CHAPTER 7 _But after this Jesus walked in Galilee_, &c. Not immediately, but about six months after. The incidents of the former chapter took place in March, the feast of tabernacles was in September. But Christ lived six months after this, to the following March. All which follows Christ said and... [ Continue Reading ]
_For neither did His brethren believe in Him._ They so freely and boldly urged Jesus to come with them to Jerusalem, because they did not fully believe that He was the Christ. For had they believed it, they would not have dared to speak to Him so freely. So says Euthymius. For though they saw Him wo... [ Continue Reading ]
_Jesus said unto them, My time is not yet come, but your time is always ready._ My time is appointed of the Father, but it must be put off for a few days, through the hatred with which the Jews pursue me. For this reason I will go up in a few days, but with secrecy. But do ye go first, for any time... [ Continue Reading ]
_The world cannot hate you,_ &c. You (my kinsmen) can go at any time to Jerusalem without risk, because ye do not oppose the Scribes, but rather favour, and pay them court. But I, if I go up openly with you, put Myself in manifest peril of My life. So S. Cyril, who also adds the reason, "For a mind... [ Continue Reading ]
_Go ye up unto this feast._ For ye have no danger to fear (says Euthymius). _But I go not up yet to this feast._ I am waiting for the anger of the Scribes to subside. For they are looking out for Me to kill Me at the beginning of the feast, but after three days I shall come up secretly and with less... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Jews therefore sought Him at the feast, and said, Where is He_? S. Chrysostom says that on a feast day they were always disposed to murder, and they endeavoured to catch Him on feast days. And Euthymius, "Admirable work for feast days, in making them occasions for murder; and that on the very d... [ Continue Reading ]
_And there was much murmuring_, &c. He would make Himself the founder of a new faction, and stir up sedition and rebellion. _A good man_, nay, a teacher and a prophet; this was the opinion of those who had heard Him teaching, and seen His miracles in Galilee. The contrary was the opinion of the Scr... [ Continue Reading ]
_Howbeit no man spake_, &c., _i.e._, from fear of the Scribes, Pharisees, and Chief Priests. S. John speaks of them merely as Jews, so as not to derogate from the authority of the Scribes and Priests, and also, as Cyril says, he counted it wrong to term persons so estrayed from holiness, priests or... [ Continue Reading ]
_And the Jews wondered, saying_, &c. "They marvelled," says Cyril, "when they saw in Him such unheard-of wisdom and power of speech;" for, as Theophylact says, "He spake wondrous words, restraining and changing their minds in a wondrous manner," so that their fury was changed into love and admiratio... [ Continue Reading ]
_He that speaketh of Himself_, &c But on the other hand Cyril concludes with, "He who seeks not God's glory but his own, is a liar, and full of deceit" a liar, because under pretence of observing the law he puts forth his own will; and full of deceit, because he dares to prefer his own commands to t... [ Continue Reading ]
_If a man on the Sabbath day receive circumcision_, &c. If circumcision, which in its own nature is a servile, troublesome, and tedious work, as well as one causing pain, is not only lawful, but even commanded to be done on the Sabbath; why am not I equally allowed to heal on the Sabbath a man who h... [ Continue Reading ]
_Judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment._ He charges the Jews with acceptance of persons, in acquitting Moses, or rather themselves, in a like matter, but accusing and condemning Jesus. Ye accuse Me as a Sabbath-breaker only for healing a sick man by my divine power, whereas... [ Continue Reading ]
_Therefore said some of them of Jerusalem._ Those, that is, that were convinced by Christ's argument. Many of the people at Jerusalem had a leaning towards Him, but could not openly show it for fear of the rulers. _Is not this He whom they seek to kill_? They knew, says S. Augustine, how savagely H... [ Continue Reading ]
_And lo He speaketh openly, and they say nothing against Him._ What means this great silence? says Nonnus. _Do the rulers know indeed that this is the very Christ_? They know it, or easily could have known it, but they, blinded by their pride and hatred, persecuted Him to the death; but they were re... [ Continue Reading ]
_But we know this man_, &c. We know that His parents are Joseph and Mary, and they themselves confessed elsewhere in general that they knew He was to be born in Bethlehem of the seed of David. But these were the words of the ignorant people, who thought that Christ would suddenly appear to the world... [ Continue Reading ]
_Jesus therefore cried in the temple_, &c. I grant what you say, that ye know My ancestry and My parents; though ye are much mistaken. Ye do not know them; for the Jews knew not the God- head of Christ, regarding Him only as the son of Joseph. But S. Chrysostom and Maldonatus explain thus: "Ye know... [ Continue Reading ]
_But I know Him, for I am from Him, and He hath sent Me._ "Born," saith S. Augustine, "by divine and eternal generation, inasmuch as I am His own proper and natural Son:" and He sent Me "into the world by My Incarnation." "See," saith Theophylact, "the two natures in Christ set forth in this passage... [ Continue Reading ]
_They therefore sought to take him, but no man laid hands on him._ Who were they? asks S. Chrysostom. Not the multitude, but the priests, who hated Jesus because the people preferred Him to them, and He was held to be the Messiah. _Because his hour was not yet come_, the hour at which He had resolve... [ Continue Reading ]
_But many of the people_, &c. For the people were more simple-minded, candid, and eager for their own salvation, than the priests, who hated Jesus, whom the people regarded as the Messiah, while they themselves were but little regarded; which greatly excited their hatred against Christ. _When Christ... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Pharisees heard_, &c. As though He were exciting the people to sedition (Euthymius); but more truly from envy. The Greek adds " _the chief Priests._ " The Pharisees belonged to the Council, and accused Jesus before the chief priests, and drew them over to their resolve to kill Jesus.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Jesus therefore said unto them_, &c., that is, to the officers of the chief priests, to win them over (says Chrysostom) by showing that He knew the cause of their coming, "and that they might tell it to their masters." " _Yet a little while,_ " I will not for long trouble your masters, for I am wea... [ Continue Reading ]
_Ye shall seek Me_, &c. Ye will seek for another Messiah, but ye will not find Him, for there is no other Christ but Myself. So Toletus. But this is far from clear, and not to the point. It means more plainly and simply: When ye hear that I have risen, and by My disciples am working miracles, ye wil... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Jews therefore said_, &c. VER. 36. _What is this saying that He said,... and where I am, thither ye cannot come_? That is to the Gentiles scattered throughout the world. Hence the Epistles written to them are called Catholic or universal. The Jews scornfully termed the Gentiles "dispersed," whe... [ Continue Reading ]
_But in the last day, the great day of the feast,_ &c. This was called the day of the assembly or gathering, when the people in a body went to the temple. Christ therefore wished to implant in the people, as they were departing, not merely a longing for Himself, and doubts respecting His religion, b... [ Continue Reading ]
_But this spake He of the Spirit which they that believe on Him should receive._ After His death, and by His merits at Pentecost, for before that the Apostles had not received it so copiously and abundantly as at that time; and they at once watered the parched earth by the streams of their preaching... [ Continue Reading ]
_Doth not the Scripture say_, &c. As Micah foretold. But Jesus is not the Christ as having been conceived and brought up at Nazareth. But He was born at Bethlehem, and since they had seen so many evident signs of His Messiahship, they were bound to inquire more carefully into this point which seemed... [ Continue Reading ]
_So there was a division among the people because of Him_. Some accusing Him of being an innovator, others excusing Him, and lauding Him as a Prophet. VER. 44. _And some of them would have taken Him, i.e._, some of the multitude, not of the rulers, who were all of one mind not to acknowledge Him. Bu... [ Continue Reading ]
_But this people who knoweth not the Law are cursed._ In passing, _i.e._, from Moses and the law to Jesus and the gospel. By this term the Pharisees endeavour to terrify the officers and others, and to turn them away from the faith and love of Jesus. "They are deserving" (says Theophylact) "of many... [ Continue Reading ]
_And every one went to his own house._ "Fearing lest any one else should support Nicodemus," says Euthymius. They therefore deferred their intention of killing Jesus, but did not revoke it. God brought about this delay, by means of Nicodemus, because the ordained hour had not come.... [ Continue Reading ]