Then said Jesus unto the twelve,
Will you also go away?
Read Chapter 6
A Treatise Against the Heretic Novatian
AD 255
Read and teach: whom of those who had failed or denied Him, while He was still with them, did our Lord deny? Yet also to the others of the disciples who had remained with Him He saith, "Will ye also go away? "
From this time, say Euthymius and others: otherwise the Syriac, on account of this discourse: Arabic, because of this, left Jesus, &c. These disciples were not the Apostles, for Christ excepts them in the following verse. Neither were they the seventy-two disciples. For those had not yet been designated and chosen by Christ. But they were His more constant hearers and followers, "who," as Theophylact says, "followed Him in the rank of His disciples, and remained with Him longer than the multitudes, and Song of Solomon , compared with the rest of the crowd, were called His disciples. These persons therefore up to this time being allured by the sweet doctrine of Christ, fed by the loaves miraculously multiplied, and hoping to be fed in future by similar food, when they heard Christ substituting His own Flesh in the place of bread, and willing that they should eat It, thought either that He was mad, or else was contriving some horrible and savage scheme, or perchance a conspiracy against ...
And yet He did not rebuke them when they went away, nor even severely threaten them; but rather, turning to His apostles, He said, "Will ye also go away? ".
And the Lord also in the Gospel, when disciples forsook Him as He spoke, turning to the twelve, said, "Will ye also go away? "then Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the word of eternal life; and we believe, and are sure, that Thou art the Son of the living God."
Our Lord Jesus Christ doth not exhort the holy Apostles to leave Him, nor doth He offer them free and unfettered liberty of doing so, nor yet doth He permit them readily to turn aside as though they would get no harm from doing so: yea, rather He threatens them well, that if they be not found superior to the undisciplined conduct of the Jews, they too shall be sent away, and go no more with Him, but depart unto perdition. For it is not at all the number of worshippers that is precious in the sight of God, but the excellent in the right faith, though they be few. Therefore the Divine Scripture says that many are they that have been called, but that only the chosen will be received, and those that are approved, being very few. And this the Divine Word Himself testified to us. It is therefore as though the Saviour said to His disciples, If ye unhesitatingly believe My words, if letting go wavering in ought, ye with simple faith receive the Mystery, if it seem bitter to you and fall of int...
Again showing that He needs not their ministry and service, and proving to them that it was not for this that He led them about with Him. For how could He when He used such expressions even to them? But why did He not praise them? Why did He not approve them? Both because He preserved the dignity befitting a teacher, and also to show them that they ought rather to be attracted by this mode of dealing. For had He praised them, they might, supposing that they were doing Him a favor, have had some human feeling; but by showing them that He needed not their attendance, He kept them to Him the more. And observe with what prudence He spoke. He said not, Depart ye, (this would have been to thrust them from Him,) but asked them a question, Will ye also go away? the expression of one who would remove all force or compulsion, and who wished not that they should be attached to Him through any sense of shame, but with a sense of favor. By not openly accusing, but gently glancing at them, He shows ...
