Then said they unto him, Where is your Father? Jesus answered,
You neither know me, nor my Father: if you had known me, you should have known my Father also.
All Commentaries on John 8:19 Go To John 8
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
Then said they unto Him, Where is Thy Father? They said this, in order to elicit from Him a clear statement that God was His Father, in order to accuse Him of blasphemy, as they did, John 5:18, John 19:7. So Chrysostom and others.
But Cyril and Leontius less probably think that the Pharisees spoke contemptuously and sarcastically, as if He were the Son of some unknown father. S. Augustine and Bede think that they referred to Joseph, as being His father in the flesh. But the first is the best meaning.
Jesus answered, &c. Christ did not wish to answer clearly and directly, "My Father is in heaven," because He knew that the question was put in order to ensnare Him. He therefore, though answering their question directly, yet spoke so guardedly that the Pharisees could not bring any charge against Him. As if He said, Ye think that I am a Prayer of Manasseh , and that I have only an earthly father. But ye are wrong, for ye know not that I am God as well as man. And therefore ye understand not that I have no other Father than God in heaven, though I have proved this by so many miracles.
But how does this agree with what Christ said ( John 7:28), Ye both know Me, and know whence I am? I answer, Christ then spoke of Himself as Prayer of Manasseh , but here He speaks of Himself as God. Origen adds that then Christ spoke to the people of Jerusalem who knew Him, but here to the Pharisees who knew Him not, and were moreover His enemies. The word "if" is here equivalent to assuredly. See Leontius. As Christ says to Philip (xiv9), He that seeth Me seeth My Father also.
S. Augustine explains it somewhat differently; "Ye ask, who is My Father, because ye know Me not, for ye think not that I am God eternal in heaven."
(2.) Cyril speaks more profoundly and to the point. "The names of Father and Son imply each other," Christ therefore is the gate (as it were) leading to the Father. "Let us learn then," he adds, "what He is by nature, and then we shall rightly understand as in an express image the Antitype Itself." For the Father is manifested in the Song of Solomon , as in a mirror, in the proper nature of His offspring. (See Wisdom vii26 and Heb. i3.)
Origen considers that "know" means to "love." If ye loved Me ye would surely love My Father. For evil livers practically know not God, as is said of Eli"s sons.
