Homilies on the Gospel of John

“They could not believe,” it says, “because that Esaias said, You shall hear with your ears, and not understand. These things he said, when he saw His glory, and spoke of Him.”

Here again observe, that the “because,” and “spoke,” refer not to the cause of their unbelief, but to the event. For it was not “because” Isaiah spoke, that they believed not; but because they were not about to believe, that he spoke. Why then does not the Evangelist express it so, instead of making the unbelief proceed from the prophecy, not the prophecy from the unbelief? And farther on he puts this very thing more positively, saying, “Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said.” He desires hence to establish by many proofs the unerring truth of Scripture, and that what Isaiah foretold fell not out otherwise, but as he said. For lest any one should say, “Wherefore did Christ come? Knew he not that they would give no heed to him?” he introduces the Prophets, who knew this also. But He came that they might have no excuse for their sin; for what things the Prophet foretold, he foretold as certainly to be; since if they were not certainly to be, he could not have foretold them; and they were certainly to be, because these men were incurable.

And if, “they could not,” is put, instead of, “they would not,” do not marvel, for He says also in another place, “He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.” So in many places He is wont to term choice, power. Again, “The world cannot hate you, but Me it hates.” This one may even see observed in common conversation; as when a man says, “I cannot love this or that person,” calling the force of his will, power. And again, “this or that person cannot be a good man.” And what says the Prophet? “If the Ethiopian shall change his skin, or the leopard his spots, this people also shall be able to do good, having learned evil.” He says not that the doing of virtue is impossible to them, but that because they will not, therefore they cannot. And by what he says the Evangelist means, that it was impossible for the Prophet to lie; yet it was not on that account impossible that they should believe. For it was possible, even had they believed, that he should remain true; since he would not have prophesied these things if they had been about to believe. “Why then,” says some one, “did he not say so?” Because Scripture has certain idiomatic phrases of this kind, and it is needful to make allowance for its laws.

“The seethings he spoke when he saw His glory.” Whose? The Father's. How then does John speak of the Son? And Paul of the Spirit? Not as confounding the Persons, but as showing that the Dignity is one, they say it. For that which is the Father's is the Son's also, and that which is the Son's is the Spirit's. Yet many things God spoke by Angels, and no one says, “as the Angel spoke,” but how? “as God spoke.” Since what has been said by God through the ministry of Angels would be of God; yet not therefore is what is of God, of the Angels also. But in this place John says that the words are the Spirit's.

“And spoke of Him.” What spoke he? “I saw the Lord sitting upon a high throne”, and what follows. Therefore he there calls “glory,” that vision, the smoke, the hearing unutterable Mysteries, the beholding the Seraphim, the lightning which leaped from the throne, against which those powers could not look. “And spoke of Him.” What said he? That he heard a voice, saying, “Whom shall I send? Who shall go? And I said, Here am I, send me. And He said, You shall hear with your ears, and shall not understand, and seeing you shall see, and not perceive.” For,