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

NPNF (V1-14)St. Chrysostom[2.] Thou hast seen the Father; seek not to see more; for in Him thou hast seen Me. If thou hastseen Me, be not over-curious; for thou hast also in Me known Him.Ver. 10 . “Believest thou not that I am in the Father?” 2131That is, “I am seen in that Essence.”“The words that I speak, I speak not of Myself,”Seest thou the exceeding nearness, and the proof of the one Essence?“The Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works.”How, beginning with words, doth He come to works? for that which naturally followed was,that He should say, “the Father speaketh the words.” But He putteth two things here, both concerningdoctrine and miracles. Or it may have been because the words also were works. How then doethHe 2132 them? In another place He saith, “If I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not.” ( c.x. 37 .) How then saith He here that the Father doeth them? To show this same thing, that there isno interval between the Father and the Son. What He saith is this: “The Father would not act in oneway, and I in another.” Indeed in another place both He and the Father work; “My Father workethhitherto, and I work” ( c. v. 17 ); showing in the first passage the unvaryingness of the works, 2133in the second the identity. And if the obvious meaning of the words denotes humility, marvel not;for after having first said, “Believest thou not?” He then spake thus, showing that He so modeledHis words to bring him to the faith; for He walked in their hearts.Ver. 11 . “Believe 2134 that I am in the Father and the Father in Me.”“Ye ought not, when ye hear of ‘Father’ and ‘Son,’ to seek anything else to the establishing ofthe relationship 2135 as to Essence, but if this is not sufficient to prove to you the Condignity andConsubstantiality, ye may learn it even from the works.” Had the, “he that hath seen Me, hath seenMy Father,” been used with respect to works, He would not afterwards have said,“Or else believe Me for the very works’ sake.” And then to show that He is not only able to dothese things, but also other much greater than these, He putteth them with excess. For He saith not,“I can do greater things than these,” but, what was much more wonderful, “I can give to others alsoto do greater things than these.”Ver. 12 . “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall hedo also; and greater works than these shall he do, because I go to the Father.”That is, “it now remaineth for you to work miracles, for I go away.” Then when He hadaccomplished what His argument intended, He saith,Ver. 13 . “Whatsoever ye shall ask in My Name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorifiedin Me.”Seest thou again that it is He who doeth it? “I,” saith He, “will do it”; not, “I will ask of theFather,” but, “that the Father may be glorified in Me.” In another place He said, “God shall glorifyHim in Himself” ( c. xiii. 32 ), but here, “He shall glorify the Father”; for when the Son shallappear with great power, He who begat shall be glorified. But what is, “in My Name”? That which2131“ and the Father in Me? ” N.T.2132the Father.2133i.e. those of the Father and the Son.2134“ Believe Me, ” N.T.2135τῆς κατὰ τὴν οὐσίαν συγγενείας408