John 7:14-31 In that time, about the midst of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple, and taught. And the Jews wondered. And so on.

 

 Homily by St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo.

29th Tract on John

He Who had gone up unto the Feast, not openly, but as it were in secret, the Same taught, and spake openly, and no man laid hands upon Him. That He had hid Himself, was for example's sake; that He manifested Himself, was to show His power. And when He taught, the Jews marvelled. As seemeth to my mind, they all marvelled, but were not all converted. And wherefore marvelled they? Because many of them knew where He was born, and how He had been brought up. They had never seen Him learn letters; but they heard Him dispute concerning the law, and allege the testimony of the same, as no man could do who had not read it; and no man can read unless he learn; and therefore they marvelled. But their marvelling was unto the Teacher an occasion for the revealing of higher truth.

For when they marvelled and whispered, the Lord said a certain deep thing, yea, a thing worthy of very careful thought and discussion. And what was this thing which the Lord gave for an answer to such as marvelled that He knew letters, having never learned? Jesus answered them and said: My doctrine is not Mine, but His That sent Me. Here is the first depth, for He seemeth in these few words to enunciate a contradiction. He saith not: This doctrine is not Mine but: My doctrine is not Mine. O how is it thine? If it be thine, wherefore sayest Thou that it is not thine? For Thou sayest: My doctrine is not Mine.

Let us then carefully regard what this same holy Evangelist saith in the beginning of his Gospel, and we shall find there wherewith to loose the knot of this difficulty. There it is written: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. i. 1. What is the doctrine of the Father but the Word of the Father? If Christ therefore be the Word of the Father, He is the doctrine of the Father. But a Word cannot be of no one, but must needs, if it be a Word, have some one whose word it is. Christ therefore saith that His doctrine is Himself, and therefore not His, forasmuch as He is the Word of the Father. And what hast thou that is so much thine own as thy self? Or what is there that is so little thine own as thyself, if that which thou art is another's?