Church Fathers Commentary John 5:25-26

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself, even so gave he to the Son also to have life in himself:" — John 5:25-26 (ASV)

St. Augustine of Hippo: Someone might ask you, "The Father gives life to the one who believes in Him; but what about you? Do you not also give life?" Observe that the Son also gives life to whomever He wills. Verily, verily, I say to you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live.

St. John Chrysostom: After saying, The hour is coming, He adds, and now is, to let us know that it will not be long before it arrives. For just as in the future resurrection we shall be awakened by hearing His voice speaking to us, so it is now.

Theophylact of Ohrid: Here He speaks with a reference to those whom He was about to raise from the dead: namely, the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, the son of the widow, and Lazarus.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Or, He says this to prevent us from thinking that this passing from death to life refers only to the future resurrection. Its meaning is that the one who believes has already passed over. Therefore He says, Verily, verily, I say to you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live. He did not say that they hear because they are alive, but that they come to life again as a consequence of hearing.

But what is hearing, if not obeying? For those who believe and act according to the true faith are alive, not dead. In contrast, those who do not believe, or who believe but live a wicked life and have no love, should be considered dead. And yet that hour is still continuing and will continue until the end of the world, as John says, It is the last hour.

When the dead, that is, unbelievers, shall hear the voice of the Son of God, that is, the Gospel, and they that hear, that is, who obey, shall live, that is, be justified, and no longer remain in unbelief.

But someone will ask: Does the Son have the life from which believers will live? Hear His own words: As the Father has life in Himself, so has He given to the Son to have life in Himself. Life is original and absolute in Him; it comes from no other source and depends on no other power. He is not a mere partaker of a life that is external to Him; rather, He has life in Himself, so that He Himself is His own life.

Hear, O dead soul, the Father speaking through the Son. Arise, so that you may receive the life that you do not have in yourself, and enter into the first resurrection. For this life, which the Father and the Son are, belongs to the soul and is not perceived by the body. The rational mind alone discovers the life of wisdom.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: The heretics, pressed hard by scriptural proofs, are forced to attribute to the Son at least a likeness to the Father regarding virtue. But they do not admit a likeness of nature, being unable to see that a likeness of virtue could only arise from a likeness of nature, as an inferior nature can never attain to the virtue of a higher and better one.

And it cannot be denied that the Son of God has the same virtue as the Father, when He says, What things soever the Father does, the same does the Son likewise. But an express mention of the likeness of nature follows: As the Father has life in Himself, so has He given to the Son to have life in Himself. Life comprehends nature and essence. And as the Son has it, so it has been given to Him.

For that which is life in both is also essence in both. The life—that is, the essence—which is begotten from life, is born, though not born unlike the other. For, being life from life, it remains like in nature to its origin.

St. Augustine of Hippo: We must understand that the Father did not give life to the Son as if the Son were existing without life beforehand. Rather, He so begot Him, independently of time, that the life He gave Him in begetting was co-eternal with His own.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: A living being born from a living being has the perfection of birth without any newness of nature. For nothing new is implied when a living being is generated from a living being, since the life at its birth does not come from nothing. And the life that derives its birth from life must, by the unity of nature and the mystery of a perfect birth, both be in the living being and have the living being in itself.

Indeed, weak human nature is made up of unequal elements and brought to life from inanimate matter; nor does human offspring live for some time after it is begotten. Neither does it live wholly from life, since much grows and decays in it imperceptibly. But in the case of God, the whole of what He is, lives, for God is life, and from life, nothing can come but what is living.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Therefore, "given to the Son" means "begot the Son," for He gave Him this life by begetting Him. Just as He gave Him being, so He gave Him the ability to have life in Himself. Consequently, the Son did not need life to come to Him from an external source, but was in Himself the fullness of life, from which others—that is, believers—received their life.

St. John Chrysostom: The likeness is perfect in every respect but one: namely, that one is the Father and the other is the Son.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: For the person of the receiver is distinct from the person of the giver, since it is inconceivable that one and the same person could give to and receive from himself. The one who lives of Himself is one person; the one who acknowledges an Author of His life is another.