1. John has a style peculiarly his own, entirely different from that of the other evangelists and sacred writers. For, as an Eagle, at one time he raises himself above all, at another time he stoops down to the earth, as it were for his prey, and adapts his style in order to capture the simple, and is himself simple, virginal, plain, and straightforward. At one time he is as wise as the cherubim, at another time he burns as do the seraphim. The reason is because John was most like Christ, and most dear to Him; and he in turn loved Christ supremely. Therefore at His last supper he reclined upon His breast. From this source, therefore, he sucked in, as it were, the mind, the wisdom, the candor and the burning love of Christ. Therefore, when you contemplate, read, and hear John, think that you contemplate, read, and hear Christ. For Christ has transfused His own spirit, His own manners and love into John.
2. Although John by the consent of all wrote his gospel in Greece for the Greeks in Greek, yet because he himself was a Hebrew by birth, by nationality, by his love for his native tongue, that primeval language, and by his style; hence he abounds above the rest in Hebrew rather than in Greek phrases and idioms. Indeed to understand him we require a knowledge of two, or indeed of three languages: Hebrew, Greek and Latin. Thus he Hebraizes in his frequent use of and for “like as” (sicut), as Solomon does in Proverbs, where he compares like with like by means of the conjunction and. And in such instances is a mark of similitude, and has the same meaning as “like as” (sicut). On the other hand, he Grecizes in his use of perhaps (forsitan) for “surely”. In John 8:19 the Greek particle ἄν expresses affirmation, not uncertainty. So also in 8:43, cannot is put for “will not”. He likewise constantly duplicates the Hebrew amen, saying: Amen, amen, rather than one simple amen. I will examine the reasons for this diversity in chapter 3, verse 2.
3. In his account, John emphasizes Christ’s disputes with the Jews and His discourses more than the things that He did. Not that he relates all the discourses and disputations of Christ, but such as were better known and of greater importance. Especially he gives a compendious account of those in which Christ proved that He was God as well as man.
4. In John’s gospel Christ speaks sometimes as man, sometimes as God. There is need therefore of a careful examination of contexts to distinguish one from the other.
5. When Christ says, as He often does in John’s gospel, that He does or says nothing of Himself, or that not He, but the Father, does or says this, this should be understood to mean “originally” and “alone.” As thus, “neither alone, nor as man do I perform these things: nor yet as God am I the first originator of them; but it is God the Father, who together with His divine essence communicates to Me omniscience and omnipotence, even the power of doing all things, however difficult, sublime, paradoxical and divine.”
6. Although the Apostles and other saints wrought miracles, yet Christ in S. John’s Gospel often proves that He is the Messias and God by the miracles which were done by Him. This proof is a true and effectual one; first, because He Himself made direct use of it. For a miracle as the work of God, and the real voice of the primary truth, is a sure proof of that which it is brought forward to confirm. Second, because Christ wrought miracles by His own power and authority and dominion, which He could not have done unless He had been God of God. Thus then He did them that they might be seen to proceed from Him as from God, flowing, as it were, from the original source of miracles. For the saints do not work miracles by their own authority, but by the invocation of the name of God, or of Christ. Third, because Christ worked more miracles of a greater variety than the other saints before and after Him. Let us add that Christ worked those miracles which had been foretold by Isaias and the other prophets, that they might be signs of the Messias (or “the Christ”), as will be clear at chapter 11, verse 4.
7. Matthew, Mark, and Luke record for the most part the acts of the last and next-to-last years of Christ’s preaching, that is to say, what He did after the imprisonment of S. John the Baptist. But John in his gospel gives an account of the two preceding years of Christ’s preaching. This consideration will solve many seeming discrepancies between S. John and the other three Evangelists. So S. Augustine in his preface.
8. In John’s Gospel there is quite often great force as well as obscurity in the adverbs and conjunctions of causation, inference, connection, and so on, in such a manner that a single particle will often contain and point out the entire meaning of a passage. Hence these particles must be most carefully examined and weighed, as I shall demonstrate in each place.
9. The particles “so that”, “wherefore”, “on account of which”, and the like, do not always signify the cause, or the end intended, but often only a consequence or result, or what happened next. This is especially the case if an event has been certainly foreseen, and therefore could not happen otherwise. This is plain from John 12:37-40, where it says, They believed not in Him: that the saying of Isaias the prophet might be fulfilled. . . . Therefore they could not believe, for Isaias said again: “He hath blinded their eyes.” For the reason why the Jews would not believe in Christ was not the prediction of Isaias foretelling that they would not believe (non credituros), but the hardness of heart and malice of the Jews, which as a sort of objective cause preceded Isaias’s prophecy. For Isaias foretold that the Jews were not about to believe Christ, because in truth they themselves through their own malice and obstinacy were not going to do so. So S. Chrysostom, Cyril, Theophylact, and Euthymius (in loco).
10. By the Jews S. John sometimes means the rulers only, sometimes the people only. Thus he represents the Jews at one time as opposing, at another time as favoring Christ. For the people were His friends, the rulers were His adversaries. This is evident in John 7:11, 13; 8:31; and 9:22.
11. By a Hebraism the present tense often signifies not an action issuing in a result, but a force, or power of nature, or the act (in the sense of will or intention), of the agent, even when the effect is opposed by the recipient, or in some other way. Thus in 1:9 it says that Christ by His advent gave light to the world. That means, so far as He was concerned. For many, like the Jews, refused to receive this light, as he immediately adds, and continued in the darkness of their unbelief.
12. The particles as if, so as, and the like, because they correspond to the Hebrew caph, do not always signify likeness, but sometimes the truth of a fact, or assertion. Thus in 1:14, (And we saw His glory, as it were of the only-begotten of the Father), i.e., truly of the Only-Begotten. As if to say: “We have seen His glory to be truly such and so great as became Him who was indeed the Only-Begotten Son of God the Father.” Thus S. Chrysostom, Theophylact, and Euthymius (in loco).
13. John, following the Hebrew idiom, sometimes takes words of inceptive action to signify the beginning of something that is done; but sometimes to signify continuation, that a work is in progress; and sometimes, that a work has been perfected and accomplished. Thus we must not be surprised, if sometimes that which increases, or is being perfected, is spoken of as if it were just commencing, and vice versa. An example of inceptive action is to be found in 13:6, where Christ wishes to wash Peter’s feet but he resists, saying, Lord, dost Thou wash my feet? Dost Thou wash, that is, “Dost Thou wish, prepare, begin to wash?” There is an example of continued action in 2:11, where, after the miracle of the conversion of water into wine, it is added, And his disciples believed in him: that is, they went on believing, they increased, and were confirmed in faith. For they had already before this believed in Christ, for if they had not believed in Him, they would not have followed Him, nor devoted themselves to His teaching. And in 4:53, where the ruler, who had witnessed the miracle in which Christ restored his dying son to life, is said to have believed in Him, i.e., to have increased his faith in Christ and to have been strengthened in it. For unless he had already believed in Him and gone to Him, he would have not asked Him to cure his son. There is an example of a perfected action in 11:15, where Christ, at the close of His life, is about to raise up Lazarus and says, I am glad for your sakes, that ye may believe. That is, “that by means of this My last and greatest miracle ye may be altogether made perfect in your belief in Me.” Again, in 20:17, Jesus appearing after His resurrection to Mary Magdalen, who had fallen at His feet, said, Do not touch me, that is, “Do not delay, and waste time in touching My feet, but go quickly, and tell the Apostles, who are very sorrowful because of My death, that I have risen again.”
14. John, after the Hebrew idiom, repeats and confirms over again what he had already asserted, by a denial of the contrary. This is especially the case when the subject matter is of importance, and is doubted about by many, so that it requires strong confirmation. Thus in John 1:20, when John the Baptist is asked by the Jews if he were the Christ, he confessed and did not deny, and he confessed: I am not the Christ. And in 1:3 it says, All things were made by him (the Word): and without him was made nothing that was made.
15. John delights in calling Christ the Life, and the Light, for reasons which I will give at 1:4 ff. He has several other similar and peculiar expressions. By metalepsis he often calls judgment the condemnation which takes place in judgment; in other places, he uses judgment for the secret judgment and decrees of God, because they are just. In the Vulgate gospel of John, the word demonstrat is used instead of exhibet; dat [gives] instead of donat [grants]. “Sins” he calls darkness. The “saints” he calls sons of light. That which is true, just and right he calls the truth. In 6:27 he says, Labor for meat, that is, procure food. He often uses the verb to abide; hence he says that by love we abide in God and God in us. In chapter 6 Christ states that He and His flesh are the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. In 7:37 our Lord says, If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink. He that believeth in me . . . . Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. In chapter 8 [v. 25], when asked by the Jews, Who art thou?, Jesus replies, The beginning, who also speak unto you. In chapter 10 He compares Himself to a good shepherd, and the faithful, to sheep. In chapter 11, as He raises Lazarus, He says that He is the resurrection and the life. In the same chapter John declares that Caiphas prophesied about Christ’s death. In chapter 13 Jesus declares that He has loved His own unto the end, and therefore as He went to His death He washed their feet. In chapter 14 He says, I am the way, the truth, and the light. The Father is in me, and I am in the Father. In the next chapter, promising the Holy Spirit, He calls Him the Spirit of truth who proceedeth from the Father. He says, I am the true vine, you the branches . . . for without me you can do nothing. In chapter 16 ff. He wishes us to be one with God and without neighbors. Thus the Vulgate translator uses the word signavit [“signed”] to mean “confirm by placing a seal upon something”; for this is the meaning of the Greek ἐσφράγισεν 6:27.
16. S. John states that Christ had said certain things before, even though he had not previously related where and when He had said them; for brevity’s sake he considered it sufficient to relate them once, lest, if he had related them previously, he be compelled to repeat the same things afterward. Thus in the 11th chapter he says that Martha said to her sister Mary, The Master is come, and calleth for thee. Yet he had not previously related that Christ bade Martha to call Magdalen; for his mentioning that Martha, by Christ’s command, called her sister was sufficient to show that Christ had so commanded. In the same chapter Christ said to Martha, Did I not say to thee that if thou believe thou shalt see the glory of God? Yet there is no previous account of Christ saying this. So, too, in 6:36, Christ says, But I said unto you, that you also have seen me, and you believe not, even though it had never before been mentioned that Christ had said that.
17. The miracles of Christ which John alone records are as follows: The conversion of water into wine in Cana of Galilee, chapter 2. The first expulsion of the sellers from the temple, in the same chapter, verse 15. The healing of the sick child of the noble man, 4:47. The healing of the paralytic at the pool in the sheep market, chapter 5. Giving sight to the man born blind, chapter 9. The raising of Lazarus from the dead, chapter 11. The falling of Judas and the servants to the earth, when they came to take Jesus, 18:6. The flow of blood and water from the side of Christ after He was dead, 19:34. The power of forgiving sins given to the Apostles by Christ after the resurrection by breathing upon them, 20:22, and the multiplication of the fishes for the Apostles, 21:6.