Translated by Qwen who notes: This excerpt is drawn from Fr. Joseph Knabenbauer, S.J. (1817–1899), whose four-volume commentary on the Gospels remains a standard reference in Catholic biblical scholarship. All Greek terms, textual variants, and patristic/scholastic citations have been preserved and contextualized. Abbreviated commentator names have been expanded for modern readability.
FATHER JOSEPH KNABENBAUER:COMMENTARY ON JOHN 14:1–14
Jn 14:1
Some hold that because of the denial predicted for Peter, the disciples were troubled, afflicted with grief and sadness, as each feared for himself, and that Christ therefore addressed them gently (cf. Chrysostom, Cyril of Alexandria, Jansenius). But Thomas Aquinas more rightly judges that consolation and strengthening are provided by Christ specifically against His departure. For this purpose the entire following discourse is directed. Christ had just said: “A little while longer I am with you; where I go, you cannot come” (13:33), and “because He had said this to them, sadness filled their hearts” (cf. 16:6). Their Master, to whom they had devoted themselves entirely, was departing; and He was departing, as it seemed to them, with the work unfinished, the Messianic mission not completed, leaving them without protection, exposed to the hatred and persecutions of the Pharisees, already separated from Him whom they loved so faithfully. What sadder and more miserable thing could have happened to them?
Therefore, they were in utmost need of consolation, strengthening, and explanation. And Christ, out of His supreme love for them (13:1), raises and instructs them in a thoroughly paternal manner.
Jn 14:1: “Let not your heart be troubled.” (μὴ ταρασσέσθω) Let it not be struck by sadness, fear, or anxiety, nor agitated by doubts. And He assigns the remedy for all these things: faith. “You believe in God; believe also in me.” In both clauses the Greek uses πιστεύετε, from which quite a number of commentators (cf. Cyril, Nonnus, Euthymius, Augustine, Schegg, Scholz, Keil, Weiss, etc.) explain both as imperatives. Others prefer the common indicative-imperative interpretation (Maldonatus, Cornelius à Lapide, Fillion), and not without reason, for it better fits what Jesus intends: from the faith they already have in God, He persuades them to believe in Him as well; He recalls to their memory that if they believe in God, they ought also to believe in Him, since He is sent by God, bears God’s testimony, does God’s works, and is one with the Father. The sense, therefore, is: “If you believe in God, or just as you believe in God, therefore or in the same way, believe also in me.” This statement is perfectly suited to the doctrine so often taught (cf. Jn 5:19ff, 36ff; Jn 8:18, 28, 38; Jn 10:30, 38; Jn 12:44, 50), and the exhortation itself carries greater force because it is proposed as a necessary consequence of an admitted truth.
With this admonition, the power and efficacy of faith are splendidly set forth: “Believe” – that is, all tribulations will pass away, for faith in Me and in the Father is stronger than all tribulations and will not allow you to be overwhelmed by evils (Chrysostom). Faith, therefore, is an unbroken and broad armor that turns away cowardice and terror and renders the darts of wickedness completely harmless and useless (Cyril). He demands faith also in Himself, both so that they may believe His subsequent promises by which He seeks to console them, and so that they may place their trust in Him just as they place it in God. With this trust and faith, they can easily overcome every disturbance of mind and all evils. For if He demands faith in Himself, He requires not only that faith by which Christ is believed to be truthful in His words, but also that by which trust is placed in Him as One who, though He will desert them according to the flesh, will never abandon them by His help and divinity. For this is the faith of which John says: “This is the victory that conquers the world, our faith” (1 John 5:4). This is the faith that drives fear and disturbance from the heart, with which we say with utmost confidence: “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the protector of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27:1) (Jansenius).
Jn 14:2–3
Therefore, in Jn 14:1 He exhorts them to shake off all disturbance and to trust in Him; then He begins to reveal the goods they may safely expect through Him, and on account of which every disturbance should be dispelled by consolation and hope. Consequently, lest because of Jn 13:33, 36 they think they cannot reach where He goes, or that only Peter will reach it, He adds in Jn 14:2: “In my Father's house are many mansions.” (ἱκαναὶ δέξασθαι καὶ ὑμᾶς – Euthymius: which are sufficient for you and countless others; Toletus: thus the multitude is expressed; cf. Chrysostom, Theophylact, Cajetan, Toletus, Cornelius à Lapide, Scholz, Fillion, etc.). Some also wish that the very multitude indicates diversity according to the degree and variety of merits (Cyril, Augustine, Rupert of Deutz, Albert the Great, Thomas, Salmerón, Baronius, Jansenius, Maldonatus, Lapide, and in the catenae of Theodore of Mopsuestia and Heraclius). However, it must be said that this is scarcely contained in the word alone, unless you say that variety is usually already insinuated by the multitude itself.
Christ wishes to impress this as deeply as possible on their minds; therefore, to generate certain persuasion, as we usually speak in human fashion under similar circumstances, He adds: “If it were not so, I would have told you” – i.e., if it were not the case, I would have told you – “that I go to prepare a place for you” – i.e., “for I am departing from you for your sake, and I go to the Father to prepare a place for you” (Toletus). That “that” (ὅτι, quia) is not recitative as many explain (Cyril, Augustine, Thomas, Cornelius), but gives the reason (cf. Toletus, Baronius, Patrizi, Schegg, Scholz, Fillion, Weiss). Christ, therefore, is our forerunner (πρόδρομος, Hebrews 6:20). And that He goes to prepare a mansion for His own in the Father's house ought to console them concerning His departure.
If ὅτι is taken as recitative, the sense is: “If it were not so, I would have told you that I go to prepare a place for you.” But then a difficulty arises from Jn 14:3, in which absolutely what was just denied is stated. Some try to resolve this contradiction between v. 2 and 3 by saying that in v. 2 mansions are prepared, but in v. 3 dwellers are prepared (Augustine, Bede, Rupert); or that in v. 2 the mansions are predestined, so He signifies that He does not go to prepare them, but that they are not prepared – i.e., no one can enter them unless He first opens the way by going ahead. Thus in v. 2 the discourse is about predestination, in v. 3 about operation. But Maldonatus notes that both explanations are forced, though one or the other is necessary since no better third appears. It is clear they are forced also because the same verb ἑτοιμάσαι (“to prepare”) is read in v. 2 and 3, so a different explanation cannot be admitted. In another way, Euthymius also wants v. 3 to be governed by that ὅτι: “I would also have told you this, that if I go…” which is certainly forced. Cornelius à Lapide solves the knot better by reading the sentence as a question: “If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?” Thus the connected discourse coheres perfectly, nor can it be said to oppose the original text, which lacks punctuation. This is certainly true, but the question is hindered because Christ had not yet said “I go to prepare a place for you,” but only “Where I go, you cannot come.” Salmerón easily avoids the difficulty by following the other Greek reading in which ὅτι is omitted: “Otherwise I would have told you: I go to prepare a place for you.” Others do likewise (in Lapide).
But since the mansions already exist in the Father's house and are therefore prepared to receive God's friends, how does Christ say He prepares a place? They respond: He prepared them by His merits and blood, by redemption (Albert, Baronius); He opened by His death the gate of heaven, hitherto closed; by His entrance into heaven, He opened the way to heaven (Cyril, Cajetan, Toletus). However true these things are, they do not match Christ's words, for He says in v. 3: “And if I go and prepare a place for you…” ἐάν (“if”) designates a necessary condition that must be fulfilled beforehand. He therefore makes this preparation after His departure, after He has gone to the Father; whence “to prepare a place” declares what He, having been assumed into glory, will do so that a place in heaven may be prepared for them – i.e., He will send the Holy Spirit, by whose grace they become fit to receive the mansions; He lives to intercede for us; He continually stands by His soldiers with His help, and supplies them with all things by which they may be made worthy of the heavenly reward; and thus He prepares for them a place – i.e., a degree of glory in the Father's house. Christ signifies, therefore, that He will continually care for His own, and that, seated at the right hand of Majesty, He will apply the price of redemption to His own in the abundance of gifts and graces.
After having thus provided a suitable degree of glory for His disciples, [He adds]: “I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” The evangelist reports these words of Christ to us at a time when all the apostles, except himself, had already died, so that the desire and sighing “I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ” (Philippians 1:23) had already been fulfilled in all of them. Therefore, the evangelist could not but understand these words concerning the coming of Jesus, insofar as He is said to come at the death of each person, and to call and take each one to His heavenly fellowship. Most certainly, the evangelist could not conceive these words to apply only to Christ's second coming and the resurrection of bodies, for he evidently knew that those who had fallen asleep were already with Christ, although, after the resurrection, having also been clothed in a glorious body, they would be participants in Christ's glory in a fuller sense. Therefore, although elsewhere Christ is said to come so that His other advent is signified, nevertheless in this place we are openly taught that that coming (ἔρχεσθαι) is by no means to be restricted to that single notion of the second advent. We are taught the same in other places as well. For “Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Matthew 24:44), and “Watch, lest coming suddenly He find you sleeping” (Mark 13:36) – He says these and similar things to the disciples, and not to them alone, for “What I say to you I say to all: Watch” (Mark 13:37). It is now clear that Christ is speaking of those who will not live to see His second coming before their death, and He knows this. What, then, must that coming signify? By death each person is brought before the tribunal of Christ; in what proper sense does He Himself come as judge at the death of each? (cf. Commentary on Matthew, II, p. 352). Moreover, from the usage of speech in the Old Testament, God is said to go forth or come when a particular action of God as judge or helper is at issue (cf. Commentary on the Minor Prophets, II, p. 73). Therefore, it is again understood why Jesus, who by death calls each one to His tribunal and to reward or punishment, can be said to come, and rightly said to come at the death of each. Hence these words “I will come again,” etc., are rightly taken by Thomas, Schegg, Fillion, and others concerning the death of each. Others refer “I will come again” to the resurrection of Christ, after which He will visit them (Albert, Rupert, Salmerón). Others say by a comprehensive expression that Christ speaks of both advents, i.e., at the death of each and at the final judgment, because that assumption is partially completed in death, most perfectly in the general resurrection (Albert, Jansenius, Baronius, Cornelius). Others finally think the words can be understood only of the second advent (Scholz, Weiss).
Jn 14:4–5
Jesus had already said earlier: “I go to Him who sent Me” (Jn 7:33), and now [says] that in the Father's house there are many mansions, and that He goes to prepare a place for them there. From this He could rightly infer in v. 4: “And where I go you know, and the way you know.” In Greek usually: “And where I go, you know the way.” Where He Himself goes is clearly expressed in the preceding verses, but what way is meant could be conceived as that way by which He goes to the Father, i.e., the Passion, about which He had already spoken to the disciples so often (Matthew 16:21; Mt 17:12; Mt 20:18, 19), but of which they had understood little. But from what follows it is clear that Christ calls Himself the way; therefore, here He already means the way by which the disciples may reach where He goes, i.e., to the Father's house, to the Father. They could already know this way as well, because Jesus had said that those who come to Him will have life (Jn 5:40; Jn 6:35, 39, 40, 47). If, therefore, He says “you know,” He indicates that they have sufficient grounds for knowing (Cajetan). But by saying “you know” so assertively, He hints that they have in this a very powerful cause for consolation, and thereby provokes them to imprint as deeply as possible on their minds where He goes and what the way is, and to have the matter clearly in view. He says “you know,” therefore, so that if they do not fully understand it, He may invite them to question, just as a teacher usually does, sometimes affirming what has been said: “Now you know,” so that if the disciples have not perceived it well, they may raise doubts. And indeed, that “you know” seems strange to Thomas, and he thinks that what happens to him happens to the others as well: “They knew, yet knew not that they knew” (Augustine).
Jn 14:5: “Thomas said to him” (cf. 11:16): “Lord, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?” He asks in order to learn (Cyril), but no one would deny that at the same time something of fear (Chrysostom) and sadness is expressed in the words.
Jn 14:6
Jesus meets the slowness of the disciples and answers most fully in v. 6: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me.” Behold the goal and terminus to be reached, where Christ goes and where the disciples must be led: “to come to the Father.” The way is Christ Himself, since no one can come to the Father by any other means than through Him, for “there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Christ is the way because through Him alone do we pass from sin to a state of grace and justice, and from this world to eternal beatitude. He is the way because He reconciles us to God, shows us by doctrine and example how we must live and walk in temporal life so as to reach the blessed terminus. But when He says “I am the truth and the life,” He clearly affirms His divine nature, for God alone can be called truth itself and life itself. By this designation of Himself, He simultaneously declares most abundantly how He is the way to the Father for us: namely, as the fountain and author of faith and the knowledge of God, who illuminates all and alone teaches us about heavenly things and about God (cf. Jn1:9, 18; Jn 3:11; Jn 6:46; Jn8:38). He is the truth itself, whence His utterances and promises are most firm and can never be evaded or made void; therefore, at the same time, the greatest cause of consolation is provided to the disciples. He is life itself, having in Himself the divine nature, the fountain and origin of all life; He is life with respect to others, insofar as He communicates true life, eternal and blessed life to them. For He gives supernatural, eternal life (cf. Jn 4:14; Jn 5:24, 40; Jn 6:33, 40, 41, 48, 51, 58; Jn 8:12; Jn 10:28); He is the resurrection and the life (cf. Jn 5:25-26; Jn 6:39, 44, 50, 55; Jn 11:25-26). In this word and self-designation also lies a most abundant source of consolation and strengthening. If He is life, then for those united to Him, death is by no means to be feared. Without a way one does not travel; without truth one does not know; without life one does not live. “I am the way you must follow, the truth you must believe, the life you must hope for. I am the inviolable way, the infallible truth, the endless life. I am the most direct way, the supreme truth, the true, blessed, uncreated life” (Imitation of Christ 3:56). Because Christ is the way, truth, and life, it is also explained why no one comes to the Father except through Christ. For “to come to the Father” in this context is to attain the beatific vision, to enjoy the very vision of God. But God is truth and life. Through Christ we are first reconciled to God, we become friends of God, and thus, as far as is permitted on earth, we come to the Father; through the same One who is truth and life, the vision and blessed possession of truth and life itself, i.e., of God, will befall us.
Jn 14:7–9
After Christ has testified that He is truth and life itself, He can proceed with a tacit kind of rebuke in v. 7: “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also.” For God the Father is truth and life; for truth itself (ἡ ἀλήθεια) and life itself can be predicated only of God. Therefore, if they had known Christ, they would have known Him as having the divine nature, and therefore consubstantial with God the Father; consequently, they would have known the Father also. And now at least they ought to know Christ as having the divine nature, because He has so explicitly testified: “I am the truth and the life.” Therefore, Jesus continues: “And from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.” Read: “you know” (γινώσκετε; see textual variants); “and you have seen Him” (ἑωράκατε) – i.e., knowing Christ, they know the Father; they have seen Christ and continually see Him; therefore, they have seen the Father in concept. “From now on” (ἀπ’ ἄρτι) – from this time, from this moment in which Christ has given this testimony about Himself, they ought to know Him; this at least Christ can rightly demand, especially since He has already given so many testimonies elsewhere about His divine nature (cf. 5:18, 19; 8:58; 10:30, 38; 12:45). Therefore, there is no need to explain “from now on” as referring to a future knowledge to be given by the Holy Spirit (Chrysostom, Toletus, Lapide, Baronius, Calmet, Natalis), nor to explain γινώσκετε as an imperative (Cajetan, Weiss), which interpretation can least be reconciled with “have seen.” Moreover, see 8:19. Concerning what vision of the Father is spoken of can be concluded from other words of Christ (6:46): “Not that anyone has seen the Father except He who is from God; He has seen the Father” (cf. 1:18). Therefore, it is not about a bodily vision or a perfect intellectual vision, but about a knowledge that corresponds to the conditions of this life.
Philip was indeed eager to learn, but not sufficiently acute in comprehending divine speculations (Cyril; to which Jn 6:5–7 may be compared). He knew that theophanies had been granted to Moses and sometimes to the prophets (Cyril, Theophylact); hence, he asks in v. 8: “Lord, show us the Father” (δεῖξον – implying that He show Him once for a short time; for the aorist imperative merely signifies that an action be done, while the present imperative usually expresses a continuing state and condition). “And it is enough for us” – we seek nothing further (Chrysostom). It is enough to lay aside all fear and sadness; it is enough that, fear and sadness having been laid aside, there is no need for further reasons to raise and console us (Toletus). It appears how little they had concluded from Christ's words what ought to have been concluded: Christ is the Son of God, having the divine nature; therefore, to be taught by Him, to receive promises from Him, to be taken up by Him ought to be plainly sufficient, and should be esteemed far more highly than any passing theophany. Therefore, Christ censures and reproves their slowness, and repeats what He had already taught, not without a certain admiration of mind and sharpness:
Jn 14:9: “Jesus said to him: ‘Have I been with you for so long, and you have not known Me?’” Read: “you have not known Me, Philip. He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (cf. Jn 12:45). Some rightly note that two errors are confounded here: the consubstantiality of the Son with the Father and the distinction of persons is enunciated. “You have not known Me” – what a consequence! Many, indeed, because the Son is the very same as the Father, while remaining the Son, rightly shows the Father in Himself. Then, distinguishing the hypostases, He says: “He who has seen Me has seen the Father,” lest anyone say the Father and the Son are the same person (Chrysostom, similarly Cyril). Here “has seen” is called “the knowledge according to the intellect” (Ammonius). “Just as my divinity is seen through this assumed flesh, so too is the divinity of the Father, which is the same, seen” (Toletus). For as if the Father were better than the Son, so Philip desired to know the Father, and therefore did not even know the Son, thinking something else to be better. To correct this sense, it was said: “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (Augustine). Whence Jesus explains how you can say “Show us the Father,” and how unjustly you ask this, by repeating the instruction already given:
Jn 14:10–11
Jn 14:10: “Do you not believe” – read: “do you not believe” – “that I am in the Father and the Father in Me?” (cf. Jn 10:38). “Why do you desire to perceive distance in such matters? Why do you desire to know separately those who are inseparable?” (Augustine). And He adds the manifestation of these things, which is found in words and works (Thomas). He proves, namely, by the effect that He is in the Father and the Father in Him: “The words that I speak to you, I do not speak from Myself.” He had already taught this before, saying: “The Son can do nothing of Himself, but only what He sees the Father doing” (Jn 5:19, 30); “As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will but the will of the Father who sent me” (Jn 5:30); “I speak in the world the things I heard from Him” (Jn 8:26); see Jn 7:16; Jn 12:49. Thus He proves He is in the Father. Then, likewise by the effect, He proves the Father is in Him: “But the Father, remaining in Me, Himself does the works” (τὰ ἔργα αὐτοῦ; see 5:20). “The Father loves the Son and shows Him all that He Himself does” (Jn 5:20); “I can do nothing on my own” (Jn 5:30); “the works which the Father has given me to accomplish” (cf. Jn8:28-29). He therefore declares that He performs works by the divine virtue imparted to Him, and consequently, because the divine nature and power are one, those works are performed equally by the Father (cf. Jn 5:21, 26); therefore, the Father, remaining in Him, does the works, because He through whom and with whom He acts is none other than Himself (Augustine). And how greatly He wishes to impress this περιχώρησις, this circumincession (perichoresis) of the divine persons, upon the minds of the disciples, He shows by repetition, and urges it by adding an argument again:
Jn 14:11: “Do you not believe…” Before, Philip alone was being reproved; now it is shown that he was not the only one who ought to be reproved (Augustine), and rightly so, for Philip spoke as if in the name of all, saying to us: “that I am in the Father and the Father in Me.”
Jn 14:12–14
Jn 14:12: “Otherwise, believe because of the works themselves.” He says to the disciples again what He had already said to the Jews: “If you do not wish to believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me and I in the Father” (Jn 10:38). As He so often appeals to the testimony of works, for works are such as no one could do unless God were with him, and thereby testimony is given that God also approves His words and doctrine (cf. Jn 3:2; Jn 5:36; Jn 6:27; Jn 8:18; Jn 15:24). He raises, strengthens, and consoles the minds of the apostles with His divinity so clearly set forth. What could be more powerful than such faith for driving away every disturbance? For they know they are loved by Christ, and the One by whom they are so dearly loved is God. He has consoled them concerning His departure because He will come and take them to Himself (v. 3); now He consoles them with magnificent promises for that intermediate time from His departure until their assumption. And first, indeed, He provides consolation by showing with what reward and success their faith will be recompensed: “Amen, amen, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he also will do, and greater works than these he will do, because I go to the Father.” Therefore, they will continue Christ's work; indeed, with greater success and effect they will preach and propagate the Messianic work, the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, and they will obtain the glory of that greater work, “because I go to the Father” – i.e., I go, I entrust and leave to believers the office of my manifestation and the preaching of the Gospel. “I go to the Father” – i.e., I receive my glory, and therefore, reigning in glory, I will grant you to do works greater than those which I did in the habit of a servant, in mortal flesh. For while I am glorified, it befits Me to do greater things and also to give you the power to do greater things (Thomas, similarly Toletus; cf. Jn 7:39: “For the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified”; and Jn 12:32: “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself”). Therefore, because Christ attains the Kingdom and glory by going to the Father, this is the cause of doing greater things for the disciples. Rupert beautifully designates these greater things with those words: “Their sound has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world” (Psalm 19:5; cf. Romans 10:18). And Christ also promises and predicts that their preaching will be aided by many signs and wonders, and generally that miracles will be wrought by the help of faith; and this He also explicitly asserted after the resurrection (Mark 16:17, 18). Recall how splendid a fulfillment of this promise is already seen in the Acts of the Apostles and in the Pauline epistles, both in the propagation of the Gospel and in the working of signs. They will also do greater things, and generally these hold the greatest reason for consolation.
Jn 14:13: “And whatever you shall ask the Father in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” By the name, a person is made known and designated; whence the name of God is often put for what God has revealed about Himself and what is known about Him by men, therefore for God Himself (see Commentary on Isaiah, I, pp. 293, 464, 475; on Matthew, II, pp. 110, 127). The name of Christ, therefore, is said for Christ Himself, insofar as His dignity, will, and reason of office are made known to us. Hence, to ask in the name of Christ is to ask in Christ, in union with Christ, so that the one praying is joined by grace to Christ (cf. Jn 15:4); and when it is said “in the name,” union with Christ is designated, insofar as is considered what Christ wills by reason of His office and doctrine. In short, to ask in union with Christ for the accomplishment of His work. What is asked in this manner is what Christ wills, and therefore “that I will do.” In this acceptance are contained the remaining explanations usually proposed: asking by invoking the name of Jesus, by His command, for the salvation which He wills, with the confession of the Son of God and Savior (cf. Nonnus, Theophylact, Euthymius, Augustine, Rupert, Thomas, etc.); by the virtue and merits of Christ (Jansenius, Lapide); to the praise and glory of Him (Cajetan, Salmerón, Toletus). And the ultimate end of all is the glory of God; to manifest this glory to men and to render it to God by satisfaction offered, the Son descended from heaven; to promote this glory, He pledges that He will do all things which the disciples shall ask, according to the reason of the office, for the propagation of the Messianic work.
Jn 14:14: That they may ask with greater confidence, He repeats: “If you ask Me anything in My name, that I will do,” simultaneously declaring in it again His consubstantiality with the Father, to correct that sense in which Philip had said: “Show us the Father, and it is enough for us” (Rupert). Therefore, although Jesus departs, nevertheless He is present to those who ask and invoke, as if He stood present among them. Whence they have something by which to console themselves; and since He promises such things because He goes to the Father (Jn 14:12), He also teaches them that it is expedient for their utility that He go to the Father (Maldonatus).
CONTINUE
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