1278 He sets down the truth he intends to teach and says: it is my Father who glorifies me . It is like saying: I do not glorify myself, as you think; but it is another who glorifies me, namely, my Father, whom he describes by his proper characteristic and by his nature. He describes him by his proper characteristic of fatherhood; thus he says that it is my Father and not I. As Augustine says, the Arians use this statement to injure our faith, and they claim the Father is greater than the Son, for one who glorifies is greater than the one glorified by him. If, therefore, the Father glorifies the Son, the Father is greater than the Son. Now this argument would be valid unless it were found that, conversely, the Son glorifies the Father. But the Son says: "Father, the hour has come: glorify thy Son that thy Son may glorify thee" (17:1); and "I glorified thee on earth" (17:4).
It is my Father who glorifies me , can be applied to Christ both according as he is the Son of God, and also as the Son of man. As the Son of God, the Father glorifies him with the glory of the divinity, generating him from eternity as equal to himself: as we read, "He reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature � he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high" (Heb 1:3); "And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Phil 2:11). But as man, he had glory through an overflowing into him of the divinity, and overflowing of unique grace and glory: "We have seen his glory, the glory as of the only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth" [1:14].
1279 He describes the Father by his nature, that is, by his divinity, when he says, of whom you say that he is your God. But lest anyone suppose that his Father is other than God, he says that he is glorified by God: "Now is the Son of man glorified, and in him God is glorified; if God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself" (13:31). According to Augustine, these words are against the Manicheans, who say that the Father of Christ was not proclaimed in the Old Testament, but rather it was one of the princes of the evil angels. However, it is plain that the Jews do not say that their God is any other than the God of the Old Testament. Therefore, the God of the Old Testament is the Father of Christ and the One who glorifies him.
1280 Then he shows both these things, that is, the error of the Jews, and his own truth, when he says, but you have not known him. He shows these in two ways: first, by pointing out the ignorance of the Jews; secondly, his own knowledge (v 55).
1281 With respect to the first it should be noted that the Jews could say: You say that you are glorified by God; but his judgments are known by us, according to "He has not dealt thus with any other nation; they do not know his ordinances" (Ps 147:20). Therefore, if what you say is true, we would certainly know it; but since we do not know of it, it is obviously not true. Christ concludes saying, but you have not known him. This is like saying: It is not strange if you do not know about the glory with which my Father, who you say is your God, glorifies me, for you do not know God.
1282 This seems to conflict with the Psalm (76:1): "In Judah God is known." I answer that he was known by them as God, but not as the Father; thus he said above: "It is my Father who glorifies me" (v 54). Or, one might answer that you have not known him with affection, because you adore him in a bodily way, whereas he should be adored spiritually: "God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth" (4:24). And there is no affection because you are reluctant to keep his commandments: "They profess to know God; but they deny him by their deeds" (Tit 1:16).
1283 But they might say: "Granted that we do not know about your glory, how do you know that you have glory from God the Father?" For this reason Christ speaks of his own knowledge, saying, I know him. First, he mentions his own knowledge; secondly, he shows the need for mentioning it; and thirdly, he explains what he said (v 55b).
1284 He says: I know that I have glory from God the Father, because I know him , namely, with that knowledge with which he knows himself; and no one else except the Son knows him: "No one knows the Father except the Son" (Mt 11:27), i.e., with a perfect and comprehensive knowledge. And because every imperfect thing derives from the perfect, all our knowledge is derived from the Word; thus Christ continues, "and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him."
1285 Now because some who judge in a carnal manner might attribute arrogance to Christ for saying that he knows God, he mentions why his statement is necessary. For, according to Augustine, arrogance should not be so guarded against that the truth is neglected and a lie committed. Thus Christ says: If I said, I do not know him, I should be a liar like you. This is like saying: Just as you are lying when you say that you know him, so if I said I do not know him, whereas I do, I should be a liar like you. There is a similarity here in the fact of lying: as they lie in saying that they know him whom they do not know, so Christ would be a liar were he to say that he does not know him whom he knows. But there is a lack of similarity because they do not know him, whereas Christ does.
But could Christ say these things ["I do not know him" and "I should be a liar"]? He could, indeed, have spoken the words materially, but not so as to intend expressing a falsehood, because this could be done only by Christ's will inclining to falsehood, which was impossible, just as it was impossible for him to sin.
However, the conditional statement is true, although both antecedent and consequent are impossible.
1286 When he continues he shows that he knows the Father, But I do know him , i.e., I know the Father intellectually, with speculative knowledge. And I also know him with affective knowledge, by consenting to him with my will: thus he says, and I keep his word : "For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me" (6:38).
1287 Then when he says, your father Abraham rejoiced that he was to see my day , he gives his answer to the first question asked by the Jews: "Are you greater than our father Abraham?" He shows that he is greater for the following reason: Whoever awaits for someone as for his good and perfection is less than the one he waits for; but Abraham placed the entire hope of his perfection and good in me; therefore, he is less than I. In regard to this he says, your father Abraham, in whom you glory, rejoiced that the was to see my day; he saw it and was glad. He is stating two visions and two joys, but the second vision and its joy is mentioned first. In the first part of the statement, he first mentions the joy of exultation when he says, Abraham rejoiced, and then adds the vision, saying that he was to see my day. Then in the second part he first mentions the vision, saying, he saw, my day, and adds the joy, and was glad. Thus [taking the statement in reverse order] a joy lies between two visions, proceeding from the one and tending to the other. He is saying in effect: "He saw my day, and rejoiced that he was to see my day."
First of all, let us examine what that day is which he saw, and also what that day is which he rejoiced that he was to see. Now the day of Christ is twofold: the day of eternity, "Today I have begotten you" (Ps 2:7); and the day of his incarnation and humanity, "I must work the works of him who sent me, while it is day" (9:4). We say that Abraham saw, by faith, each day of Christ: the day of eternity and the day of the incarnation: "He believed the Lord; and he reckoned it to him as righteousness" (Gen 15:6). It is clear that he saw the day of eternity, for otherwise he would not have been justified by God, because as it says in Hebrews (11:6): "Whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who see him." That he saw the day of the incarnation is clear from three things. First, from the oath he exacted from his servant. For he said to his servant: "Put your hand under my thigh, and I will make you swear by the Lord" (Gen 24:2). This signified, as Augustine says, that the God of heaven was to come out of his thigh. Secondly, as Gregory says, when he showed hospitality to the three angels, a symbol of the Most High Trinity. Thirdly, when he knew the passion of Christ as prefigured in the offering of the ram and of Isaac (Gen c 22). So he was glad over this vision [of faith], but he did not rest in it. Indeed, from it he rejoiced in another vision, namely, the direct face-to-face vision [of God], as though placing all his joy in this. Thus he says, Abraham rejoiced that he was to see my day, - the day of my divinity and of my human nature - that is, that he was to see it by direct face-to-face vision.
1288 Then (v 57), he shows how the Jews ridiculed Christ's words: first, we have their ridicule, in an attempt to belittle what Christ said; secondly, Christ clarifies what he said in order to counteract this ridicule (v 58).
1289 Because Christ had said that Abraham rejoiced that he was to see his day, the Jews, having a carnal mind and considering only his physical age, ridiculed him and said, you are not yet fifty years old . Indeed, he was not yet fifty years old, or even forty, but closer to thirty: "And Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about thirty years of age" (Lk 3:23). The Jews said, you are not yet fifty years old, probably because they held the year of Jubilee in the greatest reverence and computed everything in terms of it - it was a time for freeing captives and giving up certain possessions. They were saying in effect: You have not yet lived beyond the span of a Jubilee, and have you seen Abraham? However, our Lord did not say that he saw Abraham, but that Abraham saw his day.
1290 To counteract their ridicule, our Lord answers the Jews by explaining his words, saying, Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I am. These words of our Lord mention two things about himself that are noteworthy and efficacious against the Arians. One is that, as Gregory says, he combines words of present and past time, because before signifies the past, and am signifies the present. Therefore, in order to show that he is eternal, and to indicate that his existence is an eternal existence, he does not say, "before Abraham, I was," but before Abraham, I am. For eternal existence knows neither past nor future time, but embraces all time in one indivisible [instant]. Thus it could be said: "He who is, sent me to you," and "I am who am" [Ex 3:14]. Jesus had being both before Abraham and after him, and he could approach him by showing himself in the present and be after him in the course of time.
The other point, according to Augustine, is that when speaking of Abraham, a creature, he did not say, "before Abraham was," but before Abraham came to be. Yet when speaking of himself, in order to show that he was not made as a creature is, but was eternally begotten from the essence of the Father, he does not say, "I came to be," but I am he who "in the beginning was the Word" (1:1); "Before the hills, I was brought forth" (Prv 8:25).
1291 Then (v 59), we see the attitude of the Jews towards Christ: first, their harassment of him; secondly, Christ's escape. The harassment of the Jews came from their unbelief: for the minds of unbelievers, being unable to tolerate words of eternity, or understand them, regard them as blasphemy. Therefore, according to the command of the Law, they decided to stone Christ as a blasphemer: they took up stones to throw at him. As Augustine remarks: What hardness of heart! To what could it resort except the hardness of stones? And they act in the same way who from the hardness of their own hearts, failing to understand the clearly stated truth, blaspheme the one who speaks it; for we read: "These men revile whatever they do not understand" (Jude 10).
1292 Jesus escapes from them by his own power; he continues, but Jesus hid himself - he, who, if he had wished to exercise his divine power, could have bound and delivered them to the punishment of a sudden death. Jesus hid himself for two main reasons. First, as an example to his followers to avoid those who persecute them: "When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next" (Mt 10:23). Secondly, because he had not chosen this form of death, but rather wanted to be sacrificed on the altar of the cross. He also fled because his time had not yet come. Thus, as man, he avoids their stoning. But he did not conceal himself under a rock or in a corner, but made himself invisible by his divine power and left the temple. He acted in a similar way when they wanted to throw him from the top of a hill (Lk 4:29). As Gregory says, this leads us to understand that the truth is hidden from those who disdain to follow his words. Indeed, the truth shuns a mind that it does not find to be humble: "The Lord is hiding his face from the house of Jacob" (Is 8:17). Finally, he hid himself because it was fitting that he leave them because they refused to accept correction and the truth, and that he go to the Gentiles: "Behold your house is forsaken and desolate" (Mt 23:38).
Aquinas: John, Ch. 9
9
LECTURE I
1 As he passed by, he saw a man blind from his birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" 3 Jesus answered, "It was not that this man sinned, or his parent, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him. 4 We must work the works of him who sent me, while it is day; night comes, when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." 6 As he said this, he spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle and anointed the man's eyes with the clay, 7 saying to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam" (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing. [1]
1293 After showing the enlightening power of his teaching by his own words [cf. 1 118], our Lord confirms this by his action, when he gives sight to one physically blind. In regard to this three things are presented: first, the man's infirmity; secondly, his healing (v 6); thirdly, a discussion among the Jews about this health (v 8). In regard to the first he does two things: first, the man's infirmity is mentioned; secondly, we see an inquiry about its cause (v 2).