From a reader…
QUAERITUR:
Question re Passion Sunday gospel Latin
Message:
Would you please translate this passage from Sunday’s gospel with all
the nuances of plurals and verb tenses translated into English – even
clunky English? I am curious why Jesus seems to be addressing a group
and then seems to narrow to the singular ‘mendax.’
et non cognovistis eum: ego autem novi eum. Et si dixero quia non scio
eum, ero similis vobis, mendax. Sed scio eum, et sermonem ejus servo.
Even a private answer later would be appreciated. I realize it is an
extraordinarily busy season for you.
The Gospel for Passion Sunday in the Vetus Ordo is from John 8:46-59.
This pericope (a cutting of Scripture for liturgical use) comes at the end of an increasingly hostile dispute between Jesus and certain Jews in the Temple precincts during the days of the Feast of Tabernacles. The broader setting runs from John 7 into John 8. Jesus has gone up to Jerusalem, taught publicly, and provoked division. Some hear Him gladly, some are puzzled, and others harden into open opposition. Since Laetare Sunday the Church, focusing on clashes between Jesus and the authorities in John, is setting the liturgical stage for the Passion. The immediate context, earlier in John 8, after the towering golden lamps in the Temple are extinguished, Jesus says, “I am the light of the world”. He disputes with the Pharisees. Then, in 8:31-47, He addresses Jews who had at least outwardly “believed” in Him. He tells them that true disciples abide in His word, and that the truth will make them free. They answer defensively by appealing to their descent from Abraham. Jesus then distinguishes between physical descent from Abraham and spiritual sonship. If they were truly Abraham’s children, they would do the works of Abraham, above all receiving God’s messenger. Instead, they seek to kill Him. The argument sharpens into the severe language about their not hearing God because they are not “of God.” Finally, when the Jews object that Jesus is not yet 50 years old and therefore He could not have seen Abraham, Jesus says: “Before Abraham was, I AM” (John 8:58), which is a divinity claim. They take up stones to kill Him there in the Temple precincts where it was legal for them to do so under the Romans.
As for that passage, John 8:55, the RSV says:
55 But you have not known him; I know him. If I said, I do not know him, I should be a liar (mendax) like you; but I do know him and I keep his word.
That phrase “If I said…” is a compression of “if I were to say (but I am not saying it…)”.
Since the subject is ego that mendax is singular.
The KJV spells out the conditional a bit more clearly.
55 Yet ye have not known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep his saying.
Or, “if I were to say X, then I would be a liar (but I haven’t said X and, therefore, I am not a liar”. The protasis is “if I were to say X” and the apodosis is “I shall/would be a liar”. The Greek has Christ say in the protosis, “εἴπω… eipo”, which is a 1st person singular 2nd aorist active subjunctive. This is followed in the apodosis by ἔσομαι … esomai, which is a 1st person singular future indicative. It is a kind of hypothetical future supposition.
It is also an example of the use of reductio ad absurdum, since it is unthinkable that Christ would say something false.
Theologically, John 8:55 shows that the knowledge of God is Christological: the Father cannot be rightly known apart from the Son. Morally, it shows that truth requires confession even when confession provokes hostility. Spiritually, it warns against the illusion that religious speech by itself amounts to communion with God. Christ is not only exposing His opponents, but he is revealing the pattern of holiness. A holy person does not invent a private idea of God, nor adjust the truth for safety. He receives, keeps, and confesses outwardly what God has given. Christ does this perfectly because He is the Son by nature. We, however, only do it by grace and only when we remain in Him.
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