ACC ~ John 20 v31

JOHN FORESAW HERESIES

IRENAEUS: The Gospel knew no other Son of man but him who was of Mary, who also suffered. There was no Christ who flew away from Jesus before the passion. The Gospel knew about him who was born as Jesus Christ the Son of God and that this same person suffered and rose again, as John, the disciple of the Lord verifies, saying, “But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.” [He foresaw] blasphemous systems that divide the Lord, as far as lies in their power, saying that he was formed of two different substances. AGAINST HERESIES 3.16.5. [1]

[1] ANF 1:442*.

THE REASON FOR THE GOSPEL ACCOUNT

TERTULLIAN: Why does this Gospel, at its very termination, intimate that these things were ever written unless, to use its own words, it is so “that you might believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God”? Whenever, therefore, you take any of the statements of this Gospel and apply them to demonstrate the identity of the Father and the Son, supposing that they serve your views there, you are contending against the definite purpose of the Gospel. For these things certainly are not written that you may believe that Jesus Christ is the Father but the Son. AGAINST PRAXEAS 25. [1]

[1] TTAP 170**.

WHAT IS TRUE FAITH?

HILARY OF POITIERS: The one reason that he alleges for writing his Gospel is that all may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. If it is sufficient for salvation to believe that he is the Christ, why does he add “the Son of God”? But if the true faith is nothing less than the belief that Christ is not merely Christ but Christ the Son of God, then assuredly the name of Son is not attached to Christ as a customary appendage due to adoption, seeing that it is essential to salvation. If then, salvation consists in the confession of the name, must not the name express the truth? If the name expresses the truth, by what authority can he be called a creature? It is not the confession of a creature but the confession of the Son that shall give us salvation. To believe, therefore, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God is true salvation, is the acceptable service of an unfeigned faith. For we have no love within us toward God the Father except through faith in the Son. ON THE TRINITY 6.41-42. [1]

[1] NPNF 2 9:113*.

JESUS IS LIFE

CHRYSOSTOM: He speaks in general to humankind, showing that it is not the one who we believe in but on ourselves that he bestows a very great favor “in his name,” that is, “through him.” For he is the Life. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 87.2. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 14:328*.

AN ENDING AND A PREFACE

AUGUSTINE: This paragraph indicates, as it were, the end of the book. But afterward, there is still the account of how the Lord manifested himself at the sea of Tiberias and in the draught of fishes where special reference is made to the mystery of the church and its future character in the final resurrection of the dead. I think, therefore, it is arranged in this way in order to give special prominence to the fact that the end of the book has, as it were, been interposed, and that this ending was meant to be a kind of preface to the narrative that was to follow, in order in some measure to give it a position of greater eminence. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 122.1. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 7:439**.