Loading…
VRSZ
This sets the art on your cards and whose commentary you read on each verse. You can change it later in settings.
Translation
Loading…
What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
John Chrysostom
The expression, "when His brethren were gone up," is that of one showing that He chose not to go up with them. On which account He abode where He was, and manifested not Himself, although they in a manner urged Him to do so. But why did He, who ever spake openly, do so now "as it were in secret"? The writer saith not "secretly," but, "as it were in secret." For thus, as I have said, He seemed to be instructing us how to manage matters. …
Theophylact of Ohrid
Why did He say to His brothers that He would not go to the feast, and then went? He did not simply say "I will not go," but "I am not yet going," that is, with you. At first He refused to go because the Jews were burning with rage, and then He went toward the end of the feast, when, naturally, their rage had also subsided. And in another way. He did not act contrary to His words. For He went up not to celebrate, but to teach, and not with pomp, as panegyrists usually do, but secretly. …
Western Saints
Augustine of Hippo
"When He had said these words unto them, He abode still in Galilee. But when His brethren were gone up, then went He also up unto the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret." Therefore "not to this feast-day," because His desire was not for temporal glory, but to teach something to profit, to correct men, to admonish them of an eternal feast-day, to turn away their love from this world, and to turn it to God. But what means this, "He went up as it were in secret to the feast"? This action of the Lord also is not without meaning. …
Thomas Aquinas
He gives the order of events when he says, However, after his brethren, that is, his relatives, had gone up, he himself went up for the feast. This seems to conflict with what he had said before: "I will not go up", for the Apostle says, "Jesus Christ, whom we preached among you... was not 'Yes' and 'No,' but only 'Yes.'" (2 Cor 1:19). I answer, first, that the festival of Tabernacles lasted for seven days, as was mentioned. Now our Lord first stated, "I, however, will not go up for this festival," that is, for its beginning. …
Bonaventure
"But when his brethren had gone up, then he also went up to the feast day, not openly, but as it were in secret;" therefore in secret, so that he might show human weakness, and thus invite to faith. Or: in secret, so that he might teach to avoid vain praise: Matthew 6: "Your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you"; Gregory: "Let the work be in the open, so that the intention may remain in secret."
Translation