The disciples say to him: Rabbi, the Jews but now sought to stone thee. And goest thou thither again?
λεγουσιν αυτω οι μαθηται ραββι νυν εζητουν σε λιθασαι οι ιουδαιοι και παλιν υπαγεις εκει
14 Church Fathers comment on this verse
What, then, do the disciples say? "Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone Thee, and art Thou going there again?" Thus they feared for Him, but still more for themselves, because they were not yet perfect.
For this reason Thomas, shaken by fear, says, "Let us also go, that we may die with Him" (Jn 11:16). He was weaker and more lacking in faith than the others.
Because they feared for Him, since they did not yet have perfect knowledge of Him, and because they feared for themselves, they said to Him: "Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone Thee, and art Thou going there again?"
The disciples, out of love for Him, think to restrain Him. As men, they suppose that when He meets the Jews He will be exposed to danger against His will. Therefore they remind Him of the frenzy of the Jews against Him.
They speak as if to say: Why do You again seek to be with the faithless and ungrateful, who are tamed neither by deeds nor by words? They still burn with murder and rage against You.
Either they say this, or their speech indicates that He is leading them into obvious danger. Nevertheless, they obey the Teacher, as One who knew what was best.
In Judea they had almost stoned Him, and it seems that He withdrew from there for this reason. See Jn 10:31. But He withdrew as man, and by returning He shows His power.
Now see how confused His disciples became after these words. Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours in the day?" (Jn 11:8-9).
What does such an answer mean? They said, "A short time ago the Jews sought to stone You, and are You going there again?" So that You may be stoned?
But the Lord said: "Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because there is no light with him" (Jn 11:8-10).
Although He was speaking about day, our understanding is still like night. Let us call upon the Day, that He may drive away the night and illumine our hearts with light.
What, then, did the Lord wish to say? As it seems to me, and as far as I can judge of the height and depth of this saying, He wished to rebuke their doubt and unbelief.
For they wanted to give counsel to the Lord so that He might not perish. Yet He had come to accept death so that they themselves might not die.
In a similar way, elsewhere, holy Peter loved the Lord but did not yet fully understand why He had come.
He feared lest He die, and he contradicted Life, that is, the Lord Himself.
For when He announced to the disciples that He would suffer in Jerusalem from the Jews, Peter answered among the others and said, "Be merciful to Yourself, Lord! This shall not happen to You" (Mt 16:22).
Immediately the Lord said, "Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not mindful of the things of God, but of the things of men" (Mt 16:23).
A little earlier, Peter had earned praise for confessing the Son of God, for he heard: "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father Who is in heaven" (Mt 16:17).
He said to him, "Blessed are you." And He said, "Get behind Me, Satan."
Why was he blessed? Not from himself. But from where? "Because flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father Who is in heaven."
That is the source of your blessedness. Not from yourself, but from Me. Not because I am the Father, but because all that the Father has is Mine (Jn 16:15).
If his blessedness is from the Lord, why is he Satan? He Himself speaks and, of course, gives the cause of the blessedness.
"Because flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father Who is in heaven. This is the cause of your blessedness."
But He also said what followed: "Get behind Me, Satan." Hear the reason for this too: "For you are not mindful of the things of God, but of the things of men."
Let no one flatter himself. In what belongs to himself, man is Satan. In what belongs to God, he is blessed.
For whence comes what is from man, if not from sin? Cast away sin, and what remains that is yours?
"Righteousness," he will say, "is from me." But "what do you have that you did not receive?" (2 Cor 4:7).
But, He says, where there are afflictions, there the physician hastens. I go to those who stone, so that from those who stone they may become witnesses. "Many," it says, "believed in Him there" (cf. Jn 11:45).
"Now" means shortly before this. The disciples feared both for Jesus Christ and, still more, for themselves.
These are words of faintheartedness, and still more of ignorance. They did not know toward what the matter was moving. Otherwise, they would not have contradicted Him, nor spoken words that reveal a weak and timid spirit.
Moreover, since their faith was still unstable, they were not without reason afraid. Therefore they considered it necessary to say, "Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone Thee, and art Thou going there again?"
Meanwhile the Lord remained in the same place where the news of Lazarus's sickness had reached Him. Two days later He began to speak to the disciples of His intention to go again into Judea.
The disciples were troubled when they heard of this intention after the recent troubles in Jerusalem. Against their objections the Lord set one thing: His day was not yet ended. Therefore His way there, and theirs with Him, was safe.
Then, explaining the reason for the journey, He added: "Lazarus our friend has fallen asleep." Seeing that His disciples did not understand, He said plainly that he had died, and added: "I am glad that he died without Me. This is better for you, namely for your faith. Let us go to him. I will awaken him in your presence." Thus He showed that death is, as it were, sleep.
Joy at the death of a friend would be out of place, if some greater intention were not hidden in it. In these words, "I rejoice for your sake," the purpose is revealed.
This explains why the Lord did not give help to His sick friend during the illness itself, and why He was pleased to perform so great a miracle as He soon performed over Lazarus.
After the Jews had already twice sought to stone Him, the state of faith in the disciples required strengthening then, and still more for the great trials that lay ahead. But did they share the Lord's joy? No.
When they learned that Lazarus, Jesus' friend, had died, and that Jesus had allowed him to die without letting him see the glory of His Kingdom, they remembered His answer about Lazarus's sickness.
Then the Savior's demand that they go with Him to Judea involuntarily seemed to them a summons to go to His death. At least this was how they looked at it. They were accustomed always to act with caution.
Yet in their hearts they too were ready to follow Jesus. When they saw that His intention was unshakable, their feeling struggled with the fears of prudence.
They did not dare say anything to the Lord Himself. But they said to their fellow disciples: "Let us also go, that we may die with Him." They thought neither of Lazarus's resurrection nor of preserving their own life or the life of their Teacher.
When Jesus Christ, two days after receiving the news of Lazarus's sickness, said to His disciples, "Let us go again into Judea," the disciples began to dissuade Him from this journey. They reminded Him of the danger to which He had recently been exposed in Judea (10:32-39).
To this Jesus Christ answered: "Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him."
Jesus Christ probably spoke this figurative saying at the beginning of the day. Its outward meaning is that twelve hours still remain before evening, when it will be dark for travel. Therefore they can reach the goal of the journey before sunset.
Its inward meaning is this: while the time foreordained by God for the earthly life and activity of Jesus Christ continues, there is no danger for Him in going where He wills and doing what His calling requires of Him.
But here, too, a moral lesson is given to the disciples. Whoever acts in the light of God's commandments will not make mistakes, nor expose himself to the danger of death without need or benefit for himself and others.
But whoever turns away from this light and acts self-willedly is constantly threatened by such danger.
The Apostles took this as a return of Jesus to Galilee. Therefore they were astonished at His desire to go again into Judea, and said to Him: "Teacher, have the Jews not long been seeking to stone Thee, and art Thou going there again?"
Speaking in this way, the Apostles revealed their lack of faith. Seeing so many extraordinary miracles performed by Jesus, and pondering His divine teaching, they were ready to acknowledge Him as the true Messiah.
Even the Apostle Peter, when Jesus asked, "But who do you say that I am?" cried out: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Mt 16:15-16).
But they did not want even to think that the Messiah-Christ, the Son of God, could die. Since the Jews embittered against Him could kill Him if He appeared again in Jerusalem, they sincerely loved Jesus and wanted to turn Him away from a journey that seemed so dangerous to them.
The disciples reminded Him that the Jews had recently wanted to stone Him. They asked how He could again wish to go there. But He answered that during the twelve hours of His working day He could walk safely. The light of His duty, which was the will of the heavenly Father, guarded Him from danger.
The disciples said, and so forth. On this occasion the disciples truly expressed fear for their Teacher concerning the proposed journey. They reminded Him that only recently in Jerusalem they had wanted to stone Him (Jn 10:32, 39), and they strongly dissuaded Him from this journey.
The Lord uses this expression of their fearfulness to show them the inevitability of what must follow according to a higher decree. The Lord's answer (9-10) plainly has a double meaning.
The image He uses to express His answer is drawn from the circumstances in which He then found Himself. It was probably early morning, when the sun had just risen. Therefore they had twelve hours of daylight for their journey.
Throughout all this time, one may paraphrase the Lord's speech, we can go and make our journey without the least danger. The journey could be dangerous for us only if we prolonged it beyond the twelve daylight hours, when night comes and the daylight is no longer on the horizon.
But this will not be necessary, because, if they wish, they can reach the goal of their journey, Bethany, before sunset.
In the spiritual sense the Lord's answer means this. The time of our earthly life is determined by the highest divine will. As long as this appointed time continues, we may go without fear on the path appointed for us, that is, fulfill the works to which we are called.
We are safe, for the divine will guards us from every danger, as the sunlight guards those who walk by day. We would have to fear dangers only if night overtook us in our work.
That would happen if, arbitrarily and self-willedly, contrary to the will of God, we presumed to continue our activity longer than appointed. Then we would stumble, as people stumble at night when they do not see the daylight.
The application of this answer to the present circumstances is clear. The Jews cannot take from Me a single minute of the time foreordained for Me to fulfill My work. Therefore there is nothing to fear. I am still working by day, in the time foreordained for Me.
It would be untimely for Me to act if, as you advise Me, I failed to fulfill what has been appointed for Me. It would be so if I did not go now to Judea, avoiding danger, and did not receive what I must receive by God's decree.
Therefore let us work while our day lasts. Let us go into Judea.
In outward form and content, this whole saying resembles the one with which the Lord prefaced the healing of the man born blind (Jn 9:4). The difference is that there, in the evening, He says that one must not lose time for action.
Here, in the morning, He says that one must not self-willedly strive to act outside the foreordained time, contrary to God's will. Compare Theophylact and others.
Verses 8-10. "Let us go into Judea," the Lord said to the disciples. "Rabbi, the Jews were just seeking to stone Thee, and art Thou going there again?" the disciples said.
In Greek, "just" has the meaning of recent time, Acts 7:52. "Just now" means "a short time ago," as Plato says in the Timaeus. Not three months had passed since they had wanted to kill Jesus in Jerusalem.
After this, to go to Jerusalem meant to go into evident danger of life. The disciples loved their Lord, and when they saw danger to His life in Jerusalem, they expressed grief for Him.
Given the situation, danger for the Teacher was also danger for the disciples. The enemies of Jesus were no friends to His sincere followers. From Thomas's words (Jn 11:16), it is clear that, because of the Sanhedrin's bloodthirstiness, the disciples feared for their own lives also.
Christ Jesus says to them: "Are there not twelve hours in the day? ... Whoever walks at night stumbles." Whoever walks by day does not fear stumbling, for daylight shines. So the Son of Man knows the will of the heavenly Father and acts freely in the heavenly radiance.
How, in such light, could He not do the works of Him who sent Him? Jn 9:4. Let the disciples remain at peace. With Him they are safe.
It is different with those who go out to labor without being called from above. They wander at night, in darkness. The enemies of Jesus do not understand what they are doing.
Even if they wished, they cannot either hasten or prolong the time of the Son of Man's death. They are pitiable, because in darkness they prepare misfortunes for themselves.
Why, asks Saint John Chrysostom, did the Lord remain two days in the place where He received the message from Lazarus' sisters?
"He remained," says Chrysostom, "so that Lazarus might die and be buried. Then no one could say that He raised him when he had not yet died. Therefore He remained so long that corruption even occurred."
When the Lord announced to the disciples that He was going with them into Judea, fear came upon them that they would be killed there.
This was because of the well-known plot against the life of the Lord Jesus.
Saint John Chrysostom even thinks that Thomas' words in verse 16, "Let us go, that we also may die with him," refer not to Lazarus' illness.
Rather, they refer to the conviction that the Lord Jesus, with all the disciples and Lazarus' household, would be killed by the Jews.
It was clear to all the disciples that when the Lord said, "Let us go into Judea," He was not speaking of the small, relatively quiet and safe village of Bethany.
He meant that He was going again into that hostile land where His murder was being prepared.
On the one hand, the Lord calms their fear. On the other, He points to the feeling of duty, humanly speaking, which stands above all.
At the same time He also reveals to the disciples the higher divine mysteries.
"I must," said the Lord (Jn 9:4-5), "work the works of Him Who sent Me while it is day. The night comes when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."
The Lord is "the light of the world" (Jn 8:12). The same thought is repeated in verses 9-10 of the present chapter.
The Lord had to remain on earth only for a definite time. In this brief period, or boundary of time, appointed by divine providence, the great events that accomplished the salvation of the human race had to take place.
By pointing to this brief time, the Lord also shows that mankind's future blessedness lies in this work, done while the light shines.
Only this time of the Lord's dwelling on earth poured upon all mankind's future life that bright light of truth, love, and faith which shines for us amid the night of this world.
It is very important to notice the Lord's expression concerning the one who stumbles: "there is no light in him," ἐν αὐτῶ.
The Lord did not say that he stumbles because there is no light in the world. "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it" (Jn 1:5).
Rather, he stumbles because there is no light in the soul of the unbeliever.
Unbelievers have walked, and still walk, in the night of their soul. They stumbled, and still stumble, over that stone of stumbling and scandal for them.
Yet that stone became the foundation of the Church of God on earth; see Mt 21:42-44; 1 Pet 2:7; Rom 9. In the Old Testament books, compare Ps 117:22 and Isa 28:16.
Therefore, when the Lord speaks of day and night, He means, on the one hand, eternal day and eternal light, and on the other, the darkness of unbelief.
The brief dwelling of God in human form on earth is likened to day. This day is eternal for believers.
Those who walk by the light of this day do not stumble. But to kindle this day forever, the Lord, in the relatively brief time of His life, created new life for man.
This He calls working. He calls man's walking by day his abiding in the light of day, so that he may not stumble.
But man's walking outside faith and the ways of God the Lord calls darkness and stumbling.
The most terrible moment of this darkness was the "authority of the prince of darkness, the prince of this world," temporarily permitted by the Lord; Lk 22:53; Jn 14:30.
At that time the light of the world was not extinguished. Yet it was temporarily hidden from the people by the power of darkness, so that it might shine forth with the triumphant, glorious, unflickering light of Christ's joyful resurrection.
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 15 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS