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John

About this book
Chapter 14

1 “Do not let your hearts be distressed. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 There are many dwelling places in my Father’s house. Otherwise, I would have told you, because I am going away to make ready a place for you.⁠ 3 And if I go and make ready a place for you, I will come again and take you to be with me, so that where I am you may be too. 4 And you know the way where I am going.” 5 Thomas said, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus replied, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.⁠ No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you have known me, you will know my Father too. And from now on you do know him and have seen him.” 8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be content.” 9 Jesus replied, “Have I been with you for so long and yet you have not known me, Philip? The person who has seen me has seen the Father! How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own initiative, but the Father residing in me performs his miraculous deeds. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me, but if you do not believe me, believe because of the miraculous deeds themselves. 12 I tell you the solemn truth, the person who believes in me will perform the miraculous deeds that I am doing, and will perform greater deeds than these because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. 15 “If you love me, you will obey my commandments.⁠ 16 Then I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept because it does not see him or know him. But you know him because he resides with you and will be in you. 18 “I will not abandon you as orphans, I will come to you. 19 In a little while the world will not see me any longer, but you will see me; because I live, you will live too. 20 You will know at that time that I am in my Father and you are in me and I am in you. 21 The person who has my commandments and obeys them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will reveal myself to him.” 22 “Lord,” Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “what has happened that you are going to reveal yourself to us and not to the world?” 23 Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and take up residence with him. 24 The person who does not love me does not obey my words. And the word you hear is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me. 25 “I have spoken these things while staying with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and will cause you to remember everything I said to you. 27 “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; I do not give it to you as the world does. Do not let your hearts be distressed or lacking in courage. 28 You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father because the Father is greater than I am. 29 I have told you now before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe. 30 I will not speak with you much longer, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me, 31 but I am doing just what the Father commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Get up, let us go from here.

Texts in conversation

Compare 1 Esdras 4:35 and John 14:6 and Augustine, City of God 18.36

Deuterocanon · New Testament · Early Christian

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Summary

In 1 Esdras, Zerubbabel says truth is great and stronger than all things, and in John, Jesus calls himself the truth. Augustine connects the two, asking whether Zerubbabel's speech is a prophecy about Jesus, since the Gospel says Jesus is the Truth.

Passages

1 Esdras 4:35

Deuterocanon · Esdras A, 3 Esdras
33 Then the king and the nobles looked at one another. So he began to speak concerning truth. 34 “O sirs, aren’t women strong? The earth is great. The sky is high. The sun is swift in its course, for it circles around the sky, and returns on its course again in one day. 35 Isn’t he who makes these things great? Therefore the truth is great, and stronger than all things. 36 All the earth calls upon truth, and the sky blesses truth. All works shake and tremble, but with truth there is no unrighteous thing. 37 Wine is unrighteous. The king is unrighteous. Women are unrighteous. All the children of men are unrighteous, and all their works are unrighteous. There is no truth in them. They shall also perish in their unrighteousness. 38 But truth remains, and is strong forever. Truth lives and conquers forevermore.
300–101 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Esdras

John 14:6

New Testament
5 Thomas said, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus replied, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you have known me, you will know my Father too. And from now on you do know him and have seen him.”
90–110 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in John

Augustine, City of God 18.36

Early Christian · On the City of God Against the Pagans
After these three prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, during the same period of the liberation of the people from the Babylonian servitude Esdras also wrote, who is historical rather than prophetic, as is also the book called Esther, which is found to relate, for the praise of God, events not far from those times; unless, perhaps, Esdras is to be understood as prophesying of Christ in that passage where, on a question having arisen among certain young men as to what is the strongest thing, when one had said kings, another wine, the third women, who for the most part rule kings, yet that same third youth demonstrated that the truth is victorious over all. For by consulting the Gospel we learn that Christ is the Truth.
426 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Augustine, City of God 18

References

“... Although there are dozens of citations and allusions to 1 Esdras in the Church Fathers, the most eminent Christian reading of 1 Esdras is that supplied by Augustine in De civitate Dei 18.36. [...] Augustine sees 1 Esd 4:35 (4:41 Vulg.) concerning Zerubbabel’s climactic remark that “truth is great, and stronger than all things” (ἡ ἀλήθεια μεγάλη καὶ ἰσχυροτέρα παρὰ πάντα, magna veritas et praevalet) a prophecy about Christ fulfilled in the Gospel. The Gospel that Augustine refers to of course is the Fourth Gospel, in particular, it appears that he has in mind John 14:6 with the Johannine Jesus’ saying: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Augustine knows full well that 1 Esdras is a historical work and not a prophetic book and there is no question as to whether or not this was the intended point of Zerubbabel’s speech in the text of 1 Esdras—it clearly was not—but Augustine is not engaging in crass allegory or rank eisegesis. ...”
Michael F. Bird, 1 Esdras: Introduction and Commentary on the Greek Text in Codex Vaticanus (Leiden: Brill, 2012), 29.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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1 Esdras 4:35 and John 14:6 and Augustine, City of God 18.36

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