Commentary on John 1 part 11/94

rather, that 'the holy thing which is begotten,' not even adding 'shall be'—for this He always was by nature as God.

But since I think it fitting that we hunt out what is profitable from every quarter, now that the voice of the archangel has once been brought forward, come, let us also exercise ourselves a little upon it.

'A Holy Spirit,' it says, 'shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee; wherefore also the holy thing that is begotten shall be called the Son of God.' Let him therefore tell us—he who out of great ignorance sets himself against the right doctrines of the Church—whether the Word of God and the Father was the Son even before the Incarnation, or whether He had the glory in names only, but was spurious and falsely named.

For if he says that He was not the Son at all, he will be denying the Father;

for of whom will He be Father, if there is no Son? And he will be minded contrary to all the divine Scriptures.

But if he confesses the Son, and that even before the Incarnation the Son both was and was called Son, how does the archangel say to us that what was about to be born through the holy Virgin shall be called Son of God, although He was this even of old by nature? Just therefore as, existing eternally with the Father, the Son—as having a beginning of existence—is defined as Son of God at the time of the Incarnation, because He appeared with a body in the world;

so also, having essentially in Himself His own Spirit, He is said to receive it as man, preserving for the humanity the order befitting it, and together with it appropriating to Himself for our sakes the things befitting it;

and how could the Word ever be conceived at all apart from His own Spirit? For is it not absurd to say that the spirit which is in a man is separated from him, according to the definition of the nature and unto the complete constitution of the living being? But I think this is most evident to all.

In what manner then shall we separate the Spirit from the Son—the Spirit that is thus naturally implanted and essentially united, that proceeds through Him, and exists in Him naturally, so as to be thought nothing other than He, both because of the identity of operation and because of the very unchangeableness of the nature? Hear, then, what the Saviour says to His own disciples: 'If ye love Me, keep My commandments, and I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive.' Behold, He expressly calls the Holy Spirit the Spirit of truth;

and again, hear Him saying, 'I am the truth.' Since therefore the Son, who is such by nature, both is and is called truth, see how great a unity the Spirit has with Him.

For John the disciple says somewhere concerning our Saviour: 'This is He that came by water and blood and Spirit, Jesus Christ;

not by water only, but by the water and the blood;

and it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is the truth.' On this very account, moreover, when the Holy Spirit dwells in us in the inner man, Christ Himself is said to dwell in us, and such is the matter by nature.

And indeed the blessed Paul, teaching this most clearly, says: 'But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.

But if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.

But if Christ is in you, the body indeed is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.' O sir, lend a keen ear to what has been said.

Having named the Spirit of Christ that dwells in us, he straightway added, 'But if Christ is in you,' bringing in the unvarying likeness of the Son to His own Spirit which naturally and from Himself proceeds.

On this account, too, it is called the Spirit of adoption, and in Him we cry, 'Abba, Father'; and as the blessed John says somewhere: 'Hereby we know that He is in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit.' I think, then, that these things suffice to enable the children of the Church to repel the harm of those who hold heterodox opinions;

but if anyone has been baptized in the undiluted intoxication of ignorance, and supposes that the Son then first received the Spirit when He became man,

let him demonstrate that the Word of God was not holy before the Incarnation, and we will keep silent.

But one might also, and very reasonably, marvel at the holy Evangelist, who everywhere with much watchfulness preserves the things befitting the divine nature.

For since he had said before these things that 'no one hath ever seen God,' but now says that the blessed Baptist beheld the Spirit descending upon the Son from heaven, he necessarily adds: 'That I have beheld the Spirit'—yet 'in the form of a dove,' not it itself according to nature in that bare state in which it exists, but figured in the gentlest of creatures;

so that again also by this it might appear preserving a natural kinship and likeness to the Son, who says, 'Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.' Therefore the Spirit shall not fall away from being God by nature;

for it is reserved for it never to have been beheld, except only in the figure of the dove, on account of the need of the one who was to learn.

For the blessed Baptist says that the descent of the Spirit was given to him in the rank of a sign and token, adducing it among his testimonies concerning our Saviour: 'He that sent me to baptize with water, He said unto me, Upon whomsoever thou shalt see the Spirit descending and abiding upon Him, this is He that baptizeth with the Holy Spirit.'

Wherefore also I think it most fitting to laugh at the senseless heretics, who take what was set forth in the rank of a sign for the truth of the reality, even though it came to pass by way of the economy, as has already been said before, on account of the need of the humanity.

'And I have seen, and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.'

A trustworthy witness, speaking that very thing which he actually beheld;

for he is perhaps not ignorant of that which is written: 'Speak the things which thine eyes have seen.' 'I saw, then,' he says, 'the sign, and I understood that which was signified by it;

I bear witness that this is the Son of God, who is proclaimed by the Law given through Moses, and preached by the voice of the holy prophets.'

And it seems to me that the blessed Evangelist again spoke with much carefulness, 'This is the Son of God,' that is, the one and only by nature, the heir of the property of Him who begot, unto whom we also, who are so by adoption, are conformed, and through whom we have been called according to grace unto the dignity of adoption.

'of the Son,' because He is properly and alone truly Son, neither spurious nor falsely named, but from the essence of God and the Father, not by way of cutting off, or flowing, or partition, or division;

for the divine nature is altogether impassible;

but as one from one, ever co-existing and co-eternal and implanted in Him who begot, being in Him, and having come forth from Him indivisibly and without interval, since the Godhead is neither corporeal, nor circumscribed by place, nor of a nature to make transitions across intervals, but as the heat that is in fire comes forth from it—seeming somehow in our conceptions to be divided from it, and to be something other than it, yet being from it and in it by nature, and proceeding from it without any wronging of it according to the notion of cutting off or partition or flowing;

for it is preserved whole in the whole fire;

so also shall we understand concerning the divine Offspring, taking a most God-befitting contemplation upon Him;

and believing that the Son subsists individually, yet not placing Him outside the one and ineffable Godhead, nor saying that He is of a different essence from the Father.

For otherwise He would no longer justly be conceived as Son, but as something other than this, and there would rise upon us a new-fangled god, being other than the one and only who exists.

For that which is not consubstantial with Him who is God by nature—how shall it not altogether fall away from being true God? But since the blessed Baptist is trustworthy and most worthy of hearing, and bears witness that this is the Son of God,

we shall by all means confess that the Son is true God and of the essence of the Father;

for this is what the name of sonship signifies to us, and nothing else.

'On the morrow again John was standing, and two of his disciples, and looking upon Jesus as He walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world.'

The blessed Baptist had already pointed Him out beforehand;

but behold, once more taking up the same word, he shows Jesus to his own disciples, and names Him the Lamb of God, and says that He takes away the sin of the world—all but bringing his hearers to remembrance of Him who says in the prophets: 'I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions, and I will remember them no more.' And not in vain does the Baptist, taking it up again, make the same explanation concerning the Saviour.

For it is a work of teaching virtue to lock the word not yet received into the souls of those being discipled, not shrinking from repetition, but rather bearing patiently for the profit of those being instructed.

For it is precisely on this account that the blessed Paul also says, 'To write the same things to you is not irksome to me, but for you it is safe.' The two disciples heard him speaking, and they followed Jesus.

Do you see how near akin to the teaching is the fruit produced from it? Do you see how great was found to be the gain of the repetition? Let him therefore who has been entrusted with teaching learn from these things that he ought to be seen better than all sloth, and to reckon silence more harmful to himself than to his hearers; and that he should not, as into idle inactivity, bury the Master's talent as it were in the ground, but rather distribute the silver among the bankers. For the Saviour will recover what is His own with interest, and will quicken, as a kind of seed, the word that has been cast in.

You have in these things a most fitting demonstration of what has been said.

For the Baptist, not being slothful to point out the Lord to his own disciples and to say a second time, 'Behold the Lamb of God,' is seen to have benefited them so greatly that he even persuaded them thereafter to follow, and already to long for discipleship under Him.

'And Jesus, turning and beholding them following, says to them, What seek ye?' The Lord usefully turns toward those who follow, that you may learn by deed the thing that is sung, 'I sought the Lord, and He gave heed to me.' For as long as we do not yet seek God by good ways and by rightness in believing, we lie, in a manner of speaking, behind His face.

'I will turn toward you, says the Lord Almighty.' And 'What seek ye?' He says to them.

Not that He was ignorant whence they came; for He knows all things as God.

But setting the question as a beginning and root for the discourse.

'And they said to Him, Rabbi (which means, being interpreted, Teacher), where dwellest Thou?' Well-instructedly do those who are questioned reply.

For they already call Him Teacher, thereby clearly interpreting their wish to learn something.

Then they ask to learn His dwelling, intending there opportunely to state their need.

For surely, as was reasonable, they did not think fit to make the discourse concerning necessary matters a mere by-the-way of the road.

And again what is said will serve us for a profitable pattern.

'He says to them, Come and see.'

He does not indicate the house, although this was what was asked of Him to do, but rather bids them go into it at once.

First teaching this, as it were making the matter an outline, that it is good not to fling off the seeking of good things into delays.

For delay altogether in things whose nature it is to profit is harmful.

Then in addition to this, also this: that for those still ignorant of the holy house of our Saviour Christ, that is, the Church, it will not suffice unto salvation to learn where it lies, but rather to come into it through faith, and to see the things mystically accomplished within it.

'They came therefore and saw where He dwelt, and they abode with Him that day.'

The disciples were assiduously instructed in the knowledge of the divine mysteries.

For I do not think it becoming that a mind quickly satiated should be in those who love learning, but rather one most laborious, and superior to the faint-heartedness that shrinks from noble sweats, so as throughout all the time of life to be seen excelling in whole-hearted eagerness.

For this, I think, is what the phrase means, as through a riddle: 'They abode with Him that day.'

And since he says, 'It was about the tenth hour,' to this very point also we speak, fitting to each what is useful and proper: that again through so subtle an approach the writer teaches us theology, namely that not at the beginning of the present age was the great mystery of our Saviour made known, but already toward the very end of the time, as it was drawing to a close.

For in the last days, as it is written, we have all been shown forth as taught of God.

But receive for me again an image of what has been said concerning the tenth hour: the disciples sitting close by the Saviour, whom the holy Evangelist says, having once lodged, they continued to abide with.

That again they may learn, those who through faith enter into the divine house and run to Christ Himself, that they must abide with Him, and not love again to be estranged, either by going out to sin or by relapsing into unbelief.

'Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two who had heard from John and had followed Him.'

'He first finds his own brother Simon, and says to him, We have found the Messiah, and he brought him to Jesus.'

Those who have just received the talent, straightway ply the working of the talent, and bring it to the Master.

For such indeed are the souls seen to be that love to hear and are apt to learn: not needing long words for their profit, nor in cycles of months or years bringing forth the fruit born of instruction, but together with the very beginnings of their lessons enclosing the perfection of understanding.

'Instruct a righteous man, and he will add to receiving.' Andrew therefore saves his own brother.

Having in a brief summary declared the whole great mystery.

'For we have found,' he says, 'Jesus, as a treasure hidden in a field, or as one pearl of great price,' according to the parables in the Gospels.

'Jesus, looking upon him, said, Thou art Simon the son of Jonas; thou shalt be called Cephas, which is interpreted Peter.'

In a manner befitting God He gazes fixedly, He who sees the hearts and reins.

And He sees to how great a reverence the disciple will ascend, and of what virtue he will be the possessor, and unto what end he will arrive.

For He who knows all things before their coming to be is ignorant of nothing. By this very thing especially He instructs the one who is called, that being true God He has knowledge that needs no teaching.

For needing no word at all, nor even having inquired to learn who or whence the man had come to Him, of what father he was born, and what he himself was named, He tells it.

And He no longer allows him to be called Simon, already exercising authority and mastery, as over one become His own.

And suitably to the name He renames him Peter, from the rock.

For upon him He was about to found His Church.

'On the morrow He wished to go forth into Galilee, and finds Philip, and Jesus says to him, Follow Me.'

Philip, being of like mind with those who went before, and being exceedingly well-suited for following Christ.

For He knew that he too would be good.

For this reason also He says, 'Follow Me,' setting the word as a token of the grace upon him, and by that whereby He commands him to follow, bearing witness to the most excellent conversation in him.

For He would not have chosen him were he not altogether good.

'Philip finds Nathanael, and says to him, Him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets wrote we have found, Jesus the son of Joseph, who is from Nazareth.'

Very keen indeed is the disciple unto the bearing of fruit, that thereby he may be seen akin in disposition to those who went before.

For he finds Nathanael, not simply lighting upon him as he came, but having made much search after him.

For he knew him to be most industrious and most fond of learning.

Then he says that he has found the Christ proclaimed throughout all the divine Scripture, conversing with him not as with one ignorant, but as with one exceedingly well-instructed in the utterances of the all-wise Moses and of the prophets.

But an untrue supposition concerning our Saviour Jesus Christ prevailed among the Jews, that He would be from the city or village of Nazareth, although He was a Bethlehemite, so far as concerns this word of the divine Scripture which says, 'And thou, Bethlehem, land of Judah, house of Ephrathah, art least to be among the thousands of Judah; for out of thee shall come forth for Me One to be a ruler in Israel, and His goings forth are from the beginning, from the days of eternity.' For He was brought up in Nazareth, as indeed the Evangelist himself testified, saying, 'And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up.' But He was not from there, but from the place we have already mentioned, or rather as the voice of the prophet firmly declared.

Following, then, the supposition of the Jews, Philip says, 'Jesus who is from Nazareth.'

'Can any good thing be out of Nazareth?' Nathanael readily concedes that some great and most excellent thing would be that which was expected to be revealed out of Nazareth.

And it is surely altogether plain that not only did he accept Nazareth toward faith in the one sought, but gathering knowledge from the law and the prophets, as one of much learning he made quick his understanding.

'The sight will suffice for faith,' he says, 'and only having come to words with Him thou wilt more readily concede, and undoubtingly wilt say that He is truly the one expected.'

But we must believe that there was a certain divine and ineffable grace running together with the words of the Saviour, and enchanting the souls of the hearers.

For thus it is written, that all marvelled at the words of grace that proceeded out of His mouth; for as the word was effective unto power, so also was it sufficient unto persuasion.

'Behold a true Israelite, in whom there is no guile.'

Not yet having practised the display through signs, by another manner Christ endeavoured to persuade both His own disciples and those of those who came to Him who were more understanding, that He was Himself the Son and God by nature, and had come for the sake of the salvation of all in human form.

What then is the manner leading toward faith? Plainly the God-befitting knowledge.

For to know all things befits God alone.

He therefore accepts Nathanael, not snatching him into affection by flatteries, but by the things He was conscious of concerning him giving assurance that He knows hearts, as God.

'Whence knowest Thou me?' Nathanael begins to marvel, and is called now toward a firm faith.

And still he thinks fit to learn whence He might have the knowledge of the things concerning him.

For very exact are the souls that love learning and love God.

'Before Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.'

The Saviour loosed for him the perplexity, saying that even before his meeting and converse with Philip He had seen him under the fig tree, although not present in body.

And very usefully both the fig tree and the place are named, pledging to him the certainty of his having been beheld.

For he who had now accurately learned even that which was with him would readily have received it.

Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God, Thou art the King of Israel.

He knows that God alone is the searcher of hearts, and to no other among men does He grant to understand the mind, calling to remembrance, as is fitting, that saying in the Psalms: God trieth the hearts and reins. For, as belonging to no other but to the divine nature alone, the psalmist has ascribed this also as a distinctive prerogative.

Therefore, since he perceived that the Lord beheld the surmise that was still turning in his mind amid voiceless whisperings, he at once calls Him Teacher, eagerly now entering into discipleship under Him, and confesses Him to be Son of God and King of Israel, thereby affirming, as one well-taught, that He in whom the properties of Godhead reside must assuredly also be God by nature.

Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? Thou shalt see greater things than these.

Thou shalt be the more firmly established unto faith, He says, when thou shalt see things greater than these.

For he who has believed on account of a single sign, how shall he not by all means be confirmed through many, in things yet more excellent, when especially they appear more noteworthy than what has already been marvelled at? Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye shall see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.

The word now becomes common to all, setting a seal upon the faith of Nathanael.

And in saying that angels shall be seen running up and down upon the Son of Man—that is, ministering and serving His decrees for the salvation of those who should hereafter believe—He declares that then most of all He shall be shown forth as Son of God by nature.

For the rational powers do not serve one another, but wholly serve God.

Yet the saying does not do away with the subordination that exists among the angels.

For that could not reasonably be called servitude.

And we have heard through the holy Evangelists that angels came to the Saviour Christ and ministered unto Him. And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.

And both Jesus and His disciples were called to the marriage; and when the wine failed, the mother of Jesus saith unto Him: They have no wine.

Thereafter He comes fittingly to the beginning of the signs, even though He seemed to be summoned to it against His will.

For while a festal celebration was being held over a marriage—one, no doubt, conducted with solemnity—the mother of the Saviour is present; and He too, being invited, comes with His own disciples, rather to work wonders than to feast together, and moreover also to sanctify the very beginning of man's coming into being.

And this we say inasmuch as it pertains to the flesh.

For it behoved Him who was recapitulating human nature itself and refashioning the whole of it unto the better, not only to dispense the blessing to those already called into existence, but also to prepare beforehand the grace for those not yet born, and to render holy their entrance into being.

And besides this receive a third explanation.

It had somewhere been said to the woman by God: In sorrows shalt thou bring forth children. How then was it needful that we should also repel this curse, or how otherwise could marriage, being condemned, escape it? This too the Saviour, being loving toward mankind, loosed.

He honoured the marriage by His presence, He who is the cheer and joy of all, that He might drive out from childbearing the ancient dejection.

For if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things are passed away, as Paul says, and they have become new. He comes therefore together with His own disciples unto the marriage.

For it was needful that those who love to behold marvels should be present with the worker of wonders, gathering, as it were, a kind of nourishment for the faith within them from the thing accomplished.

The mother called the Lord, who is good, to His accustomed love of mankind, saying: They have no wine.

For, as though it lay within His power to do whatever He willed, she incites Him to the miracle.

Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come.

Most excellently did the Saviour frame for us this saying also.

For it was not fitting that He should come running to the doing of it, nor be seen as a worker of wonders who volunteered unbidden, but rather that, being invited, He should scarcely proceed to it, and bestow the grace upon the need rather than upon the onlookers.

And somehow the fulfilment of things desired seems even more gracious when it is not straightway supplied to those who ask, but through a little delay is raised up unto the fairest hope.

And in another way too, through this Christ shows that the honour owed to parents is of the highest account, in that He submits, out of reverence toward His mother, to do what He was not yet willing to do.

His mother saith unto the servants: Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it.

Having great weight toward the miracle's coming to pass, the woman prevailed, persuading the Lord as a son by that which is fitting.

And she herself begins the matter, already preparing the servants of the festivity for the ministering of the things that should be commanded to be done.

Jesus saith unto them: Fill the waterpots with water.

And He saith unto them: Draw out now, and bear unto the ruler of the feast. And they bare it.

And when the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was.

But the servants who had drawn the water knew.

The ruler of the feast calleth the bridegroom, and saith unto him: Every man setteth forth first the good wine, and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse.

But thou hast kept the good wine until now.

The ministers fulfil what was commanded, and by ineffable power the water was transformed into wine.

For what could be hard for Him who is mighty in all things? And He who calls the things that are not into being, how should He be wearied in refashioning the things already made into whatsoever He might will? And they marvel at the draught as extraordinary.

For it was not possible for the things wrought through Christ to be seen otherwise.

And the ruler of the feast finds fault with the bridegroom, as one who spends the better wine at the latter time of the banquet—not without wit, as it seems to me, at least according to the narrative sense of the history.

This beginning of signs did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth His glory.

And His disciples believed on Him.

Many most excellent things were accomplished at once through this one and first sign.

For the honourable marriage was sanctified, and the curse against the woman was done away with.

For no longer shall they bring forth children in sorrows, since Christ has blessed the very beginning of our birth.

And like a sunbeam the glory of our Saviour shone forth, and, greater than these things, the disciples are confirmed unto faith through their marvelling.

The historical sense, then, shall rest in these things.

But I think it needful to devise also another contemplation upon what has been said, and to declare what is here intimated.

The Word of God, then, has come down from heaven, as He Himself somewhere says, that, having appropriated human nature after the manner of a bridegroom, He might persuade it to conceive the spiritual seeds of wisdom.

And humanity is fitly called the bride through this, and the Saviour the bridegroom, the language of the divine Scripture stretching up the sense from things according to us to the conception that is above us.

And the marriage is celebrated on the third day, that is, in the last times of the present age.

For the number three brings in for us beginning and middle and end.

For thus is all time measured out.

To this will appear akin that which was spoken through one of the holy prophets: He shall smite, and shall bind us up; He shall heal us after two days; on the third day.

And we shall rise up and shall live before Him, and shall know Him.

Wherefore He is also called the firstfruits of them that sleep. Therefore, by saying the third day, on which the marriage was being celebrated, He signifies the last time.

And He also indicates the place.

For in Cana of Galilee, He says.

But let the lover of learning again take note.

For the festivity is not in Jerusalem, and the banquet is outside Judaea, being accomplished as it were in the country of the Gentiles.

For it is Galilee of the Gentiles, as the prophet says.

And it is surely altogether clear that the synagogue of the Jews thrust away the bridegroom from heaven, but the Church from among the Gentiles received Him, and that most gladly.

And the Saviour comes to the marriage not as a volunteer, unbidden.