ACC ~ John 7 v1 - 9

OVERVIEW:

Jesus’ journey to the Gentiles should have served as a warning to those who opposed him (CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA). Five months have now passed since the miracle of the loaves, and the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles is near (CHRYSOSTOM). The people would travel to Jerusalem for the festival and set up tents around the city in commemoration of Israel’s sojourn in the wilderness when they had lived in tents (AUGUSTINE). It was a type, pointing toward the time when all the saints who will be gathered from the whole world will come to the heavenly Jerusalem, pitching their tabernacles, that is, their bodies, which are only temporary dwellings as they receive their eternal ones (CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA). Jesus’ brothers want him to go up to the festival in Jerusalem so they can share the limelight with him (THEODORE), demonstrating their own lack of faith and understanding of who he is (TERTULLIAN).

Jesus is not seeking their kind of glory, and so he tells them that his time has not yet come for either that kind of glory or the humility he knew was coming (AUGUSTINE). His brothers chafe at his reproof, much as we do when we are disciplined (CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA). Jesus does not want to reveal himself immediately by going up to the feast publicly, because now was not the time for feasting (APOLLINARIS). He reiterates that his time has not yet come because it was at the next Passover that he would be crucified (CHRYSOSTOM). He also knew that he was inaugurating a perpetual feast that would not be limited to one day (AUGUSTINE).

7:1 | Jesus Avoids Judea

JESUS GOES TO THOSE WHO DO NOT REJECT HIM

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Christ’s departure to the Gentiles served as a message to those who sought to kill him: If they did not cease their mad foolishness of persecuting and destroying their benefactor, Christ would give himself completely to the outsider and depart to the Gentiles. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 4.5. [1]

[1] LF 43:459**.

7:2 | The Feast of Tabernacles

FIVE MONTHS LATER

CHRYSOSTOM: It appears here that a considerable time had passed since the last events. For when our Lord sat upon the mount, it was near the feast of the Passover, and now, it is the Feast of Tabernacles. In the five intermediate months, then, the Evangelist has related nothing but the miracle of the loaves and the conversation with those who ate of them. As our Lord was unceasingly working miracles and holding disputes with people… the Evangelists could not relate all [events] but only aimed at giving those in which complaint or opposition had followed on the part of the Jews, as was the case here. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 48.1. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 14:173**.

THE COMMEMORATION OF THE FEAST

AUGUSTINE: What the Feast of Tabernacles is, we read in the Scriptures. They used to make tents during the festival, like those in which they lived during their journey in the desert, after their departure from Egypt. [1] Tractates on the Gospel of John 28.3. [2]

[1] Lev 23:33-43.

[2] NPNF 1 7:179**.

FEAST OF TABERNACLES AS TYPE

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: The law of Moses commanded that the Jews should hurry to Jerusalem from the surrounding countryside to celebrate there in a type the Feast of Tabernacles. [1] And the spiritual person will from this perceive the gathering together of all the saints into Christ when they shall be brought together from the whole world after the resurrection of the dead to the city that is above, the heavenly Jerusalem, there to offer the thank offerings of the true pitching of tabernacles, that is, of the framing and permanence of bodies, corruption having been destroyed and death fallen into death. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 3.4. [2]

[1] Cyril is here commenting on Jn 6, but his reference to the Feast of Tabernacles instead of the “feast of the Jews” there shows either a textual problem or that he saw the two events as contemporaneous.

[2] LF 43:314*.

7:3 | Jesus’ Brothers Urge Him to Go to Judea

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: His brothers, being led by their human thoughts, spoke these words to him. They wanted him to reveal himself before everybody through his signs so that they might also be glorified through him. They did not possess a perfect faith in him if they believed that he needed to reveal himself completely before everybody concerning the nature hidden in him and that he had to be exalted over everybody. COMMENTARY ON JOHN 3 (7:1-5). [1]

[1] CSCO 4 3:154-55. Augustine understands the brothers to be blood relatives rather than siblings,preserving Mary’s perpetual virginity; see Tractates on the Gospel of John 28.3 (NPNF 1 7:179).

7:4-5 | Jesus’ Brothers Did Not Believe in Him

THE DISRESPECT OF JESUS’ RELATIVES

TERTULLIAN: Jesus was teaching the way of life, preaching the kingdom of God and actively engaged in healing infirmities of body and soul. But all that time, while strangers were keenly interested in him, his closest relatives were absent. By and by they turn up and keep outside, but they do not go in, because they did not think much of what was going on within. They do not even wait, as if they had something that they could contribute more necessary than that which he was so earnestly doing; rather, they prefer to interrupt him and to call him away from his great task. ON THE FLESH OF CHRIST 7. [1]

[1] ANF 3:528*.

7:6 | Jesus’ Response to His Brothers

THE TIME FOR GLORY IS NOT YET COME

AUGUSTINE: They advised him to pursue glory and not allow himself to remain in concealment and obscurity, appealing to altogether worldly and secular motives…. But our Lord was laying down another road to that very exaltation, that is, humility…. “My time,” he says, that is, the time of my glory when I shall come to judge on high is not yet come; but your time, that is, the glory of the world, is always ready…. And let us, who are the Lord’s body, when insulted by the lovers of this world, say, your time is ready: ours is not yet come. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 28.5-7. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 7:180-81**.

7:7 | The World Hates Jesus

REPROOF NATURALLY BRINGS HATRED

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: The Savior very kindly reproves his brothers who are still too worldly-minded and disposed. And so, he brings forward a second skillful defense whereby he shows not only that they are ignorant of who he is by nature but that they are still so far removed from love toward him that they choose to live in a way conformed to those who admire living in the world instead of cultivating virtue…. [He says to them]: The world does not hate you (for you still savor that which is of it), but it hates me, nor does it take kindly to its being accused by me for its unseemly actions. Therefore, you go up safely to the feast, but I will not because I shall surely dispute with them and, being present, tell them what is for their own good. However, reproof is bitter to lovers of pleasure and good for kindling wrath in the one that receives it without a sober mind….

For the world loves sin. The Lord is a corrector of those who do not act rightly. And correction must often be attained by reproof. For the mere calling of a sin a sin is already a rebuke to those who love that sin, and the reproof of iniquity already lays blame on those who have that iniquity. And so, when necessity calls for the teacher to administer reproof, and the mode of cure requires it to happen in this way, and the one being instructed by such a rebuke against his will is exceedingly angry, then the ills of hatred must surely arise. Therefore, the Savior says that he is hated by the world in that it cannot yet bear exhortation with rebuke when it really needs to do so in order to profit from it. For the mind that is in bondage to evil pleasures gets quite angry with the advice that would persuade it to shape up. And the Savior says these things, not altogether saying that he will not go to Jerusalem or refusing to give the reproofs that may be profitable to the sinners, but minded to do this too and everything else at the proper time. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 4.5. [1]

[1] LF 43:463-64**.

7:8-9 | Jesus Declined to Go to the Festival

NOT YET TIME FOR FEASTING

APOLLINARIS OF LAODICEA: The one who blesses those who mourn because of the present age now utters similar words, saying with reference to himself something that is common to all the saints and pertains to them: It is not the time for us to feast in the middle of the present tribulations, insofar as evil still wages war and truth is rejected by the majority of people and the will of God does not hold sway on earth. For these reasons our Lord said that it was not yet his time. For the good one could not feast with the wicked, nor could he who was hated dine with those who hated him. FRAGMENTS ON JOHN 32. [1]

[1] JKGK 14. See also Ammonius Fragments on John 242 (JKGK 257).

THE NEXT PASSOVER IS HIS TIME

CHRYSOSTOM: “My time is not yet fully come.” It was at the next Passover that he was to be crucified. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 48.2. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 14:174*.

THE TIME OF HIS GLORY

AUGUSTINE: Or, “my time,” that is, the time of my glory is not yet come. That will be my feast day, not a day that passes and is gone, like holidays here. Rather, it will be a feast that remains forever. At that time there will be festivity, joy without end, eternity without stain, sunshine without cloud. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 28.8. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 7:181**.