I have many things to say and to judge of you: but he that sent me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him.
Read Chapter 8
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
1. The words of our Lord Jesus Christ, which He had addressed to the Jews, so regulating His discourse that the blind saw not, and believers' eyes were opened, are these, which have been read today from the holy Gospel: Then said the Jews, Who are you? Because the Lord had said before, If you believe not that I am, you shall die in your sins. To this accordingly they rejoined, Who are you? as if seeking to know on whom they ought to believe, so as not to die in their sin. He replied to those who asked Him: Who are you? by saying, The beginning, for [so] also I speak to you. If the Lord has called Himself the beginning, it may be inquired whether the Father also is the beginning. For if the Son who has a Father is the beginning, how much more easily must God the Father be understood as the beginning, who has indeed the Son whose Father He is, but has no one from whom He Himself proceeds? For the Son is the Son of the Father, and the Father certainly is the Father of the Son; but the Son...
I have many things, &c. I have many things to say against you, and to accuse you of. And in the day of judgment I will do so. As S. Cyril says, "I will accuse you not of one thing but of many, and of nothing falsely. For I can condemn you as unbelieving, as arrogant, as insulting, as opposers of God, as impudent, as ungrateful, as malignant, as lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, as courting the praise of men, and not seeking the glory of God."
But He that sent Me, &c. I will omit many points and will merely say this, in refutation of your unbelief, that the Father who hath sent Me is true, and whatever therefore I say is true, and worthy of belief by all. "I am true" (says S. Augustine) "in judgment, because I am the Son of Truth, and the Truth Itself." But others explain differently, (1.) Toletus: "I have many things to say against you. But I will not do so now, for the Father sent Me into the world, not to judge but to save it, and therefore, in obedience to Him, I say on...
But He That sent Me is True, and I the things which I heard from Him, these speak I unto the world.
Having taken leave of the Jews' ill-instructedness, and reckoned as nought those who dared without restraint to revile Him, He returns again to what He was saying at the beginning, reserving the judging them and that in all freedom for not this present but for the fitting time, and retaining to the time of the Appearance its proper aim (for He came not to judge the world but to save the world, as Himself says). Wherefore keeping fast hold of the things befitting Him, and repeating the word that calls unto salvation, He carries on His exhortation. For herein was it meet that we should both marvel at the measure of His Forbearance and the exceedingness of His inherent Love for man: wherefore doth Peter too write of Him, Who when He was reviled, reviled not again, when He suffered, He threatened not but committed Himself to Him That judgeth righteously. Therefore will I expend (He says) ...
I have many things to say and to judge of you.
Seeing that the Jews condemn Him more recklessly, and though they have nothing at all to accuse Him of, are haughty on account only of the poorness of His Birth after the Flesh, and therefore say that He is nought, He shamed them mildly, having said above more openly, YE judge after the flesh, I judge no man. But judging after the flesh will reasonably have some such meaning as this: They who delight only in earthly things, see nought of the heavenly good things, but looking only to illustriousness in this life, admire the wealthy or him who boasts in some other petty glories. But they who after the law of God examine thoroughly into the nature of things say that he is really the man worthy of love and admiration, who has within him the desire to live according to the counsel and will of Him Who hath made him. For low position after the flesh will nothing harm the soul of the man who is accustomed to do well, and on the other hand illus...
And the things I have heard from him For Christ, to hear from his Father, to see is the same as to proceed from him, to be of the same nature and substance. See chap. v, ver. 19. (Witham)
I could not only prove you guilty, but also punish you; but He that sent Me, that is, the Father, wills not this. For I have come not to judge the world, but to save the world, since God sent not His Son to judge the world, He says, but to save the world. John 3:17 If now He has sent Me for this, and He is true, with good cause I judge no one now. But these things I speak that are for your salvation, not what are for your condemnation. He speaks thus, lest they should deem that it was through weakness that on hearing so much from them He went not to extremities, or that He knew not their secret thoughts and scoffings.
He has also heard and seen all things with the Father; and what He has been commanded by the Father, that also does He speak.
"He that sent me "says He, "is true; and I am telling the world those things which I have heard of Him."
