Стих 11. Жидове же искаху Его в праздник...8 Прекрасны же дела их в праздничные дни, в которых они видели удобный случай к убийству. Однако, вознамерившись убить во время праздника Иисуса Христа, Который, по их предположению, мог прийти вследствие большого народного собрания, они ошиблись, так как не находили Его.

Стих 11… И глаголаху: где есть Он? Из ненависти не желают даже назвать Его по имени; но вместе с тем речь эта указывает на некоторое смягчение гнева.

Стих 12. И ропот мног бе о Нем в народех...1 – возмущение, спор.

Стих 12... Овии глаголаху, яко благ есть...,2 т.е. люди с неиспорченным сердцем.

Стих 12... Инии же глаголаху: ни, но льстит народы (κοσμον)...3 испорченные. Миром (κοσμος) назвали людей.

Стих 13. Никтоже убо яве глаголаше о Нем, страха ради иудейского.4 Никто из говоривших, что Он добр, не говорил этого о Нем открыто, т.е. вслух, боясь начальников.

Стих 14. Абие же в преполовение праздника взыде Иисус во церковь и учаше.5 Вошел, когда узнал, что гнев их смягчен, и учил, показывая свою неустрашимость. В преполовение праздника постановления кущей, т.е. в четвертый день, так как праздновали его семь дней.

Verse 15. And the Jews were amazed, saying, 'Why did you not learn this message?'6 They were amazed, not at what Jesus Christ taught, but at how He knows the Scriptures without studying. They understood that His teaching was full of all wisdom, and they thought that without knowledge of the Scriptures He could not teach it. From this they should have learned that God is He Who is Wisdom Itself, the One Who Himself has found all the ways of wisdom (Bar. 3:37).

Verse 16. Jesus answered them and said, "My teaching is not mine, but He who sent me."7 My teaching is spoken in accordance with the truth, but not mine is spoken in accordance with the all-wise plans of the Economy, in order to give honor to the Father and God, and to show humility and thereby make the teaching itself more acceptable. But if this is said in accordance with the plans of the Economy, then there can be no falsehood here, because everything that belongs to the Son also belongs to the Father, just as everything that belongs to the Father certainly belongs to the Son; everything is common to Them, as equals. Or according to another deeper understanding: the teaching that seems to you to be Mine is not Mine in the proper sense, since I do not have My own special teaching, but the teaching of the Father, since I learned it from the Father, because with Us nature and will are identical, and because I am His Word; although I am another Hypostasis, yet I say and do so that you consider Us to be one.

Verse 17. If anyone desires to do His will, he understands the doctrine which is from God, or I speak of Himself.8 By the will of God is here called the fulfillment of virtue and attention to prophecies about Him, because virtue purifies the mind, and prophecies clearly teach. The one who speaks of his own free will speaks on his own behalf. Further, he cites a consideration against which nothing can be said.

Verse 18. Speak of thyself, seeketh thy glory: but seek the glory of Him that sent Him, this one is true.9 Glory in this passage is called honor. Everywhere He placed the Father and God above Him, and attributed everything to Him, even His own deeds. And so, he who does not seek his own glory, why will he teach any foreign doctrine? And he who does not teach someone else's teaching, but that which belongs to him who sent him, is certainly true. And why did Jesus Christ draw everyone to faith in Himself and say: "He who does not honor the Son, does not honor the Father who sent Him" (John 5:23)? Apparently, He was seeking His glory by this. But He did this and spoke not out of love for His glory, but out of a desire to save people, which could happen in no other way than through faith in Him. The Father said: "This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased: Hear ye Him" (Matt. 17:5), and many other things of the same kind through the prophets.

Verse 18... And there is no unrighteousness in Him. He who seeks the glory of Him who sent Him is not unjust. By unrighteousness in this passage some understood falsehood. There were many reasons why Jesus Christ spoke of Himself in a humiliating way: first of all, so that they would not think that He was not born, and would not consider Him an opponent of God, then – the weakness of the listeners, then – the one to teach people to be humble and not to say anything great about themselves, then – the fact that He spoke as a man, and – many others; but there was only one reason why He spoke lofty, namely, the loftiness of the Godhead. Since the Jews themselves brought two accusations against Jesus Christ: breaking the law and resisting God; because He broke the Sabbath and called God His Father, making Himself equal with God, as it is said above in the fifth chapter (v. 18), to one thing He answered them there, showing that He did not resist God, and to the other He now answers, and shows that they themselves are rather transgressors of the law.

Verse 19. Did not Moses give you the law... 1 The law in general refers to the commandments of the law, which Moses gave when he received them from God and wrote them to the people. So he asks; Did not Moses give you the law, Moses, whom you revere and so strongly defended, with whom God spoke?

Verse 19... And no one of you makes the law... 2 He creates, i.e. observes. Then he adds how they do not keep the law.