John 8:25Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

They revile Him and interrupt Him in the middle, asking, “Who are You?” More clearly they ought to have said this: “Do You then dare to think anything about Yourself beyond what we know of You? We know You as the son of a carpenter, a simple and poor man, obscure among us and utterly insignificant.” Thus they condemn the Lord as nothing, looking only at His lineage according to the flesh. They pay no attention to the splendor of His works or to His birth from above and from God. Because of that birth, He could be acknowledged as God by nature. Who, indeed, could accomplish what befits God alone? But Christ did accomplish such things. Therefore He was and is God, although He appeared in the flesh for the salvation and life of all. They are not only carried away by their own irrational thoughts. They also give no weight to our divine and God-inspired Scripture. They dishonor Him for what they ought instead to have given thanks. They are those who know “neither what they say nor the things about which they make assertions” (1 Tim 1:7). Therefore, placing over “You” the sign of what is called the strong acute accent, to indicate emphasis, one takes this saying as a question joined with astonishment. By this “You,” they express the following: “O utterly insignificant one, known among us as such, simple yourself and from simple people, what glorious thing do You have to say about Yourself? What do You have that is worthy of mention?” Such boldness is not foreign to Jewish madness. “Jesus said to them, ‘The beginning, because I also speak to you.’” “I undergo dishonor among you,” He says, “although I call you to eternal life, to the remission of sins, to the setting aside of death and corruption, to sanctification, to righteousness, to glory, and to the praise of adoption by God. Yet though I wish to crown you with all these things, I find no honor for Myself and am counted as nothing among you. Nevertheless,” He says, “I suffer what is entirely just because I made a beginning of speech among you. I proclaimed something able to bring profit, and I wished to save those who would sink to such baseness. They chose to answer the One who wished to save them with bitter repayment.” Christ seems to indicate something else to us in these words as well. “It was fitting for Me,” He says, “not to address My word to you at the beginning. Rather, I should have imparted this gift to those who would delight in My words with great eagerness and quickly submit themselves to the Gospel commandments.” Here He indicates the multitude of the Gentiles. But understanding His words in this way, we think it necessary to guard against an objection from opponents. Perhaps one of those accustomed to fight against Christ will say, “If He should not have addressed His word first to the Jews, but rather to the Gentiles, then the Son sinned against duty. He did not do the latter at all, but precisely the former.” To this we shall answer again in this way. The Son says these words not because He repented of His own wishes or those of the Father. Nor does He say them because He departed from the work required by the divine economy. For God could not wish what was wholly unfitting to be. Rather, by saying that it was not fitting “to speak at the beginning” to you, and not to lay the foundation of saving teaching among you, He shows both the Father and Himself to be true and man-loving by nature. Behold, He imparted the saving word even to the unworthy and impious Jews. He placed the multitude of the Gentiles second, though they were very inclined to believe in Him and diligently obey Him. What, then, moved Him to place first and prefer before others the stiff-necked people of the Jews? To them He gave the promise of His coming through the holy prophets. To them also grace was fitting because of their fathers. Therefore He said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Mt 15:24). And to the Syrophoenician woman He said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs” (Mt 15:26). For this reason Israel was honored and placed before the Gentiles, although it had a most coarse soul. But since Israel did not know the Master of all and the Accomplisher of the promised good things, the grace of teaching finally passed to the Gentiles. It had been fitting for the Lord to address them “at the beginning” and first with His word, not because of a promise made to their fathers, but because of the ready obedience inherent in them.

“Who are You?” For when You said, “If you do not believe that I am He,” You did not add who You are. “Who are You, that we may believe?” And He said, “The Beginning.” See, here is what true being is. The Beginning is not subject to change. The Beginning abides in itself and initiates all things. The Beginning is He to whom it is said, “You are the same, and Your years will not fail” (Ps 101:28). “The Beginning,” He said, “therefore I also speak to you. Believe in Me as the Beginning, so that you may not die in your sins.” For when they said to Him, “Who are You?” they were asking nothing except, “Who are You. In whom we are to believe?” He answered, “The Beginning.” That is, “Believe in Me as the Beginning.” For in the Greek language a distinction is made which cannot be distinguished in Latin. In Latin, unlike Greek, the word principium, “beginning,” is neuter, not feminine. Its ending in the accusative is the same as in the nominative. Thus it is difficult for a Latin speaker to grasp the nuance: whether Christ said, “I am the Beginning,” ego sum principium, or, as it were, “believe Me to be the Beginning,” credite me principium. Among the Greeks, “beginning,” principium, is feminine, just as among us lex, “law,” is feminine. Among them “law” is masculine, while sapientia, “wisdom,” is feminine both among us and among them. The rules of speech differ in different languages, so that the gender of words may differ. Yet in the things themselves you will find no gender. For wisdom is not in reality feminine. Behold, Christ is the Wisdom of God (cf. 1 Cor 1:24), yet Christ is masculine, while “wisdom” is feminine. And so, when the Jews said, “Who then are You?” He knew that some were present who would believe. They asked, “Who are You?” in order to learn in whom they should believe. He answered, “in the Beginning.” He did not say, “I am the Beginning.” Rather, it was as though He said, “Believe in Me as the Beginning.” This is entirely clear in Greek, as I said, where “beginning” is feminine. It was as though He wished to say that He is the Truth. To those asking, “Who then are You?” He answered, “Believe in the Truth.” In Latin, “truth” is feminine, and here Augustine uses veritatem in the accusative. It might seem that to the question, “Who then are You?” He should have answered, “The Truth,” that is, “I am the Truth” (Jn 14:6). But He gave a deeper answer when He saw that they asked Him, “Who are You?” as if they had asked this: “Since we heard from You, If you do not believe that I am He, who are You, in whom we must believe?” Then He answered, “Believe in Me as the Beginning.” And He added. “therefore I also speak to you.” That is, “Since I humbled Myself for our sake, I descended even to speak with you.” For if the Beginning had remained with the Father as It is, without taking the form of a servant, and if Man had not spoken to men, how would they have believed Him? How would weak hearts have believed, when they could not hear the intelligible Word without a voice accessible to perception? “Therefore,” He says, “believe that I am the Beginning. Since, in order that you may believe, I am not only present, but I also speak to you.” But I have already said much to you on this question. Therefore, to accommodate you, beloved, we leave this question, so that with God’s help we may return to it tomorrow. Did He then make the Word also? No. But what then? “In the beginning was the Word” (Jn 1:1). That through which He created already was. Therefore He created what did not exist. We can understand, and we shall understand rightly, that heaven and earth were created in the Only-begotten Word Himself. For through whom they were created, in Him also they were created. This can be understood as the beginning in which God created heaven and earth. For the Word Himself is the Wisdom of God, of whom it is said, “You have made all things in wisdom” (Ps 103:24). If God created all things in Wisdom, and His Only-begotten Son is without doubt the Wisdom of God, let us not doubt this. In the Son was created what we know was created through the Son. For the Son Himself is certainly the Beginning. When the Jews asked and said, “Who are You?” He answered, “The Beginning.” Behold, “In the beginning God created heaven and earth” (Gen 1:1).

I shall say it still more definitely: when you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He. I am the very One for whom I declared Myself to be.

You will also know that I do nothing from Myself. But as My Father taught Me, so I speak.”

In His answer He calls them first to understand Him from those aspects by which He reveals Himself to them. These are the spiritual and divine qualities that He ascribes to Himself in His self-witness.

“Above all, I am what I also say to you,” ττν αρχήν ο τι και λαλώ υμϊν. That is: first of all, you must grasp and assimilate what I say about Myself.

The definiteness of your knowledge of Me lies in the future. By grasping the spiritual qualities of My person, you will abandon false fleshly notions about the Messiah.

Verse 26 gives the reason why Jesus Christ cannot satisfy their desire by answering their question directly and definitely.

“Before I speak definitely about Myself, I have many things to say and to judge concerning you. I must cleanse you of much evil in your mind and heart before you can fully know Me.

I have many things to say and to judge concerning you. Yet whatever I may say or judge concerning you, My judgment is true, because it is also the judgment of the Father who sent Me” (cf. 5:30).

In Russian: "Then they said to Him, Who are You? Jesus said to them, The One existing from the beginning, as I say to you."

Different translations and interpretations of this answer.

If this translation is recognized as correct, then one must also admit that Jesus, who in other cases never gave the Pharisees a direct answer to such questions, answered here directly and decisively. He said: "I am the One existing from the beginning." Since only God is acknowledged as existing from the beginning, or beginningless, which is the same thing, Jesus by speaking thus declared Himself God, or the God-man.

Theophylact, however, translates this answer of Jesus otherwise: "The Lord says, 'I tell you what I also told you in the beginning'" (Commentary on John, p. 209). In Bishop Michael's translation, Jesus said to them: "First of all, I am what I also tell you" (Explanatory Gospel, 3, p. 262). According to John Chrysostom, Jesus' answer means this: "You are not worthy even to hear My words, let alone to know who I am, because you all speak with the intention of tempting Me and pay no attention to My words" (Homilies on the Gospel of John, 59). Euthymius Zigabenus understood this verse as John Chrysostom did: "It is as though Jesus Christ had said, 'Even what I say to you is wholly superfluous. You are unworthy of any word, being tempters'" (Commentary on the Gospel of John, p. 136). K. P. Pobedonostsev, in his Russian translation of the New Testament, renders the Lord's words thus: "I am the beginning, as I also tell you."

Thus none of these translations agrees with the Synodal Russian translation. Which translation, then, should be considered correct?

To answer this question, one must bear in mind that in His discourse Christ told the Pharisees many bitter truths about themselves. He even called them sons of the devil, fulfilling the desires of their father. These bitter truths, these words that must have seemed offensive to the proud sons of Abraham, were met by them only with cutting mockery: "Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?" (Jn 8:48). But when Christ, at the end of this conversation, said, "Before Abraham was, I am" (Jn 8:58), that is, when He called Himself the Ever-existing One, or God, the Pharisees rushed to heaps of stones in order to execute Him with them.

Yet after Jesus' answer to the question, "Who are You?" the Pharisees not only resorted to no violence, but did nothing to prevent Him from continuing His discourse. From this conduct of Christ's enemies after His answer, one must conclude that the answer itself contained nothing that could have provoked an outburst of indignation from the Pharisees. If the Lord had answered this question as the Russian Synodal translation says, "I am the One existing from the beginning," that answer would undoubtedly have stirred the Pharisees to an equal, if not greater, impulse to execute Jesus at once. Since nothing of the kind occurred, one must acknowledge that such an answer was not given.

How, then, did the Lord answer the question, "Who are You?" He did not give them a direct answer, but expressed sorrow that they still did not know who He was. "From the very beginning of My preaching I have been telling you who I am, but you still do not wish to understand Me. What then shall I say to you now? I shall say the same thing that I have said to you from the beginning."

For this reason the Lord again avoids this word. He points to His testimony about Himself as the Messiah in the true sense of the word and concept.

From His teaching about Himself, His hearers could form a right understanding of the Messiah, contrary to the common false one, and be assured that He Himself is the Messiah.

This explanation accords both with the meaning of the words and with the connection of the thoughts. Την αρχην is the same as ολως in Chrysostom and in secular writers (Elsnerus, Losnerus ad h. l.).

Those who posed the question deserved no other answer. To repeat one and the same thing for them would be to waste words and time in vain.

As the Messiah, the Son of God, He cannot speak falsehood. He had spoken of this before in v. 24. He must be heard, not tested by questions of insolence and malice.

“I have many things to say and to judge concerning you; but He who sent Me is true, and what I heard from Him, these things I speak in the world.”

The Jews did not wish to believe what Jesus said about their sorrowful future, although He said it for their benefit in v. 24. They insolently asked who He was.

They assumed for themselves the right to judge Him. Yet though He knows who they are, and though He could say more about them and about Himself, what He has said is enough for them.

As the One who sent Him is faithful, so He speaks only what He heard from Him. He remains faithful to Himself.

As He said, He does not now take upon Himself the rights of judge (v. 15). But since His words are the will of the heavenly Father, let them be assured of this.

No stubbornness of an evil will, and no designs or undertakings of human pride, will change the lot appointed for the Jews.

In the Russian translation the thought “I am what I say” predominates, that is, “I am the Word, I am the Truth.” The translation of Bibliae Sacrae seems closer to the Russian: “id, quod a principio dico vobis.”

Meanwhile the most ancient Latin translations are closer to our Slavonic translation: “Initium, quod et loquor vobis.” St. John Chrysostom seems to understand these words this way in Homily 53 on John.

Chrysostom, however, does not enter into a detailed examination of the saying, though it seems to us that he emphasizes the word “beginning.”

When we examine the Lord’s saying carefully in both of its meanings, we see the fullness of the divine word in their union.

“I am the beginning” carries us to the understanding of God the Almighty and Creator depicted in Gen 1. In Jn 1 this is revealed to us through another sacred mystery.

This is the mystery of the being, in the beginning, of God the Word, consubstantial with the Father and co-eternal with Him. Thus “I am the beginning” affirms the unity of the Lord Jesus with God the Father.

He is the beginning of all that exists, visible and invisible. “I am what I say” defines the second Hypostasis of the Holy Trinity, the incarnate God the Word, in relation to men.

The Lord speaks as though saying: why do you seek who I am, when I am known from My words? I am precisely what I say. I am the Word. I am the Truth.