Augustine: He does not say, Where I shall be, but Where I am. For Christ was always there in that place, whither He was about to return: He returned in such a way, as that He did not forsake us. Visibly and according to the flesh, He was upon earth; according to His invisible majesty, He was in heaven and earth. Nor again is it, you will not be able, but, you are not able to come: for they were not such at the time, as to be able. That this is not meant to drive men to despair, is shown by His saying the very same thing to His disciples; Whither I go, you cannot come; and by His explanation last of all to Peter, Whither I go, you cannot follow Me now, but you shall follow Me afterwards.
Chrysostom: He wants them to think seriously how little time longer He should be with them, and what regret they will feel when He is gone, and they are not able to find Him. I go to Him that sent Me; this shows that no injury was done Him by their plots, and that His passion was voluntary. The words had some effect upon the Jews, who asked each other, where they were to go, which was like persons desiring to be quit of Him: Then said the Jews among themselves, Whither will He go, that we shall not find Him? Will He go to the dispersed among the Gentiles, and teach the Gentiles? In the fullness of their self-satisfaction, they call them Gentiles, as a term of reproach; the Gentiles being dispersed every where; a reproach which they themselves underwent afterwards. Of old all the nation was united together: but now that the Jews were mixed with the Gentiles in every part of the world, our Lord would not have said, Whither I go, you cannot come, in the sense of going to the Gentiles.
Augustine: Whither I go, i.e. to the bosom of the Father. This they did not at all understand: and yet even their mistake is an unwitting prophecy of our salvation; i.e. that our Lord would go to the Gentiles, not in His own person, but by His feet, i.e. His members. He sent to us those whom He had made His members, and so made us His members.
Chrysostom: They did not mean, that our Lord was going to the Gentiles for their hurt, but to teach them. Their anger had subsided, and they believed what He had said. Else they would not have thought of asking each other, What manner of saying is this that He said, you shall seek Me, and shall not find Me: and whither I am, you cannot come.
Ver. 37. In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come to me, and drink.38. He that believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.39. (But this spoke he of the Spirit, which they that believe in him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)
Chrysostom: The feast being over, and the people about to return home, our Lord gives them provisions for the way: On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come to Me, and drink.
Augustine: The feast was then going on, which is called scenopegia, i.e. building of tents.
Chrysostom: Which lasted seven days. The first and last days were the most important; In the last day, that great day of the feast, says the Evangelist. Those between were given chiefly to amusements. He did not then make the offer on the first day, or the second, or the third, lest amidst the excitements that were going on, people should let it slip from their minds, He cried out, on account of the great multitude of people present.
Theophylact: To make Himself audible, inspire confidence in others, and show an absence of all fear in Himself.
Chrysostom: If any thirsts: as if to say, I use no compulsion or violence: I but if any have the desire strong enough, let him come.
Augustine: For there is an inner thirst, because there is an inner man: and the inner man of a certainty loves more than the outer. So then if we thirst, let us go not on our feet, but on our affections, not by change of place, but by love.
Chrysostom: He is speaking of spiritual drink, as His next words show: He that believes in Me, as the Scripture truth said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But where here does the Scripture say this? No where. What then? We should read, He that believes in Me, as said the Scripture, putting the stop here; and then, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water: the meaning being, that that was a right kind of belief, which was formed on the evidence of Scripture, not of miracles. Search the Scriptures, he had said before. Jerome: Or this testimony is taken from the Proverbs, where it is said, Let your fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.
Augustine: The belly of the inner man, is the heart’s conscience. Let him drink from that water, and his conscience is quickened and purified; he drinks in the whole fountain, nay, becomes the very fountain itself. But what is that fountain, and what is that river, which flows from the belly of the inner man? The love of his neighbor. If any one, who drinks of the water, thinks that it is meant to satisfy himself alone, out of his belly there does not flow living water. But if he does good to his neighbor, the stream is not dried up, but flows.
Gregory: When sacred preaching flows from the soul of the faithful, rivers of living water, as it were, run down from the bellies of believers. For what are the entrails of the belly but the inner part of the mind; i.e. a right intention, a holy desire, humility towards God, mercy toward man.
Chrysostom: He says, rivers, not river, to show the copious and overflowing power of grace: and living water, i.e. always moving; for when the grace of the Spirit has entered into and settled in the mind, it flows freer than any fountain, and neither fails, nor empties, nor stagnates. The wisdom of Stephen, the tongue of Peter, the strength of Paul, are evidences of this. Nothing hindered them; but, like impetuous torrents, they went on, carrying every thing along with them.
Augustine: What kind of drink it was, to which our Lord invited them, the Evangelist next explains; But this He spoke of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive. Whom does the Spirit mean, but the Holy Spirit; For every man has within him his own spirit.
Alcuin: He promised the Holy Spirit to the Apostles before the Ascension; He gave it to them in fiery tongues, after the Ascension. The Evangelist’s words, Which they that believe in Him should receive, refer to this.
Augustine: The Spirit of God was, i.e. was with God, before now; but was not yet given to those who believed on Jesus; for our Lord had determined not to give them the Spirit, till He was risen again: The Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified.
Chrysostom: The Apostles indeed cast out devils by the Spirit before, but only by the power which they had from Christ. For when He sent them, it is not said, He gave them the Holy Spirit, but, He gave to them power. With respect to the Prophets however, all agree that the Holy Spirit was given to them but this grace had been withdrawn from the world.
Augustine: Yet we read of John the Baptist, He shall be filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother’s womb. And Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied. Mary was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied of our Lord. And so were Simeon and Anna, that they might acknowledge the greatness of the infant Christ. We are to understand then that the giving of the Holy Spirit was to be certain, after Christ’s exaltation, in a way in which it never was before. It was to have a peculiarity at His coming, which it had not before. For we no where read of men under the influence of the Holy Spirit, speaking with tongues which they had never known, as then took place, when it was necessary to evidence His coming by sensible miracles.
Augustine: If the Holy Spirit then is received now, why is there no one who speaks the tongues of all nations? Because now the Church herself speaks the tongues of all nations. Whoso is not in her, neither does he now receive the Holy Spirit. But if only you love unity, whoever has any thing in her, has it for you. Put away envy, and that which I have is yours. Envy separates, love unites: have it, and you have all things: whereas without it nothing that you can have, will profit you. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which its given to us. But why did our Lord give the Holy Spirit after His resurrection? That the flame of love might mount upwards to our own resurrection: separating us from the world, and devoting us wholly to God. He who said, He that believes in Me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water, has promised life eternal, free from all fear, and change, and death. Such then being the gifts which He promised to those in whom the Holy Spirit kindled the flame of love, He would not give that Spirit till He was glorified: in order that in His own person He might show us that life, which we hope to attain to in the resurrection.
Augustine: If this then is the cause why the Holy Spirit was not yet given; viz. because Jesus was not yet glorified; doubtless, the glorification of Jesus when it took place, was the cause immediately of its being given. The Cataphryges, however, said that they first received the promised Paraclete, and thus strayed from the Catholic faith. The Manichaeans too apply all the promises made respecting the Holy Spirit to Manichaeus, as if there were no Holy Spirit given before.
Chrysostom: Or thus; By the glory of Christ, He means the cross. For, whereas we were enemies, and gifts are not made to enemies, but to friends, it was necessary that the victim should be first offered up, and the enmity of the flesh removed; that, being made friends of God, we might be capable of receiving the gift.
Ver. 40. Many of the people therefore, when they heard this saying, said, Of a truth this is the Prophet. 41. Others said, This is the Christ. But some said, Shall Christ come out of Galilee? 42. Has not the Scripture said, That Christ comes of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was? 43. So there was a division among the people because of him. 44. And some of them would have taken him; but no man laid hands on him. 45. Then came the officers to the chief priests and Pharisees; and they said to them, Why have you not brought him? 46. The officers answered, Never man spoke like this man. 47. Then answered them the Pharisees, Are you also deceived? 48. Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him? 49. But this people who knows not the law are cursed. 50. Nicodemus said to them, (he that came to Jesus by night, being one of them,) 51. Does our law judge any man, before it hear him, and know what he does? 52. They answered and said to him, Are you also of Galilee? Search, and look: for out of Galilee arises no prophet. 53. And every man went to his own house.
Augustine: Our Lord having invited those, who believed in Him, to drink of the Holy Spirit, a dissension arose among the multitude: Many of the people therefore, when they heart these saying, said, Of a truth this is the Prophet.
Theophylact: The one, that is, who was expected. Others, i.e. the people said, This is the Christ.
Alcuin: These had now begun to drink in that spiritual thirst, and had laid aside the unbelieving thirst. But others still remained dried up in their unbelief: But some said, Shall Christ come out of Galilee? Has not the Scripture said, That Christ comes of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was? They knew what were the predictions of the Prophets respecting Christ, but knew not that they all were fulfilled in Him. They knew that He had been brought up at Nazareth, but the place of His birth they did not know; and did not believe that it answered to the prophecies.
Chrysostom: But be it so, they knew not His birth-place: were they ignorant also of His extraction? that He was of the house and family of David? Why did they ask, Has not the Scripture said, that Christ comes of the seed of David? They wished to conceal His extraction, and therefore put forward where He had been educated. For this reason, they do not go to Christ and ask, How say the Scriptures that Christ must come from Bethlehem, whereas you come from Galilee purposely and of malice prepense they do not do this. And because they were thus inattentive, and indifferent about knowing the truth, Christ did not answer them: though He had lauded Nathanael, when he said, Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? and called Him an Israelite indeed, as being a lover of truth, an well learned in the ancient Scriptures. So there was as a division among the people concerning Him.
Theophylact: Not among the rulers; for they were resolved one way, viz. not to acknowledge Him as Christ. The more moderate of them only used malicious words, in order to oppose Christ’s path to glory; but the more malignant wished to lay hands on Him: And some of them would haze taken Him.
Chrysostom: The Evangelist says this to show, that they had no concern for, and no anxiety to learn, the truth. But no man laid hands on Him.
Alcuin: That is, because He Who had the power to control their designs, did not permit it.
Chrysostom: This were sufficient to have raised some compunction in them; but no, such malignity believes nothing; it looks only to one thing, blood.
Augustine: They; however who were sent to take Him, returned guiltless of the offense, and full of admiration: Then came the officers to the chief priests and Pharisees; and they said to them, Why have you not brought Him?
Alcuin: They who wished to take and stone Him, reprove the officers for not bringing Him.
Chrysostom: The Pharisees and Scribes profited nothing by seeing the miracles, and reading the Scriptures; but their officers, who had done neither, were captivated with once hearing Him; and they who went to take hold of Him, were themselves taken hold of by the miracle. Nor did they say, We could not because of the multitude: but made themselves proclaimers of Christ’s v wisdom;: The of officers answered, Never man spoke like this Man.
Augustine: He spoke thus, because He was both God and man.
Chrysostom: Not only is their wisdom to be admired, for not wanting miracles, but being convinced by His teaching only, (for they do not say, Never man did such miracles as this Man, but, Never man spoke like this Man,) but also their boldness, in saying this to the Pharisees, who were such enemies of Christ. They had not heard a long discourse, but minds unprepossessed against Him did not require one.
Augustine: The Pharisees however rejected their testimony: Then answered them the Pharisees, Are you also led away? As if to say, We see that you are charmed by His discourse.
Alcuin: And so they were led away; and laudably too, for they had left the evil of unbelief, and were gone over to the faith.
Chrysostom: They make use of the most foolish argument against them: Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on Him? but this people who knows not the law are cursed? This then was their ground of accusation, that the people believed, but they themselves did not.
Augustine: They who knew not the law, believed on Him who had given the law, and they who taught the law condemned Him; thus fulfilling our Lord’s words, I am come, that they which see not might see, and that they which see might be made blind.
Chrysostom: How then are they cursed, who are convinced by the law? Rather are you cursed, who have not observed the law.
Theophylact: The Pharisees answer the officers courteously and gently, because they are afraid of their forthwith separating from them, and joining Christ.
Chrysostom: As they said that none of the rulers believed on Him, the Evangelist contradicts them: Nicodemus said to them, (he that came to Jesus by night, being one of them.)
Augustine: He was not unbelieving, but fearful; and therefore came by night to the light, wishing to be enlightened, but afraid of being known to go. He replies, Does our law judge any man before it hear him, and know what he does? He thought that, if they would only hear Him patiently, they would be overcome, as the officers had been. But they preferred obstinately condemning Him, to knowing the truth.