John 3:31Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

After the words already spoken, he turns to them with another discourse. What is it? "He who comes from above," he says, "is above all. He who is of the earth is of the earth and speaks of the earth."

Since you everywhere repeat my testimony, he says, and say that in it I am wholly worthy of belief, you must know that He who comes from heaven cannot become worthy of belief through one who lives on earth.

What do the words "is above all" mean and show? They show that Christ needs no one, but is sufficient in Himself, and that He is above all beyond every comparison.

By "he who is of the earth" and "speaks of the earth," John means himself. He does not speak this from his own reasoning.

The Forerunner compares himself with Christ and says that He comes “from above,” from the Father, and is “above all,” surpassing all and preserving the Father’s superiority.

But I, who am from the earth, speak what is earthly, imperfect, and lowly in comparison with Christ’s teaching. Although the Forerunner’s own teaching was divine, in comparison with Christ’s teaching it contains much that is earthly.

'He who comes from above is above all.' He says that there is nothing especially astonishing if Christ surpasses the dignity of man. He does not extend His glory only to that limit. As God, He is above every creature, and 'is above all' created beings. He is not numbered among them, but is set apart from them all, and has divine authority over all.

He also adds the reason, putting the enemy to shame and silencing the adversary. He says, 'He who comes from above,' that is, He who has sprung from the Root on high and naturally preserves in Himself the Father's nobility, must unquestionably possess being 'above all.'

Indeed, it would be strange if the Son were not wholly what the One who begot Him is shown to be in dignity. Since the Son has identity of nature, and is the radiance and impress of the Father, how could He be lesser than Him in dignity? Will not the Father's property be dishonored through the dishonoring of the Son? Shall we not abase the features of the Begetter through the abasement of the Son?

This, I think, is evident to all. Therefore it is written: 'that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father' (Jn 5:23). But He who shines with dignities equal to God the Father, because He is from Him by nature, how can He be conceived as not surpassing the essence of created beings? This is what the expression means: 'He is above all.'

Yet I sense again that the mind of those who fight against Christ will by no means be quiet. They will, I suppose, come forward with such unbridled speech: 'When the blessed Baptist says that the Lord came down from above, on what ground must we suppose that this above points to His coming from the essence of the Father? Why not from the heavens, or even from His inherent superiority over all, through which He is conceived and called as being above all?'

When they come against us with such words, they will hear this in reply. We shall follow, most dear ones, not your rotten words, but divine Scripture and the sacred writings alone. Therefore we must examine how they define the meaning of the word 'above.' Let them hear the cry of one of the Spirit-bearing men: 'Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights' (Jas 1:17).

Here he clearly says that the word 'above' means 'from the Father.' Since he knows nothing else above creatures except the ineffable nature of God, he properly assigns this 'above' to that nature. Everything else lies under the yoke of servitude. God alone is above subjection to anything and reigns over all. Therefore He is 'above all' in the true sense.

But the Son, being God and from God by nature, cannot be deprived of this dignity. If you think that 'from above' must be taken as meaning 'from heaven,' then let this word be applied to every angel and every rational power. The inhabitants of the city on high come to us from the heavens, and ascend and descend, as the Savior says, upon the Son of Man (Jn 1:51).

What, then, moved the blessed Baptist to assign exclusively to the Son alone what belongs to many? How could he say of one alone, as coming down from above, 'He who comes from above'? In that case, he should have made this dignity common with others and said: 'Those who come from above are above all.'

But he knew that this expression could befit the Son alone, since He has sprung from the Root on high. Therefore 'from above' by no means means 'from heaven.' It must be understood as we have already said, piously and truly.

For how will the Son be 'above all' if the word 'above' does not mean 'from the Father,' but 'from heaven'? In that case each of the holy angels will also be 'above all,' since he comes from there. If each of them is not to be numbered among 'all,' then of whom will 'all' consist?

How will the concept of 'all' remain whole and preserve its exact meaning, once so great a multitude of angels is excluded and limits the boundary of 'all'? For it will no longer be 'all,' once there remain outside this 'all' those angels who belonged to this 'all.'

But the Word shone forth ineffably from God the Father. He has His own begetting 'from above' and is from the Father's essence as from a fountain. By His coming from above He does no harm to the concept of 'all,' since He is not included in 'all' as a part of it. Rather, He is 'above all,' as another, distinct from it in His divine nature, power, and the other properties of the Begetter.

Perhaps our opponents, ashamed of such absurd conclusions, will say that the word 'above' does not mean 'from the heavens,' but 'from His inherent superiority over all.' Yet, when we examine the meaning of the saying under interpretation, we shall again see to what absurdities such an explanation leads.

First, it is wholly absurd and impossible to say that the Son Himself comes from His own dignity, as though from some place. It is likewise absurd to say that the same One comes from His own superiority, as from one thing, into being 'above all.'

Besides this, I would gladly ask them whether they ascribe superiority over all to the Son as essential and inalienable, or as acquired from outside by way of accident. If they say that He has acquired superiority and is adorned with added dignities, then it will be necessary to confess that the Only-begotten once could have lacked glory. He could have been deprived of acquired grace, as they say, and not have been 'above all.' He could have remained without that superiority at which they have just expressed wonder.

For an accidental quality is not a necessary and inalienable property of a thing's essence. Thus there will be some change and alteration in the Son. The Psalmist will speak falsely when he sings with empty words: 'The heavens shall perish, but Thou remainest. They all shall grow old like a garment. Like clothing Thou shalt fold them, and they shall be changed. But Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail' (Ps 101:27-28).

Where, then, is He 'the same,' if He undergoes changes together with us, and changes for the worse? In vain also will He praise Himself in the words: 'See, see that I am, and I do not change, and there is no God besides Me' (Mal 3:6). And in that case, must not the Son's deficiency extend to the Father Himself, if the Son is the impress and exact image of the Father?

Thus God the Father also, for us, will be subject to change and will have superiority over all as something added to Him. I pass over the rest in silence. For the archetype must necessarily have in Himself what is in the image.

But since they are frightened by such difficulties, and by the absurdities in these reasonings, they will surely not say that He possesses acquired superiority. Rather, they will acknowledge this superiority as essential and inalienable. In that case, most dear ones, how will you not agree with us again, even unwillingly, that the Son, being God by nature, 'is above all,' and therefore 'comes' from the one essence of God the Father?

For if in created being there is nothing that is not defined by the force of 'all,' while the Son 'is above all,' then He is plainly another, outside all, and has essential superiority over all. He is not identical in nature with all. How, then, can He not be conceived as true God?

Since He is essentially outside the multitude of creatures, and by nature is not numbered among created beings, what else, finally, can He be but God? We see nothing intermediate between God and creature, so far as the essence of being is concerned. Creation is in subjection, while God is conceived as King over it.

Therefore, if the Son is God by nature, and He was ineffably begotten of God the Father, then the word 'above' signifies the nature of the Begetter. For this reason the Only-begotten is 'above all,' since He is shown to be from that nature.

'He who is of the earth is of the earth and speaks of the earth.' The earthly man, he says, will not act with persuasive power in the same measure as God, who is above all. 'He who is of the earth' will speak as a man. He will appear only as a counselor, leaving to those instructed the whole power of desiring to believe.

But 'He who comes from above,' as God, using divine and ineffable grace, plants the word in the hearing of those who come. As far as He is higher by nature, so much more powerfully will He act upon those taught.

The blessed Baptist says this to his disciples in a way most profitable for them. They saw him yielding to the Savior's glory, and they were already not a little scandalized. They even came to him with the words: 'Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you bore witness, behold, He is baptizing, and all are coming to Him' (Jn 3:26).

Therefore the Spirit-bearing man thought it necessary to stop the scandal and implant in his disciples a sound understanding of so great a matter. He reveals the Savior's superiority over all. At the same time, he indicates the reason why all were already going to Him, and why they passed beyond baptism with water alone and approached the more divine and perfect baptism, clearly the baptism with the Holy Spirit.

'He who comes from heaven is above all.' By this he bears witness that there is a very great and incomparable difference between those who are from the earth and God the Word, who comes down from above and from heaven. If I am unable to teach you, he says, and if my word alone is insufficient for you, then the Son Himself will confirm by His own testimony that earthly being is separated by an infinite distance from the Principle over all.

The Savior also said this in His conversation with the impious Jews: 'You are from below; I am from above' (Jn 8:23). By 'below' He means the nature of created beings, since it is subject and necessarily enslaved to God, who calls it into being. By 'above' He again means the divine, ineffable, and sovereign nature, since it has under its dominion and subjects to the yoke of its authority all created beings.

The blessed Baptist did not add this to his previous words in vain. His disciples might think that he was inventing empty arguments. They might think that, out of shame and without sufficient basis, he called Christ greater and existing from above, and called himself from the earth and existing below. Therefore he thinks it necessary to seal the force of his words with the words of the Savior Himself.

In this way he shows that his explanation is not an empty excuse, as his disciples might suppose, but a proof of the truth. Since the verse also contains another saying, namely, 'What He has seen and heard, this He testifies,' let us reason a little about that too.

We ordinarily receive confirmation in every matter through the two chief senses, sight and hearing. What we have seen with our own eyes and heard personally, we affirm with certainty. So the Baptist persuades his disciples to believe in Christ more readily, because He speaks what He knows exactly. Again he uses a likeness from our own case, so that we may understand divine things.

Here, I think, 'from above' means nothing other than 'from the essence higher than all other essences.' We certainly do not say that the Son boasts, so to speak, of bodily heights. Nor do we allow that the holy Baptist asserted this.

Therefore, when 'from above' is not understood as a movement from some physical place, and truly has no motion from one thing to another, what else can it be but the higher essence? As we said before, that essence has, in its very being, the height of dignity fitting to God.

How will God the Word, who proceeded from this source, renounce the nature of Him who begot Him? How will He appear to us alien and foreign to the Father, a creature rather than Son, a slave and not Master?

How will He be reckoned higher than all, when these heretics violently place Him in a subordinate position together with all creatures, since in their opinion He is akin to them all? For the Psalmist speaks the truth when he addresses God the Father: 'For all things are Thy servants' (Ps 118:91).

As regards the man himself, he is of the earth and speaks as one who is of the earth. But if he speaks something divine, he has been enlightened by God. For if he had not been enlightened, earth would speak earthly things. Therefore the grace of God is one thing, and human nature is another.

What does the Apostle say? 'Not I, but the grace of God in me' (1 Cor 15:10). And again: 'It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me' (Gal 2:20). Therefore John, as regards John, is of the earth and speaks as one who is of the earth. But if you have heard something divine from John, it is because he has been enlightened, not because he has received it as his own.

"He who comes from above is above all." He who is from heaven is greater than all. Therefore I also am less than He.

Or otherwise: He who is from heaven has no need of anything from another. Therefore He has no need of my testimony, since He is sufficient in Himself.

"He who is of the earth is of the earth." As he had spoken about Jesus Christ, so he says this about himself. Being of the earth, he is earthly, that is, lower than He, for heaven is above and earth below.

Verse 31 and the first half of verse 32 serve to unfold further and more deeply the thought that it ought to be so, that "all should go to Him," that is, to Jesus Christ.

He is of heavenly origin. The word άνωθεν is explained further by the following εκ του ουρανου. Therefore He is above all also in His ministry in the Kingdom of God.

He is above all the prophets in general, and in particular above John the Baptist.

Being of heavenly origin, He speaks of heavenly things as of what He has seen and heard. Compare 1:18; 3:11.

But he who is of the earth is earthly, and speaks as one who is of the earth.

Even at the Baptism of Jesus, John said that he was unworthy to untie the strap of His sandal. John’s disciples should have remembered this.

But they seem to have forgotten that their teacher placed himself, in relation to Christ, in the position of the lowest servant.

Therefore he now tells them that he is a man who is of the earth, earthly in being and in speech, as one who is of the earth.

But Jesus, as the One who comes from above, from heaven, is above all. Jesus bears witness to what He has seen and heard there, whence He came, that is, from God.

Such testimony must be received and must be believed unconditionally. Yet, sadly, not all receive His testimony.

Although he was destined, as the last representative of the Old Testament, to remain outside the New Testament Church, he nevertheless concluded by exhorting his disciples and all his hearers to enter it.

His activity had now reached its appointed limits. He himself was now sending his disciples to Him who came from heaven and is above all on earth, so that they might receive the immeasurable gifts of the Holy Spirit.

He promised eternal life to everyone who believes in the Son of God, and the wrath of God for unbelief in Him.

"He who comes from above," and so forth: here is the deep foundation of John's relation to Christ, which he indicated above. Christ came from heaven.

Because this and the following verses, to the end of the chapter, are deeply connected with what precedes, and because this speech resembles the Baptist's words about Christ in chapter 1, one cannot accept the supposition that the whole section from verses 31 to 36 is not the Baptist's speech, but the Evangelist John's.

"He who comes from above" does not mean only mission, for the Baptist's mission also was from above. The word concerns the heavenly origin of the Person of the Messiah, in the sense in which Christ Himself spoke of Himself in His conversation with Nicodemus. See above, verse 13, and compare Jn 6:33; 8:23.

John the Baptist again and decisively confessed Jesus Christ as the Messiah, the Son of God, sent into the world for the salvation of men.

Comparing Jesus Christ with the bridegroom, and himself with the bridegroom's friend, who serves the bridegroom's interests and rejoices in his joys, John said: "He must increase, but I must decrease" (v. 30).

The Old Testament prophets often depicted God's love for men under the image of the relation between bridegroom and bride.

In Solomon's Song of Songs, with special poetic beauty and prophetic inspiration, the future Messiah Christ, the Son of God, is portrayed as the bridegroom, loving His bride, the Church, even to self-sacrifice.

Verses 31-36 show the superiority of Jesus the Messiah over all men. Some modern interpreters take all this as an explanation by the Evangelist. The ancients, including Chrysostom, see here a continuation of the Forerunner's speech.

The latter opinion must be accepted. There is not a word or hint here that would indicate the beginning of a new speech, a speech of the Evangelist himself.

And why would the Evangelist have needed to add his own words to the Forerunner's? Was it necessary to confirm the Forerunner's testimony by his own judgment?

On the contrary, the Forerunner had reason to continue speaking. Until now he had not yet said why Christ ought to be preferred to John. Who is Jesus, the Son of Mary?

In the following verse John explains still more clearly the difference between himself, the prophet, and the Lord from heaven. We must note that most recent commentators think the Baptist's words end at verse 30, with "but I must decrease," and that verses 31-36 belong to the Evangelist.

Yet Chrysostom, in his homilies on John, regards all these words as belonging to the Baptist.

"He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth is of the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all."

This verse points to the important difference between prophecies and that revelation in which "God spoke to us in the Son" (Heb 1:1-2).