St Albert the Great's Commentary on John 8:51-59

 

Saint Albert the Great's Commentary on John 8:51-59

On the Vivifying Word of Christ and His Divine Eternity

Introduction: The Life-Giving Word (Jn 8:51)

Here in the last part, it is shown how the word of Christ gives life.

"If anyone keeps my word… Amen, amen, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he shall not see death forever."

This section is divided into two parts:

1. In the first, it is shown that the word of Christ gives life.
2. In the second, He removes the calumny of the contradicting Jews (verse 52: "The Jews therefore said…").

In the first part, He states two things: namely, the confirmation of the word and the effect of the observed word.

He says therefore: "Amen, amen."

• Revelation 3:14: "These things says the Amen, the faithful witness…" — that is, confirmed truth.
• Psalm 118:11: "In my heart I have hidden Your words, that I might not sin against You."
• John 14:23: "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word."

He says "keeps" (servaverit), not "keeps" (servat - present tense), to denote perseverance.

• Matthew 10:22: "He who perseveres to the end, this one shall be saved."

"He shall not taste death": That is, he shall not experience the bitterness of eternal death.

• "Forever": Ecclesiastes 8:5: "He who keeps the commandment shall experience no evil thing."
• Wisdom 6:19-20: "The keeping of the laws is the perfection of incorruption; but incorruption makes one near to God."

Augustine, however, reads this passage: "He shall not see death forever." This sense returns to the same thing, because "not to see" is "not to experience."

• Matthew 16:28: "There are some standing here who shall not see death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom."

Objection: This seems false, because the good will see the eternal death of the wicked.

• Luke 16:23: "The rich man, when he was in torment" (namely of hell), "saw Abraham afar off…"
• Isaiah 66:24: "And they shall go out and see the carcasses of the men who have transgressed against Me."

Response: This objection is null, because, as we have said, "to see" and "to taste" here is to experience. With a simple vision, the good see and will see the death of the wicked. For this is the death of damnation, a death lasting forever, where a man so dies that he never [ceases dying].

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The Calumny (Jn 8:52-53)

"The Jews therefore said: 'Now we know that You have a demon. Abraham is dead, and the prophets, and You say, "If anyone keeps my word, he shall not taste death forever." Are You greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? And the prophets are dead. Who do You make Yourself?'"

Here the calumny against the Lord's saying is excluded. It has two parts:

1. In the first, the calumny is introduced.
2. In the second, it is excluded (verse 54: "Jesus answered…").

In the first part, four things are said:

1. From the saying which (according to them) does not have truth, they argue what they had said before when blaspheming.
2. In the second, they seem to argue against Christ concerning arrogance of speech, because He seemed to prefer Himself to the fathers.
3. In the third, they introduce [an argument] concerning arrogance because He seemed to prefer Himself to the prophets.
4. In the fourth, as if asking, they argue to what end He would exalt Himself in arrogating.

They say therefore:

• "Now… we have known": In this speech, we have known what we said before. We have known by a sign.
  • Job 15:13: "Why does your spirit swell against God, that you should speak such words out of your mouth?"
• "Because You have a demon":
  • John 10:20: "He has a demon and is mad; why do you listen to Him?"
  • Acts 17:18: "He seems to be a herald of new demons."
• "Abraham is dead": Who was of such dignity that God said concerning him:
  • Genesis 22:18: "In your seed all nations shall be blessed."
  • And such a one is dead.
• "And the prophets are dead": Who were of such dignity that God revealed hidden things to them.
  • Psalm 50:8: "You have manifested to me the uncertain and hidden things of Your wisdom."
  • And they also are dead.
  • 2 Samuel 14:14: "Behold, we all die, and like waters that slip away into the earth."
• "And You say…": As if they said: "It is wonderful that you say these things, and unless you were insane, you would not say them."

The Misunderstanding: This was because they thought Christ was speaking of temporal death, while He was speaking of eternal death.

• Ecclesiastes 2:16-17: "The learned man dies just like the ignorant, and therefore I was weary of my life."
• Psalm 81:6-7: "I said: You are gods and sons of the Most High. But you shall die like men."

"Are You greater than our father Abraham?" Here they seem to argue against the Lord concerning arrogance of speech in comparison to the fathers. They ask if He reputes Himself greater than Abraham, whom God did not support from temporal death.

• Genesis 25:8: "And failing" (namely by age), "he died in a good old age, advanced in years and full of days."
• "And the prophets are dead": And therefore it is arrogance that you say those who keep your word are to be supported from death, when those who hear the word of God are not supported from death.
  • Daniel 12:13: "But you, Daniel, go to the end and rest, and you shall stand in your lot at the end of the days."
  • 3 Kings 19:4: "It is enough for me, Lord; take away my soul, for I am no better than my fathers."
• "Who do You make Yourself?": That is, to what magnitude of arrogance will you compare yourself, since you prefer yourself to the highest and greatest?

Christ's Humility: Christ did not make Himself great, but the Father begot Him great, and He, accepting the form of man, made Himself small.

• Philippians 2:7: "He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant."

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Christ's Response: Truth and Glory (Jn 8:54-55)

"Jesus answered: 'If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, whom you say is your God. And you have not known Him; but I know Him. And if I shall say that I do not know Him, I shall be like to you, a liar. But I know Him, and I keep His word.'"

Here the conclusion of the calumny is explained. It has two parts against the two things which they imposed on Christ by calumny. For they said His sermon was false and arrogant.

1. Therefore, Christ first shows His sermon is true.
2. Second, He shows it is not arrogant (verse 56: "Abraham your father…").

In the first part, He says three things:

1. That in His sermon He does not have private glory from the Father.
2. That He has the glory of God the Father.
3. That He, glorified here, is unknown by the Jews but known by Christ.

He says therefore:

• "If I glorify myself": With private glory. This is a locution by hypothesis. As if to say: "If I were to have private glory from the Father, as you impose upon me, and with that private glory were to glorify myself, my glory is nothing."
  • 1 Maccabees 2:62-63: "His glory is dung and worms; today he is exalted and tomorrow he shall not be found, because he is turned into his earth."
  • Hosea 4:7: "I will change their glory into shame."
• "It is my Father…": My substantial Father, who glorifies Me with voice and signs, latent in human form.
  • John 1:14: "We saw His glory, the glory as of the Only Begotten from the Father."
  • Isaiah 22:23: "He shall be for a throne of glory to the house of His Father."
• "Whom you say is your God": For He showed by testimonies of Scripture, voice, and works that He is the Father and glorifier of Me.
  • Exodus 15:2: "This is my God and I will glorify Him; the God of my father and I will exalt Him."
  • Baruch 3:36: "This is our God, and no other shall be esteemed against Him."
  • Exodus 15:11: "Who is like You among the strong, O Lord? Who is like You, magnificent in holiness, terrible and praiseworthy, working wonders?"

"And you have not known Him…" He argues against the Jews concerning the ignorance of God whom they invoked. He states four things:

1. A reproof of ignorance.
2. A confession of His own science.
3. A renunciation of ignorance.
4. A showing of science.

He says therefore:

• "And you have not known Him": Although demonstrated by the works in Me.
  • Isaiah 1:3: "Israel has not known Me, and My people have not understood."
  • Objection: If it is objected that they knew God in the Law and Prophets, it must be responded that they knew God as Creator, but they did not know God as Father working in the Son. The cause of this was that they were unwilling to know Him, because they could easily have known the Father in the Son. Therefore this ignorance is reproached to them.
  • Isaiah 45:4: "I have likened you, and you have not known Me."
  • They were of those of whom it is said: Titus 1:16: "They confess that they know God, but in deeds they deny Him."
• "But I… know Him": By substantial science, because I am from Him.
  • John 1:18: "The Only Begotten who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him."
  • Colossians 2:3: "In Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and science," namely of God.
• "And if I shall say that I do not know Him…": By false humility, on account of you who attribute this to arrogance, that I say I know God the Father by consubstantiality. Then, denying the truth concerning Me, I shall be like to you, a liar, from the father the devil.
  • This is a locution by hypothesis. As if to say: "If it were possible that I could deny the truth (which is impossible), then I would be like you, a liar."
  • 2 Corinthians 1:18: "In Him there is not 'Yes' and 'No'."
  • Numbers 23:19: "God is not as a man, that He should lie, nor as the son of man, that He should be changed."

"But I know Him…" Here He shows that He knows, because I keep His word, which He enjoined upon Me when He sent Me.

• John 17:4: "I have finished the work which You gave Me to do."
• 1 John 2:4: "He who says he knows Him," namely God, "and keeps not His commandments, is a liar."

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Abraham's Joy (Jn 8:56)

"Abraham your father exulted that he might see my day; he saw it and was glad."

Behold what He responds to that which they attributed to arrogance: that He compares Himself to the Fathers and Prophets. In this, two things are said: namely, the response of truth and the objection of the calumniators.

Concerning the first, He says:

• "Abraham your father": According to the flesh and according to the promise.
• "Exulted in spirit": That by faith and the eyes of the heart he might see my day. That is, the light which shines from Me and drives away the darkness of ignorance.
  • Genesis 18:1-2: "The Lord appeared to him in the vale of Mambre… and when he had lifted up his eyes, there appeared to him three men."
  • He saw in the knowledge of the spirit that through the conception of Isaac I was to be incarnate and was to purge the darkness of sin.
  • "And he was glad":
    • Ecclesiasticus 48:27: "With a great spirit he saw the last things."
    • Daniel 7:13: "I beheld therefore in the vision of the night, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, one like the Son of Man came…"
    • Genesis 18:17-18: "Can I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, seeing he shall be into a great nation?"
  • In this vision of the spirit, therefore, he was glad.
  • Isaiah 60:5: "Then you shall see and abound, and your heart shall wonder and be enlarged."
  • Luke 10:24: "Many kings and prophets have desired to see the things that you see…"

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The Claim to Eternity and the Attempt to Stone (Jn 8:57-59)

"The Jews therefore said to Him: 'You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?' Jesus said to them: 'Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham was made, I am.' They took up therefore stones to cast at Him. But Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple."

Behold, here arises against the saying and calumny of the Jews. Three things are said:

1. The calumny of the insidiators.
2. The response of truth by the Son of God.
3. The insurrection against the truth by stoning, to which the Lord opposes patience for our example.

1. The Calumny:

• "They say therefore: 'You are not yet fifty years old…'": They allege the age which was seen, so that by this they might prove the impossibility of the saying.
  • Chrysostom reads: "You are not yet forty years old." This letter seems more convenient to the age of the Lord, because He was then thirty years old, and on account of the gravity of morals and wisdom, they interpreted His age around forty years.
  • Job 8:9: "For we are but of yesterday, and are ignorant that our days upon earth are like a shadow."
  • For these men saw only that wisdom which comes from experience of age. Whence Plato in the Timaeus, in the first part: "You Greeks are children, and there is no gray wisdom in you."
  • But the Lord, according to this that He was God, saw from eternity what He saw. And according to this that He was man, from the instant of conception He was full of all wisdom and science.
  • Wisdom 4:8-9: "Venerable old age is not that of long time, nor counted by the number of years; for gray hairs are the understanding of a man, and the age of old age is an immaculate life."
• "...and have You seen Abraham?": Who died a thousand years before. As if they say: "This is impossible." For they are ignorant that according to His divinity, Abraham was always present to Him; nor was he dead who drank life at the fountain of life.
  • Exodus 3:6: "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob."
  • Exodus 3:15: "The Lord God of your fathers… has sent me to you; this is my name forever."
  • Which could not be unless he lived with Him.
  • Matthew 22:32: "He is not the God of the dead, but of the living."

2. The Response of Truth:

• "Jesus said to them…": Repelling this error, Jesus said to them: "Amen, amen, I say to you…"
  • He confirms twice so that He might imprint it better.
  • Genesis 41:32: "That which you have seen secondly pertaining to the same matter, the dream is firm…" because the word of God is done and is fulfilled more quickly. So also here the Son confirms twice.
• "Before Abraham was made…": By temporal generation, which time precedes and follows.
• "...I am": He does not say "I was" or "I had been," because eternity does not have a "now" of the past. But as Boethius says: "The standing now, not moving itself, always makes eternity."
  • And this He notes when He says "I am," which is the substantive verb of the present "now" of time. Which nevertheless here does not say "now" of time, but "now" of eternity, to which, as Anselm says in the Monologion, every difference of time is so present as to our "now" of time every place and every difference of place is present.
  • Ecclesiasticus 24:14: "From the beginning and before the worlds I was created, and until the future world I shall not cease."
  • John 17:5: "Glorify Me, O Father, with Yourself, with the glory which I had before the world was, with You."

3. The Insurrection and Christ's Departure:

• "They took up therefore stones…": Considering that eternity befits God alone, and that He professed Himself to be God through eternity, and that for such blasphemy He was to be stoned; and not being able to resist the wisdom which spoke, and the works which proved His words, they turn to stones, so that they might overwhelm with stones Him whose speech they were not able to resist.
  • For although every saying is firm, nevertheless the error of iniquity is omitted, because it relies on pleasing things and is not persuaded by proposed truth.
  • So therefore the Jews took up stones, having stony hearts against the truth, to cast at Jesus.
  • Acts 7:51: "You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in hearts and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit."
  • Matthew 23:37: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to you…"
• "But Jesus… hid Himself":
  • Not out of fear of death, because John 18:4: He went forth to the crucifiers.
  • Nor out of impotence of resisting, because with one word He could have precipitated them all into hell.
    • Wisdom 18:15-16: "Whose harsh word as a fierce warrior leaped down into the midst of the land of extermination… and standing, filled all things with death."
  • Nevertheless, now dispensatively He hid Himself, yielding to their fury until the Hour of Passion should come, which the Father had predefined.
  • And thus He teaches us to decline the fury of enemies for a time.
    • Romans 12:19: "Not defending yourselves, my dearest, but give place to wrath."
    • Isaiah 16:3-4: "Hide the fugitives and betray not the wanderers… let my fugitives dwell with you."
    • Isaiah 21:13: "For from the face of swords they have fled, from the face of the imminent sword…"
• "And went out of the temple": From them, designating their dereliction and His transition to the Gentiles.
  • Matthew 23:38: "Behold, your house shall be left to you desolate."
  • Ezekiel 10:18: "The glory of the Lord went out from the holy place." (Supplement: He departs).
  • Deuteronomy 31:20: "I will hide My face from them and consider their last things."

So therefore He withdrew dispensatively.

 

CONTINUE