John 12:40Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

But listen to what is said, showing that God not only does not give us over, but does not even abandon us unless we ourselves wish it: "Have not your iniquities made a separation between Me and you?" (Is 59:2 LXX).

Again Isaiah says, "I came, and there was no man. I called, and no one answered" (Is 50:2 LXX).

He says this to show that we ourselves make the beginning of abandonment and are guilty of our own destruction.

For God not only does not wish to abandon us and punish us, but even when He punishes, He does so unwillingly.

"For I do not desire," He says, "the death of the sinner, but that he should turn and live" (Ezek 18:32).

Knowing this, let us do everything so as not to fall away from God. Let us have care for the soul and love for one another.

He is already blinded who does not at all receive the ray of divine light. He is hardened who does not wish to listen to the teaching that softens the heart.

The departure of God completely blinds and darkens him.

Therefore, when you hear that God blinds, understand it this way: He blinds because He is not present.

For if God were present to a man, the man would not become blind. If the sun were present, there would be no darkness.

Yet now the sun produces night. How? When it sets. So also God makes men blind by withdrawing from them.

He withdraws from them because of their malice. From then on they sin like blind men, without return, and fall beyond correction.

The meaning is this. Isaiah introduces words spoken as if by God: if I become man and with My own voice teach you what is profitable, even then you will not obey Me, just as you did not obey the prophets.

Even when you see miracles beyond reason, you will receive no profit from seeing. This is what the expression "you will not see" means.

He did not say, "I will harden their hearts and blind their eyes." Rather, He says that if you hear, you will not hear, and if you see, you will not see, so that I will not heal you when you turn to Me.

If they had heard and seen in the proper way, they would certainly have profited. Therefore the saying does not indicate a necessary punishment, nor the decree of a Judge condemning the Jews.

It serves as a foreannouncement of what is profitable, for He knew what they would be and declared it about them. Yet the word is not directed against all, but only against the unbelievers, for many of them believed.

The Seventy translated this passage in this way. It is likely, however, that the Evangelist, following the Hebrew text, which differs from the Septuagint, said: "Therefore they could not believe," because He had blinded them.

As to the direct meaning of the saying, he did not say that God blinded them. Naturally, this is because another did it, so that the Jews would not turn and receive healing.

Even if we accept that God blinded them, it must be understood this way: He permitted them to suffer blindness from the devil, since they were not good in their moral condition.

In this way He also "gave over" people of a similar moral condition, the Gentiles, "to a debased mind" (Rom. 1:28) and to passions.

While they were such, it was not just for them to know the depth of the mystery and the hidden truths, since they had not kept even the commandments under the law.

Therefore, if they received neither the law nor the Gospel ordinances, having closed the eye of their soul, then for this reason they do not receive the instruction that could enlighten them.

He utters many accusations against the Jews. Many signs did not shame them, but they were somehow unbending in their hardness of heart, though nothing had been omitted that could lead them to correction.

Even if the Jews, being ashamed, had believed, it was still impossible for the Holy Spirit to lie (Acts 5:3), who spoke through the prophet Isaiah concerning their unbelief.

They did not believe the prophets either, and Christ, the power and arm of the Father, was not made known to the Jews. That no one believed is said hyperbolically, because out of many only a few were saved.

Wishing to expose their boundless corruption, the Evangelist added the words "before them," showing that they did not believe even what they saw.

"Lord! ... to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?" The arm (βραχίων) of God the Father is the Son. This thought appears many times in the saint, often in almost the same words.

Compare: "The right hand (δεξιά) and arm of God the Father is the Son" (Commentarius in Isaiam prophetam 1:5, PG 70.256A). Also: "The arm of God and the Father, that is, the Son" (ibid. V.1, PG 70.1161B).

Also: "That the right hand and arm of the Father is the Son" (Thesaurus 35, PG 75.636C).

It is said of the Almighty that He cannot. Just as God's inability to deny Himself is praise of God's will, so their inability to believe is the fault of the human will.

I will say again: people who proudly suppose that they can manage by the powers of their own will, and therefore think that they do not need God's help for righteous living, cannot believe in Christ.

Neither the syllables in the name of Christ nor the mysteries of Christ are of benefit where faith in Christ is rejected.

The faith of Christ consists in believing in Him Who justifies the ungodly; cf. Rom 4:5.

It consists in believing in the Mediator, without Whose intercession we cannot be reconciled to God; cf. 1 Tim 2:5.

It consists in believing in the Savior Who came to seek and to save that which was lost; cf. Mt 18:11; Lk 19:10.

It consists in believing in Him Who said, "Without Me you can do nothing" (Jn 15:5).

Since the man who does not know the righteousness of God, by which the ungodly is justified, tries to establish his own righteousness, by which the proud man is exposed, he cannot believe in Christ.

Thus the Jews could not believe, not because men cannot change for the better, but because, so long as they think in this way, they cannot believe.

Therefore they are blinded and hardened. Rejecting the help of God, they do not receive it.

God knew beforehand this blindness and hardening concerning the Jews, and by His Spirit the prophet foretold it.

But God not only does this to no one, He does not even abandon anyone unless we first abandon Him ourselves.

He says, "Your sins separate between you and God" (Is 59:2). "You have forgotten the law of your God; I also will forget your children" (Hos 4:6).

David also said, "Behold, those who remove themselves from You shall perish" (Ps 73:27).

And the Savior Himself said to Jerusalem, "How often I desired to gather your children together... and you were not willing" (Mt 23:37).

"Lest they should see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and turn, and I should heal them." Here too hina, "lest," indicates not causal connection, but only the fulfillment of the prophecy.

That is, men will not see with their eyes, will not understand with their heart, will not turn, and will not be healed.

The eyes here, of course, are spiritual. The expression "they should not see with their eyes" is explained by the following expression, "nor understand with their heart."

The words of this verse, spoken on another occasion, were also explained in another way in the commentary on the Gospel according to Matthew (Mt 13:14 and following).

This is how the prophet depicts Him in that chapter. But the people of Israel remained the same up to the present time, when Isaiah's prophecy concerning the suffering Messiah came to pass.

Therefore the prophet's depiction of Israel's unbelief remains in force. It also proves prophetic in relation to Christ's contemporaries.

In the second of the cited Gospel passages, the reason is given for the people's unbelief both toward the preaching of the prophets and toward the word of Christ Himself.

The Evangelist shows that this latter prophecy also applies to the messianic times. He notes that Isaiah said this when he saw His glory, that is, the glory of Jesus Christ, and spoke of Him.

In the Prophet Isaiah, of course, it is stated that he saw the glory of the Lord of Sabaoth, God the Father Himself. But in the Old Testament, as in the New, God, who dwells in unapproachable light, revealed Himself to men in His Word.

Finally, the Evangelist adds the qualification that not all Israel proved hostile to Christ. Even among the rulers many believed in Him.

Yet these, loving the glory of men more than the glory of God, did not openly confess their faith because of fear of the Pharisees.

Telling how he saw the glory of God, the same Prophet relates the voice of the Lord which he heard: "Go and say to this people: Hearing you will hear and not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive. For the heart of this people has grown dull, their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed..." (Is 6:1-13; Is 53:1-12).

First of all, one must not think that this obstinacy of the Jewish people was an unexpected event of the last days. God foresaw it in His eternal counsel, as He foresees everything in human history. The prophets had already foretold it.

Alongside prophecies testifying that Israel rejoices in the light of its Messiah, they also contain the sorrowful prospect of an obstinate Israel. For this reason, Israel had to be replaced by other nations.

This must not be lost from sight, because here precisely lies the resolution of the first difficulty. "The people did not believe in Him," says the Evangelist John. "That the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled: Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?" (Jn 12:38; Is 53:1).

At the very moment when the prophet proclaims the future sufferings of the Messiah, he asks in amazement who will believe his word. Who will recognize, in the heavenly Messenger covered with reproaches, the almighty arm of the Lord?

Of course, the number of such people will be small. The reception of such a mystery requires strong faith and an exalted soul. The Jews did not deserve to preserve within themselves that gaze which penetrates the heart's depth and allows one to see through darkness.

According to the Evangelist, another word of the same prophet was fulfilled over them: "This people has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they should see with their eyes and understand with their heart, and turn, that I should heal them."

Here the Evangelist John cites the words of the Prophet Isaiah evidently from memory, without keeping to their verbal exactness. He follows neither the Hebrew text nor the Septuagint, though he preserves exactly the meaning of the prophetic sayings. See Is 6:10.

Thus, this is the cause of the unbelief of the people of Israel in the Messiah who had come. Israel proves unfaithful to God. Therefore God takes the light from it, and it ceases to see.

All this was foreseen. It can astonish only those who lack sufficient understanding to penetrate the meaning of Holy Scripture. The wisdom of God, therefore, was not put to shame.

It acted according to what had to be accomplished. The very malice of the Jews contributed to the fulfillment of His counsels.

The punishment which the unbelieving people deserved and therefore bore also entered into the plan of the divine economy. Israel did not see the light that had come forth from its own depths.

Yet it became a moving torch, illumining from age to age the heavenly countenance of the Messiah. Its own blindness, foretold by the prophets, became striking proof of the divine mission of Jesus Christ.

Blindness signifies the corruption of the organ appointed for receiving the inner light of truth: the mind. It is the distortion of the mind and of its activity in relation to the truth of Christ.

Hardening of the heart signifies the corruption of the organ appointed for the activity of moral feeling. It is the distortion of moral striving toward the good.

The corruption of these two chief organs had to lead to unbelief. They saw miracle after miracle and heard truth after truth, and yet did not believe in their Messiah.

The hardening and blindness of the Jews are so great and strong that there is not even hope for their swift conversion, by which this corruption of their spiritual sight and heart could be healed.

Nevertheless, the New Testament prophet, the Apostle, says that this blindness and hardening were permitted only for a time. Afterward all Israel will be saved (Rom 11:25 and following).