John 8:23Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

“Therefore they said, Will He kill Himself?” (v. 22). What then does Christ say? Refuting their supposition and showing that such a deed is sin, He says, “You are from below” (v. 23).

This means: there is nothing astonishing in your thinking this, since you are carnal men and ponder nothing spiritual. But I shall do nothing of the kind: “I am from above; you are of this world” (v. 23).

Here again He speaks of worldly and carnal thoughts. Hence it is clear that the words, “I am not of this world,” do not mean that He did not assume flesh. They mean that He is far from their wickedness.

Indeed, He also says of the disciples that they are not of the world, and yet they had flesh. Likewise Paul says, “You are not in the flesh” (Rom 8:9), without calling the Romans bodiless.

So also, when Christ says of the disciples that they are not of the world, He bears witness to nothing else than their spiritual wisdom.

Rejecting this supposition of theirs and showing that suicide is a criminal deed, the Lord says, “You are from below.” You cannot think anything divine; therefore it is natural for you to reason so.

But “I am not of this world,” that is, I am not concerned with anything worldly or earthly. Therefore I can never fall into such madness as to kill Myself. This is a demonic deed, not a divine one.

Here Apollinarius seizes upon this saying and, following the Manichaeans, says: do you see that the Lord’s body was not of this world, but from above, from heaven? Paul also says that the second Man is the Lord from heaven (1 Cor 15:47).

"And He said to them: You are from below; I am from above."

Again, perhaps someone of an inquisitive mind, accustomed to enter deeply into divine contemplations, may ask what moved our Lord Jesus Christ. He had just proclaimed to the Jews and said, "I go away, and you will seek Me." Why, as though by some necessity, did He add, "You are from below; I am from above"?

Although these words seem to have no close connection with what precedes, a profound thought is hidden in them. As God, He had no need, according to the divine Evangelist John himself, "that anyone should bear witness concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man" (Jn 2:25). For He "penetrates to the division of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart" (Heb 4:12).

Therefore He was not ignorant of the foolish thoughts of the Jews. With their coarse and dull mind, after hearing from the Savior the word "I go away," they irrationally thought either that He would flee somewhere, leaving Judea, or that He was saying something like this: while I remain and live, believe, so that thus there may be no need to die. For hypago can also have such a meaning.

There is nothing surprising if the Jews fell into such folly and thought something like this about Christ. They did not know that He is God by nature. Looking only at His earthly body, they considered Him one of the men like us.

Therefore the Savior struck them and said, "You judge according to the flesh" (Jn 8:15). Turning them away from such childish and low thoughts, He teaches them again that they think these things not about one of created and mortal men, but about Him who is truly begotten from above and from God the Father.

Thus, He says, it is by no means fitting for Me to die and flee. I am from above, that is, God from God. For what is above all is God. But this most of all befits you, for you are from below. That is, you have a nature subject to death and liable to corruption and nothingness.

Therefore do not think anything of this kind about Me, He says, and leave aside your weakness. The servant is not equal in honor to the Master. What is from below and from the earth is not equal to Him who is from above and begotten of God the Father.

That "from above" here means the birth of the Son from God the Father will be shown to us by this wise reasoning. Taken in a local sense, "from above" clearly means "from heaven." But the Son would have no advantage over the lower creation subject to God if He came only from heaven.

Many of the angels, sent for service, come down, direct something on earth from above, and descend from heaven. The Savior Himself bears witness to this for us in the words: "Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man" (Jn 1:51).

If, then, the angels also descend from above, from heaven, why does Christ exalt Himself in vain? Why does He claim as some great advantage over all creation that His coming is, as He says, "from above"?

Yet without labor or effort it is entirely clear who the Only-Begotten is by nature and what the angels created by Him are. Therefore the word "from above" must not have the common meaning of descending from heaven. It must indicate that the Son shone forth from the Nature that is most high and surpasses all.

Thus the word "from above," in relation to the Only-Begotten alone, indicates that He is from God by nature, and nothing else. Of all beings that are said to be and to exist from God, the Son has this further advantage over all. He exists as "begotten from the very essence of the Father," and not as created like the creatures.

"You are of this world; I am not of this world."

Here He showed very clearly what must be understood by "from above" and what by "from below." It was entirely natural for our Lord Jesus Christ to know that the Pharisees could give these expressions a sensible meaning. They could understand "from above" and "from below" in a local sense, and from this fall into many false thoughts.

Therefore He considers it useful to remove every covering and obscurity from this saying. He explains to them once again, and more clearly, what He had spoken enigmatically. "You," He says, "are of this world," that is, "from below." "I am not of this world," and this means "from above."

God surpasses every creature not with respect to spatial heights. It is foolish and wholly unreasonable to imagine the bodiless as spatial. Rather, He is exalted above creation by the ineffable excellences of His nature.

The Logos claims this divine being for Himself, calling Himself not a work, that is, a creature, but fruit and offspring, that is, Son. Notice that, as it appears, He does not say, "From above I came into being and was created," but, "I am." He does this to show both whence He is and that He eternally coexisted with His Begetter. For He is "He who is," as the Father is.

Since He is "He who is," how was He not also eternally coexisting with "Him who is"? Let the madness of the heterodox answer this question.

But the enemy of truth will set this objection against us: "Christ did not simply say, 'I am not of the world.' He also added 'this,' by which He showed with all precision that there is another spiritual world, from which He may be."

Then the Son turns out to be among creatures. Such is the consequence that follows from your speech. The Creator is placed in the rank of beings that have a created nature. By ascribing to Him an angelic and servile dignity, perhaps you consider yourself free from the charge of blasphemy.

Or do you not know that even if you assign to Him the highest state and rank imaginable among the holy angels, you still insult Him no less? Even if you confess His being as surpassing every principality, authority, and throne, yet if you consider Him created, you dishonor Him.

For the Only-Begotten, His superiority over others will certainly have no significance for His dignity once He is represented as created. His glory does not consist in primacy over other creatures. It consists in His being uncreated and existing as God from God by nature.

You, however, number among creatures Him who appeared from God, and therefore is God. You consider Him part of the world, even if not of this world but of another. In regard to createdness, this distinction between worlds will have no significance.

Then again, are you not ashamed to number the Logos, who sits together with His Begetter, among the ministers and attendants of God? Do you not hear Gabriel’s words to Zachariah: "I am Gabriel, who stand before God, and I was sent to speak to you" (Lk 1:19)?

Or again, do you not hear Isaiah’s words: "I saw the Lord of Sabaoth sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and the Seraphim stood around Him" (Is 6:1-2)? A wondrous thing: the prophet saw the Son and called Him the Lord of Sabaoth. He presents Him as King, surrounded by the higher Powers who minister to Him.

That he contemplated the glory of the Only-Begotten, the wise John will clearly testify in the words: "Isaiah said this because he saw His glory and spoke of Him" (Jn 12:41).

Therefore divine Paul, from His sitting beside God the Father and from His being called Son by nature, comes to a more exact perception of this mystery. Receiving contemplative knowledge of it, he says: "For to which of the angels did He ever say, 'You are My Son'?" Clearly, God the Father says this. "Today I have begotten You" (Heb 1:5).

In the word "I have begotten," it is indicated that the Son exists from God as God by nature. And again: "To which of the angels did He ever say, 'Sit at My right hand'?" (Heb 1:13).

By saying this, he certainly does not accuse God the Father of being able to do anything unjust. Nor does he accuse Him of dishonoring the nature of the angels by making it be honored in second place after the Son.

Otherwise, someone may say, what would prevent God the Father, if He is just and good, from making the nature of the angels sit beside Himself? This would follow if the Son were wholly among creatures and of one kind with them in createdness, even if He surpassed their measure by certain other advantages, as they surpass us.

But God the Father is not unjust when He commands the angels to stand before Him as servants and gives this dignity to their nature. Nor is He unjust when He has His Son sitting together with Him. He knew that His own Offspring is God by nature and not alien to His essence.

How, then, can He be created and from the created world? How is He not, rather, in possession of what belongs to the true God, namely, to be above everything conceived and regarded as existing in the whole world?

You point, as to something weighty and irresistible, to Christ’s express statement: "I am not of this world." You claim that through "this" another world is indicated to us, from which He Himself is. Let us see again whether you rely on rotten arguments and incline to such reasoning and thoughts only through your own levity.

Indeed, "this" or "of this" and similar expressions are used in place of a noun and are demonstrative pronouns. They certainly do not necessarily contain an indication of "another." Thus, for example, blessed Baruch, pointing us to the one and only God, says: "This is our God; no other shall be accounted with Him" (Bar 3:36).

If "this" indicated "another," how would another not be acknowledged beside Him? And righteous Simeon, prophesying the mystery concerning Christ, says: "Behold, this One is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is spoken against" (Lk 2:34).

To whom is it not entirely clear that the righteous man says "this One" here not to turn us away from other persons, but to indicate the one who, so to speak, is already present and appointed for this?

Therefore, when Christ says, "I am not of this world," He uses "this" not as one who appears from another world. Rather, in a more bodily manner, He indicates and defines, as though in two places, the created nature and the ineffable nature that surpasses every human essence.

By the words, "You are of this world," He shows that the Jews remain in the place of creatures. In the saying, "I am not of this world," He completely separates Himself from created beings and refers Himself to another place, that is, to the Godhead.

Thus, after setting forth the opposition between the Godhead and the world, He places the pronoun "this" with the word "world." He refers Himself to God who begot Him and to the most high Essence.

Yet, they say, God the Father will by no means prove unjust toward the nature of the angels if He has not allotted them the same honor as the Son. The diversity of creatures, or the communication to each of the glory appropriate to it, in no way testifies to God’s injustice. Otherwise, how are we lower than the angels, while still confessing God to be just?

Therefore, what we are in comparison with the angels, the angels are in comparison with the Son. They yield to Him as to One higher and endowed with greater dignities than they possess.

But this is what we shall again say, dear reader, to shame the ignorant heretic. We do not have the glory of the angels, since we are also lower than their piety. There is great diversity among creatures and distinction in their possession of greater or lesser dignities, by the will of the Creator.

Yet createdness itself is a property common to all. In this respect, one thing cannot in any way be higher and another lower. Therefore there is nothing surprising if an angel has advantage over a man in glory and honor, as an archangel has over an angel.

But we shall not find that any creature has the possibility of rising to the glory of the Creator of all Himself. Nothing created can be God by nature. Nor can the servant be equal in honor to the Master, sit at His right hand, and reign together with Him.

And what did the Lord say to those who thought of earthly things? He said to them, “You are from below.” You think of earthly things because, like serpents, you devour the earth (cf. Gen 3:14).

What does it mean to devour the earth? It means to feed on earthly things, to delight in earthly things, to thirst for earthly things, and to have nothing above in your heart.

“You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world.” For how could He be of this world through whom the world was made?

Everything belonging to the world came into being after the world, because the world was created first. Thus man is from the world. But Christ is before, and the world is later.

“And He said to them, ‘You are from below.’” “From below,” εκ της γης, “from the earth,” not because the body is from the earth, but because their understanding was earthly and unsound. So also the Apostle Paul, saying, “You are not in the flesh” (Rom 8:9), understands by “flesh” a carnal understanding.

“I am from above.” “From above,” εκ του ουρανου, “from heaven,” not simply because He came from heaven, but because His understanding is heavenly and divine. Then He explains His words.

“You are of this world; I am not of this world.” Here He calls “world” a worldly, unsound, earthly understanding. Just as He calls spiritual understanding “spirit” and carnal understanding “flesh,” so He calls earthly and worldly understanding “earth” and “world.”

Therefore Jesus Christ says: I do not understand this as you do, as though I were going to kill Myself.

For we, we bear the image of God in a living and moving statue, man. This image lives with us, gives counsel, converses, shares our table, sympathizes with us, and suffers for us. We have become an offering to God for Christ’s sake. We are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession.” Once we were “not a people,” but now we are “the people of God” (1 Pet 2:9-10). According to John, we are not from below. We have learned all things from Him who came from above. Having understood the divine economy of God, we have learned to walk in newness of life.

The evangelist’s remark that Jesus Christ was near the treasury of the temple shows that He gave such open and direct testimony about Himself in a place where many people usually gathered.

Yet no one seized Him, “because His hour had not yet come,” though, as the same passage shows, some of those present intended and attempted to do this.

This now explains why Jesus Christ then began to speak of His departure to the Father. In this case He was answering the powerless attempts of His enemies to seize Him, as in Jn 7:32-34.

In both cases Jesus Christ expresses the same thought. Here, however, the threat is stated more strongly, namely, that His enemies will perish.

“You reason in this way,” Christ answered them, “because you judge everything according to your humanity, and do not wish to renounce your purely earthly and base notions.

You do not wish to lift your mind to another world, the heavenly world. All your thoughts and all your desires are concentrated on securing for yourselves only the goods of this world, this temporary earthly life.

But I am not of this world. Therefore you do not understand Me. For this reason I told you, and now repeat, that if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”

He said to them: without answering their crude mockery, the Lord points to their moral character. It is from this disposition that they reach such derision of Him.

“You are from below, I am from above.” What is below is earthly and subterranean, in contrast to what is above, heavenly and beyond heaven (Acts 2:19; Col 3:1-2; Gal 4:26; Phil 3:14; cf. Jn 3:3, 31).

“Of this world”: here the world is understood as the sum of all evil, hostile to Christ and to His work.

The meaning of Christ’s answer is this: you are so hostile toward Me because, in your sensual, worldly, and false dispositions of spirit, you have lost the ability to understand what is heavenly and divine.

To the same hearers to whom the previous teaching had been offered, as the words “He said to them again” show, the Lord continued to offer teaching about Himself. Answering the secret designs of His enemies, who were attempting to take His freedom and life, Jesus says, “I go away, and you will seek Me, and you will die in your sins.” The time is near when He will leave the earth. This is certain. It is also certain that, had this not been His will and the will of the heavenly Father, neither the malice of the Sanhedrin nor the malice of Hades could have brought Him to a violent death. “I go away,” He says, with complete freedom. But the matter is not only about this. It is also about the Jews.

The Lord explains to the Jews, as He explained to Nicodemus in chapter 3, the difference between the earthly world and the spiritual, heavenly world.

The difference is that in chapter 3 He spoke to a man ready to receive the lofty truth by faith. Here the Lord speaks to men embittered and unbelieving.

To these latter He shows why they cannot understand His words and come to where He is, into the kingdom of love and righteousness.

They cannot rise to thoughts and desires higher than earthly ones. They scarcely suspect that there is another world, a spiritual world, where there is no malice or pride, but only goodness and love.