5. Dicit ei Thomas: Domine, 5. Thomas saith to him: Lord, nescimus quo vadis: et quomodo we know not whither thou possumus viam scire? goest, and how can we know the way? 6. Dicit ei Iesus: Ego sum 6. Jesus saith to him, I am via, et veritas, et vita, nemo the way, and the truth, and venit ad Patrem, nisi per me. the life, no man cometh to the Father but by me. 5, 6. St. Thomas interrupts, and Jesus explains, pointing out that He Himself is the way to the Father. *I am the way, and the truth, and the life.* Many interpretations of these words have been given. We believe that the first clause: “I am the way,” answers Thomas’ difficulty; but as such a statement itself needed explanation, the remaining words “and the truth, and the life,” are added to explain how Christ is the way namely, inasmuch as He is the Truth, _i.e._ the author of faith; and the Life, _i.e._ the author of grace and of the supernatural life of the soul. In this view the phrase hebraizes, the first “and” being explanatory: I am the way, _inasmuch as_ I am the truth and the life. This seems better than to hold with SS. Augustine and Thomas that Christ declares Himself the way _as man_, the truth and the life as God. St. Augustine’s words are: “Ipse igitur (vadit) ad seipsum per seipsum.” But the words that follow in this verse: “No man cometh to the Father but by me,” show that the Father, and not Christ as God, is the term to which the way in question leads. 7. Si cognovissetis me, et 7. If you had known me, you Patrem meum utique would without doubt have known cognovissetis: et amodo my Father also; and from cognoscetis eum, et vidistis henceforth you shall know him, eum. and you have seen him.