John 20:31Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Then, so that you may know that all this was done only for the sake of the disciples. He adds: "and that believing you may have life in His name." Here He directs His speech to people in general and shows that He said this not for the sake of Him in whom we believe, but chiefly for our own benefit. "In His name" means through Him, because He is "the life" (Jn 14:6).

Not everything, he says, has been written “in this book.” By my mouth only that has been related which I considered fully sufficient to persuade the hearers “that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.” Thus speaks the divine Evangelist. For my part, I think it useful to say the following. The whole content of what is written awakens such faith in us. It wholly persuades us to confess that He who was born of the Holy Virgin, and who was named Jesus by the angelic voice, is the very One proclaimed as Christ in the God-inspired Scripture. He is one and the same, and not another. He is not simply Son (ὑιός), but “the Son of God” (ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ), uniquely and properly.

What, then, are they doing? What do they proclaim? To what condemnation will they be subject on the great day, who in ignorance dispute concerning the faith? They even try to teach others that one must confess two Christs. For they divide Him, separately into a man and separately into God the Word, even after the union and the ineffable and incomprehensible coming together with the body.

Therefore they are in error. Having departed far from the truth, they deny the Master who redeemed them. For when we consider the matter according to nature, and understand something concerning Christ, we find that the flesh is something other than God the Word, who is from the Father and in the Father. But when we consider the matter according to the union of the flesh with Him, searching as far as possible into this mystery, which is inaccessible and surpasses reason, we understand the Word as one with His own flesh. He has not been changed into flesh. We do not admit this, for the nature of the Word is in no way subject to any change. Rather, in accordance with our holy and God-inspired Scripture, we affirm this. He who is conceived as existing both from the divine temple, the body, which contains human nature in its whole fullness, and from the living Word, is finally one Jesus, Christ, and Son.

The same can be seen in us as true and according to nature. We are composed into one man, consisting of soul and body. Though the body is one thing, and the soul in the body is another in relation to it according to nature, they are united as one living being. They in no way admit division after being joined to one another.

Let the Arians, who dare madly to wage war against God, tell us this. They call Christ, as the Word, a creature. Do they confess Him to be the Son of God and the Father? But I think they themselves will strongly condemn their own mindlessness, if they look to the reasoning about these matters. Let them examine exactly what is created, and what is begotten by someone. For what is created is not taken from the essence of the one who creates. But what is begotten lays hold of the nature of the one who begets (άποσυλά). We say this as though with reference to bodies. With reference to God, however, the matter stands otherwise. Nevertheless, from our own properties a most true image of divine generation is drawn.

Therefore, when such a difference lies between the Son and creation, and their meaning is so distinct, why does the blessed Evangelist speak as he does? Presenting to us the truths he received from the Spirit, he speaks of many and most wondrous signs, that we may believe that Jesus Christ is Himself the Son of God, and not one of the things created by God. This would be so if He really were created, as they say in their empty talk [...]. But he does not say this. Rather, he raises the mind of his hearers to the understanding of sonship. Therefore he wishes the Son to be understood not as created, but precisely as the Word.

After the account of the event in which the disciple Thomas saw what he had not wished to believe and believed, when Christ offered him the wounds of His flesh to touch, the Evangelist John inserts these words and says: "Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name" (Jn 20:30-31).

This passage seems to indicate the end of the book. But afterward he tells how the Lord appeared by the Sea of Tiberias and, in the catch of fish, entrusted the mystery of the Church, showing what She will be at the final resurrection of the dead. Thus I think there was a reason for such an indication. What was placed there as a kind of end of the book would serve as a preface to the further narrative, so that in this way it might receive greater significance.

In the following chapter, in the closing words, the Evangelist John says that far from all the deeds of Jesus Christ were recorded in the Gospel. Therefore, when after the narrative about Thomas he says that Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples which are not written in this book, John had in mind not the events that preceded Jesus' Resurrection, but special signs which Christ revealed to His disciples after His Resurrection. He did this so that they might believe in Him with a strong faith, unshaken by anything.

We do not know what these signs were. The Evangelist told us nothing about them, because in his judgment what has been written is fully sufficient to believe that Jesus truly is the Christ, the Son of God. Having such faith, one may enter into the life of eternal blessedness in the Kingdom of Heaven.

"That you may believe." The Christians who read the Gospel, of course, already believed, since they belonged to the Church. Therefore the word must be understood in the sense of strengthening faith. Some may have been wavering in certain articles of faith in Christ under the influence of false teachers. For them especially such confirmation of faith was needed. Finally, unbelievers too, if they wished to read this Gospel, could come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

"And that believing you may have life," that is, eternal life, which only faith in Christ grants. Compare the note on Jn 3:15-16. "In His name" means in the name of the Messiah as the object of faith. See Jn 14:13-14 and the note and parallels.