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

NPNF (V1-14)St. Chrysostomman is not from God,” He often healed them, 1398 and made defense for the violation of the Sabbath;so now had the sense they assigned to His words been according to their imagination, not accordingto His intention, He would have corrected them, and said, “Why suppose ye Me equal to God? Iam not equal”; yet He said nothing of the kind, but, on the contrary, declared by what followed,that He is equal. For, “As the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them, so also the Son” (c. v. 21 ); and “That all may honor the Son as they honor the Father”; and “The works which Hedoeth, the same doeth the Son likewise;” all these go to establish His equality. Again, concerningthe Law He saith, “Think not that I am come to destroy the Law or the Prophets.” ( Matt. v. 17 .)Thus He knoweth how to remove evil suspicions which are in their minds; but in this place He notonly doth not remove, but even confirmeth their suspicion of His equality. On which account also,when they said in another place, “Thou makest thyself God,” He did not remove their suspicion,but even confirmed it, saying, “That ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth toforgive sins, He saith to the sick of the palsy, Take up thy bed, and walk.” 1399 ( Matt. ix. 6 .) Thisthen He first aimed at, to make Himself equal with God, showing that He was not God’s adversary,but that He said the same and taught the same with Him, and afterwards He setteth Himself to 1400the breach of the Sabbath, saying, “Did not Moses give you the Law, and none of you keepeth theLaw?” As though He had said, “The Law saith, Thou shalt not kill; but ye kill, and yet accuse Meas transgressing the Law.” But wherefore saith He, “None of you”? Because they all sought to killHim. “And if,” He saith, “I even have broken the Law, it was in saving a man, but ye transgress itfor evil. And if My action was even a transgression, yet it was in order to save, and I ought not tobe judged by you who transgress in the greatest matters. For your conduct is a subverting of thewhole Law.” Then also He presseth it farther, although He had said many things to them before,but at that former time He spake after a loftier manner, and more suitably to His own dignity, whilenow He speaketh more humbly. Wherefore? Because He would not continually irritate them. Atpresent their anger had become intense, and they went on to murder. And therefore He continuethto check them in these two ways, by reproving their evil daring, and saying, “Why go ye about tokill Me?” and by modestly calling Himself, “A Man that hath told you the truth” ( c. viii. 40 ),and by showing that murderers in heart are not worthy to judge others. And observe both the humilityof Christ’s question, and the insolence of their answer.Ver. 20 . “Thou hast a devil; who goeth about to kill thee?”[3.] The expression is one of wrath and anger, and of a soul made shameless by an unexpectedreproof, and put to confusion before their time, as they thought. 1401 For just as a sort of robberswho sing over their plots, then when they desire to put him against whom they are plotting off hisguard, effect their object by keeping silence, so also do these. But He, omitting to rebuke them forthis, so as not to make them more shameless, again taketh in hand His defense with respect to theSabbath, reasoning with them from the Law. And observe how prudently. “No wonder,” He saith,“if ye disobey Me, when ye disobey the Law which ye think ye obey, and which ye hold to havebeen given you by Moses. It is therefore no new thing, if ye give not heed to My words.” For1398i.e. of their error.1399“ go to thine house, ” N.T.1400i.e. to meet the charge of.1401προκαταπληττομένης αὐτῶν ὡς ᾠόντο . This appears to be the meaning, if the text is correct. The passage is suspected,but there is no other reading.270