My judgment is just : St John Chapter v : Verses 19-30

St John Chapter v : Verses 19-30

Contents

• St John Chapter v : Verses 19-30. Douay-Rheims (Challoner) text, Greek (SBLG) & Latin text (Vulgate); 
• Annotations based on the Great Commentary of Cornelius A Lapide (1567-1637)

St John Chapter v : Verses 19-30

The Trinity. Andrei Rublev (1410). 
Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, Moscow.

19 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 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 For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and giveth life: so the Son also giveth life to whom he will.  

22 For neither doth the Father judge any man, but hath given all judgment to the Son.  

23 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 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 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 For as the Father hath life in himself, so he hath given the Son also to have life in himself:  

27 And he hath given him power to do judgment, because he is the Son of man.  

28 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 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 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.

19 Ἀπεκρίνατο οὖν ὁ Ἰησοῦς καὶ ⸀ἔλεγεν αὐτοῖς· Ἀμὴν ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, οὐ δύναται ὁ υἱὸς ποιεῖν ἀφ’ ἑαυτοῦ οὐδὲν ⸀ἐὰν μή τι βλέπῃ τὸν πατέρα ποιοῦντα· ἃ γὰρ ἂν ἐκεῖνος ποιῇ, ταῦτα καὶ ὁ υἱὸς ὁμοίως ποιεῖ.

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.  

20 ὁ γὰρ πατὴρ φιλεῖ τὸν υἱὸν καὶ πάντα δείκνυσιν αὐτῷ ἃ αὐτὸς ποιεῖ, καὶ μείζονα τούτων δείξει αὐτῷ ἔργα, ἵνα ὑμεῖς θαυμάζητε.

20 Pater enim diligit Filium, et omnia demonstrat ei quae ipse facit : et majora his demonstrabit ei opera, ut vos miremini. 

21 ὥσπερ γὰρ ὁ πατὴρ ἐγείρει τοὺς νεκροὺς καὶ ζῳοποιεῖ, οὕτως καὶ ὁ υἱὸς οὓς θέλει ζῳοποιεῖ.

21 Sicut enim Pater suscitat mortuos, et vivificat, sic et Filius, quos vult, vivificat.  

22 οὐδὲ γὰρ ὁ πατὴρ κρίνει οὐδένα, ἀλλὰ τὴν κρίσιν πᾶσαν δέδωκεν τῷ υἱῷ,

22 Neque enim Pater judicat quemquam : sed omne judicium dedit Filio,  

23 ἵνα πάντες τιμῶσι τὸν υἱὸν καθὼς τιμῶσι τὸν πατέρα. ὁ μὴ τιμῶν τὸν υἱὸν οὐ τιμᾷ τὸν πατέρα τὸν πέμψαντα αὐτόν.

23 ut omnes honorificent Filium, sicut honorificant Patrem; qui non honorificat Filium, non honorificat Patrem, qui misit illum.  

24 Ἀμὴν ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι ὁ τὸν λόγον μου ἀκούων καὶ πιστεύων τῷ πέμψαντί με ἔχει ζωὴν αἰώνιον, καὶ εἰς κρίσιν οὐκ ἔρχεται ἀλλὰ μεταβέβηκεν ἐκ τοῦ θανάτου εἰς τὴν ζωήν.

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.  

25 Ἀμὴν ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι ἔρχεται ὥρα καὶ νῦν ἐστιν ὅτε οἱ νεκροὶ ⸀ἀκούσουσιν τῆς φωνῆς τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ οἱ ἀκούσαντες ⸀ζήσουσιν.

25 Amen, amen dico vobis, quia venit hora, et nunc est, quando mortui audient vocem Filii Dei : et qui audierint, vivent. 

26 ὥσπερ γὰρ ὁ πατὴρ ἔχει ζωὴν ἐν ἑαυτῷ, οὕτως ⸂καὶ τῷ υἱῷ ἔδωκεν⸃ ζωὴν ἔχειν ἐν ἑαυτῷ·

26 Sicut enim Pater habet vitam in semetipso, sic dedit et Filio habere vitam in semetipso :  

27 καὶ ἐξουσίαν ἔδωκεν ⸀αὐτῷ κρίσιν ποιεῖν, ὅτι υἱὸς ἀνθρώπου ἐστίν.

27 et potestatem dedit ei judicium facere, quia Filius hominis est.  

28 μὴ θαυμάζετε τοῦτο, ὅτι ἔρχεται ὥρα ἐν ᾗ πάντες οἱ ἐν τοῖς μνημείοις ⸀ἀκούσουσιν τῆς φωνῆς αὐτοῦ

28 Nolite mirari hoc, quia venit hora in qua omnes qui in monumentis sunt audient vocem Filii Dei :  

29 καὶ ἐκπορεύσονται οἱ τὰ ἀγαθὰ ποιήσαντες εἰς ἀνάστασιν ζωῆς, οἱ ⸀δὲ τὰ φαῦλα πράξαντες εἰς ἀνάστασιν κρίσεως.

29 et procedent qui bona fecerunt, in resurrectionem vitae; qui vero mala egerunt, in resurrectionem judicii.  

30 Οὐ δύναμαι ἐγὼ ποιεῖν ἀπ’ ἐμαυτοῦ οὐδέν· καθὼς ἀκούω κρίνω, καὶ ἡ κρίσις ἡ ἐμὴ δικαία ἐστίν, ὅτι οὐ ζητῶ τὸ θέλημα τὸ ἐμὸν ἀλλὰ τὸ θέλημα τοῦ πέμψαντός ⸀με.

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.

Annotations

    19. 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. 

    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. 

    but. This word is not here exceptive, signifying the same as but only. It has the same meaning in Matt. xii. 4.

    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.”

    doth in like manner. 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. 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. 

    sheweth, 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. xiv.12; Exod. xxxiii.19; Ps. iv. 6, &c. That this is the meaning here is plain from what follows. Moreover, the Father sheweth, 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 uncreate and infinite Light, as S. John shows (1 Epist. i. 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.

    and greater works than these will he shew him: 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.

    that you may wonder. 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. For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and giveth life: 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 the Son also giveth life. He tacitly signifies that He is God, equal to the Father in power and liberty to raise and quicken whom He will.

    to 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.

    giveth life, 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. For neither doth the Father judge any man, but hath given all judgment to the Son. 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 the 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 x. 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. That all men may honour the Son, as they honour the Father. 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.

    as they honour the Father: the words like as signify equality, not similitude.

    He who honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father, who hath sent him. 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 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.  See what has been said on iii. 3. 

    heareth, so as to believe and obey My word. Thus He subjoins, and believeth 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 iii.16.

    is passed from death to life, 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 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. “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. ii. 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. xxvii. 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 shall live, 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. For as the Father hath life in himself, so he hath given the Son also to have life in himself: 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, “For with thee is the fountain of life.” (Ps. xxxv.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 he hath given the Son also to have life in himself. 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. And he hath given him power to do judgment, because he is the Son of man. 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. Wonder not at this; for the hour cometh, wherein all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God, 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 the 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. 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. .… 

    shall come forth, 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. xxvi. 64), “I say to you, hereafter you shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of the power of God, 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 i. 11). S. Paul pressed the same thing upon the Areopagites (Acts xvii. 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. vii. 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. I cannot of myself do any thing. As I hear, so I judge: and my judgment is just;  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 my own will, but the will of him that sent me. 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 à 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.

+       +        +

The Vladimirskaya Icon. >12th century.

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen. 

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam. 

Sin no more : St John Chapter v.10-18

St John Chapter v : Verses 10-18

Contents

• St John Chapter v : Verses 10-18. Douay-Rheims (Challoner) text, Greek (SBLG) & Latin text (Vulgate); 
• Annotations based on the Great Commentary of Cornelius A Lapide (1567-1637)

St John Chapter v : Verses 10-18

The Jews sought the more to kill him.
J-J Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

10 The Jews therefore said to him that was healed: It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for thee to take up thy bed.

11 He answered them: He that made me whole, he said to me, Take up thy bed, and walk.  

12 They asked him therefore: Who is that man who said to thee, Take up thy bed, and walk?  

13 But he who was healed, knew not who it was; for Jesus went aside from the multitude standing in the place.  

14 Afterwards, Jesus findeth him in the temple, and saith to him: Behold thou art made whole: sin no more, lest some worse thing happen to thee.  

15 The man went his way, and told the Jews, that it was Jesus who had made him whole.

16 Therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, because he did these things on the sabbath.  

17 But Jesus answered them: My Father worketh until now; and I work.  

18 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.

10 ἔλεγον οὖν οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι τῷ τεθεραπευμένῳ· Σάββατόν ἐστιν, ⸀καὶ οὐκ ἔξεστίν σοι ἆραι τὸν ⸀κράβαττον.

10 Dicebant ergo Judaei illi qui sanatus fuerat : Sabbatum est, non licet tibi tollere grabatum tuum. 

11 ⸂ὃς δὲ⸃ ἀπεκρίθη αὐτοῖς· Ὁ ποιήσας με ὑγιῆ ἐκεῖνός μοι εἶπεν Ἆρον τὸν κράβαττόν σου καὶ περιπάτει.

11 Respondit eis : Qui me sanum fecit, ille mihi dixit : Tolle grabatum tuum et ambula.  

12 ἠρώτησαν ⸀οὖν αὐτόν· Τίς ἐστιν ὁ ἄνθρωπος ὁ εἰπών σοι· ⸀Ἆρον καὶ περιπάτει;

12 Interrogaverunt ergo eum : Quis est ille homo qui dixit tibi : Tolle grabatum tuum et ambula?  

13 ὁ δὲ ἰαθεὶς οὐκ ᾔδει τίς ἐστιν, ὁ γὰρ Ἰησοῦς ἐξένευσεν ὄχλου ὄντος ἐν τῷ τόπῳ.

13 Is autem qui sanus fuerat effectus, nesciebat quis esset. Jesus enim declinavit a turba constituta in loco.  

14 μετὰ ταῦτα εὑρίσκει αὐτὸν ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ· Ἴδε ὑγιὴς γέγονας· μηκέτι ἁμάρτανε, ἵνα μὴ χεῖρόν ⸂σοί τι⸃ γένηται.

14 Postea invenit eum Jesus in templo, et dixit illi : Ecce sanus factus es; jam noli peccare, ne deterius tibi aliquid contingat.  

15 ἀπῆλθεν ὁ ἄνθρωπος καὶ ⸀ἀνήγγειλεν τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις ὅτι Ἰησοῦς ἐστιν ὁ ποιήσας αὐτὸν ὑγιῆ.

15 Abiit ille homo, et nuntiavit Judæis quia Jesus esset, qui fecit eum sanum.

16 καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἐδίωκον ⸂οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι τὸν Ἰησοῦν⸃ ὅτι ταῦτα ἐποίει ἐν σαββάτῳ.

16 Propterea persequebantur Judaei Jesum, quia haec faciebat in sabbato.  

17 ὁ ⸀δὲ ἀπεκρίνατο αὐτοῖς· Ὁ πατήρ μου ἕως ἄρτι ἐργάζεται κἀγὼ ἐργάζομαι.

17 Jesus autem respondit eis : Pater meus usque modo operatur, et ego operor.  

18 διὰ τοῦτο οὖν μᾶλλον ἐζήτουν αὐτὸν οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι ἀποκτεῖναι ὅτι οὐ μόνον ἔλυε τὸ σάββατον, ἀλλὰ καὶ πατέρα ἴδιον ἔλεγε τὸν θεόν, ἴσον ἑαυτὸν ποιῶν τῷ θεῷ.

18 Propterea ergo magis quærebant eum Judæi interficere : quia non solum solvebat sabbatum, sed et patrem suum dicebat Deum, æqualem se faciens Deo. 

Annotations

    10. The Jews therefore said to him that was healed: It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for thee to take up thy bed. As Nonnus paraphrases, “Clamorously they uttered an accusing charge, ‘It is the Sabbath, which every one ought to keep wholly in rest: it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed.’ ” Speaking generally, they say the truth; for among the Jews it was a matter of the highest obligation to keep the Sabbath. All work was then forbidden, as appears from Exodus xx. 8. And especially the carrying of burdens on that day is forbidden by Jeremiah (xvii. 21, &c.). Christ, however, here says the contrary to the sick man whom He cured, because He, being Lord of the Sabbath, could dispense with its obligation. Moreover, what was forbidden by the Law upon the Sabbath was servile work, not a pious and Divine work like this. Christ bade the man who was healed take up his bed that the crowds of people who were flocking into the Temple on the Sabbath might become acquainted with the miracle, and acknowledge Jesus, its author, to be the Messiah, giving Him thanks.

    11. He answered them: He that made me whole, he said to me, Take up thy bed, and walk. Understand, This was indeed a Divine man, and by Divine power has healed me. Therefore He is a friend of God, and would not bid me do anything except what is pleasing to God. As S. Augustine says, “Should I not receive a command from Him from whom I have received healing?” Just indeed was this defence of the sick man, which the Jews ought to have understood and accepted, but being blinded by pride they could not receive it, and so sinned by persecuting Christ and fell into hell.

    12. They asked him therefore: Who is that man who said to thee, Take up thy bed, and walk? Being indignant, they say with threats, “Who is that bold and insolent man, who dare bid thee, contrary to the Law, carry thy bed upon the Sabbath day? Verily, that man is not of God who does not keep the Sabbath which God has ordained.” Thus they spoke through a blind prejudice derived from this Law, which they did not understand. Whereas, on the contrary, they ought to have understood that He who had miraculously healed the sick man, could not have done it except by the singular authority and help of God, and therefore that He had equally received from God the right to say on the Sabbath, Take up thy bed and walk.

    13. But he who was healed, knew not who it was; for Jesus went aside from the multitude standing in the place.  The man knew not the name of Jesus, nor whither He had gone, nor indeed who He was, for he had never seen Him before.

    went aside. Euthymius gives the reason. “As soon as He had healed the man, He withdrew because of the crowd, partly to avoid the praise of the just, and partly to take away occasion for the envy of the unjust.” S. Chrysostom gives another reason: That the man’s testimony in the absence of Jesus might be less liable to suspicion. For if he who was healed had praised Christ to the Jews before His face, he might have seemed to have done it out of favour. But now that he praised Him in His absence, it is evident that he did so from the love of the truth.

    14. Afterwards, Jesus findeth him in the temple, and saith to him: Behold thou art made whole: sin no more, lest some worse thing happen to thee.  The Arabic is, Now thou art healed, return not to sin, lest a worse evil be done thee.

    in the temple. From this it appears that this man who was healed by Christ, as soon as he had carried his bed to his house, went to the Temple to give God thanks for His great benefit of healing. As Chrysostom says, “Assuredly a great mark of piety and reverence. He did not go to the market-place, or the porch; he did not indulge in pleasure, or ease; he was occupied in the Temple.”

    sin no more. From hence it is plain that God often sends diseases upon sick persons on account of their sins; and that this man had been afflicted because of his sins. Thus this paralytic, who had been sick for thirty-eight years, from a time before Christ was born, had committed some crime, which God wished him to suffer for, and expiate, by this protracted disease. Christ therefore tacitly admonishes the man’s conscience that he should be mindful of his sin, and be contrite, and avoid it for the time to come. At the same time He intimates that He, being a Prophet, knew this by Divine revelation. Wherefore when sickness is sent by God upon any one, let him examine his conscience, and blot out by repentance and confession the sin for which God has sent the sickness, and let him pray to God to pardon his sin, and take away the disease.

    I said, often sends, for God sometimes sends diseases upon holy men that he may prove, increase, and crown their patience, as He did in the case of Job, whose whole dispute with his friends turned upon this point; his friends urging that his sins had given occasion to his being so grievously afflicted, whilst he, on the contrary, contended that he was free from sins, and had not deserved those afflictions. And God in the last chapter adjudges the dispute in his favour, and condemns his friends. The same thing will appear in the case of the man who was born blind (chap. ix.), of whom Christ spake thus, “Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents; but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.”

    Moreover, as Christ healed this sick man’s body at the pool, so did He both by His inward inspiration, and by his external admonition, heal his soul in the Temple. He brought back to his memory the sins of his youth, by reason of which he had deserved so long a sickness, and he moved his heart to contrition for them, and to ask pardon from God, that so he might be justified. Indeed, Christ healed his body for this very reason that He might heal his soul.

    lest some worse thing happen to thee. “For,” as Theophylact says, “he who is not made better by a former punishment is kept for greater torments, as being insensate, and a despiser.” “And this happens,” says Euthymius, “either in this life, or in the life to come, or in both.” “A relapse is worse than the original disease.” So a relapse into a fault is worse than the fault on account of the greater ingratitude, boldness, impudence.

    15. The man went his way, and told the Jews, that it was Jesus who had made him whole. Not out of malevolence, but from gratitude, that he might not hide the author of so great a kindness. So Augustine, Chrysostom, and others. “He went away and told,” says Euthymius, “not as being wicked, that he might betray, but as being grateful, to disclose who was his benefactor. Because he thought he should be guilty of a crime if he kept silence, therefore he proclaimed the benefit.”

    16. Therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, because he did these things on the sabbath. Some Greek MS., also the Syriac and Arabic Versions, add, And sought to kill Him. Therefore, 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. But Jesus answered them: My Father worketh until now; and I work. “The Father worketh,” says S. Augustine (lib. 4, de Gen., cap. 12), “both affording suitable government to things created, and having in Himself eternal tranquillity:” 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. 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. 

    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 to 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.

+       +        +

The Vladimirskaya Icon. >12th century.

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen. 

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam. 

Arise, take up thy bed, and walk : St John Chapter v : Verses 1-9

St John Chapter v : Verses 1-9

Contents

• St John Chapter v : Verses 1-9. Douay-Rheims (Challoner) text, Greek (SBLG) & Latin text (Vulgate); 
• Annotations based on the Great Commentary of Cornelius A Lapide (1567-1637)

St John Chapter v : Verses 1-9

...and the water was moved.
J-J Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

1 After these things was a festival day of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  

2 Now there is at Jerusalem a pond, called Probatica, which in Hebrew is named Bethsaida, having five porches.  

3 In these lay a great multitude of sick, of blind, of lame, of withered; waiting for the moving of the water.  

4 And an angel of the Lord descended at certain times into the pond; and the water was moved. And he that went down first into the pond after the motion of the water, was made whole, of whatsoever infirmity he lay under.  

5 And there was a certain man there, that had been eight and thirty years under his infirmity.

6 Him when Jesus had seen lying, and knew that he had been now a long time, he saith to him: Wilt thou be made whole?  

7 The infirm man answered him: Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pond. For whilst I am coming, another goeth down before me.  

8 Jesus saith to him: Arise, take up thy bed, and walk.  

9 And immediately the man was made whole: and he took up his bed, and walked. And it was the sabbath that day.

1 Μετὰ ταῦτα ⸀ἦν ἑορτὴ τῶν Ἰουδαίων, καὶ ⸀ἀνέβη Ἰησοῦς εἰς Ἱεροσόλυμα.

1 Post haec erat dies festus Judaeorum, et ascendit Jesus Jerosolymam.  

2 ἔστιν δὲ ἐν τοῖς Ἱεροσολύμοις ἐπὶ τῇ προβατικῇ κολυμβήθρα ἡ ἐπιλεγομένη Ἑβραϊστὶ ⸀Βηθεσδά, πέντε στοὰς ἔχουσα·

2 Est autem Jerosolymis probatica piscina, quae cognominatur hebraice Bethsaida, quinque porticus habens.  

3 ἐν ταύταις κατέκειτο ⸀πλῆθος τῶν ἀσθενούντων, τυφλῶν, χωλῶν, ⸀ξηρῶν.

3 In his jacebat multitudo magna languentium, caecorum, claudorum, aridorum, exspectantium aquae motum.  

4 ἄγγελος γὰρ κατὰ καιρὸν κατέβαινεν ἐν τῇ κολυμβήθρᾳ, καὶ ἐτάρασσεν τὸ ὕδωρ ὁ οὖν πρῶτος ἐμβὰς μετὰ τὴν ταραχὴν τοῦ ὕδατος, ὑγιὴς ἐγίνετο, ᾧ δήποτε κατειχετο νοσήματι

4 Angelus autem Domini descendebat secundum tempus in piscinam, et movebatur aqua. Et qui prior descendisset in piscinam post motionem aquae, sanus fiebat a quacumque detinebatur infirmitate.  

5 ἦν δέ τις ἄνθρωπος ἐκεῖ ⸀τριάκοντα ὀκτὼ ἔτη ἔχων ἐν τῇ ἀσθενείᾳ ⸀αὐτοῦ·

5 Erat autem quidam homo ibi triginta et octo annos habens in infirmitate sua.  

6 τοῦτον ἰδὼν ὁ Ἰησοῦς κατακείμενον, καὶ γνοὺς ὅτι πολὺν ἤδη χρόνον ἔχει, λέγει αὐτῷ· Θέλεις ὑγιὴς γενέσθαι;

6 Hunc autem cum vidisset Jesus jacentem, et cognovisset quia jam multum tempus haberet, dicit ei : Vis sanus fieri?  

7 ἀπεκρίθη αὐτῷ ὁ ἀσθενῶν· Κύριε, ἄνθρωπον οὐκ ἔχω ἵνα ὅταν ταραχθῇ τὸ ὕδωρ βάλῃ με εἰς τὴν κολυμβήθραν· ἐν ᾧ δὲ ἔρχομαι ἐγὼ ἄλλος πρὸ ἐμοῦ καταβαίνει.

7 Respondit ei languidus : Domine, hominem non habeo, ut, cum turbata fuerit aqua, mittat me in piscinam : dum venio enim ego, alius ante me descendit.  

8 λέγει αὐτῷ ὁ Ἰησοῦς· ⸀Ἔγειρε ἆρον τὸν κράβαττόν σου καὶ περιπάτει.

8 Dicit ei Jesus : Surge, tolle grabatum tuum et ambula.  

9 καὶ εὐθέως ἐγένετο ὑγιὴς ὁ ἄνθρωπος καὶ ἦρε τὸν κράβαττον αὐτοῦ καὶ περιεπάτει. Ἦν δὲ σάββατον ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ.

9 Et statim sanus factus est homo ille : et sustulit grabatum suum, et ambulabat. Erat autem sabbatum in die illo.

Annotations

    1. After these things was a festival day of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Observe, John here omits many things which Christ did in Galilee, but which Matthew records from the 4th to the 12th chapter of his Gospel. For what Matthew relates in his 12th chapter concerning the disciples plucking the ears of corn took place after the following feast, as will appear presently.

    a festival day. SS. Chrysostom, Cyril, and others think that this was the Feast of Pentecost. With more probability, S. Irenæus (lib. 2, c. 39), Ruperti, and others, think it was the Passover. They show this (1.) Because in chap. 4 ver. 35, Jesus said there were still four months unto harvest. That therefore must have been before the Passover: thus the Passover must have been the first great subsequent feast.

    2. Because the Passover was the feast of feasts. When therefore it is said absolutely, there was a feast, the Passover, which was the feast par excellence, is to be understood.

    3. Because Christ after His baptism preached for three years and a half, according to the common consent of divines. It follows from this that there ought to be notices in the Gospels of four Passovers, which is the case. The first is mentioned by John in ii.13; the second in this place; the third in vi.4; the fourth, just before His death, xix.14. But if the feast mentioned in this 5th chapter were not the Passover, we could only gather the mention of three by S. John.

    Here then comes to a close the account of the first year and three months of Christ’s ministry, that is to say, from January 6, when He was baptized, until this second Passover, which was kept in Nisan, or March.

    2. Now there is at Jerusalem a pond, called Probatica, which in Hebrew is named Bethsaida, having five porches.

Probatica. The pool took its name both because it was nigh the gate adjacent to the Temple, through which the flocks of sheep for the sacrifices were driven, and also because the sheep, which were offered to God every morning and evening in the Temple, were there gathered together and washed.

    a pond: i.e., a place which contained fishes, or at least might have held them. The Greek is κολυμβήθρα, a place to swim in, because fishes, or even men, might swim in it. The Vulgate has piscina. This pool was constructed by Solomon for the service of the Temple; hence it is called by Josephus (Bell. Jud., vi. 6) Solomon’s Pool. In it the Nethinims washed the victims which they handed over to the priests to be offered in the Temple.

    Some Greek codices instead of pool read πύλη, a porch, or gate, but S. Chrysostom, Theophylact, Cyril, Euthymius, S. Jerome, and others passim, read κολυμβήθρα, i.e., a pool. The Syriac has a baptistery, or font.

    Bethsaida: so read the Vulgate, and among the Greeks SS. Chrysostom and Cyril. And appositely, for Bethsaida means in Hebrew a house, i.e., a place of hunting, or fishing. And this is the signification of the Greek κολυμβήθρα, a place for fish to swim in. The Greek MSS., however, read Βηθεσδὰ: so also S. Jerome (loc. Hebrœis). Bethesda means in Hebrew a place of pouring forth, because the rain from the roofs of the houses, and streams of water from aqueducts, flowed into it. The Syriac has Bethchesda, or house of mercy, from the Hebrew חֶסֶד, chesed, mercy, because there God showed His mercy to the miserable sick whom He healed; or else because righteous men relieved with their alms the sick poor who lay there.

    having five porches, or porticoes: these porches or porticoes were places covered above, but open below, either for walking, or taking rest in, that sick persons might rest in them secure from rain, or the heat of the sun, and immediately step out of them into the pool when its angel moved the water.

    3. In these lay a great multitude of sick, of blind, of lame, of withered; waiting for the moving of the water. e (Vulg.); Greek, ἀσθενόντων; Eng. Ver. sick folk; withered (Vulg.) aridorum, dry, i.e., whose arm. or hand, or foot, or some other limb, was lifeless.

    4. And an angel of the Lord descended at certain times into the pond; and the water was moved. 

    an angel of the Lord: either Raphael, or some other, Raphael, who presides over bodily healing, is so called from the Hebrew, which signifies the medicine, or physician of God. Whence he cured Tobit of his blindness.

    at certain times, i.e., at a certain time determined by God, or the angel, but unknown to men. Wherefore what Tertullian and Cyril say does not seem to be correct, that it was only once in the year, namely, at Pentecost, that the angel went down into the pool. For if so, the sick folk would not have lain beside it (for so long a time), but would have waited at home until Pentecost was close at hand. As Euthymius says, “By speaking of a stated time, he showed that the miracle was not continually taking place, but at certain times, unknown indeed to men, though often, as I think, in the course of the year.”

    the water was moved.  Greek, ἐταράσσετο ὑδῶρ, i.e., he disturbed or troubled the water. “The sound of moving signified that angels were present to sanctify the water,” says S. Cyril. “The water was moved in order to show that the angel had descended,” says S. Ambrose.

    And he that went down first into the pond after the motion of the water, was made whole.  In order to show the value of labour and diligence, and that we ought to be swift and active to take God’s benefits. Thus it was necessary for him who would gather the manna to rise at dawn, for when the sun was risen it melted, “that it might be made known unto all that it was needful to prevent the rising of the sun for Thy blessing, and to worship Thee at the dawning of the day” (Wisd. xvi. 28). For God gives His gifts to the watchful and earnest, not to the slow and sleepy. Thus in the race only he who excels the rest receives the prize (Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain. 1 Cor. ix. 24).

    You will ask why, after the troubling of the water, as it is in the Greek, only he who first stepped in after the troubling was healed? I answer, that the literal reason was to show that this power of healing did not proceed from any natural virtue of the water, but from the moving of the angel, and the command of God. This moving of the angel did not impress any physical power or quality upon the water to heal any disease, but it was a sign of the Divine power and working, which were about to heal that sick person who had previously, by his own diligence, stirred up himself, and had gone down into the water that he might there receive the miraculous blessing of God. This moving, therefore, was an invitation to the sick to receive healing in the troubled water.

    Appositely indeed did the angel make use of this sign of motion, because, whilst it was being moved, the virtue of the water became lively and efficacious. For life consists in motion, death in quietude and torpor.

    Tropologically, the reason was to signify that the sinner, when he is converted and healed by God, is wont to be troubled and agitated in his conscience by various emotions of fear, shame, and hope. For by these God moves a man to repentance and contrition, that he may thereby be healed, as the Council of Trent teaches.

    of whatsoever infirmity he lay under. From hence it is plain that the healing virtue of this pool did not proceed from the victims which were washed in it, nor from wood lying at the bottom, of which the cross of Christ was afterwards made, as some have supposed, but was supernatural and miraculous. For God wished to bestow this benefit upon believing people about the time of Christ’s coming (for there is no mention of it in the Old Testament), in order that Christ thus healing a sick man might show that He was God, who had given this property to the pool, and therefore that He without it could heal the sick. Wherefore it would seem that this gift was taken away from the ungrateful Jews when they killed Christ, for we find no subsequent mention of it. As Tertullian says (cont. Jud., c. 13), “The pool of Bethsaida, which, to the coming of Christ, healed the sicknesses of Israel, afterwards ceased from bestowing its benefits through their persevering fury.”

    Allegorically, God willed that this pool should be a token of His Passion and His Baptism. For as the angel descended into the water, so Christ went down to His Passion and torments; and in them, as in water, He was immersed and buried. And as the pool was red with the blood of the victims which were washed in it, so was Christ ruddy, and stained with His own blood (Isa. lxiii. 2), that by the merit of His blood He might cause baptism (wherefore the Syriac here translates baptistery), in whose water believers are washed, to heal all spiritual infirmities. So Tertullian (de Baptismo, c. 5), S. Ambrose (de Spir. Sc., lib. I, c. 7), and S. Chrysostom. The latter says, “For when God wished to instruct us in the belief of baptism now nigh at hand, He drove away not only pollutions, but diseases by means of water: for the nearer the images and figures were to the truth, they were more illustrious than the ancient figures.” And S. Austin says, “To descend into the troubled water is humbly to believe in the Lord’s Passion. There one was healed to signify unity. Whosoever came afterwards was not healed, because whoso is outside of unity cannot be healed.”

    5. And there was a certain man there, that had been eight and thirty years under his infirmity. Greek and Vulgate. S. Chrysostom and others say that this sick man was a paralytic.

    Tropologically, this infirm man represents one who has grown old in a course of sin: who lies without strength in habits of vice, and is without any power to do good. For as palsy dissolves the bonds which knit the limbs together, so does a habit of sin enervate and dissolve the strength of the soul, so that men cannot arise out of it, and resist it, unless they are raised and strengthened by the mighty grace of God. Hence it is plain that such a palsy as this was naturally incurable; and we see that for thirty-eight years it could not be healed by any skill. Christ therefore took upon Himself to heal this palsy rather than the diseases of the other sick who were there, in order to show forth both His Almighty power and His infinite mercy. This was why Christ determined to heal Paul, who was labouring even beyond the rest of the incredulous and impious Jews under the worst spiritual disease of unbelief, as he himself shows us in the beginning of his 1st Epistle to Timothy. As S. Austin says, “The great Physician descended from heaven because one who was sick unto death lay on the earth.” On the symbolical meaning of the thirty-eight years see S. Augustine in loc., where he says, amongst other things, that it was the symbol of weakness, as forty is the symbol of healing and perfection. “If therefore,” he says, “the number forty has the perfection of the Law, and the Law is not fulfilled except by the twofold precept of charity, what wonder that he was sick, who lacked two of the forty?” The twofold love, viz., of God and his neighbour, was lacking.

    6. Him when Jesus had seen lying, and knew that he had been now a long time, he saith to him: Wilt thou be made whole? Christ knew well that he had a desire to be healed, but He asked the question—1. To afford the sick man an opportunity for conversation, and from thence of being healed. As S. Cyril says, “Herein was a great proof of the compassion of Christ, that He did not (always) wait for the entreaties of those who were sick, but prevented them by His mercy.”

    2. That He might sharpen the man’s attention to the instantaneous character of the miracle, and so to the words and deeds of Christ. From all these He might know with certainty that he was healed, not by the pool, nor by medicine, but by Christ alone, who was superior to all the virtue of the pool, or of medicine, and so might believe in Him as a prophet, and the Messiah, and might in penitence ask and obtain of Him remission of his sins. Wherefore He healed him beside the healing pool, but without touching it, that He might show that it was He who had given its virtue to the pool, and that He therefore, without the aid of the pool, could heal him by His word alone.

    7. The infirm man answered him: Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pond. For whilst I am coming, another goeth down before me. The sick man does not answer Christ’s question directly. He takes for granted that every one knew that he desired to be healed. Therefore he makes mention of the way of obtaining healing by means of the pool. As though he had said, “I am prevented by palsy from going into the pool, for I have none to carry me. I am a poor man. If therefore Thou canst help me in this matter, do so.” For he thought that when Christ asked the question, Dost thou wish to be healed? He meant, “Dost thou wish that I should carry thee into the pool, when the angel moves the water, that thou mayest in it be healed?” As yet he did not know the power of Jesus, for he had never seen Him.

    The Syriac translates a little differently: Even so, Lord (I do wish to be healed), but I have not a man. Beautifully does S. Augustine say, “In very deed was that man (Jesus) necessary for his salvation, but it was that man who is also God.”

    8. Jesus saith to him: Arise, take up thy bed, and walk. These words of Christ were practical and efficacious. In saying Arise, He caused him to arise, and healed him. As S. Augustine says, “It was not a command of work, but an operation of healing.” And S. Cyril, “Such power and virtue were not of man; it is a property of God alone to command like this.” Christ bade him take up his bed, that it might be evident to all that He had healed him, yea, that he had been made instantly stout and strong, so as to be able to carry his bed. Wherefore Euthymius in this passage observes that Christ was accustomed, after the miracles which He wrought, to add something by which their truth and greatness might be perceived. Thus in this instance He bade the paralytic take up his bed, which he could not have done unless he was healed; yea, stout and strong. So after the multiplication of the loaves, He ordered more fragments to be taken up than were originally in the bread. So He said to the leper whom He healed, “Go show thyself to the priest.” So He ordered something to be given to eat to the girl whom He raised from the dead (Mark v. 43).

    Tropologically, S. Gregory (Hom. 12 in Ezech.) applies these words to sinners who have been justified by penance, who, by the just judgment of God, suffer temptations from their former sins. He says, “The sick man restored to health is bidden to carry the bed in which he had been carried. For it is necessary that every one who is healed should bear the contumely of the flesh, in which he had before lain in his sickness. What then is it to say, Take up thy bed, and go unto thine house, but, “Bear the temptations of the flesh; in which thou hast hitherto lain?”

    Thus S. Mary of Egypt for seventeen years after her conversion suffered dreadful temptations of the flesh, because she had previously lived for that number of years immodestly. Sins therefore are their own executioners, and their own righteous avengers. What before pleased afterwards torments: what willingly thou hast done, the same thou shalt hereafter unwillingly suffer.

    Symbolically, S. Augustine says (Tract. 17), “Arise; that is, love God, who is above. Take up thy bed; i.e., love thy neighbour, bear his infirmities, according to the words, ‘Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.’ When thou wast weak thy neighbour carried thee: thou art made whole, carry now thy neighbour. Carry him with whom thou walkest, that thou mayest come to Him with whom thou desirest to abide.”

    9. And immediately the man was made whole: and he took up his bed, and walked. And it was the sabbath that day. Christ designedly healed upon the Sabbath, both because the Sabbath was the highest festival of the Jews, which therefore it was right to sanctify above other days by good works, such as healing a sick man like this paralytic: and also because He hereby wished to show the Jews that He was the Lord of the Sabbath. For in bidding him take up his bed, which was a thing forbidden by the old Law, He showed that He was Messiah and God. Moreover, because the Sabbath was a day dedicated to rest and the praise of God, Christ gave rest from his pains to this sick man, and so afforded a notable occasion for praising God on this day.

+       +        +

The Vladimirskaya Icon. >12th century.

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen. 

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam. 

Go thy way, thy son liveth : St John Chapter iv : Verses 44-54

St John Chapter iv : Verses 44-54

Contents

• St John Chapter iv : Verses 44-54. Douay-Rheims (Challoner) text, Greek (SBLG) & Latin text (Vulgate); 
• Annotations based on the Great Commentary of Cornelius A Lapide (1567-1637)

St John Chapter iv : Verses 44-54

Jesus saith to him: Go thy way; thy son liveth. J-J Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

44 For Jesus himself gave testimony that a prophet hath no honour in his own country.   

45 And when he was come into Galilee, the Galileans received him, having seen all the things he had done at Jerusalem on the festival day; for they also went to the festival day.

46 He came again therefore into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain ruler, whose son was sick at Capharnaum.  

47 He having heard that Jesus was come from Judea into Galilee, went to him, and prayed him to come down, and heal his son; for he was at the point of death.  

48 Jesus therefore said to him: Unless you see signs and wonders, you believe not.  

49 The ruler saith to him: Lord, come down before that my son die.  

50 Jesus saith to him: Go thy way; thy son liveth. The man believed the word which Jesus said to him, and went his way.

51 And as he was going down, his servants met him; and they brought word, saying, that his son lived.  

52 He asked therefore of them the hour wherein he grew better. And they said to him: Yesterday, at the seventh hour, the fever left him.  

53 The father therefore knew, that it was at the same hour that Jesus said to him, Thy son liveth; and himself believed, and his whole house.  

54 This is again the second miracle that Jesus did, when he was come out of Judea into Galilee.

44 αὐτὸς ⸀γὰρ Ἰησοῦς ἐμαρτύρησεν ὅτι προφήτης ἐν τῇ ἰδίᾳ πατρίδι τιμὴν οὐκ ἔχει.

44 Ipse enim Jesus testimonium perhibuit, quia propheta in sua patria honorem non habet.  

45 ὅτε οὖν ἦλθεν εἰς τὴν Γαλιλαίαν, ἐδέξαντο αὐτὸν οἱ Γαλιλαῖοι, πάντα ἑωρακότες ⸀ὅσα ἐποίησεν ἐν Ἱεροσολύμοις ἐν τῇ ἑορτῇ, καὶ αὐτοὶ γὰρ ἦλθον εἰς τὴν ἑορτήν.

45 Cum ergo venisset in Galilaeam, exceperunt eum Galilaei, cum omnia vidissent quae fecerat Jerosolymis in die festo : et ipsi enim venerant ad diem festum. 

46 Ἦλθεν οὖν ⸀πάλιν εἰς τὴν Κανὰ τῆς Γαλιλαίας, ὅπου ἐποίησεν τὸ ὕδωρ οἶνον. καὶ ἦν τις βασιλικὸς οὗ ὁ υἱὸς ἠσθένει ἐν Καφαρναούμ.

46 Venit ergo iterum in Cana Galilaeae, ubi fecit aquam vinum. Et erat quidam regulus, cujus filius infirmabatur Capharnaum.  

47 οὗτος ἀκούσας ὅτι Ἰησοῦς ἥκει ἐκ τῆς Ἰουδαίας εἰς τὴν Γαλιλαίαν ἀπῆλθεν πρὸς αὐτὸν καὶ ⸀ἠρώτα ἵνα καταβῇ καὶ ἰάσηται αὐτοῦ τὸν υἱόν, ἤμελλεν γὰρ ἀποθνῄσκειν.

47 Hic cum audisset quia Jesus adveniret a Judaea in Galilaeam, abiit ad eum, et rogabat eum ut descenderet, et sanaret filium ejus : incipiebat enim mori.  

48 εἶπεν οὖν ὁ Ἰησοῦς πρὸς αὐτόν· Ἐὰν μὴ σημεῖα καὶ τέρατα ἴδητε, οὐ μὴ πιστεύσητε.

48 Dixit ergo Jesus ad eum : Nisi signa et prodigia videritis, non creditis.  

49 λέγει πρὸς αὐτὸν ὁ βασιλικός· Κύριε, κατάβηθι πρὶν ἀποθανεῖν τὸ παιδίον μου.

49 Dicit ad eum regulus : Domine, descende priusquam moriatur filius meus.  

50 λέγει αὐτῷ ὁ Ἰησοῦς· Πορεύου· ὁ υἱός σου ζῇ. ⸀ἐπίστευσεν ὁ ἄνθρωπος τῷ λόγῳ ⸀ὃν εἶπεν αὐτῷ ὁ Ἰησοῦς καὶ ἐπορεύετο.

50 Dicit ei Jesus : Vade, filius tuus vivit. Credidit homo sermoni quem dixit ei Jesus, et ibat. 

51 ἤδη δὲ αὐτοῦ καταβαίνοντος οἱ δοῦλοι αὐτοῦ ⸀ὑπήντησαν ⸀αὐτῷ λέγοντες ὅτι ὁ παῖς ⸀αὐτοῦ ζῇ.

51 Jam autem eo descendente, servi occurrerunt ei, et nuntiaverunt dicentes, quia filius ejus viveret.  

52 ἐπύθετο οὖν ⸂τὴν ὥραν παρ’ αὐτῶν⸃ ἐν ᾗ κομψότερον ἔσχεν· ⸂εἶπαν οὖν⸃ αὐτῷ ὅτι ⸀Ἐχθὲς ὥραν ἑβδόμην ἀφῆκεν αὐτὸν ὁ πυρετός.

52 Interrogabat ergo horam ab eis in qua melius habuerit. Et dixerunt ei : Quia heri hora septima reliquit eum febris.  

53 ἔγνω οὖν ὁ πατὴρ ⸀ὅτι ἐκείνῃ τῇ ὥρᾳ ἐν ᾗ εἶπεν αὐτῷ ὁ ⸀Ἰησοῦς· Ὁ υἱός σου ζῇ, καὶ ἐπίστευσεν αὐτὸς καὶ ἡ οἰκία αὐτοῦ ὅλη.

53 Cognovit ergo pater, quia illa hora erat in qua dixit ei Jesus : Filius tuus vivit; et credidit ipse et domus ejus tota.  

54 τοῦτο ⸀δὲ πάλιν δεύτερον σημεῖον ἐποίησεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἐλθὼν ἐκ τῆς Ἰουδαίας εἰς τὴν Γαλιλαίαν.

Scripture quotations marked SBLGNT 

54 Hoc iterum secundum signum fecit Jesus, cum venisset a Judaea in Galilaeam.

Annotations

    44. For Jesus himself gave testimony that a prophet hath no honour in his own country. The word for expresses the reason why Jesus left Nazareth, His own city, and went into the other parts of Galilee, because the Nazarenes despised Him as their fellow-citizen, and the son of an artisan.

    45. And when he was come into Galilee, the Galileans received him, having seen all the things he had done at Jerusalem on the festival day; for they also went to the festival day. All the miracles, especially that He alone had cast out all the buyers and sellers from the Temple, as well as the many other signs that He had shown.

    Observe: The Jews, after the many miracles of Christ which they saw, did not believe in His preaching, nor even receive Him. The Galileans, who also saw many miracles, received Him kindly but did not believe in Him. But the Samaritans, although they saw no miracles, received Him, and believed Him to be the Messiah, sent by God for the salvation of the whole world. So those who are without, often receive what those of the household disdain and despise.

    46. He came again therefore into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain ruler, whose son was sick at Capharnaum. 

    a certain ruler. The Latin translator seems to have had in his Greek copies βασιλισκος, i.e., regulus, a little king. The present reading is βασιλικος, i.e., royal, understand counsellor, or public minister, of Herod Antipas; a prefect, or intimate friend of his. The Syriac has, a royal servant: S. Chrysostom says, “because he was of the royal race, or discharged some princely function.” Nonnus says, “he was a courtier, who was over the army.” Origen says, “he was perhaps of the family of Tiberius Cæsar, employed by him in some office of Judea.”

    Capharnaum: it is probable that this nobleman’s son lay ill at Capharnaum, because it was his father’s usual place of abode. And his father, hearing that Jesus, who healed so many sick, was come out of Judea into Cana of Galilee, went thither, to ask of Jesus the healing of his son; as is plain from what follows. The nobleman seems to have been a Jew, not a Gentile, as both S. Jerome and Origen think. We may think so, because he had little faith, and for that reason was reproved by Christ; whereas the Gentiles were prompt to believe, and so were praised by Him, as was the case with the centurion, and the woman of Canaan.

    Some, as Irenæus, think that this nobleman was the same person as the centurion mentioned in Matthew viii. But they were different persons. For the centurion, when Christ was willing to go to him, asked him to remain where he was. But this nobleman asks Christ to come to his sick son. The former came to Christ as He was descending from the mountain to Capharnaum. The nobleman comes to Jesus as He is going into Cana. The boy of the former was sick with palsy; this one’s child was ill with a fever. Christ was all but present when He healed the former this He healed being absent. The one was a servant, the other a son. So S. Chrysostom, Theophylact, and others.

    47. He having heard that Jesus was come from Judea into Galilee, went to him, and prayed him to come down, and heal his son; for he was at the point of death. The nobleman having heard the fame of Christ, that He healed all sick persons whatsoever, proceeded from Capharnaum to Cana, to ask Jesus, who was staying there, to come back with him to Capharnaum, to heal his son. This was a journey of fourteen hours, or leagues, and therefore long and difficult. Wherefore he had little faith in Jesus, says S. Gregory, since he did not think He could save unless He were corporeally present.

    48. Jesus therefore said to him: Unless you see signs and wonders, you believe not. Signs and prodigies mean nearly the same thing. Signs, however, are properly what take place in natural things, and by nature, slowly operating, but which Christ wrought in a moment, and therefore miraculously. Such are the healing of the sick. But prodigies are things which surpass the whole power of nature, as the raising of the dead.

    Christ reproved the small faith of the nobleman, in order that He might sharpen and augment it. As though He said, “Thou and thine hast heard of certain signs and prodigies which I have wrought; still thou believest not that I am the Messiah, unless I do very many more, and that thou thyself mayest behold them with thine eyes.” “He teaches,” says S. Chrysostom, “that it is not His miracles that we are to attend to, but His doctrine. He shows that signs are especially made gracious to the soul; and in this case He heals the father who was labouring under a disease of the mind, no less than the (bodily) disease of the son.” Indeed, He first cures the unbelief, or the imperfection of faith, in the father, and then the fever of the son.

    49. The ruler saith to him: Lord, come down before that my son die. 

    my son, Greek, παιδιον μου, i.e., my little son, meaning, my most beloved, my only delight. “The ruler,” says S. Chrysostom, “being distressed by his son’s affliction, did not pay much attention then to the words of Jesus, but was wholly taken up with the cure. See how he grovels on the earth—Come down, ere my child die—as if Jesus could not raise the dead, or knew not that he had a son.”

    50. Jesus saith to him: Go thy way; thy son liveth. The man believed the word which Jesus said to him, and went his way. “This one word,” saith Rupert, “was a true declaration concerning things present, and a command of life.” For this word of Christ was not only declaratory, but effectual: for it produced that which it declared, namely, the life and healing of the sick. So in the Eucharist, the words, This is My Body, enunciate in such manner that the Body of Christ is there, that they cause It to be there present.

    Moreover, Christ went to the servant of the centurion: He was not willing to go to the son of the ruler, because there was in the centurion confirmed faith, but in the ruler faith was imperfect.

    The man believed the word which Jesus said to him, “The Saviour cured two persons,” says Cyril, “by the same words. He brought the mind of the ruler to believe, and He delivered the youth from bodily disease.”

   51. And as he was going down, his servants met him; and they brought word, saying, that his son lived.  “His servants met him,” says Cyril, “telling of the swiftness and power of the words of Christ, the Lord so ordering that by the sequence of events the faith of the ruler might be confirmed.”

   52. He asked therefore of them the hour wherein he grew better. And they said to him: Yesterday, at the seventh hour, the fever left him.  “He studies to be informed concerning the hour,” says Cyril, “to see if it coincides with the time when the Saviour’s favour was bestowed upon him.”

    Yesterday, at the seventh hour, the fever left him.: this was an hour after noon, when, the child being healed, the servants had immediately set out to tell the glad news to the father. But they could not reach him on the same day. They travelled therefore the rest of that day, and all through the night, and came to him the next morning, for, as we have said, Capharnaum was fourteen leagues or hours distant from Cana.

   53. The father therefore knew, that it was at the same hour that Jesus said to him, Thy son liveth; and himself believed, and his whole house. “From hence we may understand,” says Bede (in Catena), “that there are degrees of faith, as well as of other virtues. There is the beginning, the increase, and the perfection of faith. This man’s faith had its beginning when he asked for his son’s safety: its increase when he believed the word of the Lord saying, Thy son liveth: it was perfected by the announcement of his servants.”

    Moreover, because this nobleman dwelt at Capharnaum, as well as the centurion, we need not doubt that they were friends; and that the centurion through this miracle, which was prior in point of time, conceived so great faith in Christ that he said, “Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under my roof: but only say the word, and my servant shall be healed.” (Matt. viii. 8).

    Tropologically, listen to Theophylact, 

“The little king (regulus) is every man, not only because, according to the soul, he is nigh to the King of all, but because he has assumed dominion over all things. The son is a mind fevered with depraved pleasures and desires. The going down of Christ is His merciful condescension. Christ saith, Go thy way, i.e., show continual progress in good things: then thy son shall live. Otherwise he will die, if thou ceasest to walk (aright).”

    Finally, he was healed at the seventh hour, 1. because, as Origen says, seven is the symbol of the Sabbath, and of rest, in which is health. 2. Because the same number is the symbol of the sevenfold Holy Spirit, in Whom is all salvation.

   54. This is again the second miracle that Jesus did, when he was come out of Judea into Galilee. The word again must be joined with when He was come. Meaning, this was the second miracle which Christ wrought in Cana of Galilee, when again—that is, a second time—He was come thither out of Judea. For the first miracle was the conversion of water into wine, which Christ did, when He came the first time out of Judea into Galilee. He came, therefore, twice out of Judea into Galilee, and illustrated each of His comings by a new miracle. “It is called the second,” says Euthymius, “not because after the first He had done no other miracle in the whole of Palestine (for He had already done many in Judea), but because, after the first, this was (only) the second which He had done in Cana.” John says this, indicating that an abundance of miracles were performed subsequently by Christ in Galilee, which Matthew relates (iv. 23, &c.), and which after this are related by S. John.

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The Vladimirskaya Icon. >12th century.

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen. 

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.