John 5:19Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

But Christ Himself, they say, refutes this when He adds, "The Son can do nothing of Himself." No, beloved. He does exactly the opposite. He does not refute equality, but confirms it by these words. Listen more carefully, for the matter is not slight. The expression "of Himself" is often found in Scripture concerning both the Son and the Holy Spirit. Therefore we must understand the force of this saying, so as not to fall into the greatest errors. If one takes it merely as it stands and as it first appears, see what absurdity follows. He did not say that the Son can do one thing by Himself and cannot do another. He said generally, "The Son can do nothing of Himself." Let us ask the objector, then: tell me, can the Son do nothing by Himself? If you say, "nothing," we shall answer that He did the greatest good by Himself. Paul cries out, "He, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant" (Phil 2:6-7). Again Christ Himself says elsewhere, "I have power to lay down" My life, "and I have power to take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself" (Jn 10:18). Do you see that He has authority over death and life, and that He Himself accomplished so great a divine economy? And why do I speak of Christ? Even we human beings, than whom nothing is weaker, do many things by ourselves. We choose evil by ourselves, and we pursue virtue by ourselves. If we do not do these things by ourselves, and have no authority in them, then we shall not be cast into Gehenna for sins, nor inherit the Kingdom for virtues. Therefore the words, "He can do nothing of Himself," mean only this: He does nothing contrary to the Father, nothing foreign to Him, nothing out of harmony. This shows all the more Their equality and perfect concord. Why did He not say, "He does nothing contrary," but, "He cannot"? In this way also He shows the immutability and perfection of the equality. This expression does not signify His weakness. On the contrary, it bears witness to His great power. So Paul says elsewhere of the Father, "That by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation" (Heb 6:18). Again, "If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself" (2 Tim 2:13). Here the expression "cannot" in no way means weakness. It means power, and power beyond words. The Apostle's meaning is that the divine essence is inaccessible to any such weaknesses. When we say that God cannot sin, we do not ascribe weakness to Him. We testify to a certain ineffable power. So also, when He Himself says, "I can do nothing of Myself," He means that it is impossible and alien to Him to do anything contrary to the Father. To be convinced of the exact meaning of His words, let us turn to what follows. Let us see whose understanding Christ Himself confirms, ours or yours. You say this expression excludes His authority and His proper independence, and shows weakness of power. I say it signifies equality, immutability, and the activity of one will, authority, and power. Let us ask Christ Himself, then, and see from His following words whether He explains what was said according to your thoughts or ours. What does He say? "Whatever" the Father "does, the Son also does in like manner." Do you see how He overthrows your opinion from its foundation and confirms what we have said? If He does nothing of Himself, then the Father also does nothing of Himself, because the Son does everything just as the Father does. If this is not so, another absurdity follows. He does not say that He does only what He sees the Father doing. Rather, He says that He does not act "unless He sees the Father doing it," extending the force of the word to every time. According to you, therefore, He is constantly only learning to do what the Father does. Do you see how exalted His thought is? Yet the humility of the wording compels even the most shameless to abandon lowly notions about Him, wholly unworthy of His dignity. Who will be so wretched and miserable as to maintain that the Son daily learns what He must do? How then will the saying be true, "But You are the same, and Your years will not fail" (Ps 101:28)? Or, "All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made" (Jn 1:3), if the Father acts and the Son merely imitates Him after seeing it? Do you see how both what precedes and what follows confirm His independent authority? If He utters some words about Himself in the form of self-abasement, do not be astonished. Since the Jews heard His lofty teaching about Himself, persecuted Him, and called Him an opponent of God, He condescends somewhat only in the form of expression. Then He again raises the teaching to higher thoughts, and afterward returns again to humble expressions. Thus He varies His teaching, so as to make it acceptable even to the unwise. Look closely. After saying, "My Father works, and I work," and thereby showing His equality with God, He then says, "The Son can do nothing of Himself, unless He sees the Father doing it." Then again He raises the word: "For whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner." O violence! O compulsion! The teacher who spoke before me had a full cup, yet gave us only a taste of the drink with the tips of his lips. He did this not from poverty of teaching, for it usually flows from him like a stream. Rather, as I said, he wished to show the compulsion exerted by your love, which you tried to impose upon our lowliness. Therefore he soon fell silent and ended his speech, wishing to satisfy your desire and to place upon us the payment of the whole debt. Since he has left it to us to continue the discourse, and I see you awaiting our word, it is now necessary to enter the contest. Yet you must help me. Stretch forth your hand by enlivening our tongue with your prayers and making the work of teaching easier by intelligent attention. The prophet asks not only for a "counselor," but also for a "wise" hearer (Is 3:3). Today we face no small struggle. It requires many prayers, great wakefulness from the hearers, and great zeal from the speaker. What is said must be spoken with precision and firmly planted in the soul of your love. I want you not only to listen, but also to be edified. I want you not only to learn, but also to teach. I want you not only to receive yourselves, but also to pass on to others. Then our spectacle will be more brilliant and the assembly greater, when you can draw others by what you hear. In the previous assembly I set before you this Gospel saying: "My Father works until now, and I work" (Jn 5:17). From this I proved the Son's equality with Him who begot Him. The Evangelist had expressed this just before in the words, "The Jews began to persecute Jesus and sought to kill Him, because He did these things on the Sabbath." And again, "because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also called God His Father, making Himself equal with God" (Jn 5:16, 18). With this I ended the discourse. Now we must examine what the heretics object against us. Although we contend among friends, we must act with such caution that the word is certain and unassailable on every side, as if this were taking place among enemies. As I have already said, I want you not only to listen, but also to instruct others. Therefore I strive with all diligence to clothe us in spiritual armor, so that no member may be found bare and receive a mortal wound. For us the word takes the place of weapons. It guards our own and at the same time strikes our opponents. It strikes not to cast down, but to raise up even those who lie fallen. Such is the nature of this battle: by it a trophy is raised for the salvation of those who fight. To attain this, listen to me with strained attention. Leave every worldly care. Stir up your mind. Turn to me with a watchful eye. Let the rich man not grow slack through carelessness. Let the poor man not be tormented by anxiety over poverty. Let each one leave behind every such worldly inequality and stand ready as a hearer, for the matters before us are not small. I say this often because I know the abyss through which we are about to pass. Yet do not be troubled when you hear of an abyss. Under the guidance of the Spirit, these waters will not be dark. There will be great ease, if only you walk the path I command. Do not be disturbed or anxious. The questions now proposed may at first trouble the inattentive hearer and bring him into perplexity. But if he waits for the end and sees the proper resolution, he will feel pleasant calm and will be able to bring his soul into an undisturbed harbor. Therefore, to attain this, do not be disturbed or anxious. With all patience and firmness, follow the path indicated by the teaching of the word. What objections, then, do the heretics bring against us? They say, "The Son can do nothing of Himself, unless He sees the Father doing it." These are words of Scripture. Why do they present this as an objection? They do not cite it in the sense in which it is said in Scripture. What, then, do they wish to prove by it? They say, "Do you see how the Son of God set aside the thought of His equality with the Father?" They say that because the Jews began to think the Son was making Himself equal with God. He refuted this by saying, "The Son can do nothing of Himself." Did I not say rightly that such words can trouble you, and that what is said can at first bring the hearer into perplexity? But wait, and you will see how the heretics are struck down by their own weapons. First of all, let us note that what was said was not the thought of the Jews. We proved this with all clarity in the previous discourse, to which we refer the hearer so as not to repeat the same things. Now let us try to resolve the objection and show that Christ, in saying this, does not reject that thought. Rather, with great precision He establishes and confirms it, and gives us proof of His closeness, great kinship, union, and concord with the Father. I boldly point to this saying and say that these words especially prove His kinship with the Father and unity of essence. Do not be disturbed by heretical arguments. Swords, spears, and arrows painted on walls cannot frighten enemies who have a stern and watchful gaze. Whatever weapons appear there are shadows and images, not real things. Such are the arguments of the heretics. To refute them, let us come nearer to the saying and examine it carefully. Meanwhile let us ask them how they wish to interpret it. Reading alone is not enough. If reading alone were enough, why did Philip say to the eunuch, "Do you understand what you are reading?" (Acts 8:30). Therefore the man read, yet did not understand what was written. Hence he said, "I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or of someone else?" (Acts 8:34). If reading alone were enough, why do the Jews, though reading the Old Testament, still not believe even now? They do not believe what accompanied Christ's birth, nor the signs, wonders, place, time, Cross, burial, Resurrection, Ascension, sitting at the right hand, descent of the Spirit, sending of the Apostles to preach, rejection of the synagogue, or lofty dignity of the Church. Therefore reading alone is not enough unless understanding is also present. Just as one who takes food but does not digest it will not live, so one who reads but does not understand what he reads will not attain the truth. Therefore do not merely present me with the Gospel saying, but explain it. I demand this from them so that, when I have refuted their rotten arguments, I may lay the foundation of truth. Builders act in this way. They do not lay the foundation of buildings before clearing the place of decay, so that they may build securely. Let us imitate them. Tell me, then: can the Son truly do absolutely nothing by Himself? He did not say that He can create men but not angels, or that He can create angels but not archangels. He said, "nothing." Does this word, then, signify weakness? If, according to you, He cannot, then He is subject to compulsion and necessity.

The Son cannot act by Himself because He has nothing alien to or different from the Father.

He is not unlike the Father in anything, nor does He have a different essence, so as to have a different power and, consequently, a different operation.

Since He has the same Essence, He also has the same Power.

Therefore the Son does the same thing and cannot do anything other than what the Father does. He has no power different from the Father's, whether lesser or greater.

The Father and the Son have one Essence, one Power, and one operation.

You will say, "So be it. But the Father becomes, as it were, the teacher of the Son, showing Him how to act. For the Son does nothing unless He sees the Father doing it."

What we said previously He now explains again in another way, drawing His hearers by every means to the finding of the truth. The teaching not received before, because of the weakness of those unable to understand it, He now presents differently. He is shown as advancing by various paths toward the disclosure of the same truths.

This should be the virtue fitting a teacher: not to deliver instruction hurriedly and in passing, but to give an ordered and varied exposition of the subject. By changing the phrase, he often removes difficult questions.

Therefore, having mingled the human with the divine and composed from both a statement midway between them, the Evangelist gradually makes clear the dignity proper to the Only-begotten. He rises above human nature.

As Master, and at the same time as One numbered among servants, He says, "The Son can do nothing of Himself, unless He sees the Father doing it. For whatever He does, this the Son also does likewise." To be able to do completely the same things that God the Father does, and to act like the Begetter, bears witness to the identity of His essence with the Father.

Only beings that have the same nature with one another can act in the same way. Where the mode of being differs, the mode of acting will not be identical in all respects. Thus, as true God from the true God and Father, He says that He can do the same things with Him.

Yet to show that He is not only equal to the Father in power, but also of one mind with Him in all things, and has one will with Him in all things, He says that He can do nothing of Himself unless He sees the Father doing it.

More fully, He speaks as though to those who had resolved to persecute Him because He healed a man on the Sabbath. You think that reverence for the Sabbath has been violated. But I would by no means have done this, unless I saw the Father working in the same way. And He works for the existence of the world even on the Sabbath, though through Me.

Therefore, He says, it is impossible for Me, His Son by nature, not always to do and will in all things the same as the Father. I did not receive the pattern for action from elsewhere by instruction. Nor was I summoned by a prior movement of will to will the same as the Father. Rather, by the laws of the truly divine nature, I attain the same willing and acting as God and the Father. In this precisely lies the impossibility of doing anything "of Myself."

So, I think, those who think piously should take "every thought captive to obey Christ" (2 Cor 10:5), as it is written. But the opponent of the truth may perhaps refuse to agree with this. He may make what has been said into a kind of food for his madness, speaking thus.

If the Son was in equality with the Father, and necessarily granted Him no superiority because of any insufficiency in His own nature, what compelled Him to say so openly, "The Son can do nothing of Himself, unless He sees the Father doing it"? In these words, they say, He clearly confesses that He can do absolutely nothing of Himself. He does so, obviously, as one who sees a Higher and Superior One. Yet you again reinterpret this saying for us.

What shall be said by us to this? Again the fighter against Christ grows strong in blasphemy, and through ignorance does not recognize his own madness. My dear friend, one should define exactly the meaning of what is said, and not be carried away by every thought that arises from ignorance.

In what way, in your opinion, should the Son be deprived of equality with the Father by the saying that He "can do nothing of Himself," unless He "sees the Father doing it"? Does He say this as one who lacks equality in power?

But from these very words one may see that the Son is equal in power to the Begetter, rather than that He has any deficiency of divine power. For He does not say, "The Son can do nothing of Himself unless He receives power from the Father." That would be proper for one who truly lacks divine power. He says instead, "unless He sees the Father doing it."

No one, I think, will dispute that by sight we commonly indicate not power, but contemplation. Therefore, when the Son says that He looks upon the works of the Begetter, He does not present Himself as lacking divine power. Rather, He presents Himself as an imitator or beholder, about which we shall speak more fully after this.

That through an activity entirely like the Father's, I mean in all things, He is shown to have equality of power with Him, He Himself will clearly teach. Speaking next of His Father, He says, "For whatever He does, this also the Son does likewise." How, then, is He less who possesses activity equal in power to God and the Father?

Can fire produce something other than fire, when no change is observed in its activity? Could this ever be? How then will the Son perform the works of the Father "likewise," if for this reason He is shown not to have power equal with Him?

This we have taken in the present case from the saying under interpretation. But through other reflections as well, we may arrive at knowledge of whether the nature of the Son admits being lower than the Father. Let our discussion also concern power.

Do they confess that the Son is God from God by nature and true, or will they say that He is God while impiously assigning to Him a state outside the essence of the Father? If they say that He is not from the essence of the Father, then He will be neither God by nature nor true Son. For what is not from God by nature can certainly not be thought God by nature. Nor can it be thought Son, if He was not begotten from the essence of the Father. They introduce to us a spurious and newly invented god.

But if, ashamed of the absurdity in their doctrines, they do not say this, and instead allow that the Only-begotten truly exists from the Father, and is God by nature and truly, then how will He be less than the Father? Or will He not prove powerless in some respect, and lay the blame for this on the essence of the Father?

For if He who is God by nature admits powerlessness in Himself, what prevents the Father from having the same, once this possibility has been admitted for the divine and ineffable Nature? According to their teaching, this nature already appears such in the Son. Therefore the Godhead is not impassible and will not always remain in identity and unchanging blessedness.

But tell me, who will endure those who think such things? In view of the words of Scripture that the Son is "the Lord of powers" (Ps 23:10), who will not be struck motionless if he asserts that He needs strengthening and is therefore imperfect? Yet this belongs properly to Him alone, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

But the opponent will again object in this way. "This is why we assert that the Father surpasses the Son. One is the first principle of works, as having perfection in power and all-knowledge. The Other first beholds, and only afterward accomplishes what is beheld. He imprints in Himself an imitation of the Father's activity, so that through likeness of works He too is thought God. This is what He taught us when He said that He can do nothing of Himself unless He sees the Father doing it."

What are you saying, most rash one? Does the Son imprint in Himself the forms of the Father's activity, and for this reason is He thought God? Then He will be God by instruction, and no longer by nature. As knowledge and art exist among us, so then dignity exists in Him. He is an artisan of divine works rather than true God.

But the artisan himself must undoubtedly be something other than the art present in him, even if that art is befitting God. How then is He worshiped by the angels in heaven, and worshiped by us without sin, if He goes beyond the bounds of the Godhead and has this glory only by art? Yet divine Scripture lays down for us that we should serve no one except the true God. "You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve" (Mt 4:10; Deut 6:13).

At least the holy multitude of angels cannot turn aside from what is due. If it worships the Son and serves Him together with us, it is because it recognizes Him as God by nature, not by instruction, as those men chatter. They seem unaware into what absurdities they must fall because of this.

First, the Son would have to admit change and alteration from worse to better. Yet through the prophet He says, "See, see, that I am, and I do not change" (Mal 3:6). Certainly the one who sings in the Spirit, "But Thou art the same" (Ps 101:28), crying this to the Son, will also prove a liar.

For according to them, He waits for the actions of the Father concerning something that exists, as though for some instructor and teacher, so that, having seen, He may become an imitator. But how, finally, could such a one fail to appear to everyone as rising from ignorance of something to knowledge, and changing from worse to better? We do acknowledge that knowledge of any good is better than ignorance.

Then, to complete their absurdities, let those who recognize God as instructor rather than Father answer us. Does the Son await vision of the Father's actions because He is ignorant of the works of the Father, or because He has the most exact knowledge of them?

If they say that He waits while knowing, they will plainly present the Father as doing something entirely superfluous, and as instructor of an altogether useless task. For the one, though not knowing, beholds what He already knows exactly. The other strives to teach One who already knows. To whom is it not obvious that such thoughts deserve complete ridicule?

But perhaps they will not say this. They will pass to the opposite answer, and will assert that He necessarily awaits the actions of the Father in order to learn through contemplation of them. But how then does He know "all things before they exist" (Dan 13:41)? Or how will He be true when He says of Himself, "I am a God near at hand, says the Lord, and not a God far off. Can anything be hidden from Me?" (Jer 23:23; Jer 32:27).

How is it not absurd and irrational to believe that the Spirit searches and knows the depths of God (1 Cor 2:10), while considering the Giver of the Spirit ignorant of the works of the Father and lower in knowledge than His own Spirit? Will the Son not finally cease to be Wisdom, since He is shown to be wholly ignorant and to receive knowledge through instruction?

He will be one who receives wisdom rather than Wisdom itself by nature. For the property of wisdom is to make wise, not to be made wise, just as the property of light is certainly to illumine, not to be illumined.

Therefore He will again be something other than the wisdom existing in Him. First, He will not be simple, but already compounded of two. Then, in addition, He will cease to be God, I mean God by nature and essentially. For the divine nature in no way admits instruction from anyone or duality of composition. It possesses simplicity as its own good and perfection.

If the Son is not God by nature, how does He produce and accomplish works that befit God alone? Will they say that for power befitting God it will be enough for Him only to see the Father acting? Through mere contemplation, does He acquire being God by nature and the power to do the same things as the One who shows Him?

In that case there is nothing to prevent many other gods from appearing among us, since the Father may have wished to show them also the path of His works. Instruction too, as an exclusive property of the Father's essence, will be something superfluous. For the instructed one, as they assert, proves to have ascended into the dignity of Godhead by nature, if He says, "I and the Father are one" (Jn 10:30), and "He who has seen Me has seen the Father" (Jn 14:9).

We have understood that the Father does nothing separately, so that, when the Son sees it, He then does something similar while looking at His Father’s work. Rather, He said, 'The Son can do nothing of Himself, unless He sees the Father doing it' (Jn 5:19), because the whole Son is from the Father. His whole essence and power are from Him who begot Him. Yet He said that He does these things just as the Father does, so that we should not understand the Father as doing one thing and the Son another. Rather, by the same power the Son does the very same thing as the Father, since the Father works through the Son.

Therefore the works of the Father and the Son are inseparable. But the saying, 'The Son can do nothing of Himself,' was spoken as though He said, 'The Son is not from Himself.' For if He is Son, if He is begotten, He is from Him by whom He was begotten. Yet He begot One equal to Himself. The Begetter lacked nothing, and He needed no time in order to beget, for He begot One coeternal. He needed no mother in order to beget, for from Himself He brought forth the Word. Nor was the Father, in begetting, older than the Son, as though the Son were younger.

Perhaps someone will say that after many ages, in His old age, God conceived the Son. But as the Father has no old age, so the Son has no growth. The One did not grow old, nor did the Other grow. Equal begot equal, the eternal begot the eternal. But how, someone asks, did the eternal beget the eternal? As a temporal flame begets temporal light. The begetting flame is coeval with the light it begets and does not precede it in time. The begetting flame begets the begotten light. Where the flame begins, there the light begins. Show me a flame without light, and I will show you God the Father without the Son.

John the Evangelist, among his companions and fellow evangelists, received a special and singular gift from the Lord. He reclined upon His breast at the supper (cf. Jn 13:25), showing that he drank deeper mysteries from the depths of His heart. Thus he could speak concerning the Son of God things that may stir up the jealous minds of immature men, yet cannot fill them while they remain unable to receive such words. But to minds stronger and more mature he gives, in those words, something by which they may be strengthened and nourished.

You heard these words in the reading, and you remember whence they came. Yesterday it was read that the Jews wanted to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also called God His own Father, making Himself equal with God (Jn 5:18). What displeased the Jews pleased the Father. Without doubt it also pleases those who honor the Son as they honor the Father. If it did not please them, they too would show displeasure. God does not become greater because He pleases you. But you become less if He displeases you.

In answer to their slander, born either of ignorance or of malice, the Lord says nothing that they could understand. Rather, He says what might trouble and disturb them, so that perhaps, being troubled, they might seek the Physician. He spoke what had to be written, so that we too might later read it. Therefore we see what happened in the hearts of the Jews when they heard this. Let us look more deeply at what happens in us when we hear it.

Heresies and every perverse teaching would not arise, capturing souls and casting them into the abyss, if the Scriptures were rightly understood. Nor would they arise if what is not rightly understood in them were not accepted rashly and presumptuously. Therefore, beloved, we must listen with the greatest care to what we are not yet mature enough to receive. We must keep this saving rule in a pious heart and in the fear of God, as it has been written.

Let us rejoice, as over food, in what we can understand according to the faith with which we are filled. As for what we cannot yet understand within this saving rule of faith, let us cease from conjecture and put off comprehension of the reading for a time. That is, even if we do not yet know the meaning of something, let us not decide whether it is good and true without being certain of it.

As for me, brothers, who have undertaken to speak with you, you must understand who I am and what I undertake. I, a man, have undertaken to speak of divine things. I, fleshly, speak of spiritual things. I, mortal, speak of immortal things. Let vain presumption also depart from me, my dear ones, if I desire, having obtained salvation, to dwell in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth (1 Tim 3:15). According to my measure, I take what I set before you at the table. Where it is open, I eat with you. Where it is closed, I knock with you.

The Jews were disturbed and indignant. In one respect they were right, because a man had dared to make himself equal with God. But they were unjust because they did not see God in the Man. They saw the flesh and did not find God. They saw the dwelling and did not recognize the Dweller. That flesh was a temple (cf. Jn 2:19), and God dwelt within it. Thus Jesus did not make the flesh equal to the Father. He did not make the form of a servant (cf. Phil 2:7) equal to the Lord. He made equal not what was created for our sake, but Him by whom He was when He created us.

You know who Christ was, for I speak to the Orthodox, and you believe rightly. He is not only the Word, nor only flesh, but the Word who became flesh, that He might dwell with us (Jn 1:14). I repeat concerning the Word what you know: 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God' (Jn 1:1). Behold equality with the Father. But 'the Word became flesh and dwelt among us' (Jn 1:14). The Father is greater than this flesh. Therefore the Father is both equal and greater. He is equal to the Word and greater than the flesh. He is equal to Him through whom He created us and greater than that which was created for our sake.

Hold fast this saving catholic rule, which you must know above all. Once you have grasped it, your faith must not wave it away, nor must any human arguments tear it from your hearts. Let us examine what we understand. What we perhaps do not understand from what must be learned by this rule, let us put off for a time, until we become more mature.

We know that the Son of God is equal to the Father, because we know that 'in the beginning ... the Word was God' (Jn 1:1). Why then did the Jews want to kill Him? Because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also called God His own Father, making Himself equal with God (Jn 5:18). They saw the flesh and did not see the Word. Therefore let the Word answer them through the flesh, and let the Dweller within speak through His dwelling. Then whoever can may know Who dwells within.

What did He say to them? Jesus answered and said to them, who were disturbed because He made Himself equal with God: 'Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless He sees the Father doing it' (Jn 5:19). What the Jews answered to this is not written. Perhaps they were silent. Yet some who wish to be considered Christians are not silent, and they take from these words something that can be spoken against us. This must not be passed over, both for their sake and for ours.

The Arian heretics say that the Son, who took flesh, is less than the Father not through the flesh, but before the flesh, and is not of the same substance as the Father. From these words they take occasion for slander and answer us: 'You see that the Lord Jesus, when He saw that the Jews were disturbed because He made Himself equal to God the Father, added such words to show that He is not equal to the Father. Since the Jews were disturbed against Christ because He made Himself equal with God, Christ, wishing to calm their disturbance and show them that the Son is not equal to the Father, that is, not equal to God, spoke those words. It was as though He said: Why are you angry? Why are you disturbed? I am not equal to Him, for the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless He sees the Father doing it. Therefore He is less than the Father, not equal to Him.'

Let the heretic, with this distorted and perverse rule of his heart, hear us. For the moment we do not rebuke him, but question him, and let him disclose what he thinks. Whoever you are, for we speak as though he were present with us, I think that you hold with us that 'in the beginning was the Word.' 'I hold it,' he says. And that 'the Word was with God'? 'This too,' he says, 'I hold.' Then go on and hold still more firmly that 'the Word was God' (Jn 1:1). 'This too,' he says, 'I hold, but that God is greater, and this God is lesser.'

Already something pagan is coming from you, and I thought I was speaking with a Christian. If there is a greater God and a lesser God, then we worship two Gods, not one God. 'Why,' he says, 'do you not also speak of two Gods equal to each other?' I do not say this, because I understand that equality in such a way that I understand indivisible love. If there is indivisible love, then there is perfect unity.

For if the love that God brought to men made one heart out of many human hearts, and made the many souls of men into one soul, as it is written of believers who loved one another in the Acts of the Apostles, 'they had one heart and one soul toward God' (cf. Acts 4:32), then how much more are God the Father and God the Son one, being the sources of love. If my soul and yours become one soul when we feel the same thing and love one another, how much more are the Father and the Son one.

Now consider the words by which your heart has been disturbed, and remember with me what we found concerning the Word. We already hold that 'the Word was God' (Jn 1:1). To this I add something more. After saying that He was in the beginning with God, the Evangelist immediately adds, 'All things were made through Him' (cf. Jn 1:3). Now I question you, now I am disturbed by you, and I dispute with you. Only keep in mind what was said concerning the Word, that 'the Word was God' (Jn 1:1), and that 'all things were made through Him.'

Now hear the words by which you were disturbed, so that you declared the Son to be less than the Father, because He said, 'The Son can do nothing of Himself, unless He sees the Father doing it' (Jn 5:19). Yes, He said this. Explain to me, briefly at least, the following. I suppose you think that the Father does something, and the Son watches how the Father does it, so that He Himself may be able to do what the Father does. You speak as though of two craftsmen, a father and a son, as of a master and a pupil. Craftsman fathers commonly teach their sons their craft in this way.

See, I descend to your bodily perception and reason now as you do. Let us see whether this reasoning can succeed, according to what we have already both said about the Word. We both thought that the Word was God, and that 'all things were made through Him.' Imagine the Father, then, as a craftsman making certain things, and the Son as a pupil who can do nothing of Himself unless He sees the Father doing it. He carefully watches his father’s hands, so that when he applies himself to his own work, he may do as the father did while he watched him.

But by what does that Father do everything He does, when He wants the Son to observe Him carefully and to do the like Himself? Come now, the time has come for you to return to your earlier judgment, which we examined together and which you accepted with me: 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,' and 'all things were made through Him' (Jn 1:1, 3). Therefore, after affirming with me that all things were made through the Word, you again picture in your soul, through a bodily image and childish understanding, a Father who works and a Word who attends. You suppose that after the Father has worked, the Word will also work.

If what is self-governing is better than what is subject, and man is self-governing while the Son of God is subject, then man is better than the Son. This is absurd.

And if one who is subject cannot make others self-governing, since what he himself does not have he cannot give to others by his own will, then the Savior who created us self-governing cannot be subject to anyone.

If the Savior could do nothing by Himself, but acted by the command of the Father, then He is neither good nor bad, because He is responsible for nothing that has occurred.

Is it not a manifest absurdity that, while men freely do good and evil, the Son, being God, should do nothing freely?

“The Son can do nothing of Himself, unless He sees the Father doing it.”

Concerning this, it must be observed that the words “can” and “cannot” are not used in one sense, but have many meanings.

Something is called impossible because of a lack of strength at a certain time and for a certain action. For example, a child cannot wrestle, and a puppy cannot see or fight with this or that creature.

In time, perhaps, the child will wrestle, and the puppy will see and fight with that creature. Yet fighting with another may remain impossible for it even then.

Something else is impossible in most cases. For example: “A city set on a hill cannot be hidden” (Mt 5:14).

Yet in another case it could be hidden, if it were blocked by a higher mountain.

Thus the Son is spoken of and testified to as equal to the Father. Good is the equality that excludes difference in the Godhead, and together with the Son affirms the Father, to Whom the Son is equal.

This equality is neither of opposites nor of solitude, because no one can be equal to himself alone. Therefore the Evangelist explained what it means to call Himself the Son of God: it means making Himself equal to God.

The Word has now come down, not naked, but made flesh. His appearance is not that of God, but the appearance of a servant; Phil 2:6-8. This is He who said that He could not act of Himself; Jn 5:19. For inability is a sign of weakness. As darkness is opposed to light, and death to life, so weakness is opposed to power. But Christ is the power of God; 1 Cor 1:24. Power is not powerless. If power were to grow weak, what could be said of Him who possesses power? When the Word declares that He cannot act, it is clear that He does not attribute powerlessness to the divinity of the Only-begotten. Rather, He bears witness to what is impossible for the weakness of our nature. The flesh is weak, according to what is written: "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak"; Mt 26:41. Cf. Mk 14:38.

"Then Jesus answered and said to them: Amen, amen, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless He sees the Father doing it."

When Jesus Christ spoke exaltedly about Himself, He endured persecution, because the Jews could not rise to the height of His words. They persecuted Him as an adversary of God.

Therefore He condescends to the weakness of their mind and, with a wise purpose, speaks humbly about Himself, so that His teaching might be readily received.

Then He again raises His discourse to what is exalted, and once more lowers it to humility. Then again He turns now to the higher, now to the lower.

Thus He composes His discourse partly of exalted expressions, which point to His equality, and partly of humble expressions, which seem to testify to His abasement.

If the Son is equal to the Father, why does He say in His own words that the Son can do nothing of Himself unless He sees the Father doing it?

Answer. There is nothing worse than thinking this way about the Only-begotten Son of God.

Nor is there anything worse than imagining all creatures divided in two: some created perfectly by the Father, and others still being made by the Son, introduced in parts and fashioned after the likeness of the Father.

Then the madness of Arius would show us two suns and two moons. It would divide what was created by the Father from what was created by the Son.

The same procedure could then be applied correspondingly to all creatures on earth and in the sea.

John, the son of thunder, truly says that the Word became flesh.

The saying, "The Son can do nothing of Himself, unless He sees the Father doing it," is not a sign of weakness. It signifies the impossibility that the Father should have one will and the Son another.

If the Son sees what the Father does, and the Father acts according to what He wills in counsel, then the Son also sees the very counsels of the Father. For the very will of God is already action.

If the Son sees what is willed in the counsel of the Father and shares in the willing, then He plainly shares also in the nature. Therefore the Father and the Son have one essence, as they have one will.

When He said, "The Son can do nothing of Himself, unless He sees the Father doing it," He spoke according to His personal relation to the Father.

From the Father and with the Father He has not only one being, but one will, one operation, and one power. Therefore, naturally, whatever He does, He always does from the Father and with the Father.

He can do nothing only from Himself alone.

Truly, truly: see the note on Jn 1:51. The Son can do nothing, and so forth. Having indicated His equality with God the Father, the Lord does not renounce His words despite the Jews' accusation. Rather, in the face of danger, He affirms their truth with astonishing force, proves them, and explains them. The Son, that is, the Messiah, Jesus, is one with the Father. Therefore, by His nature, He cannot do what is not in accord with the Father's nature and will, or what is apart from the Father. Such is this unity, that whatever the Son does, He does only together with the Father. The expression is figurative. "Unless He sees the Father doing" indicates the immediacy and fullness of the Son's knowledge of all divine mysteries; cf. Jn 3:11, 32.

Verse 19. Jesus not only does not accuse the Jews of misunderstanding His words. On the contrary, He strives to convince them that He is truly equal to the Father, and that this thought contains nothing offensive to the Godhead. To act εφ έαυτου means to act from oneself, according to one's own will, independently of another, even against his will; Jn 16:13; Jn 8:38; Num 16:21. Such are not the works of the Son. If the Son acted arbitrarily, independently of the Father, this would be an offense against the Father's authority. But He acts without separation from the Father. The basis for the Father and the Son acting together and doing one and the same thing is the unity of their essence. Equality in being and essence is disclosed by equality of works. "The Son does nothing of Himself, since, by unity of operation, neither does the Son do anything without the Father, nor the Father without the Son"; Ambrose, on Ps 68, oration 4.