ACC ~ John 7 v10 - 23

OVERVIEW:

Once we understand the significance of the Feast of Tabernacles, we are able to see how Jesus fulfills this feast when he secretly goes up to Jerusalem (AUGUSTINE). He went in secret so as not to disclose his divinity and to show us how to deal with our persecutors (CHRYSOSTOM). While some acknowledged his goodness, others thought he sought to seduce the people. But even if such a charge were true, he was seeking to draw them from evil to good—something worthy of imitation (AUGUSTINE). The ordinary people in the crowd were sound in their judgment, seeing Christ’s goodness, while the rulers judge him to be a deceiver (CHRYSOSTOM). Instead of leading their people to follow the commands of God, the Jewish leaders lead them astray in opposing Christ and thus bear a great responsibility (CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA). Jesus was able to gain their grudging admiration (CHRYSOSTOM), although they wondered where he received his education (AUGUSTINE) with no acknowledgment of his divine origin (CHRYSOSTOM).

Christ did not have to learn doctrine because, as God, doctrine spoke of him (AMBROSE). As the Word of the Father and his Wisdom, Christ speaks both those things that are his and those that belong to the Father (AUGUSTINE). His teaching belongs to the Father because it is exactly like his and, as the Wisdom of the Father, the Father speaks through him. He shows in himself that those who do the Father’s will are truly the ones who know his teaching (CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA).

As its author, Jesus is not teaching anything foreign to the law but is rather transforming the law from the coarse shadow of the letter to its more profitable spiritual sense (CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA). Therefore he cannot be accused of diverting attention from God to himself since his words themselves show he is in agreement with the Father. Those who seek to kill Jesus, however, are breaking the law against murder (THEODORE). They, however, change the subject, accusing the one who cast out demons of having a demon (AUGUSTINE). Even though he was the creator of all that they saw, including the sabbath, they chose to condemn him because he healed on the sabbath (AUGUSTINE). In fact, those who are the strictest observers of the law would make even Moses a breaker of his own law (THEODORE). The purpose of the sabbath, however, was to free us, not enslave us (CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA).Those who condemn Jesus for healing on the sabbath effectively condemn themselves since they also performed healings of a sort when they circumcised on the sabbath according to God’s command revealed through Moses (JUSTIN, IRENAEUS).

7:10 | Jesus Went to the Feast of Tabernacles in Secret

HOW HIS CONCEALMENT WAS PREFIGURED IN EGYPT

AUGUSTINE: Let us examine, then, what thing to come was foreshadowed in this feast day. I have explained what this Feast of Tabernacles was. It was a celebration of tabernacles because the people, after their deliverance from Egypt wandered through the wilderness on their way to the promised land dwelling in tents. As we begin to observe what this feast is, we will see how it applies to us if we are members of Christ —but we are, he having made us worthy, not we having earned it for ourselves. Let us then consider ourselves, brothers: We have been led out of Egypt, where we were slaves to the devil as to Pharaoh, where we applied ourselves to works of clay, engaged in earthly desires and worked exceedingly hard. And, while laboring, as it were, at the bricks, Christ cried aloud to us, “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden.” [1] From there we were led out by baptism as through the Red Sea—red because it is consecrated by the blood of Christ. All our enemies that pursued us were dead, that is, all our sins were blotted out, and we have been brought over to the other side.

At the present time, then, before we come to the land of promise, namely, the eternal kingdom, we are in the wilderness in tabernacles. Those who acknowledge these things are in tabernacles; for it was destined that some would acknowledge this. That person who understands that he is a stranger in this world is, as it were, in a tabernacle. That person understands that he is traveling in a foreign country when he sees himself sighing for his native land. But while the body of Christ is in tabernacles, Christ is in tabernacles. But at that time he was so secretly and not out in the open. For as yet the shadow obscured the light. When the light came, the shadow was removed. Christ was in secret: he was there in the feast of tabernacles, but hidden. At the present time, when these things are already made known, we acknowledge that we are journeying in the wilderness. If we recognize it, then we are in the wilderness.

What is it to be in the wilderness? It is to be in the desert wasteland. Why in the desert wasteland? Because it means we are in this world, where we thirst in a way in which there is no water [to satisfy]. Yet, let us thirst that we may be filled. For “blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.” [2] And our thirst is quenched from the rock in the wilderness. For “the Rock was Christ,” and it was struck with a rod so that the water might flow. But that it might flow, the rock was struck twice, suggesting the two beams of the cross. [3] All these things, then, that were once done in a figure are now made known to us. And it is not without meaning that it was said of the Lord, “He went up to the feast day, but not openly, but as it were in secret.” For himself being in secret was what was prefigured because Christ was hid in that same festal day. For that very festal day signified Christ’s members that were to sojourn in a foreign land. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 28.9. [4]

[1] See Mt 11:28.

[2] Mt 5:6.

[3] See 1 Cor 10:4; Num 20:11.

[4] NPNF 1 7:181-82*.

THE CONSTRAINED ECONOMY OF REVELATION

CHRYSOSTOM: He goes up, not to suffer, but to teach. But why does he go up secretly? If he had gone up openly, he would not only have been among them, but also would have kept the violence and impetuosity [of the Jews] in check, as he had often done before. But he couldn’t keep doing this all the time, because if he had gone up openly and again blinded them, he would have disclosed his divinity to a greater degree which, for the moment, he did not want to do. And so he concealed it…. The things that Christ did in a human way were done, in other words, not only to establish the fact of his incarnation, but also to educate us on how to be virtuous. For if he had done everything as God, how would we know what to do when things happened to us that we didn’t want to have happen? HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 48.2, 49.1. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 14:174, 176**.

7:12 | Either a Good Man or a Deceiver

CHRIST’S TREATMENT IS CONSOLATION FOR CHRISTIANS

AUGUSTINE: Whoever had any spark of grace said, “He is a good man.”… The rest say, “No, he seduces the people.” That something like this was said of him who was God is a consolation to any Christian of whom the same may be said. If to seduce is to deceive, Christ was not a seducer, nor can any Christian be. But if by seducing you mean bringing a person by persuasion out of one way of thinking into another, then we must inquire what the way of thinking is that you are calling them from and to. If from good to evil, the seducer is an evil person; if from evil to good, he is a good one. If only we were all called, and really were, that sort of seducers! TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 28.11. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 7:182**.

LEADERS VERSUS THE COMMON PEOPLE

CHRYSOSTOM: The former, I think, was the opinion of the multitude, the one, that is, who pronounced him a good man. The latter is the opinion of the priests and rulers, as is shown by their saying, “He deceives the people” not “He deceives us.”… Observe that the corruption is in the rulers. The common people are sound in their judgment but do not have freedom of speech, as is generally the case. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 49.1. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 14:176**. On the goodness of Christ in comparison, see Ambrose On the Christian Faith 2.2.29.

7:13 | People Fear the Jewish Leaders

THOSE WHO LEAD OTHERS ASTRAY

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: If a skilled horseman—who is able to control even the swiftest team of horses with checks of the reins and directs them wherever he likes—if he were to dash the carriage wheels against a stone, the blame would not fall on the horses but on their driver. In a similar manner, I suppose, the rulers of the Jews, who are not only honored by their people but are served and feared by them as well, if they manage their people contrary to the divine commandments, then it is they who will justly bear the responsibility for the loss of all. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 4.5. [1]

[1] LF 43:473**.

7:14-15 | The Jews Marvel and Are Suspicious of Jesus’ Teaching

HIS TEACHING AFFECTS HIS ACCUSERS

CHRYSOSTOM: The Evangelist does not say what his teaching is. That it was very wonderful, however, is shown by its effect even on those who had accused him of deceiving the people, those who turned round and began to admire him. And the Jews marveled, saying, “How is this man so learned when he has never been instructed?” See how perverse they are even in their admiration. It is not his doctrine they admire, but another thing altogether. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 49.1. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 14:177*.

WHERE DID JESUS’ LEARNING COME FROM?

AUGUSTINE: All, it would appear, admired, but all were not converted. Where then did the admiration come from? Many knew where he was born and how he had been educated but had never seen him learning letters. Yet now they heard him disputing on the law and bringing forward its testimonies. No one could do this who had not read the law; no one could read who had not learned letters; and this raised their wonder. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 29.2. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 7:183**.

NO ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF DIVINE ORIGIN

CHRYSOSTOM: Their wonder might have led them to infer that our Lord became possessed of this learning in some divine way and not by any human process. But they would not acknowledge this and contented themselves with wondering. So our Lord repeated it to them when he answered them and said, “My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.” HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 49.1. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 14:177*.

7:16 | Jesus’ Teaching Comes from God

JESUS TEACHES LIKE GOD

AMBROSE: Doctrine that is of God, then, is one thing; doctrine that is human is another. So when the Jews, regarding him as man, called into question his teaching and said, “How does this man have such learning when he has never been taught?” Jesus answered and said, “My teaching is not mine.” For in teaching without elegance of letters, he seems to teach not as [a] man but rather as God who, instead of learning his doctrine, originated it. For he has found and devised the entire way of discipline, as we have read above, inasmuch as of the Son of God it has been said, “This is our God; no other can be compared with him. He has uncovered the whole way of knowledge and shown it to his servant Jacob and to Israel, whom he loved. Only then did [Wisdom] appear on earth and live among human beings.” [1] How, then, could he, as divine, not have his own doctrine—he who has found the entire way of discipline before he was even seen on earth? ON THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 2.9.79-80. [2]

[1] Bar 3:35-37.

[2] NPNF 2 10:234*.

WORD OF THE FATHER NOT “FROM HIMSELF,” HUMANLY SPEAKING

AUGUSTINE: “My doctrine,” he says, “is not mine, but his that sent me.” This is the first profundity. For he seems as if in a few words to have spoken contrary things. For he does not say, “This doctrine is not mine” but “My doctrine is not mine.” If it is not yours, then how is it yours? If it is yours, then how is it not yours? For you say both “my doctrine” and “not mine.” For if he had said this doctrine is not mine, there would have been no question…. The subject of inquiry, then, is that which he says: “My, not mine.” This appears to be contrary. What does he mean by “my” and “not mine”? If we carefully look at what the holy Evangelist himself says in the beginning of his Gospel, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” this is where the solution of this question hangs. What then is the doctrine of the Father, but the Father’s Word? Therefore, Christ himself is the doctrine of the Father, if he is the Word of the Father. But since the Word cannot be of no one but [must be] of someone, he said both “his doctrine,” namely, himself, and also “not his own” because he is the Word of the Father. For what is so much “yours” as “yourself”? And what is so much not yours as yourself, if what you are is of another?… Therefore, to speak briefly, beloved, it seems to me that the Lord Jesus Christ said, “My doctrine is not mine,” meaning the same thing as if he said, “I am not from myself.” TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 29.3, 5. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 7:183-84*.

JESUS IS THE WISDOM OF THE FATHER

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Jesus says that his teaching belongs to God the Father either because Jesus’ teaching is exactly like that of God the Father or because Jesus himself is the wisdom of the Father, through which the Father speaks and orders all things. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 4.5. [1]

[1] LF 43:478**. Chrysostom makes the same point. See Homilies on the Gospel of John 49.2 (NPNF 1 14:177).

7:17 | One Who Does God’s Will Knows His Teaching

THOSE WHO DO THE FATHER’S WILL KNOW HIS TEACHING

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: He tells them, You will fully know that “my doctrine” comes from God the Father when you choose to follow his will rather than your own…. He justly accuses them because they unreasonably mock what he teaches, even though God the Father consents and agrees with what he is teaching, and (what is also true) even co-teaches and co-interprets [with Jesus]… No person of sound mind would ever think that Jesus here casts aspersions on his own words. Rather, he is saying that his words will never be anything other than in agreement with the will of God the Father. For the Father speaks by his own Word and Wisdom and offspring. But that [offspring] in no way speaks differently from the [Father]. How could it? COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 4.5. [1]

[1] LF 43:479*.

7:18 | Seeking One’s Own Glory

JESUS TRANSFORMS THE LAW

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: The fact that Jesus does not teach anything foreign to the law is clear proof that he does not labor for his own glory through his teaching, for if he did, he would speak of himself. Rather, he is exhorting them to be obedient to the former prophecies while he removes only the unprofitable and coarse shadow of the letter and transforms it persuasively into the spiritual sense, which already lay hidden in types. Here, Christ intimates what he says in the Gospel according to Matthew, “I came not to destroy the law but to fulfill it.” [1] COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 4.5. [2]

[1] See Mt 5:17.

[2] LF 43:479-80**.

MY WORDS LEAD YOU TO GOD

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: If, he says, I wanted to avert you from God and draw you to me, it would have been evident that I was teaching you a doctrine contrary to God. But since I lead you to him through my words, it is clear and evident that these words that are said to you are just and that those who want to reprove them as sinful words have no reason to do so. COMMENTARY ON JOHN 3.7.18. [1]

[1] CSCO 4 3:157.

7:19 | The Law Given by Moses

JESUS ACCUSES THE JEWS OF VIOLATING THE LAW

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: If, he says, you really defend the law of Moses, prove to me that you actually preserve it, and tell me why you want to kill me: this is contrary to the law more than any other violation. COMMENTARY ON JOHN 3.7.18. [1]

[1] CSCO 4 3:157-58.

7:20 | The People’s Answer

CHRIST IS THE CENTER OF THE LAW

AUGUSTINE: The people return an answer quite distant from the subject, only showing their angry feelings…. He who cast out devils was told that he had a devil…. Our Lord, however, in no way disturbed but retaining all the serenity of truth, returned not evil for evil or railing for railing. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 30.2-3. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 7:186**.

7:21 | Jesus’ Response

WHAT IF YOU SAW ALL MY WORKS?

AUGUSTINE: For all that they saw going on in the world was of his working, but they did not see him who made all things. But he did one thing—he made a man whole on the sabbath day—and they were all in commotion. They almost seem to imply that if any one of them had recovered from a disease on the sabbath, it was someone else who had made them well rather than he who had offended them by making one man whole on the sabbath. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 30.3. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 7:186*.

7:22-23 | Circumcision on the Sabbath

CIRCUMCISION ON THE SABBATH ALSO VIOLATES THE LAW

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: Jesus then employs a very convincing argument: Moses, he says, established circumcision and the sabbath and ordered that men were to be circumcised on the sabbath. But Moses established the sabbath out of convenience. Indeed, at that time nobody observed it…. He also established circumcision needlessly because it had been already established by the patriarchs. But he established this rule [about circumcision] too, in order to teach that this observance [of the sabbath] does not exist when there are cases of necessity and that sometimes it must be broken. If the sabbath can be broken for circumcision, because Moses ordered it so—and this is not considered to be a violation of the law—why then do you think the fact that a man was healed on the sabbath is a violation of the law? And, he added, making them ashamed: “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” If a transgressor of the law is one who performs something on the sabbath, the first one to be blamed should be Moses. But if Moses is not considered to be a transgressor of the law, my action is the more excellent and I am even more above reproach. COMMENTARY ON JOHN 3.7.21-24. [1]

[1] CSCO 4 3:158.

NO LONGER SLAVES TO THE SABBATH

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Many sources in Scripture tell us that we should do no work on the sabbath. We are to rest as it were and quit doing all those tasks that invite sweat and labor. For he says in Exodus, “Six years you shall sow your land and gather in the fruit, but in the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie still.” [1] … Now, it is not the land—which does not even know what work is—that he releases; nor is it to the land that he gives this law. It was given to those who possessed the land. He gave rest to the land so that they would not work on it. In this and many other ways he pointed toward our feast with Christ, a feast in which those who have lived in divine fear will hurry toward that perfect and complete liberty that is in holiness and will run to that most wealthy grace of the Spirit. This is clear in the commands themselves of Moses. It is written, “If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you, he shall serve you six years, and in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you.” [2] We, who were originally slaves to sin, had, after a fashion, sold ourselves to the devil by taking pleasure in evil. But now, being justified in Christ through faith, we shall mount up to the true and holy keeping of the sabbath, clothed with the liberty that comes through grace and glorified with the good things of God. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 4.6. [3]

[1] Ex 23:10-11. See also Lev 25:2-4.

[2] Deut 15:12.

[3] LF 43:496-97**.

CIRCUMCISION ON THE SABBATH IS NO SIN

JUSTIN MARTYR: Tell me, did God want the priests to sin when they offer the sacrifices on the sabbath? Or did he want those to sin who are circumcised and do circumcise on the sabbaths, since he commands that on the eighth day—even though it happens to be a sabbath—those who are born shall always be circumcised? Or could not the infants be operated upon one day previous or one day subsequent to the sabbath, if he knew that it is a sinful act on the sabbaths? Or why did he not teach those who are called righteous and pleasing to him, who lived before Moses and Abraham, who were not circumcised in their foreskin and observed no sabbaths—why did he not teach them to keep these institutions? DIALOGUE WITH TRYPHO 27. [1]

[1] ANF 1:208*.

CHRIST FULFILLED THE SABBATH LAW BY HEALING

IRENAEUS: The Lord reproved those who unjustly blamed him for having healed on the sabbath days. For he did not make void but fulfilled the law by performing the offices of the high priest, propitiating God for people, and cleansing the lepers, healing the sick and himself suffering death, that exiled people might go forth from condemnation and might return without fear to their own inheritance. AGAINST HERESIES 4.8.2. [1]

[1] ANF 1:471.