Church Fathers Commentary John 14:5-7

"Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; how know we the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye would have known my Father also: from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him." — John 14:5-7 (ASV)

St. John Chrysostom: If the Jews, who wanted to be separated from Christ, asked where He was going, all the more would the disciples, who never wanted to be separated from Him, be anxious to know. So with great love and, at the same time, fear, they proceeded to ask. Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?"

St. Augustine of Hippo: Our Lord had said that they knew both, yet Thomas says that they knew neither. Our Lord cannot lie; they simply did not know that they knew. Our Lord proves that they did when Jesus said to Him, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

It is as if He said, "I am the way by which you must go; I am the truth to which you must go; I am the life in which you must abide." Everyone understands "the truth" and "the life," but not everyone has found the way. Even the world's philosophers have seen that God is eternal life and the truth that is the goal of all knowledge. But the Word of God, who is truth and life with the Father, has become the way by taking on human nature. Walk by the Man, and you will arrive at God. For it is better to limp on the right way than to walk confidently on the wrong one.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: For He who is the way does not lead us astray; He who is the truth does not deceive us with lies; and He who is the life does not leave us in the darkness of death.

Theophylact of Ohrid: When you are engaged in practical matters, He becomes your way; when you are engaged in contemplation, He becomes your truth. And to both the active and the contemplative, life is joined, for we should both act and contemplate in light of the world to come.

St. Augustine of Hippo: They knew the way, then, because they knew He was the way. But why was it necessary to add "the truth, and the life"? Because they still had to be told where He was going. He was going to the truth; He was going to the life. He went, then, to Himself, by Himself.

But did you leave Yourself, O Lord, to come to us? I know that you took upon yourself the form of a servant. Through the flesh you came while remaining where you were; through the flesh you returned while remaining where you had come. If by this, then, you came and returned, by this you were the way—not only for us to come to you, but also for yourself to come and to return again.

And when you went to life—which is Yourself—you raised that same flesh of yours from death to life. Christ, therefore, went to life when His flesh rose from death to life. And since the Word is life, Christ went to Himself, for Christ is both in one person: that is, Word-flesh.

Again, through the flesh God came to men, the Truth to liars—for God is true, but every man a liar. When, then, He withdrew Himself from humanity and lifted up His flesh to that place where no liar is, He returned by the same way He came. The same Christ, who as the Word became flesh, returned by Himself—that is, by His flesh—to the Truth, which is Himself. This is the truth that He maintained even to death while among liars.

Consider this: if I make you understand what I am saying, in a certain sense I go out to you, even though I do not leave myself. And when I stop speaking, I return to myself, but I remain with you if you remember what you have heard. If the image that God has made can do this, how much more can the Image that God has begotten?

Thus, He goes by Himself to Himself and to the Father, and we go by Him to Him and to the Father.

St. John Chrysostom: For, He says, if you have Me for your guide to the Father, you will certainly come to Him. Nor can you come by any other way. Whereas He had said before, No man can come to Me, except the Father draw him, He now says, No man comes to the Father but by Me, thus showing He is equal to the Father.

The next words explain this: Where I go you know, and the way you know. He says, If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; that is, if you had known My substance and dignity, you would have known the Father’s. They did know Him, but not as they should have. It was not until later, when the Spirit came, that they were fully enlightened. For this reason He adds, And from now on you do know Him and have seen Him—meaning you know Him spiritually and have seen Him through Me, for whoever has seen Him has seen the Father. They saw Him, however, not in His pure substance but clothed in flesh.

The Venerable Bede: How can our Lord say, If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also, when He has just said, Where I go you know, and the way you know? We must suppose that some of them knew and others did not, with Thomas being among the latter.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: Or, to put it another way: When it is said that the Son is the way to the Father, does this mean He is the way through His teaching or through His nature? We can see the answer in what follows: If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also. In His incarnation, by asserting His divinity, He maintained a certain order of sight and knowledge, separating the time of seeing from the time of knowing. He speaks of the One who must be known as having already been seen, so that from this revelation onward, they might gain knowledge of the divine nature that they had been seeing in Him all along.