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| No man spoke openly of him, for fear of the Jews. Verse 13. J-J Tissot. Brooklyn Museum. |
12 And there was much murmuring among the multitude concerning him. For some said: He is a good man. And others said: No, but he seduceth the people.
13 Yet no man spoke openly of him, for fear of the Jews.
14 Now about the midst of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple, and taught.
15 And the Jews wondered, saying: How doth this man know letters, having never learned?
16 Jesus answered them, and said: My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.
17 If any man do the will of him; he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.
18 He that speaketh of himself, seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh the glory of him that sent him, but he that seeketh the glory of him that sent him, he is true, and there is no injustice in him.
19 Did Moses not give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law?
20 Why seek you to kill me? The multitude answered, and said: Thou hast a devil; who seeketh to kill thee?
11 οἱ οὖν Ἰουδαῖοι ἐζήτουν αὐτὸν ἐν τῇ ἑορτῇ καὶ ἔλεγον· Ποῦ ἐστιν ἐκεῖνος;
11 Judaei ergo quaerebant eum in die festo, et dicebant : Ubi est ille?
12 καὶ γογγυσμὸς ⸂περὶ αὐτοῦ ἦν πολὺς⸃ ἐν τοῖς ὄχλοις· οἱ μὲν ἔλεγον ὅτι Ἀγαθός ἐστιν, ἄλλοι ⸀δὲ ἔλεγον· Οὔ, ἀλλὰ πλανᾷ τὸν ὄχλον.
12 Et murmur multum erat in turba de eo. Quidam enim dicebant : Quia bonus est. Alii autem dicebant : Non, sed seducit turbas.
13 οὐδεὶς μέντοι παρρησίᾳ ἐλάλει περὶ αὐτοῦ διὰ τὸν φόβον τῶν Ἰουδαίων.
13 Nemo tamen palam loquebatur de illo propter metum Judaeorum.
14 Ἤδη δὲ τῆς ἑορτῆς μεσούσης ⸀ἀνέβη Ἰησοῦς εἰς τὸ ἱερὸν καὶ ἐδίδασκεν.
14 Jam autem die festo mediante, ascendit Jesus in templum, et docebat.
15 ⸂ἐθαύμαζον οὖν⸃ οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι λέγοντες· Πῶς οὗτος γράμματα οἶδεν μὴ μεμαθηκώς;
15 Et mirabantur Judaei, dicentes : Quomodo hic litteras scit, cum non didicerit?
16 ἀπεκρίθη οὖν αὐτοῖς ⸀ὁ Ἰησοῦς καὶ εἶπεν· Ἡ ἐμὴ διδαχὴ οὐκ ἔστιν ἐμὴ ἀλλὰ τοῦ πέμψαντός με·
16 Respondit eis Jesus, et dixit : Mea doctrina non est mea, sed ejus qui misit me.
17 ἐάν τις θέλῃ τὸ θέλημα αὐτοῦ ποιεῖν, γνώσεται περὶ τῆς διδαχῆς πότερον ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ ἐστιν ἢ ἐγὼ ἀπ’ ἐμαυτοῦ λαλῶ.
17 Si quis voluerit voluntatem ejus facere, cognoscet de doctrina, utrum ex Deo sit, an ego a meipso loquar.
18 ὁ ἀφ’ ἑαυτοῦ λαλῶν τὴν δόξαν τὴν ἰδίαν ζητεῖ· ὁ δὲ ζητῶν τὴν δόξαν τοῦ πέμψαντος αὐτὸν οὗτος ἀληθής ἐστιν καὶ ἀδικία ἐν αὐτῷ οὐκ ἔστιν.
18 Qui a semetipso loquitur, gloriam propriam quaerit; qui autem quaerit gloriam ejus qui misit eum, hic verax est, et injustitia in illo non est.
19 Οὐ Μωϋσῆς ⸀δέδωκεν ὑμῖν τὸν νόμον; καὶ οὐδεὶς ἐξ ὑμῶν ποιεῖ τὸν νόμον.
19 Nonne Moyses dedit vobis legem : et nemo ex vobis facit legem?
20 τί με ζητεῖτε ἀποκτεῖναι; ἀπεκρίθη ὁ ⸀ὄχλος· Δαιμόνιον ἔχεις· τίς σε ζητεῖ ἀποκτεῖναι;
20 Quid me quaeritis interficere? Respondit turba, et dixit : Daemonium habes : quis te quaeret interficere?
Annotations
11. The Jews therefore sought him on the festival day, and said: Where is he? S. Chrysostom says that on a feast day they were always disposed to murder, and they endeavoured to catch Him on feast days. And Euthymius, “Admirable work for feast days, in making them occasions for murder; and that on the very day they ought to have been searching for Christ in order to believe on Him, they were aiming only at His death.” And thus in our days many on the feast days on which they ought to be making their peace with God, only offend Him by their gross sins and blaspheming, making their feasts to the devil and not to God; this is the fraud and suggestion of the devil, who takes away the service due to God, and appropriates it to himself.
Where is he?, that impostor, and deceiver of the people? In their extreme wrath, says S. Chrysostom, they could not bear to mention Him by name.
12. And there was much murmuring among the multitude concerning him. He would make Himself the founder of a new faction, and stir up sedition and rebellion.
A good man, nay, a teacher and a prophet; this was the opinion of those who had heard Him teaching, and seen His miracles in Galilee. The contrary was the opinion of the Scribes and Rulers, and the multitude who followed them.
13. Yet no man spoke openly of him, for fear of the Jews, i.e., from fear of the Scribes, Pharisees, and Chief Priests. S. John speaks of them merely as Jews, so as not to derogate from the authority of the Scribes and Priests, and also, as Cyril says, he counted it wrong to term persons so estrayed from holiness, priests or elders. “no man,” i.e., of those who said that Jesus was a good man, says Euthymius; or as S. Augustine says, “They loudly proclaimed, ‘He seduces the people;’ ‘He is a good man,’ they spoke in suppressed whispers.”
14. Now about the midst of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple, and taught. On the fourth or fifth day, for it lasted for eight days.
S. Augustine, Theophylact, and others think that Christ entered Jerusalem and the temple on the same day: for when He came to the city He used first of all to visit the temple, as an act of piety, and many Christians follow his example. On the other hand, Toletus, Maldonatus, and others think that He went up shortly after His kinsfolk, so as to be present at the beginning of the feast, but that He did not enter the temple till the fourth day. This the language of S. John both here and in verse 10 seems to require. And besides Jesus, as a teacher and pattern of religion, wished for the edification of others to keep the whole of this festival. (See Lev. xxiii. 43). Moreover, they were required to erect their booths on the first day of the feast, which Jesus probably did, unless you suppose that He was taken into the booth of a disciple or friend. Coming up secretly in this way on the first day of the feast He ran no risk, unless He entered the temple, which He did not do till the fourth day, remaining hid in a booth for the first three days. His first entry then was in secret, His second was public, the one to keep the feast in the booths outside, and then afterwards to teach in the temple.
But why did He not at once enter the temple? First, as S. Augustine and others reply, in order that the anger of the Scribes and Chief Priests who lived in the temple might cool down. (2.) His remaining concealed was for example’s sake and from His weakness as man, as His coming forth afterwards was a proof of Divine power, says S. Augustine, and Bede after him. (3.) To create in His expectant hearers a greater desire of hearing Him after such delay. (4.) That they might be more free to hear Him, when unemployed in the necessary arrangements for the feast.
and taught, after His own manner, the things which concerned salvation, and led to the kingdom of heaven; and publicly too before the Scribes and Rulers who hated Him. Behold here the nobleness of His mind in intrepidly discharging His office in the midst of danger. For although the anger of the Scribes had somewhat cooled down by the delay of three days, yet it could be easily rekindled by His teaching thus in public. But Jesus nobly despised it, both because He was ready to be killed by them, and also because He knew that God would thwart their designs against Him, because the appointed time of His death had not come. By His three days’ concealment He teaches us prudence, and by His coming forth and preaching openly on the fourth day He gave us a pattern of boldness, to discharge resolutely the duty imposed on us by God, even at the peril of our life, in sure trust that He will either deliver us from danger or give us strength and fortitude to bear and overcome it.
15. And the Jews wondered, saying: How doth this man know letters, having never learned?. “They marvelled,” says Cyril, “when they saw in Him such unheard-of wisdom and power of speech;” for, as Theophylact says, “He spake wondrous words, restraining and changing their minds in a wondrous manner,” so that their fury was changed into love and admiration of Christ. “For they heard Him,” says S. Augustine, “disputing about the law, and adducing its testimony,” and explaining it with such grace and manner as was not human but divine. For, as he adds, “Many knew where He was born, and how brought up, but had never seen Him learning anything.” And hence the Scribes ought to have inferred that His great learning and wisdom had not been acquired by study, but infused by God. But blinded and stupefied by hatred they stand still in wonder, and proceed not to investigate the origin of that which surprises them. So S. Chrysostom. And for this very cause God willed that Jesus should leap up into the chair of learning, not from the schools, but from the carpenter’s trade, to the end that all might acknowledge that His learning was not taught by man but inspired by God.
16. Jesus answered them, and said: My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. My doctrines are not My inventions nor the result of My study. They did not primarily and originally proceed from Me, but from God the Father. He, as I am God, communicated to Me His own omniscience. But, as I am man, He gave and infused into Me His own Blessed knowledge of all things, according to that of Isaiah xi. 2. “The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him,” &c. So S. Chrysostom and others, who observe that in this very way Christ implies that He is God: as if He said, “I together with the Divine Essence have derived all My omniscience and doctrine from the Father.” As S. Augustine says (Tract 29), “What is the doctrine of the Father, but the Word of the Father? Christ Himself, therefore, is the doctrine of the Father, if He is the Word of the Father. But because a Word cannot be of no one, but of some one, He called Himself His own doctrine, and yet not His own, because He is the Word of the Father. For what is so much thine as thyself? and what is so little thine as thyself if thou art from some one else?”
17. If any man do the will of him; he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.. That is, something invented by Me, and therefore disagreeing, or contrary to the will of God. As S. Chrysostom says, “If anybody has love of virtue, he will understand the force of My words that they come from God. For of Him cometh every virtue, of which I am the earnest teacher. For he who loves to observe the commands of God in this matter, will love and observe My Word, because I do not say or do anything contrary to what is pleasing and commanded by God;” tacitly hinting that they loved vice, and therefore were opposed to the teaching both of God and Himself. “Put away,” says Chrysostom, “this doubt, your anger and malice and intense hatred of Me, and nothing will then keep you from acknowledging that My words are those of God. But now these tempers obscure your judgment, and if you put them aside you would think otherwise.”
18. He that speaketh of himself, seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh the glory of him that sent him, but he that seeketh the glory of him that sent him, he is true, and there is no injustice in him. But on the other hand Cyril concludes with, “He who seeks not God’s glory but his own, is a liar, and full of deceit”—a liar, because under pretence of observing the law he puts forth his own will; and full of deceit, because he dares to prefer his own commands to those of God. This then is the second proof that Christ gives, that He speaks not of Himself. Put logically it is thus, He that speaks for Himself seeks his own glory. But I seek not my own glory; therefore I speak not of Myself. Heretics and philosophers teach their own opinions, and call their followers after their own names. For in either case, it is desire for fame which causes heresies and sects.
injustice, that is fraud, craft, deception, for Christ teaches sincerely and truly what he believes will please God and promote His glory, while others seek their own glory, and use flattery and other arts to extort it from men for themselves.
19.-20. Did Moses not give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law? Why seek you to kill me? The primary sense is, no wonder ye do not accept Mine and My Father’s law, since ye keep not the law of Moses, which ye value so much and urge against Me. For it strictly forbids murder (Ex. xxiii.7). So S. Augustine and others. But secondly, F. Lucas thus explains it more profoundly and more closely to the context: “Ye accuse Me of disregarding the law, and breaking the Sabbath by healing the paralytic. But ye equally break it by circumcising a man, which is a longer and more cruel act than healing with a word. Ye are therefore more deserving of death than I am.”
20. The multitude answered, and said: Thou hast a devil; who seeketh to kill thee? That is, Thou art mad as Saul was when possessed with a devil. Or more strictly, it is the devil who instigates Thee to make this false charge of murder against us. We never thought of it. These are the words of the people, some of whom thought well, and others ill of Christ, but yet did not wish to kill Him. But that was the wish of the Scribes and rulers, who mingled with the crowd. Christ therefore glances at them, and openly proclaims their secret plans for killing Him, which were fully known to Him, thus shewing Him to be God.
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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.
The Vladimirskaya Icon. >12th century.
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam.
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