John 2:12Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

For this reason he is called both lion and dragon. For what is said to Christ? "You shall tread upon the lion and the dragon" (Ps 90:13). The devil is called lion because of his openly displayed wrath, and dragon because of his hidden snares.

As a dragon he drove Adam from paradise. As a lion he persecuted the Church, as Peter said: "Your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Pet 5:8).

Yet do not think that the devil has now lost his ferocity. When he behaves flatteringly, then he must be guarded against all the more.

What shall we do amid all these snares and temptations of his, except what we heard there in the psalm? "As for me, when they troubled me, I put on sackcloth and humbled my soul with fasting" (cf. Ps 34:13).

There is One who will hear. Do not hesitate to pray to Him. And He who hears abides within. Do not turn your eyes toward some mountain. Do not turn your face to the stars, the sun, or the moon.

Do not think that you are heard only when you pray by the sea. Rather, abhor such prayers. Only cleanse the chamber of the heart. Wherever you are, pray everywhere. He who will hear abides within.

He is within, in the secret place, which the psalmist calls the bosom when he says: "And my prayer shall return into my bosom" (Ps 34:13). He who hears you is not outside you.

Do not go far away. Do not lift yourself up as though you could reach Him with your hands. Rather, if you lift yourself up, you will fall. If you humble yourself, He Himself will draw near to you.

Here is our Lord God: the Word of God, the Word made flesh, Son of the Father, Son of God, Son of Man. He is so high that He made us, and so humble that He restored us.

He dwelt among men, bearing what is human and concealing what is divine.

As the Evangelist says, He came to Capernaum, He Himself and His Mother, and His brothers and His disciples. There they remained a few days (Jn 2:12). See, He has a Mother, He has brothers, and He also has disciples.

From the same source from which He has a Mother, He also has brothers. For our Scripture is accustomed to call brothers not only those born of one man and one woman.

Nor does it call brothers only those born of one mother, or of one father though from different mothers. Nor only those who have the same degree of kinship, such as cousins on the father's or mother's side.

Scripture is accustomed to call not only these brothers. One must understand how Scripture speaks. It has its own language. Whoever does not know this language is confused and says, "Whence does the Lord have brothers? Did Mary give birth again?"

By no means. From her the dignity of virginity took its beginning. This woman, femina, could be a Mother and could not be a wife, mulier. She is called mulier because she belongs to the female sex, femineum sexum, not because virgin purity was violated.

This is clear from the words of Scripture itself. For Eve, newly made from the side of her husband and not yet knowing the touch of her husband, is called, as you know, woman, mulier. "And He made her into a woman," in mulierem (cf. Gen 2:22).

Whence, then, the brothers? Mary's relatives, of whatever degree of kinship, are the brothers of the Lord. How shall we prove this? From the Scriptures themselves.

Lot is called the brother of Abraham, though he was the son of Abraham's brother (cf. Gen 13:8; 14:14). Read, and you will find that Abraham was Lot's paternal uncle (see Gen 12:5), yet they are called brothers.

Why, if not because they are relatives? Likewise Jacob had Laban the Syrian as a maternal uncle. Laban was the brother of Jacob's mother, Rebecca, the wife of Isaac (see Gen 28:2).

Read Scripture, and you will find that a maternal uncle and the son of his sister are called brothers (see Gen 29:12-15).

This is less evident in some translations, but in the Vulgate the word frater or fratres is used: "And Abram said to Lot, for we are brothers," fratres enim sumus.

It also says, "When Abram heard that Lot his brother had been taken captive," Lot fratrem suum. Compare also: "When Laban heard that Jacob, his sister's son, had come," and "he said to him: because you are my brother."

Once you learn this rule, you will find all Mary's relatives to be Christ's brothers.

Yet those disciples were more truly brothers. For even His relatives would not have been His brothers if they had not been His disciples. They would not have been brothers if they did not acknowledge the Teacher as brother.

For once, when He was told that His Mother and brothers were standing outside while He was speaking with His disciples, He said: "Who is My Mother, and who are My brothers?"

And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said: "Behold My brothers. Whoever shall do the will of My Father, he is My brother and sister and mother" (cf. Mt 12:46-50).

Therefore Mary also is His Mother because She did the will of the Father. The Lord glorified in Her the fact that She did the will of the Father, not that flesh gave birth to flesh.

Take heed, beloved. Moreover, when the astonished crowd saw the Lord working miracles and revealing what was hidden beneath the flesh, certain souls struck with wonder said: "Blessed is the womb that bore Him" (Lk 11:27).

But He said: "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it" (Lk 11:28). He wished to say this: "Even My Mother, whom you have called blessed, is blessed because She keeps the word of God."

"She is blessed not because in Her the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (Jn 1:14), but because She fulfilled the will of that very Word of God through whom She was created and who in Her became flesh."

Let men not rejoice in temporal offspring, prole temporali. Let them rejoice if in spirit they are united to God. We have said this because the Evangelist says that He remained in Capernaum for a few days with His Mother, His brothers, and His disciples.

Thus Abraham says to Lot, "Let there be no strife between me and you, between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are brothers" (Gen 13:8).

And Laban says to Jacob, "Should you serve me for nothing because you are my brother?" (Gen 29:15).

Yet it is known that Lot was the son of Haran, Abraham's brother (Gen 11:26, 31), and that Jacob was the son of Rebekah, Laban's sister (Gen 25:20, 26). Still, because of kinship they are called brothers.

This rule, as I have said, occurs very often in the Holy Scriptures. So also one must understand that the relatives of Mary or Joseph are called the brothers of the Lord.

Bede the Venerable gives the common opinion of the early Church. Augustine of Hippo is especially categorical in affirming that Mary remained a virgin (see Commentary on the Gospel of John 10.2).

The Jews had a proverb: "God created seven lakes in the land of Canaan, but He chose only one of them, the Lake of Gennesaret, for Himself." This proverb now seemed to be justified by the choice of its shores as the place of the Savior's ministry.

It was wonderfully suited for the beginning of that ministry, not only by its beauty, but also by its central position, its population, and its extraordinary activity. That ministry was the fulfillment of Isaiah's ancient prophecy that the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the country beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, "will see a great light," and that upon those who walk "in darkness and the shadow of death, light will shine."

Christ was to be, even during His earthly life, "a light to enlighten the Gentiles," as well as "the glory of His people Israel."

In the region around the lake lived peoples of the most varied tribes, because this was the "way by the sea." Four whole roads led to the shores of the lake.

One led down along the Jordan valley, on the western side. Another crossed the bridge at the southern end of the lake and went through Perea to the fords of the Jordan near Jericho.

A third led through Sepphoris, the former beautiful capital of Galilee, to the famous port of Acco on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea. A fourth lay through the mountains of Zebulun to Nazareth, and through the Jezreel Valley to Samaria and Jerusalem.

Great caravans passed through this region on their way from Egypt to Damascus. Gentiles, who lived in great numbers in Bethsaida Julias and Caesarea Philippi, most likely constantly met one another in the streets of Capernaum.

In the time of Christ, this was an industrial region of Palestine, notable for its population and activity. Hundreds of vessels of every kind glided in all directions over the waters of its lake, from Roman warships to the ungainly fishing boats of Bethsaida and the gilded galleys from Herod's palace.

Close at hand were Iturea, Samaria, Syria, and Phoenicia. One had only to cross the lake, the river, or the mountains.

Tiberias, founded by Herod Antipas and named in honor of the Roman emperor Tiberius as the capital of Galilee, grew with astonishing speed. Later it gave its name to the Sea of Galilee itself.

Christ could see its tower-crowned walls, its fortified castle, and Antipas' "golden palace," which cast far across the lake the shadows of its marble lions and sculptured columns.

Europe, Asia, and Africa together supplied its population. In its marketplace one could meet people of every tribe and nation.

Along the whole western shore of the Lake of Gennesaret, Jews and Gentiles lived in disorderly mixture. There one could see the wild sons of the desert, Arabs and Bedouins, alongside enterprising Phoenicians, delicate Syrians, arrogant Romans, and highly cultivated but flattering and corrupt Greeks.

From such a region the light of the Gospel could most conveniently spread not only through all Palestine, but also through all the surrounding countries. This served as the chief reason for choosing it as the center of Christ's public ministry on earth.

This supposition is also probable on chronological grounds. From the Lord's return to Galilee until the first Passover, a considerable amount of time passed. We cannot find this time in John's narrative without this supposition.

The holy family probably spent a significant part of this time in Nazareth after returning from Cana.

To Capernaum: see the note on Mt 4:13.

And His brothers, cf. the note on Mt 1:25: the whole holy family went to Capernaum, so that from there they might together undertake the journey to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover.

This journey was obligatory for all adults, especially men, cf. the note on Lk 2:41.

The Evangelist does not say why they all came to Capernaum on this occasion.

St. Chrysostom and Blessed Theophylact offer the conjecture that the purpose of this journey was the Lord's desire to settle His holy Mother and Virgin here for the whole subsequent time of His wandering.

They stayed there a few days because the Jewish feast of Passover was drawing near, and they hastened to Jerusalem (v. 13).

That the Lord performed several miracles during the few days spent in Capernaum may be inferred from the narrative of Lk 4:23, cf. the note on that verse.

Zigabenus and others placed that expulsion before the history of the Savior's Passion. The expulsion described by John was accompanied by special severity of rebuke and by an objection from the Pharisees. This was absent from the expulsion before the Passion.

"And He found in the temple," ιερω, "those who sold and bought." The Ιερον, the sacred precinct of the Jerusalem temple, formed the very outer part of the temple, five hundred cubits long and wide, with five gates.

There the Gentiles prayed. There were the treasury and houses of mercy. There doves, lambs, oxen, and other requirements for sacrifice were sold.

There also sat the money changers, who exchanged large coins for small ones, and foreign coins for Hebrew ones, at interest.

Although in the Savior's time the temple tax was received in every place, and it was paid in the month of Adar, not in the Paschal month of Nisan, there was no need before Passover to exchange Hebrew shekels in the Court of the Gentiles.

Yet calculations of gain still exchanged money in the holy place, under various pretexts.

The noise of sellers and buyers not only deafened pious proselytes, but was heard even in the temple. Deceits, quarrels, and fights altogether defiled the sanctuary.

Blessed Jerome wrote in Comm ad Mutth 21, 12 that priests engaged in commerce and the exchange of money in the temple court.

Although other monuments do not say this directly of the Jewish priests, it is hard to believe that the priesthood, so passionate for money, had no financial dealings with the merchants.

They traded in a place that was under the full administration of the priests.

Verse 12 depicts the last event from the family life of the Lord. Although the Lord's house apparently was considered to be in Capernaum, cf. Jn 6:24-25, from now on the Lord goes to His ministry.

For Him there is no longer family life. "He has nowhere to lay His head" (Mt 8:20; Lk 9:58).

The brothers of the Lord, mentioned here and in Jn 7:5, cf. also Mk 3:31-38, are most likely the sons of Joseph, the betrothed husband of the Theotokos.

They were born from Joseph's first marriage and are listed in Mt 13:55.

Only these brothers of the Lord, as sons of His betrothed father, seem to be called in the Gospels the brothers of the Lord.

James, the Lord's cousin, son of Mary of Clopas, who is considered the natural sister of the Theotokos, is never called the Lord's brother in the Gospels. He is so called in Gal 1:19.

The apostles James the son of Alphaeus, and James and John the sons of Zebedee, lived in their own homes, although they were the Lord's relatives according to the flesh.

The sons of Joseph, who "did not believe in the Lord," as Jn 7:5 indicates, undoubtedly lived in one house with the Theotokos.

So also teaches St. Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis in Cyprus, who died in 403, in his book against heresies, Ancoratus sive de Fide Sermo, § 78.