Thomas Aquinas Commentary John 7:1-8

"And after these things Jesus walked in Galilee: for he would not walk in Judaea, because the Jews sought to kill him. Now the feast of the Jews, the feast of tabernacles, was at hand. His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judaea, that thy disciples also may behold thy works which thou doest. For no man doeth anything in secret, and himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou doest these things, manifest thyself to the world. For even his brethren did not believe on him. Jesus therefore saith unto them, My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that its works are evil. Go ye up unto the feast: I go not up unto this feast; because my time is not yet fulfilled." — John 7:1-8 (ASV)

1. After our Lord considered the spiritual life and its food, He now discusses His instruction or teaching, which, as mentioned above, is necessary for those who are spiritually reborn.

   First, He shows the origin of His teaching; second, its usefulness (John 8).

   Regarding the origin, He does three things. First, He mentions the place where He revealed the origin of His teaching. Second, He notes the occasion for revealing this, with the words, the Jews therefore looked for Him. Third, His actual statement is given, beginning with, Jesus answered them and said, “My doctrine is not Mine” (John 7:16).

   Concerning the place, three things are considered. First, we see Christ invited to go there. Second, we see our Lord refuse, with the words, Then Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come.” Third, we see how Jesus finally did go, after the words, When He had said these things, He Himself stayed in Galilee (John 7:9).

   Regarding the invitation, two things are noted. First, the reasons why they encouraged Christ to go to Judea. Second, their exhortation itself, with the words, and His brethren said to Him.

   They were influenced by three things to encourage Christ to go to Judea:

   • His delay.
   • His intention.
   • The appropriateness of the time.

2. They were influenced by Christ’s delaying in Galilee, which showed that He wanted to stay there. Thus it says, After these things, that is, after teaching in Capernaum, Jesus walked in Galilee, meaning He set out from Capernaum, a city of Galilee, with the intention to journey throughout that region.

   Our Lord lingered so often in Galilee to show us that we should pass from vices to virtues: So you, son of man, prepare your belongings for exile, and go during the day in their sight (Ezekiel 12:3).

3. They were also influenced by Christ’s intention, which He perhaps told them; hence it says, for He did not want to walk in Judea, the reason being, because the Jews sought to kill Him. As it says above: Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God (John 5:18).

   But could not Christ still have gone among the Jews without being killed by them, as He did later? For example, but Jesus hid Himself, and went out of the temple (John 8:59).

   Three answers are given to this question.

   1. The first is given by Augustine, who says that Christ did this because the time would come when some Christians would hide from their persecutors. So that they would not be criticized for this, our Lord wanted to console us by setting a precedent Himself in this matter. He also taught this in word, saying, If they persecute you in one town, flee to another (Matthew 10:23).

   2. Another answer is that Christ was both God and man. By reason of His divinity, He could prevent Himself from being injured by His persecutors. Yet, He did not want to do this all the time, for while this would have shown His divinity, it might have cast doubt on His humanity. Therefore, He showed His humanity by sometimes fleeing as a man from His persecutors, to silence all those who would say that He was not a true man. And He showed His divinity by sometimes walking among them unharmed, thus refuting all those who say He was only a man. Thus, Chrysostom has another text, which reads, He could not, even if He wanted to, walk about Judea. This is expressed in a human way and is the same as saying that due to the danger of treachery, a person cannot go anywhere he might wish.

   3. The third answer is that it was not yet the time for Christ’s passion. The time would come when Christ would suffer, at the feast of the Passover when the lamb was sacrificed, so that one victim would succeed another: Jesus knowing that His hour had come, that He should pass out of this world to the Father (John 13:1).

4. They were also influenced by the appropriateness of the time, for it was a time for going to Jerusalem. Now the Jewish feast of Tabernacles was at hand. The word Tabernacles is a Greek word, composed of ‘scenos,’ which means shade or tent, and ‘phagim,’ which means to eat. It is as if to say it was the time in which they used to eat in their tents. For our Lord had ordered the children of Israel to stay in their tents for seven days during the seventh month, as a reminder of the forty years they had lived in tents in the desert (Leviticus 23:41). This was the feast the Jews were then celebrating.

   The Evangelist mentions this to show that some time had already passed since the previous teaching about spiritual food. For it was near the Passover when our Lord performed the miracle of the loaves, and this feast of Tabernacles is much later. The Evangelist does not tell us what our Lord did in the intervening five months. From this, we can see that although Jesus was always performing miracles, as the last chapter says, the Evangelist was mainly concerned with recording those matters over which the Jews argued and with which they disagreed.

5. Then, with the words, And His brethren said to Him, our Lord is urged on by His brethren.

   First, we are given their advice; second, the reason for it, with the words, so that Your disciples also may see Your works; and third, the Evangelist mentions the cause of this reason, with the words, for neither did His brethren believe in Him.

6. Regarding the first point, the ones who urge Christ are mentioned; hence it says, And His brethren said to Him. These were not brothers of the flesh or of the womb, as the blasphemous opinion of Helvidius would have it. It is, indeed, offensive to the Catholic faith that the most holy virginal womb, which bore Him who was God and man, should later bear another mortal man. Thus, they were His brothers or brethren in the sense of relatives, because they were related by blood to the Blessed Virgin Mary. For it is the custom in Scripture to call relatives brothers: Let us not quarrel, for we are brothers (Genesis 13:8), although Lot was the nephew of Abraham.

   As Augustine says, just as in the tomb in which our Lord’s body had been placed no other body was placed either before or after, so the womb of Mary conceived no other mortal person either before or after Christ. Although some of the relatives of the Blessed Virgin were apostles, such as the sons of Zebedee, and James the son of Alpheus, and some others, we should not think that these were among those who were urging Christ; this was done by other relatives who did not love Him.

   Second, we see their advice when they say, Pass from here, that is, from Galilee, and go into Judea, where you will find Jerusalem, a sacred place well-suited for teachers. Seer, go, flee to the land of Judah. There eat your bread and there prophesy (Amos 7:12).

7. They give their reason when they say, so that Your disciples also may see Your works. Here they show, first, that they are hungry for empty glory; second, that they are suspicious; and third, that they do not believe.

   They show that they are hungry for empty glory when they say, so that Your disciples also may see Your works. For they allowed something human to Christ and wanted to share the glory of the human honor that the people would show Him. And so, they urged Him to perform His works in public, for it is a characteristic of one who is seeking human glory to want publicly known whatever of one's own or of one's associates can bring glory. They love to pray at street corners, so people can see them (Matthew 6:5). We read of such people: for they loved the glory of men more than the glory of God (John 12:43).

   They reveal that they themselves are suspicious, and first of all remark on Christ’s fear, saying, for there is no man who does anything in secret. As if to say: You say that You are performing miracles, but You are doing them secretly because of fear. Otherwise, You would go to Jerusalem and do them before the people. Nevertheless, our Lord says below, I have spoken nothing in secret (John 18:20).

   Second, they refer to His love of glory, saying, and He Himself seeks to be known openly. As if to say: You want glory for what You are doing, yet You are hiding because You are afraid. Now this attitude is characteristic of those who are evil: to think that other people are experiencing the same emotions as they are. Notice the disrespect with which the prudence of the flesh reproached the Word made flesh. Job says against them, You reproach Him who is not like you, and say what you should not (Job 4:3).

   They show they do not believe when they say, If You do these things, manifest Yourself to the world, doubting whether He did perform miracles. He who does not believe is unfaithful (Isaiah 21:2).

8. The Evangelist tells why they said this when he says, for neither did His brethren believe in Him. For sometimes blood relatives are very hostile to one of their own and are jealous of his spiritual goods. They may even despise him. Thus Augustine says, They could have Christ as a relative, but in that very closeness they refused to believe in Him. A man’s enemies are in his own house (Micah 7:6); He has put my brethren far from me, and my acquaintances, like strangers, have gone from me. My relatives have left me, and those who knew me have forgotten me (Job 19:13–14).

9. Then, with the words, Then Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here,” Christ’s answer is given.

   First, He mentions that the time was not appropriate for going to Jerusalem; second, the reason for this, with the words, The world cannot hate you; and third, we see Christ deciding not to go, with the words, Go up to this festival day, but I will not go up to this festival day.

10. We should note that all of the following text is explained differently by Augustine and by Chrysostom.

    Augustine says that the brethren of our Lord were urging Him to a human glory. Now there is a time, in the future, when the saints acquire glory, a glory they obtain by their sufferings and troubles. He has tested them like gold in a furnace, and He accepted them as the victim of a holocaust. At the time of their visitation they will shine . And there is a time, the present, when the worldly acquire their glory. Let not the flowers of the time pass us by; let us crown ourselves with roses before they wither . Our Lord, therefore, wanted to show that He was not looking for the glory of this present time, but that He wanted to attain the height of heavenly glory through His passion and humiliation. It was necessary for Christ to suffer, and so enter into His glory (Luke 24:26).

    So Jesus says to them (that is, His brethren), My time—the time of My glory—has not yet come, because My sorrow must be turned into joy: The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come, which will be revealed in us (Romans 8:18). But your time—the time of the glory of this world—is always here.

11. He gives the reason why these times are different when He says, The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me. The reason the time for the glory of the worldly is here is that they love the same things the world loves, and they agree with the world. But the time for the glory of the saints, who are looking for a spiritual glory, is not here, because they want what is displeasing to the world: poverty, afflictions, fasting, and things like that. They even disparage what the world loves; in fact, they despise the world: The world has been crucified to me, and I to the world (Galatians 6:14).

    And so He says, The world cannot hate you. As if to say: Thus, the time of your glory is here because the world does not hate you, who are in agreement with it; and every animal loves its like. But it hates Me, and so My time is not always here. And the reason it hates Me is because I give testimony against it—that is, the world—that its works are evil. This means I do not hesitate to reprimand those who are worldly, even though I know that they will hate Me for it and threaten Me with death. They—that is, those who love evil—hate the one who rebukes at the city gate (Amos 5:10); do not rebuke one who mocks, lest he hate you (Proverbs 9:8).

12. But cannot a person of the world be hated by the world—that is, by another person of the world?

    I answer that, in a particular case, one worldly person can hate another insofar as the latter has what the first wants, or prevents him from obtaining what relates to the glory of this world. But precisely insofar as a person is of the world, the world does not hate him. The saints, however, are universally hated by the world because they are opposed to it. And if anyone of the world does love them, it is not because he is of the world, but because of something spiritual in him.

13. Our Lord refuses to go when He says, Go up to this festival day, but I will not go up to this festival day. For just as there are two kinds of glory, so there are two different feasts. Worldly people have temporal feasts: their own enjoyments, banquets, and other external pleasures. The Lord called for weeping and mourning... and look at the rejoicing and gladness (Isaiah 22:12); I hate your feasts (Isaiah 1:14). But the saints have their own spiritual feasts, which consist in the joys of the spirit: Look upon Zion, the city of your feasts (Isaiah 33:20).

    So He says, You yourselves, who are looking for the glory of this world, go up to this festival day—that is, to the feasts of temporal pleasure. But I will not go up to this festival day, for I will go to the feast of an eternal celebration. I am not going up now because My time—that is, the time of My true glory, which will be a joy that lasts forever, an eternity without fatigue, and a brightness without shadow—is not yet completed.

14. Chrysostom keeps the same division of the text but explains it this way. He says that these brethren of our Lord joined with the Jews in plotting the death of Christ. And so they urged Christ to go to the feast, intending to betray Him and hand Him over to the Jews. That is why He says, My time—that is, the time for My cross and death—is not yet completed, to go to Judea and be killed. But your time is always here, because you can associate with them without danger. And this is because they cannot hate you, since you love and envy the same things they do.

    But it hates Me, because I give testimony against it, that its works are evil. This shows that the Jews hate Me, not because I broke the Sabbath, but because I denounced them in public. Go up to this festival day—that is, for its beginning (for it lasted seven days, as was said)—but I will not go up to this festival day—that is, not with you, and not when it first begins—because My time is not yet completed, when I am to suffer, for He was to be crucified at a future Passover. Accordingly, He did not go with them then in order to remain out of sight.