John 6:46Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Otherwise someone might suppose this was said only about men. Wishing to show that neither angels, nor archangels, nor the powers above know the Father, He explained it by His addition.

For after saying, "Not that anyone has seen the Father," He added, "except Him who is from God; He has seen the Father."

If He had simply said, "no one," many of the hearers might perhaps have thought this was said only about our race.

But now, having said "no one" and added "only" the Son, by this addition of the Only-begotten He excluded every creature.

Someone will say, "Did He then exclude the Holy Spirit also?" No, for the Spirit is not part of creation.

The word "no one" is always used to exclude only creation. Likewise, when the Father is spoken of, the Son is not excluded.

And when the Son is spoken of, the Spirit is not excluded.

To show here that the word "no one" was not said to exclude the Spirit, but to remove creation, let us hear what Paul says about the same knowledge attributed to the Son alone.

Speaking with the Corinthians, what does he say? "For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man that is in him?

Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God" (1 Cor 2:11).

As the word "no one" here does not exclude the Son, so the word "no one" spoken by Christ does not exclude the Holy Spirit.

From this the truth of what has been said is clear.

If in the words, "no one has seen the Father, except Him who is from God," the Spirit were excluded, Paul would have spoken in vain.

For he says that, just as a man knows what is within himself, so the Holy Spirit knows precisely the things that are in God.

"Not that anyone has seen the Father," the Lord says, "except Him who is from God; He has seen the Father."

"What follows from this?" they will say. "This saying still does not ascribe perfect knowledge to the Son.

That creation does not know the Father He expressed in the words, 'Not that anyone has seen the Father.'

That the Son knows Him, He likewise expressed by adding, 'except Him who is from God; He has seen the Father.'

But that He knows the Father perfectly, and as He knows Himself, has not yet been proved."

They may think that neither creation nor the Son knows Him fully. They may say that the Son has a clearer understanding of the Father than creation, yet still imperfect.

He said that He sees the Father as He is and knows Him. But they say that He has not yet declared that He knows Him perfectly and as He knows Himself.

Do you wish me to prove this also from the Scriptures, and specifically from the saying of Christ Himself?

Let us hear what He says to the Jews: "As the Father knows Me, so I know the Father" (Jn 10:15).

For the Jews thought, reasoning quite foolishly, from the expression used about him, "He entered into the darkness" (Ex 20:21), that the ineffable nature of God is accessible to sight.

They thought that what by nature is pure beauty can be seen with bodily eyes.

But lest, by saying something clearer about wise Moses, He seem to encourage them toward their usual boldness, He speaks indefinitely and at the same time concerning all, as also concerning him.

"Not that anyone has seen the Father." Do not demand, He says, what is above human nature.

Do not be carried away by senseless impulses toward what is inaccessible to all creatures.

The Divine Nature is inaccessible, hidden, and inconceivable not only to our eyes, but to all creation.

In the word "no one" here, "all" is gathered together. Yet He defines Himself as the only One who is from God and has seen the Father.

By this He plainly places Himself outside the "all" that can properly be understood under the word "no one."

Therefore, since He is outside all, and while no one sees the Father, He alone is not deprived of this vision, can He not at last be understood to exist not among "all" as one of them?

Rather, He exists outside "all," as being above "all."

If it is said that "all things are from God" and that "no one sees the Father," because "all things are from God," according to Paul's word (1 Cor 11:12), what follows?

It is also said that He alone "sees God," because He is "from God." We will rightly understand this "from God" if we take it of Him alone as meaning "from the essence of the Father."

If this is not so, then why, as we have said before, when "all things are from God," does He alone ascend to the vision of the One who begot Him precisely because He is "from God"?

Therefore this expression, "from God," must be said of creatures in an improper sense.

For "all things are from God" in the sense of creation, as brought by Him into being.

But concerning the Son, the expression "from God" must be received in another and truer sense. It means that He, the Son, is from Him, the Father, by nature.

Therefore He is not numbered with all, but is outside all and above all with the Father.

He must not share the weakness common to all, since He is exempt from being of one nature with them.

Rather, rising to the nature of the One who begot Him, He must certainly behold the One from whom He is.

But to express in words how or in what manner He Himself sees the Father, or conversely is contemplated by the Father, is beyond our tongue.

Nevertheless, one must conceive this in a manner befitting God.

Therefore, after I have said to you, ‘Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father,’ do not begin saying among yourselves, ‘But we have never seen the Father. How can we learn from the Father?’ Hear Me: ‘Not that anyone has seen the Father, but He who is from God has seen the Father.’ I know the Father. I have My being from Him, as the Word exists from Him whose Word It is. It is not a word that sounds and vanishes, but the Word that abides with the Speaker and draws the hearer.”

Since the Only-begotten Son, like the Holy Spirit, has the Godhead in common with the Father, He who was begotten without change before the eternal ages knows Him who begot Him. And He who begot knows Him who was begotten. Therefore, since the angels do not know, for the Only-begotten Son with the Holy Spirit reveals through the Holy Spirit to each according to his capacity, no man should be ashamed to acknowledge his ignorance.

It is because, He says, no one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, as was foretold already in the Old Testament. Therefore, because of the hardness and unworthiness of the Jews who heard Jesus Christ, the gracious action of the Father, calling to salvation, had not yet touched their hearts. Without it, man, blinded by sin, cannot see the light of truth. But lest anyone misunderstand Isaiah’s prophecy (54:13) about direct teaching from God, Jesus Christ says that this prophecy must not be understood as though any man could ever see God and converse directly with Him. Nor can man know the essence of God through immediate vision and contemplation. God acts invisibly upon men by His grace. Immediate vision of the divine essence belongs only to His Son. Therefore, only through the Son can men receive the full light of the knowledge of God needed for salvation, and through it eternal life (17:3). Therefore: “Amen, amen, I say to you, he who believes in Me has eternal life.”

Then the Savior, with irresistible directness and clarity, revealed to them that He is the source of eternal life sent down from heaven. “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. The bread which I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.” By these words, on the one hand, He pointed to the coming great work of redeeming sinful mankind through the offering of the flesh of the Son of Man for the life of the world. On the other hand, He pre-established the Mystery of Communion, which would serve as the means by which later generations of the faithful would partake of Christ’s redeeming work.

"He Who is from God" means the One begotten from the essence of God and sent from God into the world. That is, the Son of God, Christ (cf. Jn 1:14; Jn 8:42; Jn 7:29).

By the power of this union with God, the Lord can lead those taught by God ever more deeply into the truth and love of God.

Therefore it is natural that learned Jews, and men like Strausses and Renans, do not understand Jesus' teaching. They are occupied with fantasies about their own learning, which do not allow grace into their proud hearts.

Concerning the relation of grace to human freedom, Augustine observes: "Do not think that one will be drawn against his will. He will be drawn by love.

"How shall I believe that it is by will, if I am drawn? I tell you: by will is little; by delight is much.

"What does it mean to be drawn by delight? Open yourself to the Lord, and He will fulfill the petition of your heart (Ps 36:4). There is a certain delight of the heart, for which that heavenly food is sweet."

"It is written in the prophets." In defense of His thought, the Savior bears witness by the prophets. He cited the words of Isaiah, Isa 54:13.

But when He spoke of the prophets, He of course also directs us to seek other testimonies, such as Jer 31:33-34.

After saying that the Father instructs, He adds that these words do not mean that men can see the Father Himself immediately. The divine essence is contemplated only by the Son (Jn 1:2; Jn 3:18).

By this it is made clear that, just as in the Godhead there are Father and Son, so the salvation of men was and is ordered by the Father through the Son.

It is also made clear that, if they wish to know the Father, they must listen to the Son. Otherwise, the order of men's salvation depends not on the will of men, but on the will of heaven.