Homilies on the Gospel of St. John and the Epistle to the Hebrews

NPNF (V1-14)St. Chrysostom143they who understand not the method 1087 of Holy Scripture, nor search out its peculiarities 1088 andlaws, but go over all its points carelessly and in one manner, will mix the gold with earth, and neverdiscover the treasure which is laid up in it. I say this now because the passage before us containethmuch gold, not indeed manifest to view, but covered over with much obscurity, and therefore bydigging and purifying we must arrive at the legitimate sense. For who would not at once be troubledat hearing Christ say, “If I testify of Myself, My witness is not true”; inasmuch as He often appearethto have testified of Himself? For instance, conversing with the Samaritan woman He said, “I Amthat speak unto thee”: and in like manner to the blind man, “It is He that talketh with thee” ( c. ix.37 ); and rebuking the Jews, “Ye say, 1089 thou blasphemest, because I said I am the Son of God.”( c. x. 36 .) And in many other places besides He doth this. If now all these assertions be false,what hope of salvation shall we have? And where shall we find truth when Truth Itself declareth,“My witness is not true”? Nor doth this appear to be the only contradiction; there is another notless than this. He saith farther on, “Though I bear witness of Myself, yet My witness is true” ( c.viii. 14 ); which then, tell me, am I to receive, and which deem a falsehood? If we take them outthus [from the context] simply as they are said, without carefully considering the person to whomnor 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 thefirst also. What then is the meaning? We need great watchfulness, or rather the grace of God, thatwe rest not in the mere words; for thus the heretics err, because they enquire not into the object ofthe speaker nor the disposition of the hearers. If we add not these and other points besides, as timesand places and the opinions of the listeners, many absurd consequences will follow.What then is the meaning? 1090 The Jews were about to object to Him, “If thou bearest witness1091concerning thyself, thy witness is not true” ( c. viii. 13 ): therefore He spake these words inanticipation; as though He had said, “Ye will surely say to Me, we believe thee not; for no one thatwitnesseth of himself is readily 1092 held trustworthy among men.” So that the “is not true” mustnot be read absolutely, but with reference to 1093 their suspicions, as though He had said, “to you itis not true”; and so He uttered the words not looking to His own dignity, but to their secret thoughts.When He saith, “My witness is not true,” He rebuketh their opinion of Him, and the objection aboutto be urged by them against Him; but when He saith, “Though I bear witness of Myself, My witnessis true” ( c. viii. 14 ), He declareth the very nature of the thing itself, namely, that as God theyought to deem Him trustworthy even when speaking of Himself. For since He had spoken of theresurrection of the dead, and of the judgment, and that he that believeth on Him is not judged, butcometh unto life, and that He shall sit to require account of all men, and that He hath the sameAuthority 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 saith, “that ‘as the Father raiseth the deadand quickeneth them, so the Son quickeneth whom He will’; I told you that ‘the Father judgeth no1087lit. “ consequence. ”1088ἰ διώματα1089Savile reads, “ and to the Jews, How say ye, ” &c.1090al. “ let us see then with what intent these words were said. ”1091σὺ μαρτυρεῖς , G. T.1092al. “ ever. ”1093al. with the addition “ to their, ” &c.218