| 18. Ego sum qui testimonium perhibeo de meipso: et testimonium perhibet de me, qui misit me, Pater. | 18. I am one that give testimony of myself: and the Father that sent me, giveth testimony of me. |
18. Now, two bear testimony to Me. Two Persons bore testimony that the man Christ, who spoke to the Jews, was God. The Son Himself, as God bore this testimony by word and work, and the Father by the miracles that He gave the Son to perform (v. 36).
| 19. Dicebant ergo ei: Ubi est Pater tuus? Respondit Iesus: Neque me scitis, neque Patrem meum: si me sciretis forsitan et Patrem meum sciretis. | 19. They said therefore to him: Where is thy Father? Jesus answered: Neither me do you know, nor my Father: if you did know me, perhaps you would know my Father also. |
19. To their question Jesus answers: Neither me do you know, nor my Father. The sense is: You know not who I am, that I am God; if you knew and recognised Me to be God, you would also know who My Father is, that He must be God; and thus you would know the answer to your question, since God dwells in heaven. On the use of “forsitan,” see above on [iv. 10].
| 20. Haec verba locutus est Iesus in gazophylacio, docens in templo: et nemo apprehendit eum, quia necdum venerat hora eius. | 20. These words Jesus spoke in the treasury, teaching in the temple: and no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet come. |
20. The Greek word translated by “treasury” is γαζοφυλακίῳ, derived from the Persian gaza (money), and φυλάσσω (to guard). This treasury was a chest or safe for holding [pg 154] money (see Luke xxi. 1), but by metonymy the name was given to the cloister in which it stood. This cloister was in the court of the women. See above on [ii. 14].
| 21. Dixit ergo iterum eis Iesus: Ego vado, et quaeretis me, et in peccato vestro moriemini. Quo ego vado, vos non potestis venire? | 21. Again therefore Jesus said to them: I go, and you shall seek me, and you shall die in your sin. Whither I go, you cannot come. |
21. It is doubtful whether this is a continuation of the preceding, or a new discourse. For the meaning of the verse, see above on [vii. 34]. The particular sin referred to here is infidelity; but dying in infidelity, meant dying in many sins besides; and hence the plural sins, is used in verse 24.
| 22. Dicebant ergo Iudaei: Numquid interficiet semetipsum, quia dixit: Quo ego vado, vos non potestis venire? | 22. The Jews therefore said: Will he kill himself, because he said: Whither I go, you cannot come? |
22. Josephus (De Bello Jud., iii. 8, 5) tells us that the Pharisees believed that the lowest depths of hell are reserved for suicides. The words of this verse may refer to that superstition; as if they said: does He mean to go into the depths of hell, where we the children of Abraham cannot, of course, follow Him? But the more simple explanation is: He cannot escape from us wherever He may go on this earth. Does He then mean to take His own life, that so He may be out of our reach?