John 3:12 — Community Reflections

JOHN 3:12 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?”

I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? — the pedagogical principle: if spiritual truth's earthly expressions provoke disbelief, celestial mysteries will certainly exceed capacity. The dichotomy (earthly/heavenly, ta epigeia/ta epourania) establishes hierarchical orders of reality. Jesus' teaching progresses from accessible to transcendent; resistance at the first level prevents ascent to the second.

Church Fathers on John 3:12

Nicodemus cannot take in the mysteries of the Divine Majesty, which our Lord reveals, and therefore asks how it is, not denying the fact, not meaning any censure, but wishing to be informed: Nicodemus answered and said to Him, How can these things be?
HAYMO ·

Forasmuch then as he still remains a Jew, and, after such clear evidence, persists in a low and carnal system, Christ addresses him henceforth with greater severity: Jesus answered and said to him, Are you a master in Israel, and know not these things?
Chrysostom · 4th century

What think we? that our Lord wished to insult this master in Israel? He wished him to be born of the Spirit: and no one is born of the Spirit except he is made humble; for this very humility it is, which makes us to be born of the Spirit. He however was inflated with his eminence as a master, and thought himself of importance because he was a doctor of the Jews. Our Lord then casts down his pride, in order that he may be born of the Spirit.
Augustine · 4th century

Read all 10 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

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