Patristic A.D. 407
“(Hom. xli. 13.) Here is the crowning proof of their impiety. He says, as it were, If it was the love of God that made you persecute me, you would persecute Antichrist much more: for he does not profess to be sent by the Father, or to come according to His will; but, on the contrary, usurping what does not belong to him, will proclaim himself to be God over all. It is manifest that your persecution of Me is from malice and hatred of God. Then He gives the reason of their unbelief: How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only? another proof this, that theirs was not a zeal for God, but a gratification of their own passions.”
Catena Aurea: Gospel of John, as excerpted in the Catena Aurea on John 5:41-47
PD · J. H. Newman (Oxford, 1845) ↗