ACC ~ John 7 v16

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).