John 12 - CSB Ancient Faith Study Bible

12:1-3 Athanasius: Martha herself was taking great care with the service and was ministering to Christ with all her heart. Mary herself was seated at the feet of Jesus and kissing them. . . . Christ beholds them both with his divine eyes and is cheered and rejoices over the purity of their mode of life and the offering to him of their undefiled service. Homily on the Resurrection of Lazarus.

12:7 Ephrem the Syrian: [Christ] restored Lazarus to life and died in his stead. For after he had drawn [Lazarus] from the tomb and had seated himself at table with him, he was himself buried by the symbol of the ointment that Mary “poured.” . . . Thus, [the Lord] came to Bethany, raised his friend and buried himself through the symbol of the ointment. He made Mary and Martha joyful and exposed both Sheol and greed, Sheol because it would not always be holding onto him and greed because it would not always be selling him. Commentary on Tatian’s Diatessaron 17.7–8.

12:10-11 Chrysostom: No other miracle of Christ exasperated the Jewish leaders as much as this one. . . . It was so public, and so wonderful, to see a man walking and talking after he had been dead four days. And the fact was so undeniable. . . . In the case of some other miracles, they had charged [Jesus] with breaking the sabbath and so diverted people’s minds; but here there was nothing to find fault with, and therefore they vent their anger upon Lazarus. . . . They would have done the same to the blind man, had they not had the charge to make of breaking the sabbath. Then again the latter was a poor man, and they cast him out of the temple, but Lazarus was a man of rank, as is plain from the number who came to comfort his sisters. . . . It exasperated them to see all leaving the feast, which was now beginning, and going to Bethany. Homilies on the Gospel of John 66.1.

12:12 Chrysostom: Wealth is just as liable as power to destroy those who are not careful. The first leads into covetousness; the second, into pride. See, for instance, how the multitude of the Jews is sound while their rulers are corrupt. For the first of these believed Christ, as the Evangelists continually assert, saying [in Jn 7:31] that “many of the multitude believed on him,” but those who were of the ruling party did not believe. . . . But how is it that he now enters openly into Jerusalem whereas before he had not walked openly among the Jews and had withdrawn into the wilderness? Having quenched their anger by withdrawing, he comes to them now when they are calmer. Moreover, the multitude that went before him and then followed after him was enough to throw [his critics] into an agony of fear. For no miracle so attracted the people as that of Lazarus. And another Evangelist [Mt 21:10] says that [the people] threw their garments under his feet and that “the whole city was moved.” This is the kind of honor he had when he entered the city. Homilies on the Gospel of John 66.1.

12:13 Bede: The crowd took this verse of praise from the one hundred and seventeenth psalm [LXX; Ps 118 in the CSB–Ed.], and there is no one who doubts that it is sung about the Lord. Hence it is appropriate that there is previously sung of him in the same psalm, “The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” for Christ, whom the Jews rejected as they were building the decrees of their own traditions, became a memorial for believers from among both peoples, namely, the Jews and the Gentiles. For as to the fact that Christ is called the cornerstone in this psalm, this is what was being chanted in high praise in the Gospel by the voice of those who followed and those who went ahead. Homilies on the Gospels 2.3.

12:26 John Cassian: Everyone who lives in this body knows that he must be committed to that special task or ministry to which he has given himself in this life as a participant and a laborer, and he ought not to doubt that in that everlasting age he will also be the partner of him whose servant and companion he now wishes to be, according to what the Lord says, “If anyone serves me, let him follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be.” For just as the kingdom of the devil is gained by deceiving people with vices, so the kingdom of God is possessed in purity of heart and spiritual knowledge by practicing the virtues. And where the kingdom of God is, there without a doubt is eternal life, and where the kingdom of the devil is, there—it is not to be doubted—are death and hell. Whoever is there cannot praise the Lord. Conference 1.14.1–2.

12:27-28 Chrysostom: Although my trouble urges me to say, “Save me,” yet I say the opposite, “Glorify your name,” that is, “From now on, lead me to your cross.” Here [Christ] definitely shows his humanity and a nature unwilling to die that is clinging to this present life. It proves that he was not exempt from human feelings. To have a desire for this present life is not necessarily wrong, though, any more than it is to be hungry or to want to sleep. Christ indeed had a body free from sin, and yet it was not free from the natural wants of the body; otherwise it would not have been a body. Homilies on the Gospel of John 67.1.

12:39-41 Augustine: [T]he prophet, you say, assigns another cause than that of their will. What cause does the prophet assign? That “God has given them the spirit of remorse, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear. And has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart.” This also, I reply, their will deserved. For God thus blinds and hardens, simply by letting alone and withdrawing his aid. And God can do this by a judgment that is hidden, although not by one that is unrighteous [see Dt 32:4]. This is a doctrine that the piety of the God-fearing ought to preserve unshaken and inviolable in all its integrity: even as the apostle, when treating of the same intricate question, says, “What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid” [Rm 9:14]. If, then, we must be far from thinking that there is unrighteousness with God, this only can it be, that, when he gives his aid, he acts mercifully. And when he withholds it, he acts righteously. For in all he does, he does not act rashly but in accordance with judgment. Tractates on the Gospel of John 53.6.

12:47 Cyril of Alexandria: Those who refuse to hear Jesus and accept saving faith will condemn themselves, for he who came to illumine came not to judge but to save. Therefore, he who disobeys and subjects himself to the greatest miseries can only blame himself as justly punished. Commentary on the Gospel of John 8.

12:49-50 Chrysostom: Do you see the humility of [Christ’s] words? For he who has received a commandment is not his own master. Yet he says, “As the Father raises up the dead and enlivens them, even so the Son enlivens whom he will” [Jn 5:21]. Does he have power then to enliven whomever he wants, and does he not have the power to say what he wants? What he intends then by the words is this: It is not possible that he [the Father] should speak one set of words and I should utter another. “And I know that his commandment is life everlasting.” [Jesus] said this to those who called him a deceiver and who asserted that he had come to do harm. However, when he says [in V. 47] “I judge not,” he shows that he is not the cause of their destruction. By this he all but plainly testifies (when he is about to remove himself from them and leave) that “I converse with you, speaking nothing on my own but everything as from the Father.” Homilies on the Gospel of John 69.2.