John 14:28 (WEB)
You heard how I told you, ‘I am going away, and I will come back to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced because I said ‘I am going to my Father;’ for the Father is greater than I.
Fathers and councils · 58
Augustine of Hippo
“Such statements [are meant] as the following: “For the Father is greater than I;” and, “The head of the woman is the man, the Head of the man is Christ, and the Head of Christ is God;” and, “Then shall He Himself be subject unto Him that put…” — editor's note: John xiv. 28
Read the whole comment“He hath said in the form of God, “I and the Father are one:” He hath said in the form of a servant, “For the Father is greater than I.” Whence in the form of God saith He, “I and the Father are one”?…” — editor's note: John xiv. 28.
Read the whole comment“They say, for instance, that the Son is less than the Father, because it is written that the Lord Himself said, “My Father is greater than I.” But the truth shows that after the same sense the Son is less also than Himself; for how was He not made less also than Himself, who “emptied Himself, and took…” — editor's note: John xiv. 28
Read the whole comment“Hence also is that which is said, “If ye loved me, ye would rejoice because I said, ‘I go unto the Father; for my Father is greater than I:’” that is, on that account it is necessary for me to go to the Father, because, whilst you see me thus, you hold me to be less than the Father through that which…” — editor's note: John xiv. 28
Read the whole comment“…as we have already shown: but according to the form of a servant He is less than the Father, because He Himself has said, “My Father is greater than I;” and He is less than Himself, because it is said of Him, He emptied Himself;” and He is less than the Holy Spirit, because He Himself says, “Whosoever speaketh…” — editor's note: John xiv. 28
Read the whole comment“…that is, of His having taken upon Him the creature of a changeable and human substance; as, for instance, that which says, “For my Father is greater than I;” and, “The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son.”” — editor's note: John xiv. 28
Read the whole comment“…Word already made flesh that speaks; and according to this His humiliation also, the Father is greater than He, as He says, “for my Father is greater than I;” so that the very being of God, which is one to Him with the Father, is itself the head of the man who is mediator, which He is alone.” — editor's note: John xiv. 28
Read the whole comment“…in the form of Man He is less than the Father, in the form of God equal with the Father; how again He saith, on the one hand, “The Father is greater than I;” and on the other, “I and My Father are one;” seeing this is a great mystery, our conduct must be fashioned, that it may be comprehended.” — editor's note: John xiv. 28.
Read the whole comment“Because, with respect to this, He said, “The Father is greater than I.” And when is the Son honored even as the Father is honored?” — editor's note: John xiv. 28.
Read the whole comment“Christ is the vine in the same sense as when He said, “The Father is greater than I;” but in that sense wherein He said, “I and my Father are one,” He is also the husbandman.” — editor's note: Chap. xiv. 28.
Read the whole comment“…He is God, as when He says, “I and my Father are one;” and sometimes in accordance with His manhood, as in the words, “For the Father is greater than I;” in accordance with which also we have understood those words of His that are at present under discussion, “I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I…” — editor's note: Chap. xiv. 28.
Read the whole comment“…with what He has said elsewhere, “I and the Father are one;” and not with what He also is as man, for in this respect He said, “The Father is greater than I.” But since one and the same person is God and man, we are to understand the manhood in respect of His asking; but the Godhead, in as far as He Himself, and He…” — editor's note: Chap. xiv. 28.
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Origen
- Origen, Against Celsus VIII.14Book VIII
“…that the Saviour is the Most High God; however, we do not hold with them, but rather believe Him when He says, “The Father who sent Me is greater than I.” We would not therefore make Him whom we call Father inferior—as Celsus accuses us of doing—to the Son of God.” — editor's note: John xiv. 28.
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Irenaeus of Lyons
“For “the Father,” says He, “is greater than I.” The Father, therefore, has been declared by our Lord to excel with respect to knowledge; for this reason, that we, too, as long as we are connected with the…” — editor's note: John xiv. 28.
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Tertullian
“For the Father is the entire substance, but the Son is a derivation and portion of the whole, as He Himself acknowledges: “My Father is greater than I.” In the Psalm His inferiority is described as being “a little lower than the angels.”” — editor's note: John xiv. 28.
Read the whole comment““My Father,” says Christ, “is greater than I.” Therefore the Father must be the face of the Son.” — editor's note: John xiv. 28.
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Athanasius of Alexandria
“And the Lord said in His own Person, ‘If ye loved Me, ye would rejoice because I said, I go unto the Father, for My Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it come to pass, that when it is come to pass, ye might believe.’” — editor's note: John xiv. 28, 29.
Read the whole comment“And hence it is that the Son too says not, ‘My Father is better than I,’ lest we should conceive Him to be foreign to His Nature, but ‘greater,’ not indeed in greatness, nor in time, but because of His generation from the Father Himself, nay, in saying ‘greater’ He again shows that He is proper to His essence.” — editor's note: John xiv. 28.
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John Damascene
“But if we say that the Father is the origin of the Son and greater than the Son, we do not suggest any precedence in time or superiority in nature of the Father over the Son (for through His agency He made the ages), or superiority in any other respect save causation.” — editor's note: In the first Book of his Contra Arianos Athanasius refers to Christ’s word in St. John xiv. 28. He remarks that He does not say “the Father is better…
Read the whole comment“And others make known the fact of His origin from the Father as cause, for instance My Father is greater than I. For from Him He derives both His being and all that He has: His being was by generative and not by creative means, as, I came forth from the Father and am come, and I live by the Father.” — editor's note: St. John xiv. 28.
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Theodoret of Cyrus
“From his Discourse on “My Father is greater than I:”—” — editor's note: John xiv. 28
Read the whole comment“…is a spirit’ says to His disciples ‘Handle me,’ to shew that the human nature only can be handled and that the divine is intangible; and He that said ‘I go’ indicates removal from place to place, while He that comprehends all things and ‘by Whom,’ as says the Apostle, ‘all things were created and by Whom all things…” — editor's note: John xiv. 28
Read the whole comment“Of the same from his discourse on “My Father is greater than I”:—” — editor's note: John xiv. 28
Read the whole comment“For it is clear that the image fully contains everything by which the greater likeness exists, as the Lord taught us when He said, ‘My Father is greater than I.’ And in accordance with this we believe that the Son always existed of the Father; for he is the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His…” — editor's note: John xiv. 28
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Ambrose of Milan
“Again, it was by reason of His humanity that He said those words, which our adversaries use to maliciously turn against Him: “Because the Father is greater than I.”” — editor's note: S. John xiv. 28.
Read the whole comment“…Vine with respect and intention to His Incarnation, you see what hidden truth it was to which our Lord had regard in saying, “The Father is greater than I.” For after this premised, He proceeded immediately: “I am the true Vine, and My Father is the Husbandman,” that you might know that the Father is greater in so…” — editor's note: S. John xiv. 28.
Read the whole comment“It is written, they say: “For the Father is greater than I.” It is also written: “He thought it not robbery to be equal with God.”” — editor's note: S. John xiv. 28.
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John Chrysostom
““He that sent Me is greater than I,” and, “I came not of Myself.” ( John xii. 49; xiv. 28; viii. 42.)” — the author cites it
Read the whole comment“And because He wished all along to establish this, as He went on He summed up His discourse in this same point; “If ye loved Me,” He saith, “ye would have rejoiced, because—I go to My Father” ( ver. 28 ), but now ye are in this state through cowardice.” — the author cites it
Read the whole comment“Wherefore He saith, “While I was with them, I kept them.” ( c. xiv. 28.)” — the author cites it
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Leo the Great
“…gates of paradise to the robber’s faith: so it is not part of the same nature to say, “I and the Father are one,” and to say, “the Father is greater than I.” For although in the Lord Jesus Christ God and man is one person, yet the source of the degradation, which is shared by both, is one, and the source of the…” — editor's note: S. John xiv. 28; x. 30: the reconciliation of this class of apparently contradictory statements is often undertaken by Leo [e.g. Sermon xxiii. 2 and lxxvii. 5;…
Read the whole comment“But these two natures form one Christ, Who has said most truly both according to His Godhead: “I and the Father are one,” and according to His manhood “the Father is greater than I.” This true and indestructible Faith, dearly-beloved, which alone makes us true Christians, and…” — editor's note: S. John x. 30; xiv. 28.
Read the whole comment“…which, in order to show that it belongs to no other or different person in Himself, the same Son of God with the same form, says, “The Father is greater than I,” just as He says with the same form, “I and my Father are one.”” — editor's note: S. John xiv. 28.
Read the whole comment“And hence when the Only-begotten of God confesses Himself less than the Father, and yet calls Himself equal with Him, He demonstrates the reality of both forms in Himself: so that the inequality proves the human nature, and the equality the Divine.” — editor's note: S. John xiv. 28, and x. 30.
Read the whole comment“…His disciples, as was read in the Gospel lection, “if ye loved Me, ye would assuredly rejoice, because I go to the Father, because the Father is greater than I;” but those ears, which have often heard the words, “I and the Father are One,” and “He that sees Me, sees the Father also,” accept the saying without…” — editor's note: S. John xiv. 28; x. 30; xiv. 9. In the English Church, the Gospel for Whitsunday is still the same as it was in Leo’s time at Rome.
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Jerome
“…which a certain votary of Montanus has assailed you, passages in which our Saviour promises that He will go to the Father, and that He will send the Paraclete—as regards these, the Acts of the Apostles inform us both for what time the promises were made, and at what time they were actually fulfilled.” — editor's note: Joh. xiv. 28; xv. 26.
Read the whole comment“But if he recalls the words: ‘the Father who sent me is greater than I,’ he will allow that they must be universally true and will admit that, in knowledge as in everything else, the Father is greater than the Son, and knows Himself more perfectly and immediately than the Son can do.”” — editor's note: Joh. xiv. 28.
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Basil the Great
“And again, “My Father is greater than I.” This passage is also employed by the ungrateful creatures, the brood of the evil one.” — editor's note: John xiv. 28.
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Hilary of Poitiers
“…is greater than the Son in honour, dignity, splendour, majesty, and in the very name of Father, the Son Himself testifying, He that sent Me is greater than I. And no one is ignorant that it is Catholic doctrine that there are two Persons of Father and Son; and that the Father is greater, and that the Son is…” — editor's note: John xiv. 28.
Read the whole comment“That line is so clear that He Himself has avowed concerning God the Father, The Father is greater than I. So frank a confession silences all demur; it is blasphemy and madness to assign the dignity and nature of God to One who disclaims them.” — editor's note: Ib. xiv. 28.
Read the whole comment“Hear His words, The Father is greater than I, and I and the Father are One, and He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father also, and The Father is in Me and I in the Father, and I went out from the Father,…” — editor's note: St. John xiv. 28.
Read the whole comment“For their depreciation of the might and majesty and Godhead of the Son they rely chiefly on His own words, The Father is greater than I. But they admit that He is not one of the common herd of creatures on the evidence of All things were made through Him.” — editor's note: St. John xiv. 28.
Read the whole comment“…in taking a body upon Him,—as for instance His words, often repeated, Father, glorify Me, and Ye shall see the Son of Man, and The Father is greater than I, and, more strongly, Now is My soul troubled exceedingly, and even this, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me”? and many more, of which I shall speak in…” — editor's note: St. John xiv. 28.
Read the whole comment“The Father is greater than I. Neglecting the mystery of the Divine birth, and the mystery of God’s emptying Himself and taking flesh, they will argue the inferiority of His nature from His assertion that the Father is the greater.” — editor's note: Ib. xiv. 28.
Read the whole comment“They use also the text, The Father is greater than I. Finally, when they repeat the words, Of that day and that hour knoweth no one, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only, as though they…” — editor's note: Ib. xiv. 28.
Read the whole comment“Yet another example, I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me, and, The Father is greater than I. The One is in the Other: recognise, then, the divinity of God, the Begotten of God: the Father is greater than He: perceive, then, His acknowledgment of the Father’s authority.” — editor's note: Ib. xiv. 28.
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Gregory of Nazianzus
“VII. As your third point you count the Word Greater; and as your fourth, To My God and your God.” — editor's note: John xiv. 28.
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Cyprian of Carthage
“Also according to John: “If ye loved me, ye would rejoice because I go to the Father; for the Father is greater than I.”” — editor's note: John xiv. 28.
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Catena Aurea on John
- John ChrysostomCatena Aurea on John
After saying, Peace I leave with you, which was like taking farewell, He consoles them: Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid: the two feelings of love and fear were now the uppermost in them.
Read the whole comment - Augustine of HippoCatena Aurea on John
Though He was only going for a time, their hearts would be troubled and afraid for what might happen before He returned; lest in the absence of the Shepherd the wolf might attack the flock: Ye have heard how I said…
Read the whole comment - Hilary of PoitiersCatena Aurea on John
Or thus: If the Father is greater by virtue of giving, is the Son less by confessing the gift? The giver is the greater, but He to whom unity with that giver is given, is not the less.
Read the whole comment - John ChrysostomCatena Aurea on John
Or thus: The Apostles did not yet know what the resurrection was of which He spoke when He said, I go, and come again to you; or what they ought to think of it. They only knew the great power of the Father. So He…
Read the whole comment - Augustine of HippoCatena Aurea on John
But is not the time for belief before a thing takes place? Is it not the praise of faith, that it believes what it does not see? according to what is said below to Thomas: Because thou hast seen, thou hast believed.…
Read the whole comment - Hilary of PoitiersCatena Aurea on John
He next alludes to the approach of the time when He would resume His glory. Hereafter I will not talk much with you.
Read the whole comment - BedeCatena Aurea on John
He says this because the time was now approaching for His being taken, and given up to death: For the Prince of this world cometh.
Read the whole comment - Augustine of HippoCatena Aurea on John
i. e. the devil; the prince of sinners, not of creatures; as the Apostle saith, Against the rulers of this world. (Eph. 6:12) Or, as He immediately adds by way of explanation, this darkness, meaning, the ungodly. And…
Read the whole comment - Augustine of HippoCatena Aurea on John
That the Son is obedient to the will and commandment of the Father, no more shews a difference in the two, than it would in a human father and son. But over and above this comes the consideration that Christ is not…
Read the whole comment - John ChrysostomCatena Aurea on John
Arise, let us go hence, is the beginning of the sentence which follows. The time and the place (they were in the midst of a town, and it was night time) had excited the disciples’ fears to such a degree, that they…
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Cross-references · 35
Cited together in Exposition of the Christian Faith V.19 and 2 other places.
Cited together in Exposition of the Christian Faith IV.12 and 1 other place.
Cited together in Exposition of the Christian Faith IV.12 and 1 other place.
Cited together in On the Holy Trinity VI.9.
Cited together in On the Holy Trinity VI.9.
Cited together in Against Praxeas Chapter 14 and 1 other place.
Cited together in Sermons Sermon 23 and 1 other place.
Cited together in An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith I.8.
Cited together in Exposition of the Christian Faith V.19 and 2 other places.
Cited together in On the Holy Trinity I.7 and 1 other place.
Cited together in On the Holy Trinity I.7 and 2 other places.
Cited together in Exposition of the Christian Faith IV.12.
Cited together in Against Praxeas Chapter 14.
Cited together in Against Praxeas Chapter 14.
Cited together in Against Praxeas Chapter 14.
Cited together in Against Praxeas Chapter 14.
Cited together in Exposition of the Christian Faith IV.12.
Cited together in Against Praxeas Chapter 9.
Cited together in Exposition of the Christian Faith V.19.
Cited together in Exposition of the Christian Faith IV.12.
Cited together in An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith I.8.
Cited together in Exposition of the Christian Faith IV.12 and 1 other place.
Cited together in Exposition of the Christian Faith IV.12.
Cited together in Against Praxeas Chapter 14.
Cited together in Sermons Sermon 23.
Cited together in On the Holy Trinity II.1.
Cited together in Against Praxeas Chapter 14.
Cited together in Exposition of the Christian Faith V.19.
Cited together in Exposition of the Christian Faith V.19.
Cited together in Tractates on the Gospel of John Tractate 107.
Cited together in Sermons Sermon 23 and 1 other place.
Cited together in Exposition of the Christian Faith V.19.
Cited together in An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith I.8 and 1 other place.
Cited together in On the Holy Trinity II.1.
Cited together in Exposition of the Christian Faith V.19 and 2 other places.