the flesh, but means to convey the conception of His divinity with special fitness at this time,
when He is about to change the water into wine; which divinity, likewise, had made that
woman, and had not itself been made in her.
12. Then, after noticing the few days spent in Capharnaum, the evangelist comes again
to the temple, where he states that Jesus spoke of the temple of His body in these terms:
“Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up:”1632 in which declaration emphatic
intimation is given not only that God was in that temple in the person of the Word that was
made flesh, but also that He Himself raised the said flesh to life, in the veritable exercise of
that prerogative which He has in His oneness with the Father, and according to which He
does not act separately from Him; whereas it will perhaps be found that, in all other passages,
the phrase which Scripture employs is one to the effect that God raised Him: neither is there
any such expression found anywhere else as that, when God raised Christ, Christ also raised
Himself, because He is one God with the Father; which is the import of the passage now
before us, in which He says, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
13. Then how great and how divine are the words reported to have been spoken with
Nicodemus! From these the evangelist proceeds again to the testimony of John, and brings
before our notice the fact, that the friend of the bridegroom cannot but rejoice because of
the bridegroom’s voice. In this statement He gives us to understand that the soul of man
neither has light derivable from itself, nor can have blessing, except by participation in the
unchangeable wisdom. Thereafter he carries us on to the case of the woman of Samaria, in
connection with which mention is made of the water, whereof if a man drinks, he shall
never thirst again. Once more, he brings us again to Cana of Galilee, where Jesus had made
the water wine. In that narrative he tells us how He spoke to the nobleman, whose son was
sick, in these terms: “Except ye see signs and wonders ye believe not:”1633 in which saying
He aims at lifting the mind of the believer high above all things mutable, so that He would
not have even the miracles themselves, which, however they may bear the impression of
what is divine, are yet wrought in the instance of what is changeable in bodies, made objects
of seeking on the part of the faithful.
14. Next he brings us back to Jerusalem, and tells the story of the healing of the man
who had an infirmity of thirty-eight years’ standing. What words are spoken on this occasion,
and how ample is the discourse! Here we are met by the sentence, “The Jews sought to kill
Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but said also that God was His Father, making
Himself equal with God.”1634 In this passage it is made sufficiently plain that He did not
speak of God as His Father in the ordinary sense in which holy men are in the habit of using
1632 John ii. 12–22.
1633 John iv. 48.
1634 John v. 18.
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Of the Evangelist John, and the Distinction Between Him and the Other T…