Question on two Quotes from the Gospel of St. John

[judethaddeus]

In the Gospel of John, we read:

“Were I to testify on my own behalf,
my testimony would not be true;
but there is another witness
who speaks on my behalf,
and I know that his testimony is true.” (John 5.31f)

Then we read three chapters later:

“Even though I am testifying/ on my own behalf,
my testimony is still true,
because I know/ where I have come from
and where I am going;
but you do not know/ where I come from or where I am going.” (John 8.14)

I’m having a bit of difficulty understanding these two passages and was wondering if anyone can help me in this regard.

Michael

 

[COPLAND_3]

Here is what St. Thomas Aquinas had to say about these passages, first 5:31

The Gloss has a different explanation of this: If I were to bear witness to myself, my testimony would not be valid. For above, Christ was referring to himself as God, but here he is referring to himself as a man. And the meaning is: If I, namely, a man, were to bear witness to myself, i.e., apart from God, that is, which God the Father does not certify, then it follows that my testimony would not be valid, for human speech has no truth unless it is supported by God, according to: “God is true, but every man is a liar” (Rom 3:4). Thus, if we take Christ as a man separated from the Deity and not in conformity with it, we find a lie both in his essence and in his words: “Although I bear witness to myself, my testimony is true” (below 8:14); “I am not alone, because the Father is with me” (below 16:32). And so, because he was not alone but with the Father, his testimony is true.

Accordingly, to show that his testimony is true, not in virute of his humanity considered in itself, but in so far as it is united to his divinity and to the Word of God, he says, But there is someone else who testifies on my behalf: not John, but the Father, according to this explanation. Because if the testimony of Christ as man is not of itself true and productive, much less is the testimony of John. Therefore, the testimony of Christ is not verified by the testimony of John, but by the testimony of the Father. So this someone else who testifies is understood to be the Father. And I know that the witness he bears on my behalf is true, for he is truth: “God is light, “‘ i.e., truth, “and in him there is no darkness,” i.e., lie (1 Jn 1:5).

8:14

Their conclusion was that the testimony of Christ was not true, because he bore witness to himself. But our Lord says the opposite, namely, that because of this it is true. Jesus replied: Even though I bear witness concerning myself, my testimony is true; and it is true because I know where I come from and where I am going. It is like saying, according to Chrysostom, my testimony is true because I am from God, and because I am God, and because I am the Son of God: “God is truthful” (Rom 3:4).

He says, I know where I come from, that is, my origin, and where I am going, that is to the Father, whom no one but the Son can know perfectly: “No one knows the Father except the Son, and he to whom Son wishes to reveal him” (Mt 11:27). This does not imply that anyone who knows, by love and understanding, where he comes from and where he is going can speak only the truth, for we all come from God and are going to God. But God is truth: how much more, then, does the Son of God speak the truth, he who knows perfectly where he comes from and where he is going!

1150 Then when he says, But you do not know where I come from or where I am going, he shows the reason for their error, which was their ignorance of the divinity of Christ. For it was because they did not know this that they judged him according to his human nature. Thus, there were two reasons for their error. One, because they did not know his divinity; the other, because they judged him only by his human nature. And so he says, with respect to the first, you do no know where I come from, that is, my eternal procession from the Father, or where I am going, “The one who sent me is truthful. Whatever I have heard from him, this I declare to the world” (8:26); “From where, then, does wisdom come?” (Jb 28:20); “Who will state his origin?” (Is 53:8).

As for the second reason for their error, he says, you judge according to the flesh, that is, you judge me thinking that I am merely flesh and not God. Or, we could say, according to the flesh, that is, wickedly and unjustly. For just as to live according to the flesh is to live wickedly, so to judge according to the flesh is to judge unjustly.