John 8:54Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

"If I glorify Myself." Since they had said, "Who do You make Yourself out to be?" He answers, "If I make Myself such, My glory is nothing." Yet, as with Abraham, He did not take everything from them, but said, "I know that you are Abraham's seed," so as to subject them to greater condemnation. So here also He did not take everything from them. What does He say? "Of whom you say." By allowing them to boast of this in words, He made their guilt heavier.

They clearly cried, "Are You greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died" (v. 53). Moreover, they then accused Him of surpassing the glory of the saints and exalting Himself above them, saying, "Who do You make Yourself?"

Against this the Lord ought plainly to have defended Himself and said before all: Yes, I am greater and higher than Abraham and the prophets.

But the high-minded Jew would not have endured such speech. He would immediately have become indignant. Appearing to nourish love for the Father and hiding behind the defense of the saints' glory, he would have attacked Christ still more fiercely.

He would seem justly to nurture murderous intent against Him. Therefore the Lord transfers the words to Himself and says, "If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing."

He says, as it were: let no one on earth think great things of himself. If we wish to reason within ourselves about what human glory is, we shall find that it does not exist.

"All flesh is grass, and all human glory is like the flower of the field" (Is 40:6). Therefore, He says, there is nothing astonishing in Abraham's death and, after him, the prophets' death.

For what is the glory of man, when his nature lies under the power of death and corruption, and in this is like grass that easily withers?

By skillfully applying to Himself the measure proper to Abraham or the prophets, and saying, "My glory is nothing," He seems thereby to remind the Jew of what Abraham plainly said about himself: "I am earth and ashes" (Gen 18:27).

He also recalls what the blessed prophets cried to God: "Remember that we are dust" (Ps 102:14). In view of this, we certainly shall not say that one who glorifies the saints diminishes their glory.

But it was finally necessary, and the usefulness of the discourse required it, that He show the difference between His divine and ineffable nature and those subject to death and corruption.

"It is My Father who glorifies Me."

For an exact clarification and unfolding of the thought of this saying, I shall use the same words and employ the same expressions. The Jews always put forward the question as some invincible proof and irrefutable argument.

"Are You greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died. Who do You make Yourself?" They were indeed convinced that He Himself would die and undergo death and corruption.

In this respect, they believed, He would be no greater than Abraham and the holy prophets. In general, they thought nothing great about Him at all.

Therefore our Lord Jesus Christ finally considers it necessary to show that, since He is from the eternal Begetter, He Himself is also eternal. For this reason He says, "It is My Father who glorifies Me."

The word "is" must be understood here not in a simple and ordinary sense, but as indicating the existence of the Father. The Son, ineffably begotten from the existing Father, without any doubt possesses this property of His Begetter, namely existence.

For this reason He is higher than Abraham and the prophets. They died as earthborn men from mortal fathers.

But He who incomprehensibly proceeds from the existing Father is always glorified by His Father. He is not glorified as one who needs glory, for He is the King of all glory (Ps 23:10).

He is glorified as having the preeminence of being begotten from the eternal Father. Therefore He Himself is eternal, possessing essentially the dignity of the Begetter.

Thus there is no obstacle to conceiving the glory of the Son as divine, and to calling the Father His glory. For the Father Himself is glorified in like manner by the Son.

He is not glorified as one who needs glory, but because He is reckoned and has glory as being acknowledged as the Father of such a Son. That is, He is the Father of God like Himself.

Therefore the Son Himself says to the Father, "Father, glorify Your Son, that the Son also may glorify You" (Jn 17:1).

Thus human glory is utter nothingness. Everything earthly is subject to death, namely according to the body, though it will rise again.

But the Only-begotten is glorified by His Begetter as having, together with all other goods, the property of His essence. Blessed David the Psalmist shows us in few words how He differs from all creation.

"The heavens will perish, but You remain. They will all grow old like a garment. Like a cloak You will change them, and they will be changed. But You are the same, and Your years will not fail" (Ps 101:27-28).

Everything created is corruptible. If it has not yet decayed, this is because it is held by the divine will for this purpose. But God is incorruptible and eternal by nature.

He does not possess this by the will of another, as creation does. He always abides in His own goods, among which is eternity.

"Of whom you say that He is your God."

For He refers His glory to the Father, from whom He has being as God. At times the Arians slander our faith on the basis of this statement and say, "Look, the Father is greater, because He glorifies the Son."

Heretic, have you not read of the Son who declared that He glorifies His Father (cf. Jn 17:4)? If the Father glorifies the Son and the Son glorifies the Father, abandon your stubbornness. Acknowledge equality. Renounce perversity.

"It is My Father," He said, "who glorifies Me, of whom you say that He is your God. And you have not known Him" (Jn 8:54-55).

See, my brethren, how He reveals that the Father of Christ is the God proclaimed also to the Jews. I say this because there are certain heretics who in turn claim that the God proclaimed in the Old Testament is not the Father of Christ.

They say He is some prince of evil angels. The Manichees say this, and the Marcionites also say the same.

The Marcionites are followers of Marcion's heresy. Marcion, like many gnostics, held that the God of the Old Testament is not the true God, but a demiurge who created this world.

According to this teaching, the true God is alien and unknown to the world and to its creator. In their opinion, the true God only appeared in seeming, after taking the human flesh of Jesus, to redeem mankind from the power of lower forces.

There may also be other heretics whom there is either no need to mention, or whom I cannot now recall. Yet there are not a few who say such things.

Therefore pay attention, so that you may have something to say against them. The Lord Jesus Christ calls Him His Father whom the Jews called their God, though they did not know Him.

For if they had known Him, they would have received His Son.

"But I know Him" (Jn 8:55), He said. To those who judged according to the flesh, He could seem proud because He said, "I know Him." But see what follows.

"If I say that I do not know Him, I shall be a liar like you" (Jn 8:55). Let pride not be rejected in such a way that truth is cast aside.

"But I know Him and keep His word" (Jn 8:55). As Son He spoke the word of the Father. He Himself was the Word of the Father who spoke with men.

If I say that I do not know Him, then, like you, who unjustly boast of the knowledge of God and say that He is your God, I shall be a liar. But I will not deny My witness, and I proclaim to all: I know Him and keep His word." It is clear that, besides removing the thought that He unjustly and excessively exalts Himself, Jesus Christ also answers the Jews' question rather clearly, though not directly. The question was, "Who do You make Yourself out to be?" "I," Jesus answered, "am the Son of Him of whom you say that He is your God." With this is joined the answer to the other reproach made by the Jews against Jesus Christ, that He sets Himself above Abraham. "I am so far above Abraham that he rejoiced to see My day; he saw it and was glad." "My day," which Abraham desired to see, means the time and circumstances of the Messiah's appearing on earth (Lk 10:23-24; 1 Pet 1:10-12). Ἠγαλλιάσατο, "he rejoiced," and ἐχάρη, "he was glad," differ from each other. The first denotes intense joy, a joyful stirring. The second denotes a calm joy. After the first, in other places, ὅτι commonly stands (cf. Mt 5:12). Here, however, ἵνα stands, because Abraham's state was a joyful desire and expectation. With joyful stirring he expected and desired to see the Savior's day. He saw it and was glad, ἐχάρη, that is, he was also calmed. As to when this happened, some think that Abraham's desire was fulfilled during his earthly pilgrimage (Heb 11:13). In that case, it was a contemplation of Christ's day from afar, by faith. It occurred either in a state of prophetic inspiration or through understanding the mysterious and typological meaning of some event in his life. An example is the offering of his son Isaac as a sacrifice (Heb 11:17-19). Others understand it this way. Throughout his whole life Abraham was moved with joy while awaiting the fulfillment of the promise concerning the Messiah. Then, when at last in his life beyond the grave he saw the day of the Messiah, he rejoiced with calm joy. In support of this understanding, besides the indicated difference in the meanings of the verbs, they point to the appearance of Moses and Elijah at the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ. From this fact it is clear that the blessed righteous of the Old Testament had access, in their life beyond the grave, to the contemplation of Christ's day.

Therefore they do not recognize Him who came from Him, and whom He has so glorified and still glorifies before their spiritually blinded eyes. "My glory is nothing." Without doubt, the Lord glorifies Himself by every action and teaching of His, as the extraordinary Messenger of God. But here the turn of speech is the same as in Jn 5:31-32, and His words mean this. If I alone glorified Myself, without the will of My Father, such glorification would be nothing. Or, as Chrysostom says, He speaks this way in adaptation to their opinion. "Of whom you say," and so forth. For this mode of expression, see Jn 10:36 and Acts 21:29.

There is, without doubt, a historical and economic difference between the revelation of the Old Testament and that of the New. Yet the essential content is one and the same in both. The Savior is one, and God is one.

The books of the Old Testament are holy for every Christian as divinely inspired Scripture. They are not like monuments of ancient pagan literature.

Nevertheless, the new revelation is not only the revelation of the same Godhead. It is a fuller and clearer revelation of the Godhead known through the ancient revelation. Therefore our reverence for the new revelation must be higher and deeper.

"And you have not known Him, but I know Him."

The revelation of God concerning God and Christ is one thing. The understanding of that revelation among the Hebrew people is another. The Savior says to the Jews: you do not know Him, the heavenly Father.

Does this reproach refer only to the contemporaries of Jesus? "You always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you," says St Stephen (Acts 7:51).

The people of Israel were the chosen people, the best people. Yet their own monuments, the historical and prophetic books, clearly say that they understood God's revelation badly.

So they appeared also in their dealings with Christ Jesus. They do not recognize in Jesus the One of whom the prophets spoke. They fail to recognize Him because they formed false ideas of the Messiah and the God of the prophets.

In the tumult of earthly passions, they lost the pure concepts of the salvation of mankind. "I know Him," says the Savior.

This knowledge was not received from outside, as it is with men. It is the consequence of the inward consubstantiality of the Son with the Father.

The Savior says this because truth requires it. If He said otherwise, He would resemble the Jews, to whom lying is so characteristic. The faithfulness of such a testimony can be verified by deeds.

His whole life is dedicated to the glory of the heavenly Father. Thus it is not vainglory, but love of truth, that bears witness before the Jews that He knows the Father.

Therefore whoever values truth must value His testimony.

"Abraham your father rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad."

The Jews vainly regard the greatness of Abraham as inaccessible to Jesus. On the contrary, Jesus is far higher than Abraham. He is the Messiah awaited by the father of believers.

The "day" of Jesus is "the time of His coming" (Cyril of Alexandria). This is explained by the Savior Himself in Jn 9:4-5. Otherwise, it is the time of light indicated by the prophets (2 Pet 1:19).

It is the time of salvation, "concerning which the prophets searched and inquired" (1 Pet 1:10-12). Abraham desired to see this day, and saw it with rapture.

How and when did Abraham see the time of Jesus Christ? Some suppose that he saw it in types, for example in the offering of his son as a sacrifice, as Zigabenus, Augustine, and Origen say.

But Jesus Christ distinguishes the expectation of the manifestation from the seeing. In the latter, He lets us see a special state of Abraham.

Abraham was not glad only when he received promises concerning the Messiah, or when he was instructed about Him through types. He saw with rapture the very time of Christ, or what is the same, His manifestation to the world.

When and how? By a revelation given in the life beyond the grave. This thought is confirmed by the example of Moses and Elijah, who appeared on Tabor and spoke with Jesus about the Cross (Mt 17:4).

Reading the Law and the Prophets, you failed to know the love and mercy of God in His sacred words. You were unable to enter into the meaning of His promises. To teach you, I, God in the flesh, came to earth. And I, as the Truth, cannot say that I do not know God, for I am God in the form of man. Therefore I reveal to you Myself and My Being, in accordance with the promises I gave in the covenant with your fathers. I cannot be a liar like you. Concerning the word translated as liar in the Slavonic text, it should be noted that, as a rendering of φεύστης, it means liar and not falsehood, φεῦδος, that is, untruth. The Slavonic word replaces the idea "lying" or "false." We note that in the Norov Greek-Slavonic New Testament of 1861 the word was printed incorrectly. All Synodal editions, however, preserve the correct form throughout.