Saint John - Chapter 5
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| Healing at Bethesdsa. J-J Tissot |
The man went his way, and told the Jews, that it was Jesus who had made him whole.
[16] Propterea persequebantur Judaei Jesum, quia haec faciebat in sabbato.
Therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, because he did these things on the sabbath.
[17] Jesus autem respondit eis : Pater meus usque modo operatur, et ego operor.
But Jesus answered them: My Father worketh until now; and I work.
[18] Propterea ergo magis quaerebant eum Judaei interficere : quia non solum solvebat sabbatum, sed et patrem suum dicebat Deum, aequalem se faciens Deo.
Hereupon therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he did not only break the sabbath, but also said God was his Father, making himself equal to God.
[19] Respondit itaque Jesus, et dixit eis : Amen, amen dico vobis : non potest Filius a se facere quidquam, nisi quod viderit Patrem facientem : quaecumque enim ille fecerit, haec et Filius similiter facit.
Then Jesus answered, and said to them: Amen, amen, I say unto you, the Son cannot do any thing of himself, but what he seeth the Father doing: for what things soever he doth, these the Son also doth in like manner.
[20] Pater enim diligit Filium, et omnia demonstrat ei quae ipse facit : et majora his demonstrabit ei opera, ut vos miremini.
For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things which himself doth: and greater works than these will he shew him, that you may wonder.
[21] Sicut enim Pater suscitat mortuos, et vivificat, sic et Filius, quos vult, vivificat.
For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and giveth life: so the Son also giveth life to whom he will.
[22] Neque enim Pater judicat quemquam : sed omne judicium dedit Filio,
For neither doth the Father judge any man, but hath given all judgment to the Son.
[23] ut omnes honorificent Filium, sicut honorificant Patrem; qui non honorificat Filium, non honorificat Patrem, qui misit illum.
That all men may honour the Son, as they honour the Father. He who honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father, who hath sent him.
[24] Amen, amen dico vobis, quia qui verbum meum audit, et credit ei qui misit me, habet vitam aeternam, et in judicium non venit, sed transiit a morte in vitam.
Amen, amen I say unto you, that he who heareth my word, and believeth him that sent me, hath life everlasting; and cometh not into judgment, but is passed from death to life.
[25] Amen, amen dico vobis, quia venit hora, et nunc est, quando mortui audient vocem Filii Dei : et qui audierint, vivent.
Amen, amen I say unto you, that the hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live.
[26] Sicut enim Pater habet vitam in semetipso, sic dedit et Filio habere vitam in semetipso :
For as the Father hath life in himself, so he hath given the Son also to have life in himself:
[27] et potestatem dedit ei judicium facere, quia Filius hominis est.
And he hath given him power to do judgment, because he is the Son of man.
[28] Nolite mirari hoc, quia venit hora in qua omnes qui in monumentis sunt audient vocem Filii Dei :
Wonder not at this; for the hour cometh, wherein all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God.
[29] et procedent qui bona fecerunt, in resurrectionem vitae; qui vero mala egerunt, in resurrectionem judicii.
And they that have done good things, shall come forth unto the resurrection of life; but they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment.
[30] Non possum ego a meipso facere quidquam. Sicut audio, judico : et judicium meum justum est, quia non quaero voluntatem meam, sed voluntatem ejus qui misit me.
I cannot of myself do any thing. As I hear, so I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not my own will, but the will of him that sent me.
[31] Si ego testimonium perhibeo de meipso, testimonium meum non est verum.
If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.
[32] Alius est qui testimonium perhibet de me : et scio quia verum est testimonium, quod perhibet de me.
There is another that beareth witness of me; and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true.
[33] Vos misistis ad Joannem, et testimonium perhibuit veritati.
You sent to John, and he gave testimony to the truth.
[34] Ego autem non ab homine testimonium accipio : sed haec dico ut vos salvi sitis.
But I receive not testimony from man: but I say these things, that you may be saved.
[35] Ille erat lucerna ardens et lucens : vos autem voluistis ad horam exsultare in luce ejus.
He was a burning and a shining light: and you were willing for a time to rejoice in his light.
[36] Ego autem habeo testimonium majus Joanne. Opera enim quae dedit mihi Pater ut perficiam ea : ipsa opera, quae ego facio, testimonium perhibent de me, quia Pater misit me :
But I have a greater testimony than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given me to perfect; the works themselves, which I do, give testimony of me, that the Father hath sent me.
[37] et qui misit me Pater, ipse testimonium perhibuit de me : neque vocem ejus umquam audistis, neque speciem ejus vidistis :
And the Father himself who hath sent me, hath given testimony of me: neither have you heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.
[38] et verbum ejus non habetis in vobis manens : quia quem misit ille, huic vos non creditis.
And you have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him you believe not.
[39] Scrutamini Scripturas, quia vos putatis in ipsis vitam aeternam habere : et illae sunt quae testimonium perhibent de me :
Search the scriptures, for you think in them to have life everlasting; and the same are they that give testimony of me.
[40] et non vultis venire ad me ut vitam habeatis.
And you will not come to me that you may have life.
[41] Claritatem ab hominibus non accipio.
I receive glory not from men.
[42] Sed cognovi vos, quia dilectionem Dei non habetis in vobis.
But I know you, that you have not the love of God in you.
[43] Ego veni in nomine Patris mei, et non accipitis me; si alius venerit in nomine suo, illum accipietis.
I am come in the name of my Father, and you receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him you will receive.
[44] Quomodo vos potestis credere, qui gloriam ab invicem accipitis, et gloriam quae a solo Deo est, non quaeritis?
How can you believe, who receive glory one from another: and the glory which is from God alone, you do not seek?
[45] Nolite putare quia ego accusaturus sim vos apud Patrem : est qui accusat vos Moyses, in quo vos speratis.
Think not that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one that accuseth you, Moses, in whom you trust.
[46] Si enim crederetis Moysi, crederetis forsitan et mihi : de me enim ille scripsit.
For if you did believe Moses, you would perhaps believe me also; for he wrote of me.
[47] Si autem illius litteris non creditis, quomodo verbis meis credetis?
But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?
Notes from Cornelius A Lapide
[16] Propterea persequebantur Judaei Jesum, quia haec faciebat in sabbato.
Therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, because he did these things on the sabbath.
Wherefore the Jews persecuted Jesus, &c. Some Greek MS., also the Syriac and Arabic Versions, add, And sought to kill Him. Wherefore, i.e., on this pretext, for the true cause was envy. For the Jews, especially the scribes and Pharisees, were envious at this glory of Jesus, and grieved that the people should prefer Him to themselves. They were indignant that their wickedness was reproved by Him, and condemned by His holiness. For they wished to be paid court to as Rabbis, and doctors of the Law, and oracles of wisdom and sanctity.
[17] Jesus autem respondit eis : Pater meus usque modo operatur, et ego operor.
But Jesus answered them: My Father worketh until now; and I work.
But Jesus answered, &c. “The Father worketh,” says S. Augustine (lib. 4, de Gen., cap. 12), “both affording suitable government to things created, and having in Himself eternal tranquility:” for, as he says elsewhere, “being still He worketh, and working He is at rest.” And after an interval, “The power and virtue of the Creator is the cause of existence of every creature. And if this virtue were ever to cease from governing created things, their forms (species) would cease at the same time, and all nature would come to an end.” Like as the light in the air vanishes if the sun withdraw his rays, by which light is produced. The meaning is, “You, O ye scribes, object against Me the law of Sabbatical rest, which God commanded you because He Himself rested on the Sabbath from all His work. But I answer that God on the Sabbath only rested from producing new species of things. But He did not rest in such a manner that He is not every Sabbath continually working, that is to say, governing and preserving the world, and all the things that are in it, moving the heavens, bringing forth one thing out of another, feeding and healing all living things, &c. This, which is work of the highest beneficence, is not servile work, but pious and Divine. Such work is indeed lawful; yea, it adoms and hallows the Sabbath. So too I, who am the co-equal Son of the Father, always work, and always have wrought the same things with Him. For neither do I work without the Father, nor the Father without Me.” So S. Augustine and others.
Observe the Hebraism: and I work, that is, so, or in like manner, I work. For the word and, when it is the mark of conjunction, since it joins like things, is a sign of comparison and similitude, and means the same thing as thus, as is constantly the case in the Book of Proverbs.
[18] Propterea ergo magis quaerebant eum Judaei interficere : quia non solum solvebat sabbatum, sed et patrem suum dicebat Deum, aequalem se faciens Deo.
Hereupon therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he did not only break the sabbath, but also said God was his Father, making himself equal to God.
Wherefore, &c. His Father, Greek, πατέρα ἴδιον, i.e., His own Father, because Christ alone is the peculiar, and by nature, Son of God.
Making Himself equal with God, because He had said that not merely like things, but that the self-same things which the Father works, were wrought by Him, and therefore that He in all things co-operated, not as a servant, but as a Son, of the same substance with the Father. As Cyril says, “Seeing that He was a man, and not knowing that God dwelt in Him, they could not bear that He should call God His Father in a special manner.” The chief priests and scribes therefore wished to kill Jesus, because they feared lest, as His glory increased, their authority should decrease; indeed lest Jesus, persuading the people that He was God, should be preferred by the people to the priests, and should deprive them of their authority, and should bring in His own new priests and pontiffs, which we see He actually did do.
[19] Respondit itaque Jesus, et dixit eis : Amen, amen dico vobis : non potest Filius a se facere quidquam, nisi quod viderit Patrem facientem : quaecumque enim ille fecerit, haec et Filius similiter facit.
Then Jesus answered, and said to them: Amen, amen, I say unto you, the Son cannot do any thing of himself, but what he seeth the Father doing:[1] for what things soever he doth, these the Son also doth in like manner.[2]
Verily, Verily, &c.… cannot: “not from defect of power,” says Euthymius, “but on account of inseparability. For it is impossible that the Son should do anything which the Father does not.” So S. Chrysostom and S. Augustine. Except, or unless. This word is not here exceptive, signifying the same as but only. It has the same meaning in Matt. 12:4.
[1] What He seeth: Greek, βλέπῃ, i.e., may see. For it is not before He worketh, but as soon as He seeth the Father working, that He, Christ, worketh with Him. For Christ as God does not produce what is similar, but what is identical with the work of the Father. For the action of the Father, which both see and work together, is the same. I say action, but not the Hypostatic Union, nor the things which depend upon it, for this union has not to do with action, but with the terminus in quo. Wherefore, although the whole Blessed Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, by their Divine action, have brought about this Hypostatic Union, yet the union itself is terminated in the Son, and does not extend to the Father and the Holy Ghost. Wherefore the Son only, not the Father and the Holy Ghost, became incarnate, and died, &c.
Observe, Christ in this place only means to say that He has received from God the Father His Divine Essence, power, and working, as from His Author. He makes use of the word see, as if the Son did nothing except what He seeth the Father do, or what He sees to be the work of His Father. For children and pupils are wont to imitate the ways and deeds of their fathers and teachers. Christ is speaking after the manner of men, or as amongst men it becomes a son to speak of his father.
It may be added that Christ in a proper and theological sense uses the word see, because He proceeds from the Father as the Word, which is the term of the vision and the notional cognition of God the Father. For the Father, as seeing and understanding Himself and all things, produces and begets the Word, and by this communicates to Him His own vision and action. Therefore the Son neither seeth, nor doeth anything except what He seeth the Father see, or do. For He Himself is the Word and the Idea, in whom, as a Term, the Father expresses and imprints all His own vision and cognition, both speculative and practical. The meaning then is this, “Whatever I work, the Father worketh the same, and by altogether the same vision, cognition, will, power, and action. Wherefore if ye accuse Me because I have healed one paralysed on the Sabbath day, ye accuse God the Father also. For He hath wrought this with Me, because He in Me and by Me worketh all things. Indeed, I have received all My work from the Father. Wherefore, if ye believe that God the Father works all things rightly, wisely, and holily, ye ought to believe the same of Me, and therefore that this healing on the Sabbath was a work prudent, holy, and Divine.”
[2] Doth likewise: altogether in the same manner, with the same liberty, the same power, the same authority. So S. Gregory Nazianzen (Orat. 2, de Filio). S. Cyril says, “They do likewise, or work in like manner, who are altogether of the same nature: but as to things which have a diverse essence there cannot be in them the same mode of working. As therefore He (the Son) is God of true God, He is able to do likewise the same things as the Father.”
[20] Pater enim diligit Filium, et omnia demonstrat ei quae ipse facit : et majora his demonstrabit ei opera, ut vos miremini.
For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth [1] him all things which himself doth: and greater works[2] than these will he shew him, that you may wonder.[3]
For the Father, &c.
[1] Showeth, not as a master to a disciple, says Euthymius, but as a father to a son, as God to God. Showeth therefore means gives, communicates, especially because, as I have said, the Son by demonstration, i.e., by understanding and vision, proceedeth as the Word from the Father. To show in the sense of give, exhibit, attribute, is used in 1 Sam. 14:12; Exod. 33:19; Ps. 4:6, &c. That this is the meaning here is plain from what follows. Moreover, the Father showeth, i.e., communicates all things to the Son in that He is God, not by free love, but by nature, out of the fecundity of the Divine Essence, of which the greatest sign among men is love. For he who among men communicates all things to his son, by so doing gives an eminent token that he loves him in the highest degree. Moreover, the Father communicates all things to the Son in that He is Man, of which communication love is not the sign, but the cause. “For the Father to show to the Son,” says Bede, “is by the Son to do what He doeth.”
Admirably does S. Athanasius say (Disp. cont. Arium, lib. I), “The Almighty Father hath given to the Son omnipotence, majesty to majesty, to virtue He has given virtue, to the prudent one He has given prudence, foreknowledge to the foreknowing, eternity to eternity, Divinity to Divinity, equality to equality, immortality to immortality, invisibility to invisibility, to a king a kingdom, life to life; and He hath given not something other than that which He hath; and as much as He hath, so much hath He given.”
You will ask why to manifest and to show here and elsewhere are put for to give and to communicate. I reply (1.) because God by showing Himself and His works to the Son, communicates to Him His own knowledge, and consequently His essence. For God’s knowledge is the same thing as His essence. (2.) By showing, He illuminates the Son, i.e., He communicates His own light of wisdom, and of all good, and Himself, wholly to Him. For God is the uncreated and infinite Light, as S. John shows (1 Epist. 1:5). Lastly, by showing, i.e., by understanding, He produces the Word, i.e., the Son. For in God the most noble thing is understanding, and the most noble action is to understand, to illuminate, to show. For the noblest and chief power of the soul is intellect and reason. These command the will, and guide it as it were blindfold; and by it they rule and move all the other senses and powers of the soul. Hence comes the axiom of the wise, “Mind effects all things:” it is the part of reason to govern. Just as strong as any one is in intellect, so far is he able to command. For the intellect in conceiving and understanding, by means of conception and intelligence, in a lively manner incorporates all those things into itself, and as it were possesses them. For it conceives all things in itself in a certain lively manner, and forms an appearance of them in itself, which presents to it all the goodness and beauty of things. Wherefore the understanding is the eye of the mind. As in the body the eye is the noblest and most efficacious sense, which incorporates into itself the forms of all things, far more does the understanding do this in the mind. Wherefore the blessed in heaven, by means of the understanding, in understanding and seeing God, incorporate Him into themselves, possess Him, and are blessed by Him. This then is the reason of this mode of speech by which to show is taken for to give, to communicate, to bring one into possession of the thing shown. This is what Aristotle says, “The intellect by understanding becomes all things,” because by a lively conception of things it assimilates itself to them, and them to itself. Thus it seizes and holds them, and makes them to exist in a nobler and better manner in itself than they are in themselves. For in themselves they are often dead and inanimate, but in the intellect they are living and animated. They live in the highest and most excellent vital act.
[2] And will show greater things: by showing will give and communicate. These greater things are more illustrious mysteries and miracles, especially the raising of the dead, and the authority to judge all men; of both which Christ proceeds to speak.
[3] That ye may marvel. He does not say that ye may believe. For the scribes and the Jews, when they saw so many miracles of Christ, wondered at His power, but yet were blinded by envy and hatred, and would not believe in Him as the Messiah. Still Christ did those things with the intention that they should believe in Him. The heretics act in just the same way even now. They admire the wisdom, holiness, and miracles of the orthodox saints, but will not follow their faith, nor imitate their manner of living. Such is heresy, and the blindness, obstinacy, and malignity of error.
[21] Sicut enim Pater suscitat mortuos, et vivificat, sic et Filius, quos vult, vivificat.
For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and giveth life: so the Son also giveth life to whom he will.
For as the Father, &c. Behold here is the first greater work which Christ said the Father would show, that is, communicate, to the Son. As S. Cyril says, “Marvel not that one who was utterly weakened by long disease was strengthened by a word, and took up his bed, and went away, for I am about altogether to destroy death, and to judge the whole world.”
So also the Son, &c. He tacitly signifies that He is God, equal to the Father in power and liberty to raise and quicken whom He will.
Whom He will. It is not that the Father wills to quicken some, and the Son wills to quicken others, but the same, because His will is conformable, yea, the same as the will of the Father. So Augustine.
Quickeneth, i.e., raiseth from the dead, both in this life, as He raised Lazarus, and in the day of judgment, when He will raise all mankind.
[22] Neque enim Pater judicat quemquam : sed omne judicium dedit Filio,
For neither doth the Father judge any man, but hath given all judgment to the Son.
For neither doth the Father judge, &c. The Arabic omits for, but the Greek has it, and appositely. For this is the second reason by which Christ proves that He is God, and the second greater work which He said the Father would show Him. As Cyril says, “He brings forward another Divine and excellent argument, by which He shows that He is by nature truly God. For to whom else does it belong to judge the world but to God only?”
To His Son. One God with Himself, but by His Incarnation made man. As S. Austin says (lib. I, de Trin., c. 13), “No one shall see the Father at the judgment of the quick and the dead, but all shall see the Son, because He is the Son of Man, that He may be seen by the wicked also, when ‘they shall look on Him whom they pierced.’ ”
You will say, Christ has been created Judge as man, according to the words (Acts 10:42), “Who has been constituted by God the Judge of quick and dead,” therefore Christ cannot prove from His being Judge that He is God. I answer, that this correctly proves it, because the power of judgment is a thing peculiar to God: it is a matter of the highest and most ample right. Wherefore neither would God communicate it, nor could it be fittingly communicated to a mere man, but to Christ alone, who is both God and man. For He as God has the supreme authority to judge, but as man, He is able to exercise this judgment visibly before men, to acquit, or to condemn. For a judge ought to be seen and heard by those who are accused.
[23] ut omnes honorificent Filium, sicut honorificant Patrem; qui non honorificat Filium, non honorificat Patrem, qui misit illum.
That all men may honour the Son, as they honour the Father. He who honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father, who hath sent him.
That all, &c. For the Jews who would not then honour the Son of God, or acknowledge Him to be such, when they shall see His Divine power and majesty in the day of judgment, will be compelled to acknowledge, honour, and adore Him as God.
Like as they honour the Father: the words like as signify equality, not similitude.
He who honoureth not the Son, &c. Because by denying the Son he denies also the Father; for father and son are correlative terms: and he who has not a son cannot be a father. With regard to God, he who denies that the Son is the Son of God, denies that God the Father is truly and properly the Father, and has begotten. Tacitly he asserts that He could not beget a consubstantial and co-equal Son. Moreover he denies the Father, because the Father sent the Son into the world, that by Him He might be honoured, in such a manner that He should be acknowledged to be the Father properly so called, and to have begotten a Son of the same substance with Himself, and to be adored with the same latria as Himself. He therefore who denies that the Son is God, denies that the Father begat God, which is the highest blasphemy of the Father. For he deprives the Father of that offspring which is His equal, and worthy of Himself, and instead of a Divine and uncreated offspring assigns to Him one that is created and mean. Wherefore he denies Him to be a proper and Divine Father.
[24] Amen, amen dico vobis, quia qui verbum meum audit, et credit ei qui misit me, habet vitam aeternam, et in judicium non venit, sed transiit a morte in vitam.
Amen, amen I say unto you, that he who heareth my word, and believeth him that sent me, hath life everlasting; and cometh not into judgment, but is passed from death to life.
Verily, verily, &c. See what has been said on 3:3. Heareth, so as to believe and obey My word. Thus He subjoins, and believeth in Him that sent Me, and by consequence believeth in Me as His Son, sent by the Father into the world to save it. He saith not, and believeth in Me, but speaks with greater amplitude. For in saying, and believeth in Him that sent Me, He implies the mystery of the Trinity, and the Incarnation, which two things are the chief articles of the Faith, and chiefly necessary to salvation. For He who sent the Son is God the Father: the Father and the Son together necessarily breathe the Holy Ghost Lo, you have the whole Trinity.
Hath, i.e., by right, deservedly, and in hope. See on 3:16.
Hath passed, i.e., certainly will pass (the perfect is used instead of the future because of the certainty of the thing, meaning, he will as certainly and infallibly pass as if he had already passed) from death, the temporal death of the body, unto life, eternal and blessed, in heaven. For although the reprobate who will be damned will also be raised again to life, that they may burn in hell, yet that life in hell is rather a continual death, than life. For, as St. Austin saith, (de Civ., lib. 6, c. 12), “There is no more complete and worse death, than where death dieth not.” For in hell there will be living death, and deathly life, that is, always dying, but never dead. Again He speaks yet more plainly. He who believeth and obeyeth God the Father, and the Son who is sent by Him, hath passed from the death of the soul, dead through sin, to the spiritual life of grace, that he may after the death of the body pass to the life of glory.
[25] Amen, amen dico vobis, quia venit hora, et nunc est, quando mortui audient vocem Filii Dei : et qui audierint, vivent.
Amen, amen I say unto you, that the hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live.
Verily, verily, &c. “Lest thou shouldst think that this is to come to pass after a very long time, He subjoins, and now is. For if He were only announcing things future, there might not unreasonably be doubt, but He saith that these things shall come to pass whilst He is still conversant upon earth.” So Chrysostom. For, as Theophylact says, “He is speaking here of those three whom He was about to raise, the widow’s son, the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, and especially of Lazarus. For this last He was about to raise in Judea. And Christ is here speaking in Judea to Jews. This then is the signification of now is. Christ then rises from the spiritual resurrection of souls from sin to the life of grace, to the resurrection of those bodies which He was about to raise whilst He lived on earth. From this He rises to the full resurrection glory of the bodies which He will raise in the day of judgment. For from His power to raise souls from the death of sin to the life of grace, as from a thing greater and more difficult, Christ proves that He has power to raise the body, a thing less difficult. So Toletus, Jansen, and others. But S. Cyril and others think that the reference in this place is to the general resurrection, and they take the expression, and now is, to refer to the last judgment. For S. John (1st Epist. 2:18) calls the whole time of the New Law the last hour, i.e., the last time, because this is the last stage of the world, and therefore all things which are done in it seem to be, as it were, present, and to be done in this present hour.
Some add that Christ is here speaking of the saints whom He raised when He Himself arose from the dead (S. Matt. 27:52). The fullest meaning of the passage is to understand it of all whom Christ has raised, and will raise from the dead.
And they that hear, i.e., who shall feel the force of the voice of Christ, or who shall obey Him, as hearing the voice of the Son of God, who calls the things which are not as though they were.
[26] Sicut enim Pater habet vitam in semetipso, sic dedit et Filio habere vitam in semetipso :
For as the Father hath life in himself, so he hath given the Son also to have life in himself:
For as the Father, &c. ''To have life in Himself'' signifies three things.
1. To have life from Himself and from His own Essence, and from no other source. For the Essence of God is life, and His life is His Essence. God therefore essentially, and by His Essence, is essential, uncreated, and infinite life.
2. That God has life in Himself, is that He is the fountain of all life, of angels, men, and animals. As Euthymius says, To have life in Himself means that after the manner of a living fountain He is the Author of life, according to the words, “With Thee is the well of life” (Ps. 36:10).
3. Which follows from the two previous meanings, to have life in Himself means to have life in His own power, to be the Lord of life to all things living, so that He according to His own good pleasure gives them life, preserves it, and takes it away. This makes plain the unity of Essence, i.e., of Deity, in the Father and the Son. For if the Son had a different Essence from the Father, then He would have life in another, that is to say, in the Father, who gave Him life. But now He hath life in Himself, i.e., in His own Divine Essence, which He hath altogether in common with the Father. So S. Chrysostom. “Behold,” he says, “how they differ not in any respect whatsoever, save that the one is the Father, and the other the Son.”
So hath He given also, &c. In that He is the Son of God, and that according to the three ways just spoken of. As S. Augustine says, that His life might not have need of life, that He should not be understood to have life by way of participation: for if He had life by way of participation, He might, by losing the participation, become without life. Such doctrine concerning the Son accept not, think not, believe not. The Father therefore continues as life, the Son also continues as life. The Father is life in Himself, not from the Son: the Son is life in Himself, but from the Father.”
[27] et potestatem dedit ei judicium facere, quia Filius hominis est.
And he hath given him power to do judgment, because he is the Son of man.
And hath given, &c. Because Christ as God hath life in Himself, from hence, in that He is man, He hath power to judge all men. The word because must here be taken specifically, and means inasmuch as. But it may be taken even more expressively in a reduplicative and causative sense, as giving the express reason why God gave Christ judicial authority. That reason is because Christ is the Son of Man, i.e., because He deigned to become Incarnate. As though it were said, “God hath willed to judge men by Christ a man, that judgment might take place in a congruous manner, that is, after a sensible and human manner, that as He Himself saved the world by the man Christ, so He would also judge it by the same, by that man, I say, who is God, who took human life, and laid it down for man’s salvation.”
Wherefore it is that He by this great emptying of Himself, by which He willed to become man, merited this exaltation of judicial power, that He who was the Saviour of all should be the Judge of all. So Maldonatus and others. S. Augustine gives also a twofold reason. The first is, “that those who are to be judged might see their Judge. For those who shall be judged will be both good and bad. It was right that in the judgment the form of a servant should be shown both to the good and the bad, but the form of God should be reserved for the good only.” The second reason is, “because the Judge shall have that form in which He stood before His judge. That form which was judged shall judge: unrighteously was it judged, but righteously shall it judge.”
[28] Nolite mirari hoc, quia venit hora in qua omnes qui in monumentis sunt audient vocem Filii Dei :
Wonder not at this; for the hour cometh, wherein all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God.
Marvel not, &c.… the hour, i.e., the time of the Evangelical Law, which is the last, and in the end of which shall be the resurrection of the dead, and the final judgment.
In their graves: those who are dead and buried, including also the unburied dead. For as S. Augustine says, “By those who are buried in ordinary course, He signified also those who do not receive ordinary burial.”
The voice of the Son of God: this shall be the sound of the arch-angel’s, probably Michael’s trumpet. Arise, ye dead, come to judgment. This shall be accompanied by the sound of the trumpets and voices of other angels. The sound is spoken of as the voice of God, because by His command, through the ministry of angels, an effect shall be produced on the air which shall resound throughout the whole world, and be effectual as at least a moral instrument to raise the dead. For it is not necessary to attribute to this trumpet any physical power of raising the dead.
[29] et procedent qui bona fecerunt, in resurrectionem vitae; qui vero mala egerunt, in resurrectionem judicii.
And they that have done good things, shall come forth unto the resurrection of life; but they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment.
They that have done good, &c.… shall proceed, Greek ἐχπορεύσονται, i.e., shall go forth, out of their tombs and their graves, towards the Valley of Jehoshaphat, where the universal judgment shall take place.
Christ here sets before the unbelieving Jews His authority to judge, that through fear of it He may make them fear, may make them contrite, and convert them. He did the same at the end of His life, when, being adjured by Caiaphas, the High Priest, to say if He was the Son of God, He answered that He was, and added (Matt. 26:64), “Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.”
There is nothing more terrible, and at the same time more effectual for rousing the minds of men to repentance and leading a holy life than a lively representation of the last judgment. So Christ, when He ascended into heaven, commanded His apostles by the angels to preach his return to judgment (Acts 1:11). S. Paul pressed the same thing upon the Areopagites (Acts 17:31). For in that judgment shall the destiny of each be finally decided for everlasting happiness or everlasting woe. “In all thy works,” therefore, “remember thy last end, and thou wilt never sin” (Ecclus. 7:36). In very deed that fateful day will be the last of this world, and the horizon of eternity, which shall separate the just from the unjust, and set them far apart, heaping upon the just utmost felicity, and weighing down the unjust with calamity, and that for ever and ever. Think constantly of this wonderful difference, be zealous for holiness, live for eternity.
[30] Non possum ego a meipso facere quidquam. Sicut audio, judico : et judicium meum justum est, quia non quaero voluntatem meam, sed voluntatem ejus qui misit me.
I cannot of myself do any thing. As I hear, so I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not my own will, but the will of him that sent me.
I cannot, &c. Christ shows that His judgment, by which, as man, He will judge all men, will be a just judgment, for this reason, that He cannot either judge or will any other thing than that which the Father judges and wills. For He, in that He is God, has the very same judgment, the very self-same Divine mind and will that the Father has. But in that He is man, He is wholly governed by the Divinity and the indwelling Word, so that He can neither judge nor will anything but that which the Godhead judges and wills. So S. Augustine.
As I hear, so I judge: always, and especially in the judgment day. I hear, i.e., I know, I understand. As S. Chrysostom says, “By hearing nothing else is meant than that nothing else is possible but the Father’s judgment. I so judge as if the Father Himself were Judge.”
Because I seek not Mine own will, i.e., Mine own alone, or diverse from the Father’s will, for I have no such will, but the will of Him that sent Me: for My Divine will is identical with the Father’s, and My human will is wholly conformable to the Divine will. As S. Augustine says, “not that He has no will of His own in judging, but because His will is not so His own as to be diverse from the Father’s will.” He gives the reason a priori why His future judgment should be just, because, indeed, His will is altogether subject and conformed to the Divine will, because it subsists in the Divine Person of the Word, and is ruled by it. For the will bends and rules the intellect and its judgment in whatever direction it pleases.
[31] Si ego testimonium perhibeo de meipso, testimonium meum non est verum.
If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.
If I bear witness of Myself, that I am the Son of God, and therefore as man altogether conformed to the judgment and will of God, My witness is not true, that is, legitimate, judicial, worthy of credit. The word true here is not opposed to false, but to untrustworthy, uncertain. It answers to the Hebrew word neeman, faithful, worthy of credit. For it may be that a man may utter most true testimony concerning himself, and yet may fail to gain credit because of a suspicion that he has too great love of himself, as Euthymius says.
There is a prolepsis by which Christ meets a tacit objection of the scribes, to the following effect: “Thou, O Jesus, proclaimest Thyself to be the Son of God, and so in all things to follow the judgment of God. But we will not believe Thee unless Thou shalt prove what Thou sayest by the testimony of God, or of men worthy of credit. This testimony of Thine in a matter which peculiarly concerns Thyself appears to us open to suspicion.” Jesus replies, “I grant you that My testimony concerning Myself is not legitimate, nor worthy of credit, if I alone bear witness of Myself. I grant therefore that you need not believe Me alone; but I am not alone, but others worthy of credit bear witness of Me, as will appear by what follows.” Christ is here speaking of the common opinion of the Jews, not uttering His own sentiments, as appears from chap. 8:13, where the Jews openly object to Christ, Thou bearest testimony of Thyself, Thy testimony is not true. Then Christ answers, My testimony is true, &c., because I am not alone, but I, and the Father who sent Me. So S. Cyril.
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam
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