John 14:2Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Then He adds: “In My Father’s house are many mansions.” Just as He said to the grieving Peter, for his consolation, “Afterward you will follow Me,” so He gives them the same hope. Lest they think that the promise was given to him alone, He says: “In My Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you: I go to prepare a place for you.” That is, you also will be in the same place where Peter will be. There are very many mansions there, and it cannot be said that they need to be prepared.

The Lord said to Peter: Afterward you shall follow Me. So that the others would not think this promise had been given only to Peter and not to them, the Lord says that the same country which will receive Peter will also receive you.

Therefore there is no need to be troubled about the place. For there are many dwellings "in My Father's house," that is, under the Father's authority. By "house" understand power and dominion.

If there were no dwellings, then I would go and prepare them for you. Thus you should not be troubled in either case, whether the dwellings are ready or not ready. If they were not ready, I would prepare them for you with all diligence.

After saying that they must by no means be troubled, and commanding them to believe both in God the Father and in Himself, He then clearly wishes to give consolation to the fainthearted.

He says that they will not remain outside the sacred court. They will dwell in the mansions above, live eternal life in the church of the firstborn, and remain in endless blessings.

"There are many mansions," He says, "in My Father's house." He teaches that heaven has room for very many, and that the creation made by Him has no need of enlargement in order to receive those who love Him.

The Lord said: “In My Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you” (Jn 14:2). By this He showed clearly enough that many mansions are already there, and that no need remains to prepare any. Yet He also says: “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, you may be also” (Jn 14:3). How does He go and prepare a place, if many mansions already exist? How do they already exist in the Father’s house, as needing no preparation, and yet not yet exist, because they must be prepared? How should we understand this, except as we understand the saying of the prophet, who calls God the One who has made the things to come? For the prophet does not say, “who will make the things to come,” but “who has made the things to come” (Is 45:11). He has made them by predestination, and He will make them by accomplishment. So also He has prepared the mansions and prepares them. The very mansions He has prepared are those He prepares, He who made the things to come. He prepared them by predestination, and He prepares them by accomplishment. Thus they already exist in predestination. If they did not, He would have said, “I go to prepare,” that is, to predestine. But because they do not yet exist in accomplishment, He says: “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself.” In a certain way He prepares the mansions by preparing inhabitants for the mansions. For when He says, “In My Father’s house are many mansions,” what are we to understand by the house of God, if not the temple of God? Let us ask the Apostle what that temple is, and he will say: “The temple of God is holy, which temple you are” (1 Cor 3:17). This is also the Kingdom of God, which the Son will deliver to the Father (1 Cor 15:24). This is the Kingdom of Heaven. Even now it is called a Kingdom, though it is still being gathered. This Kingdom does not yet reign. But at last it will be said to it: “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom” (Mt 25:34). That is, you who were a Kingdom and did not reign, come and reign. Then what you were in hope you may be in reality. Therefore this house of God, this temple of God, this Kingdom of God, and this Kingdom of Heaven is still being built. It is still being ordered, prepared, and gathered. In it there will be mansions, because the Lord is still preparing them. In it they already are, because the Lord has already predestined them. But how has He gone away to prepare, when He was preparing us ourselves? And this will not happen if He leaves us. I understand, Lord, as far as I can. You surely mean that, for those mansions to be prepared, “the righteous shall live by faith” (Rom 1:17). For he who is away from the Lord (2 Cor 5:6) must live by faith, and by faith he is prepared for vision. It is said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Mt 5:8). And again: “He purified their hearts by faith” (Acts 15:9). But the faith by which the hearts of those who will see God are purified, while they are still pilgrims, concerns what we do not see. For if we see, there is no faith. The believer gathers merit. The one who sees receives the reward. Let the Lord therefore go and prepare a place. Let Him go, that there may be no sight. Let Him be hidden, that there may be faith. For a place is prepared according to the measure in which we conduct our life by faith. Let us desire Him in whom we believe, that we may possess Him whom we desire. The desire of love is the preparation of the dwelling. Thus, Lord, prepare what You prepare. For You prepare us for Yourself and Yourself for us, preparing a place for Yourself in us and for us in Yourself. As You said: “Abide in Me, and I in you” (Jn 15:4). According to the difference of merits there will be a difference of rewards. One will partake of You more, another less. In this will consist the multitude of mansions, according to the variety of inhabitants. Yet all who dwell there will live eternally and be blessed without end.

But what confirms what follows, “In My Father’s house are many mansions,” if not the fact that they feared for themselves? For this reason they had to hear, “Let not your heart be troubled.” Which of them did not fear, when it was said to Peter, the most faithful and steadfast: “The rooster shall not crow before you deny Me three times” (Jn 13:38)? Thus, fearing that they would lose Him, they were rightly troubled. But when they heard, “In My Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you: I go to prepare a place for you,” they laid aside their trouble. They knew and believed that, after the threats of temptations, they would live with Christ in God. For even if one is stronger than another, wiser than another, more righteous than another, or more pious than another, “in My Father’s house are many mansions.” Therefore none of them will remain outside that house, where each will receive a mansion according to his merits. Indeed, the householder commanded that the same denarius be given to all who labored in his vineyard. In that denarius no distinction was made between those who labored less and those who labored more (cf. Mt 20:9). Certainly that denarius signified eternal life, where no one lives longer than another. In eternity there is no difference in the length of life.

But the many mansions indicate different degrees of rewards within the one eternal life. For “there is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars. Star differs from star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead” (1 Cor 15:41-42). Like stars in heaven, the saints receive in the Kingdom of Heaven different mansions of different brightness. Yet because of the one denarius, no one will be separated from the Kingdom. Therefore let God be “all in all” (1 Cor 15:28), so that, since “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8), through love what belongs to one may become common to all. For each one, by loving in another what he himself does not possess, also possesses it. Therefore let there be no envy over unequal brightness, because the unity of love will reign in all.

Therefore the judgments of those people must be rejected from a Christian heart. They think that many mansions are said to exist because there will be some place outside the Kingdom of Heaven. There, they say, those innocent and blessed persons will dwell who depart this life without Baptism, since without it they cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Such a belief is not faith, because it is not the true and catholic faith. O foolish men, blinded by fleshly thoughts! You would deserve condemnation even if you excluded from the Kingdom of Heaven the smallest baptized child. I do not even speak of Peter, Paul, or any of the apostles. How then do you think yourselves undeserving of condemnation when you separate from it the house of God the Father? For the Lord did not say, “In the whole world, or in all creation, or in eternal life, or in eternal blessedness, there are many mansions.” He said. “In My Father’s house are many mansions.” Is this not the house in which “we have a dwelling from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Cor 5:1)? Is this not the house concerning which we sing to the Lord: “Blessed are those who dwell in Your house. They will praise You unto ages of ages” (cf. Ps 83:5)? Do you dare to separate from the Kingdom of Heaven not the house of every baptized brother, but the house of God the Father Himself? To Him we all say as brothers: “Our Father, who art in heaven” (Mt 6:9). Do you dare so to divide the Father’s house that some of its mansions are in the Kingdom of Heaven, and some outside the Kingdom of Heaven? By no means! Let those who desire to live in the Kingdom of Heaven refuse to remain with you in this folly. Let it not be, I say, that the house of the reigning brothers should be anywhere except in the Kingdom. Nor let any part of this royal house be outside the Kingdom.

By the many mansions with the Father, the Savior means the measures of understanding of those who dwell in that country. I mean the distinctions and differences by which they enjoy there according to their understanding.

For the Lord named many mansions not according to a difference of places, but according to the degree of the gift. Everyone enjoys the rays of the visible sun according to the purity and impression of his power of sight.

So also from one lamp that illumines one house, each ray differs, though the light is not divided among many lamps. In the age to come all the righteous dwell undivided in one joy.

Consider the design by which God brought all things into being: that all, each according to his measure, might partake of His goodness. This is what is indicated by the words, “In the Father’s house are many mansions.” For each will partake of His goodness according to his works.

“Believe in God; believe also in Me.” These mansions are sufficient to receive all of you, who will always be with Us. “If it were not so, I would have told you: I go to prepare a place for you.” If there were not many mansions there, I would have told you that I go to prepare a dwelling place for you, as My own. Of course, I would first of all have taken care that you also should be where I am. Jesus Christ had already said earlier to the disciples: “Where I am, there shall My servant be also” (Jn 12:26).

Of the elect it is said in the Gospel: "In My Father's house are many mansions" (Jn 14:2). If all the righteous had an equal reward in blessed eternity, there would be one mansion there, not many.

They are many because the righteous will be placed in them according to their order, so that they may rejoice together in their righteousness.

Those who dwell in many mansions all receive a denarius (cf. Mt 20:1-16). This means that blessedness is one, and all who are there will obtain it.

Yet one and the same reward has different measure for different works.

As for sinners, the Lord said concerning the day of judgment: "Then I will say to the reapers: Gather the tares first, and bind them in bundles to burn them" (Mt 13:30).

By the many dwellings with the Father, the Savior means the different measures of understanding possessed by those who dwell in that country. That is, He means the distinctions and differences of spiritual gifts, which they enjoy according to the measure of understanding.

For He called many dwellings not a difference of places, but degrees of gifts. Just as each person enjoys the sensible sun according to the purity and receptive power of his sight, and just as from one lamp in one house the illumination differs, though the light is not divided into many lights, so in the age to come all the righteous dwell inseparably in one country.

43. The Kingdom of Heaven is like a tabernacle fashioned by God. In the age to come it too, like that of Moses, will have two veils. Through the first all who have been sanctified by grace will enter, but through the second only the more perfect.

44. By the many mansions the Savior meant the different degrees of the state there. The Kingdom is one, but within itself it has many differences, according to the virtue, knowledge, and measure of deification of those who will enter it.

For "there is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; and star differs from star in glory," as the divine Apostle says (1 Cor 15:41), though all shine in the divine firmament.

The Fathers, comparing the struggle of prayer in the name of the Lord Jesus with the other monastic struggles, say the following.

"Although there are other ways and kinds of life, or, if you wish to call them so, good works, which guide to salvation and grant it to those who practice them;

"although there are struggles and exercises that lead one into the state of a servant and a hireling, as the Savior also said, 'In My Father's house are many mansions' (Jn 14:2), yet the way of noetic prayer is the royal and chosen way.

"It is as much higher and more excellent than all other struggles as the soul is superior to the body. It raises one from earth and ashes to adoption by God."

"In My Father's house are many mansions": the speech is plainly figurative. The image is taken from the magnificent royal palaces of an eastern king.

In them there are many chambers, not only for kings and heirs to the throne, but also for all the king's children. In the East, because of special conditions of family life, these children were very numerous.

Or perhaps the image is taken from the temple of Jerusalem, as the house of the Heavenly Father on earth (Jn 2:16). In its adjoining buildings there were also many separate rooms, or mansions.

Under the image of this house with many mansions, a definite state is meant. It is the state of the Lord's glory in the glory of His Heavenly Father (Jn 13:32).

Here is the consolation which faith in the good heavenly Father gives: a sure hope of eternal blessedness. The house of the heavenly Father is heaven, from which the Son of God came down to earth.

Holy Scripture often depicts the place of eternal blessedness under the image of a house (Is 63:15; Ps 33:13; Mt 6:9; Acts 7:49; Heb 13:14).

It also calls it a heavenly dwelling, not made with hands and eternal (2 Cor 5:1), or a city whose designer and builder is God (Heb 11:10).

There, according to the Savior's words, "there are many mansions." What do the many mansions mean? An ancient teacher wrote: "How are there many mansions with the Father, if not according to the difference of merits?"