. You judge according to the flesh. — First, as if to say: You, O Pharisees, judge of Me according to the flesh, that is, according to the carnal affection by which out of hatred you turn away from Me, not from the truth and equity of the matter. So St. Chrysostom, who says: To live according to the flesh is to live wickedly; so to judge according to the flesh is to judge unjustly.
Secondly, more plainly: "you according to the flesh" which you see in Me — that is, from My body alone, which you behold — you judge Me to be a mere man, not God. So Theophylact: Because, he says, I am in the flesh, thinking Me to be flesh alone and not God, you judge falsely. So also Ammonius, Leontius, Euthymius; the Arabic version supports this, which renders "you judge what is bodily," and therefore you judge Truth to be lying, says Cyril; for I am the Truth.
Thirdly and most plainly, "you according to the flesh" — that is, according to your fleshly senses and eyes — you judge, as if to say: You judge of Me from the senses alone, that is, according to what you see in Me with the eyes of the flesh; namely, that I am a vile man, poor, weak, abject, not the Messiah, not God, who is hidden and lies concealed in this flesh as a candle in a lantern, and therefore by your judgment you condemn Me as proud and blasphemous, because I assert that I am the Son of God — which you would not do if you judged of Me not with the eyes of the flesh, but by reason and the spirit of truth. For these would tell you that I am the One whom I assert Myself to be, namely the Messiah, the Son of God. So St. Augustine: They saw a man, he says, and did not believe Him to be God. And the Gloss: They think Him a man, he says, who ought not to be believed in His own praise.
Moreover Christ, says Cyril, does here as a physician who makes nothing of the insults of frenzied sick men, and though assailed by them with reproaches, nevertheless applies fitting medicine to them: for he fights against the sickness, which is the cause of this insanity, not against the sick man, but for the sick man, that he may restore him to soundness of body and mind.
I judge no man, — understand: according to the flesh, and therefore erroneously and falsely, as you do; but according to reason and spirit, and therefore truly and rightly I judge. So St. Augustine.
Secondly, St. Chrysostom: Because, he says, the Jews could object to Christ: If we judge wrongly of Thee according to the flesh, why dost Thou not judge us and convict us of perverse judgment? — to these Christ answers: I now judge no one; as if to say: It is not Mine to judge you now, for I came into the world not to judge it, but to save and redeem it. But I will judge you on the day of judgment; for if I were to judge now, I would certainly condemn you; but now is not the time of judgment.
Thirdly, for the genuine sense of this passage, note that here "I judge" does not precisely signify "I pronounce a judicial sentence" or, as a judge, "I decide," but is the same as "I exercise any judicial act." So here it is the same as "I bear witness" or "I put forth testimony." For in a trial there are various acts: accusers accuse, witnesses testify, the judge pronounces the sentence — "I judge" signifies all of these; wherefore "I judge" here is the same as "I testify." Add that those who testify in court in a way compel the judge to judge according to their testimony, so to testify is in effect to judge; whence a witness is at times the same as a judge, as I have shown on Isaiah LV, 4. For this whole dispute of Christ with the Jews is about testimony — whether, namely, Christ's testimony concerning Himself is legitimate and to be accepted in court. The meaning therefore is, as if to say: It is not necessary that I, Jesus, testify of Myself or of anyone else and give testimony: for there are others who do this; yet if I should do it and in fact testify of Myself, as I do in the verse 18 immediately following, I will do so rightly, and this My testimony will be most true, because I am not alone, but with Me is God My Father, who also testifies. So St. Ambrose, book V, epistle 20, Maldonatus, and others. That this is the sense is clear from what follows, especially from verses 17 and 18, where Christ explains "I judge" by "I bear witness": "I am, He says, He that bear witness of Myself; and the Father that sent Me beareth witness of Me." Moreover, Christ uses the word "I judge" because He seemed a little before to have judged the adulteress and judicially absolved her in the eleventh verse; and the Pharisees, accusers of the adulteress and enemies of Christ, took this ill. As if to say: I did not judicially judge the adulteress, nor pronounce a judicial sentence of absolution for her, but only said: "Neither will I condemn thee;" yet I could have judicially absolved her, because I am God and the Son of God — therefore I am not a mere man, as you, O Pharisees, think; nor am I alone, because God My Father is with Me. And in this sense "I judge" is here properly taken for "I pronounce a judicial sentence."
Verse 16: My Judgment Is True, Because I Am Not Alone, But I and the Father
16. And if I do judge (that is, testify of Myself, as I said), My judgment (that is, My testimony) is true (that is, legitimate, and to be accepted in the tribunal by the judge), because I am not alone; but I, and the Father that sent Me. — St. Chrysostom expounds this as if to say: If I did judge, I would justly condemn you, because I would not do it alone, but I and the Father; but now is not the time of judgment, but of mercy. Yet the genuine sense of this passage is the one I gave on verse 15.
Because I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent Me, — "because I took the form of a servant, but did not lose the form of God," says St. Augustine; "Thy mission, O Lord, is the Incarnation." And the Interlinear gloss: Though I am man, he says, yet I did not forsake the Father; though I was sent through the flesh, yet I and the Father are ever together through the Godhead: wherefore the judgment of both is the same, the will likewise the same. Whence He says elsewhere: "I do nothing of Myself," as if to say, says Cyril: I have never proceeded to any act of vindication which is not in God the Father; whatsoever the Father's nature wills and is able to think, these are wholly in Me also, because I shone forth from His bosom and exist as the true fruit of His substance.
Verse 17: In Your Law It Is Written That the Testimony of Two Men Is True
17. And in your law (Deut. XVII, 6, and chap. XIX, vers. 15, see what is said there) it is written that the testimony of two men is true, — juridically, that is, in law and in judgment it is held as true and legitimate, and is accepted by the judge, so that according to it he may pronounce a juridically true, that is, legitimate sentence, even if at times speculatively and in the thing itself false. For the judge must judge according to what is alleged and proved; wherefore if the witnesses be false, or secretly corrupted by gifts bear false testimony, the judge, following them in good faith, pronounces a just sentence in the forum of the court, but in the truth of the thing an unjust and false one. The meaning is, as if to say: If the testimony of two men is held in law to be true and legitimate, how much more should the testimony of two divine Persons, namely God the Son and God the Father, be held in every tribunal not only as true (that is, legitimate), but even as most true and most sincere and most equitable? Whence explaining this very point and applying it to Himself, Christ adds: "I am He that bear witness of Myself, and the Father that sent Me beareth witness of Me." That God the Father is with Him and testifies, and that He Himself is the Son of God the Father, Christ has more than sufficiently proved above by miracles and other testimonies. Whence He here presupposes this as already proved.
Symbolically, St. Augustine: "It has a great question," he says, "and the matter seems to be much set up in mystery, where God said: In the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall stand. For both Susanna was pressed by two false witnesses, and the whole people lied against Christ. Through a mystery therefore the Trinity is in this way commended, in whom is the perpetual stability of truth; if you would have a good cause, have two or three witnesses — the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit."
Verse 18: I Bear Witness of Myself, and the Father Who Sent Me Bears Witness of Me
18. I am He that bear witness of Myself, and the Father that sent Me beareth witness of Me. — Christ proves that His testimony concerning Himself is true by this syllogism: By the law of Deut. XVII, 6, the testimony of two in law and in judgment is true; But two greater than men, namely God the Son and God the Father, bear testimony concerning Me: Therefore this their testimony concerning Me is by every right true.
You will say: No one's testimony about himself is accepted in court as true and legitimate: therefore neither should Christ's testimony about Himself be accepted as legitimate. I answer by denying the consequence: for Christ as God bears witness about Himself as man; but God and man are two, and in Christ God was other than man — other, I say, in nature, not in person. Whence from this passage the Fathers conclude against the Nestorians and Eutychians that in Christ there was one Person, namely the divine; but two natures, the divine and the human. So Cyril, Chrysostom, Theophylact, Leontius, Ammonius in the Greek Catena, and St. Ambrose, book V On the Faith, chap. II. Moreover, God the Father and God the Son bore testimony concerning Jesus that He was the Messiah, through divine works, especially the miracles which were wrought by Him and for Him, as I said on chap. V, vers. 31 and 32, and especially when the Father at Christ's baptism thundered from heaven: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased," Matt. III. So Bede.
Verse 19: Where Is Your Father? Neither Do You Know Me, Nor My Father
19. They said therefore to Him: Where is Thy Father? — that we may go to Him and hear His testimony concerning Thee; as if to say: Who is Thy father? We see only Thee; show us that Thy father is with Thee. And where is He, or who is that father of Thine whom Thou dost so greatly and so often boast of? They feign and pretend a zeal for knowing the truth, so as to draw from Christ's mouth a clear statement in which He would say that His Father was God in heaven, in order that, having heard it, they might accuse Him as a blasphemer, or even stone Him, as they tried to do in chap. V, 18, and chap. X, 31. So St. Chrysostom, Theophylact, Rupert, and others.
Less probably, Cyril and Leontius think that the Pharisees said this in contempt and sarcasm — that is, in hostile derision — as if to say: Thy father is unknown and uncertain; show Him therefore to us; for they thought Christ was spurious and born of adultery. More mildly, St. Augustine and Bede think they spoke of His carnal father, namely Joseph, because they did not know him. But the former sense is the true one.
Jesus answered: Neither Me do you know, nor My Father; if you did know Me, perhaps you would know My Father also. — Christ, answering directly and clearly to the question, would have said: My Father is in heaven; but He was unwilling to do this, because He knew that the Pharisees had proposed this question captiously, in order to ensnare and seize Him: so He answers the hypocrites indirectly and covertly: "Neither Me do you know, nor My Father." By this answer He tacitly responds directly to their question, but so covertly that the Pharisees could not slander or accuse Him, as if to say: You, O Pharisees, think that I am a mere man, and therefore have no other father than a man on earth, namely Joseph, but you are mistaken: for you do not recognize that I am so man as to be equally God, and therefore neither do you know My Father; for Joseph is not My Father insofar as I am man; nor have I any other Father than God in heaven — which you do not know, although it has been proved by so many of My miracles, because obstinate in your carnal sense you will not acknowledge it.
You will say: How does this agree with what Christ said in chap. VII, 28: "You both know Me, and you know whence I am"? I answer: There Christ spoke of Himself as He is man, whom they knew to have been conceived at Nazareth; but here He speaks of Himself as He is God, and in this sense they did not know Him. Origen adds that there Christ was speaking to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who knew Him; but here to the Pharisees, who did not know Him, but were rather His enemies.
If you did know Me, perchance (in Greek ἄν, which belongs not to one doubting but to one asserting, and is equivalent to "certainly") you would know My Father also. — As if to say: For if you knew Me to be God, you would also know that My Father is not to be sought on earth, but in heaven, and that He is none other than God the Father. So Theophylact, Leontius, Euthymius, Rupert, and others. In like manner Christ says to Philip, chap. XIV, 9: "Philip, he that seeth Me seeth the Father also."
A little differently St. Augustine: as if to say: You ask who is My Father because you do not know Me; for you think that I am not the eternal God in heaven.
Secondly, more closely and profoundly, St. Cyril, in manuscript: "With the name of the Father," he says, "the mention of the Son runs together: and again the name of the Begetter accompanies the signification of the Son; and therefore the Son is like a kind of door leading into the knowledge of the Father." So indeed He says in chap. XIV, 6: "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh to the Father but by Me." Whence he infers: "Let us therefore learn what is according to nature, and so then, as in a most exact image and character, we shall well understand the archetype. For in the Son the Father is seen, and as in a mirror He appears in the proper nature of the Offspring." For the Son, as the Wise Man says in chap. VII, 25, "is the brightness of the eternal light, and the unspotted mirror of God's majesty, and the image of His goodness;" and as Paul says, Heb. I, 3: "He is the brightness of His glory, and the figure (in Greek, character) of His substance."
Otherwise Origen, who takes "to know" for "to love"; as if to say: If you loved Me, you would also love My Father. For those who live wickedly do not know God in practice: hence also of the sons of Eli it is said that they did not know the Lord.
Verse 20: These Words Jesus Spoke in the Treasury, Teaching in the Temple
20. These words Jesus spoke in the treasury, teaching in the temple (that is, in the court of the temple: for this court was as it were the temple of the laity); and no man laid hold on Him, because His hour was not yet come. — Rupert thinks that the "treasury" is here named as a kind of reason why Christ was not apprehended; namely because He said these things in the treasury, which was a secluded place, where only priests intent on gain gathered, who wished to take money from it, and lay people who wished to bring money into it. But the treasury was a wholly public place, to which very many flocked. For it was a broad portico, near the court of the temple, in which all the temple treasure, that is, the money and furniture, was kept. The sense therefore is, as if to say: Christ spoke these things openly and in a public place, where He could easily be seized by the Pharisees and priests, clearly, freely, confidently, and magnanimously; and yet He was not apprehended by the Pharisees His enemies, because He Himself by divine power restrained their mind and hands, inasmuch as the hour of His passion appointed by God had not yet come. So St. Augustine, Bede, Euthymius, Leontius, Theophylact.
Further, on the treasury hear Adrichomius in his Description of Jerusalem, no. 403: The treasury, called in Hebrew Corban or Corbona, was a chest and treasury, in which the things necessary for sacrifice, for the feeding of the poor, and for the fabric of the temple were offered, and the offered money was kept, from which King Joash, as we read in the book of Kings, also had the repairs of the temple undertaken. When Heliodorus, sent by the king of Syria, attempted to plunder this treasury, he was scourged from heaven by angels. And when Pilate, with nearly the same rashness, wished to expend this sacred treasure on bringing in water, he was hindered by a popular tumult; which nevertheless the Romans plundered in the storming of the city. Near this place we read Lysimachus was killed. Here also Christ taught that He was the light of the world and the beginning, and that He was to be lifted up on the cross by the Jews. Here, sitting, He declared that the poor widow, offering two small coins, had given more than all the rich, Mark XII; Luke XXI. Now, from this treasure-chest, the whole portico in which the chest was is here and elsewhere called "the treasury"; for it was not in the chest but in the portico of the chest that Christ said these things.
Another reason, more hidden but closer, why Christ spoke these things in the treasury: because the treasury was for the Pharisees a lurking-place of shadows, that is, a workshop of avarice and of the other vices and errors which Christ enumerates in Matt. chap. V and chap. XXIII — namely that they taught children to say to their needy parents "corban," that is, my gold has been dedicated to the treasury, therefore it must be given to God, not to thee, O father; that they asserted that the oath sworn by the temple did not oblige, but that sworn by the treasure and gold of the temple did oblige; that they tithed mint, anise, and cummin, leaving aside mercy and faith; that they plundered and despoiled the people. Christ there rebuked these shadows of theirs, and therefore with raised voice He cried out: "I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me walketh not in darkness," as if to say: I am the true light of wisdom and holiness, who teach that earthly treasures, as paltry, vile, and perishable, are to be spurned; but that heavenly treasures, as vast, precious, and eternal, are to be sought. Wherefore do not follow the shadowy and greedy Pharisees, panting sordidly like moles after their treasury and earthly gains, because Vespasian and the Romans will shortly plunder it all. Follow Me rather, who am the light of the world; for I proclaim poverty of spirit as the way to the immense riches of heaven. For I declare: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven," Matt. V. And on the contrary: "Woe to you that are rich, for you have your consolation," Luke VI, 24. And this was the cause of the great antipathy and hatred of the Pharisees against Christ, and therefore they persecuted Him continually even to death and the cross; indeed from this treasury they drew forth thirty denarii which they gave to Judas, that he should betray Christ to them, which was the highest sacrilege. Whence in the same place, at verse 28, Christ foretold that through that crime He would be lifted up on the cross, and would then draw all things to Himself.
A mystical reason is given by Origen: Christ, he says, uttered these things in the treasury, because the treasury — or rather the treasure — is His divine sermons, which bear the image of the great King impressed upon them; just as the money which was cast into the treasury bore the image of Caesar. Coins, says Origen, are divine words: let each man therefore contribute to the treasury, that is, to the building up of the Church, whatever he can for the honor of God and the common benefit. And Bede: Christ speaks, he says, in the treasury; because He was speaking to the Jews in veiled and closed parables. But then the treasury began as it were to be opened when He expounded them to His disciples, and unlocked the heavenly mysteries hidden in them.
Because His hour had not yet come, — not a fatal hour, but an opportune and voluntary one, says the Interlinear gloss, namely one appointed by God. "Some," says St. Augustine, "hearing this, believe Christ was under fate; but how can He be under fate by whom heaven and the stars were made, when your own will, if you are wise, transcends even the stars? His hour therefore had not yet come — not that by which He should be compelled to die, but that in which He would deign to be slain."
Verse 21: I Go, and You Shall Seek Me, and You Shall Die in Your Sin
21. Jesus therefore said again to them. — It is uncertain whence the "therefore" is inferred, and what it signifies. First, some think that "therefore" here, as elsewhere, is not inferential but inceptive, signifying only the beginning of a new discourse of Christ.
Secondly, more closely, Origen holds that "therefore" connects what follows with what precedes, and indicates that these things were said by Christ in the same place and at the same time as the preceding ones.
Thirdly, Maldonatus refers it to what Christ had said in verse 19: "Neither Me do you know, nor My Father," as if to say: There shall come therefore a time when you will know that I am God and will seek Me, but not find Me, because you will die in your sins; or there shall come a time when you will seek Me, that is, will wish to know Me, but will not be able, because you will not depart from your sins.
Fourthly, and more appositely, Rupert and Toletus refer the "therefore" to what immediately preceded, "And no man laid hold on Him," as if to say: Because Jesus saw that the Pharisees understood His words well enough, even though obscurely uttered, yet did not believe, but rather were kindling into wrath and hatred, to seize Him and kill Him, therefore He added and said: "I go, and you shall seek Me." Or, as if to say: Because the Pharisees wished to seize Him, but were hindered for a short time by divine power, for this cause He subjoined: "I go," etc.
Again. — For He had already said the same thing before to the servants of the Pharisees in chap. VII, vers. 33. So Rupert, as if to say: Christ repeated what He had said before the servants, and said it again to their masters themselves, namely the Pharisees:
I go, and you shall seek Me, and in your sin you shall die. — "I go," that is, I shall shortly go from this life through death and the cross to the Father. "For Christ," says St. Augustine, "death was a journey, because He did not remain in it, but through it journeyed into heaven to immortal life."
And you shall seek Me, — that is, you shall seek another Messiah, because you do not believe that I am the Messiah; but you shall not find Him, because there is no other besides Me — so Toletus. Secondly, more simply, "you shall seek Me" in order to crucify and kill Me again. See what is said on chap. VII, vers. 34. So Origen and St. Augustine, whom hear: "You shall seek Me, not with longing, but with hatred: they sought Christ after He had departed from the eyes of men, both those who hated Him and those who loved Him — the former persecuting, the latter desiring to have Him." Whence expounding further, he adds:
And in your sin you shall die. — "And," that is, therefore; as if to say: Because you will seek Me after My resurrection in order to kill Me again, being obstinate in your unbelief, hatred, and malice against Me, therefore you shall die in the same, and therefore shall be damned to hell. Wherefore "whither I go, you cannot come," because I shall go to heaven, you to hell: in vain therefore will you seek Me on earth, since I am to ascend into heaven, whither you cannot climb. Otherwise Euthymius: "In your sin," he says, that is, on account of your sin of perfidy, "you shall die," that is, you shall be slain by Titus and the Romans, and thence you shall go into the second death of Gehenna, which is worse and longer, as being eternal. But the former sense is plainer and more forceful. For Christ often terrifies the Pharisees by the announcement of the day of judgment, on which He Himself shall descend from heaven to judge all men according to their merits, and therefore to condemn the unbelieving — such as the perfidious Pharisees — to the pit of hell.
Aptly Origen: "You cannot," he says, "because you will not; for if they had willed and could not, He would not have said: In your sin you shall die; for every sin is voluntary and free."
Otherwise St. Augustine, who thinks that Christ said "you cannot" also to His disciples, as if to say: Whither I go, you cannot come now — He did not take away hope, but foretold a delay. But what follows — "And in your sin you shall die" — proves that these things were spoken not to the disciples, but to the Pharisees.
Verse 22: Will He Kill Himself, Because He Said: Whither I Go, You Cannot Come?
22. The Jews therefore said: Will He kill Himself, because He said: Whither I go, you cannot come? — The servants of the Pharisees, on hearing Christ's words, "Whither I go, you cannot come," since they were free from hatred and envy against Christ, more wisely inferred in chap. VII, vers. 35: "Whither is He going, that we shall not find Him? Is He going to the dispersion of the Gentiles and to teach the Gentiles?" But the Pharisees, blinded by anger and hatred against Christ, because they utterly desired to kill Him, and at the same time thought that Christ could not escape their hands unless He killed Himself, hence say: "Will He kill Himself?" as if to say: Let Him go wherever He wishes, we will pursue Him; let Him go to the Gentiles, we will drag Him back thence and kill Him. Therefore by saying, "Whither I go, you cannot come," He means that He will kill Himself, so that He cannot be seized, tortured, and killed by us. Presumptuous and foolish was this thought of theirs, but it is what hatred and envy dictated to them: for otherwise Christ could have withdrawn from them in many ways, as He had done at other times. But Christ's mind here was far different, namely that He would go into heaven, whither the Pharisees could not come. For if He were going only to death, they too were going to the same, indeed they could even kill themselves. Whence St. Augustine says: "Whither I go, He said — not whither one goes to death, but whither He Himself was going after death."
Verse 23: You Are From Beneath, I Am From Above
23. And (therefore) He said to them: You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world. — Christ gives the reason why the Pharisees cannot come where He Himself is going, as if to say: You are of the earth and relish earthly things, and therefore you are fastened to your sins, and you will go downward into the depth of the deep; but I came down from heaven, and I relish heavenly things, and therefore after death I shall return to heaven, whither you will not be able to follow Me, and therefore seeking Me you will not find Me: for I am as it were a heavenly eagle dwelling on the loftiest mountains of eternity; but you are as worms and beetles creeping on the earth: how then will you be able to fly up to Me? So Rupert and St. Augustine, whom hear: "You are from beneath, therefore you relish the earth, because like serpents you eat the earth: what is it to eat the earth? You feed on earthly things, you delight in earthly things, you pant after earthly things, you have not hearts lifted up."
Secondly, St. Chrysostom, Theophylact, Euthymius, Leontius, Ammonius, and among the Latins St. Augustine and Bede think that Christ here gives the reason why the Pharisees understood His words, "Whither I go, you cannot come," which He had said of His return into the heavens, not of that but of His own self-killing; namely because they were earthly and carnal, and therefore did not relish heaven nor understand heavenly things. Either interpretation is fitting and suitable to this passage.
Ethically: "You are from beneath," because, born of the earthly and sinful Adam, from him you have drawn earthly concupiscence, which, following as it were native to you, boiling with avarice, pride, anger, and hatred, you lust after nothing but earthly riches, delights, and honors; but "I am from above," because, as I was born God from the heavenly Father, and as man from the Holy Spirit, not from Adam or any other earthly father; wherefore my disposition is heavenly, my love heavenly, my desires heavenly — to which you, being earthly and animal, cannot aspire unless you are reborn and reformed through My faith and Spirit, that from animal you may become spiritual, from earthly heavenly, according to what I said to Nicodemus in chap. III, vers. 5: "Unless a man be born again of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." In substance, then, "You are from beneath, I am from above" is the same as what John said in chap. I, vers. 12: "But as many as received Him, He gave them power to become the sons of God, to them that believe in His name: who are born, not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." And what the Apostle says: "The first man was of the earth, earthly; the second man, from heaven, heavenly. Such as is the earthly, such also are the earthly; and such as is the heavenly, such also are the heavenly. Therefore as we have borne the image of the earthly, let us bear also the image of the heavenly," 1 Cor. XV, 47. And that other saying: "If you be risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth," Col. III. See what is said in both places.
Physically Christ here teaches that the place in which one is born, brought up, and lives imparts its qualities to him: for just as fishes living in water are moist and watery, and cannot live outside water; whereas wolves, lions, horses, and oxen living on land are earthy, and cannot live outside the land; and birds living in the air are aerial, and cannot fly outside the air: so likewise the Pharisees, born in the land of Canaan, or in Judaea, were in body and mind earthly, Canaanites and Jews, according to that saying of Ezekiel XVI, 3: "Thy generation is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorrhite, and thy mother a Cethite;" but Christ, born and conversing in heaven, was heavenly, angelic, and divine.
Metaphysically: "You are from beneath," that is, "you are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do: he was a murderer from the beginning," — as Christ explains in verse 44, q.d. You are infernal, and you imitate your father the devil: for just as he killed Adam through the apple, so also you wish to kill Me. Hence the Pharisees, not understanding this, or pretending not to understand it, aptly ask: "Who are You?"
You are of this world, I am not of this world. — "Of the world," that is, you are of this earthly earth — to explain what He said: "You are from below." Secondly and more precisely, "you are of the world," that is, you are worldly: you seek worldly favors, wealth and honors, you lead such a life as worldly men and those devoted to the world lead — so that "you are from below" explains their nature, while "you are of this world" explains the quality which follows from their nature, says Toletus. Hear S. Augustine, tract. 38: "Let no one say: I am not of this world. Whoever you are, O man, you are of this world; but He who made the world has come to you, and has delivered you from this world. If the world delights you, you always wish to be unclean; but if this world no longer delights you, now you are clean. Yet if through some weakness the world still delights you, let Him who cleanses dwell in you, and you will be clean; but if you are clean, you will not remain in the world, nor will you hear what the Jews heard: You shall die in your sins."
Verse 24: If You Do Not Believe That I Am, You Shall Die in Your Sins
24. I SAID THEREFORE TO YOU, THAT YOU SHALL DIE IN YOUR SINS, — both of unbelief, and of all others, because remission is granted for no sin except through faith in Christ, whom you reject. Hence He adds:
FOR IF YOU DO NOT BELIEVE THAT I AM, — namely the Messiah, the Savior of the world, whom I constantly teach and profess Myself to be, and whom I prove and demonstrate by so many signs and miracles. So Lyranus, Jansenius, Maldonatus. More subtly S. Augustine, Bede, and Toletus: "because I am," supply: "Who am" — that is, I am God. For this is proper to God, Exodus III. Rupert, however, takes it thus, q.d. "Because I am," namely "from above," as preceded above, "you shall die in your sin," because there is no one who takes away and forgives sins, except Me.
Verse 25: Who Are You? Jesus Said: The Beginning, Who Also Speak to You
25. THEY THEREFORE SAID TO HIM: WHO ARE YOU? — Christ had said: "If you do not believe that I am," etc.
JESUS SAID TO THEM: THE BEGINNING, WHO ALSO SPEAK TO YOU. — S. Augustine, often Bede, Rupert, Bernard, and S. Ambrose (De Fide, Book III, ch. IV) take "Principium" as a nominative case, as if to say: I am the beginning, that is, I am the first and the last; or I am the beginning of all things, because all things were made through the Word of God, according to the saying: "By the Word of the Lord the heavens were established." But note: for "principium," in Greek it is not ἀρχή in the nominative case but ἀρχήν in the accusative — so the Greek text and the Greeks consistently have it; and thus the Septuagint usually translates the Hebrew בראשית berescit, that is, "in the beginning."
SS. Augustine and Ambrose saw this; whence secondly they expound it thus, q.d. Believe Me to be the beginning through which all things were made — but they supply "credite," which is not in the text. Wherefore one must say that here there is a Graecism. For the Greeks subaudit the preposition κατά, so that ἀρχήν is the same as κατ᾽ ἀρχήν, that is, "according to the beginning," or "from the beginning," or "in the beginning"; for this is what the Hebrew berescit means. The sense therefore is, q.d. I am from the beginning, that is, from eternity (and therefore before Abraham, as He Himself says in verse 38). True God from true God, and therefore I am the beginning of time and of the age, and of all things, "Who" nevertheless "also speak to you," that is, who also announce this very thing to you. For I took on flesh for this very reason, and became man, that I might proclaim this gospel and save those who believe it. Our Interpreter reads with the Arabic ὅ, that is, "who"; others read ὅτι, that is, "that," q.d. I am from the beginning — which very thing I speak and affirm to you. Or rather, q.d. I, since I am the Word which from the beginning — that is, from eternity — the Father has spoken and uttered, now made man, also speak this same thing and announce it to you. For the Son is the Word by which the Father speaks; and the Son Himself is likewise the Word which speaks to us. Therefore the term "principium" (beginning) belongs more fittingly to the Word than to the Holy Spirit: first, because the Son with the Father is the principle of the Holy Spirit, while the Holy Spirit is not the principle of any other divine Person, but only of creatures; secondly, because the Son is a principle proceeding from a principle, namely from the Father. Hence "principium" signifies His origin, by which He was begotten of the Father. That this is so is clear from what John adds in verse 27: "And they knew not that He called God His Father." For this is what "from the beginning" signifies, which our translator sagaciously rendered, not literally but according to its sense, as "principium." For the eternal Word is signified here, which was from the beginning, and therefore He Himself is the principle begotten of the Father, so that together with the Father He is the principle both of the Holy Spirit and of all creatures. Therefore the phrase "from the beginning" signifies two things: first, from eternity; second, begotten from God the Father — q.d. I am the Word begotten from eternity by God the Father. Therefore it is the same to say "I am from the beginning," or "I am the beginning," as what John says in 1:1: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." And as what the same John says of Christ in Apocalypse 1:8: "I am α and ω, the beginning and the end." And chapter III, verse 14: "Who is the beginning of the creation of God." And Paul, Colossians 1:18: "Who is the beginning." See what is said there. So Plato: God, he says, "is He who embraces the beginning, the middle, and the end of all things." And Virgil: "From Jove the beginning." And S. Gregory Nazianzen: "From You is the beginning, in You shall it end." And this is what S. Augustine, Ambrose, Rupert, Bede, and Bernard, cited at the outset, intended — those who take "principium" in the nominative case, even though in Greek it is in the accusative. Hear the Gloss: "The Father is a beginning, not from a beginning. The Son is a beginning from a beginning, that is, from the Father, through whom He has worked all things. For He is the right hand, the strength, the wisdom, and the Word of the Father."
The Greek ἀρχή signifies not only principium (beginning), but also principatum (rule/sovereignty), q.d. Christ: I am the beginning, to whom belongs sovereignty, dominion, kingdom, and rule over all things — alluding to that verse of Psalm 109: "With You is the principium (in Greek ἀρχή, that is, principatus) in the day of Your strength, in the splendors of the saints. From the womb before the morning star I have begotten You." And to that of Proverbs 8:22: "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His ways, before He made anything from the beginning," where the Septuagint renders: "The Lord created me the beginning of His ways for His works." See the remarks there. Hear S. Augustine, Against Maximinus, Book III, ch. XVII, tom. VI: "The Father is the beginning, not from a beginning; the Son is the beginning from a beginning: but both at once, not two, but one beginning: just as the Father is God, and the Son is God, and both together not two Gods, but one God." See D. Thomas and the Scholastics, Part I, Question XXXVI, art. 4, where they teach that the Father and the Son are not two, but one principle of the Holy Spirit.
Morally: from this learn that the "beginning" and "end" of all Christian actions must be referred to Christ, inasmuch as He is God and man, so that we may offer both to Him and seek grace from Him for both. For He is the beginning and end of them all. So did S. Paul, who begins his Epistles with Christ and ends them in Him — just as S. Peter, John, James, and Jude did. S. Gregory Nazianzen did the same, who begins his alphabetical monosticha with this ἀρχή: "Let the beginning of things to be done," he says, "and the end, be God." And S. Paulinus:
"In You alone let my composed hope of life rest; / You are my beginning, You my goal and terminus the same."
For just as from unity all numbers arise, and from a center all the lines which are drawn to the circumference; so likewise from Christ arise all Christian and holy actions. Wherefore in Him, as in their own center and beginning, they ought to meet together, be united, begun, and ended. See the remarks on Deuteronomy 6:6. From Christ therefore, O Christian, begin, and in your Christ end. This is what the Apostle enjoins, Colossians 3:17: "Whatsoever you do in word or in work, do all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God and the Father through Him."
Others explain the Greek differently, transposing it — namely Nonnus, Vatablus, and Maldonatus — and translate it thus: I am He, or It, who, or which, from the beginning speak to you and have long been foretelling, namely that I am your Messiah, whom, if you had wished, you could long since have recognized from My speech. Hence the Syriac translates: "Even that which I began to speak with you," and Vatablus: "in the beginning," or "in the first place, what I also speak to you," and explains it thus, q.d. "This is entirely the very thing which I said from the beginning," namely, the light and salvation of the world — supplying, "and you do not believe Me." But this transposition is unusual and harsh.
Finally, others refer these words to what follows, q.d. "In the first place," that is, above all, "because I also speak to you" — supply, and yet you do not believe, — therefore "I have many things to say concerning you and to judge." But this is feeble, and supplies "and yet you do not believe," and does nothing for the question of the Pharisees, and is a mere evasion of an answer, q.d. Christ: You are unworthy that I should answer you, but worthy that I should judge and condemn you.
Verse 26: I Have Many Things to Say of You, and to Judge
26. I HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY OF YOU, AND TO JUDGE. — q.d. I could say many things against you and judge you concerning many things — that is, accuse and convict you — and on the day of judgment I shall charge, judge, and condemn these things. Thus S. Cyril: "Not one only," he says, "but many things I shall accuse, and in no matter do I lie as you do: I can condemn you as unbelieving and faithless, as arrogant, as insolent, as resisting God, as shameless, as ungrateful, as malignant, as lovers of pleasures rather than of God, as grasping at human glory and not seeking the glory of God."
BUT HE WHO SENT ME IS TRUE: AND WHAT I HAVE HEARD FROM HIM, THESE THINGS I SPEAK IN THE WORLD. — q.d. But, leaving aside the many things which I could justly find fault with in you, I shall say only this one principal thing in refutation of your unbelief, by which you mock My teaching: that God the Father, who sent Me into the flesh and into the world, is truthful, and what I have heard from Him, these things I speak in the world, and therefore the things which I proclaim are true, and therefore must be believed by all. So Jansenius. "Therefore," says Augustine, "I am truthful in judgment, because I am the Son of truth, and I am the truth." Moreover, others explain this variously.
First, Toletus, following Chrysostom, Theophylact, and Euthymius, q.d. I could say many things about you.
Verse 27: They Understood Not That He Called His Father God
27. And they understood not that He called His (that is, His own) Father God. — The Greek now only has that He was telling them of His Father, that is, that He was pointing out to them that His Father was God; and so with the Greek read the Syriac, Chrysostom, Theophylact, Euthymius, Augustine and Bede; but the meaning amounts to the same, which the Latin version has expressed far better and more clearly, and with which the Arabic version plainly agrees. Wherefore it is altogether likely that "God" once stood in the Greek. Jesus was speaking covertly and obscurely, so as not to inflame the hatred of the Pharisees against Himself: for if He had said plainly: I am the only-begotten Son of God the Father, they would have stoned Him as a blasphemer. He therefore spoke in a veiled and concealed way: "I am the beginning," or, as it is in the Greek, "from the beginning," that is, begotten from eternity by God the Father; and: "He who sent Me is true." Wherefore from these words the Pharisees did not perceive that Jesus was asserting that God was His Father: yet some of the more quick-witted among them could have caught a scent and suspected it, but they did not clearly understand it, whence they could not refute Him: certainly neither of them understood; that is, they did not believe it to be true; and this was done by God's counsel, lest Christ's Passion be impeded, and thence the redemption of mankind: "For if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory," says Paul, 1 Corinthians 2:8. Whence St. Augustine: "I defer," He says, "My knowledge, that I may fulfill My Passion," through your hands, says the Interlinear.
Verse 28: When You Have Lifted Up the Son of Man
28. Then Jesus said to them: When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall you know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself, but as the Father hath taught Me, these things I speak. — "When you have lifted up," when you shall have raised Me upon the cross; for the cross was on high. Christ calls His crucifixion an "exaltation:" because, though it might seem to be His utmost abasement, disgrace and ignominy, yet in truth by God's providence, it became His utmost exaltation, honor and glory, so that all nations might adore Christ crucified, and from Him hope for and expect pardon, grace and glory. For Christ merited this by so great a humiliation of Himself, according to that word of Paul: "He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross: for which cause God also hath exalted Him, and hath given Him a name which is above all names: that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth," Philippians 2. God does the same for every Christian and follower of Christ, who for Christ's sake is brought low, or voluntarily humbles and lowers himself, according to that decree of His: "Every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted."
Then shall you know that (what) I am, — namely the Messiah, the Son of God, whom I proclaim Myself to be, and not a mere man, as you now suppose. For at Christ's cross, death, resurrection, and thereafter, many of the Jews, beholding Christ's great patience, charity, and zeal, and so many prodigies and miracles, were pricked to the heart and believed in Him. Whence on seeing these things the Centurion said: "Indeed this was the Son of God;" and Christ merited this by His cross, and sought and obtained it from the Father, as is clear from Luke 23:48; Acts 2:41. So St. Augustine: "He saw," he says, "that some would believe in Him after His Passion. And He says this to them, lest any one, being conscious of evil to himself, should despair, when pardon is granted to those who slew Christ." So also St. Chrysostom, Cyril, Leontius, Euthymius, Theophylact and others.
And I do nothing of Myself, but as the Father hath taught Me, these things I speak. — Christ often inculcates this same point, both that He might speak humbly of Himself, and that He might win authority for His doctrine from God the Father. So Chrysostom. Moreover, "the Father did not so teach the Son as though He begot Him untaught; but to teach is this: to have begotten Him knowing: this is for the Son to be, which is to know. In begetting, the Father gave Him as being, so also knowing," says Augustine.
Secondly, Maldonatus, as if to say: Many things could I truly and by My own right say and judge concerning you; and if I should do so, no one would be able to rebuke My judgment, because "He who sent Me is true, and the things I have heard from Him, these I speak in the world." But here harshly for "but," "because" is substituted.
Thirdly, Rupertus refers the "but" above to the word "beginning," as if to say: Although I have said that I am the Beginning, that is, the Prince-God, and I say and affirm this same thing to you, yet I do not speak this of Myself; but it is God the Father, who sent Me, and commanded Me to speak and preach what I have heard from Him.
Fourthly, others, as if to say: You indeed do not believe that I am the Messiah, but nevertheless know that the heavenly Father, who sent Me as Messiah and His ambassador, wills that I speak and preach this very thing.
Fifthly, others, as if to say: I have many things to judge concerning you on the day of judgment, which you neither expect nor believe, but My Father is truthful, who, as He promised that I should be judge on that day, to assign rewards or punishments to each according to the merits of faith or unbelief, so shall He in very deed fulfill and complete it in work. But the sense which I gave at the beginning seems plain and genuine.
Which I have heard from Him, — both as God and as man. Whence the Interlinear says: "To hear from Him is the same as to be from Him." And Augustine: "The equal Son gives glory to the Father, as if to say: I give glory to Him whose Son I am; how dost thou grow proud against Him whose servant thou art?"
Verse 29: He Who Sent Me Is With Me
29. And He who sent Me, is with Me. — He adds this, says St. Chrysostom, lest with the Father, as it were, teaching Him, He should be thought inferior: the former pertains to the dispensation, the latter to the deity. And St. Augustine: The Father, he says, sent the Son, but did not withdraw from the Son. Moreover the Father is with the Son, not only through the undivided and numerically same essence of the deity, as St. Augustine explains, but also by a singular providence, rule, and governance of the humanity which He assumed: for God, as it were, as charioteer, ruled and directed this humanity to every work, whereby it came about that each of Christ's works was exceptional, perfect, heroic, divine. So Rupert, Euthymius, and others.
Verse 30: Many Believed in Him
30. As He spoke these things, many believed in Him. — Many from the simple, candid and teachable crowd, but few or none from the proud and envious Pharisees. "They believed in Him," both because they were convinced by the evidence of His reasonings, and because they were captivated by the grace, spirit, power and efficacy of His words, saying: "Never did man speak like this man," ch. 7, v. 46.
Verse 31: If You Continue in My Word
31. Therefore Jesus said (that He might confirm them in the faith they had now received) to those Jews who believed in Him: If you continue in My word, you shall be My disciples indeed. — By "Jews" He means the common people, whom He opposes to the rulers, Pharisees, and unbelieving priests. "If you continue in My word," that is, if you persevere in My doctrine and faith which you have now received, says St. Augustine, Leontius, Chrysostom, Cyril and Theophylact, "you shall be My disciples indeed," namely faithful and constant, so that through persecutions and crosses you may follow Me generously even unto heaven, and there may be My disciples and followers, yea sons and heirs in happiness and glory, just as here you have been in faith and tribulation: wherefore you shall be worthy of the name and title of My disciples, and so also of their merit and reward.
Verse 32: The Truth Shall Set You Free
32. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. — By the truth the Greeks, St. Chrysostom, Cyril, Euthymius and Theophylact understand Christ Himself, who is the way, the truth and the life, as if to say: If you persevere in My faith, you shall know that I am the Truth, foreshadowed in the shadows and figures of the Old Law, from which accordingly I shall free you, that you may serve God, not in bodily ceremonies and figures, but in the spirit and truth of faith, hope and charity, as I said in ch. 4:23.
Secondly, and more properly according to Christ's mind, as if to say: If you remain in My doctrine which I have taught you, through the very experience and practice of it you shall know and, as it were, taste how true, saving, sincere and pure it is; and that same doctrine shall free you, in Greek ἐλευθερώσει, that is, shall make you free and free-born — free, I say, from the yoke and slavery of sin. For that this is what is properly in question here is clear from what He adds in v. 34: "He who commits sin is the servant of sin." For My faith shall lead you to repentance, contrition and innocence, which abolishes all sin. So Rupert, Jansenius, Maldonatus and others, and St. Augustine, sermon 48 On the Words of the Lord according to John: "If truth does not delight," he says, "let freedom delight, etc.; He clearly gave back freedom, if He took away iniquity."
Anagogically, My doctrine will free you from the corruption of this mortality, mutability, corruption and exile, because it will lead you to the freedom of the blessed immortality and glory of the sons of God. So St. Augustine here, tract 40: "What," he says, "does He promise to believers, brethren? 'And you shall know the truth.' For had they not known it, while the Lord was speaking? If they had not known, how had they believed? Not because they knew did they believe, but that they might know did they believe: for we believe that we may know, we do not know that we may believe: for that which we shall come to know, neither has eye seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man. For what is faith, except to believe what you do not see? Faith, then, is to believe what you do not see; truth, to see what you have believed."
Learn here that there is a fourfold slavery which Christ took away, and a fourfold freedom which He brought. The first slavery was under the burden of the Old Law, which Christ took away by the freedom of the Gospel.
The second slavery was under the yoke of sin: this Christ took away by the freedom of righteousness.
The third slavery was under the dominion of concupiscence, which Christ took away by the freedom of the spirit, and the dominion of charity and grace.
The fourth slavery was under death and mortality, and all the troubles of this life, which Christ shall take away by the freedom of the resurrection and glory.
Wherefore this is not about free will, as if sinners were so enslaved to sin that they lacked free will, which Christ would restore to them when He justifies them. For a sinner sins only through free will, and a penitent, only through free will aided by God's grace, repents and is justified.
Wherefore Calvin ineptly denies free will here both to sinners and to the just: "We," he says, "conscious of our own slavery, glory in Christ alone as our liberator." For he himself judges that we are not intrinsically free, but only extrinsically through the freedom of Christ: just as he likewise holds that we are not intrinsically just through righteousness inhering in us, but only extrinsically through the righteousness of Christ imputed to us by God: both of which are heresies not merely impious, but also unlearned, inept and foolish.
Verse 33: We Are Abraham's Seed
33. They answered (Jews, not so much those who believed in Him, of whom the preceding verse speaks, but rather the unbelievers, as is clear from what follows) Him: We are Abraham's seed, and we have never been slaves to anyone: how dost thou say: You shall be free? — By saying, "if you continue in My word, etc., you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free," Christ had charged the Jews with ignorance and slavery, as though He were going to free them from both by truth and freedom. The Jews, glorying in their descent from Abraham, felt themselves stung by Christ, and while dissembling their ignorance, proudly seized upon the charge of slavery and denied that they were or had been slaves, and therefore had no need of Christ's freedom, as if to say: We are sons of the great patriarch Abraham, and therefore free-born and free, and we have never been slaves to anyone; wherefore neither by birth nor by condition are we slaves. So today many, says St. Chrysostom, if their impure and wicked morals are reproved, dissemble; but if their lineage and nobility is touched, they leap up like madmen. But the Jews did not understand Christ; for Christ was not speaking of civil slavery and freedom, but of spiritual, namely that He would free them from the slavery of sin through the freedom of grace.
You will ask, whether the Jews truly say: "We have never been slaves to anyone?" for once they had served the Egyptians, until they were freed and led out by Moses; likewise the Babylonians, when under Joachim and Zedekiah they were captured and carried off to Babylon; likewise the Philistines, Ammonites, etc., in the time of the Judges. St. Chrysostom, St. Augustine, Leontius, and Bede reply that the Jews, boastful beyond measure, exalted their own lineage, and therefore spoke falsely and lied; but they veiled their lie in this sense, that although they had been subjugated by Babylonians, Egyptians and other peoples, yet they had never been scattered and sold as slaves, that is, as chattels.
Secondly, Cajetan, Toletus, Jansenius and others reply that the forefathers of these Jews had indeed served the Babylonians and Egyptians, but these Jews in the time of Christ had served no one; because, although they were under the Romans and Tiberius Caesar, yet they were not their slaves and chattels, but only subjects: for they had not yet been destroyed by Vespasian and Titus, when indeed all the Jews were either slain or captured as slaves and sold off, so that there were 97 thousand captives, and eleven hundred thousand slain and dead, according to Josephus, Jewish War, book VII, ch. 17.
This sense seems more fitting. For to say that their forefathers had never been slaves to anyone would have been too barefaced a lie, which the very sun would have blushed at and Christ would have refuted on the spot. Therefore they say: "We are Abraham's seed, and we have never been slaves to anyone," as if to say: We are not slaves either by origin and lineage, because we are sons of the noble and illustrious Abraham; nor are we slaves by fortune and condition, because we have never been slaves to anyone. Therefore in no way are we slaves, but in every respect free, free-born, and noble; because, although we are under the Romans, we are under them politically as subjects, not despotically as slaves and chattels.
Verse 34: Whoever Commits Sin Is the Servant of Sin
34. Amen, amen (that is, truly truly, or surely surely, i.e. most truly and most certainly. "Truth," says St. Augustine, "speaks: greatly does it commend what it thus pronounces"), I say unto you: that whoever commits sin is the servant of sin. — Christ, to the Jews objecting that they were not slaves but free, replies that He is speaking of a slavery not civil but mystical, by which one serves sin. Moreover, modestly and meekly He speaks in general terms and in the third person, when properly He means to say: You commit many sins, and therefore are slaves of sin, from which slavery no one can free you except Me. "O miserable slavery," exclaims St. Augustine in tract 41, and adds the reason: "The servant of a name, when wearied by the harsh commands of his master, finds rest by fleeing: whither does the servant of sin flee? He drags himself along wherever he flees. An evil conscience does not flee from itself, it has nowhere to go, it follows itself, nay it does not withdraw from itself: for the sin which it commits is within."
St. Peter gives another cause in his second epistle, ch. 2, v. 19, saying: "For by whatever a man is overcome, of that also he is the slave." See what is said there. Add a third: He who commits sin is the servant of the devil, who incites to sin, just as he who does righteousness is the servant of God, who impels to it. The devil, however, is the supreme tyrant, who drives sinners like chattels, and drags them ever from one crime to another and another, and at length into hell, as may be seen in sorcerers and magicians. Fourth, because sin leaves behind it a concupiscence and inclination to repeat sin, which concupiscence remains even after sin is remitted, for punishment and temptation. Whence the Apostle, Rom. 7, says that he was sold under sin, so that what he does not will, that he does (namely that he feels the motions of concupiscence against his will), and the good which he wills, he cannot accomplish; therefore he cries out: "Unhappy man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"
Fifth, because the sinner is bound, as it were by chains, to the sin which he has committed, so that he cannot extricate himself from it unless Christ free him by His grace, according to Prov. 5:22: "His own iniquities catch the wicked, and he is held fast with the cords of his sins." And Isaiah 5:18: "Woe to you that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as the rope of a cart." See what is said in both places. Hear St. Gregory, Moralia book IV, ch. 42: "He who subjects himself to a depraved desire lays the once-free neck of his mind under the dominion of iniquity; but we resist this master when we struggle against the iniquity that had captured us." The same in Moralia book 25, ch. 20: "The more willingly a man perpetrates the perverse things he wills, the more firmly is he bound in the bondage of iniquity." It is a prosopopoeia: for to sin, which is an inanimate thing, is attributed the person of a lord, or master and tyrant; first, that the force and tyranny of sin and concupiscence may be signified; secondly, because under sin is understood the devil, who rules in the kingdom of sin and harshly lords it over sinners; thirdly, that the guilt of sin may be shown, by which sin makes the sinner guilty of death and hell.
Admirably St. Ambrose, sermon 12 on Psalm 118, on those words: "I am thine, save me": "The worldly man," he says, "cannot say: I am thine; for he has many masters. Lust comes, and says: Thou art mine, because thou dost desire the things that belong to the body. Avarice comes, and says: Thou art mine, because the silver and gold which thou hast is the price of thy servitude. Luxury comes, and says: Thou art mine, because the banquet of one day is the price of thy life. Ambition comes, and says: Plainly thou art mine: dost thou not know that I have made thee rule over others, that thou thyself mightest serve me? dost thou not know that I have conferred power upon thee, that I might subject thee to my power? All the vices come, and each one says: Thou art mine. How wretched a slave is he whom so many lay claim to?" Moreover, the sinner who cannot say to God: "I am Thine," hears from the devil: "Thou art mine." For, as St. Ambrose adds: "Satan came and entered into him, and began to say: He is not Thine, Jesus; but mine. He thinks what is mine, he has willed in his heart what is mine: he feasts with thee, and is fed with me; from thee he takes bread, from me money; with thee he drinks, and to me he sells thy blood; he is thy Apostle, and my mercenary."
Verse 35: The Servant Abideth Not in the House Forever
35. Now the servant abideth not in the house forever: but the son abideth forever. — As if to say: He who is a slave of sin, as you, O Jews, are, does not have, in the manner of slaves, the right to abide forever in his master's house, namely in God's Church; for after death he will be cast out into the outer darkness of hell, as you likewise shall be cast out. But the son always remains in the house of his master, that is, of his father; that is, I always remain with God My Father in heaven: wherefore if through Me and My grace you shall have been freed from the slavery of sin, together with Me, as adopted sons, you shall forever remain in the house of God, that is, in the Church, both militant through grace and triumphant through glory, happy and glorious forever. So St. Augustine, Cyril, Bede and others. Whence follows:
Verse 36: If the Son Shall Make You Free
36. If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. — Note the word truly, as if to say: Neither Abraham nor Moses, though most dear servants to God, can free you from sin, but only I, who am the true Son of God, Messiah, redeemer and savior of the world. So St. Chrysostom, Theophylact, Euthymius and others.
Verse 37: I Know That You Are Abraham's Sons
37. I know that you are Abraham's sons; but you seek to kill Me, — which Abraham did not do; as if to say: By nature indeed you are sons of Abraham, but by imitation degenerate. Wherefore Abraham's lineage will not profit you, except to greater damnation; for Abraham on the day of judgment will condemn you, and will say: I do not acknowledge you as sons, because you have persecuted and crucified My son Christ and your brother: go then, killers of Christ, into everlasting fire. Thus Christ explains Himself in v. 40.
Because My word has no place in you, — that is, according to Vatablus, has no room in you; namely because you do not wish to receive it; the Arabic: is not firm in you. Whence Origen and Chrysostom judge that the Jews [understood] Christ's saying, that they had a father other than Abraham, namely an adulterer, and that it was spoken to those who had previously believed in Christ, but only cursorily and lightly, and that suddenly, when they heard themselves called slaves by Christ, being provoked and inflamed, with their mind and faith turned to treachery, they wanted to kill Him. More plainly and probably we shall say that Christ said these things to the unbelievers, who were already before plotting His death.
Verse 38: I Speak That Which I Have Seen With My Father
38. I speak that which I have seen with My Father; and you do what you have seen with your father. — as if to say: Just as I speak and teach those things which I have seen and heard (for in spiritual and divine matters to see and to hear are the same, as I said at ch. 5:30), that is, which I have known and understood from God My Father, so likewise you, those things which you have seen, that is, have heard (whence some Greek manuscripts with Chrysostom and Leontius read ἠκούσατε, that is, you have heard), and have learned from your father the devil, you do not merely speak, but in actual deed you do, especially while you are plotting to kill Me. So St. Augustine, Bede, Leontius, Euthymius, Rupert. For that the devil is here called the father of the Jews, not Abraham, Christ clearly teaches in v. 44, saying: "You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do: he was a murderer from the beginning."
Verse 39: Abraham Is Our Father
39. They answered and said to Him: Abraham is our father, — because Christ seemed to have assigned them another father, and had not named him, in order that they might draw it from His mouth, they repeat and reply: "Our father is Abraham," and we acknowledge no other father.
Jesus saith to them: If you are Abraham's sons, do the works of Abraham. — "He does not deny their origin," says St. Augustine, "but condemns their deeds. Their flesh was from him (Abraham), but their life was not." Some Greek codices, and the Arabic which follows them, have: If you were Abraham's sons, you would do the works of Abraham.
Verse 40: This Abraham Did Not Do
40. But now you seek to kill Me, a man who have told you the truth which I have heard from God: this Abraham did not do. — He clearly explains and proves that the Jews do not do the works of Abraham, because Abraham harmed no one, but saved Lot and all whom he could: but the Jews were busy trying to harm and kill Christ. In a similar manner the Hebrews, in Pirke Avoth, ch. V: "By three things," they say, "you will know who is a disciple of Abraham, and who of Balaam. For he who has a gracious eye, a benign spirit, and a contented soul, who is easily satisfied — this one is a disciple of Abraham. But he who has an envious and jealous eye, a proud spirit, and an insatiable soul — this one is a disciple of Balaam."
Verse 41: You Do the Works of Your Father
41. You do the works of your father. — Christ persists in what He said, that the Jews are sons not of Abraham, but of another father whose works they imitate, namely of the devil, whom He does not yet name, but will name in v. 44.
They therefore said to Him: We are not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God. — First, Origen, Cyril, and Leontius judge that the Jews [took] Christ's saying, that they had a father other than Abraham, namely an adulterer, as spoken to those who had previously believed in Christ, [to say]. Wickedly therefore dost thou appropriate Abraham's true God to thyself alone, as though He were father of thee only, and dost exclude us from being His sons, and assign us to another, namely the devil, and makest us illegitimate and adulterine, and therefore infamous and vicious. For the illegitimate are wont to contract from their parents' seed the fickleness and vices of the parents, and therefore to be fickle, petulant, lascivious: on which account they are by Canon Law irregular and unfit for the priesthood.
Verse 42: If God Were Your Father
42. Therefore Jesus said to them: If God were your Father, you would certainly love Me: for I proceeded from God, and came. — Many of them had been born of fornication (and this Christ sufficiently hinted when He wrote with His finger on the ground, while they were accusing the adulteress, vv. 7-8); but passing over this, says Chrysostom, as being a hidden, base, infamous and invidious matter, Christ shows that they are not of God by this syllogism:
He who loves God, loves also the Son of God; but you do not love the Son of God, namely Me, who have proved this same to you by so many miracles: therefore you also do not love God. Just as the Arians, who deny that Christ is the Son of God, equally deny God the Father: for He is not, and cannot be called, a Father, who has no son.
For I proceeded from God (Greek ἐξῆλθον, that is, I came forth, so also the Arabic) and I came. — Greek ἥκω, that is, I come, meaning I have now come. St. Augustine, Bede, Leontius, Ammonius and St. Hilary, De Trinitate, book VI, judge that here both generations of Christ are denoted, namely the divine and the human, as if to say: I proceeded from the Father by eternal generation, I came into the world through the recently-accomplished incarnation. "That the Word proceeded from God, is eternal procession," says St. Augustine; "but He came to us, because He was made flesh: His advent is His humanity."
More plainly Jansenius, Maldonatus and others refer both terms, namely "I proceeded and I came," to the incarnation, but in such a way that His eternal generation is also implied and, as it were, presupposed, as if to say: I went forth from God and came into the world, I who before had gone forth begotten from God, and was in heaven God and God's Son. For in this sense Christ says in ch. 16:27: "The Father loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God," namely sent into the flesh and into the world.
For neither did I come of Myself, but He sent Me. — "He teaches that His origin is not from Himself," says Hilary, De Trinitate book VI. Origen adds: He says this because of certain men coming of themselves, and not sent by the Father, whom Jeremiah censures, ch. 23, saying: "I did not send them, yet they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied." Let Luther, Calvin and the other heresiarchs take note of this, who, sent by no one having authority, thrust themselves into the chairs of the Church to innovate and pervert the true faith and religion of God.
Verse 43: Why Do You Not Know My Speech
43. Why do you not know My speech? Because you cannot hear My word. — "You cannot," because, fixed in your pride, avarice, hatred and envy against Me, you do not wish to "hear" and understand Me. "Therefore they could not hear," says St. Augustine, "because they were unwilling to be corrected by believing," but, as the Gloss says, "because you are of the devil, in him you have chosen to persevere." So also St. Chrysostom, Theophylact, Leontius, and Euthymius. See St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 4 On Theology, where he teaches that in Scripture "cannot" often means the same as "will not." So in Matt. 19:12 it is said: "He that can (that is, who wills to) receive it, let him receive it." Secondly, more properly and forcibly, as if to say: Therefore you do not understand My words, because you cannot bear Me as I teach, and you do not wish even to admit My sayings to your ears, so hateful am I to you and with so great hatred of Me do you labor, and in it have you obstinately hardened your mind. So Emmanuel Sa.
Verse 44: You Are of Your Father the Devil
44. You are of your father the devil. — "By imitation, not by birth," says St. Augustine, and citing that word of Ezek. 16:3: "Thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite," he adds: "The Jews, by imitating their impieties, found for themselves parents — not those from whom they might be born, but whose morals they followed, that they might be condemned equally with them."
Moreover, by "the devil" here St. Epiphanius, in heresies 38 and 40, understands Judas the traitor, who on that account is by Christ called "devil" in ch. 6:70; but the author of the Questions on the Old and New Testament, appended to St. Augustine, by "the devil" understands Cain, who killed his brother Abel, just as the Jews killed Christ. But it is certain that "the devil" here is taken literally for Lucifer, as is clear from what follows; for as a father the Jews followed him in persecuting Christ: "Not indeed by succession of flesh, but of crime," says St. Ambrose, book IV on Luke.
And (that is, because) you will to do the desires (Greek ἐπιθυμίας, that is, the concupiscences, lusts) of your father, — so that you may kill Me. He explains and gives the reason why He said they were of the devil as a father, namely because they follow and in deed carry out the works, suggestions, and promptings of the devil.
He did not say "works," says St. Chrysostom, but "desires," showing that both he and they vehemently delight in slaughters. For the demon burns with a desire to kill and destroy all men, both because he envies them the glory from which he himself fell, and that he may harm God, whom he hates as though He were his tormentor, and rob Him of men; for God created them in His own image, and called and predestined them to His grace and eternal glory.
He was a murderer from the beginning, and stood not in the truth. — "Murderer," in Greek expressively ἀνθρωποκτόνος; the Arabic, "slayer of men," the devil was from the beginning, of the creation both of the world and of himself, namely the sixth day of the world on which Adam was created: for as soon as he was created, Lucifer, envying him, on that same day slew him and all his posterity; because he persuaded him to eat the apple forbidden by God under penalty of death, and so drove him into death — as if to say: As the devil from the beginning killed Adam and all his posterity, so now through you, O Jews, he likewise tries to kill Me, through whom men are to be redeemed from death; for he always persists in his anger, hatred, and desire to harm and kill, like a leopard and wolf feeding on human flesh; and therefore he thirsts continually for their slaughter and blood. Wherefore it is this same Lucifer who from the beginning of the world drove Cain to kill his brother Abel, likewise drove Joseph's brothers to destine him for death; he incited all other murderers to murders and still incites them: much more does this same one thirst for the death and ruin of souls, though here the discussion is properly about the killing of bodies; for this was what the Jews, at the instigation of the devil, were plotting against Christ. So Euthymius and St. Augustine, book II Against the Letters of Petilianus, ch. 13.
And stood not in the truth. — That is, in integrity, rectitude and perfection, namely in the grace, justice and holiness in which he had been created by God, "he stood not," that is, did not persevere. So gold is called "true" which is pure and perfect, not adulterated; so Nathanael is called "a true Israelite, in whom there is no guile," ch. 1, v. 47. Again "in truth," that is, in his duty, namely in that which was just and right for him to do; for this is what "truth" often signifies in John, David, and Solomon. See the comments at ch. 3:21. For truth is threefold: of heart, of mouth, and of deed. Truth of heart is that by which the heart, or mind, truly conceives and understands a thing as it is in itself; this is opposed to falsity and error. Truth of mouth is that by which one truly speaks what he feels in his heart: this is opposed to lying. Truth of deed is that by which one acts truly, that is, conformably to the judgment of practical reason, or by which one does what truly, in practice, according to the dictate of right reason, he judges should be done. This is opposed to iniquity and sin; and this is precisely what is understood here, as if to say: The devil, that is, Lucifer with his followers, "stood not," that is, did not persevere, "in the truth," that is, in that which in practice he ought truly to have done, namely because he refused to be under God, to whom as a creature he was bound to be subject, but growing proud rose up against Him and willed to be His equal, as though another God, whence he fell from his rectitude, grace, state, and station, and was cast down into hell, according to that word: "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, who didst rise in the morning?" Isa. 14:12. So St. Chrysostom, homily 54; St. Leo, sermon 40 On Lent, and others. Hence, first, St. Augustine, book IV Contra Adimantum, ch. 4, takes "truth" as the law, as if to say: The devil did not stand firm in the law of God. Others understand by "truth" fidelity, as if to say: the devil did not persevere in the fidelity and obedience which he owed to God his Creator. Secondly, St. Irenaeus, book V, chapters XXII and XXIII, and following him Toletus, here properly take "truth" as truthfulness, which is opposed to lying — as if to say: the devil from the beginning was a liar; for by his lie he deceived Adam and Eve, saying, "You shall not die if you eat of the forbidden fruit, but you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil" (Gen. III). This sense agrees very well with what follows, where it is said: "When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own, because he is a liar, and the father thereof." For Christ here seems to reprove two vices of the Jews which they had learned from their father the devil: the first is murder, by which they were plotting His death, just as the devil slew Adam; the second is lying and calumny, by which they falsely asserted that Christ was a false prophet, a magician, a demoniac, etc.
Thirdly, Origen here, tome XXIV, takes "truth" as the truth of practical judgment which Lucifer forsook when he sinned, judging that he should be proud and rebel against God — which practically was false and erroneous. For, as is said in Prov. IV, "They err who work evil," and contrariwise they are wise who work good, because they follow the true practical judgment of right reason. All these are true and fit this passage, and follow from the first. For since Lucifer did not stand firm in the truth of his work and office, hence he likewise fell from truth of heart and mind, so as to persuade himself of practically false judgments, and from truth of mouth — that is, from truthfulness — so that by his lies he deceived Eve and the rest of mankind.
He stood not. — Hence St. Augustine rightly concludes, book XI Of the City of God, chapter XIII and following, and from him the Theologians, that the devil was created by God in grace and justice, but did not stand firm in it, that is, did not persevere: wherefore the Manichees err in saying that the devil is evil by his nature and was created evil by an evil God. For the Manichees abused that saying of St. John, 1st Epistle, chapter III: "From the beginning the devil sinneth." But the sense of that passage is different, as I have there explained.
Because there is no truth in him. — Namely, neither truth of heart, nor of mouth, nor of work, as I have already said; for these three truths are linked like sisters and accompany one another. Here, however, "truth" properly means truthfulness; for He proves from the effect that the devil did not stand firm in the truth of work, namely because he fell from truthfulness, lies, beguiles and deceives. For because the devil fell from the truth of his work and office, hence he likewise fell from truth of mouth, that is, from truthfulness — that is, he lies and utters very many lies, as follows. So St. Augustine in the place already cited.
When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar, and the father thereof. — The Arabic: "when he speaks a lie, he speaks only what is his own," as if to say: after the devil fell from the truth of his angelic office, rank and state, and by his own freedom made himself from a most beautiful angel into a most hideous evil-demon, it became proper and as it were innate to him to beguile and deceive, and his peculiar and proper office is to lie, that he may seduce men and drag them into Gehenna and into his kingdom. For this is his whole occupation; hither he directs all his thoughts and efforts; he thinks of, desires, and devises nothing else.
Secondly, "of his own," that is, of his own invention; because the devil was the inventor of lying, and was the first of all to lie when he deceived Eve. But men after him, and deceived by him, began to beguile and lie; and therefore they lie and deceive not of their own, but from another — namely, from the devil's imitation and suggestion. So Origen, St. Chrysostom, and St. Augustine, and they prove it from what follows: "Because he is a liar, and the father thereof."
Thirdly, "of his own," that is, from what is inmost, from the innermost recesses of his soul — what the Hebrews call benaphsco, "out of his own soul" — he speaks, because he rejoices inwardly in lies and exults when he is able to lie and deceive, just as a thief rejoices in his thefts. Because he is a liar — from his continual practice, habit, and office of deceiving and lying, so much so that he seems wholly patched together and forged out of frauds and lies. And if at any time he speaks truth, he speaks it under compulsion, or else with the purpose of persuading what is false by means of what is true and of leading into deceit.
And the father thereof. — "Thereof," namely, of the devil, says Nonnus. Hence the Cainite heretics understood Cain by "the devil." But St. Epiphanius, heresy 38, takes it to mean Judas the traitor himself, whose father was the lying devil, just as they themselves were liars. The Manichees, however, as St. Augustine testifies, tract 62, said that the devil himself had a father, namely an evil God, by whom he was created — who was a liar, just as his son the devil is. In truth, I say, the devil is here called the father "thereof," namely of the "lie" which preceded, and which again is contained concretely in "liar."
Now the devil is called "the father of lying": first, "father" meaning inventor, because he was the first to lie and invented the art of lying and deceiving, which he then taught to men. So in Genesis IV, 20, Jabel is called "the father of them that dwell in tents," and his brother Jubal "the father of them that play upon the harp and the organ" — "father," that is, inventor. Secondly, "father," because he himself begets and fashions lies, just as the potter from clay forms and fashions earthen vessels; therefore he is "father," that is, the potter of lying. So St. Augustine, Leontius, Chrysostom, and others. It is a Hebraism. Hear Origen: "The devil begat lying. He was seduced by himself; in this he is the worse, that while others are deceived by him, he is himself the author of his own deception." And St. Augustine: "Not everyone who lies is the father of lying, but he who received the lie from no one else, as the devil."
Hence the devil is the father and author of heresies. Wherefore the heresiarchs have had a demon as attendant or assessor, who suggested to them heresies and arguments for confirming them, as Luther himself confessed. Such an one had Arius, Eunomius, Calvin, etc., and such an one will the Antichrist have; whence the Apostle, 1 Tim. IV, 1, calls heresies "doctrines of demons." See what is said there.
Verse 45: But If I Say the Truth, You Believe Me Not
45. But if I say the truth, you believe Me not. — This is the minor premise, which Christ puts under the major, to prove that the Jews are of their father the devil. For His syllogism here is: Whoever believes a lie, not the truth, is a son of the devil, who is a liar and the father thereof; But you believe a lie, not the truth: Therefore you are sons of the devil.
"If," that is "because," as the Greek and some Latins have it, as if to say: Because therefore I speak the truth, truly reproving your vices and truly asserting that I am the Messiah, your teacher and the Saviour of the world, and this I prove by miracles, you — because you are unwilling to lay aside your vices or to be rebuked of them — are unwilling to believe Me who tell and teach the truth, but rather the devil, who by his lies persuades you that I am a false prophet, and that My miracles are tricks and therefore feigned, not true. Hence the Arabic, omitting "if," translates: "But I speak the truth, and you believe Me not."
Verse 46: Which of You Shall Convince Me of Sin
46. Which of you shall convince Me of sin? — This is an anticipation (occupatio), for He meets the objection of the Jews. For they could have objected and said: "We do not believe You, because You violate our law and sin — e.g. You violate the sabbath when You heal paralytics on it." Christ answers: Bring forward any sin by which I violate the law, and prove it, and I will allow Myself not to be believed by you; for I have elsewhere shown that My healing on the sabbath is not a violation of the law but a sanctification of it. Bring forward, then, any other sin of Mine, if you can, and convict Me of it. Behold, I permit you, though you are My sworn enemies, to pass censure and judgment on Me.
Great was this innocence and confidence of Christ, by which He removes from Himself not only sin, but even the shadow and suspicion of sin, so that no one could object anything to Him that would have even the slightest appearance of sin. For He was impeccable, both on account of the beatific vision which He enjoyed — as for the same reason the Blessed in heaven are impeccable: for since they see that God is the highest good, they therefore necessarily love Him with all their strength, and hate whatever displeases Him — and on account of the hypostatic union with the Word: for since His humanity subsisted in the person of the Word, therefore the Word preserved His own humanity immune from all sin, in full sanctity. For if Christ's humanity had sinned, the person of the Word would have sinned, which is impossible. For the actions of virtues or of vices belong to persons and are attributed to persons.
Hence St. Ambrose, on Psalm XL, verse 43, introduces God the Father addressing Christ thus: "Thou hast dwelt among sinners, Thou hast taken upon Thyself the sins of all, Thou hast been made sin for all, yet no habit of sin could pass into Thee. Thou hast dwelt among men as though Thou wert dwelling among angels. Thou hast made earth to be what heaven is, that there also Thou mightest take away sin."
If I say the truth, why do you not believe Me? — Here He excludes another exception of the Jews. For the Jews could have said: "We do not believe You, not on account of any sin committed by You, but because the things You say and teach are not true." Christ anticipates this and says: I have proved My doctrine to you by so many arguments and miracles, that no prudent man, not blinded by hatred, could doubt that it is most true. If then My life is most innocent, and My doctrine most true, why do you not believe Me? Therefore understand "truth" here not as merely asserted, but as demonstrated by reason, so that the word "truth" embraces the demonstration of the truth.
Verse 47: He That Is of God Heareth the Words of God
47. He that is of God, heareth the words of God: therefore you hear them not, because you are not of God. — Christ here assigns the true cause why the Jews do not believe Him; namely, because they follow and hearken, as to a father, not to God but to the devil. As if to say: this is the true a priori reason why you do not believe Me: namely, because you are not born of God but of the devil — that is, because you do not hear and follow the Spirit and instinct of God, but of the devil. "For whosoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God," Rom. VIII. For the devil has blinded your hearts with covetousness, hatred, and envy of Me: wherefore you do not hear the words of God which I, sent from God, announce to you, because you are unwilling to hear and to understand them. Since therefore you are not sons of the truthful God, but of the lying devil, hence you listen to and obey his lying suggestions; but God's truthful words, uttered by Me, you are unwilling to admit into your ears.
Further, St. Augustine, tract. 42, and St. Gregory, homily 18, understand this saying of the elect and the reprobate, as if to say: He who is predestined and elected by God hears God's words; therefore you do not hear them, because you are not predestined by God but reprobated. But this sense is accommodated, not literal and genuine. For, as Toletus and Maldonatus rightly note, this was not the precise cause why the Jews did not believe Christ, but the one I have stated. For many of those who now did not believe Christ afterwards, when Peter and the Apostles preached, believed and were saved, as is clear from Acts II. Conversely, some who now believed Christ afterwards fell from His faith and were therefore reprobated, as is gathered from John VI, 67. Lastly, the Manichees wrongly inferred from this place, as St. Augustine here testifies, that some men are by nature good, because, created by a good God, they received a particle of His nature and goodness; while others are by nature evil, because they were made by an evil principle.
Morally, from this saying of Christ St. Gregory, homily 18, infers: "Let each one ask himself whether he receives the words of God in the ear of his heart, and he will understand whence he is. Truth commands us to desire our heavenly country, to crush the desires of the flesh, to decline the glory of the world, not to covet what belongs to others, and to give freely of our own. Let each of you therefore ponder within himself whether this voice of God has prevailed in the ear of his heart, and he will recognize that he is now of God." And a little later: "There are some who gladly receive God's words, even to the point of being moved to tears, but after the time of weeping they return to iniquity. They truly do not hear God's words, for they despise to put them into practice."
Hence St. Gregory concludes that it is a sign of divine predestination if one hears God's words and obeys His holy inspirations; but a sign of reprobation if one rejects them, according to that of Prov. ch. I: "Because I called, and you refused, etc., I also will laugh in your destruction, and will mock when that which you feared shall come upon you." For, as Christ says in John X: "My sheep hear My voice." For just as the sheep which hears the shepherd's voice is safe from the wolf and saved, while that which does not hear wanders and is devoured by the wolf, so also those who hear the voice of Christ the Shepherd are saved, and those who do not are devoured by the demon. Therefore Christ clearly declares: "Blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it," Luke ch. XI. Hence St. Bernard, sermon 1 on Septuagesima, gives to his monks this as the greatest sign of predestination, that they hear God's words with fruit. For this was as it were their continual food — whatever proceeds from God's mouth, to search out by reading, meditating, and praying, and to fulfill in action.
Verse 48: Thou Art a Samaritan, and Hast a Devil
48. The Jews therefore answered, and said to Him: Do not we say well (rightly, truly), that Thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil? — "We say," that is, we have said and are accustomed to say: hence it is clear that they were accustomed to say this, even if it is not written elsewhere. But why did they call Christ a Samaritan? Rupertus gives the first reason — because Christ had dwelt among the Samaritans (chap. IV, verse 40). Hence they objected to Him that He was a deserter, made a Samaritan out of a Jew. Maldonatus gives the second — that the Jews called Christ a Galilean, because He was conceived and brought up in Nazareth, which is a city of Galilee. Now the Galileans were neighbours of the Samaritans, and hence were reckoned by the Jews as like them, or even the same, of equal rank and baseness. The third and chief cause was that the Samaritans were partly Jews, partly Gentiles, because along with the God of the Jews they worshipped the gods of the Assyrians, from whom they were descended, IV Kings XVII. So Christ seemed to them partly Jew, partly Gentile, because He was introducing a new faith and religion; and so He seemed to adulterate the law, and to mingle the traditions of the elders and the law with the Gospel, just as the Samaritans mingled and corrupted Judaism with heathenism.
Finally, "Samaritan" among the Jews was the same as "schismatic and apostate": for the Samaritans had made a schism from the Jews, and had erected a temple for themselves on Mount Gerizim, as a rival and opposite to the temple of the Jews at Jerusalem, as I said on chap. IV, verse 9. So Origen, Theophylact, Ammonius, Leontius, Euthymius. Wherefore to call anyone a Samaritan was a huge insult and reproach; as it is now among the Spaniards to call someone a Moor or a Marrano.
And hast a devil? — First, "because in Beelzebub, the prince of devils, Thou castest out devils," as they themselves object to Christ, Luke XI, 15. So Theophylact. Secondly, because Christ made Himself God, and thus transferred God's glory to Himself, just as the demon, namely Lucifer, sought to be God and to claim God's glory for himself. So Leontius. This sense seems the genuine one, and Christ so understood it; whence He answers: "I seek not My own glory." Thirdly, "Thou hast a devil," that is, Thou art raving, Thou art mad, just as lunatics and the demoniacally-possessed rave and are mad when stirred up by a demon. For so it is said in chapter X, verse 20: "He hath a devil and is mad; why hear you Him?" and in chapter VII, verse 20: "Thou hast a devil, who seeketh to kill Thee?" This was a dreadful reproach and blasphemy of the Jews against Christ, and therefore stupendous was His modesty and patience in bearing it, as appears from His most modest reply. For He says:
Verse 49: I Have Not a Devil, But I Honour My Father
49. I have not a devil, but I honour My Father, and you have dishonoured Me. — Marvel here at Christ's meekness under such great insult, by which as truthful He denies it as false, yet as powerful He does not return the reproach. Hence St. Gregory, hom. 18: "Behold, receiving injury, God answers with no insulting words. When you receive an insult from those near you, you ought to keep silence even about the true evils that are in them, lest the ministry of just reproof be turned into the weapons of fury." And Chrysostom: "Where it behoved the Lord to teach them and inveigh against their pride, He was stern; but where it was to bear with those who reproached Him, He used much meekness — that we, namely, may learn to avenge what pertains to God, but to despise what pertains to ourselves." And Augustine: "Let us imitate His patience, that we may come to His power."
Christ passed over the name "Samaritan" in silence, because it was merely an insult cast against Himself, not against God: therefore He was unwilling to avenge His own injury, but to defend the honour of God; and because everyone knew He was a Galilean, not a Samaritan; and because by refuting that He had a demon He likewise refuted that He was a Samaritan. For the Samaritans, being as it were schismatics, were the bondservants of the demon. St. Gregory, hom. 18, gives another cause, but mystical, not literal: "Samaritan," he says, "means watchman, and He is truly the Watchman, of whom the Psalmist says: Unless the Lord keep the city, they watch in vain that keep it; and to whom it is said through Isaiah: Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? The Lord was unwilling to answer, 'I am not a Samaritan'; but only, 'I have not a devil.' For two charges were brought against Him: one He denied, the other by silence He conceded. For being the Watchman of the human race, if He had said that He was not a Samaritan, He would have been denying that He was the Watchman."
I have not a devil. — Rather, you have one, says Leontius, as if to say: I am so far from taking God's glory or usurping it to Myself, as the demon did, namely Lucifer, that I constantly honour God the Father, and say that I have all things from Him, that I was sent by Him, that I obey His will in all things, that I refer all My things back to Him, and direct them to His honour and glory. It is you, rather, who dishonour God the Father, because you dishonour and assail with the most bitter insults Me, who am the Son of God the Father and His legate in the world. So Leontius. Others explain it more generally of sin, as if to say: I honour the Father by holy works, while you dishonour Him by your sins. So St. Augustine, Chrysostom, Bede, Theophylact.
Verse 50: I Seek Not My Own Glory
50. I seek not My own glory (but God the Father's): there is one that seeketh and judgeth. — As if to say: There is God the Father who will seek out and judge, that is, will most severely avenge and punish those who do not bear nor seek My glory, but by every means dishonour and defile it, as you do. So Chrysostom, Leontius, Theophylact, Euthymius.
You will say: This seems contrary to that saying of Christ, chap. V, verse 22: "The Father judgeth not any man, but hath given all judgment to the Son." I reply: There Christ speaks of the public and universal judgment, which the Father has committed to the Son, that He may carry it out on the day of the last judgment; but here He speaks of the private and daily judgment, by which God the Father is wont to avenge the injuries done in this world to the Son and to His Saints, as He did when He overthrew the Jews through Titus and the Romans because of the slaying of Christ by them — and this Christ here tacitly hints and foretells. So Jansenius, Maldonatus and others. The Gloss explains otherwise: "There is one who judges," it says, that is, who will distinguish My glory from yours, who glory according to the world, as in that saying of David: "Judge me, O God, and distinguish my cause from the nation that is not holy."
Verse 51: He Shall Not Taste Death Forever
51. Amen, amen I say to you: if any man keep My word, he shall not taste (that is, shall not feel, shall not experience) death forever. — Christ, not moved to indignation by so dreadful a reproach of the Jews, but rather to compassion for them, persists in His judgment and doctrine, and shows that He does not seek His own glory, but the salvation of the Jews. Hence He says: "Amen, amen," that is, in truth, most truly and most certainly I say, and, as Augustine thinks, I swear to you, that if you keep My teachings, you shall never die the death of the soul — that is, you shall never sin (for sin is the death of the soul) — but you shall live forever, here in God's grace, and in heaven in God's glory. You will indeed die in body, but from this death I shall raise you up on the day of judgment, and I shall cause you thenceforth to live in all bodily and spiritual happiness unto all eternity. So St. Augustine.
Verse 52: Now We Know That Thou Hast a Devil
52. Now we know that Thou hast a devil. — For a demon is suggesting to Thee that Thou shouldst speak things as proud as they are false and absurd; namely, that Thy word will drive away death from those who believe in Thee, when we see that all men without exception die, even Prophets and Saints, such as Abraham was. But, as St. Gregory says, hom. 18: "Looking only at the death of the flesh, they were blinded at the word of truth." For, as Bede says, Abraham, whom they cite, was indeed dead in body, but was alive in soul.
Learn here, O Religious, O preacher, O Christian, from your Christ to receive calumnies for a good work, and curses and evil deeds for kindnesses; learn also to do good to the ungrateful. For Christ, while continually teaching the Jews, healing them, and delivering them from demons, bore with kindness the insults and reproaches hurled at Him by them. For kindnesses He received ingratitude, for miracles blasphemies, for doctrine mockeries and reproofs — and yet He did not cease to do good to the ungrateful. This is the summit of patience and charity.
Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and Thou sayest: If any man keep My word, he shall not taste death forever. — As if to say: Abraham and the Prophets, who kept God's word, yet died. Therefore Thou blasphemest, when Thou makest Thyself not only greater than Abraham and the Prophets, but even than God Himself, inasmuch as Thou sayest that Thy word can keep believers immune from death, whereas God's word could not deliver Abraham and the Prophets from death. But different and more powerful was God's word promulgated in the mouth of Christ, than God's word uttered to Abraham and the Prophets; nor were Abraham and the Prophets dead as to the soul, and though dead in body, they were yet to be raised again by Christ to eternal life.
Verse 53: Art Thou Greater Than Our Father Abraham
53. Art Thou greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? And the prophets are dead. Whom dost Thou make Thyself? — They were content to name Abraham, because Abraham was the father of the Synagogue and of all believers; wherefore they thought it most absurd, horrible and blasphemous if Christ preferred Himself to Abraham, as He in fact did. For He Himself was God and man, while Abraham was a mere man; but this the Jews did not know, or rather were unwilling to believe.
Verse 54: It Is My Father That Glorifieth Me
54. If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing (Arabic: "my glory would not be anything"): it is My Father that glorifieth Me. — "He says this on account of what they had said: Whom dost Thou make Thyself?" says St. Augustine, "for He refers His glory to His Father, from whom He is and who is God."
My glory is nothing, — that is, is of no weight, of no value, of no importance — and this, as Chrysostom says, in your estimation, but also in the estimation of other men. For in every tribunal, no one is believed concerning himself, but others are — namely, witnesses testifying on his behalf. This is what He asserted in chap. V, verse 31: "If I bear witness of Myself, My witness is not true (that is, not legitimate): there is another that beareth witness of Me." Hence Solomon sings, saying in Prov. XXVII, 2: "Let another praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips."
The Arians objected: The Father glorifies the Son, therefore He is greater than the Son. St. Augustine replies: "Heretic, hast thou not read the Son Himself saying that He glorifies His Father? But both He glorifies the Son, and the Son glorifies the Father. Lay aside destruction, acknowledge equality, correct perversity."
Verse 55: You Have Not Known Him; But I Know Him
55. And you have not known Him; but I know Him. — First and plainly, as if to say: You do not know the true God whom you worship, you who know not that He is one in essence and three in persons; for you suppose Him to be one in person, as He is one in essence. You do not know that God is the Father and has begotten Me the Son, and that together with Me, by spiration, He has produced the Holy Spirit. For if you knew this, you would also surely acknowledge and believe that I am the Messiah, the Son of God; and conversely, "If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also," says Christ, ch. XIV, 7. So St. Chrysostom, Theophylact, and Bede.
Secondly, St. Augustine, as if to say: You believe that there is one God, although you do not know Him — that is, although you have neither seen Him nor heard Him, according to ch. V, verse 37: "You have never heard His voice, nor seen His shape." Therefore you ought likewise to believe in Me His Son, on account of the many signs and wonders that I work, even though you do not see the divinity hidden in Me.
Thirdly, "you have not known Him," that is, you did not believe Him who bore witness concerning Me and said: "This is My beloved Son." For you did not recognize, or rather you were unwilling to recognize, that this was the true voice of the true God.
Fourthly, Euthymius: "You have not known," that is, you have not shown that you know Him, because you live impiously — not as worshippers of God, but as the idolatrous Gentiles — and you are of those of whom Paul speaks to Titus, ch. I, verse 16: "They profess that they know God, but in their works they deny Him."
And if I shall say that I know Him not, I shall be like to you, a liar. — Maldonatus thinks the Jews are called liars by Christ because they had said to Him: "Thou art a Samaritan and hast a devil"; for these were two most gross lies, indeed blasphemies. More to the point, St. Chrysostom, Ammonius, and Theophylact assert that they are called liars by Christ because when they said they knew God, they were lying: for they did not believe that He had a Son, and that He is three in persons, as I said on verse 55.
But I know Him and keep His word. — Theophylact explains the "and" as "because," as if to say: I show by My life and deeds that I know, reverence and worship God the Father, because I reverently observe His word and constantly fulfil it. Better still, take it as "therefore," as if to say: Because I know God the Father and clearly perceive His majesty, power and sanctity, therefore, as man, I reverence it supremely, and I observe His word — that is, His precepts — plainly and fully, which you, O Jews, do not observe, because you do not know His majesty nor perceive it, and therefore do not reverence it. So Theophylact. Moreover, St. Augustine: "He was speaking the word of the Father as the Son, and He Himself was the Word of the Father, which was speaking to men," as if to say: Christ aptly said "word," not "precept," because He Himself was the Logos, that is, the Word or utterance of the Father, and the Father had commanded Him to speak and preach this very thing to men, namely that they might acknowledge, believe and worship both God the Father and God the Son.
Verse 56: Abraham Rejoiced That He Might See My Day
56. Abraham your father rejoiced that he might see My day: he saw it, and was glad. — "Rejoiced," that is, with an exulting soul longed for it, says Vatablus; the Arabic: "desired." For, as St. Augustine says: "He did not fear, but rejoiced; believing, he rejoiced by hoping, that he might see by understanding." It is a catachresis.
My day. — Which day? St. Augustine takes it as the day of eternity, on which the Son was from eternity begotten by the Father — as if to say: Abraham desired to know My eternal generation and divinity, that he might believe it and be saved by it. "He saw," says St. Augustine, "My day, because he recognized the mystery of the Trinity." Bede, in his usual manner, follows St. Augustine as his master. To this view come also St. Jerome, on chapter VIII of Daniel, and St. Gregory here, hom. 18, who take "this day" to mean that day on which, through the three angels who appeared to him and with only one of them speaking, the mystery of the Holy Trinity was revealed to him as by a symbol. For he saw three and adored one, Gen. XVIII, 2.
But others commonly take "day" here as the day of Christ's humanity, not of His divinity. Whence, first, St. Chrysostom, Ammonius, Theophylact, Leontius, Euthymius, take "the day of Christ" as the day of the Passion, crucifixion and death — as if to say: Abraham longed to see My cross and death, that through it he and the rest of mankind might be saved.
Secondly, and more plainly, you may take "day" as that on which Christ was incarnate, and on which, nine months later, He was born — as if to say: Abraham rejoiced to see the day on which I should be incarnate and be born, because from Me he hoped for salvation for himself and for the whole world. For all the Prophets and Patriarchs, of whom Abraham was father and patriarch, most earnestly desired the coming of the Messiah, and from Him the Incarnation and Christ's Nativity, that through Him they might be delivered from their sins and also from limbo. Whence Joannes Alba, Electa Sanctae Scripturae, ch. XCVII: "Abraham," he says, "desired to see the day of Christ, that is, to obtain the happiness and graces brought by Christ." For "to see" often means "to obtain, enjoy, possess," by catachresis — as in, "I believe to see (that is, enjoy) the good things of the Lord in the land of the living."
He saw and was glad. — "He saw," that is, by faith knew and believed, and again, as through a figure, beheld, when he was commanded by God to sacrifice his son Isaac, Gen. XXII, 10 and 18; for this sacrifice was a type and figure of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. So St. Chrysostom, St. Augustine, Theophylact, Euthymius, Leontius, Ammonius. St. Augustine and St. Bernard, serm. 6 On the Vigil of the Lord's Nativity, add that reference is here made to Abraham's act, when laying his hand under his thigh he made his servant swear, signifying that Christ was to be born from his thigh, Gen. XXIV, 2.
Secondly, others say: "He saw," that is, he knew by prophetic revelation, as the other Prophets did. But this would not have been a "vision," but a foresight and prophetic foreknowledge, which regards the future, since a vision is of something present. So Eucherius, in his Questions on John.
Thirdly and genuinely, then: Abraham, being in limbo, "saw" — that is, came to know — the day and time on which Christ was incarnate and born: not only because Simeon, who had received Christ into his arms, dying a little after and descending into limbo, announced to Abraham that Christ had been born, and that he himself had seen Him and carried Him in his arms (Anna the prophetess announced the same to Abraham, as did Zacharias; also Anna, the mother of the Mother of God, and John the Baptist, who dying before Christ descended into limbo); but over and above this he properly "saw" — that is, with the eyes of the mind, through a revelation from God and the angels, and through clear knowledge, whether abstractive or rather intuitive; for this is what the word "saw" properly signifies. For "to see" is the same as "to behold, to gaze upon." Abraham therefore, from limbo, with his mental eyes raised up by God, saw Christ being incarnate and born, just as the angels and Blessed from heaven see what happens on earth and in hell; and St. Anselm, with his bodily eyes raised up by God, saw the things that were being done in a secret place behind a wall.
For this Abraham supremely desired to see, and as it were to behold as present. And this was, as it were, owed to Abraham — as the father of Christ, to whom God had often solemnly promised that Christ should be born of him — on account of his faith, obedience, sanctity, and so many and so great merits: that Abraham, the father of faith and of believers, who for two thousand years, without his own fault — indeed, with great sanctity, faith and hope — was held in limbo, most eagerly awaiting Christ his deliverer, for his own and his fellow fathers' consolation, and for the relief of so long and anxious an expectation of Christ, should come to know the day on which Christ was incarnate and born. For Christ was born two thousand years after Abraham, as I have shown in the Chronotaxis which I prefixed to the Pentateuch. Abraham therefore for twice a thousand years eagerly awaited Christ, languishing and sighing for the day of His birth; wherefore God revealed Him to him and showed Him in spirit, and Abraham and all the Saints in limbo exulted and rejoiced. So Jansenius, Maldonatus, and others. Lastly, the angels, who console the souls in Purgatory, much more consoled the souls of Abraham, of the Patriarchs and of the Prophets in limbo; wherefore they announced to them the nativity of the so greatly longed-for Christ, just as the same angels announced the same to the shepherds, Luke II.
Christ says this, first, to this end, that He may show Himself to be greater than Abraham and to be God; secondly, to show how great an esteem Abraham, absent, had for Him, whom now the Jews, Abraham's sons, present, despised; thirdly, to prick them obliquely, as if to say: Abraham had such great longing for Me, whereas you reject Me; therefore you are not genuine sons of Abraham, but illegitimate and degenerate — whence He says, "Abraham your father," that is, Abraham whose sons you glory to be, while I for My part do not glory in him, but rather Abraham glories and rejoices in Me.
Verse 57: Thou Art Not Yet Fifty Years Old
57. The Jews therefore said to Him: Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast Thou seen Abraham? — that conversely Abraham may have seen You also, and, seeing, have exulted, as You said. Hence St. Irenaeus, book II, ch. XXXIX and XL, concludes that Christ lived on earth up to fifty years — but falsely. For it is the common opinion of the doctors that Christ did not live more than 34 years, and those not complete; namely, that having completed 33 years He died in the 34th year of His age, three months having begun. St. Chrysostom and Euthymius read, instead of 50, 40, because in Greek the letters μ and ν, which are the numerals for 40 and 50, are close, so that it is easy to slip from one into the other. But everywhere the Latins, Greeks, Syrian, and Arabic read 50.
The Jews seem to look to the century-year, namely the fiftieth, which was the year of jubilee, as if to say: Thou, O Jesus, hast not yet completed one century, nor yet finished a jubilee; how then dost Thou say that Thou hast seen Abraham, who lived forty centuries — or forty jubilees — ago? So Severus of Antioch, in the Catena. Euthymius, on the other hand, thinks that Christ seemed fifty years old to the Jews on account of the maturity of His judgment and the gravity of His countenance and manners; others add, on account of the journeys and toils He had endured in preaching. But you may most easily say that the Jews, lest they should be caught or convicted of error, gave a greater age than was really due, so that they might not be refuted by Christ. For there are many men of forty years who to those looking at them seem scarcely to exceed thirty.
Verse 58: Before Abraham Was Made, I Am
58. Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say to you, before Abraham was made, I am, — that is, I was from eternity, because "I am who am," Exod. III — that is, I am God. Therefore the word "am" marks eternity, because eternity is always present and lacks all past and future. "I therefore am" eternal, unchangeable, and ever the same and constant. So St. Augustine, Bede, St. Gregory, Leontius, Euthymius. Wherefore I, as God, by an infinite duration exceed not only the fifty years and even the age of Abraham. For, as Tertullian says in his book On the Trinity: "Unless He had been God, then, consequently, since He was from Abraham, He could not have been before Abraham." Hear St. Augustine pressing and expressing the words of Christ, Tract 43, at the end: "Before Abraham was made: understand that 'was made' belongs to human nature, but 'I am' to the divine substance. 'Was made,' because Abraham was a creature. He did not say, 'Before Abraham was, I am,' but 'Before Abraham was made,' who could not have been made except through Me, 'I am.' Nor did He say: Before Abraham was made, I was made. For in the beginning God made heaven and earth: for in the beginning was the Word. Before Abraham was made, I am. Acknowledge the Creator, distinguish the creature. He who was speaking had been made the seed of Abraham, and in order that Abraham might be made, He was before Abraham."
Verse 59: They Took Up Stones to Cast at Him
59. Then they took up stones to cast at Him, — as a blasphemer, because He set Himself before Abraham, and compared and equated Himself with the eternal God. For the blasphemer is commanded to be stoned, Leviticus ch. XXIV, v. 16. It is clear that these Jews were not those who, in v. 30, are said to have believed in Christ, as Theophylact maintains, but others hostile to Christ and unbelieving. Aptly St. Augustine: "Whither," he says, "would such hardness of the Jews run, if not to stones?" And St. Gregory, Homily 18: "Him whom they could not understand, they sought to overwhelm."
But Jesus hid Himself, and went out of the temple. — "He hid Himself," not in some corner of the temple: for there the Jews, searching diligently, would have found Him; but He hid Himself from their eyes, because by divine power He made Himself invisible to them — something which the Blessed also can do. Therefore, invisible, He passed unharmed through the midst of His enemies and went out of the temple, yielding to their fury. So Leontius, Theophylact, Euthymius, and others. Hear St. Gregory, Homily 18: "If He had wished to exercise His power, He would have bound them in their very actions, or struck them down with the pains of sudden death; but He who had come to suffer did not wish to exercise judgment." And St. Augustine: "Greater was the wisdom to be commended than the power to be exercised. He abandons them as those not accepting correction; nor does He hide Himself in a corner of the temple as though afraid, or flee into some small house, or turn behind a wall or column, but by heavenly power making Himself invisible to those lying in wait, He went out through their midst, as a man fleeing from stones: but woe to them from whose stony hearts God flees!"
Morally: We are taught by this example, says St. Gregory, humbly to avoid the wrath of the proud, even when we are able to resist. Hence the Arabic translates: "And Jesus withdrew, and went out of the temple, and passed through the midst of them, hastening on with such steps that He went before and ahead."