John 16:25Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Since these words were veiled, He says, “Until now I have spoken to you in parables, but the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in parables.”

There will be a time when you will understand everything clearly.

He says this about the time of the Resurrection. Then “I will declare to you plainly about the Father.”

And indeed, for forty days He was with them and conversed with them, eating food with them and “speaking of the Kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3).

Now, being in fear, you do not attend to My words. But then, seeing Me risen and remaining with Me, you will learn everything fearlessly.

For the Father Himself will love you, when your faith in Me has become firm.

A parable is speech that explains some subject indirectly, veiledly, and by comparison. Since the Lord had said many things veiledly, and the discourse about the woman and childbirth was also parabolic, He says: “Until now I have spoken to you in parables.

“But the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in parables, but will tell you plainly about the Father.”

After the Resurrection, having shown Himself alive for forty days, He gave them the most mystical and detailed knowledge concerning the Father (Acts 1:3). Before this, they thought that God was His Father as He is ours, by grace.

By “parable” He means a hidden and not very clear speech, darkened by such subtle obscurity that, He says, the hearers cannot understand it altogether easily.

This is precisely how what is said in parables is formed.

Therefore what I have spoken, He says, I have spoken to you as yet in parables and riddles, leaving clear revelation for the proper time, now almost about to come.

Yes, He says, the “hour” will surely come, that is, the time when I will clearly set forth to you what pertains to the glory of the Father.

I will also implant understanding that surpasses the human mind.

He did not say with complete clarity what time this would be.

The time of which He speaks may be understood as that future life when, in the words of the Apostle, we shall see Him plainly, face to face (1 Cor 13:12).

Thus the words, “Until now I have spoken to you in parables,” agree with the Apostle’s words, “Now we see as through a dim glass, enigmatically” (1 Cor 13:12).

Yet “I will declare plainly to you” means that the Father can be seen through the works of the Son.

This corresponds to what Jesus says elsewhere: “No one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him” (Mt 11:27).

“These things,” He said, “I have spoken to you in parables, but the time is coming when I will no longer speak in parables, but will declare plainly to you about the Father.”

“These things I have spoken to you in parables,” that is, veiledly and not altogether clearly, because through fear and sorrow you cannot be attentive and enter more deeply into what is being said to you.

“But the hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in parables, but will tell you plainly about the Father.” The time is coming, meaning the time of My Resurrection, when I shall teach you openly and directly, because then joy will come for you.

Indeed, after His Resurrection Jesus Christ appeared to the disciples for forty days and spoke to them about the Kingdom of God, as the book of Acts relates (Acts 1:3).

When He says that He will tell plainly about the Father, He means the manifestation of His own majesty, which will reveal His equality with the Father and the procession of the co-eternal Spirit from both.

For then we shall see plainly how He who is to be begotten is not an extension of Him from whom He is begotten. We shall see how He who is brought forth by procession is not after those from whom He proceeds.

Then we shall see openly how the One is divided into Three, and how the Three are an indivisible One.

Until now they had asked the Father for nothing in Christ’s name. Then they will ask and receive everything.

Then He will not speak about the Father in a hidden way, as until now, but will plainly declare everything about the Father to them.

He did not even say that He Himself would ask the Father for them. They may be confident in the Father’s love for them and may turn to Him in prayer in Christ’s name.

“I came forth from the Father,” the Lord concluded, “and have come into the world; again, I leave the world and go to the Father.”

In that day, that is, after Jesus Christ’s departure to the Father, when they are filled with the Holy Spirit, they will first possess a completely satisfying knowledge of the truth.

Second, whatever they ask the Father in His name will be fulfilled.

Until now they had not invoked Jesus Christ in their prayers as God. Then they will know Him as the God-man and must pray in His name.

Third, until now, because of the disciples’ incapacity, Jesus Christ communicated His divine teaching to them in parables.

That is, He generally adapted its form to their manner of viewing spiritual things.

But the time is coming when the Holy Spirit will descend upon them, and through Him Jesus Christ will communicate inward and immediate instruction to them.

“I have spoken to you in parables, but the time is coming when I will declare plainly to you about the Father.

Until now I have asked the Father for you, but then you yourselves will ask in My name and will receive.

For the Father loves you because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from God.

Yes, I came forth from the Father and came into the world. Again I leave the world and go to the Father.”

Whether the Apostles understood that Jesus Christ, in speaking of His departure from them and His soon meeting with them afterward, meant His death and His appearance to them after His Resurrection is unknown.

It is more likely to admit that they did not understand.

In these verses the same thought as in the two preceding verses is unfolded somewhat more fully and positively.

“Until now,” or, according to the original, “these things,” “I have spoken to you in parables.”

“These things” means what the disciples were now asking Him about (Jn 16:17 and following), and what He answered them concerning it (Jn 16:20 and following).

It refers specifically to His departure, His new coming to them, and the circumstances and consequences of this.

He spoke to them of this in parables, that is, in figurative, indirect, and allegorical expressions.

“But the time is coming,” and so forth. After the Resurrection, and especially after the enlightenment of their spirit by the Holy Spirit, such figurative and indirect speech about God will cease.

Then the Lord Jesus Christ, without waiting for their question, explains to them in greater detail His words about death and Resurrection.

“Truly, truly, I say to you: you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will become joy.

A woman, when she gives birth, has sorrow because her hour has come. But when she has borne the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a man has been born into the world.

So you have sorrow now. But I will see you again after the Resurrection, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you” (vv. 20-22).

Here is yet another consolation for the disciples.

If until then they had not offered prayers in the name of the Son of God, this also depended on the fact that, according to the circumstances, teaching had until now been offered to them in parables.

After the Resurrection this would no longer be so.

In biblical usage, a parable means not only allegorical speech, but also every veiled saying, such as the Proverbs of Solomon, and in general any saying that appears enigmatic.

Thus the Savior says that His teaching, which He had offered the disciples until now concerning His person, His death, its consequences, and His union with believers, seemed enigmatic to them.

Indeed, He sometimes spoke in allegories or veiled sayings.

“I will tell you plainly about the Father.” That is, the teaching concerning God the Father will be announced to the Apostles openly and clearly, without parables.

Chrysostom points to the words of the Evangelist Luke in Acts 1:3-4, where he says that the Lord, for forty days after His Resurrection and before His Ascension, conversed with the disciples, “speaking of the Kingdom of God.”

Chrysostom considers the words of verse 25 in the present chapter to refer directly to that joyful time.

Then the Lord, even in the flesh, ate food, in order to convince the disciples that He was not an apparition, but God who had assumed human flesh.

Then the disciples heard the Lord speak to them “plainly of the Father.”

And when the Lord ascended into heaven, He sent the Holy Spirit, who guided them into all truth and “glorified the Lord.”

He established in the hearts of the disciples the Lord’s words, which He had spoken while in the flesh.