Homilies on the Gospel of John

“If I bear witness of Myself, My witness is not true; there is another that bears witness of Me, and I know that the witness which he witnesses of Me is true.”

1. If any one unpracticed in the art undertake to work a mine, he will get no gold, but confounding all aimlessly and together, will undergo a labor unprofitable and pernicious: so also they who understand not the method of Holy Scripture, nor search out its peculiarities and laws, but go over all its points carelessly and in one manner, will mix the gold with earth, and never discover the treasure which is laid up in it. I say this now because the passage before us contains much gold, not indeed manifest to view, but covered over with much obscurity, and therefore by digging and purifying we must arrive at the legitimate sense. For who would not at once be troubled at hearing Christ say, “If I testify of Myself, My witness is not true”; inasmuch as He often appears to have testified of Himself? For instance, conversing with the Samaritan woman He said, “I Am that speak unto you”: and in like manner to the blind man, “It is He that talks with you”; and rebuking the Jews, “You say, you blaspheme, because I said I am the Son of God.” And in many other places besides He does this. If now all these assertions be false, what hope of salvation shall we have? And where shall we find truth when Truth Itself declares, “My witness is not true”? Nor does this appear to be the only contradiction; there is another not less than this. He says farther on, “Though I bear witness of Myself, yet My witness is true”; which then, tell me, am I to receive, and which deem a falsehood? If we take them out thus [from the context] simply as they are said, without carefully considering the person to whom nor the cause for which they are said, nor any other like circumstances, they will both be falsehoods. For if His witness be “not true,” then this assertion is not true either, not merely the second, but the first also. What then is the meaning? We need great watchfulness, or rather the grace of God, that we rest not in the mere words; for thus the heretics err, because they enquire not into the object of the speaker nor the disposition of the hearers. If we add not these and other points besides, as times and places and the opinions of the listeners, many absurd consequences will follow.

What then is the meaning? The Jews were about to object to Him, “If you bear witness concerning yourself, your witness is not true”: therefore He spoke these words in anticipation; as though He had said, “You will surely say to Me, we believe you not; for no one that witnesses of himself is readily held trustworthy among men.” So that the “is not true” must not be read absolutely, but with reference to their suspicions, as though He had said, “to you it is not true”; and so He uttered the words not looking to His own dignity, but to their secret thoughts. When He says, “My witness is not true,” He rebukes their opinion of Him, and the objection about to be urged by them against Him; but when He says, “Though I bear witness of Myself, My witness is true”, He declares the very nature of the thing itself, namely, that as God they ought to deem Him trustworthy even when speaking of Himself. For since He had spoken of the resurrection of the dead, and of the judgment, and that he that believes in Him is not judged, but comes unto life, and that He shall sit to require account of all men, and that He has the same Authority and Power with the Father; and since He was about again otherwise to prove these things, He necessarily put their objection first. “I told you,” He says, “that 'as the Father raises the dead and quickens them, so the Son quickens whom He will'; I told you that 'the Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment unto the Son'; I told you that men must 'honor the Son as they honor the Father'; I told you that 'he that honors not the Son honors not the Father'; I told you that 'he that hears My words and believes them shall not see death, but has passed from death unto life'; that My voice shall raise the dead, some now, some hereafter; that I shall demand account from all men of their transgressions, that I shall judge righteously, and recompense those who have walked uprightly.” Now since all these were assertions, since the things asserted were important, and since no clear proof of them had as yet been afforded to the Jews but one rather indistinct, He puts their objection first when He is about to proceed to establish His assertions, speaking somewhat in this way if not in these very words: “Perhaps you will say, you assert all this, but you are not a credible witness, since you testify of yourself.” First then checking their disputatious spirit by setting forth what they would say, and showing that He knew the secrets of their hearts, and giving this first proof of His power, after stating the objection He supplies other proofs clear and indisputable, producing three witnesses to what He said, namely, the works wrought by Him, the witness of the Father, and the preaching of John. And He puts first the less important witness of John. For after saying, “There is another that bears witness of Me, and I know that his witness is true,” He adds,