Then they sought to take him: but no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet come.
Read Chapter 7
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
They therefore sought to take him, but no man laid hands on him. Who were they? asks S. Chrysostom. Not the multitude, but the priests, who hated Jesus because the people preferred Him to them, and He was held to be the Messiah. Because his hour was not yet come, the hour at which He had resolved to die (says Theophylact), for when He thought it the time for Him to suffer He gave Himself to His crucifiers. This manifestly shows the wisdom of the Saviour "in not wishing to die except at the fitting and suitable time which was destined for Him. For the passion of Christ was free and voluntary, not of force or compulsion. His hour means the hour chosen by Himself, and determined on for His death." S. Cyril here argues at length against the brethren who thought that some hours were favourable, and others unfavourable to man. For he teaches that times as well as men are subjected to and regulated by God"s providence.
CHAPTER I. That human affairs are not, according to the unlearned surmises of the Greeks, subject as of necessity to the Hours, but that of our own choice we advance both to good and to the contrary: and that we are directed by the Will of God.
The Pharisees cut with His reproaches, and perceiving that their silence in those matters was not without damage to their own stubbornness, and was of benefit to the multitudes (for they were being persuaded of the duty of at length acknowledging that He is Christ), are carried along unto their wonted presumption, and again thirst for His Blood. For thrusting aside reverence for the law, as most unserviceable to them, and taking no account of what is contained in the Sacred Writings, and deeming not worthy of remembrance the command, The innocent and righteous slay thou not, they are sick of a most unrighteous madness against Christ. But by the Divine Might the result of their devices is turned to the utter contrary. For the deceitful man sha...
This is also the reason why, when men were often desirous to take Him, it is said, "No man laid hands upon Him, for the hour of His being taken was not yet come; "
Do you see that they are invisibly restrained, and their anger bridled? But wherefore says It not, that He had restrained them invisibly, but, Because His hour was not yet come? The Evangelist was minded to speak more humanly and in a lowlier strain, so that Christ might be deemed to be also Man. For because Christ everywhere speaks of sublime matters, he therefore intersperses expressions of this kind. And when Christ says, I am from Him, He speaks not as a Prophet who learns, but as seeing Him, and being with Him.
