John 12:41Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

"And he spoke of Him." What did he speak? "I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up" (Is 6:1), and the rest.

Thus he here calls glory the vision, the smoke, the hearing of ineffable mysteries, the sight of the seraphim, and the lightning that came forth from the throne. Those powers could not look upon it.

"And he spoke of Him." What did he speak? He heard the voice saying to him, "Whom shall I send, and who will go?" And I said, "Behold, I am here; send me."

And He said, "Hearing you shall hear, and shall not understand; seeing you shall see, and shall not perceive."

"For He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, lest they should see with their eyes and understand with their heart" (Is 6:8-9; Jn 12:40).

Here again is a new difficulty. Yet there will be none if we examine the matter properly.

As the sun injures diseased eyes, not because this belongs to its nature, so it is with those who do not heed the words of God.

In this same sense it is said of Pharaoh that God hardened his heart. So it is with those who in some way resist the words of God.

This is a manner of Scripture, as are the expressions, "God gave them up to a debased mind" (Rom 1:28), and, "He divided them among the nations" (Deut 4:19). This means that He allowed and permitted it.

These passages do not mean that God brings this about. They show that it happens through the malice of others.

When we are abandoned by God, we are handed over to the devil. Once handed over to the devil, we undergo countless calamities.

Therefore, to frighten the hearer, Scripture says, "He hardened," and, "He gave them up."

That God not only does not give us up, but does not even abandon us unless we ourselves will it, hear what He says: "Have not your iniquities made a separation between you and Me?" (Is 59:2).

Again: "Those who distance themselves from You perish" (Ps 72:27). Hosea says, "You have forgotten the law of your God, and I also will forget you" (Hos 4:6).

Christ Himself says in the Gospel, "How often would I have gathered your children, and you would not" (Lk 13:34).

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

By speaking thus, He shows that we ourselves begin God's abandonment of us. We ourselves are guilty of our destruction.

God does not wish either to abandon us or to punish us. Even when He punishes, He does so against His own will.

"I do not desire," He says, "the death of the one who dies, but turn and live" (Ezek 18:32).

Christ even weeps over the destruction of Jerusalem, as we do concerning our friends.

Knowing this, then, let us use every means not to fall away from God. Let us be careful for our own soul and have love for one another.

Let us not tear our own members away from ourselves. This belongs to the possessed and the insane. Rather, the worse we find their condition, the greater care we should show for them.

We often see people afflicted by stubborn and incurable bodily diseases, yet we do not cease applying remedies to them.

What, for example, is worse than gout? What is worse than disease of the hands? Yet do we cut off the limbs on account of this? Not at all.

On the contrary, we use every means to obtain at least some relief, if it is not possible to heal the disease.

Let us act in the same way with our brothers. Even if they suffer incurable diseases, let us care unceasingly for their healing and bear one another's burdens.

Through this we shall fulfill the law of Christ and attain the promised good things, by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ. With Him, to the Father, with the Holy Spirit, be glory unto ages of ages. Amen.

His sitting upon it seems to signify the strongest and unchanging firmness and permanence of blessings. Thus the divine David sings: "God sits upon His holy throne" (Ps. 46:9).

Likewise the prophet Jeremiah says to Him in one place: "You sit forever, and we perish forever" (Bar. 3:3). For always and at every time human nature is corruptible and created, and such is the lot of creatures.

But the Wisdom that fashions and creates all things sits, as I have said. That is, She has an unchanging and constant abiding.

Therefore this "sitting" signifies either the nature of the Master, or His kingdom. The very Seraphim stand before Him as servants, and they are higher and more honorable than the Angels themselves.

The word "seraphim" means "burners" (ἐμπϱησταί) or "those who warm" (ϑεϱμαίνοντες). For nothing cold enters the powers above, which are nearer to God than all creatures.

That the Seraphim cover their face and feet with their wings, and fly with two wings, is a symbol. It means that no one can see either the beginning or the end of concepts or words concerning God, by which His essence would be expressed.

The head and face signify the beginning, while the feet signify the end. For God is without beginning and without end.

With difficulty we understand the nature of the beings that occupy the middle between these extremes, namely between beginninglessness and endlessness. I mean, with respect to time, those creatures once brought from non-being into being.

They fly because they have nothing heavy or downward-drawing. On the contrary, their mind is always directed upward toward God.

They do not think of low things as we do. In the inexpressible heights of contemplation, the powers above have their mind.

Their mouths are also filled with doxologies. Yet they sing praise antiphonally, not because they grow weary, but because they give honor to one another and in turn receive the honor of offering doxology to God.

For everything above exists in ordered harmony. By saying "holy" three times, they conclude the doxology with the words: "Lord Sabaoth," presenting the Holy Trinity in one Godhead by nature.

For we confess that the Father exists distinctly in hypostasis, likewise the Son and the Holy Spirit. Yet it is in no way possible to divide each of those named into a difference of nature.

Rather, one Godhead is contemplated in three hypostases. For as coal is wood by nature, yet is wholly filled with fire and has its power and activity, so also the Word, being fire as God, "became flesh and dwelt among us" (Jn 1:14).

Although, for providential purposes, He was visible as a man like us, all the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Him. I mean, it dwelt through the union in the Incarnation.

Therefore through His flesh, and in His flesh, He is shown to possess and exercise divine powers. If it is said that He is taken with tongs, understand this carefully.

We receive faith in Him and knowledge of Him as if by tongs. That is, we receive them through the teachings, predictions, and testimonies contained in the law and the prophets.

From the fact that he here shows the Son having the same great glory that Isaiah saw, it is clear that there is no difference between the Father and the Son. For neither can man contemplate anything higher, nor does Scripture call anything else greater than this.

The Seraphim whom Isaiah saw beneath the throne of God (Is. 6:1-2) are higher and more honorable than all the Angels. What is said about the throne signifies the nature of the Master, or that He sits in royal rank.

Those who stand before Him remain in the servile condition proper to creation.

He could have said, "because we shall see Him," without adding "as He is." But because he knew that certain patriarchs and prophets had seen Him, he added, after saying "we shall see Him," the words "as He is."

Let none deceive you, brethren, among those who say that the Father is invisible, while the Son is visible. Such people assert this because they regard the Son as a creature.

They understand contrary to what was said: "I and the Father are one" (Jn 10:30). In a word, in the form of God, in which the Son is equal to the Father, the Son is likewise invisible.

That men might be able to see Him, He took the form of a servant and, being made in the likeness of men (cf. Phil 2:7), became visible.

Moreover, before He took flesh, He also manifested Himself in the world subject to Him before the eyes of men as He willed, and not as He is.

Let us, then, purify our hearts through faith, so that we may be made ready for that ineffable and, so to speak, invisible vision, invisioni visioni. For "blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Mt 5:8).

Therefore Isaiah saw glory on earth. But Ezekiel could not see His glory in heaven as it is. His glory is one thing in created realities, and another in itself.

For this reason, the glory that is in His works can be seen. But the glory that is in Himself can in no way be seen, except through a likeness.

Yet even this very likeness of the glory the prophet could not bear, even in a state of ecstasy.

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.

The Son, being the image of God (Phil 2:6; Heb 1:3), was in time to assume also the form of man. Therefore He was revealed in the Old Testament in humanlike theophanies and prophetic visions.

By virtue of Isaiah's vision of Christ's glory, the prophet spoke precisely of Him in that vision. Therefore his word about the people's blindness refers to the contemporaries of Christ's manifestation in the flesh and to their descendants.

They oppose Christ, not only as one who suffered, but as one who has already entered into His glory and reigns over the world.

"Isaiah said this when he saw His glory." Whose glory? The Son's. Judging by the sequence of the discourse, the prophet seems to have seen the glory of the Father.

Yet the Evangelist says here that Isaiah saw the glory of the Son. The Apostle Paul says that he saw the glory of the Spirit (Acts 28:25).

Truly, the glory of the Holy Trinity is one, the glory of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Theophylact; cf. Chrysostom).