John 8:27Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

When He said this, they were so senseless that they did not understand that He was speaking to them of His Father. How often and how much He had already spoken to them about the Father. But truly “their foolish heart was darkened” (Rom 1:21).

The Spirit-bearing evangelist is again struck by the insensibility of the Jews, and quite justly. For what could be more senseless than men who heard constant and lengthy discourses about God and the Father, yet understood nothing?

They heard the Savior say of Him, “But He who sent Me is true.” Yet it is necessary to say on what ground and for what reason the blessed evangelist says that the Jews did not understand.

By these words Christ had pointed them to God and the Father. Since the Savior had said to them, “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also” (Jn 8:19), He is shown here also to speak truth.

You remember that He says, "I judge no one" (Jn 8:15). Yet He has just said, "I have many things to say and to judge concerning you." But "I do not judge" is one thing, and "I have to judge" is another. "I do not judge" He said concerning the present. For He came to save the world, not to judge the world. But when He says, "I have many things to say and to judge concerning you," He speaks of the future judgment. For He ascended into heaven in order to come and judge the living and the dead.

"I have many things," He says, "to say and to judge concerning you; but He who sent Me is true." It is as though He said, "I judge truly because I am the Truth, the Son of the True One." The Son is Truth; the Father is true. I ask, "Which is greater?" and I find equality. For the true Father is true, not because He has a part of Truth in Himself, but because He begot Truth in all Her fullness.

The words of our Lord Jesus Christ, which He addressed to the Jews, were read today in the Holy Gospel. He spoke in such a way that the blind did not see, while the eyes of believers were opened. These are the words: "Then the Jews said, 'Who are You?'" (cf. Jn 8:25). For the Lord had said shortly before, "If you do not believe that I am, you will die in your sins" (Jn 8:24). To this they said, "Who are You?" It was as though they wished to learn in whom they must believe, lest they die in their sins. He answered those who asked Him, "Who are You?" by saying, "The Beginning, because I also speak to you" (cf. Jn 8:25).

If the Lord said that He is the Beginning, one may ask whether the Father also is the Beginning. For if the Son is the Beginning who has the Father, how much more readily should God the Father be understood as the Beginning? He has the Son, yet He has no one from whom He Himself is. For the Son is the Son of the Father, and the Father is certainly the Father of the Son. Yet the Son is called God from God, and the Son is called Light from Light. The Father is called Light, but not from Light. The Father is called God, but not from God. Therefore the Beginning is God from God, Light from Light. How much more readily should He be understood as the Beginning who is the Light from whom is Light, and the God from whom is God? Therefore it seems absurd, beloved, that we call the Son the Beginning and do not call the Father the Beginning.

But what shall we do? Were there two Beginnings? We must beware of such words. What then? If the Father is the Beginning and the Son is the Beginning, why are there not two Beginnings? In the same way, we say God the Father and God the Son, yet we do not speak of two Gods. For it is not permissible to say that there are two Gods. It is not permissible to say that there are three Gods. And yet He who is the Father is not the Son. He who is the Son is not the Father. The Holy Spirit of the Father, who is also the Spirit of the Son, is neither the Father nor the Son. Catholic ears in the bosom of Mother Church have been taught this. He who is the Father is not the Son. He who is the Son is not the Father. The Holy Spirit of the Father and the Son is neither the Son nor the Father. Yet we do not say that there are three Gods.

But if we are asked about any one of Them individually, we must confess Him to be God, whichever of Them is in question. All this seems absurd to those who transfer known things to unknown things, visible things to invisible things, and who make creation equal to the Creator. Indeed, unbelievers sometimes ask us, saying, "The one whom you call Father, do you call Him God?" We answer, "He is God." "The one whom you call Son, do you call Him God?" We answer. "He is God." "The one whom you call Holy Spirit, do you call Him God?" We answer, "He is God." "Then," he says, "the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are three Gods?" We answer, "No."

Such unbelievers are troubled because they are not enlightened. Their heart is closed because they do not possess the key of faith. Therefore, brothers, through faith which goes before us and heals the eye of the heart, let us accept without wavering what we understand. Let us believe without doubting what we do not understand. Let us not depart from the foundation of faith, and then we shall come to the summit of perfection. God is the Father. God is the Son. God is the Holy Spirit. Yet the Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Father. The Holy Spirit of the Father, who is also the Spirit of the Son, is not the Father and not the Son. The Trinity is one God. The Trinity is one eternity, one power, one majesty. There are Three, but not three Gods.

Let no slanderer answer me, "What, then, does three mean? For if there are three, you must say three what." I answer, "The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit." "See," he says, "you have said three. But say clearly: three what?" Count for yourself, for I utter three when I say Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. For the Father is God with respect to Himself, and with respect to the Son He is Father. The Son is God with respect to Himself, and with respect to the Father He is Son.

You can understand what I am saying from similar things that occur daily. Here is one man, and another man. One is a father, and the other is a son. The first is a man with respect to himself, and he is a father with respect to his son. The son is a man with respect to himself, and he is a son with respect to his father. For the name "father" is used in relation to one, and the name "son" in relation to another. But both are two men. So also God the Father is Father in relation to another, namely to the Son. And God the Son is Son in relation to another, namely to the Father. But They are not two Gods as those are two men. Why is it not so here? Because there it is one thing, and here another. For here there is the divine essence.

Here there is something ineffable, which cannot be expressed in words, so that there is number and yet there is no number. See whether there is not number here: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Trinity. If three, then three whom? Here number fails. Therefore God withdraws from number and cannot be grasped through number. Since They are Three, number seems in some way present. If you ask, "Three whom?" you will not find number. Hence it is said, "Great is our Lord and great is His strength, and of His wisdom there is no number" (cf. Ps 146:5). When you begin to reason, you begin to count. When you begin to count, you cannot answer what you have counted.

The Father is the Father. The Son is the Son. The Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit. What then are these Three, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit? Are They three Gods? No. Are They three Almighties? No. Are They three Creators of the world? No. Is the Father almighty, then? Certainly He is almighty. But is the Son not almighty? Of course, the Son also is almighty. Then is the Holy Spirit not almighty? He too is almighty. So are there three Almighties? No. Rather, the One is almighty. Individually They introduce number in relation to one Another, but not in relation to Themselves. For although God the Father is God with respect to Himself together with the Son and the Holy Spirit, nevertheless there are not three Gods. Although He is Almighty with respect to Himself together with the Son and the Holy Spirit, nevertheless there are not three Almighties. For He is Father not with respect to Himself, but with respect to the Son. And the Son is Son not in relation to Himself, but in relation to the Father. And the Spirit is not Spirit in relation to Himself, since He is called the Spirit of the Father and of the Son. I have no name for the Three except Father and Son and Holy Spirit, one God, one Almighty. Behold the one Beginning.

Take examples from the Holy Scriptures, through which you can understand to some extent what is being said. After our Lord Jesus Christ rose and, when He willed, ascended into heaven, He sent the Holy Spirit from there after ten days. Filled with Him, those who were in one room began to speak in the tongues of all nations (cf. Acts 2:4). The Lord's murderers, frightened by the miracle, repented and began to grieve. In their grief they were changed. Being changed, they believed. Three thousand persons were joined to the Body of the Lord, that is, to the number of believers. Likewise, when another miracle was performed, another five thousand were added. One great community was formed. All had received the Holy Spirit, through whom spiritual love was kindled. Through this very love and the fervor of the Spirit, they were merged into one. In this unity of community they began to sell all they had and bring the price to the apostles' feet. It was then distributed to each according to his need. And Scripture says of them that they had one soul and one heart in God (cf. Acts 4:32).

Listen then, brothers, and recognize in this the mystery of the Trinity. We say that the Father is, and the Son is, and the Holy Spirit is, and yet there is one God. See how many thousands those believers were, and there was one heart. See how many thousands there were, and there was one soul. But where? In God. How much more is God Himself one? Do I err in speech when I call two men two souls, three men three souls, and many men many souls? Certainly I speak correctly. Let them turn to God, and all will have one soul. If many souls, turning to God, become one soul through love, and many hearts become one heart, what does the very source of love accomplish in the Father and the Son? Is not the Trinity there much more one God? For from there, from the Holy Spirit Himself, love comes to us, as the apostle says: "The love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us" (Rom 5:5). If the love of God, poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us, made many souls into one soul and many hearts into one heart, then how much more are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit one God, one Light, and one Beginning!

Therefore let us listen to the Beginning who says to us, "I have many things to say and to judge concerning you" (Jn 8:26). You remember that He said, "I judge no one" (Jn 8:15). And now He has just said, "I have many things to say and to judge concerning you." But "I do not judge" is one thing. "I have to judge" is another. He said, "I do not judge," with reference to the present. For He came to save the world, and not to judge the world (cf. Jn 12:47). But when He said, "I have many things to say and to judge concerning you," He spoke of the coming Judgment. For this reason He ascended, to judge the living and the dead. No one will judge more justly than He who was unjustly judged.

"I have many things," He says, "to say and to judge concerning you; but He who sent Me is true" (Jn 8:26). See how the Son, equal to the Father, gives glory to the Father. For He gives us an example, and speaks, as it were, in our hearts: "O believing man, if you hear My Gospel, your Lord God says to you, the Gospel where I am in the beginning the Word of God with God (Jn 1:1). Equal to the Father and coeternal with Him who begot Me, and if I give glory to Him whose Son I am, how can you be proud before Him whose servant you are?"

They did not understand that He was speaking to them of His Father according to essence. They probably asked one another in perplexity, “Who is this One who sent Him?” although He had often spoken of Him. Such attention they paid to His words, or rather, such was the damage to their mind. Therefore Jesus Christ quite rightly said to them, “The beginning, as I also speak to you” (Jn 8:25).

“Who then are You, who call Yourself from above?” the Jews asked Him with contemptuous mockery.

“I am what I told you about Myself from the beginning.” During His first visit to Jerusalem, in the temple itself, He called this temple His Father’s house, and therefore called Himself the Son of God.

“But I would have to say many things about you and judge you, if I began to say about you everything I think and know about you. Let us leave this aside.

He who sent Me is true. He will tell you fully both about Me and about yourselves, through the Spirit, who, when He comes, will convict concerning righteousness and sin.

From Him you will learn that I do not speak from Myself, but speak what I have heard and what I know from Him.

Those who asked Christ, “Who are You?” expected from Him a definite naming of Himself as the One He is. But Jesus Christ refused them such a definite answer.

Then they turned their attention to those words in which He spoke of His Father. Yet they did not understand, nor were they satisfied by what He said to them about the Father.

They had already heard this kind of testimony from Him about Himself. Since the Jews still remained without understanding of the Savior’s words about Himself, Jesus Christ says this.

“When you carry your unbelief so far that you lift Me up, the Son of Man, that is, upon the Cross, then you will know.

The listeners did not understand that He was speaking to them of the Father, God. But Jesus continued His discourse and said: “Now you do not understand what I am saying to you. But when you lift up the Son of Man, then you will understand Me. You will acknowledge that I did and said nothing personally from Myself, and that I did only what was pleasing to My Father, who was always with Me and never left Me.”

“They did not understand,” and so forth: this is the Evangelist’s remark about the listeners’ relation to the meaning of Jesus’ discourse. This lack of understanding seems strange, after the Lord had constantly spoken of Him who sent Him, and after they had seemed to understand similar words before. Probably those who often listened to the Lord, even among His enemies, understood His speech now at least externally. But the crowd surrounding Him did not understand, and the Evangelist makes his remark about them. This is why the Lord goes on to speak directly about the Father as Him who sent Him.

“They did not understand that He was speaking to them about the Father. Then Jesus said to them, When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will understand that I am He.”

They did not fail to understand because it was hard to grasp. The words were clear. Here “they did not understand” means the same as “they did not accept.”

They understood, but did not wish to admit that He was sent by the heavenly Father, and that He was speaking God’s will to them about Himself and about them. Thus the evangelist judged the Jews.

By the words “when you lift up,” the death of Christ on the Cross is meant. So it is also in other places, Jn 3:14; Jn 12:32, 34.

“I have many things to say and to judge concerning you,” says the Lord to the unbelieving Jews. He who believes in the Lord Jesus is not judged (Jn 3:18) and does not come into judgment (Jn 5:24).

Therefore the Lord’s words here refer to the murmurers, blasphemers, and embittered men who disputed with the Lord and sought to kill Him.

It is fearful to come into the judgment of the living God (Heb 10:31), and to stand before the eternal Judge without a Defender and Justifier.

He took our sins upon Himself and offered Himself as a sacrifice for them. Therefore the Lord points out to the Jews that He has “to judge concerning them.”