John 14:7Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

By seeing He means knowledge in the mind. Those whom we see we can both see and not know. But those whom we know, we cannot both know and not know.

Therefore He says, "and you have seen Him," in the same sense in which it is said that the angels saw Him (1 Tim 3:16).

Although they did not see His very essence, it is nevertheless said that they saw Him, that is, as they were able to see.

He spoke thus so that you might know that whoever has seen Him knows Him who begot Him.

They saw Him not in His naked essence, but clothed in flesh.

There are other places where He calls knowledge seeing, for example when He says, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Mt 5:8).

By the pure He means those who are free not only from fornication, but from all sins, since every sin defiles the soul.

Since you acknowledge Me as Lord and Teacher, you have undoubtedly received sufficient knowledge of Me, as far as is attainable for you, and sufficient knowledge of the Father.

Yet you have not yet received perfect knowledge.

There is another way to understand this. The words, "If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also," do not mean that they do not know Him.

Rather, they have this meaning: I told you that you know where I am going, that is, to the Father, and you know this way, that is, Me.

Thomas said to Me, "We do not know where You are going," and so forth. We also do not know this way.

I said to Thomas: I am the way, and no one comes to the Father except through Me.

Therefore, if you knew Me, you would know My Father also. But you do know Me; consequently, you also know My Father.

For from now on, He says, you know Him and have seen Him, having seen Me.

Some, following Jewish teaching rather than the Gospel, naturally supposed that the knowledge and confession of the one God of all was sufficient for right faith. They did not strive to know the doctrine of the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity. Therefore Christ necessarily, in a certain way, excludes knowledge of God from those who think in this manner, unless they are willing to receive Him also. This is because one must come to God the Father through the Son. In like manner, through contemplation of the Begotten, we shall come to the Begetter Himself. For there is no doubt that whoever believes in the Son’s existence as Son, that is, from the essence of Him who begot Him, certainly also knows the Father. Thus one may understand the saying with regard to the simplest and most unsearching knowledge. But if anyone wishes also to turn to the investigation of the matter itself through subtle contemplation, he too will find the truth in the Son’s words. The divine nature is, indeed, wholly inaccessible to every mind. To dare to investigate completely what the Creator of all is according to essence is a sign of utter derangement. Yet it is partly possible for us to gather some knowledge, as though in shadows and riddles. It is as though an enumeration of the excellences belonging to the Son’s nature presented a mirror to the mind. From what He Himself is, and from what was accomplished by Him when He became man and before His Incarnation, each person may fittingly come at last to contemplation of Him who begot Him. Observe, I ask you, the glory and power belonging to Him. Keep in view His unlimited authority over all things. Tell me, what, even among things surpassing reason, is not ordered by His free commands, both before the flesh and with the flesh? Having shown Himself to us as such through His very works, He says: “I and the Father are one. He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (Jn 10:30; 14:9). Therefore, according to the meaning of this saying, one must pass from the image to the prototype. From the reflection, surely, one must pass to Him whose reflection it is. We do not say, as some who are accustomed to think otherwise do, that the Son is made like the Father by certain acquired and external dignities. Nor do we say, as it seems to those who err, that He is called the image of God the Father because, though possessing His glory, power, and wisdom, He has another nature. Their babbling and ornate outpourings of words, or rather their impiety, were devised to distort and abolish the Son’s consubstantiality, in accord with their impious and God-opposing aim. But as Son, truly, ineffably, and beyond reason begotten from the essence of God the Father, He is His impress, image, and reflection. In His own nature He bears the property of the essence of Him who begot Him, and the beauty of His natural excellences. Let us not be mad like them. Let us not bring our mind to such impiety that we call one who is not God by nature like God. Let us not ascribe the glory of God to one not begotten from the essence of God the Father. Nor let us say that what is wholly created and brought from non-being into being can ever truly bear all divine power and wisdom. Nor can it be such as the divine and ineffable nature of God the Father must be understood to be. Indeed, in that case, what difference would there be between Creator and creature? What could serve as a mediating distinction of the identity of essence between creation and Creator? For if it wholly possesses His glory, power, and wisdom equally with God the Father, I could not say at all what greater thing there would be in Him. Nor could I say what superiority He would have over us or over creation. I suppose they also will prove unable to say. Therefore we do not present the Son as equal to the Father by external dignities. Nor is He like someone represented before us in a drawing on a board, portraying and replacing the form of a king by a varied combination of colors. Rather, He is the inscription and true image of Him who begot Him. In His own and natural qualities He makes manifest the nature of the Father. For this reason we say that it is impossible for anyone to know the Father unless he first knows Him, that is, the Son. “And from henceforth you know Him, and have seen Him.” I consider worthy of wonder the arrangement belonging to this saying and its structure, which is difficult to express in words. In the words, “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also,” He charged the disciples with ignorance of so necessary a matter. Yet He immediately indicated the opposite: “From henceforth you know Him, and have seen Him.” Since they were to become leaders of the churches spread everywhere, having heard from the Savior Himself, “Go and teach all nations” (Mt 28:19), He does this, I think, especially for this reason. Having beneficially indicated beforehand, and having spoken generally as if concerning all, that whoever has known the Son undoubtedly knows the Father and God from whom He is, He considers it useful to bear witness to knowledge in His disciples. He does this not for flattery, for He could not say anything untrue, but because they had truly learned and known. For no one of sound mind doubts that they knew and believed that the Lord is truly the Son of God. Otherwise, how did Nathanael, the true Israelite, as soon as he heard, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you,” immediately utter his confession of faith? He said: “Rabbi, You are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel” (Jn 1:49-50). Likewise, when the sea was wondrously and extraordinarily calmed, did not those in the boat worship Him, “saying: Truly You are the Son of God” (Mt 14:33)? Can anyone who does not know that He is God and begotten of God the Father say such things? Otherwise, would such a one not have to be counted foolish? Again, near the borders of Caesarea Philippi, when Christ Himself asked them, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” did they not first state the opinions of others? Some, it is said, regarded Him as Elijah, others as Jeremiah or one of the prophets. But they did not refuse to declare clearly, through the one who was foremost among them, what they themselves thought Him to be. This was Peter himself. Without hesitation they answered: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mt 16:13-14, 16). Therefore, when Christ said, “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also,” do not think that this saying was addressed only to the disciples themselves. Taking the person of the holy Apostles, He makes as it were a general definition for those everywhere. Notice that we must not consider them ignorant that He is God and the Son of God. But when God called Himself the way, they did not quite understand what seemed to be spoken enigmatically. Only in this respect must the fault of ignorance be found in them. Therefore, after reproving them in a few words because they could not understand what was not expressed plainly, He then sets forth from this a word common to all. He clearly teaches that the one who does not know the Son will also suffer harm with respect to the knowledge of the Father Himself. Then, as to disciples who had confessed the faith, He rightly bears witness to their knowledge with the words: “From henceforth you know Him, and have seen Him.” He uses the word “henceforth,” certainly not in the sense of from that hour or day when He spoke with them about this. He says “henceforth” by setting the present and new time of His coming against the ancient and first time. In this present time, knowledge of the Father through the Son has shone throughout the whole world. Therefore in the book of Psalms He says, as it were, to God the Father: “Wonderful is the knowledge of You because of Me” (Ps 138:6). And indeed, seeing the Son shining with miracles that surpass reason, and easily accomplishing whatever He wished with divine authority, we marveled at the knowledge of the Father received from this. By that knowledge we understand nothing other than the knowledge of the Son who has come forth from Him. Therefore, “from henceforth you know Him, and have seen Him.” We have known in the Son, as I have just said, who the Father is. We have not only known, but also beheld or seen. For knowledge indicates contemplation through thoughts, which can be received concerning the divine and ineffable nature, which is above all, through all, and in all. But to see indicates assurance through miracles. For we have not only learned that the Father is Life by nature. Nor have we received knowledge of this in ourselves only in a pure mental conception. In the Son, who gives life to the dead and raises those who have decayed back to being, we have learned not only that God the Father is Life by nature. We have also learned that He holds all creation in His authority and reigns as king over His creation, so that “all works are shaken and tremble because of Him” (2 Esdras 4:36), as it is written. We also see Him as such in the Son, when He rebuked the sea and winds and said with great authority: “Be silent, be still” (Mk 4:39). Therefore, since He intended to say not only that you have known the Father, but also that you have “seen” Him, He had to place the word “henceforth” first. For what reason? The Law of Moses proclaimed to the sons of Israel: “The Lord your God is one Lord” (Deut 6:4). It did not set forth for the ancients the doctrine of the Son. Rather, it tore them away from polytheism alone and called them to the worship of the One. But when our Lord Jesus Christ became man, He made the Father known to us through Himself by many signs and works. He showed the one nature of the Godhead, contemplated in the Holy Trinity and truly existing. Therefore He fittingly says “henceforth,” pointing to the imperfection of knowledge among those under the Law and those who live according to their rules. This also must be indicated: in saying that He Himself is seen in place of the Father, He does not abolish the true and distinct personal existence of God the Father, from whom He is. Nor does He say that He is the Father, insofar as this concerns the indication of person. But because He is consubstantial with the Father, He says that the Begetter is seen in Him. It is like the son of some man who, wishing to express the nature of his own father, points to himself and says to one desiring to know this: “You have seen my father in me.” Yet God, let us repeat, must be above all comparisons.

Thus He is in Himself, and therefore they are where He is, that is, in Him. He Himself is that eternal life in which we shall be when He receives us to Himself. And this eternal life, since it is He Himself, is in Him. Therefore where He is, there we also shall be, that is, in Him. For just as the Father has life in Himself, and the life He has is certainly nothing other than He Himself who has it, so also He has given to the Son to have life in Himself (Jn 5:26). For He Himself is the very life that He has in Himself. But shall we become what He is, that is, life, when we begin our being in that life, namely in Him Himself? Certainly not. For He has life as the fountain of life. By this He is what He has, and since life is in Him, He is Himself in Himself. We, however, are not life. We partake of life, and we shall be there in such a way that we cannot be in ourselves what He is. Yet, though we are not life, we shall possess Him as our life, who has life in Himself, because He Himself is life. In short, He is unchangeable in Himself and inseparable from the Father. But when we wished to be in ourselves, we cast ourselves into disturbance. Hence it is said: “My soul is troubled within me” (cf. Ps 41:7). Changing for the worse, we could not remain what we were. But when we come to the Father through Him, since it is said that no one comes to the Father except through Me (Jn 14:6), then no one will be able to separate us from either the Father or Him, while we abide in Him. Joining what follows to what precedes, He said: “If you have known Me, you have known My Father also” (cf. Jn 14:7). This is connected with His saying: “No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Then He added: “And from henceforth you know Him and have seen Him” (Jn 14:6-7). But Philip, one of the apostles, not understanding what he heard, said: “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us” (Jn 14:8). The Lord answered him: “Have I been so long with you, and you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (Jn 14:9). See how He reproves him because He had been with them so long and yet remained unknown to them. Had He not said to them: “And where I go you know, and the way you know” (Jn 14:4)? And when they said they did not know, did He not convince them that they did know by adding: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6)? How then does He now say: “Have I been so long with you, and you have not known Me?” For surely they knew where He was going and what the way was. They knew this for no other reason than because, of course, they knew Him. The answer to this question is not difficult, if we say that some of them knew and others did not. Among those who did not know was Philip. Therefore, when He said, “And where I go you know, and the way you know,” we should understand that He was speaking to those who knew. He was not speaking to Philip, to whom it was said: “Have I been so long with you, and you have not known Me, Philip?” And to those who already knew the Son. It was also said concerning the Father: “And from henceforth you know Him and have seen Him.” This was said because of the complete likeness, propter omnimodam similitudinem, which He has with the Father. Thus it was said that from henceforth they knew the Father, because they knew the like, similem, Son. Therefore they already knew the Son, if not all of them, at least some of them. To these it was said: “And where I go you know, and the way you know” (Jn 14:4), for He Himself is the way. But they did not know the Father. For this reason they heard: “If you have known Me, you have known My Father also,” that is, through Me you have also known Him. For I am one person, He another. But lest they think there was no likeness, He said: “And from henceforth you know Him and have seen Him” (Jn 14:7). They had indeed seen the Son, who is like Him. Yet they needed to know that the Father, whom they had not yet seen, was such as the Son whom they could see. To this belongs what was later said to Philip: “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.” This does not mean that He Himself is both Father and Son. The catholic faith condemns this in the Sabellians, who are also called Patripassians. Rather, it means that the Father and the Son are so like one another that whoever knows one knows both. For we usually speak this way about two similar men to those who see one of them and wish to know what the other is like: “You have seen this one. Therefore you have seen that one.” So also it was said: “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.” Certainly this does not mean that the Father is the Son. It means that the Son differs in absolutely nothing from the Father who is like Him. For if the Father and the Son were not two persons, it would not have been said: “If you have known Me, you have known My Father also.” Indeed, He says: “Since no one comes to the Father except through Me (Jn 14:6), if you have known Me, you have known My Father also. And I, through whom men come to the Father, will bring you to Him, that you may also know Him. But because I am like Him in all things, from henceforth you know Him, because you know Me. And you have seen Him, if with the eyes of the heart you have seen Me.” “Why then, Philip, did you say: ‘Show us the Father, and it is enough for us’ (Jn 14:8)? Have I been so long with you, and you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father. If it is hard for you to see this, then at least believe what you do not see. How do you say, ‘Show us the Father’ (Jn 14:9)? If you have seen Me, who am like Him in all things, then you have also seen Him to whom I am like. But if you cannot see, do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me?” (Jn 14:10). Here Philip could have said: “I do indeed see You and believe that You are like the Father. But should I be accused and reproved because, although I see the one who is like, I also wish to see Him to whom He is like? I have indeed known the one who is like, but so far I have known one without the other. It is not enough for me if I do not know Him to whom You are like. Therefore show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” But the Teacher reproved the disciple because He saw the heart of the questioner. Philip desired to know the Father as though the Father were better than the Son. Therefore he did not know the Son either, since he thought Him inferior to the Father. To correct this judgment it was said to him: “He who has seen Me has seen the Father. How do you say, ‘Show us the Father’? I see why you speak. You seek to see not one who is like, but Him whom you consider better. Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me?” (Jn 14:9-10). Why do you desire to see a difference between those who are alike? Why do you seek to know separately those who are inseparable? After this He speaks not only to Philip, but to them all together. These words should not now be confined within the narrow limits of the present sermon. With His help they must be opened later with greater care.

Therefore Jesus Christ sometimes says that the disciples know Him and God the Father, because they possessed some knowledge. At other times He says that they do not know, because they did not have proper knowledge.

Now He says: if you had known Me as you ought, who I am according to My essence, you would have known My Father also.

Since the Father is equal to Me and is not different from Me, the one who has known Me has known the Father.

"And from now on you know Him." Since you have known Me, although not as you ought, in the same way you also know the Father.

Chrysostom interprets the word "you know" (γινωσκετε) in the sense of "you will know" (γνώσεσθε). That is, you will soon know Him as you ought, when the Holy Spirit descends upon you.

"And you have seen Him." You have seen the power of God the Father in My power, in the divine signs that I have performed. What I can do, He also can do.

Christ answers in such a way that by His answer He directly removes every sensory understanding of His words.

He designates Himself as the sole and universal mediator and guide to the Father: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life."

He is the way precisely because in Him, for all creatures, lies the source of truth and true life (Jn 1:4, 14). Therefore, apart from communion with Him, no one comes to the Father.

"No one comes to the Father except through Me," because God was pleased to reveal Himself to the world in His Son (cf. Jn 1:17-18).

Therefore, "If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also." Since with the Incarnation and becoming man of the Son, the fullest and final revelation of the Father has been accomplished,

"from now on you know Him and have seen Him."

But they had already taken the first steps on this path (verse 4): "from now on you know Him and have seen Him."

The Lord revealed so much to them, especially at this supper, that He could say they had known Him from now on more than before.

They had seen Him, the invisible One, in Christ, as is clear from what follows; cf. Theophylact.

Thus the Savior also spoke of Himself to the Jews (Jn 8:19).

"From now on you know Him," the Father, "and have seen Him," more precisely, "from now on you know Him and have seen Him."

The disciples of the Lord Jesus were more attentive to His teaching and works than the Jews. They had at least prepared themselves for the true knowledge of the Son and the Father (Mt 16:16).

Therefore the Lord Jesus adds such a judgment about them as He never made about the Jews.

What is this boundary from which the disciples begin to know the Father? "From now on," when Christ had drawn near to His death on the Cross.

"Now the Son of Man is glorified" (Jn 13:31), the Lord Jesus said, as soon as Judas left the supper of love with full resolve to betray his Teacher into the hands of evildoers.

Thus by His death on the Cross the revelation of the glory of the Heavenly Father also begins for men.

The disciples of Jesus understood that their beloved Teacher was going to death. They did not wish to believe it, but they could not disbelieve the Teacher's clear words.

Therefore they sorrowed over the near separation from Him.

They heard His clear words: "No one comes to the Father except through Me." They heard that He was going to prepare a place for them.

Therefore they began to understand that in His sufferings and death the glory of the Heavenly Father would be revealed.

This understanding of the truth was weak and unsteady. But it had already begun and already existed.

These sparks of light would soon be turned into full light under the influence of the Comforter Spirit, who was so near to the disciples.

"And you have seen Him." The disciples of Christ had already seen the power and glory of the Heavenly Father in the works of their Teacher, Christ the Lord, though their sight until now had not been very keen.

Thus the Savior confirms what He had previously said to the disciples: "Where I go, you know, and you know the way by which I go." His words are true.

Sweetest Jesus, to whom shall we go? For us You are the way, the truth, and the life.

Our knees have grown weak from attachments to sins. We see the truth, but great are our infirmities.

Strengthen us, our Life, by Your power, that we may glorify You with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Because He is Life, the right to hope for eternal, inextinguishable life is also granted to you yourself.

"If I am life," says the Lord, "then even death itself cannot prevent you from coming to Me." Thus Chrysostom interprets verse 6.

In the next verse, verse 7, the Lord explains still more deeply His words in verse 6: "No one comes to the Father except through Me." He speaks of the unity of the Father and the Son.

"If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him."

The Father is known by man only through the Son and only through the merits of the Son. In other words, God is known only through the mercy of God incarnate.

Knowing the Son, we know God Almighty in His infinite love. No one can see God or know the infinite Essence. "No one has ever seen God."

Yet part of the great mystery of the divine Essence has been manifested to us in the act of His infinite love for the creature made according to His image and likeness.

That creature was redeemed by the sacred blood of the God-man. His love is revelation, and this revelation was accomplished in the Incarnation of God the Word.

"The only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him," that is, manifested Him, ἐξηγήσατο; compare the study of Jn 1:18.

By the last two verses we are studying, the final veil is removed from the human eyes of the disciples. True, only later, after the Lord's Resurrection, did they receive the revelation in full clarity.

They came to know that, in knowing the Son, they know God the Father. They cannot know Him otherwise than through the Son.

Until then they had chiefly seen in the Lord the One sent from the Father. They had, as it were, separated the Son of God from the Father.

Now the Lord shows them that such a division does not exist and cannot exist. God is one, invisible and incarnate. He is Creator of the universe and clothed in the humble form of a mortal.

He is unreachable and unapproachable, yet He is tormented by men on earth. He is the one God of omnipotence and of the greatest love, which expressed itself in human sufferings.

Yet the disciples could understand all this only after their minds were enlightened by the Lord's words, "Receive the Holy Spirit" (Jn 20:22).

Until then they only received the words of God and kept them, as the earth keeps seed that is to sprout under the life-giving action of God's power.

For this reason Philip asks the following question. It proves that his understanding of the Lord's words was still unclear.

As Chrysostom notes in his seventy-fourth homily on John, it also shows his desire and hope to see the Father in bodily form, because he knew from Scripture about the visions of the prophets.

But the Lord corrects precisely this, indicating that with bodily eyes one can see God the Father only in the Son.

Let us note in passing that all prophetic visions were visions of God the Word, the second Hypostasis of the Holy Trinity, the Son of God.

It belongs to Him to reveal God, who is seen by no one, especially by sinners.