Commentary on John 1 part 26/94

just as He also says in other places: 'If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have had sin;

but now they have no excuse for their sin.' They said to Him therefore: 'What sign do you then do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'

The mind-set of the Jews is by little and little uncovered, though it was somehow still lying hidden and buried in yet more obscure reasonings;

for out of arrogance they were saying, 'What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?' — inasmuch as, just as we have already said before, they held that the commandment given through Moses was sufficient to direct them unto all wisdom, by which they might know how to accomplish what is well-pleasing to God;

but somehow, although such was the aim within them, it was hidden; and now it is stripped bare and little by little comes forth into fuller view;

for there is nothing hidden, according to the Saviour's word, which shall not be made manifest. 'Now then,' they say, 'what sign do you do?' 'The blessed Moses has been honoured,' He says, 'and very reasonably so; he was received to be a mediator between God and men.'

For indeed he also gave a sufficient sign:

all who were with him ate the manna in the wilderness.

'But you now, seeing that you enter for us into a place greater than his, and do not refuse to add new ordinances to those long ago decreed, with what signs will you assure us? Or, showing which of those newer teachings worthy to be marvelled at, do you come running in upon us as an introducer of them?' And through these things the very word of our Saviour is shown to be true;

for that they thought they ought to seek — not that they might marvel at Him for anything He might do in a manner befitting God, but because they ate of the loaves and were filled — from these very things they now speak and are also convicted.

For they demand of Him a sign, not merely any chance one, but such as they thought Moses had done — not for a single day, but throughout the full forty years, feeding the people out of Egypt in the wilderness through the supply of the manna.

For, as it appears, knowing nothing at all of the mysteries in the divine Scripture, they did not reason that it was fitting to ascribe the wonder-working performed then to the divine power that had wrought it; but very senselessly they crown the head of Moses with it.

Therefore they ask of Christ a sign equal to that one, giving no weight at all to the wonder in the sign shown to them for a single day — even if perchance it should be found to be great — but demanding that the bestowal of the food should also be extended over a long time.

For in this way, and scarcely even so, would they be brought to bow and finally to concede by reckoning that the Saviour's power was most worthy of account, and that His teaching was thereby readily to be received.

It is therefore plain, even if they do not say it very clearly, that they utterly disregard signs, but under the pretext of wishing to marvel at them, they are eager to serve the unclean pleasure of the belly.

Concerning the manna, that it was a type of the coming of Christ and of the spiritual gifts of grace given through Him.

Jesus therefore said to them: 'Verily, verily, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven.'

Most strikingly does the Saviour now also convict them of being without understanding, and of being very greatly ignorant of the things in the writings of Moses.

For surely they ought clearly to have known well that Moses ministered the things from God to the people, and again the things from the sons of Israel to God, and that he himself was in no way the direct author of any of the wonders, but rather the servant and minister of whatever He might will to do for the benefit of those called back from bondage — namely, the Bestower upon them of all good things.

That, then, which was in an impious surmise among them, this Christ very keenly cuts short.

For to attribute the things that befit and are due to the divine nature alone unto the honours of men, and not rather to that nature itself — how could this henceforth fail to be full of both folly and impiety? And having removed the hierophant Moses from the wonder, and taken the marvel out of his hand, He would then plainly be ascribing the glory rather to Himself together with the Father, even if He declined to say it more openly, because of the untutoredness of His hearers.

For indeed it was not far from expectation — seeing that Moses had been insulted by such words — that they should again become bull-like and be inflamed into unmixed wraths, in no way searching out how the truth might stand, nor recognizing the worth of the Speaker, but heedlessly rushing to this alone: that Moses ought to be honoured — and that not reasonably, perhaps, when he was being compared with something that surpassed him.

Let us therefore learn, more discerningly and more rationally, to practise reverence toward our holy fathers, and to render, according to that which is written, to whom fear is due, fear, and to whom honour, honour. For we shall in no way do wrong in attaching to each what befits him proportionately, since even the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets. But whenever any discourse comes in concerning our Saviour Christ, then it is necessary for us also to say: 'For who among the clouds shall be equalled to the Lord, or who shall be likened to the Lord among the sons of God?' 'But my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.'

For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

It was needful not only to remove Moses from the God-befitting authority — according to the conception that existed among them — and to show him rather as a minister than as the bestower of that wonder-working, but also now to diminish even the marvel itself, wondrously as it had come to pass, and by comparison with the greater to show it to be altogether nothing.

For, being ignorant not to a small degree, you reckon the manna to be the bread that is from heaven, though it fed only the race of the Jews in the wilderness, while there were countless others — the nations throughout the whole inhabited world;

and you have reckoned that God wished to display so contracted a lovingkindness, as to supply food to one and only one people;

for those things were types of the more universal gifts, and were a display, in the particular, of His bounty toward all, as it were in a pledge given to those who received it beforehand.

But when the season of the truth is at the doors for us, 'my Father gives you the bread from heaven,' which through the supply of the manna was written down for the men of old as in shadows.

For let no one suppose, He says, that that was in truth the bread from heaven; let him rather cast his vote for that to which there evidently belongs the power to feed the whole inhabited world, and altogether to bestow life upon the world.

For that manna was not, properly speaking, the bread; rather it was the Only-begotten Word of God Himself, who comes forth from the substance of the Father, seeing that He is by nature life, giving life to all things.

For since He sprang from the living Father, He too is by nature life; and since it is the work of the life that is by nature to give life, Christ gives life to all things.

For just as the bread that is from the earth is found to sustain us, not suffering the weak nature of the flesh to be destroyed,

so He too, through the working of the Spirit, gives life to the spirit — and not to this extent only, but also holds the body itself together unto incorruption.

And since our contemplations have once run out into the discourse concerning the manna, there being, in all likelihood, nothing amiss, to say a few words upon it as well, after examining it, setting side by side from the very books of Moses, part by part, the things written concerning it;

for in this way, having made the setting-forth of the discourse most clear, we shall rightly discern each of the things understood concerning it.

And we shall show through all things that the true manna is Christ Himself, understood as being supplied to the men of old, as in a type, in the manna, by God the Father.

And the beginning of the oracles stands thus: 'On the fifteenth day of the second month, after they had gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the whole congregation of the sons of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron, and the sons of Israel said to them: Would that we had died, smitten by the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the cauldrons of flesh and ate loaves to the full; for you have led us out into this wilderness to kill all this congregation with hunger.' Now the things drawn from the history are plain and very easily surveyed, and, I think, need no discourse that scrutinizes the ready-to-hand knowledge;

but we shall speak again, looking only to the spiritual meaning.

Therefore, while the sons of Israel still held the country of the Egyptians, by a divine command they typically celebrated the feast that is in Christ, and, having partaken of the banquet of the lamb, they thus scarcely escaped the greed of Pharaoh's tyranny and shook off the unbearable yoke of bondage;

then, in addition to this, having wondrously crossed the Red Sea, they came to be in the wilderness;

and there indeed, being famished, they longed to eat flesh and were drawn away into the accustomed craving for the loaves;

and thus they murmured against Moses and fall into a change of mind concerning the gift from God, though they ought over these things to have given no small thanks.

Egypt, then, would be a darkening, and it will somehow be understood as referring to the condition of the present age and to the worldly disposition, in which — having inscribed it, as it were, as a certain country — we endure a bitter servitude, working absolutely nothing at all for God, but rendering to the devil alone the things most gratifying to him, and, as into mire or a foul-smelling slime, leaping down into the pleasures of the unclean flesh, enduring an unpaid and unprofitable toil, and — so to speak — practising a love of pleasure that is by no means free from wretchedness.

But whenever the law of God speaks to us according to the mind, and we already behold the servitude in these things as bitter, then, then indeed, thirsting for the departure from all baseness, we come to Christ Himself as unto the beginning and door of freedom; and being provisioned henceforth with the safety and grace that come through the precious blood, then, having left behind the fleshly circumstances of this life as one might a turbulent and confused sea, and having come to be outside all worldly tumult, we come already unto the more immaterial and purer condition, as men encamping in a wilderness.

Having now made little of the toils that attend upon acts of self-restraint, we no longer regard as slight the servitude that is in the world.

For indeed the will that is in the flesh is capable of drawing the mind toward every faint-heartedness regarding good things.

And the Lord said to Moses: 'Behold, I rain down for you loaves from heaven.' You have already, and very clearly, in these words, to behold that which is sung in the Psalms: 'He gave them bread of heaven, man ate the bread of angels.' But it is, I think, evident to all that of the rational powers in the heavens there could be understood no other bread and nourishment than the Only-begotten who is from God the Father.

He Himself, then, is the true manna, the bread that is from heaven, supplied by God the Father to every rational creature.

And entering into the order of the things set before us, we say this: Consider how the divine and grace from above draws back to itself, and saves in manifold ways, the nature of man, even when at times it is sick with its accustomed maladies.

For the mind of the flesh, falling upon the intellect like a stone, presses it down and tyrannically forces it toward its own will; but Christ again turns us around, as with a certain bridle, toward the desire of the better things, and restores to their God-loving condition those who have become sick.

For behold — behold — to those who are slipping down into bodily pleasures, He promises to supply the nourishments that are from the heavens: namely the consolation that is through the Spirit, the spiritual manna.

For through this we are held fast unto all endurance and manliness, and we gain the not-falling from weakness into things that are not fitting.

The spiritual manna, then — that is, Christ — established us unto godliness even of old.

But since, on account of the need, we have once come to be, as in a digression from the discourse, upon it, I think it fitting not to leave it uninvestigated, seeing that it has much that tends to profit.

Therefore someone will reasonably say: For what cause does the God who is thus loving toward men and toward virtue — when He ought to have anticipated the request — come late concerning the promise?

Yet He by no means chastises those who were thus perverted in their disposition — though He did chastise them in what follows, when, sick with the same craving, they fancied loaves to the full and cauldrons of flesh, and admitted a longing for the most foul-smelling onions.

For in Numbers we shall find that some were indeed punished, and that the place where they were then encamped was called 'The Graves of Craving.'

'For there,' it says, 'they buried the people that craved.' Therefore, to the first point we shall say that it was altogether necessary to await the cravings, so that thereafter He might in due season show Himself the Provider.

For a gift is somehow most delightful to those who receive it kindly whenever certain pleasures appear beforehand and go on ahead of it, persuading one to thirst after what is not yet present.

But the soul of man would be deprived of the more delightful perception if it were not stretched out beforehand toward the pleasures of receiving good, and did not labour for them.

But perhaps you will say that there was no petition at all such as would come from those men, but rather a murmuring, a change of mind, and an outcry.

For this indeed was really the truer thing to say.

To this too we reply: that petition through supplication would befit those who are perfect in their disposition.

But somehow the murmuring of the weaker, arising from listlessness or however it might come about, will hold an equal share with it.

Yet the Saviour of all, being altogether loving to mankind, is not angered.

For just as, in the case of infants still quite small, weeping sometimes serves as a petition for the things useful to them, and by it the mother is often summoned to seek out what will give the babe pleasure, so also for those still infants and not yet advanced to understanding, the weeping that arises from listlessness, so to speak, has the force of a petition directed toward God.

But He does not punish at the beginning, even though He sees them overcome by earthly desires, but rather already in the midst of the times, for such a reason, as it seems to me.

For those who had but recently departed from the land of the Egyptians, not yet having received the manna, nor possessing the bread from heaven that strengthens the heart of man, fall—as is to be expected—into fleshly desires, and on this account they are pardoned.

But those who [had received it] now undergo a most just penalty, and moreover, by their suffering they are allotted a memorial of their calamity marked out for all to see.

For the name 'Graves of Craving' is set upon the place of the punishment.

'And the people shall go out and gather that which is for the day, day by day.' We shall reckon the sensible manna as a type of the spiritual manna.

And the spiritual manna signifies to us Christ Himself, while the sensible manna hints at the coarser instruction of the Law.

The gathering, then, is fittingly for a single day, and the Lawgiver forbids keeping it for the morrow, thereby showing to the men of old, as through riddles, that once the time of salvation had at length shone forth—the time in which the Only-Begotten appeared in the world in the flesh—the types given through the Law would be wholly abolished, and that to gather food from thence any longer would be vain, since the Truth itself now lies before us for our delight and enjoyment.

'And it shall come to pass on the sixth day that they shall prepare whatsoever they bring in, and it shall be double of what they gather.' Note again, that you may understand, that He does not permit the gathering of the sensible manna on the seventh day, but commands that what had already been procured and gathered on the day before it should be made into food.

For the seventh day signifies the time of the coming of our Saviour, in which we keep sabbath in sanctification, ceasing from the works of sin, and receiving as food and full assurance of faith the knowledge that has already been arranged in us through the Law—yet no longer gathering it of necessity, since a more splendid food already lies before us, and we possess the bread from heaven.

But in double measure, before the holy seventh day, the manna is gathered.

And from this again you will perceive that, as the Law is being brought to its close at its appointed time, and the holy seventh day—that is, the coming of Christ—is now beginning, the finding of the heavenly goods will come about in a manner as it were in double measure, and the grace will be twofold, introducing, in addition to the useful things from the Law, the evangelical instruction as well.

'And Moses and Aaron said to all the congregation of the children of Israel: At evening ye shall know that the Lord brought you out of Egypt, and in the morning ye shall see the glory of the Lord, when the Lord giveth you in the evening flesh to eat, and bread in the morning to the full.' Moses promises the children of Israel that the quail shall be supplied by God toward evening, and through this he affirms clearly that they shall recognise that the Lord brought them up out of Egypt.

'But in the morning,' he says, 'ye shall plainly see the glory of the Lord, in the receiving of bread to the full.'

And consider with me again the difference in each of the things that have been said.

For the quail somehow signifies the Law.

For the little bird is indeed always low-flying and close to the earth.

And thus you might see also those who are trained through the Law toward a lowlier piety by means of types.

—as far, I mean, as concerns sacrifices and vessels of sprinkling and Jewish purifications.

For these somehow rise a little above the earth and seem to ascend from it, yet nevertheless they are still in it and about it.

For that which is perfectly good and lofty unto understanding is not in the Law.

It is supplied, moreover, in the evening.

—either because the word is signifying to us again, through the evening, the obscurity in the letter, or the sunless condition of the world, which did not yet possess the true light, that is, Christ, who, having become man, says: 'I am come a light into the world.' And he says that the sons of Israel shall know that the Lord brought them up out of Egypt.

For only the knowledge of the universal salvation through Christ is seen in the writings of Moses, while grace was not yet present in person.

But when [Christ] has risen upon us all, we now behold the glory of the Lord present as in a mirror, receiving the bread from heaven unto fullness, and this again, I say, is Christ Himself.

'And it came to pass at evening that the quail came up and covered the camp.'

'And in the morning it came to pass, as the dew ceased round about the camp, that behold, upon the face of the wilderness was a small thing, white like coriander.' See again the arrangement of the concepts.

For concerning the quail it says that it covered the camp, but concerning the manna again, that in the morning it came down, as the dew ceased, round about the camp, upon the face of the wilderness.

For the instruction through the Law—that which is in types and figures, I mean, which we have likened to the form of the quail—covers the Synagogue of the Jews.

For there lies, as Paul says, a veil upon their heart, and hardening in part. But when it becomes morning—that is, when Christ has now risen and is flashing His light round the whole inhabited world—when the dew, too, at length ceases—that is, the thick and misty introduction of the legal ordinances.

For Christ is the end of the Law and the Prophets.

Then indeed the true manna shall come down to us from heaven.

And by this we plainly mean the evangelical teaching.

Not upon the congregation of the Israelites, but round about the camp—that is, unto all the nations, plainly—and upon the face of the wilderness, that is, of the Church gathered from the Gentiles, concerning which it is said somewhere: 'For many are the children of the desolate rather than of her that hath the husband.' For upon the whole inhabited world the grace of the spiritual manna is scattered, which is also compared to coriander and is called small.

For the power of the divine Word is indeed subtle and cooling to the passions that are at fever-heat, quenching in us the burning that comes from fleshly impulses, and sinking down into the depth of the heart.

And they say that the operation of the very herb, that is, of the coriander, in its natural quality, is exceedingly cold.

'And when the sons of Israel saw it, they said one to another, What is this? for they knew not what it was.' Being unfamiliar with what had come about so marvellously, and unable from experience to say clearly what it might be, they say to one another, 'What is this?'

And this very thing, said as in inquiry, they make into a name for the thing, and in the tongue of the Syrians they call it Manna, that is, again, 'What is this?' And from this you will understand that Christ was to be unknown by the Jews.

For that which held sway as in a type, experience showed to have prevailed also in the Truth itself.

'And Moses said unto them, Let no man leave any of it until the morning.'

'And they hearkened not unto Moses, but some left of it until the morning, and it bred worms and stank, and Moses was wroth with them.' The 'morning' again in these words signifies to us the bright and most radiant season of the coming of our Saviour, when—the shadow according to the Law being in a manner dissolved, and the diabolical gloom among the nations likewise—the Only-Begotten rose upon us like light, and a spiritual dawn was shown forth.

The blessed Moses therefore commands that the typical manna, again, should not be left until the morning.

For once the season just mentioned has risen upon us, the shadows according to the Law are henceforth superfluous and altogether untimely, because of the Truth that is now present.

And that the righteousness in the Law is truly a useless thing, now that Christ has shone forth, Paul demonstrated when he said concerning Him: 'For whose sake I have suffered the loss of all things'—the boasts in the Law, plainly—'and count them but dung, that I may gain Christ, and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness which is of the Law, but that which is through faith in Jesus Christ.' You see, then, how wisely he guarded against leaving it until the morning? And a type of those who kept it until the morning would be the multitude of the Jews that was to disobey Him, for whom the earnest desire to keep the Law that is in the letter will also be the cause of rottenness and worms.

'Take one golden jar, and put therein a full omer of manna, and thou shalt lay it up before God for a keeping.' It is indeed most fitting, at this point too, greatly marvelling, to say: 'O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!' For the understanding hidden in the God-inspired Scriptures is truly incomprehensible, and a deep depth—according to what is written, 'who shall find it out?' You see, then, how the final word upon these matters too has been perfected for us.

For since Christ Himself was shown to us as the true manna, being indicated to the men of old in an image through a type, He necessarily teaches through the passage set before us of whose virtue and glory, and how great, he will be full who lays up the spiritual manna as a treasure within himself, and who brings Jesus into the innermost parts of his own heart through right faith in Him and perfect love.

For you hear how a full omer of manna was placed in a golden vessel by the hand of Aaron and laid up before God for a keeping.

For the holy and truly God-loving soul, which travails perfectly within itself with the word concerning Christ, and which has received the whole heavenly treasure, will be a precious vessel, as of gold, and will be offered through the High Priest of all to God and the Father, and will be brought up into the sight of Him who holds together and preserves all things for a keeping, and who does not permit that which is perishable, so far as its own nature goes, to perish utterly.

The righteous man, then, is inscribed as having the spiritual manna in a golden vessel, that is, Christ, ascending unto incorruption as under the visitation of God, and abiding for a keeping—that is, plainly, for a long-lasting life and life without end.

The Jews, therefore, being no moderately foolish—supposing that the manna was supplied to the men of old by the all-wise Moses, and stopping the account concerning it at this point, and understanding absolutely nothing of the things signified through it—Christ reasonably reproves, saying: 'Verily I say unto you, Moses gave you not the manna.'

For they ought rather to have pondered and understood this: that Moses contributed to it only the ministry of mediation.

And the gift was not the invention of a human hand, but the work of the grace from above, which inscribed the spiritual in the coarser things, and signified to us the bread from heaven, which gives life to the whole world, and does not, as by partiality, nourish one race only, that from Israel.

'They said therefore unto Him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.'

Through these words the aim of the Jews is plainly laid bare, though it greatly desired to escape notice; and one might perceive that it is not lawful for the truth to lie: namely, that it was not because they had become spectators of signs that they were therefore hastening to follow Him, but because, having eaten of the loaves, they were filled.

And they would reasonably be condemned for much stupidity, and I truly suppose one ought to say of them: 'Behold, a foolish and heartless people, who have eyes and see not, ears they have and hear not.' For although our Saviour Christ, through many words, as one may observe, is drawing them away from bodily notions, and is raising them up on wings through His all-wise teaching to spiritual contemplation, they do not ascend above the things useful to the flesh; and though hearing of the bread that gives life to the world, they still imagine that which is from the earth, having their belly as their god, according to what is written, and being mastered by the evils concerning the stomach, so that they might justly hear of those 'whose glory is in their shame.' You will find such a saying very like that concerning that woman of Samaria.

Reflecting about her, slipping down toward the supply of sensible waters, she says: 'Lord, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.' The saying of the Jews, then, is akin to the words that came from her.

For just as she was made soft on account of her nature, in the same way, I think, these men too—having in no wise, so to speak, what is manly and vigorous unto understanding—are somehow made effeminate toward the unmanly desires concerning the belly, and show that what is written is true of themselves: 'For the fool will speak folly, and his heart will devise vain things.' 'I am the bread of life.'

It is the custom of the Saviour Christ, when He makes explanations concerning the more divine matters and the mysteries already foretold, to weave the accounts concerning them in a somewhat riddling and not very transparent manner.

For He does not permit so venerable a word to lie uncovered before those who wish, simply, being profane and unholy, to trample it underfoot; but somehow concealing it by casts of riddles, He nevertheless makes it not unmanifest to the intelligent.