ACC ~ John 8 v21 - 30

OVERVIEW:

Jesus tells those who opposed him that they will seek him and die in their sins. But can those who do not believe be said to seek Jesus (ORIGEN)? There are two ways to pursue the life of Jesus: to possess it or destroy it (AUGUSTINE). Seeing their unbelief, Jesus threatens to leave (ORIGEN). This encounter demonstrates that divine wisdom is not of this world and that those from below can only learn from those above (CLEMENT). Those from below are the ones who store up treasures on earth (ORIGEN).

Jesus contrasts himself with them since it is obvious that he who created the world and existed before its creation is not of this world (AUGUSTINE, CHRYSOSTOM) or any other, for that matter (CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA). Believers are not of this world either and will not die in their sins, but those who do not believe allow their sin to kill them (ORIGEN). Faith, however, cannot always comprehend the “I AM,” and so it is good that he said “believe” and not “comprehend” (AUGUSTINE). Jesus goes on to tell them that he has been consistent in his revelation to them from the beginning (CHRYSOSTOM). Or perhaps Jesus is referring to himself in this text as the beginning, that is, as the one who has always existed. In other words, he is the Word who was “in the beginning.” Moving from the beginning to the end, Jesus prophesies about a future judgment (AUGUSTINE). By doing so, he holds in check the contempt they showed for him (CHRYSOSTOM) while demonstrating that his judgment is true because the Father’s word is spoken in the Son (TERTULLIAN). In his prophecy of judgment, Jesus also foretells the conversion of his killers, who will then know who he is. His prophecy concerning his “lifting up” is about his suffering on the cross, not his glorification (AUGUSTINE). Despite all the miracles he has done, they still do not believe, and therefore he turns to speaking of the cross, which along with the resurrection will reveal his divinity (CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA).

The Father gave the Son existence by begetting, not by creating, and in this begetting also gave him the knowledge that a father gives to his son, without the Son being in any way deficient. The Father sent his Son to earth for the mission of the incarnation (AUGUSTINE), and nothing he has done can be shown to have been in conflict with that mission or with the will of his Father. His humility here in subjecting himself to the Father, in effect, wins over the crowd (CHRYSOSTOM).

8:21-22 | Seeking Jesus and Dying in Sin

WILL UNBELIEF SEEK JESUS?

ORIGEN: Someone will object: If he said this to those who persist in unbelief, how does he say to such people, “You will seek me”? It is good to seek Jesus, since it is the same as seeking the Word, the truth and wisdom. You may answer that “seeking” was also said of those who plotted against him…. There are differences between those seeking Jesus. Not all seek him legitimately for their salvation or benefit. People seek Jesus with countless motives that fall short of the good. Only those who seek him in a right way find peace. They may be said to seek him in a right way who seek the Word that was in the beginning with God, who seek him that he might lead them to the Father. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 19.71-74. [1]

[1] FC 89:184-85**; SC 290:90-92.

TWO WAYS OF PURSUIT

AUGUSTINE: “I go away,” he said, “and you shall seek me,” not from any longing for me but in hatred. For after his removal from human sight, he was sought for both by those who hated him and those who loved him; by the former in a spirit of persecution, by the latter with the desire of seizing him. … Accordingly, because the former sought it in this wrong way, with a perverted heart, what did he add next? “You shall seek me, and”—not to let you suppose that you will seek me for good—“you shall die in your sin.” Dying in one’s sins happens to those who seek Christ wrongly. It happens to those who hate the one through whom alone salvation could be found. For while those whose hope is in God should not render evil even for evil, these men were rendering evil for good. The Lord therefore announced to them beforehand and in his foreknowledge uttered the sentence that they should die in their sin. And then he adds, “Where I am going, you cannot come.” He said the same to the disciples also in another place. [1] And yet he did not say to them, “You shall die in your sin.” But what did he say? He said the same as he did to these men: “Where I am going, you cannot come.” He did not take away hope but foretold delay. For at the time when the Lord said this to the disciples, they were not able to come where he was going, yet they were to come afterwards. But these men would never come. And so in his foreknowledge he said to them, “You shall die in your sin.” TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 38.2. [2]

[1] Jn 13:33.

[2] NPNF 1 7:217-18*. Origen asks if it is possible that those who persist in unbelief seek Jesus; see Commentary on the Gospel of John 19.71 (FC 89:184-85).

THE WORD THREATENS TO DEPART

ORIGEN: If the Word is not received when present, he threatens to go….

As long as we preserve the seeds and principles of truth that have been sown in our souls, the Word has not yet departed from us. But if we utterly destroy them with a flood of wickedness, he will say to us, “I go.” And then, even if we seek him, we will not find him but will die in our sin, overtaken in our sin and swept away by it….

And we must not pass over without noticing the expression “you will die in your sins.” If it is taken in the ordinary sense, it is clear that sinners will die in their sin and the righteous in their righteousness. But if “you will die” is taken in relation to death, the enemy of Christ, [1] since the one who dies has committed a sin that leads to death, then it is clear that those to whom this is spoken have not yet died….

Those to whom the Word had not yet come had not committed sin that leads to death. Still, they were spiritually sick, a sickness tending toward death. The Physician, seeing that they were deadly ill, after he had despaired of healing them, said, “I go, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin.”…

Perhaps the statement “where I go you cannot come,” attached to “you will die in your sin,” will be clearer. For whenever someone dies in his sin, he cannot go where Jesus goes, for no one who is dead can follow Jesus: “For the dead do not praise you, O Lord.” [2] COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 19.74, 78-81, 83. [3]

[1] 1 Cor 15:26.

[2] Ps 115:17 (113:25 LXX).

[3] FC 89:185-87**; SC 290:92-98.

8:23 | Of This World or Not of This World

THOSE FROM BELOW LEARN FROM HIM WHO IS ABOVE

CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: We are those who bear about with us, in this living and moving image of our human nature, the likeness of God. It is a likeness that lives with us, takes counsel with us, associates with us, is a guest with us, feels with us and feels for us. We have become a consecrated offering to God for Christ’s sake. We are the chosen generation, the royal priesthood, the holy nation, the peculiar people who once were not a people but are now the people of God. [1] We are those who, according to John, are not of those who are beneath but have learned all from him who came from above; who have come to understand the dispensation of God; who have learned to walk in newness of life. EXHORTATION TO THE GREEKS 4. [2]

[1] 1 Pet 2:9.

[2] ANF 2:189**.

WHO IS FROM BELOW?

ORIGEN: But pay attention, if you also desire to learn from Scripture who it is who is from below and who it is who is from above. Since each person’s treasure is where his heart is, if someone stores up treasure on earth, [1] by the very act of storing up treasure on earth he is from below. But if someone stores up treasure in heaven, [2] that person is born from above and assumes “the image of the heavenly.” [3] And in addition, when this person has passed through all the heavens, he is found to have reached the most blessed goal. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 19.138. [4]

[1] Mt 6:21.

[2] Mt 6:20.

[3] See Jn 3:3; 1 Cor 15:49.

[4] FC 89:198; SC 290:128-30.

HOW COULD THE CREATOR BE OF THIS WORLD?

AUGUSTINE: How could Jesus be of the world when he made the world? TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 38.4. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 7:218*.

DIVINE WISDOM IS NOT OF THIS WORLD

CHRYSOSTOM: Here again he speaks of their worldly and carnal imaginations. It is clear that “I am not of this world” does not mean that he had not taken flesh on himself but that he was far removed from their wickedness. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 53.1. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 14:190*.

CHRIST IS NOT OF THIS WORLD OR ANY OTHER

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Here he clearly shows what he means by “above” and “below.” The Pharisees would have understood what he said in a bodily way, thinking the “above” and “below” were localities. That is why our Lord clarifies what he had previously said so obscurely. For he says, “You are of this world,” that is, from beneath; “I am not of this world,” speaking of what is from above. For God surpasses all that is created. His superiority is not a localized kind of exaltation (as if the incorporeal could be conceived in any way as local, except by the foolish and utterly uninstructed). Rather, he surpasses derivative beings because of his own most excellent and ineffable nature. It is of this essence that the Word says he is. He has not been created by it. He is its fruit and offspring. For notice how he does not say, “I have been created and made from above” but instead says, “I am,” in order to show both where he came from and also that he was always and eternally with his own progenitor. For he is even as the Father too is….

But the enemy of the truth… will say that by adding “this,” Christ has shown that there is another world, the spiritual world, from which he might have come, implying the Son is a creature… in the same class as angels [1] who… if he is not part of this world, is part of another…. But the word this or “of this” is a demonstrative pronoun that does not necessarily imply comparison with another…. Therefore when Christ says, “I am not of this world,” he is not saying that he is part of some other world but is… putting the Jews in the place of things that have an origin, saying, “You are of this world” while he severs himself altogether from things created and connects himself instead with that other place, and by this I mean the Godhead, when he says, “I am not of this world.” In this way, he contrasts the Godhead with the world so that we can understand. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 5.4. [2]

[1] This is what Origen had unwittingly done in his commentary, but so had the Arian Asterius, who in Fragment 3 had called the Son the“first of derivative beings.” See Wiles, 78-79 n. 4, and also Athanasius De Synodis 19.

[2] LF 43:586-89**.

8:24 | Unless You Believe, You Will Die in Your Sins

BELIEVERS IN CHRIST WILL NOT DIE IN THEIR SINS

ORIGEN: Now, if the one who does not believe that Jesus is the Christ will die in his sins, it is clear that the one who does not die in his sins has believed in the Christ. But he who dies in his sins, even if he says that he believes in the Christ, has not believed in him so far as truth is concerned. And if faith is mentioned but it lacks works, such faith is dead. [1] … For one who believes in [Christ’s] justice does not do injustice. One who believes in his wisdom would not say or do anything foolish…. And if we collected the remaining attributes of Christ, we will easily discover that whoever does not believe in Christ will die in his sins because he comes to be the very opposite of what is seen in Christ. The sins themselves kill him. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 19.152, 155, 158. [2]

[1] Jas 2:17.

[2] FC 89:202-4**; SC 290:140-44.

BELIEVING VERSUS COMPREHENDING THE “I AM”

AUGUSTINE: What is this, “If you do not believe that I am”? “I am” what? There is nothing added. And because he added nothing… there is much implied in his only saying “I am,” for God had used the same words with Moses, “I am who am.” [1] Who can adequately express what that I AM means? [2] … For all excellence, whatever kind it is, if it is changeable, it does not truly exist. There is no true existence wherever nonexistence also has a place. For whatever can be changed, so far as it is changed, it is not what it was: if it is no longer what it was, a kind of death has therein taken place. Something that was there has been eliminated and exists no more…. For in all actions and movements of ours, yes, in every activity of the creature, I find two indications of time, the past and the future. I seek for the present, but nothing stands still. What I have said is no longer present. What I am going to say is not yet come. What I have done is no longer present. What I am going to do is not yet come. The life I have lived is no longer present. The life I have still to live is not yet come. Past and future I find in every creature-movement. I do not find either past or future in what is abiding. There I only find the unchangeable present that finds no place in the creature. Analyze the idea of mutability, and you will find was and will be: contemplate God, and you will find the is where was and will be cannot exist…. And so, by these words, “If you do not believe that I am,” I think our Lord meant nothing else than this, “If you do not believe that I am” God, “you shall die in your sins.” Well, God be thanked that he said, “If you do not believe” and did not say: If you do not comprehend. For who can comprehend this? TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 38.8, 10. [3]

[1] Ex 3:14.

[2] Augustine then rehearses the account of the burning bush on Mount Sinai and how even Moses perhaps could not even fully comprehend the phrase.

[3] NPNF 1 7:220-21**.

8:25 | Even What I Have Told You from the Beginning22

JESUS HAS BEEN CONSISTENT ABOUT WHO HE IS

CHRYSOSTOM: They ask, “Who are you?” Such a lack of understanding! After such a long time with all of his signs and teaching they still ask, “Who are you?” What then does Christ say? “The same that I told you from the beginning.” [1] What he is saying is: You are not worthy to hear my words at all, much less to learn who I am. For everything you say is an attempt to tempt me. But you have not even listened to one of the things I have said. And all these things I am now able to prove against you. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 53.1. [2]

[1] Chrysostom, like other Greek commentators, understands tēn archēn adverbially, whereas Latin commentators treat it as a noun.

[2] NPNF 1 14:191**.

JESUS CALLS HIMSELF THE BEGINNING

AUGUSTINE: “Who are you,” that we may believe? He answered, “The beginning.” Here is the existence that [always] is. The beginning cannot be changed. The beginning is self-abiding and all-originating, that is, the beginning, to which it has been said, “But you yourself are the same and your years shall not fail.” [1] … Believe me to be the beginning so that you may not die in your sins. By saying, “Who are you?” they had said nothing else than this, “What shall we believe you to be?” He replied, “The beginning,” that is, Believe me to be “the beginning.” [2] TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 38.11. [3]

[1] Ps 102:27 (101:28 LXX, Vg).

[2] Augustine then enters into a discussion of the Greek text to verify his interpretation.

[3] NPNF 1 7:221**.

IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD

AUGUSTINE: “In the beginning was the Word.” [1] That through which he made things already was. That is how he made what as yet was not. We can understand it, and rightly understand it, in the sense that heaven and earth were made in the only begotten Word itself. They were, you see, made in that through which they were made. This can be, and be understood as, the beginning in which God made heaven and earth. This Word, after all, is also the wisdom of God, about which it is said, “You have made all things in wisdom.” [2] If God made all things in wisdom and his only begotten Son is without a shadow of doubt the wisdom of God, let us not doubt that whatever we have learned was made through the Son was also made in the Son. The Son himself, after all, is certainly the beginning. When the Jews were questioning him and saying, “Who are you? He answered, “The beginning.” And there [in Genesis] you have, “In the beginning God made heaven and earth.” [3] SERMON 223A.1. [4]

[1] Jn 1:1.

[2] Ps 104:24 (103:24 LXX, Vg).

[3] Gen 1:1.

[4] WSA 3 6:212-13*.

8:26-27 | Much to Say and Judge

A FUTURE JUDGMENT

AUGUSTINE: Remember when he said, “I judge no one”? [1] Now he says, “I have many things to say of you and to judge.” But “I do not judge,” is one thing, “I have to judge” is another. For he had come to save the world, not to judge the world. [2] When he says, “I have many things to say of you and to judge,” he refers to a future judgment when, after he ascended, he would come back to judge the living and the dead. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 39.6. [3]

[1] Jn 8:15.

[2] Jn 12:47.

[3] NPNF 1 7:224**.

TRUE JUDGMENT

AUGUSTINE: When he says, “He that sent me is true,” it is as if he said, Therefore I too shall be true in my judgment, because as the Son of the true One, I am the truth…. The Son is the Truth, the Father is true. I inquire which is the greater, but [when I inquire, I] find equality. For the true Father is true not because he contained a part of that truth but because he begat truth in its entirety. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 39.7. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 7:224**.

JUDGMENT GUARDS AGAINST CONTEMPT

CHRYSOSTOM: He says this so that they may not think that he allows them to talk against him with impunity, or from inability to punish them or that he is not aware of their secret thoughts and contempt. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 53.1. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 14:191**.

THE FATHER’S WORDS UTTERED IN THE SON

TERTULLIAN: By reason of the inseparability of the two it was impossible for one of them to be either acknowledged or unknown without the other. “He who sent me,” says Jesus, “is true; and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.” And the Scripture narrative goes on to explain in a simple way that “they did not understand that he was speaking to them about the Father,” although they certainly ought to have known that the Father’s words were uttered in the Son, because they read in Jeremiah, “And the Lord said to me, see, I have put my words in your mouth.” [1] AGAINST PRAXEAS 22. [2]

[1] Jer 1:9.

[2] ANF 3:617*.

8:28 | Lifting Up the Son of Man

JESUS FORETELLS CONVERSION OF HIS KILLERS

AUGUSTINE: What does this mean? For it looks as if all he said was that they would know who he was after his passion. Without doubt, therefore, he saw that there were some there, whom he himself knew, who would believe after his passion…. We are here speaking of those three thousand and those five thousand Jews whom now he saw there, [1] when he said, “When you have lifted up the Son of man, then shall you know that I am.” It was as if he had said, I am not allowing you to recognize what happened until I have completed my passion. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 40.2. [2]

“LIFTING UP” IS HIS SUFFERING, NOT GLORIFICATION

AUGUSTINE: When it is appropriate, you shall know who I am. Not that all who heard him were only then to believe, that is, after the Lord’s passion. For a little after it is said, “As he spoke these words, many believed on him,” and the Son of man was not yet lifted up. But the lifting up he is speaking of is that of his passion, not of his glorification, of the cross, not of heaven. For he was exalted there also when he hung on the tree. But that exaltation was his humiliation, for then he became obedient even to the death of the cross. [3] This required it to be accomplished by the hands of those who should afterwards believe and to whom he says, “When you have lifted up the Son of man, then shall you know that I am.” And why so, except that no one might despair, however guilty his conscience, when he saw those forgiven their homicide who had slain the Christ? TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 40.2. [4]

[1] Acts 2:41; 4:4.

[2] NPNF 1 7:225*.

[3] Phil 2:8.

[4] NPNF 1 7:225*.

THE CROSS AND THE RESURRECTION WILL REVEAL JESUS’ DIVINITY

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Here Jesus is saying, “Since you are looking only to the flesh, you believe that I am merely a man, and you suppose that I am just like you. But the dignity and the glory of the Godhead does not even enter your mind. However, you shall know that I am God of true God and Light of light through your dreadful and lawless act—my death on the cross. For when you see your mad foolishness come to nothing and the snare of death crushed in pieces—for I shall surely rise from the dead—ultimately you will be forced, even against your will, to agree with what I said, and you shall confess that I am God by nature. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 5.4. [1]

[1] LF 43:604**.

HOW THE SON IS TAUGHT BY THE FATHER

AUGUSTINE: Already the Sabellian, i.e., the Patripassian, [1] was beginning to rejoice over the discovery of a ground for his error, but immediately … he is confounded by the light of the following sentence. You thought that he was the Father, because he said, “I am.” Hear now that he is the Son: “And I do nothing of myself.” What does this mean, “I do nothing of myself”? I am not of myself. For the Son is God of the Father, but the Father is God yet not of the Son. The Son is God of God, and the Father is God but not of God. The Son is Light of light; and the Father is light but not of light. The Son is, but there is [one] of whom he is; and the Father is, but there is none of whom he is.

Do not then let what follows, “As the Father has taught me, I speak these things,” suggest a carnal thought to any of you…. Do not place as it were two men before your eyes, a Father speaking to his son, as you do when you speak to your sons…. How did the Father speak to the Son, seeing that the Son says, “As the Father taught me, I speak these things”? Did he speak to him? When the Father taught the Son, did he use words, as you do when you teach your son? For what words could be spoken to the only Word?… If the Father speaks in your hearts without sound, how does he speak to the Son?… The Father speaks to the Son incorporeally because he begat the Son incorporeally. He did not teach him, as though having begotten him untaught. Rather, the “teaching him” is the “begetting him” knowledge. [2] … For if the nature of truth is simple, to be, as regards the Son, is the same as to know…. As then the Father gave the Son existence by begetting, so he gave him knowledge also. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 40.3-5. [3]

[1] Those who taught that the Father also suffered on the cross.

[2] Or“knowing.”

[3] NPNF 1 7:225-27**.

8:29 | The Son Always Does What Pleases the Father

THE FATHER IS WITH THE SON

AUGUSTINE: And though both are together, yet one is sent, the other sends. For the mission is the incarnation. And the incarnation is of the Son only, not of the Father…. He says then, “He that sent me,” meaning by whose Fatherly authority I am made incarnate. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 40.6. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 7:227*.

FATHER AND SON ALWAYS TOGETHER

AUGUSTINE: The Father sent the Son but did not withdraw from him. For there is no way that the Father was not wherever he sent the Son. For is there anywhere the maker of all things could not be who said, “I fill heaven and earth.” [1] … And Christ adds the reason why his Father did not leave him: “For I always do those things that please him.” That equality always exists: not from any particular beginning and then onwards, but without beginning and without end. For divine generation has no beginning in time since time itself was created by the Only Begotten. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 40.6. [2]

[1] Jer 23:24.

[2] NPNF 1 7:227*.

HUMILITY OF JESUS’ DISCOURSE

CHRYSOSTOM: He means it as an answer to those who were constantly saying that he was not from God because he did not keep the sabbath. “I always do,” he says, “those things that please him,” showing that even the breaking of the sabbath was pleasing to him…. He takes care in every way to show that he does nothing contrary to the Father. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 53.2. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 14:191-92**.

8:30 | Many Believed in Jesus

CHRIST’S HUMILITY PERSUADES THEM

CHRYSOSTOM: When he brought his speech down to a more human level, many believed in him. Do you still ask why he spoke so humbly? And yet, the Evangelist clearly alludes to the reason [here], all but proclaiming aloud: Do not be disturbed at hearing so humble a speech from Christ, for those who had heard the greatest doctrines from him and were still not persuaded that he was from the Father were persuaded by these more humble words so that they might believe. This explains why he spoke these things in such a humble way. These then believed on him, yet not as they ought but only because they were pleased with the refreshing humility of his words. The Evangelist, in fact, shows their imperfect faith in his subsequent narration, which relates their unjust proceedings against him. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 53.2. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 14:192**.