Yet you have not known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep his saying.
All Commentaries on John 8:55 Go To John 8
Cyril of Alexandria
AD 444
But I know Him and if I say that I know Him not I shall be like you a liar.
I spake not falsely (He says) in saying to the Jews, If any keep My word he shall not see death for ever; for I am able to render undying, seeing I know that He of whom I am is mighty to do this, seeing I know that My Father is by Nature Life. I too am therefore as He is, Life that is by Nature and Lifegiving. But if I denied My power of quickening, I should be ignorant of My Father, the Property of whose Essence I possessing, am able to quicken as He. Hence I confess that I have all things that are in the Father, and affirming that I am as He, and for this reason professing to do His works, I full surely hnow Him; and if I say that I have not the properties of the Father uncounterfeit in Myself, I shall he a liar, as you are, as though I knew not the Father. Yea and when I say that the glory of Abraham and the Prophets is nothing, seeing they were of earth and men by nature, to whom death is not foreign, and that My glory is the Eternity of the Father, it is as knowing the Father that I say so: and if I say that I shall fall into decay as they, and that I am not co-eternal with the Father, I shall speak falsely like you, not knowing the Father of whom I am: for it were impossible that He who is of Him That is and ever abideth the same should not full surely both be and abide ever the same, for That which is begotten of Eternal is Eternal.
For one might taking the passage before us more simply, say that it was spoken in another way: I know (He says) My own Father; if I said I knew not, I shall be a liar like you who know not God, but say that you know Him.
And what is the mode of knowing and what the charges of not knowing, having already clearly said, we will add nothing superfluous.
