TRV
Tertullian
Ante-Nicene · to AD 325 · 3,450 passages across 56 books
Commentary
John 5:43
· 3 passages
I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.
But in the trouble of His soul, (on a later occasion, ) He said: "What shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause is it that I am come to this hour; only, O Father, do Thou glorify Thy name" -in which He spake as the Son. (At another time) He said: "I am come in my Father's name." Accordingly, the Son's voice was indeed alone sufficient, (when addressed) to the Father.
To us it has been revealed in the Son, for the Son is now the Father's new name. "I am come," saith He, "in the Father's name; " and again, "Father, glorify Thy name; " and more openly, "I have manifested Thy name to men.
And in another place it is thus said through the prophet: "The King with His glory ye shall see,"-that is, Christ, doing deeds of power in the glory of God the Father; "and your eyes shall see the land from afar," -which is what you do, being prohibited, in reward of your deserts, since the storming of Jerusalem, to enter into your land; it is permitted you merely to see it with your eyes from afar: "your soul," he says, "shall meditate terror," -namely, at the time when they suffered the ruin of themselves.
John 5:44
How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?
And, of course, that ought to have been chosen which keeps virgins veiled, as being known to God alone; who (besides that glory must be sought from God, not from men ) ought to blush even at their own privilege.
John 6:13
Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten.
Such was the greatness of his miracle that he willed the slender supply of food not only to be enough but even to prove superabundant. Here he followed ancient precedent. For in the same way during the famine in Elijah’s time, the scanty and final meal of the widow of Zarephath was multiplied by the blessing of the prophet through-out the period of the famine.… O Christ, even in your novelties you are old!
John 6:15
When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone.
If, also, He exercised no right of power even over His own followers, to whom He discharged menial ministry; if, in short, though conscious of His own kingdom, He shrank back from being made a king, He in the fullest manner gave His own an example for turning coldly from all the pride and garb, as well of dignity as of power.
John 6:27
Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.
How unworthy, also, is the way in which you interpret to the favour of your own lust the fact that the Lord "ate and drank" promiscuously! But I think that He must have likewise "fasted" inasmuch as He has pronounced, not "the full; "but "the hungry and thirsty, blessed: " (He) who was wont to profess "food" to be, not that which His disciples had supposed, but "the thorough doing of the Father's work; " teaching "to labour for the meat which is permanent unto life eternal; " in our ordinary prayer likewise commanding us to request "bread," not the wealth of Attalus therewithal.
John 6:29
Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.
It was therefore always the Son (of whom we read) under the designation of the Almighty and Most High God, and King, and Lord. To those also who inquired "what they should do to work the works of God," He answered, "This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.
John 6:31
· 2 passages
Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
Now, just before (the passage in hand), He had declared His flesh to be "the bread which cometh down from heaven," impressing on (His hearers) constantly under the figure of necessary food the memory of their forefathers, who had preferred the bread and flesh of Egypt to their divine calling. Then, turning His subject to their reflections, because He perceived that they were going to be scattered from Him, He says: "The flesh profiteth nothing.
But what is the "people" which was ignorant of God, but ours, who in days bygone knew not God? and who, in the hearing of the ear, gave heed to Him, but we, who, forsaking idols, have been converted to God? For Israel-who had been known to God, and who had by Him been "upraised" in Egypt, and was transported through the Red Sea, and who in the desert, fed forty years with manna, was wrought to the semblance of eternity, and not contaminated with human passions, or fed on this world's meats, but fed on "angel's loaves" -the manna-and sufficiently bound to God by His benefits-forgot his Lord and God, saying to Aaron: "Make us gods, to go before us: for that Moses, who ejected us from the land of Egypt, hath quite forsaken us; and what hath befallen him we know not.
John 6:33
· 2 passages
For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.
For Christ is our Bread because Christ is Life, and bread is life. “I am,” says he, “the Bread of life.” And, a little above he says, “The bread of God is that which comes down from heaven.” Then we find, too, that his body is reckoned in bread: “This is my body.” And so, in petitioning for “daily bread,” we ask for perpetuity in Christ and indivisibility from his body. But, because “bread” is admissible in a carnal sense too, it cannot be so used without the religious remembrance of spiritual discipline. For the Lord commands that bread be prayed for which is the only food necessary for believers.
"I am," saith He, "the Bread of Life; " and, a little above, "The Bread is the Word of the living God, who came down from the heavens." Then we find, too, that His body is reckoned in bread: "This is my body.
John 6:35
And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
For Christ is our Bread; because Christ is Life, and bread is life. "I am," saith He, "the Bread of Life; " and, a little above, "The Bread is the Word of the living God, who came down from the heavens.
John 6:37
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
No man indeed was able to come to Him, except the Father attracted him; whereas every one who had heard and learnt of the Father came to Him." He goes on then expressly to say, "Not that any man hath seen the Father; " thus showing us that it was through the Word of the Father that men were instructed and taught.
John 6:38
· 4 passages
For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
If [Christ] himself proclaimed that he did not his own but the Father’s will, without doubt those things that he used to do were the Father’s will. We are now encouraged to do these exemplary things too: to preach, to work, to endure even to the point of death. And we need the will of God so that we may be able to fulfill these duties.… [Christ] himself was the will and the power of the Father. And yet, for the demonstration of the patience that was due, he gave himself up to the Father’s will.
You have (then) the restoration of the entire man, inasmuch as the Lord purposes to save that part of him which perishes, whilst he will not of course lose that portion which cannot be lost, Who will any longer doubt of the safety of both natures, when one of them is to obtain salvation, and the other is not to lose it? And, still further, the Lord explains to us the meaning of the thing when He says: "I came not to do my own will, but the Father's, who hath sent me." What, I ask, is that will? "That of all which He hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
There is, too, that will of God which the Lord accomplished in preaching, in working, in enduring: for if He Himself proclaimed that He did not His own, but the Father's will, without doubt those things which He used to do were the Father's will; unto which things, as unto exemplars, we are now provoked; to preach, to work, to endure even unto death.
And it is not His own will, but the Father's, which He has accomplished, which He had known most intimately, even from the beginning.
John 6:39
And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
He affirms, lastly, that "the very hairs of our head are all numbered," and in the affirmation He of course includes the promise of their safety; for if they were to be lost, where would be the use of having taken such a numerical care of them? Surely the only use lies (in this truth): "That of all which the Father hath given to me, I should lose none," -not even a hair, as also not an eye nor a tooth.
John 6:44
No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.
Wherefore? Because "I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world" and, "I am the way: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me; " and, "No man can come to me, except the Father draw him; " and, "All things are delivered unto me by the Father; " and, "As the Father quickeneth (the dead), so also doth the Son; " and again, "If ye had known me, ye would have known the Father also.