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This Part: 128 Pages
Page 88
17, 18 The multitude therefore that was with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb, and raised him from the dead, bare witness. For this cause also the multitude went and met Him, for that they heard that He had done this sign.
The gathering of the common people, having heard what had happened, were readily persuaded by those who bare witness that the Christ had raised Lazarus to life, and annulled the power of death, as the prophets said: for this cause also they went and met Him.
19 The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, Do ye see how ye prevail nothing? Lo, the whole world is gone after Him.
This they say, finding fault with themselves, that they had not long ago put Jesus and Lazarus also to death, urging themselves to murder; being angry concerning the believing multitude, as though deprived of their special possessions----those which really belonged to God.
20 Now there were certain Greeks among those that went up to worship at the feast.
Any one might be perplexed at these words and wonder with what motive certain of the Greeks should be going up to Jerusalem to worship, and this at the time when the feast was being celebrated according to the Law. For surely no one will say that they went up merely to look at the people there; certainly it was with the intention of participating in the feast which was suitable for Jews and Jews only, that they were journeying up in the company of the Jews. What was the point, as regards the motive of worship, that was common to both Greeks and Jews? And indeed we shall find that the habit and inclination of the two differed very widely; for the one honoured the truth, whereas the other honoured what was false. What shall we say then with regard to these words? As the territory of the Jews was situated near that of the Galileans, and as both they and the Greeks had cities and villages in close vicinity to each other, they were continually intermingling together, and interchanging visits, invited thereto by a variety of occasions. And since it somehow happens that the disposition of idol-worshippers is very easily brought to welcome a change for the better, and inasmuch as nothing is easier than to convict their false worship of being utterly unprofitable, some among them were easily persuaded to change; not yet indeed in full perfection to worship Him Who alone is truly God, being somewhat divided with regard to the arguments in favour of abandoning idolatry, and following the precepts of their own teachers, I mean Plato and those who are called the wise men of his school. For they say that one (God) is the Creator of all things, and that the rest are included within the universe, and have been elected by Him as directors for the administration of human affairs. It was then a custom for certain of the inhabitants of Palestine, especially the Greeks, who had the territory of the Jews closely adjoining and bordering on their own, to be impressed in some way by the Jewish habits of thought, and to honour the name of One Sovereign [Deity]; and this was the view current among those Greeks, whom we just now mentioned, albeit they did not express it in the same way that we do. And they, not having the tendency to Judaism in full force, nor even having separated themselves from the habits dear to the Greeks, but holding an intermediate opinion which inclined both ways, are called "worshippers of God." People of this kind therefore, seeing that their own habits of thought were not very sharply distinguished from those of the Jews as regarded sacrificial rites and the conception of a Sovereign Ruler: (for the Israelites did not previously know the doctrine of the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity, nor even the true force of their spiritual worship:) they were in the habit of going up with the Jews to worship, especially at the national gatherings, not meaning to slight their own religion, but as an act of honour to the One All-supreme God.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/cyril-alexandria/john-commentary-4.asp?pg=88
