John 6:69Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

By the rock He covertly names a mind that is dry and wholly unable to retain the teaching once implanted in it.

Because of their great ignorance, the wretched Jews were in such a condition. They were taught by the voice of the prophet: “Rend your hearts, and not your garments” (Joel 2:13).

As agricultural practice advises plowing the earth before sowing seed, so, I think, those approaching the reception of divine teachings must first open their hearts by desire for them.

Receiving them in this way, they will make their soul, heavy with seed, into a kind of fruitful soil.

Therefore, in assurance of faith, the wise disciples say that they “have known.” And they boldly trust and believe that He is “the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

This saying too proves to be composed with great wisdom. “We have believed,” they say, “and have known,” joining both words into one.

For it was fitting both to believe and to understand. Although the divine revelation is received by faith, it must not therefore be removed entirely from inquiry.

On the contrary, one must strive to ascend at least to a moderate knowledge, the knowledge given “as in a mirror and in an enigma,” as Paul says (1 Cor 13:12).

They also speak beautifully because they do not say they first knew and then believed. Rather, they place faith first and set knowledge second.

For knowledge comes after faith, not before faith, according to what is written: “If you do not believe, neither will you understand” (Is 7:9).

Simple faith is first laid in us like a foundation. Knowledge is then built upon it little by little, raising us “to the measure of the stature” in Christ and “to a perfect” and spiritual “man” (Eph 4:13).

For this reason God also says in one place: “Behold, I lay in the foundations of Zion a chosen stone, a precious cornerstone” (Is 28:16; 1 Pet 2:6).

For Christ is for us the beginning and foundation of holiness and righteousness, evidently through faith and not otherwise. It is precisely in this way that He dwells in us.

Notice how everywhere they speak in the singular and put the article first: “Σὺ εἶ ὁ Χριστὸς ὁ Υἱὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ τοῦ ζῶντος.”

They separate Him, as the one and uniquely true Son, from those called to sonship by grace. We too are sons according to His likeness.

Again they call Him “the Christ” as the only one. Yet one must know that He is called Christ not for His own sake, nor as being such by nature, as He is Son.

Nevertheless He alone is truly and uniquely Christ. Among those called christs, or anointed ones, there is none like Him. Yet by likeness with us He is called Christ.

His proper name, belonging uniquely and exclusively to Him, and His true reality, is “Son.” What is common with us is “Christ.”

Since He was anointed, and since He became man, for this reason He is Christ. Therefore, if the anointing must be referred to the need of humanity, then He must be understood as Christ by likeness with us.

He is not Christ in the same way that He is also Son. As Son, He is one and only by nature and exclusively, both before the flesh and with the flesh.

He is not two, as some think, who evidently do not understand the depth of the mystery.

For the Word did not descend from God the Father into “a man,” as grace through the Spirit descends upon one of the holy prophets.

Rather, He truly “became flesh,” according to what is written (Jn 1:14), that is, He became man. Therefore He is not divided after union with the flesh and does not break apart into two persons.

Yet we must understand the Word from God and the flesh in which He dwelt as something different and distinct.

Since the whole choir of the holy Apostles confirms our faith concerning this by saying that they “have known,” they speak in the singular.

They say that He is “ὁ Χριστὸς ὁ Υἱὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ,” “the one Christ, the one Son of God.” Therefore, if we wish to think rightly, we must not accept the teaching of those who, in madness, do not renounce introducing something else besides this.

Whether the betrayer already concealed his murderous design against God, or whether the Lord saw only its seed in Judas’s soul, in any case this remark was a warning to him.

He could have made use of it to change his disposition, just as a thief, seeing the danger of being discovered, throws away what he has stolen.

It is also noteworthy that the first still-hidden exposure of the betrayer coincides with the falling away of many other disciples from the Lord on account of this discourse.

Such a rebuke was necessary then, because by remaining His followers and receiving great promises, they could have become proud of their position and their faith.

But when they heard that even among them there were unbelievers, even a devil, that is, an instrument of the devil, they had to fear lest they fall away from faith and become like the fallen angel. Chrysostom.

The proposed choice concerned Judas especially. He wished to appear as one of the best. It would surely have been better for him to leave Jesus then than to be brought by vainglory and greed to the role of betrayer.

“Simon Peter answered: Lord, to whom shall we go? We have believed and known that Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

The disciples did not yet understand much in the words of the heavenly Teacher. Yet the foundations of faith were already in them.

They already believed that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God. Later, under the light and moisture of the Holy Spirit, this seed would unfold into a beautiful tree.

St. Cyril remarks: “They had to believe and to know. For if faith already receives the divine, it does not thereby refuse all inquiry.

“On the contrary, it must strive to raise itself to a certain knowledge, a knowledge, according to Paul, in a mirror and in an enigma.

“They also speak well by not putting knowledge first and faith afterward. They set faith first and leave knowledge to follow it. For knowledge comes after faith, not before faith” (In Ioh. lib. VI, c. 29).

Instead of “the Son of the living God,” the best Greek manuscripts read “the Holy One of God.” The origin of the first reading is clear. It was taken from Simon’s confession spoken at another time, Mt 16:16.

In Daniel’s prophecy, Dan 9:24, the Holy One of God is the Messiah, who elsewhere is called the Righteous One, Is 53:11.

“Jesus answered them: Did I not choose you, the twelve? Yet one of you is a devil.”

Jesus not only adds no approval to Peter’s confession, but even gives an admonition. Why is this so?

“Otherwise the disciples who remained with Him, while others had left Him, might have imagined that He would flatter them” (Chrysostom).

At that moment there was need not for encouragement, but for admonition. The Lord’s love had distinguished the twelve disciples with special attention and a special honor, the name of messengers.

Therefore it had every right to expect that the confession uttered by Peter was the inward and inalienable possession of all twelve.

To the sorrow of love, it turned out that one of them was very far from the desired perfection. For the benefit of those beloved, love declares: “One of you is a devil.”

There is no doubt that Judas, of whom, as the Evangelist notes in verse 71, Christ was now speaking, was at first a good and pious man.

In many respects he did not yield to the other chosen ones. Otherwise he would not have been numbered among the twelve chosen.

The leader of the apostate spirits, at the beginning of his existence, belonged to the higher and better creations of God. But afterward, by his own will, he became leader of spirits disobedient to God, who abandoned their appointed service, Jude 6.

In exactly the same way Judas did not retain his high dignity, being carried away by pride and love of money.

He is called a devil in the sense of an enemy and adversary of Jesus. Thoughts wholly opposed to Peter’s confession lay hidden in his soul.

Judas the betrayer is also called Iscariot in the other Gospels, Mt 10:4; Mt 26:14; Lk 22:3. What is this name?

One may think that Iscariot is the same as ish Kerioth, a man from the town of Kerioth, a native of Kerioth. Some manuscripts read: ἀπὸ τοῦ Καριώτου.

Kerioth was a city of the tribe of Judah, Josh 15:25. But then one would have to see in Greek ἀνὴρ Καριώτης.

Otherwise it is impossible to point to an example where ish, joined with the name of a place, is used without translation.

Therefore it is considered more probable that Iscariot is a nickname given from Judas’s occupation. It means bearer of the box, steward. In the Syriac translation, skariuta means steward.

This occupation of Judas is indicated in the Gospel, Jn 13:29.

“Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven,” the Lord said to Simon Peter (Mt 16:17). For among men “no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor 12:3).

Peter appeared as the representative of the faith of the eleven faithful Apostles. Yet in his confession there is also his own individual warmth of feeling, a faith burning with love.

This was the reason why the Lord, knowing and foretelling Peter’s fall, said to him, “When you have returned, strengthen your brethren” (Lk 22:32).

Indeed, we see that Peter’s words burst from the depth of his heart in a warm stream. Almost with desperation he utters the touching words, “Lord, to whom shall we go?”

He fears that the Lord might suspect them of unfaithfulness and send them away from Himself. “You, Lord,” he says, “have the words of eternal life.”

Perhaps more than all the other disciples, Peter had detached himself from the earthly and cleaved to the heavenly. The words of life had filled his soul with unspeakable joy.

He sincerely says that, having tasted them, he can no longer live without them. This character of Peter’s ardent faith and love stands out especially in the Gospel of John, which nevertheless does not hide Peter’s denial (Jn 18:26-27).

Let us remember that John was the beloved disciple and an eyewitness of all the events of the Lord’s earthly life.

“We have believed,” says the chief Apostle on behalf of all twelve, not yet suspecting the betrayal being prepared by one of them. “We have known that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

The expression of faith is literally the same as that recorded from Peter’s lips in the Evangelist Matthew, 16:16.

This confession of faith, formed in an unchanging form in the minds of the believing disciples, contains the dogma formulated by Peter’s lips.

It was written by the Evangelists Matthew and John at the command of the Holy Spirit for the guidance of all believers.

“You are the Christ.” That is, You are the One whom from ancient times we have awaited under the name of the Anointed One. Messiah and Christ are equivalent names, the Hebrew and the Greek, meaning Anointed.

Moses and the prophets foretold You. You brought in Yourself the expected deliverance.

“You are the Son of God.” You are the Son of the Living One, that is, of the eternally Existing One, Jehovah, the God of the Covenant. You are consubstantial with Him.

Thus, in the mouth of Peter, according to the will of the Spirit of God, the formula of the dogma is composed.

It binds the Old Covenant with the New, in fulfillment of the promise concerning the coming of the Savior, Reconciler, and Redeemer.

In His mouth are the words of life, while His Body is given up to the dread breaking as a sacrifice for the sin of men.

But the disciples do not yet know this. So far, they know only the words of life. They will understand all things afterward.

Yet only those will understand who have loved the words of life and confessed the Lord through the mouth of Peter.