John 5:37Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Having done this, He continues: "And the Father who sent Me has Himself borne witness to Me."

Where did the Father bear witness to Him? At the Jordan, when He said, "This is My beloved Son; listen to Him," Mt 17:5.

But even this testimony still required explanation. John's testimony was clear to them, because they themselves had sent to him and could not deny it.

The testimony of the miracles was likewise evident. They saw the miracles Christ performed, heard of them from those healed, and believed the facts. For this reason they accused Christ.

It remained, finally, to prove the truth of the testimony from the Father. Therefore, intending to explain this, He adds, "You have never heard His voice."

How, then, does Moses say, "Moses spoke, and God answered him by a voice," Ex 19:19?

"And the Father who sent Me has Himself borne witness to Me." Where, then, did the Father bear witness to Him?

Some say that it was at the baptism, when He said, "This is My beloved Son," Mt 3:17.

But I think it better to understand that God bore witness to Him in all Scripture, in the Law and the Prophets.

"You," He says, "have not heard His voice," that is, the Father's, "nor seen His form." He is wholly unknown to you.

For you do not have His word abiding in you. That is, you do not know the Scriptures which bear witness to Me, although you think you know them.

You boast that the words of God have been entrusted to you. That you do not know the Scriptures is clear from this: you do not believe the One whom He sent.

"And the Father who sent Me Himself bore witness of Me." "You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form. And you do not have His word abiding in you, because you do not believe Him whom He sent."

Here one can see not merely a simple construction of thoughts placed again in the proposed saying. Rather, there is a great multitude of hidden contemplations. They very easily escape the attention of hearers who do not love learning, but are accessible to deeper investigators alone.

For example, someone might ask what moved Jesus, after speaking of His testimony through divine activity (Jn 5:36-37), to come to a discourse like the present one. It seems quite distant from what preceded. He says that the Pharisees had never heard the "voice" of God the Father, nor had they contemplated "His form." They did not even have His "word" dwelling in them.

I will agree, as I think everyone else would, that such a perplexity on someone's part would not be superfluous. Therefore, holding everywhere to the truth, I shall try to state the meaning we should attach to the proposed saying. I shall also state what contemplation we should apply to it, with the help of the power and grace of the Spirit.

It is the custom of Christ the Savior, when conducting profitable conversations, especially with the senseless Pharisees, often to turn His gaze into the depth of their heart. In a God-befitting manner He sees the thoughts that move and circulate in the soul before they have words. It is chiefly to these that He gives answers. At times He speaks of them and exposes them.

In doing this, He does not preserve an unbroken connection in His sayings. Rather, by His answer He immediately meets what they desire and ponder within themselves. Through this He also shows that He is God by nature, since He knows what is hidden in the depths and searches hearts and reins.

If anyone wishes, he can receive the clearest proof of what has been said from the other Evangelists, by which I mean Luke and the rest. It is written in the Gospels that Pharisees and teachers of the Law once gathered from all the surrounding region of Judea.

"And behold," it says, "men were carrying on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they sought to bring him in and lay him before Him. When they could not find a way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the house. Through the tiles they let him down with his bed into the midst before Jesus. Seeing their faith, He said to the paralytic: Man, your sins are forgiven you. And the scribes and Pharisees began to reason, saying: Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins except God alone? But Jesus, perceiving their reasonings, answered and said to them: Why do you reason in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, Your sins are forgiven you, or to say, Rise and walk?" (Lk 5:17-23; cf. Mt 9:2ff.; Mk 2:3ff.).

"It happened on another Sabbath that He entered the synagogue and taught. A man was there, and his right hand was withered. The scribes and Pharisees watched Him, whether He would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find an accusation against Him. But He knew their reasonings," it says, "and said to the man who had the withered hand: Rise and stand in the midst. And he rose and stood. Then Jesus said to them: I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil?" (Lk 6:6-9; cf. Mt 12:9ff.; Mk 3:1ff.).

You see, here also He plainly conducted the conversation as the One who looks into the very heart of those who were madly trying to accuse Him. We suppose that the Savior also saw something of this sort in the souls of the Pharisees when He spoke the words now being interpreted.

If you are not too weary to review again all that has already been said, you will see that these words do not turn aside from the straight path or from the matter at hand. At first, there was this great and lengthy discourse against them concerning the man healed on the Sabbath.

In it Christ, by various proofs and arguments, sought to persuade those who were greatly indignant at Him. In their view, He had violated the honor of the Sabbath, or even thereby transgressed the Law itself. He sought to persuade them that even on the Sabbath it is possible to show mercy and to do good to all.

Moreover, He sought to persuade them that the Law established the Sabbath rest as a shadow of a most wondrous reality. He also affirmed most decisively that He had been sent by God the Father. At the same time, He clearly said that the Father bears witness to Him and will approve all His works.

Against this, the Pharisees were adherents of the letter of the Law. They always displayed the commandments of Moses and boasted in their knowledge of them. Most likely, they again thought within themselves: What is this speech we hear from Him? How will God the Father approve a transgressor of the Law?

When did He testify to this, or what decision did He make concerning Him? From the Law of Moses we know that God came down on Mount Sinai. His form was seen by the fathers, and His voice, it says, was heard (Ex 19:9ff.).

He spoke to the whole assembly of the people and commanded them to keep the Sabbath day. He plainly commanded the following: "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the holy Lord your God. You shall do no work on it" (Ex 20:8-10).

We did not hear these words from someone else, they would say. The whole multitude of the fathers personally heard the divine voice. After them, the word of God is with us. But who is this Man?

Since He again saw such thoughts in them, He rebukes those who are bitterly astray, saying: "You have never heard His voice, nor have you contemplated His form. And you do not have His word abiding in you, because you do not believe Him whom He sent."

They were utterly ignorant of what happened then in type, and through which the descent of God upon Mount Sinai was represented to them. They did not take these things as images of spiritual realities. Instead, they thought that the divine nature could actually be seen with bodily eyes, and they believed that It uses a bodily voice.

The words of the Savior about them were true: they had never "heard the voice" of God the Father, nor had anyone contemplated "His form" with bodily sight. That form is the Word, like Him in all things. In my opinion, the words of Exodus can again clearly prove this, when they are spiritually explained and investigated.

It is read as follows: "And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was completely covered with smoke, because God had descended upon it in fire. The smoke went up like the smoke of a furnace, and all the people were greatly terrified. And the sounds of the trumpet were heard, sounding very strongly. Moses spoke, and God answered him with a voice" (Ex 19:17-19).

Thus the words of wise Moses speak to us. Now, I think, we must show that the Jews fell into a ridiculous opinion about God. They thought that they had contemplated His very "form" and had heard a voice truly proper to the divine nature.

Therefore, relying on the abundant grace of the Savior, let us refine the coarseness of the legal letter into spiritual contemplation. Then what was said to the Pharisees concerning God will be shown with special clarity to be true: "You have never heard His voice, nor have you contemplated His form."

Moses' leading the people out to meet God, as it is written, could be a clear sign and a kind of enigmatic speech. It shows that no one can approach God without instruction and knowledge. Only those who are guided by the Law are taught the knowledge of what they seek. For Moses may be understood as standing for the Law, according to what is said somewhere: "They have Moses and the Prophets" (Lk 16:29).

The people's standing beneath the mountain, when God had already descended and was upon it, points to the readiness of the soul and the willingness for servitude in those who are called. With God's help, they do not in any way turn aside from striving toward what is beyond their strength and above nature.

Such, without doubt, are the companions of the Savior. Therefore, caring for courage beyond human measure, they say: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or hunger, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?" (Rom 8:35).

The pious can endure every terror for the sake of love for Christ. If tribulation rises like a mountain, they will overcome every danger and will not turn their soul away from love for God.

It is then said that God came down not to some lowly place, but appeared again on a height and on a mountain. You should think something similar in relation to yourself. Even if the divine nature descends to our souls and brings Itself to some understanding for us, It still remains infinitely above our words and contemplations.

This height and supreme elevation of the dogmas concerning It is signified by the mountain, which, we are told, was darkened with smoke. Indeed, our words about the Godhead are dark and not very clear. Like smoke, they veil the spiritual eye.

Therefore wise Paul testified that we see in a mirror and in an enigma (1 Cor 13:12). The Psalmist also says somewhere that God made darkness His covering (Ps 17:12). By the name of darkness he signifies His unknowability. The smoke around the fire on the mountain may quite well be taken as an image of it.

The Godhead Himself descends in the form of fire, which was especially needed precisely at that time. It was required by the nature of the matter. Indeed, it was fitting that the One who, through the coming ordinance of the Law, called Israel to servitude and understanding should be shown as Enlightener and Chastiser. Both are accomplished through fire.

But "the sounds of the trumpet," it says, "were heard, sounding very strongly," so that thoughts of the same kind might arise here also. For the Law was proclaimed by God. Yet at first it was not proclaimed strongly, because of the weakness of those being trained. It was, so to speak, uttered with a quiet voice and not with the full force of the trumpet.

Therefore Moses called himself slow of speech. But with the passage of time, which raised those who believe in Christ from the shadowy letter to spiritual worship, far stronger voices of the divine trumpet sounded forth. These are the saving and evangelical preaching, which in a certain way fills the whole universe with its sound.

It was not like the Law, weak in voice and little known, heard only in the land of Judea, or even proclaimed from Dan to Beersheba. Rather, "their proclamation has gone out into all the earth," as it is written (Ps 18:5).

What else is there here? "Moses," it says, "spoke, and God answered him with a voice." Let the mind of those who love learning be keen again. Let it observe precisely the faithfulness proper to the divine revelations.

For Moses speaks, and God answers him with a voice. It is certainly not with His own voice, for this is not said. Rather, simply and without qualification, He answers "with a voice," ϑωνῇ, produced miraculously in a human manner through the utterance of words.

Indeed, can God be powerless in any matter? What will God not accomplish, and that entirely without hindrance, if He wills? Therefore Moses spoke, and God answered him with a voice. In this consists the type.

Now let us look at the truth. In the holy Gospels you find the Lord saying, "Father, glorify Your Son!" and the Father answering by means of a voice: "I have both glorified Him and will glorify Him again" (Jn 12:28).

That this was not in reality the voice of God the Father, the Savior showed when He said to those present: "This voice did not come for My sake, but for yours" (Jn 12:30). As you see, He clearly expressed how the voice "came," γεγονεν.

For it is not natural to think that the divine nature Itself uses a voice by sound. Yet It accommodates Itself to our needs and speaks like us for providential purposes.

In one place of the Gospel the Lord says that a prudent hearer of His words should be like a man who wishes to build a house. He digs deep until he reaches solid rock that can serve as a foundation.

Then, being at peace, he decides to build his house upon it, so as to escape the threat of flood. If a flood should come, it will be restrained by the strength of the building rather than destroy that house by its force (cf. Mt 7:24-25).

Let us regard the Scripture of God as a field on which we wish to build something. Let us not be lazy. Let us not be satisfied with the surface. Let us dig deeper until we reach the rock. And the Rock was Christ (1 Cor 10:4).

"And the Father who sent Me has Himself borne witness to Me." Where, then, did He bear witness to Him?

A little later He will show that it was in the Scriptures.

It is true that the Father also bore witness to Him at the baptism, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased," Mt 3:17, and again at the Transfiguration.

But at the baptism, though they heard, they were perplexed. At the Transfiguration they did not even hear.

Therefore Jesus Christ omits these testimonies and refers them to the Scriptures, which were always in their hands and could not be contradicted.

He does this somewhat later. Here, however, He prevents them from demanding testimony from God given by His own voice and face.

"My witness is greater than John. It is My Father Himself. And who can testify more faithfully about someone's origin than the father himself?

"In what, then, is His testimony revealed? In the works that I do, that is, in miracles that are beyond doubt. No one falsely appropriating the honor of God can perform them. If I unjustly called Myself the Son of God, I could not perform miracles by the power of God.

"And it is not My fault if you do not believe this testimony. Even if His testimony were given in another form, for example in a voice, as to Isaiah, in a vision, as to Ezekiel, or in an inward word, as in the Old Testament, you would not receive it.

"You have never before heard His voice or seen His face. Nor does His word abide in you, because it abides only where there is faith in the Word, and this faith is not in you."

In what precedes, the Lord points to two testimonies concerning Himself. One is human testimony, in the person of John the Baptist. The other is divine testimony, manifested in the wondrous works that Jesus Christ performs by the power given Him from God.

Now He says: "And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has borne witness of Me." Since the immediately preceding words concerned the testimony of God the Father, some interpreters think that no new testimony is introduced here. Thus verse 37 may be paraphrased: "And in this way the Father who sent Me has Himself borne witness of Me, though you have never heard His voice," and so on.

The words, “but you have never heard His voice,” confirm our opinion that the voice of God, which sounded as if from heaven at Jesus’ Baptism, was heard only by John the Baptist and Jesus Christ.

"The Father Himself has borne witness to Me." From the testimony of Christ's works about Him, Christ ascends to the testimony of the One who gave Him these works to accomplish.

He passes from the Father's testimony through the mediation of works to His direct testimony. The word "Himself" shows that here the testimony about Christ is not through works.

It is the testimony of God the Father in another way. But what exactly is it?

St. Chrysostom understands the testimony of God the Father at Christ's baptism. This is true, but it hardly exhausts the thought of the saying.

According to the connection of the discourse, God's testimony must here be understood generally as the testimony of God the Father in His word.

Verses 36-37. The works done according to the Father's will are the Savior's miracles.

Christ Jesus often pointed His enemies to them, Jn 7:21, 23; Jn 9:4-5; Jn 14:12; Jn 15:24; Mt 11:5, 20.

Miracles point to a wonderworking teacher as God's messenger, and inspire trust in His teaching.

The Apostle Peter calls Jesus Christ "a man attested." By what? How? "By mighty works, wonders, and signs which God did through Him," Acts 2:22.

Yet if the Savior calls Himself God's messenger, then as the Son of God He is such a messenger as no other ever was.

"And the Father who sent Me has Himself borne witness to Me." The Savior again points to the testimony of the Father expressed in Jesus' miracles. Thus He seeks the salvation of men.

The voice given by the Father at the baptism, since it was heard by John alone, could not be brought as witness for the Jews. Besides, it had already been mentioned, as had John's voice.

The first part of verse 37 contains an indication of the direct testimony of God the Father. The second part of verse 37 and verse 38 indicate the darkness in which the unbelieving Jews are found.

The Jews had direct testimony that the Lord Jesus is the Son of God in that voice from heaven which bore witness to Him at the Lord's baptism.

They also had it in the manifestation of the Spirit, about which John the Baptist openly preached, Mt 3:16-17; Mk 1:10-11; Lk 3:21-22; Jn 1:32-34.

The Pharisees and Sadducees were not present at this great Theophany, and of course were unworthy to be present.

Therefore they "did not hear the Father's voice" and "did not see His form." Yet they had sent to John, and "he bore witness to the truth."