37, 38. He appeals to His miracles as a proof that He is God in the strictest sense. See notes on [iii. 2]. That the Father is in me, and I in the Father. According to the [pg 190] fathers, this is a statement in other words of what He said above: “I and the Father are one.” “The Son,” says St. Augustine on this verse, does not say: “The Father is in Me, and I in Him, in the sense in which men who think and act aright may say the like; meaning that they partake of God's grace, and are enlightened by His Spirit. The Only-begotten Son of God is in the Father, and the Father in Him, as an equal in an equal.”
| 39. Quaerebant ergo eum apprehendere: et exivit de manibus eorum. | 39. They sought therefore to take him; and he escaped out of their hands. |
39. They sought therefore to take him. These words prove that His hearers did not understand Christ to retract what He had said.
| 40. Et abiit iterum trans Iordanem, in eum locum ubi erat Ioannes baptizans primum: et mansit illic. | 40. And he went again beyond the Jordan into that place where John was baptizing first: and there he abode. |
40. He went again to Bethania beyond the Jordan. See above on [i. 28]. The name of Bethania must have been dear to our Evangelist, because it was probably in its neighbourhood he had first met his heavenly Master.
| 41. Et multi venerunt ad eum, et dicebant: Quia Ioannes quidem signum fecit nullum. | 41. And many resorted to him, and they said: John indeed did no sign. |
41. John indeed did no sign. This remark is of great importance as showing how little tendency there was to invest great and popular teachers with miraculous powers. And yet the Rationalists will have us believe that our Lord's miracles were all a popular delusion!
| 42. Omnia autem quaecumque dixit Ioannes de hoc, vera erant. Et multi crediderunt in eum. | 42. But all things whatsoever John said of this man were true. And many believed in him. |
42. And many believed in him. Most authorities add the note of place there (ἐκεῖ), as if the Evangelist wished to bring out into bolder relief the incredulity of the Jews (verse 39), by contrasting it with the faith of those beyond the Jordan.