Catena Aurea

41. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.

42. Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.

43. Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.

AUGUSTINE. (Tr. xlii. 7.) The Jews had begun to understand that our Lord was not speaking of sonship according to the flesh, but of manner of life. Scripture often speaks of spiritual fornication, with many gods, and of the soul being prostituted, as it were, by paying worship to false gods. This explains what follows: Then said they to Him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.

THEOPHYLACT. As if their motive against Him was a desire to avenge God’s honour.

ORIGEN. (tom. xx. 14.) Or their sonship to Abraham having been disproved, they reply by bitterly insinuating, that our Saviour was the offspring of adultery. But perhaps the tone of the answer is disputatious, more than any thing else. For whereas they have said shortly before, We have Abraham for our father, and had been told in reply, If ye are Abraham’s children, do the works of Abraham; they declare in return that they have a greater Father than Abraham, i. e. God; and that they were not derived from fornication. For the devil, who has no power of creating any thing from himself, (qui nihil facit ex se) begets not from a spouse, but a harlot, i. e. matter, those who give themselves up to carnal things, that is, cleave to matter.

CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. liv. 3) But what say ye? Have ye God for your Father, and do ye blame Christ for speaking thus? Yet true it was, that many of them were born of fornication, for people then used to form unlawful connexions. But this is not the thing our Lord has in view. He is bent on proving that they are not from God. Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love Me: for I proceeded forth and came from God.

HILARY. (vi. de Trin. c. 30) It was not that the Son of God condemned the assumption of so religious a name; that is, condemned them for professing to be the sons of God, and calling God their Father; but that He blamed the rash presumption of the Jews in claiming God for their Father, when they did not love the Son. For I proceeded forth, and came from God. To proceed forth, is not the same with to come. When our Lord says that those who called God their Father, ought to love Him, because He came forth from God, He means that His being born of God was the reason why He should be loved: the proceeding forth, having reference to His incorporeal birth. Their claim to be the sons of God, was to be made good by their loving Christ, Who was begotten from God. For a true worshipper of God the Father must love the Son, as being from Godf. And he only can love the Father, who believes that the Son is from Him.

AUGUSTINE. (Tr. xlii. 8) This then is the eternal procession, the proceeding forth of the Word from God: from Him It proceeded as the Word of the Father, and came to us: The Word was made flesh. (c. 1:14) His advent is His humanity: His staying, His divinity. Ye call God your Father; acknowledge Me at least to be a brother.

HILARY. (lib. v. ibid.) In what follows, He teaches that His origin is not in Himself; Neither came I of Myself, but He sent Me.

ORIGEN. (tom. xx. 15.) This was said, I think, in allusion to some who came without being sent by the Father, of whom it is said in Jeremiah, I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran. (Jer. 23:21) Some, however, use this passage1 to prove the existence of two naturesg. To these we may reply, Paul hated Jesus when he persecuted the Church of God, at the time, viz. that our Lord said, Why persecutest thou Me? Now if it is true, as is here said, If God were your Father, ye would love Me; (Acts 9:4) the converse is true, If ye do not love Me, God is not your Father. And Paul for some time did not love Jesus. There was a time when God was not Paul’s father. Paul therefore was not by nature the son of God, but afterwards was made so. And when does God become any one’s Father, except when he keeps His commandments?

CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. liv. 3) And because they were ever enquiring, What is this which He saith, Whither I go ye cannot come? He adds here, Why do ye not understand My speech? even because ye cannot hear My word.

AUGUSTINE. (Tr. xlii. 9) And they could not hear, because they would not believe, and amend their lives.

ORIGEN. (tom. xx. 18. [Nic.]) First then, that virtue must be sought after, which hears the divine word; that by degrees we may be strong enough to embrace the whole teaching of Jesus. For so long as a man has not had his hearing restored by the Word, which says to the deaf ear, Be opened: (Mark 7:34) so long he cannot hear.