Verses used by the Arians – My Father is greater than I

here’s a clear, faithful English summary (literal-style) of the same lecture by Pope Shenouda III on “My Father is greater than I” (John 14:28).

Summary — “My Father is greater than I” (John 14:28)

Opening / context

• The verse in question: “You heard that I said to you, ‘I am going away and I will come to you.’ If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, ‘I go to the Father,’ for My Father is greater than I.” (John 14:28).

• This verse produced major controversy in the 4th century because of Arianism (the claim that the Son is less than the Father in essence). The issue became widely debated even in ordinary public conversation.

• The Coptic Church preserved and reads this passage openly (it is part of the Third Hour Gospel in the daily prayers), showing no fear of the tension — because the verse must be read in its context.

Immediate context in John 14

• Jesus speaks these words to his disciples after the Last Supper and while they are moving toward Gethsemane and the Passion.

• He comforts them: “My peace I give to you… I go to the Father and will come again.” Then: “If you loved Me, you would rejoice that I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.”

• The meaning is tied to Jesus’ going (departure) — He returns to the Father and to the glory He had before the incarnation.

Main thesis: kenosis (self-emptying) — not a denial of divinity

• The key idea is “kenosis”: Jesus emptied Himself (Philippians 2:6–9). He took on human form and the condition of a servant.

• The statement “the Father is greater” refers to Jesus’ state during the incarnation — his emptied, humbled human condition — not to an ontological inferiority in divine nature.

• In his divine nature the Son is equal with the Father; but in the economy of salvation (the incarnation, suffering, death) the Son experienced a voluntary lowering of status.

Biblical proof of the Son’s equality with the Father

(These verses show the Son’s unity with the Father in nature and authority.)

• John 10:30 — “I and the Father are one.”

• John 14:9 — “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.”

• John 17:10 — “All that is Mine is Yours, and Yours is Mine.”

• John 14:10 — “I am in the Father and the Father in Me.”

• John 1:18 — the only-begotten Son in the Father’s bosom reveals the Father.

• John 1:3 / Colossians 2:9 — all things were made through Him; the fullness of deity dwells bodily in Christ.

• Other Pauline texts (1 Cor 1:24; Hebrews 1; etc.) confirm the Son’s divine status.

What “greater” refers to

• The comparison is temporal/functional: the Father’s glory and the Son’s pre-incarnate divine glory.

• Jesus’ humiliated state (the human condition, suffering, death on the cross) is contrasted with the Father’s glorious state. In that sense — as the incarnate and suffering Son — the Father is “greater.”

• This is the same point Paul makes in Philippians 2: Christ, though in the form of God, did not cling to equality but emptied Himself, took human likeness, and humbled Himself to death — then was exalted by God.

Additional scriptural and theological points used

• Hebrews 2 / Psalm 8: “You made him a little lower than the angels…” — the Son in incarnation tasted death and shared in human weakness temporarily.

• The incarnation (and its humiliation) is temporary: after the work of redemption, Christ is crowned with glory and all knees will bow (Philippians 2:9–11). The Son returns to full exercise of divine glory.

• Fathers (e.g., Ambrose) and Church usage: passages like God’s oath to Abraham (“by myself I have sworn”) demonstrate the unity of God’s personhood and support that there is no greater Being than God — hence no ontological “greater” beyond the Father.

Conclusion / pastoral application

• “My Father is greater than I” must be understood as a remark about the Son’s incarnational state (his voluntary humiliation), not as a denial of the Son’s deity.

• The verse emphasizes Christ’s self-emptying love and the significance of his departure: he returns to the Father’s glory and prepares a place for believers.

• The statement thus deepens appreciation of the mystery of the incarnation and the greatness of Christ’s humility for our salvation.