Church Fathers Commentary John 10:22-30

"And it was the feast of the dedication at Jerusalem: it was winter; and Jesus was walking in the temple in Solomon`s porch. The Jews therefore came round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou hold us in suspense? If thou art the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believe not: the works that I do in my Father`s name, these bear witness of me. But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who hath given [them] unto me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch [them] out of the Father`s hand. I and the Father are one." — John 10:22-30 (ASV)

St. Augustine of Hippo: It was the feast of the dedication in Jerusalem. Encænia is the feast of the dedication of the temple, from the Greek word for "new." The dedication of anything new was called encænia.

St. John Chrysostom: It was the feast of the dedication of the temple after the return from the Babylonian captivity.

Alcuin of York: Or, it was in memory of the dedication under Judas Maccabeus. The first dedication was that of Solomon in the autumn; the second, that of Zerubbabel and the priest Joshua, was in the spring. This one was in the wintertime.

The Venerable Bede: Judas Maccabeus instituted an annual commemoration of this dedication.

Theophylact of Ohrid: The Evangelist mentions that it was winter to show that His Passion was near. He suffered in the following spring, and for that reason He stayed in Jerusalem.

St. Gregory the Great: Or it was because the cold season was in keeping with the cold, malicious hearts of the Jews.

St. John Chrysostom: Christ was present with great zeal at this feast and from then on stayed in Judea, as His Passion was now near. And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon’s porch.

Alcuin of York: It is called Solomon’s porch because Solomon went to pray there, and the porches of a temple are usually named after the temple itself. If the Son of God walked in a temple where the flesh of brute animals was offered up, how much more will He delight to visit our house of prayer, in which His own flesh and blood are consecrated.

Theophylact of Ohrid: You should also be careful, in this wintertime—that is, while still in this stormy, wicked world—to celebrate the dedication of your spiritual temple by constantly renewing yourself and continually rising upward in heart. Then Jesus will be present with you in Solomon’s porch and give you safety under His protection. But in the next life, no one will be able to dedicate himself.

St. Augustine of Hippo: The Jews, cold in love but burning with malice, approached Him not to honor Him, but to persecute Him. Then the Jews gathered around Him and said to Him, How long do you make us to doubt? If you be the Christ, tell us plainly. They did not want to know the truth, but only to find grounds for accusation.

St. John Chrysostom: Unable to find any fault with His works, they tried to catch Him in His words. Notice their perversity. When He instructs them through His teaching, they say, What sign show you? When He provides proof through His works, they say, If you be the Christ, tell us plainly. Either way, they are determined to oppose Him.

There is great malice in their speech, Tell us plainly. He had already spoken plainly when He was at the feasts and had hidden nothing. They preface their question with flattery, however, saying, How long do you make us to doubt? They act as if they are anxious to know the truth, but their real intention is only to provoke Him into saying something they can seize upon.

Alcuin of York: They accuse Him—the very one who had come to save their souls—of keeping their minds in suspense and uncertainty.

St. Augustine of Hippo: They wanted our Lord to say, "I am the Christ." Perhaps, because they had human ideas about the Messiah and had failed to discern His divinity in the Prophets, they wanted Christ to confess that He was the Messiah from the seed of David. Their goal was to accuse Him of aspiring to royal power.

Alcuin of York: In this way, they intended to hand Him over to the Proconsul for punishment as a usurper against the emperor. Our Lord managed His reply so as to silence the mouths of His slanderers and open the mouths of believers. To those who questioned Him as a man, He revealed the mysteries of His divinity: Jesus answered them, I told you, and you believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me.

St. John Chrysostom: He rebukes their malice, for they pretended that a single word would convince them when so many of His words had not. He says, "If you do not believe My works, how will you believe My words?" And He adds why they do not believe: But you believe not, because you are not of my sheep.

St. Augustine of Hippo: He saw that they were persons predestined to eternal death, and not those for whom He had purchased eternal life at the price of His blood. The sheep believe and follow the Shepherd.

Theophylact of Ohrid: After He said, You are not of my sheep, He exhorts them to become His sheep, saying: My sheep hear my voice.

Alcuin of York: That is, they obey My commands from the heart. And I know them, and they follow me—here, by walking in gentleness and innocence, and in the life to come, by entering the joys of eternal life. And I give to them eternal life.

St. Augustine of Hippo: This is the pasture of which He spoke before: and shall find pasture. Eternal life is called a good pasture: its grass does not wither; everything is green. But these critics thought only of this present life. And they shall not perish eternally—as if to say, "You will perish eternally, because you are not of My sheep."

Theophylact of Ohrid: But how then did Judas perish? Because he did not continue to the end. Christ is speaking of those who persevere. If any sheep is separated from the flock and wanders from the Shepherd, it is immediately in danger.

St. Augustine of Hippo: And He adds why they do not perish: Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Of those sheep of whom it is said, The Lord knows them that are his, the wolf robs none, the thief takes none, and the robber kills none. Christ is confident of their safety, for He knows what He gave for them.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: This is the speech of one conscious of His power. Yet to show that, though He is of the divine nature, He is born of God, He adds, My Father, which gave me them, is greater than all. He does not conceal His birth from the Father but proclaims it. For what He received from the Father, He received in the very act of being born from Him. He received it in His birth itself, not afterward; He was born at the very moment He received it.

St. Augustine of Hippo: The Son, born from everlasting of the Father, God from God, has equality with the Father not by growth, but by birth. This "greater than all" is what the Father gave Himb; namely, to be His Word, to be His Only-Begotten Son, to be the brightness of His light. Therefore, no one takes His sheep out of His hand, any more than from His Father’s hand: And no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.

If by "hand" we understand power, then the power of the Father and the Son is one, just as Their divinity is one. If we understand the Son Himself to be the hand of the Father, this is not in a bodily sense, as if God the Father had limbs, but in the sense that the Son is the One through whom all things were made.

People often call other men their "hands" when they use them for some purpose. And sometimes a man’s work is itself called his "hand" because it was made by his hand, as when someone is said to know his own hand when he recognizes his own handwriting. In this passage, however, "hand" signifies power. If we take it to mean the Son, we are in danger of imagining that if the Father has a hand, and that hand is His Son, then the Son must also have a son.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: The hand of the Son is spoken of as the hand of the Father to show you, through a physical representation, that both have the same nature, and that the nature and power of the Father are in the Son also.

St. John Chrysostom: Then, so that you do not suppose that the Father’s power protects the sheep while the Son Himself is too weak to do so, He adds, I and my Father are one.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Notice both of those words, "one" and "are," and you will be delivered from both Scylla and Charybdis. In that He says one, He refutes the Arians; in that He says we are, He refutes the Sabellians. There are both Father and Son. And if they are one, then there is no difference or inequality between them.

We are one. What He is, I am, in respect to essence, not in respect to relation.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: Since the heretics cannot contradict these words, they attempt to explain them away with an impious lie. They maintain that this unity is merely one of unanimity—a unity of will, not of nature. That is, the two are one not because they are the same, but because they will the same thing.

But they are one not by any mere arrangement, but by the birth of the Son’s nature, since there is no diminishing of the Father’s divinity in begetting Him. They are one while the sheep that are not plucked from the Son’s hand are also not plucked from the Father’s hand; while the Father works in Him working; while He is in the Father and the Father is in Him. This unity is established not by creation but by birth, not by will but by power, not by unanimity but by nature.

We do not, therefore, deny the unanimity of the Father and Son. The heretics accuse us of creating disagreement between the Father and Son because we refuse to accept mere concord in place of unity. We do not deny their unanimity, but we ground it in their unity. The Father and Son are one in respect to nature, honor, and power, and the same nature cannot will different things.