Hour for the nations; grain, glory, and light (John 12:21–38)

…place because of the miracles that happened among the Jews. So then it is time for the disciples to pass over to the nations, even if at the beginning they did not do this, so that the Jews might not take offense.

He calls glory the resurrection, after which he was glorified as Son of God.

Do not be troubled if I die; for then the proclamation grows all the more and those from the nations believe. And do not disbelieve; for this also happens in the grain. When I suffer and die, I rise with greater glory; for all are going to believe in me as God.

The one who has despised life in this world acquires the incorruptible in the age to come. That one loves his own soul and loses it who does its illicit desires; but the one who hates and saves it is the one who does not obey it when it commands what is illicit.

Through the resurrection from the dead. And he calls glory the cross, through which human beings came to know the Father’s name.

The Son was always conspicuous in wonders, having the Father as fellow-worker, and he glorifies him again through the sign at his death; for as man he was raised through the Father, even if as God by nature the Son raised himself.

How the voice was arranged is not ours to say; for the Father did not speak as having a body, as some heretics have tried to claim.

To the crowd the voice was indistinct; but perhaps because it was made known to the disciples through Christ, the Jews ought to have understood that it was the Father who answered back in the way he knows; for Jesus did not ask that thunder happen.

Through faith or unbelief—some being made God’s own, others being set as enemies—all humanity is judged through me, saying to the devil as in a courtroom: granted that you murdered the other human beings as sinners, why also the Lord? The time of the advent is a judgment of the world, since Christ is about to justify human beings and free them from the devil’s greed, not to condemn them now; for Christ’s death justifies all humanity against the devil who wronged the world, when the judgment takes place.

By saying “all,” he also signifies those from the nations. And he draws them as ones held by a tyrant and unable to flee of themselves—which elsewhere he calls a snatching. And let someone say, How did he also prevail over you? Not only because I rise, but also because I draw all to believe in me, that I am God, not a mere man.

He showed that he suffered willingly and knowing that he was not only dying but also by what manner; the evangelist named the cross death.

The Jews do not understand that Christ is slaughtered as a sheep, yet rising he remains forever, dying no longer.

He calls light the evangelical teaching, and darkness ignorance or the condemnation of the ungodly. He himself is the light. And he speaks of a time both the season before the passion and the whole of the present life, by love of humanity urging them toward faith.

Those who walk in light become sons of light. And if above he called the faithful sons of God, nothing follows from this; for Father and Son have one operation.

The way of salvation is faith into Christ, which makes sons of light—that is, of the Father; for the Son is light and the Father is, as of one nature.

Knowing as God that they were angry, he withdrew, giving time to test what had been spoken to them, not out of fear.

Let no one say: Why then did Christ come, knowing that they would not believe? For it must be said: so that the Jews might not have a pretext for unbelief, since the prophets also spoke knowing that they were not persuaded.

They were not forced by Isaiah’s prophecy into refusing to be persuaded, but because