John 16:30Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Then, since they say "Now we know" as though offering Him some gratitude, He answers: You still need much in order to come to perfection. You are not yet perfect in anything.

Even now you will deliver Me over to the enemies. Such fear will seize you that you will not even be able to withdraw together. Yet I shall suffer no harm from this.

Do you see how His word is again adapted to their understanding? This is precisely what He reproves in them, that they constantly need such condescension.

Since they had said, "Behold, now You speak plainly and speak no parable" (v. 29), and therefore, "We believe You" (v. 30), He shows that even now, when they believe, they do not yet believe. He does not admit their words. He says this with the future in view.

Thus this sign, truly proper to God alone and wondrous, together with all the rest, became nourishment for the disciples' undoubting faith. In them one can see the truth of the saying (Prov 9:9): "Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be wiser. Teach a righteous man, and he will increase in readiness to receive instruction."

They say, "Now we believe," not because only then did they receive within themselves the beginning of faith, when they heard such words or saw the sign that the Lord knows all things.

Rather, they say this because then at last they began to root in their souls the faith first received. At last they firmly held the conviction that He is God, and from God by nature and in truth.

Therefore we must understand the expression "Now we believe" not of the beginning of faith, but of the beginning of firm establishment in the faith already reverently approved and received by us.

Therefore to foreknow the thoughts of men is no great thing for the Lord, but for infants it is great: "Therefore we believe that You came forth from God."

One may indeed ask why they said this. It seems that what should rather have been said was: "You have no need to ask anyone." And not: "for anyone to ask You."

Indeed, they said: "We see that You know all things." Certainly it is usually the ignorant who question the one who knows all things, so that by asking they may hear from the all-knowing one what they desire. It is not usually the one who already knows all things who asks, as though wishing to learn something.

What, then, does this mean? Since they saw that He knows all things, it seems they should have said to Him: "You have no need to ask anyone." But they considered it necessary rather to say: "and You have no need for anyone to ask You."

What shall we make of the fact that we read both things, namely, that the Lord asked questions and that He was questioned? This is easily explained, for He did not need to ask or to be asked. Rather, they themselves needed this.

For He asked someone not in order to learn anything from them, but rather to give them some knowledge. And certainly those who asked Him, desiring to learn something from Him, needed to receive some knowledge from Him, for He knew all things.

For the same reason, namely because He knew all things, there was no need for anyone to ask Him. When we are asked by those who want to receive some knowledge from us, we learn from the very persons asking what they wish to know.

Therefore we need to be questioned by those whom we wish to instruct in something, so that we may understand what those to whom we must answer are seeking. But He who knows all things has no need of this.

He had no need to learn from the words of those asking what someone wished to know. Before He was asked, He already knew the desire of the one who intended to ask the question.

But He allowed Himself to be questioned so that it might become clear, both to those who were then beside Him and to those who would hear or read this, what kind of people questioned Him. Thus we might learn what snares He was able to avoid, and by what path they came to Him.

To foresee the thoughts of men and therefore have no need for anyone to ask Him was not something great for God. But it was great for the infants who said to Him: "We believe that You came forth from God."

For You Yourself anticipate and resolve perplexity. Thus, when we were asking one another what the words meant, "A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me," and so on, we did not ask You a question. Yet You explained it to us and calmed our thoughts.

"By this we believe that You came forth from God." As though in gratitude to the Lord for His earlier words, the disciples themselves said: Therefore we fully believe that You were sent from God, and that You are the Son of God.

For God is not begotten of God according to human custom. Therefore "coming forth from God" says more than birth. He is the One from the One. He is not a part, not a portion, not a diminution, not a diversion, not an extension, not a transformation.

He is the birth of a living nature from a living nature. He is God coming forth from God, not a creature chosen for the name of God.

He did not begin to be from nothing, but came forth from Him who always exists. "To come forth" has the meaning of birth, but not of beginning.

But the Lord warned them not to trust this momentary feeling too much. This faith of theirs would soon fall beneath the heavy weight of other feelings. They would leave Him alone, the very One in whom they now claimed to believe.

As for His words about coming forth from the Father, these words were apparently understood by their hearts and received with joy. For they immediately said to Him: "See, now You speak plainly. Therefore we believe that You came forth from God."

Yet this assessment of themselves was not without error. According to the Lord's words, the time when He would speak without parables was still ahead. Why then do they say, "Behold, You speak plainly and speak no parable"?

Does this not expose that His words were not as clear to them as they thought? They were imagining too much about themselves and were even carried as far as contradicting their Lord.

Such is our self-love. How often some think and say of themselves that the mysteries of faith are sufficiently known to them, that they have been instructed and established in them, and have no need at all of new instruction.

In reality, they are as little informed in the knowledge of Christian truths as children know little of what is sometimes hidden even from mature minds.

It now seemed to them that they had understood the full depth of the mystery of the Lord's coming, and that they had grasped it with their human reason. But understanding the mysteries of the Godhead is granted only by the Holy Spirit, whom they had not yet received.

Human reason cannot comprehend them. Therefore, by His question, "Do you now believe?" the Lord chiefly indicates that the disciples themselves do not understand what they are saying.

They claim that only now have they learned and understood everything, and that because of this they believe. If they had not loved the Lord and believed in Him, they would long since have departed from Him, as some others did (Jn 6:66).

But they were attached in soul to the Lord, though of course they still did not understand much.

Continuing His speech, the Lord points out another side of the disciples' mistaken assurance. When they asserted, "Now we believe," the Lord indicated that grace-filled faith had long since touched their hearts. They truly both believed and loved.

Yet, on the other hand, the Knower of hearts showed them that their faith was not firm, as they wished to persuade themselves when they said, "We believe that You came forth from God."

For the hour had already come, when the Lord was going to the brook Kidron. Then they would run in different directions, maddened by fear, and would hide in their dwellings. They would instantly forget their solemn declaration of faith.

A few minutes after this assurance, they leave their dearly loved Teacher, humanly speaking, alone. But the Lord does not reproach them. He only foretells the future.

The firmness and immovability of faith would be established in the disciples' hearts by the Lord's Resurrection and by their sanctification through the Holy Spirit. The strength of man is weak when it is not strengthened by the Spirit of God.

Humanly speaking, the Lord remains alone, and the man Christ Jesus is alone before the crowd of enemies. Yet this is God, who by His Sacrifice works the salvation of men, and in His Being is one with the Father.

The Lord expresses this in the words: "I am not alone, because the Father is with Me." Cf. above Jn 8:29: "The Father has not left Me alone," and Jn 10:30: "I and the Father are one."