Saint John - Chapter 10
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| Jesus walked in Solomon's porch. J-J Tissot |
And Jesus walked in the temple, in Solomon's porch.
And Jesus walked in the temple. In the Porch (or Portico), the outer part of the temple. In Solomon’s porch. The temple of the Jews had two parts. The first, the Sanctuary, frequented only by the Priests, who discharged three functions, burning morning and evening incense on the altar of incense, lighting the lamps and replacing the shew-bread [bread of the presence] every Sabbath. The inner part, the Holy of Holies, which the High Priest alone entered once every year on the day of expiation. But since Christ was not descended from the tribe of Levi, He could not enter either of these parts of the temple.
But in front of the temple there was a Court or Vestibule; the upper part was the court of the Priests, the outer part, adjoining the inner court, was the court of the people, where they prayed and witnessed the sacrifices which were offered in the Court of the Priests. It was in this Court that Christ went to and fro and taught, and it had porticoes all round it, in which the people took shelter from the weather. Ribera (de Templo, I. 6) and others think that this was called Solomon’s Porch. Others with Villalpandus, Maldonatus, &c., think more probably that this particular portico was called Solomon’s as having been built by him long after the building of the temple, when the slope of the hill was levelled, and the portico was built at the eastern side of the temple. (See Josephus, B. Jud. vi. 6.) It was called Solomon’s to distinguish it from the other porticoes which others added to the temple. Or else, as Baronius thinks, when the temple was burnt by the Chaldeans this portico alone remained, or else was rebuilt in the same form as that in which it had been erected by Solomon. (See on Acts 3:11.)
[24] Circumdederunt ergo eum Judaei, et dicebant ei : Quousque animam nostram tollis? si tu es Christus, dic nobis palam.
The Jews therefore came round about him, and said to him: How long dost thou hold our souls in suspense? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly.
Then came the Jews, &c. How long dost thou keep us in suspense? We wish to see the Messiah, and hope that Thou wilt declare Thyself to be He. They pretend this, in order to draw a confession from Christ, on which to accuse Him. For as says S. Augustine, “They do not desire the truth, but are getting up a charge, to accuse Him of making Himself the Messiah.” So also S. Chrysostom, Theophylact, and Euthymius. But Christ so guarded His reply as not to give room for a false charge, and yet made it clear to the faithful that He was Christ the Son of God.
If thou art Christ, tell us plainly. That we may all be able to worship Thee openly as the Messiah. So did these hypocrites fulfil the predictions of David (Ps. 22:16 and Ps. 118:12). For, as S. Chrysostom says, “Christ spake everything openly, and said nothing secretly.” And S. Augustine, “They sought to hear from Him that He was Christ, that so they might accuse Him of claiming kingly power.”
[25] Respondit eis Jesus : Loquor vobis, et non creditis : opera quae ego facio in nomine Patris mei, haec testimonium perhibent de me:
Jesus answered them: I speak to you, and you believe not: the works that I do in the name of my Father, they give testimony of me.
Jesus answered them, I told you, &c. I have told you plainly that I am the Messiah. But ye said, Thou bearest witness of Thyself. Thy witness is not true (John 8:15). But what I have said I constantly confirm by miracles. For I do them in the name, that is by the authority, will, and supernatural Power of God the Father. But ye continue obstinately in your unbelief, and falsely state that they are the works of the devil. How then will ye believe My words? So S. Chrysostom.
[26] sed vos non creditis, quia non estis ex ovibus meis.
But you do not believe, because you are not of my sheep.
But ye believe not, &c. Ye will not submit to Me as your Shepherd, and accept Me as your Messiah. But ye rather wish Me to submit Myself to you, and to be My superiors, censors, and calumniators. It is ambition which makes you grudge Me the headship of the Church; and that ye refuse to believe Me. S. Augustine by “sheep” understands the elect. But this is not the proper nor the adequate cause of their rejecting Christ. For reprobation is not the cause, but rather the result of unbelief and sin. It was not that God had cast off the Jews that they sinned by unbelief. But it was because they chose to disbelieve and sin, that God cast them off. And it was not an adequate cause, because many of them who disbelieved in Him, believed in Him afterwards through the preaching of the apostles. And again some then believed in Christ who were not predestinated, but afterwards fell away into sin, as Judas and others.
[27] Oves meae vocem meam audiunt, et ego cognosco eas, et sequuntur me :
My sheep hear my voice: and I know them, and they follow me.
My sheep hear my voice. He leaves the inference to them: but ye hear not my voice, and are therefore not My sheep. (See above, ver. 4.)
[28] et ego vitam aeternam do eis, et non peribunt in aeternum, et non rapiet eas quisquam de manu mea.
And I give them life everlasting; and they shall not perish for ever, and no man shall pluck them out of my hand.
And I give unto them eternal life. The sheep of Christ are of two kinds: first, all Christians; and secondly, those alone who are predestinated to glory. The words of Christ relate to the second class. And S. Augustine shows why they do not perish. For they are of those sheep of whom it is said, “The Lord knoweth who are His.” They are specially the sheep of Christ, none of whom perish. And yet of the former class Christ also says, “I give unto them eternal life,” that is, as far as I may. I make them the promise. I give them all necessary helps. I wish for their salvation. If then any of them perish it is not My fault but theirs, for they will not co-operate with My grace. For neither the devil nor any one else is able to pluck them out of My hand, if they resolve to abide in it, and will not be torn away. For My grace, if they coöperate with it, has power to keep them from being taken from Me. But if they leave Me of their own will, it is not a tearing away, but their own voluntary act. So S. Cryil, Leontius, Theophylact, and Maldonatus. Christ means to say that no power can take them away, but they have full liberty to go away from Christ.
I give unto them eternal life, that is if they abide in faith and obedience to Me. I give it in this world through grace by hope, and I will hereafter give it in glory. He invites the Jews by this promise to become His sheep, and reproves them for refusing to do so. The faithful are in the “hand,” that is under the protection and guardianship of Christ. This is signified by the hand, which ministers to the whole body (see S. Isidore, Etym. xi. I).
[29] Pater meus quod dedit mihi, majus omnibus est : et nemo potest rapere de manu Patris mei.
That which my Father hath given me, is greater than all: and no one can snatch them out of the hand of my Father.
My Father which gave them Me is greater than all (the Vulgate and Latin lathers read “majus,” the Greek fathers μείξων), and no one is able to pluck them out of My Father’s hand. Because the Divine Nature which the Father gave Me, and its almighty power, is greater than all created beings, even angels and devils, and as no one can pluck them out of My Father’s hand, so can they not pluck them out of My own, for the hand and the power of the Father and Myself are one and the same. (So S. Augustine, Bede, Maldonatus; and see S. Ambrose, de Spir. Sancto, iii. 18. S. Hilary, de Trin. lib. vii., and Tertullian, contra Praxeam). He says this against the Jews who regarded Him as a mere man, “Know then that the Eternal Father gave Me a Divine Nature and Personality far higher than any created nature, whether angels or men.” Others explain it, that the sheep committed to Me by the Father must be more highly valued by Me than anything else; and no one can pluck them either out of My Father’s hand, or out of My own hand. But the first explanation is both the most sublime, and most full of meaning.
S. Cyril explains it thus, “My Father has committed to Me, His Incarnate Son, the care of His sheep. As God I have equal power with Him, and as man My hand is strengthened by the Almighty Hand of the Father.” Whence the Interlinear Gloss explains the word “hand” by “Me, who am the Hand of the Father.” For as S. Augustine says, “men call their ‘hands’ those persons through whom they do what they wish.” The two explanations come to the same thing.
[30] Ego et Pater unum sumus.
I and the Father are one.
I and My Father are one, not only by agreement and consent of will, as the Arians hold, but also one in Essence and Godhead, the same in number,* not in species, for otherwise there would be more Gods than one. Christ speaks here as God and the Word of the Father. And from this the fathers prove His Godhead against the Arians. And the Jews understood the words in the same sense, and consequently sought to stone Him as a blasphemer. And Christ Himself explained them in the same sense, for He said, I am the Son of God. It is clear also from His line of argument, “being one with the Father I have the same Almighty power.” For where the essence is the same, the power is also the same. So says S. Hilary (de Trinit. lib. viii.), “The Father and the Son are One. not as He speaks of the faithful (in chap. 17), ‘That they may be one,’ but one in nature, honour, and power.” “He steers between Scylla and Charybdis,” says S. Augustine (in loc.), “between Arius and Sabellius; for by speaking of ‘One’ He signifies Oneness of nature. But by saying ‘we are’ He indicates a plurality of persons, which Sabellius denied, affirming that God was One in Person, as well as in Essence.” S. Augustine says the same (de Trinit. vi. 2). See Bellarmine (de Christo, i. 6).
[31] Sustulerunt ergo lapides Judaei, ut lapidarent eum.
The Jews then took up stones to stone him.
The Jews therefore took up stones to stone Him, as a blasphemer. The Jews show in this their hypocrisy, malignity, and hatred of Christ, and that they did not honestly, but craftily and insidiously, ask Him whether He were the Christ. But Christ as being God kept them from casting on Him the stones which they held in their hands. “Hard as stones,” says S. Augustine, “they rushed to the stones.” Mystically, says S. Hilary (de Trinit. lib. vii.) “And now also heretics hurl the stones of their words, to cast down, if they can, Christ from His throne; inspired, no doubt, by Lucifer, who aimed at obtaining this throne of Godhead, and therefore grudged it to Christ, and is active in taking it away by means of heretics.”
[32] Respondit eis Jesus : Multa bona opera ostendi vobis ex Patre meo : propter quod eorum opus me lapidatis?
Jesus answered them: Many good works I have shewed you from my Father; for which of these works do you stone me?
Jesus answered, &c. He replied not to the words, for none had been spoken, but to the crafty intention of the Jews. He answered, i.e., He asked them for what cause do ye wish to stone Me? By works He means the miracles which He had wrought by the authority and supernatural aid of God the Father. And He thus quietly reproves their ingratitude and malignity. I have healed, He would say, your blind, and lame, and sick, by My Divine power, when destitute of all human aid; why do ye ungratefully repay My many kindnesses by evil treatment, and wish to stone Me?
[33] Responderunt ei Judaei : De bono opere non lapidamus te, sed de blasphemia; et quia tu homo cum sis, facis teipsum Deum.
The Jews answered him: For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, maketh thyself God.
The Jews answered, For a good work, &c. “The Jews” (says S. Augustine) “understood that which the Arians understand not. For they felt that it could not be said, ‘I and the Father are one,’ unless the Father and the Son were equal.”
[34] Respondit eis Jesus : Nonne scriptum est in lege vestra, Quia ego dixi : Dii estis?
Jesus answered them: Is it not written in your law: I said you are gods?
Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law (Ps. 82:6), I said, Ye are gods? The word in Hebrew is plural. God is called Elohim, as ruling and governing the world, and as the judge and punisher of evil-doing. Whence angels and judges who share this power are called gods, not by nature or by hypostatical union (as Christ), but by participating in the Divine judgments (see Ex. 7:1, 22:28; Ps. 8:6, in the Hebrew Elohim). But there, as S. Hilary observes (Lib. vii. de Trinit.), the word Elohim is limited by the context, so as to make it clear that the word does not signify God, but angels or judges. And so in Ps. 82, “God standeth in the congregation of princes. He is the judge among gods.” The gods who are judged are men or angels, He who judges them is the One True God. “Just as Christ here,” says S. Augustine, “judges as God the Pharisees and rulers of the Jews, who were gods, so to speak, upon earth.” On this account He quotes this psalm which is in Hebrew Elohim, judges. Elohim, the highest of all, judges the earthly rulers who are under Him. This is supported by the Chaldee Targum, which explains, “Ye are gods, and are all the children of the Highest;” “ye are the angels of the high God.” And that which is properly said of angels is extended to all Israelites and the faithful, for they are the sons of God. But when the word “Elohim” is used “absolutely” (without limitation) it signifies the One and True God.
Christ therefore, instead of overthrowing the opinion of the Jews, rather confirms it.
[35] Si illos dixit deos, ad quos sermo Dei factus est, et non potest solvi Scriptura :
If he called them gods, to whom the word of God was spoken, and the scripture cannot be broken;
If He called them gods unto whom the word of God came, whom the Word of God appointed judges and gave them authority by Moses and his successors, and commanded them to judge rightly as partaking His authority, making them (says Euthymius) gods, as it were, upon earth. And the Scripture cannot be broken: no one, i.e., can take from them the name of judges, which the irrevocable word of Scripture has given them.
[36] quem Pater sanctificavit, et misit in mundum vos dicitis : Quia blasphemas, quia dixi : Filius Dei sum?
Do you say of him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world: Thou blasphemest, because I said, I am the Son of God?
Say ye of Him, &c. This is an argument from the less to the greater. “If judges, who only participate in the power of God, are rightly called gods, much more can I be called God, who am the Very Word of God.”
S. Augustine and Bede more acutely, but less to the point, maintain that the force of the argument is this, if they who are merely partakers of the word of God are called gods, much more am I, who am not merely a partaker of the word of God, but the Word of God Itself.
Note here that the words, “He whom the Father hath sanctified,” have several meanings. (1.) He to whom the Father hath communicated the sanctity wherewith He is holy, whom the Father, when He begat Him, made to be holy, says S. Augustine. For God the Father who is holy begat the Son who is holy. So Bede, Toletus, and others. The Son is therefore holy in His generation and essence. (2.) The Father sanctified Christ as man, by means of the Hypostatical Union; for by this (speaking accurately) is the manhood of Christ sanctified in the highest degree. For by the very act wherewith the Person of the Word (Itself uncreated and infinite Sanctity) assumed the humanity, and united it hypostatically to Itself, It clearly sanctified it, and thus infused into its soul the pre-eminent sanctity of charity, grace, and all other virtues. And so S. Hilary says, “Jesus was sanctified to be His Son, since S. Paul says, ‘He was predestinated to be the Son of God with power, by the Spirit of sanctification.’ ” And so too S. Chrysostom, and S. Athanasius (de Incarn. Verb. sub. init.) “Sanctified” is therefore the same as “sealed,” as I said chap. 6:27. (3.) Theophylact says, “He sanctified, that is He sanctioned His sacrifice for the world, showing that He was not such a god as the others were; for to save the world is the work of God, not of a man deified by grace. As Christ says (17:19), I sanctity Myself, i.e., I sacrifice Myself, I offer Myself as a holy Victim.” (4.) Maldonatus says: “He sanctified Me, i.e., He designated and destined Me to the office of Saviour,” referring to Jer. 1:5, though the truer meaning of the passage is different, as I have there stated.
[37] Si non facio opera Patris mei, nolite credere mihi.
If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not.
If I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not. He appeals to the miracles which He wrought by the command and supernatural power of God the Father. For these, as being divine, proved Him to be the very Son of God.
[38] Si autem facio : etsi mihi non vultis credere, operibus credite, ut cognoscatis, et credatis quia Pater in me est, et ego in Patre.
But if I do, though you will not believe me, believe the works: that you may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.
But if I do, &c., and I in the Father, working by the same Godhead and omnipotence which I have received from Him. Accordingly S. Augustine, Cyril, Leontius, &c., consider that the words, “I in the Father and the Father in Me,” mean the same as “I and the Father are one.” S. Augustine says (in loc.), “We are in God, and God in us. But can we say, ‘I and God are one?’ Thou art in God, because God containeth thee; God is in thee, because thou art made the temple of God. But because thou art in God, and God in thee, canst thou therefore say, ‘He who seeth God seeth Me,’ as the only Begotten said, ‘He that seeth Me, seeth the Father also, and I and the Father are one?’ Recognise what is proper to the Lord, and also the duty of the servant. What is proper to the Lord is equality with the Father; the duty of the servant is to be partaker of the Saviour.”
[39] Quaerebant ergo eum apprehendere : et exivit de manibus eorum.
They sought therefore to take him; and he escaped out of their hands.
The Jews therefore sought again to take Him, but He escaped out of their hands. “That their anger might be appeased by His withdrawal,” says S. Chrysostom. S. Augustine, acutely but symbolically, “They took Him not, because they had not the hand of faith.” He escaped by His Divine Power, making Himself invisible. As He did, 8:59.
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam
Ad Jesum per Mariam
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