St John Chapter vii : Verses 1-10
 |
| He would not walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill him. J-J Tissot. Brooklyn Museum. |
2 Now the Jews' feast of tabernacles was at hand.
3 And his brethren said to him: Pass from hence, and go into Judea; that thy disciples also may see thy works which thou dost.
4 For there is no man that doth any thing in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou do these things, manifest thyself to the world.
5 For neither did his brethren believe in him.
6 Then Jesus said to them: My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready.
7 The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth: because I give testimony of it, that the works thereof are evil.
8 Go you up to this festival day, but I go not up to this festival day: because my time is not accomplished.
9 When he had said these things, he himself stayed in Galilee.
10 But after his brethren were gone up, then he also went up to the feast, not openly, but, as it were, in secret.
1 Καὶ ⸂μετὰ ταῦτα περιεπάτει ὁ Ἰησοῦς⸃ ἐν τῇ Γαλιλαίᾳ, οὐ γὰρ ἤθελεν ἐν τῇ Ἰουδαίᾳ περιπατεῖν, ὅτι ἐζήτουν αὐτὸν οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι ἀποκτεῖναι.
1 Post haec autem ambulabat Jesus in Galilaeam : non enim volebat in Judaeam ambulare, quia quaerebant eum Judaei interficere.
2 ἦν δὲ ἐγγὺς ἡ ἑορτὴ τῶν Ἰουδαίων ἡ σκηνοπηγία.
2 Erat autem in proximo dies festus Judaeorum, Scenopegia.
3 εἶπον οὖν πρὸς αὐτὸν οἱ ἀδελφοὶ αὐτοῦ· Μετάβηθι ἐντεῦθεν καὶ ὕπαγε εἰς τὴν Ἰουδαίαν, ἵνα καὶ οἱ μαθηταί σου ⸀θεωρήσουσιν ⸂σοῦ τὰ ἔργα⸃ ἃ ποιεῖς·
3 Dixerunt autem ad eum fratres ejus : Transi hinc, et vade in Judaeam, ut et discipuli tui videant opera tua, quae facis.
4 οὐδεὶς γάρ ⸂τι ἐν κρυπτῷ⸃ ποιεῖ καὶ ζητεῖ αὐτὸς ἐν παρρησίᾳ εἶναι· εἰ ταῦτα ποιεῖς, φανέρωσον σεαυτὸν τῷ κόσμῳ.
4 Nemo quippe in occulto quid facit, et quaerit ipse in palam esse : si haec facis, manifesta teipsum mundo.
5 οὐδὲ γὰρ οἱ ἀδελφοὶ αὐτοῦ ἐπίστευον εἰς αὐτόν.
5 Neque enim fratres ejus credebant in eum.
6 λέγει οὖν αὐτοῖς ὁ Ἰησοῦς· Ὁ καιρὸς ὁ ἐμὸς οὔπω πάρεστιν, ὁ δὲ καιρὸς ὁ ὑμέτερος πάντοτέ ἐστιν ἕτοιμος.
6 Dicit ergo eis Jesus : Tempus meum nondum advenit : tempus autem vestrum semper est paratum.
7 οὐ δύναται ὁ κόσμος μισεῖν ὑμᾶς, ἐμὲ δὲ μισεῖ, ὅτι ἐγὼ μαρτυρῶ περὶ αὐτοῦ ὅτι τὰ ἔργα αὐτοῦ πονηρά ἐστιν.
7 Non potest mundus odisse vos : me autem odit, quia ego testimonium perhibeo de illo quod opera ejus mala sunt.
8 ὑμεῖς ἀνάβητε εἰς τὴν ⸀ἑορτήν· ἐγὼ ⸀οὐκ ἀναβαίνω εἰς τὴν ἑορτὴν ταύτην, ὅτι ὁ ⸂ἐμὸς καιρὸς⸃ οὔπω πεπλήρωται.
8 Vos ascendite ad diem festum hunc, ego autem non ascendo ad diem festum istum : quia meum tempus nondum impletum est.
9 ταῦτα ⸀δὲ εἰπὼν ⸀αὐτὸς ἔμεινεν ἐν τῇ Γαλιλαίᾳ.
9 Haec cum dixisset, ipse mansit in Galilaea.
10 Ὡς δὲ ἀνέβησαν οἱ ἀδελφοὶ αὐτοῦ ⸂εἰς τὴν ἑορτήν, τότε καὶ αὐτὸς ἀνέβη⸃, οὐ φανερῶς ἀλλὰ ὡς ἐν κρυπτῷ.
10 Ut autem ascenderunt fratres ejus, tunc et ipse ascendit ad diem festum non manifeste, sed quasi in occulto.
Annotations
1. After these things Jesus walked in Galilee; for he would not walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill him. Not immediately, but about six months after. The incidents of the former chapter took place in March, the feast of tabernacles was in September. But Christ lived six months after this, to the following March. All which follows Christ said and did in the last months of His life. S. John then omits here the events of these six months, amongst which are the defence of the disciples for eating with unwashed hands; the healing of the daughter of the Canaanitish woman; St. Peter’s testimony, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God, for which He was constituted the head of the Church; the paying the tribute-money; His reproof of the Apostles for disputing who was the greatest, &c. For all this which S. John omits had been recorded by the other Evangelists.
Jesus walked in Galilee. He was already in Galilee, but it means He went to and fro in Galilee, preaching the kingdom of God.
for he would not walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill him, because He kept not the Sabbath, as the Jews did, but healed the sick on that day, and called God His father, and consequently asserted that He Himself was God (see chap. v. 18). It appears that Jesus did not go up to Jerusalem at either the Passover or Pentecost of this year. And this because He knew the death that was devised against Him, before His appointed time; not because He feared the Jews, or dreaded death, but to set us an example of flying from our persecutors, till God otherwise reveals, and delivers us into their hands, as S. Athanasius did. (So say S. Augustine and others.)
2. Now the Jews' feast of tabernacles was at hand. They kept it for seven days, living in booths, hastily constructed of branches of trees, in memory of the forty years’ wandering in the wilderness. The Syriac version for Scenopegia [σκηνοπηγία] reads Conopea quite wrongly. For these were mosquito curtains, not booths. Abulensis (in Lev. xxiii. 34) gives a most erroneous derivation of σκηνοπηγία, and Plutarch from not knowing Hebrew was equally wrong in regarding this feast as merely a Bacchanalian orgy, mistaking also the meaning of Sabbath.
3. And his brethren said to him: Not the sons of Joseph, as Leontius, Cyril, and Euthymius supposed, for both Joseph and Mary remained virgins; nor yet James and John, as Chrysostom thinks, for they were Apostles already, but kinsmen of the Blessed Virgin, or even of Joseph (see S. Luke, chap. iii. ad fin.) Some, that is, of His kinsfolk, not all; for some believed in Him, some not.
Pass from hence, and go into Judea. From Galilee and the ignoble Capharnaum to the coming feast of tabernacles, to make Thyself known to them by Thy doctrine and miracles. They wish to draw Him away from Galilee, to be known and renowned at Jerusalem.
that thy disciples also may see thy works which thou dost. Thou. O Jesus, our kinsman, art performing wondrous works in a corner of Galilee, before Thy few and poor disciples in Galilee, come with us to Jerusalem, and work similar works there; that Thy disciples, whom Thou hast there obtained by Thy preaching, and wilt hereafter gain by Thy miracles, not from the people only, but also from the Priests, Scribes, and chiefs of the people, may be instructed or confirmed in Thy faith, and receive thee as a Prophet and the Messiah. For they wished that Christ should come especially to their notice, that the chief rulers should proclaim Jesus to be the Messiah, and propose Him as such for the reception of the people. For it was theirs to decide about the faith, the prophets, and the Messiah, and what they decided that the people followed and did.
4. For there is no man that doth any thing in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known openly. Εν παρρησὶα properly means to be at liberty; but here, as opposed to “secretly,” it means “openly” (see John v.13; xvi. 25, 29; xviii. 20; and S. Mark viii. 32). So Maldonatus and others.
If thou do these things, manifest thyself to the world. “If” does not imply doubt, but means assertion, and is the same as “since.” Since Thou doest such great and wondrous works in Galilee, do the same in Jerusalem, that there all Israel, and from them the whole world, may know who Thou art, and what dignity, power, and virtue Thou hast received from the Father. For as Raphael saith, “For it is good to hide the secret of a king: but honourable to reveal and confess the works of God.” (Tob. xii. 7). They make the praise of Christ and the glory of God a cloak for their own covetousness and ambition: for they wished that as Christ became renowned by the fame of His miracles, they as His kinsman might become renowned, and honoured by the people, and be loaded with gifts: and might, moreover, secure the favour of the rulers and priests, and then, as they hoped, rise to high offices in the state. Just as when one is made Pope, or Cardinal, or Bishop, his kinsfolk at once flock about him, to gain through him honours and wealth. For “all seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christ.”
5. For neither did his brethren believe in him. They so freely and boldly urged Jesus to come with them to Jerusalem, because they did not fully believe that He was the Christ. For had they believed it, they would not have dared to speak to Him so freely. So says Euthymius. For though they saw Him work so many miracles, and did not doubt their truth, yet they doubt whether He were the Messiah and the Son of God. For though they wished it to be true, and partly believed it on account of His many miracles, yet on the other hand they doubted when they saw Him so poor and despised. To make certain they urge Christ to go with them to Jerusalem, where the Scribes and Priests could, on examination had, declare Him to be the Christ, and thus He, and they through Him, might gain honour and celebrity.
6. Then Jesus said to them: My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready. My time is appointed of the Father, but it must be put off for a few days, through the hatred with which the Jews pursue me. For this reason I will go up in a few days, but with secrecy. But do ye go first, for any time is fitting and appropriate for you. I will follow you secretly. (See Jansenius, F. Lucas, and others.)
On the other hand, S. Chrysostom and others (see Maldonatus) consider that the time spoken of is the time of His death, which had not yet come. The first meaning is the best.
7. The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth: because I give testimony of it, that the works thereof are evil. You (my kinsmen) can go at any time to Jerusalem without risk, because ye do not oppose the Scribes, but rather favour, and pay them court. But I, if I go up openly with you, put Myself in manifest peril of My life. So S. Cyril, who also adds the reason, “For a mind given to pleasures, greatly resents being called away from them;” for the Scribes were unwilling to abandon their pleasures, their luxuries, their injustice, and therefore hated Christ, who wished to draw them away from them, as the wise man says (Let us therefore lie in wait for the just, because he is not for our turn, and he is contrary to our doings, and upbraideth us with transgressions of the law, and divulgeth against us the sins of our way of life. Wisdom ii. 12).
8. Go you up to this festival day, For ye have no danger to fear (says Euthymius).
but I go not up to this festival day: because my time is not accomplished. I am waiting for the anger of the Scribes to subside. For they are looking out for Me to kill Me at the beginning of the feast, but after three days I shall come up secretly and with less danger by myself. For it is clear from verse 10 that He came up a little while after. It is probable that Christ said, as the Vulgate reads, “I go not up,” for had he said, “I go not up yet,” his kinsmen would have proposed to wait for Him. But Christ’s meaning was, I go not up yet, though He did not say so to His kinsmen, to relieve their vexation. Secondly, S. Augustine and Cyril explain “I go not up on this first day of the Feast, but afterwards on the fourth day.” But the truer view is that He determined to go up on the first day (see on ver. 14). Maldonatus explains, “I go not up as ye wish and suppose, as a mere man to be honoured and followed by the people. But I shall soon go up thither as the Messiah and Son of God to teach them the way of salvation, and thus seek, to extend His glory and not My own. But this seems somewhat forced.
9.-10. When he had said these things, he himself stayed in Galilee. But after his brethren were gone up, then he also went up to the feast, not openly, but, as it were, in secret. Christ appears not to have taken the straight road through Samaria, but to have crossed the Jordan, and after dismissing the multitudes, to have gone up to Jerusalem, with a few of His favoured disciples, in secret (see Matt. xix.1, 2; Luke ix. 51, 53; Mark ix. 29, x. 1).
+ + +
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment