ACC ~ John 17 v8

THEY KEPT THE WORDS JESUS TAUGHT

CHRYSOSTOM: And from where have they learned? They have learned from my words, … for I taught them that I came forth from you. For this was what he has been anxious to prove throughout the whole of the Gospel. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 81.1. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 14:300**.

JESUS ANTICIPATES THE DISCIPLES’ CONFIDENT FAITH

AUGUSTINE: He says, “They have received them,” that is, they have understood and remembered his words. For a word is received when the mind perceives it. Then he adds, “And they have known truly that I came out from you, and they have believed that you sent me.”… What they truly believed was what they truly knew, just as “I came out from you” is the same as “You sent me.” And, so that no one might imagine that that knowledge was one of sight and not of faith, he adds, “And they have [truly] [1] believed that you did send me.” They truly believed, that is, not as he said they believed when he spoke earlier … when they were afraid of being scattered and would desert him, [2] but truly, that is, how they would soon believe [in the future]—firmly, steadily, unwaveringly, never again to be scattered to their own people while leaving Christ behind. The disciples as yet were not the way he describes them to be here in the past tense, but it was how they would be when they had received the Holy Spirit, who would teach them all things. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 106.6. [3]

[1] “Truly” is understood, Augustine says.

[2] Jn 16:31-32.

[3] NPNF 1 7:401**; CCL 36:612-13.

HOW THE FATHER GAVE HIS WORDS

AUGUSTINE: The question of how the Father gave those words to the Son is easier to solve if we suppose him to have received them from the Father as Son of man. … But if we understand it to be as the Begotten of the Father that he received them, let there be no time supposed previous to his having them, as if he once existed without those words. For whatever God the Father gave God the Son, he gave in the act of begetting. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 106.7. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 7:402**; CCL 36:612-13.