Church Fathers Commentary John 12

Alcuin of York: As the time approached in which our Lord had resolved to suffer, He approached the place He had chosen for His suffering. Then Jesus, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany. First, He went to Bethany, then to Jerusalem—to Jerusalem to suffer, and to Bethany to keep alive the memory of the recent resurrection of Lazarus, where Lazarus was, who had been dead, whom He raised from the dead.

Theophylact of Ohrid: On the tenth day of the month, they took the lamb that was to be sacrificed at the Passover, and from that time the preparation for the feast began. Or rather, the ninth day of the month, six days before the Passover, was the commencement of the feast. They feasted abundantly on that day. Thus we find Jesus partook of a banquet at Bethany: There they made Him a supper, and Martha served. That Martha served shows that the entertainment was in her house. See the faithfulness of the woman: she does not leave the task of serving to the servants but takes it upon herself. The Evangelist adds, it would seem, to establish Lazarus's resurrection beyond dispute: But Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with Him.

St. Augustine of Hippo: He lived, talked, and feasted; the truth was established, and the unbelief of the Jews was confounded.

St. John Chrysostom: Mary did not take part in serving the guests generally but gave all her attention to our Lord, treating Him not as a mere man, but as God: Then Mary took a pound of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair.

St. Augustine of Hippo: That she did this on another occasion in Bethany is not mentioned in Luke’s Gospel but is in the other three. Matthew and Mark say that the ointment was poured on His head; John says on His feet. Why not suppose that it was poured on both His head and His feet? Matthew and Mark introduce the supper and the anointing out of chronological order (Matthew 26:9 and Mark 14:3). When they are further along in their narrative, they go back to the sixth day before the Passover.

Remember the Apostle’s words: To the one we are the savor of death unto death; and to the other the savor of life unto life (2 Corinthians 2:16).

Then said one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, who was to betray Him, "Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?" In the other Gospels, it is the disciples who murmured at the waste of the ointment. I think myself that Judas is put for the whole body of disciples—the singular for the plural. But at any rate, we can infer that the other disciples said it, or thought it, or were persuaded by this very speech of Judas. The only difference is that Matthew and Mark expressly mention the concurrence of the others, whereas John only mentions Judas, whose habit of thieving He takes the opportunity to notice: This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein.

Alcuin of York: He carried it as a servant; he took from it as a thief.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Judas did not perish at the time when he received money from the Jews to betray our Lord. He was already a thief, already lost, and followed our Lord in body, not in heart. In this, we are taught the duty of tolerating wicked men, lest we divide the body of Christ.

He who robs the Church of anything may be compared to the lost Judas. Tolerate the wicked, you who are good, so that you may receive the reward of the good and not fall into the punishment of the wicked. Follow the example of our Lord’s life on earth. Why did He have moneybags, He to whom angels ministered, except because His Church would afterward have them? Why did He admit thieves, but to show that His Church should tolerate thieves, even while it suffered from them? It is not surprising that Judas, who was accustomed to steal money from the bags, would betray our Lord for money.

St. John Chrysostom: But why was a thief entrusted with the money for the poor? Perhaps it was to give him no excuse of needing money, for of this he had enough in the bag for all his desires.

Theophylact of Ohrid: Some suppose that Judas had the keeping of the money, as it was the lowest kind of service. For we know from what the Apostle says in the Acts that the ministry of money matters ranks below the ministry of doctrine: It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables (Acts 6:2).

St. John Chrysostom: Christ, with great forbearance, does not rebuke Judas for his thieving, in order to deprive him of all excuse for betraying Him.

Alcuin of York: Then Jesus said, Let her alone: against the day of My burying has she kept this. He meant that He was about to die and that this ointment was suitable for His burial. So it was given to Mary, who was not able to be present at the anointing of His dead body (though she greatly wished to be), to perform this service for Him during His lifetime.

St. John Chrysostom: Again, as if to remind His betrayer, He alludes to His burial: For the poor you have always with you, but Me you have not always. It is as if He said, "I am a burden, a trouble to you; but wait a little, and I shall be gone."

St. Augustine of Hippo: He was speaking of His bodily presence. For with respect to His majesty, providence, and ineffable and invisible grace, these words are fulfilled: Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world (Matthew 28:20). Or, to put it another way: the wicked in the Church are represented in the person of Judas. If you are a good person, you have Christ now by faith and the Sacrament, and you shall have Him always, for when you depart from here, you shall go to Him who said to the thief, Today shall thou be with Me in paradise (Luke 23:43). But if you are wicked, you seem to have Christ, because you are baptized with the baptism of Christ and approach the altar of Christ, but because of your wicked life, you shall not have Him always. It is not "you have," but "you have," addressing the whole body of wicked men in Judas.

Many of the Jews therefore knew that He was there, and they came not for Jesus’ sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead. Curiosity brought them, not love.

Theophylact of Ohrid: They wished to see with their own eyes him who had been raised from the dead and thought that Lazarus might bring back a report from the regions below.

St. Augustine of Hippo: When the news of this great miracle had spread everywhere and was supported by such clear evidence that they could neither suppress nor deny the fact, then, the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus to death. O blind rage! As if the Lord could raise the dead but not raise the slain. Lo, the Lord has done both: He raised Lazarus, and He raised Himself.

St. John Chrysostom: No other miracle of Christ excited such rage as this. It was so public and so wonderful to see a man walking and talking after he had been dead four days. And the fact was so undeniable. In the case of some other miracles, they had charged Him with breaking the Sabbath and so diverted people's attention, but here there was nothing to find fault with, and therefore they vent their anger on Lazarus. They would have done the same to the blind man had they not had the charge to make of breaking the Sabbath. Then again, the latter was a poor man, and they cast him out of the temple, but Lazarus was a man of rank, as is clear from the number who came to comfort his sisters. It annoyed them to see everyone leaving the feast, which was about to begin, and going to Bethany.

Alcuin of York: Mystically, His coming to Bethany six days before the Passover means this: He who made all things in six days, created man on the sixth day, and came in the sixth age of the world, on the sixth day, at the sixth hour, to redeem humanity. The Lord’s Supper is the faith of the Church, working by love. Martha serves whenever a believing soul devotes itself to the worship of the Lord. Lazarus is one of those who sit at the table; this represents those who have been raised from the death of sin, rejoicing together with the righteous (who have always been so) in the presence of truth, and fed with the gifts of heavenly grace. The banquet is given in Bethany, which means "house of obedience" (that is, in the Church), for the Church is the house of obedience.

St. Augustine of Hippo: The ointment with which Mary anointed the feet of Jesus was justice. It was therefore a pound. It was an ointment of spikenard (pistici), which is very precious. The Greek word for it suggests faith. Do you seek to do justice? The just live by faith (Hebrews 10:38). Anoint the feet of Jesus by living a good life; follow the Lord’s footsteps. If you have more than you need, give to the poor, and you have wiped the Lord’s feet, for the hair is a superfluous part of the body.

Alcuin of York: And observe, on the first occasion of her anointing, she anointed His feet only, but now she anoints both His feet and head. The former signifies the beginnings of repentance, while the latter signifies the righteousness of perfected souls. The head of our Lord signifies the loftiness of His divine nature, while His feet signify the humility of His incarnation. Or, by the head, Christ Himself is signified, and by the feet, the poor who are His members.

St. Augustine of Hippo: The house was filled with the fragrance; the world was filled with the good report.

St. John Chrysostom: The Law commanded that on the tenth day of the first month a lamb or a young goat should be kept in the house until the fourteenth day of the same month, on which evening it was sacrificed. In accordance with this law, the Chosen Lamb, the Lamb without blemish, went up to Jerusalem five days beforehand—that is, on the tenth day—to be sacrificed for the sanctification of the people.

St. Augustine of Hippo: See how great was the fruit of His preaching and how large a flock of the lost sheep of the house of Israel heard the voice of their Shepherd. On the next day, a large crowd that had come to the feast, hearing that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees. The palm branches are songs of praise, signifying the victory our Lord was about to win over death by His own death, and His triumph over the devil, the prince of death, by the trophy of the cross.

St. John Chrysostom: They showed at last that they considered Him greater than a prophet. They went out to meet Him and cried, “Hosanna! Blessed is the King of Israel, who comes in the name of the Lord.”

St. Augustine of Hippo: Hosanna is a simple exclamation, indicating an emotional state rather than having any specific meaning, much like many interjections we have in Latin.

The Venerable Bede: It is a compound of two Hebrew words: “Hosi,” which is a shortened form of “save,” and “Anna,” which is a simple, complete exclamation. “Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord.” The name of the Lord here is the name of God the Father, though we could also understand it as Christ’s own name, since He too is the Lord. But the first meaning aligns better with the text, “I have come in My Father’s name.” He does not lose His divinity when He teaches us humility.

St. John Chrysostom: More than anything, this is what made people believe in Christ: the assurance that He was not opposed to God, that He came from the Father. The words show us the divinity of Christ. “Hosanna” means “Save us,” and salvation in Scripture is attributed to God alone. It says He “comes,” not that He “is brought”; the former is fitting for a lord, the latter for a servant. The phrase “in the name of the Lord” proves the same point. He does not come in the name of a servant, but in the name of the Lord.

St. Augustine of Hippo: It would be a small thing for the eternal King to be made a human king. Christ was not the King of Israel in order to demand tribute and command armies, but to direct souls and bring them to the kingdom of heaven. For Christ to be King of Israel, then, was a condescension, not an elevation; a sign of His pity, not an increase of His power. For He who was called the King of the Jews on earth is the King of Angels in heaven.

Theophylact of Ohrid: The Jews, when they called Him King of Israel, were dreaming of an earthly king. They expected a king of more than human greatness to arise, one who would deliver them from the rule of the Romans. But how did our Lord come? The next words tell us: “And Jesus, when he had found a young ass, sat thereon.”

St. Augustine of Hippo: John relates the matter briefly; the other Evangelists are more detailed. The donkey, we read in their accounts, was the foal of a donkey on which no one had ever sat; this represents the Gentile world, which had not received our Lord. The other donkey that was brought (not the foal, for there were two) represents the believing Jew.

St. John Chrysostom: He did this prophetically, to represent the unclean Gentiles being brought into subjection to the Gospel, and also as a fulfillment of prophecy.

St. Augustine of Hippo: This act of our Lord is pointed to in the Prophets, though the malicious rulers of the Jews did not see in it any fulfillment of prophecy: As it is written, “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt.”

Yes, in that nation, though rejected and blind, there still remained the daughter of Zion—that is, Jerusalem. To her it is said, “Fear not; acknowledge Him whom you praise, and do not tremble when He suffers. It is that blood which will wipe away your sins and redeem your life.”

St. John Chrysostom: Or, to put it another way: whereas they had wicked kings who subjected them to wars, He said to them, “Trust Me, I am not like them, but gentle and mild.” He showed this by the manner of His entrance, for He did not enter at the head of an army, but simply riding on a donkey.

And observe the wisdom of the Evangelist, who is not ashamed to confess his ignorance at the time of what these things meant: “These things his disciples did not understand at first, but when Jesus was glorified…”

St. Augustine of Hippo: That is, when He showed the power of His resurrection, they remembered that these things were written about Him, and that they had done to Him the very things that were written about Him.

St. John Chrysostom: Our Lord had not yet revealed these things to them. Indeed, it would have been a scandal to them if they had known He was the King at the time of His suffering. Nor would they have understood the nature of His kingdom, but would have mistaken it for a temporal one.

Theophylact of Ohrid: See, then, the consequences of our Lord’s passion. It was not without purpose that He had reserved His greatest miracle for last, for it was the resurrection of Lazarus that made the crowd believe in Him. The people therefore who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of his grave and raised him from the dead, bore witness. For this reason the people also met Him, because they heard that He had done this miracle.

This explains the spite and plotting of the Pharisees, who therefore said among themselves, “Do you see how you are accomplishing nothing? Look, the world has gone after Him!”

St. Augustine of Hippo: The crowd was stirred up by the crowd. But why begrudge that blind crowd, that the world should go after Him, by whom the world was made?

St. John Chrysostom: Here, “the world” means the crowd. This seems to be the speech of that group who were sound in their faith but did not dare to profess it. They try to deter the others by exposing the insurmountable difficulties they would have to face.

Theophylact of Ohrid: It is as if they said, “The more you attack Him, the more His power and reputation will increase. What use, then, are these attempts?”

The Venerable Bede: The temple at Jerusalem was so famous that on feast days, not only the local people but also many Gentiles from distant countries came to worship in it, such as the eunuch of Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians, mentioned in the book of Acts. The Gentiles who were at Jerusalem now had come for this purpose, and there were certain Gentiles among them who came to worship at the feast.

St. John Chrysostom: The time was now near when they would be made proselytes. They heard Christ talked about and wished to see Him. Therefore, they came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Behold! The Jews wish to kill Him, and the Gentiles wish to see Him. But those who cried, Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord, were also Jews. So behold those of the circumcision and those of the uncircumcision, once so far apart, coming together like two walls and meeting in the one faith of Christ with the kiss of peace.

St. John Chrysostom: Philip hesitated, perhaps because he was the more senior disciple. He had heard our Savior say, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and therefore he spoke with his fellow disciple, and they referred the matter to their Lord. And so, Andrew and Philip told Jesus.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Let us listen to the voice of the cornerstone. And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified. Did He consider Himself glorified because the Gentiles wished to see Him? No. Instead, He saw that after His passion and resurrection, the Gentiles in all lands would believe in Him. He therefore took the occasion of this request to announce the approaching fullness of the Gentiles, because the hour of His glorification was now at hand. After He was glorified in the heavens, the Gentiles would believe, according to the passage in the Psalms: Set up Yourself, O God, above the heavens, and your glory above all the earth (Psalm 56 and 107).

However, it was necessary that His exaltation and glory be preceded by His humiliation and passion. For this reason He says, Verily, verily, I say to you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone: but if it die, it brings forth much fruit. He was that grain of wheat, to be put to death by the unbelief of the Jews, and to be multiplied through the faith of the Gentiles.

The Venerable Bede: He Himself, from the seed of the Patriarchs, was sown in the field of this world so that by dying, He might rise again with an increase. He died alone; He rose again with many.

St. John Chrysostom: He illustrates His discourse with an example from nature. A grain of wheat produces fruit after it has died. How much more, then, must the Son of God? The Gentiles were to be called after the Jews had committed their final offense—that is, after His crucifixion. Now that the Gentiles of their own accord offered their faith, He saw that His crucifixion could not be far off.

To console the sorrow of His disciples, which He foresaw would arise, He tells them that patiently bearing not only His death, but their own as well, is the only way to what is good: He that loves his life shall lose it.

St. Augustine of Hippo: This may be understood in two ways. First: if you love your life, lose it. That is, if you wish to preserve your life in Christ, do not fear death for Christ. Second: do not love your life in this world, lest you lose it in the life to come. The latter seems to be the more evangelical sense, for it is followed by, And he that hates his life in this world, shall keep it unto life eternal.

St. John Chrysostom: He who indulges its inordinate desires loves his life in this world; he who resists them, hates it. It is not a matter of one who does not yield to them, but one who hates them. For just as we cannot bear to hear the voice or see the face of those whom we hate, so when the soul invites us to things contrary to God, we should turn it away from them with all our might.

Theophylact of Ohrid: It would be harsh to say that a man should hate his soul, so He adds the phrase in this world—that is, for a particular time, not forever. And we shall gain in the end by doing so, for we shall keep it unto life eternal.

St. Augustine of Hippo: But do not think for an instant that hating your soul means you should kill yourself. For wicked and perverse men have sometimes mistaken it this way and have burned or strangled themselves, thrown themselves from precipices, or otherwise put an end to their lives. Christ did not teach this.

On the contrary, when the devil tempted Him to cast Himself down, He said, Get you hence, Satan. But when no other choice is given—when the persecutor threatens death and you must either disobey God’s law or depart from this life—then you must hate your life in this world, so that you may keep it to life eternal.

St. John Chrysostom: This present life is sweet to those who are given over to it. But he who looks toward heaven and sees the good things that are there soon despises this life. When the better life appears, the worse one is despised. This is Christ’s meaning when He says, If any man serve Me, let him follow Me; that is, imitate Me in both My death and My life. For he who serves should follow the one whom he serves.

St. Augustine of Hippo: But what does it mean to serve Christ? The very words explain it. Those who serve Christ are those who do not seek their own interests, but the interests of Jesus Christ. They follow Him, walk in His ways and not their own, and do all good works for Christ’s sake—not only works of mercy for people's bodies, but all other works, until at last they fulfill that great work of love and lay down their lives for the brethren. But what is the fruit, the reward? you ask. The next words tell you: And where I am, there shall also My servant be. Love Him for His own sake, and consider it a rich reward for your service to be with Him.

St. John Chrysostom: So then, death will be followed by resurrection. He says, Where I am, for Christ was in heaven even before His resurrection. Let us ascend there in heart and in mind.

He says, My Father will honor him, not, "I will honor him," because they did not yet have a proper understanding of His nature and thought Him inferior to the Father.

St. John Chrysostom: In response to our Lord’s exhortation to His disciples to endure, they might have replied that it was easy for Him, who was beyond the reach of human pain, to speak philosophically about death and to recommend that others bear what He was in no danger of having to bear Himself. So He lets them see that He Himself is in agony, but that He does not intend to decline death merely for the sake of relieving Himself: Now is my soul troubled.

St. Augustine of Hippo: I hear Him say, He that hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal; and I am enraptured. I despise the world; the whole of this life, however long, is but a vapor in my sight. All temporal things are worthless in comparison with eternal ones. And again I hear Him say, Now is my soul troubled. You bid my soul follow You, but I see Your soul is troubled. What foundation shall I seek if the rock gives way? Lord, I acknowledge Your mercy. You, out of Your love, were troubled of Your own will to console those who are troubled by the weakness of their nature, so that the members of Your body would not perish in despair. The Head took upon Himself the feelings of His members. He was not troubled by anything but, as was said above, He troubled Himself.

St. John Chrysostom: As He draws near to the cross, His human nature appears—a nature that did not wish to die but clung to this present life. He shows that He is not entirely without human feelings, for the desire for this present life is not necessarily wrong, any more than hunger is. Christ had a body free from sin, but not from natural weaknesses. But these belong solely to the economy of His humanity, not to His divinity.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Lastly, let the person who would follow Him hear at what hour they should follow. A fearful hour has perhaps come; a choice is offered: either do wrong or suffer. The weak soul is troubled. Hear our Lord: What shall I say?

The Venerable Bede: That is, what can I say but something to confirm My followers? Father, save me from this hour.

St. Augustine of Hippo: He teaches you whom you should call on, and whose will you should prefer to your own. Do not let Him seem to fall from His greatness because He wishes you to rise from your lowliness. He took upon Himself human weakness so that He might teach the afflicted to say, Not what I will, but what you will. Therefore, He adds, But for this cause I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name—that is, in My passion and resurrection.

St. John Chrysostom: It is as if He said, “I cannot say why I should ask to be saved from it, for for this cause I came to this hour.” However you may be troubled and dejected at the thought of dying, do not run away from death. I am troubled, yet I do not ask to be spared. I do not say, Save me from this hour, but the contrary, Glorify your name. To die for the truth was to glorify God, as the event showed. For after His crucifixion, the whole world was to be converted to the knowledge and worship of God—both the Father and the Son. But He is silent about this.

St. Gregory the Great: When God speaks audibly, as He does here, but no visible form is seen, He speaks through the medium of a rational creature—that is, by the voice of an angel.

St. Augustine of Hippo: I have glorified it—that is, before I made the world—and will glorify it again—that is, when You will rise from the dead. Or, I have glorified it refers to when You were born of a Virgin, worked miracles, and were made manifest by the Holy Spirit descending in the form of a dove. And will glorify it again refers to when You will rise from the dead and, as God, be exalted above the heavens, with Your glory above all the earth.

St. John Chrysostom: Although the voice was loud and distinct, it soon faded from their coarse, carnal, and sluggish minds, with only the sound remaining. Others perceived an articulate voice but did not understand what it said. Still others said, An angel spoke to him.

St. Augustine of Hippo: That is, it did not come to tell Him what He already knew, but to tell them what they ought to know. And as that voice did not come for His sake, but for theirs, so His soul was not troubled for His sake, but for theirs.

St. John Chrysostom: The Father's voice proved what they were so fond of denying: that He was from God. For He must be from God if He was glorified by God. It was not that He Himself needed the encouragement of such a voice, but He condescended to receive it for the sake of those who were nearby. Now is the judgment of this world. This connects to the preceding words, showing the way He is to be glorified.

St. Augustine of Hippo: The judgment at the end of the world will be one of eternal rewards and punishments. But there is another kind of judgment—not of condemnation, but of selection—which is the one meant here. This is the selection of His own redeemed and their deliverance from the power of the devil: Now shall the prince of this world be cast out.

The devil is not called the prince of this world in the sense of being lord over heaven and earth—God forbid. The world, in this context, stands for the wicked dispersed over all the earth. In this sense, the devil is the prince of the world: that is, of all the wicked people who live in the world. The world also sometimes stands for the good dispersed throughout the world, as in, God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself (2 Corinthians 5:19). These are the ones from whose hearts the prince of this world shall be cast out.

Our Lord foresaw that after His passion and glorification, great nations all over the world would be converted. The devil was then in them, but upon their truly renouncing him, he would be cast out from their hearts. But was he not cast out of the hearts of the righteous men of old? Why then does it say, Now shall he be cast out? Because what once took place in a very few people was now to take place in whole nations.

What then, does the devil not tempt the minds of believers at all? Yes, he never ceases to tempt them. But it is one thing to reign within and another to lay siege from without.

St. John Chrysostom: I will explain by an example what kind of judgment it is by which the devil is cast out. A man demands payment from his debtors, beats them, and sends them to prison. He then treats with the same insolence someone who owes him nothing. This latter person will take vengeance for himself and for the others as well. This is what Christ does: He avenges what He has suffered at the devil’s hands, and in doing so, He also avenges us.

But so that no one may ask, “How will he be cast out if he overcomes You?” He adds, And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Me. How can He be overcome, who draws others to Himself? This is more than saying, “I will rise again.” Had He said that, it would not have proved that He would draw all things to Himself; but saying, I will draw, includes the resurrection and more besides.

St. Augustine of Hippo: What is this all that He draws but that from which the devil is cast out? He does not say all men, but all things, for not all people have faith. He does not, then, mean all mankind, but the whole of a person—that is, spirit, soul, and body—by which we respectively understand, live, and are visible. Or, if all means all people, it means those who are predestined to salvation, or it means all kinds of people and all varieties of character, except in the matter of sin.

St. John Chrysostom: Why then did He say earlier that the Father drew people? Because the Father draws through the Son who draws. He says, I will draw, as if people were in the grasp of some tyrant from which they could not free themselves.

St. Augustine of Hippo: He says, If I be lifted up from the earth, meaning, “when I will be lifted up.” He does not doubt that the work He came to do will be accomplished. By His being “lifted up,” He means His passion on the cross, as the Evangelist adds: This He said, signifying by what death He should die.

St. Augustine of Hippo: When the Jews understood that our Lord was speaking of His own death, they asked how that could be. The people answered Him, We have heard from the law that the Christ abides forever; and how can you say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this Son of Man? Although our Lord did not call Himself the Son of Man here, they remembered that He often called Himself so, as He had just before: The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. They remembered this and asked how, if the Christ abides forever, He could be lifted up from the earth—that is, how He could die upon the cross.

St. John Chrysostom: From this we see that they understood many of the things He spoke in parables. As He had spoken about death a short time before, they now saw what was meant by His being lifted up.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Or, they interpreted the word according to their own intended act. It was not imparted wisdom, but a disturbed conscience, that disclosed its meaning to them.

St. John Chrysostom: And see how maliciously they pose the question. They do not say, “We have heard from the law that the Christ does not suffer”—for in many places of Scripture His passion and resurrection are spoken of together—but they only mention that He abides forever. And yet, His immortality was not inconsistent with the fact of His suffering. However, they thought this proved He was not the Christ.

Then they ask, Who is this Son of Man?—another malicious question, as if to say, “Do not accuse us of asking this out of hatred for you; we are simply asking for information.” In His answer, Christ shows them that His passion does not prevent Him from abiding forever. Then Jesus said to them, Yet a little while is the light with you, as if His death were merely a departure for a time, just as the sun’s light only sets to rise again.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Yet a little while is the light with you. This is why you understand that the Christ abides forever. Therefore, walk while you have the light; approach and understand the whole matter: that the Christ will both die and live forever. Do this while you have the light.

St. John Chrysostom: He does not mean only the time before His crucifixion, but the entirety of their lives, for many believed in Him after His crucifixion. Lest darkness come upon you.

St. Augustine of Hippo: That is, if you believe in the eternity of Christ in such a way that you deny His humiliation and death.

St. John Chrysostom: What things the Jews do now, not knowing what they are doing! They are like people in the dark, thinking they are on the right road while they are actually taking the completely wrong one. Therefore He adds, While you have the light, believe in the light.

St. Augustine of Hippo: That is: while you have any truth, believe in the truth, so that you may be born again of the truth—that you may be the children of the light.

St. John Chrysostom: That is, "My children." In the beginning of the Gospel it is said, Born of God—that is, of the Father. But here He Himself is the one who begets. The same act belongs to both the Father and the Son.

St. Augustine of Hippo: He hid Himself not from those who were beginning to believe in and love Him, but from those who saw and envied Him. When He hid Himself, He was accommodating our weakness; He did not detract from His own power.

St. John Chrysostom: But why did He hide Himself, when they neither took up stones to throw at Him, nor blasphemed? He did so because He saw into their hearts and knew the fury they were feeling. Therefore, He did not wait until they acted on it, but withdrew to give their envy time to subside.