Church Fathers Commentary John 8

Alcuin of York: At the time of His passion, our Lord would spend the day in Jerusalem, preaching in the temple and performing miracles, and then return in the evening to Bethany, where He lodged with the sisters of Lazarus. Thus on the last day of the feast, having preached the whole day in the temple according to His custom, He went to the Mount of Olives in the evening.

St. Augustine of Hippo: And where should Christ teach, except on the Mount of Olives—on the mount of ointment, on the mount of chrism? For the name Christ comes from chrism, which is the Greek word for unction. He has anointed us for wrestling with the devil.

Alcuin of York: The anointing with oil brings relief to weary and pained limbs. The Mount of Olives also symbolizes the height of our Lord’s mercy, as the Greek word for olive signifies mercy. The qualities of oil align with this mystical meaning, for it floats above all other liquids, and the Psalmist says, Your mercy is over all Your works.

His coming again to the temple early in the morning denotes the giving and unfolding of His mercy—that is, the now-dawning light of the New Testament in the faithful, who are His temple. His returning early in the morning signifies the new rise of grace.

The Venerable Bede: Next, this signifies that after He began to dwell by grace in His temple, that is, in the Church, people from all nations would believe in Him: And all the people came to Him, and He sat down and taught them.

Alcuin of York: His sitting down represents the humility of His incarnation. When He sat down—that is, after taking on human nature and thereby becoming visible—many began to hear and believe in Him, knowing Him only as their friend and neighbor. But while these kind and simple people were full of admiration for our Lord’s teaching, the Scribes and Pharisees asked Him questions, not for instruction, but only to entangle the truth in their nets: And the Scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, they say to Him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.

St. Augustine of Hippo: They had already remarked upon Him as being too lenient. Indeed, it had been prophesied of Him, Ride on because of the word of truth, of meekness, and of righteousness. As a teacher, He exhibited truth; as a deliverer, meekness; and as a judge, righteousness. When He spoke, His truth was acknowledged; when He used no violence against His enemies, His meekness was praised.

So they created a scandal on the grounds of justice. They said among themselves, "If He decides to let her go, He will not be just, for the law cannot command what is unjust. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned. But to maintain His meekness, which has already made Him so acceptable to the people, He must decide to let her go." Therefore, they demanded His opinion: "What do You say?" They hoped to find an occasion to accuse Him as a transgressor of the law. And this they said tempting Him, that they might have to accuse Him.

But in His answer, our Lord both maintained His justice and did not depart from meekness. Jesus stooped down, and with His finger wrote on the ground.

This was as if to signify that such persons were to be written in earth, not in heaven, where He told His disciples they should rejoice that they were written. Or, His bowing His head to write on the ground is an expression of humility, signifying that His law was now written on the earth which bears fruit, not on the barren stone, as before.

Alcuin of York: The ground represents the human heart, which yields the fruit of either good or bad actions; the finger, jointed and flexible, represents discretion. He instructs us, then, that when we see any faults in our neighbors, we should not immediately and rashly condemn them. Instead, we should first search our own hearts and then examine them attentively with the finger of discretion.

The Venerable Bede: His writing with His finger on the ground perhaps showed that it was He who had written the law on stone.

St. Augustine of Hippo: He did not say, "Do not stone her," lest He seem to speak contrary to the law. But God forbid that He should say, "Stone her," for He came not to destroy what He found, but to seek what was lost. What then did He answer? He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. This is the voice of justice. Let the sinner be punished, but not by sinners; let the law be carried into effect, but not by transgressors of the law.

St. Gregory the Great: For he who does not judge himself first cannot know how to judge correctly in the case of another. For though he knows what the offense is from being told, he cannot judge another’s deserts if, supposing himself innocent, he will not apply the rule of justice to himself.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Having struck them with the weapon of justice, He did not even deign to look at the fallen, but averted His eyes: And again He stooped down, and wrote on the ground.

Alcuin of York: This is characteristic of our Lord; while His eyes are fixed and He seems to be attending to something else, He gives the bystanders an opportunity to withdraw. This is a tacit admonition to us that we should always consider—both before we condemn a brother for a sin and after we have punished him—whether we ourselves are not guilty of the same fault, or others just as bad.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Thus struck by the voice of justice as if by a weapon, they examined themselves, found themselves guilty, and one by one withdrew: And they which heard it, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest.

Glossa Ordinaria: The more guilty of them, perhaps, or those who were more conscious of their faults.

St. Augustine of Hippo: However, two were left: the pitiable and the pitiful. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. The woman, you may suppose, was in great alarm, expecting punishment from one in whom no sin could be found. But He who had repelled her adversaries with the word of justice lifted on her the eyes of mercy and asked, Woman, where are these your accusers? Has no man condemned you? She said, No man, Lord.

We heard the voice of justice above; let us now hear that of mercy. Jesus said to her, Neither do I condemn you. I, whom you feared would condemn me because you found no fault in me. What then, Lord? Do You favor sin? No, surely. Listen to what follows: Go, and sin no more.

So then, our Lord condemned sin, but not the sinner. For if He favored sin, He would have said, "Go, and live as you will. Depend on my deliverance. However great your sins may be, it does not matter; I will deliver you from hell and its tormentors." But He did not say this.

Let those who love the Lord’s mercy, and fear His truth, pay attention. Truly, Gracious and righteous is the Lord.

Alcuin of York: Having absolved the woman from her sin, He graciously revealed His divine nature further, so that no one who saw He was truly a man would doubt His power to forgive sins; then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, I am the Light of the world.

The Venerable Bede: It should be noted here that He does not say He is the light of Angels, or of heaven, but the Light of the world—that is, of mankind who live in darkness. As we read, To give light to them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death.

St. John Chrysostom: Since they had used Galilee as an objection against Him and doubted that He was one of the prophets, as if that were all He claimed to be, He wished to show that He was not merely one of the prophets, but the Lord of the whole earth. Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, I am the Light of the world—not of Galilee, or of Palestine, or of Judea.

St. Augustine of Hippo: The Manichaeans suppose that the sun of the natural world is our Lord Christ, but the Catholic Church rejects such a notion. Our Lord Christ was not made the sun; rather, the sun was made by Him, for all things were made by Him.

For our sake, He who is the light that made the sun came to be under the sun. He hid Himself under the cloud of the flesh, not to obscure His light, but to temper it. Speaking, then, through the cloud of the flesh, the unfailing Light, the Light of wisdom, says to humanity, I am the Light of the world.

Theophylact of Ohrid: You may use these words against Nestorius, for our Lord does not say, “In Me is the light of the world,” but rather, I am the Light of the world. He who appeared as a man was both the Son of God and the Light of the world—not, as Nestorius mistakenly holds, the Son of God dwelling in a mere man.

St. Augustine of Hippo: He withdraws you, however, from the eyes of the flesh to the eyes of the heart when He adds, He that follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. He does not think it is enough to say one “shall have light,” but adds the words “of life.” These words of our Lord agree with those of the Psalm: In Your light shall we see light; for with You is the well of life.

For bodily use, light is one thing and a well is another; a well serves the mouth, while light serves the eyes. With God, however, the light and the well are the same. He who shines on you so that you may see Him is the same One who flows to you so that you may drink Him.

What He promises is in the future tense, while what we must do is in the present. When He says, He that follows Me... shall have, this means we follow by faith now to possess by sight hereafter. The visible sun accompanies you only if you go westward, where it also goes. But even if you follow it, it will forsake you at its setting. Your God, however, is everywhere, completely present; He will not abandon you if you do not abandon Him.

The darkness to be feared is not of the eyes, but of the mind. And if we speak of the eyes, it is the inner eyes, not the outer ones—not those by which we distinguish white from black, but those by which we discern just from unjust.

St. John Chrysostom: Walk not in darkness means, spiritually, do not remain in error. Here He tacitly praises Nicodemus and the officers and censures those who had plotted against Him, as they are in darkness and error, unable to come to the light.

St. John Chrysostom: Our Lord having said, I am the Light of the world, and, he that follows Me does not walk in darkness, the Jews wished to overthrow what He said. The Pharisees therefore said to Him, “You testify about Yourself; Your testimony is not true.”

Alcuin of York: It was as if our Lord Himself were the only one who testified for Himself, when in fact, before His incarnation, He had sent many witnesses to prophesy about His divine mysteries.

St. John Chrysostom: Our Lord, however, refuted their argument. Jesus answered and said, “Even though I testify about Myself, My testimony is true.” This is an accommodation to those who thought Him no more than a mere man. He adds the reason: “For I know from where I come and to where I am going”; that is, I am God, from God, and the Son of God. He does not say this expressly, however, from His habit of blending lofty and humble words together. Now, God is surely a credible witness for Himself.

St. Augustine of Hippo: The testimony of light is true, whether the light reveals itself or other things. The Prophet spoke the truth, but from where did he get it, if not by drawing from the fountain of truth? Jesus, then, is a credible witness for Himself: “For I know from where I come and to where I am going.” This refers to the Father, for the Son gave glory to the Father who sent Him. How greatly, then, should man glorify the Creator who made him.

However, He did not separate from His Father when He came, nor did He desert us when He returned; He is unlike the sun, which leaves the east when it goes to the west. And just as that sun shines on the faces of both the one who sees and the one who does not—yet only the one sees with the light while the other does not—so the Wisdom of God, the Word, is everywhere present, even to the minds of unbelievers. But they do not have the eyes of the understanding with which to see.

To distinguish, then, between believers and enemies among the Jews, as between light and darkness, He adds, “But you cannot tell from where I come or to where I am going.” These Jews saw the man and did not believe in the God, and therefore our Lord says, “You judge according to the flesh”—that is, by saying, “You testify about Yourself; Your testimony is not true.”

Theophylact of Ohrid: It is as if to say: “You judge falsely, according to the flesh, thinking that because I am in the flesh, I am only flesh and not God.”

St. Augustine of Hippo: Because you do not understand Me as God and see Me only as a man, you think I am arrogant for testifying about Myself. For any person who gives high testimony for himself is considered proud and arrogant. But people are frail and can either speak the truth or lie; the Light cannot lie.

St. John Chrysostom: Just as to live according to the flesh is to live wrongly, so to judge according to the flesh is to judge unjustly. They might say, however, “If we judge wrongly, why do you not convict us? Why do you not condemn us?” So He adds, “I judge no one.”

St. Augustine of Hippo: This can be understood in two ways. First, “I judge no one” means “not now,” as He says elsewhere, “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” This means He is not abandoning His justice, but only deferring it. Alternatively, after saying, “You judge according to the flesh,” He immediately says, “I judge no one,” to let you know that Christ does not judge according to the flesh, as they judged Him. For the fact that Christ is a judge appears from the next words: “And yet if I do judge, My judgment is true.”

St. John Chrysostom: It is as if He said: “In saying, ‘I judge no one,’ I meant that I was not preempting judgment. If I were to judge justly, I would condemn you, but now is not the time for judging.” He alludes, however, to the future judgment in what follows: “For I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me.” This means that He will not condemn them alone, but He and the Father together. This is also intended to quiet suspicion, since people did not think the Son was worthy of belief unless He also had the testimony of the Father.

St. Augustine of Hippo: But if the Father is with You, how did He send You? O Lord, Your mission is Your incarnation. Christ was here according to the flesh without withdrawing from the Father, because the Father and the Son are everywhere. Blush, you Sabellian! Our Lord does not say, “I am the Father, and I, the self-same person, am the Son.” Instead, He says, “I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.” Therefore, make a distinction of persons and a distinction of intelligences. Acknowledge that the Father is the Father and the Son is the Son, but beware of saying that the Father is greater and the Son is less. Theirs is one substance, one co-eternity, and perfect equality. Therefore, He says, “My judgment is true,” because I am the Son of God. But so that you may understand how the Father is with Me, know that it is not for the Son ever to leave the Father. I have taken on the form of a servant, but I have not lost the form of God. He had spoken of judgment; now He speaks of testimony: “It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true.”

Do the Manichaeans make poor use of this, noting that our Lord does not say, “in the law of God,” but, “in your law”? Who does not recognize here a manner of speaking customary in Scripture? “In your law” means “the law given to you.” The Apostle speaks of his Gospel in the same way, even though he testifies to have received it not from men, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.

There is much difficulty, and a great mystery seems to be contained, in God’s words: “In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.” It is possible for two to speak falsely. The chaste Susannah was accused by two false witnesses; the whole people spoke falsely against Christ. How then must we understand the saying, “By the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established,” except as an intimation of the mystery of the Trinity, in which there is perpetual stability of truth? Receive then our testimony, lest you feel our judgment. I delay My judgment; I do not delay My testimony. “I am one who testifies about Myself, and the Father who sent Me testifies about Me.”

The Venerable Bede: In many places the Father testifies about the Son, as in, “This day have I begotten You,” and also, “This is My beloved Son.”

St. John Chrysostom: “It is written in your law, that the testimony of two men is true.” If this is to be taken literally, in what respect does our Lord differ from men? The rule has been laid down for humans on the grounds that one person alone is not to be relied on, but how can this be applicable to God? These words are quoted, then, with another meaning. When two men testify about an impartial matter, their testimony is true; this constitutes the testimony of two men. But if one of them testifies about himself, then they are no longer two witnesses. Thus our Lord means to show that He is consubstantial with the Father and does not need another witness—that is, besides the Father’s. “I and the Father who sent Me.” Again, according to human principles, a person is admitted as a fair and credible witness in an impartial matter, but not in a matter relating to themselves unless supported by other testimony. But here it is quite different. Our Lord, though giving testimony in His own case and saying that He is testified to by another, pronounces Himself worthy of belief, thus showing His all-sufficiency. He says He deserves to be believed.

Alcuin of York: Or it is as if He said, “If your law admits the testimony of two men, who can be deceived and testify to more than is true, on what grounds can you reject My testimony and My Father's, which is the highest and most certain of all?”

St. Augustine of Hippo: Those who had heard our Lord say, “You judge after the flesh,” showed that they did so, for they understood what He said of His Father in a carnal sense. Then they said to Him, “Where is Your Father?” They meant, “We have heard you say, ‘I am not alone, but I and the Father who sent Me.’ We see you alone; prove to us, then, that Your Father is with you.”

Theophylact of Ohrid: Some remark that this was said with scorn and contempt to insinuate either that He was born of fornication and does not know who His Father is, or as a slur on the humble status of His father, Joseph. It is as if to say, “Your father is an obscure, lowly person; why do you mention him so often?” So, because they asked the question to tempt Him and not to learn the truth, Jesus answered, “You neither know Me, nor My Father.”

St. Augustine of Hippo: It is as if He said, “You ask, ‘Where is Your Father?’ as if you already knew Me and I were nothing more than what you see. But you do not know Me, and therefore I tell you nothing of My Father.” You think I am merely a man, and therefore you look for My Father among men. But since I am altogether different according to My seen and unseen natures, and I speak of My Father in a hidden sense according to My hidden nature, it is clear that you must first know Me, and then you will know My Father. “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also.”

St. John Chrysostom: He tells them it is of no use for them to say they know the Father if they do not know the Son.

Origen of Alexandria: “You neither know Me, nor My Father” seems inconsistent with what was said before: “You both know Me, and you know from where I am.” But the latter was spoken in reply to some from Jerusalem who asked, “Do the rulers know indeed that this is the very Christ?” The statement, “You neither know Me,” is addressed to the Pharisees. To the former people from Jerusalem, however, He said, “He who sent Me is true, whom you do not know.” You will ask then, “How is it true, ‘If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also,’ when those from Jerusalem, to whom He said, ‘You know Me,’ did not know the Father?” To this we must reply that our Savior sometimes speaks of Himself as man and sometimes as God. “You both know Me,” He says as man; “You neither know Me,” as God.

St. Augustine of Hippo: What does this mean—“If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also”—but that “I and My Father are one”? It is a common expression, when you see one person who looks very much like another, to say, “If you have seen him, you have seen the other.” You say this because they are so alike. And thus our Lord says, “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also,” not because the Father is the Son, but because the Son is like the Father.

Theophylact of Ohrid: Let the Arian blush, for if, as he says, the Son is a creature, how does it follow that one who knows the creature also knows God? For not even by knowing the substance of angels does one know the Divine Substance. Therefore, since he who knows the Son also knows the Father, it is certain that the Son is consubstantial with the Father.

St. Augustine of Hippo: This word “perhaps” is used only by way of rebuke, though it seems to express doubt. As used by people, it is indeed an expression of doubt, but He who knew all things could only mean by that “doubt” to rebuke unbelief. Indeed, even we sometimes say “perhaps” when we are certain of a thing. For example, when you are angry with your servant and say, “Are you not listening to me? Consider, perhaps I am your master.” So our Lord’s “doubt” is a reproof to the unbelievers when He says, “You should have known perhaps My Father also.”

Origen of Alexandria: It is proper to observe that the followers of other sects think this text clearly proves that the God whom the Jews worshiped was not the Father of Christ. For if, they say, our Savior said this to the Pharisees, who worshiped God as the Governor of the world, it is evident that the Father of Jesus, whom the Pharisees did not know, was a different person from the Creator. But they do not observe that this is a usual way of speaking in Scripture. Though a person may know of God's existence and have learned from the Father that He alone must be worshiped, yet if his life is not good, he is said not to have the knowledge of God. Thus the sons of Eli, on account of their wickedness, are said not to have known God. And thus, again, the Pharisees did not know the Father because they did not live according to their Creator’s command.

And there is another meaning to “knowing God,” which is different from merely believing in Him. It is said, “Be still, and know that I am God.” And this, it is certain, was written for a people who believed in the Creator. But to know by believing and to believe simply are different things. To the Pharisees, to whom He says, “You neither know Me, nor My Father,” He could have rightly said, “You do not even believe in My Father,” for he who denies the Son has not the Father, either by faith or knowledge.

But Scripture gives us another sense of “knowing” something: namely, being joined to that thing. “Adam knew his wife,” when he was joined to her. And if he who is joined to a woman “knows” that woman, then he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit and “knows” the Lord. In this sense, the Pharisees neither knew the Father nor the Son.

But may a person not know God, and yet not know the Father? Yes; these are two different concepts. And therefore, among the countless prayers offered up in the Law, we do not find any addressed to God as Father. They pray to Him only as God and Lord, so as not to anticipate the grace poured out by Jesus over the whole world, calling all people to sonship, according to the Psalm: “I will declare Your name to my brethren.”

Alcuin of York: Treasury (Gazophylacium): “Gaza” is the Persian word for wealth; “phylattein” is to keep. It was a place in the temple where the money was kept.

St. John Chrysostom: He spoke in the temple with authority, and now He was speaking to those who railed at and accused Him of making Himself equal to the Father.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Great, however, is His confidence and fearlessness, since it was not possible for Him to undergo any suffering except that which He voluntarily undertook. Therefore, it follows, “And no man laid hands on Him, for His hour had not yet come.”

Some, when they hear this, think Christ was under the control of fate. But if “fate” comes from the verb fari, “to speak,” as some derive it, how can the Word of God be under the control of fate? Where are the fates? In the heavens, you say, in the courses and revolutions of the stars. How then can fate have power over Him, by whom the heavens and stars were made, when even your own will, if you use it rightly, transcends the stars?

Do you think that because the flesh of Christ was placed beneath the heavens, His power was therefore subjected to the heavens? His hour, then, had not yet come; that is, not the hour when He would be forced to die, but the hour when He would choose to be put to death.

Origen of Alexandria: Whenever it is added that “Jesus spoke these words” in a certain place, you will, if you pay attention, discover a meaning in the addition. The treasury was a place for keeping the money that was given for the honor of God and the support of the poor. The coins are the divine words, stamped with the likeness of the great King. In this sense, then, let everyone contribute to the building up of the Church, carrying into that spiritual treasury all that he can collect for the honor of God and the common good. But while all were thus contributing to the treasury of the temple, it was especially the office of Jesus to contribute His gifts, which were the words of eternal life. While Jesus, therefore, was speaking in the treasury, no one laid hands on Him. His discourse was stronger than those who wished to take Him, for there is no weakness in that which the Word of God utters.

The Venerable Bede: Or, to put it another way: Christ speaks in the treasury. That is, He had spoken in parables to the Jews, but now that He unfolded heavenly things to His disciples, His treasury began to be opened. This was the meaning of the treasury being joined to the temple: all that the Law and the Prophets had foretold in figures pertained to our Lord.

St. Augustine of Hippo: In accordance with what was just, He said that no one laid hands on Him because His hour had not yet come. He now speaks to the Jews of His passion as a free and not a compulsory sacrifice on His part. Then Jesus said to them again, I go My way. For our Lord, death was a return to the place from where He had come.

The Venerable Bede: These words could have been spoken at the same time and place, or at a different time and place, as it is possible that nothing, some things, or many other events intervened.

Origen of Alexandria: But someone will object: If this was spoken to people who persisted in unbelief, why does He say, You shall seek Me? For to seek Jesus is to seek truth and wisdom. You might answer that this was said of His persecutors, who sought to capture Him.

There are different ways of seeking Jesus. Not all seek Him for their health and benefit; only those who seek Him rightly find peace. And they are said to seek Him rightly who seek the Word who was in the beginning with God, so that He may lead them to the Father.

St. Augustine of Hippo: He says, then, You shall seek Me, not from compassionate regret, but from hatred. For after He departed from human sight, He was sought by both those who hated Him and those who loved Him—the former wanting to persecute Him, the latter wanting His presence. And so that you do not think you will seek Him for a good reason, He tells you, You shall die in your sin. This is what it means to seek Christ wrongly: to die in one's sin. This is to hate Him from whom alone salvation comes. He prophetically pronounces this sentence on them: that they will die in their sins.

The Venerable Bede: Note that the word for sin is singular, while the pronoun "your" is plural, expressing that the same wickedness is in all of them.

Origen of Alexandria: But I ask, since it is said later that many believed in Him, whether He is speaking to everyone present when He says, You shall die in your sins? No, He speaks only to those whom He knew would not believe and would therefore die in their sins, unable to follow Him. He says, Where I go, you cannot come—that is, to the place where truth and wisdom are, for Jesus dwells with them. He says they cannot come because they are not willing; for if they had been willing, He could not have reasonably said, You shall die in your sin.

St. Augustine of Hippo: He tells His disciples this in another place, but without saying to them, You shall die in your sin. He only says, Where I go, you cannot follow Me now, not preventing their coming, but only delaying it.

Origen of Alexandria: The Word, while still present, nevertheless threatens to depart. As long as we preserve the seeds of truth implanted in our minds, the Word of God does not depart from us. But if we fall into wickedness, then He says to us, I go away. When we then seek Him, we will not find Him, but will instead die in our sin—caught in our sin.

But we should not overlook the expression itself: You shall die in your sins. If “you shall die” is understood in the ordinary sense, it is clear that sinners die in their sins and the righteous in their righteousness. But if we understand it as death in the sense of sin, then the meaning is that their souls, not their bodies, were sick unto death. The Physician, seeing them so gravely sick, says, You shall die in your sins.

This is evidently the meaning of the words, Where I go, you cannot come. For when a person dies in his sin, he cannot go where Jesus goes; no one who is dead in sin can follow Jesus. As it is written, The dead do not praise the LORD.

St. Augustine of Hippo: They take these words, as they usually do, in a fleshly sense and ask, “Will He kill Himself?” because He said, “Where I go, you cannot come.” A foolish question! Why? Could they not go where He went if He killed Himself? Were they never to die themselves? When He says, Where I go, then, He does not mean His departure at death, but where He went after death.

Theophylact of Ohrid: He shows here that He will rise again in glory and sit at the right hand of God.

Origen of Alexandria: However, might they not have a higher meaning in saying this? For they had opportunities to know many things from their apocryphal books or from tradition. Just as there was a prophetic tradition that Christ was to be born in Bethlehem, so there may have also been a tradition about His death—namely, that He would depart from this life in the way He declares: No man takes it from Me; I lay it down of Myself.

So then, the question, Will He kill Himself? is not to be taken in its obvious sense, but as referring to some Jewish tradition about Christ. For His saying, I go My way, shows that He had power over His own death and departure from the body, so that these actions were voluntary on His part. But I think that they bring forward this tradition about Christ's death contemptuously, not with any intention of giving Him glory. They say, “Will He kill Himself?” when, in fact, they should have used a more exalted way of speaking, such as, “Will His soul wait for His command to depart from His body?”

Our Lord answers, You are from beneath—that is, you love earthly things; your hearts are not raised upward. He speaks to them as earthly people, for their thoughts were earthly.

St. John Chrysostom: It is as if He were saying, “No wonder you think as you do, since you are of the flesh and understand nothing spiritually. I am from above.”

St. Augustine of Hippo: From where above? From the Father Himself, who is above all. You are of this world; I am not of this world. How could He be of the world, by whom the world was made?

The Venerable Bede: And He was before the world, while they were of the world, having been created after the world began to exist.

St. John Chrysostom: Or, He says, I am not of this world, with reference to worldly and vain thoughts.

Theophylact of Ohrid: I pursue nothing worldly, nothing earthly; I could never descend to such madness as to kill Myself. Apollinarius, however, falsely infers from these words that our Lord’s body was not of this world but came down from heaven. Did the Apostles, then, to whom our Lord says later, You are not of this world, all derive their bodies from heaven? In saying, I am not of this world, He must be understood to mean, “I am not one of you who set your minds on earthly things.”

Origen of Alexandria: “Beneath” and “of this world” are different things. “Beneath” refers to a particular place. This material world contains different regions, all of which are “beneath” when compared with things immaterial and invisible; but when compared with one another, some are beneath and some are above. Where each person’s treasure is, there his heart is also. If someone lays up treasure on earth, he is “beneath”; if anyone lays up treasure in heaven, he is “above.” Indeed, he ascends above all heavens and attains a most blissful end.

Again, the love of this world makes a person to be “of this world,” while he who does not love the world or the things in the world is not of the world. Yet beyond this world of sense, there is another world in which there are invisible things, the beauty of which the pure in heart will behold. Indeed, the First-born of all creation may be called “the world,” insofar as He is absolute wisdom, and in wisdom all things were made. In Him, therefore, was the whole world, differing from the material world insofar as a blueprint differs from the material substance itself. The soul of Christ, then, says, I am not of this world, because its way of life is not in this world.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Our Lord expresses His meaning in the words, You are of this world—that is, you are sinners. All of us are born in sin, and all have added by our actions to the sin in which we were born. The misery of the Jews, then, was not that they had sin, but that they would die in their sin. Therefore, I said to you, that you shall die in your sin.

Among the multitude who heard our Lord, however, there were some who were about to believe. Yet this most severe sentence had been pronounced against all: You shall die in your sin, destroying all hope even in those who would later believe. So His next words recall these people to hope: For if you believe not that I am He, you shall die in your sin; therefore if you believe that I am He, you shall not die in your sin.

St. John Chrysostom: For if He came to take away sin, and a person cannot put it off except by the washing of baptism, and cannot be baptized unless he believes, it follows that he who does not believe must depart from this life with the “old man”—that is, sin—still within him. This is not only because he does not believe, but because he departs from here with his former sins still upon him.

St. Augustine of Hippo: His saying, If you believe not that I am, without adding anything else, proves a great deal. For this is how God spoke to Moses: I am that I am. But how do I understand I am that I am and If you believe not that I am? In this way: Any excellence, of whatever kind, if it is mutable, cannot be said to truly exist, for there is no true being where non-being is possible.

Analyze the idea of mutability, and you will find past and future. Contemplate God, and you will find only the present—“is”—without the possibility of a past. To truly exist, you must leave that mutability behind. So then, If you believe not that I am means, in fact, “If you do not believe that I am God.” This is the condition on which we will not die in our sins. Thanks be to God that He requires us to believe, not to understand, when He says, If you believe not—for who could understand this?

Origen of Alexandria: It is clear that anyone who dies in his sins, even if he says he believes in Christ, does not really believe. For he who believes in His justice does not commit injustice, and he who believes in His wisdom does not act or speak foolishly. In the same way, regarding the other attributes of Christ, you will find that the one who does not truly believe in Christ dies in his sins, because he becomes the very opposite of what is seen in Christ.