The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: S. John
S. Chrysostom and others, and S. Augustine and Bede among the Latins, think that the Pharisees misunderstood the words of Christ by reason of their earthly minds. Morally: — Ye are from beneath, as descended from Adam, and deriving from him your earthly desires, and inflamed by evil passions, thus hankering only after worldly things. But / am from above , because as God I am begotten of the Father, and as man am incarnate of the Holy Spirit. And therefore My feelings, My love, My desires are all heavenly. And to these ye cannot attain, unless ye are born again; and thus from earthly become heavenly and spiritual, as I said to Nicodemus.
Physically : — Christ here teaches us that our birth-place, training, &c., impart to each one their qualities. And just as fishes could not live out of water, nor birds excepting in the air, so the Pharisees, born in Canaan or Judaea, could not but be earthly both in body and mind, as Ezekiel said (xvi. 3), “ Thy birth was of the land of Canaan, and thy mother a Hittite.” But Christ, as born and dwelling in heaven, was heavenly.
Metaphysically : — Ye are of your father the devil, because as he killed Adam by the forbidden fruit, so do ye wish to kill Me. But I am from above, as being the Son of the Most High God. Hear S. Augustine (Tract, xxxvii.) : “ He was from above . But how was He from above? From the air? By no means. For there the birds do fly. From the heaven we see ? By no means. For there the sun, the moon, and stars go their rounds. From the angels ? Do not imagine it, for they too were made by Him, by Whom all things were made. How then was He from above? From the
Father Himself. For there is nothing above Him, who begat the Word equal to Himself, co-eternal with Himself, His only Begotten before time, by Whom He would create the times. Understand, therefore, this word ‘from above,’ as transcending in Thy conception everything that was made, the whole creation, every body, every created spirit, everything that is in any way subject to change." Ye are of this world, I am not of this world: ye are of this earth, or more closely to the point, ye are worldly. Ye aim at worldly favours, wealth, and honours. Ye live as do worldlings. Ye possess the very qualities of the world, says Toletus. Listen to S. Augustine (Tract, xxxviii.) : “Let no one say, I am not of the world ; whosoever thou be, O man, thou art of the world. But He who made the world hath come to thee, and hath freed thee from the world. But if the world delight thee, thou wishest for ever to be unclean ; but if this world no longer delight thee, thou art clean. But if through some infirmity the world still delights thee, let Him who cleanseth dwell in thee, and thou shalt be clean ; but if thou art clean thou wilt not abide in the world, nor hear that which the Jews heard said, ‘Ye shall die in your sins.’”
Ver. 24. — I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins. The sin of unbelief and all your other sins, for there is no forgiveness of sin, save through faith in Christ, whom ye reject.
For if ye believe not that I am the Saviour of the world, as I constantly affirm and prove also by so many miracles. So Lyra.
But S. Augustine, Bede, and Toletus more ingeniously : “Because I am that I am ; i.e., God. But Rupertus thus subtilly : “ Because I am from above.’’ Ye shall die in your sins, because there is no one but Myself, whom ye despise, who can pardon and take away sin.
Ver. 25. — They said therefore to Him, Who art Thou? Because they did not understand, or pretended they did not, they appositely ask, Who art Thou?
Jesus said to them, the Beginning (Vulg.), I who am speaking to you . S. Augustine, Bede, Rupertus, and S. Ambrose (De Fide, iii. 4), consider the word, the Beginning, to be in the nominative case, explaining it, I am the Beginning, the First and the Last, or the Beginning of all things, for all things were made by the Word of God. In the Greek the word is not ἀρχή, but τὴν ἀρχήν, in the beginning.
S. Augustine and S. Ambrose explain it (2.) by supplying the word “ credits,” which is not in the text. We must therefore consider it to be a Greek form of expression, ἀρχήν for κατ’ ἀρχήν, in the beginning. I am from the beginning, i.e., from eternity (before, as He said Himself, verse 58), Very God of Very God. And therefore I am the beginning of time, and age, and of all things. And yet I am speaking to you ; that is, it is I who announce this to you, for I assumed flesh, and was made man in order to announce it, and save those who believe in it. I am from the beginning, which very thing I solemnly declare to you. Or rather, since I am the Word, which the Father spake from all eternity, I having been made man to announce to you the same truth. For the Son is the Word which the Father speaks, and the Son is also the Word which speaks to us. The word “ beginning,” therefore, is more appropriate to the Son than to the Holy Spirit, for the Son is together with the Father the source (principium) of the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit is not the source of any other Divine Person, but only of creatures; and further, because He is the beginning ( principium ) proceeding from the beginning, that is to say, from the Father. And accordingly this word signifies His origin, as being begotten of the Father. This is clear from what is said below.
verse 27. The Vulgate does not translate it literally from the beginning, but the beginning, signifying thereby the Eternal Word, which was from the beginning, and begotten of the Father, to be with the Father, the beginning both of the Holy Spirit and of all creatures.
From the beginning signifies two things ; first from all eternity, and next as begotten of God the Father. It is the same thing to say I am from the beginning, or I am the beginning. (See John i. 1; Rev. i. 8, iii. 14; and also Col i. 18.) And this is what SS. Augustine, Ambrose, and others above mentioned consider it to mean. So says the Gloss, “The Father is the Beginning, but not from the beginning : the Son is the Beginning, from the Beginning, that is, from the Father, who worketh all things by the Son, for He is the Right Hand, Strength, Wisdom, and Word of the Father.” But the Greek ἀρχή means also the Chief Rule (principatus), meaning that to Christ belongs the dominion and rule over all things. (See Ps. cx. 3, Vulg., and Prov. viii. 22, see lxx. See also S. Augustine, contra Max . cap. xviii., and S. Thomas, part 1, Quest xxxvi., art 4, who show that the Father and Son are not two , but the one principle of the Holy Spirit .)
Morally : learn that Christ, as God and man, must be regarded as the beginning and the end of all our doings ; after the example of S. Paul and the other Apostles both in the beginning and end of their Epistles. S. Gregory Nazianzen begins his acrostics in this way, and Paulinus, “ In Thee my only hopes of life depend, Thou my beginning, Thou my goal and end.” As all numbers start from unity, and all lines run from the centre to the circumference, so should all the actions of a Christian begin and end in Christ.
Nonnus and others explain, I am the same as I said to you at first ; that is, that I am the Messiah, the Light and the Salvation of the world, but ye believe Me not. But this is a strange interpretation.
Some others refer to what comes afterwards, Because ye do not believe Me, I have more to say to you, and to judge of you. But this is a mere evading of the question. As if Christ said, Ye are unworthy of an answer, but yet deserve My condemnation.
Ver. 26 . — I have many things, &c. I have many things to say against you, and to accuse you of. And in the day of judgment I will do so. As S. Cyril says, “ I will accuse you not of one thing but of many, and of nothing falsely. For I can condemn you as unbelieving, as arrogant, as insulting, as opposers of God, as impudent, as ungrateful, as malignant, as lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, as courting the praise of men, and not seeking the glory of God.”
But He that sent Me, &c. I will omit many points and will
merely say this, in refutation of your unbelief, that the Father who hath sent Me is true, and whatever therefore I say is true, and worthy of belief by all. “I am true” (says S. Augustine) “in judgment , because I am the Son of Truth, and the Truth Itself.” But others explain differently, (1.) Toletus : “I have many things to say against you. But I will not do so now, for the Father sent Me into the world, not to judge but to save it, and therefore, in obedience to Him, I say only those things which concern its salvation.” (2.) Maldonatus, as though it were, “ Because ” He that hath sent Me is true, not “but” He that sent Me, &c. (3.) Rupertus refers it to what He had said before, that He was the Beginning, “ These are not My own words, but what the Father bade Me say of Myself.” (4.) Ye do not believe in Me as the Messiah, but this is what the Father wishes Me to proclaim. (5.) Ye do not believe Me now, but My Father is true. He will fulfil His own word that I shall be your judge, and reward you according to your deeds. But the first meaning is the best. Which I have heard of Him, both as God and as man. The Interlinear Gloss says, “To hear from Him, is the same as though being from Him.” “ The co-equal Son gives glory to the Father, why then dost thou set thyself against Him, being only His servant?” So S. Augustine.