Commentary on John 1 part 34/94

having but a scanty number with Him, again fulfilling the figure of the people yet to be born, concerning whom it is written: 'And a people that is created shall praise the Lord.' And the babes going before cried aloud: 'Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest.' Therefore, by going up secretly, Christ shows that He came to Jerusalem by no means to keep the feast with them, but rather to discourse with them.

For as we have already said before, He does not yet depart wholly from Israel until, delivered up to death, He may already appear to do this worthily.

And that He said He would not go up, yet afterwards did not refuse to go up—you will find this type also fulfilled of old in the book called Exodus.

For Moses, the God-inspired and most holy one, was spending his time on the mountain with God, awaiting the law that was to be given by Him;

but Israel made a calf in the wilderness, having despised godliness toward God;

yet the Lawgiver is justly angered at these things, and having cried out against the fickleness of those who so readily turned aside to what was not fitting, and having threatened to destroy them utterly at once, at last He says to the holy Moses: 'Go and get up hence, thou and thy people, whom thou broughtest up out of Egypt, into the land which I sware unto Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, saying, Unto thy seed will I give it; and I will send my angel before thy face.' Then Moses says to Him: 'If Thou go not up Thyself with me, bring me not up hence;

and how shall it truly be known that I have found grace with Thee, both I and Thy people, but by Thy going with us?' And the Lord said unto Moses: 'This word also which thou hast spoken I will do;

for thou hast found grace with me.' You see how, being grieved at Israel's apostasy, He firmly declared that He would not go up with them into the land of promise, but said He would send some angel along; yet, out of reverence toward Moses and in remembrance of the fathers, granting pardon, He again promised to journey together with them.

Having therefore refused to keep the feast with the Jews, as with boasters and insolent men, as with those who by their denial dishonour God—just as those of old did by making the calf—Christ, not overly contending with the transgressions of those who grieved Him, but rather fulfilling His promise to the holy fathers, goes up to teach, and to set before them the lessons unto salvation, not committing such a ministry to an angel, as neither did He then of old, but rather becoming Himself the worker also of the salvation of the ungrateful.

'The Jews therefore sought Him at the feast, and said, Where is that man?' The Jews search for Jesus, not that, having found Him, they might believe;

for otherwise He would have anticipated the seeking and presented Himself, according to that which is said by Him: 'I was found of them that sought me not; I became manifest to them that asked not for me.' But out of exceedingly great lawlessness, sliding down into the vain toil of the Greeks, and rather zealously pursuing the customs of those men than the things through which it was likely they would be illuminated by the grace from above.

For among the Greeks, those who seem to be wise and are filled with worldly and demonic wisdom, spending long and bitter words, and spinning circles of vain speculations, and weaving a spider's web according to that which is written, pretend to seek the truth—or the good, or whatever the just may be by nature—and, fashioning for themselves merely a shadow, as it were, of true knowledge, they continue wholly untasting of the virtue that consists in works, and remain destitute of the wisdom that is from above and truly wisdom, exercising themselves at times, for no useful end, only as far as words.

And the Jews again, brethren and neighbours of the ignorance of those men, search for Jesus—not that, having found Him, they might believe, as the nature of the facts showed, but that, transfixing Him with many revilings, they might bring the unquenchable flame upon their own heads.

And in another way too we shall again suppose that they make their search most vainly.

He is present—they pretend to seek Him.

For they say the worker of wonders ought to be present with those keeping the feast—hunting rather the pleasure that is in delight, and by no means the profit that comes from marvelling;

and though clothed in the reputation of legal learning, and thinking themselves no little educated in the sacred writings, they are unmindful of the prophetic voice which runs thus: 'Seek ye God, and when ye find Him, call upon Him;

while He is near unto you, let the wicked forsake his way, and the lawless man his counsel, and let him return unto the Lord, and he shall obtain mercy.' You see how the mere seeking will not suffice unto salvation, but it is necessary also for those who have found to turn—namely, through obedience and faith? For thus was the ignorant and intractable people of the Jews to be saved;

but since in this too they are convicted of exceeding folly, henceforth they shall reasonably hear: 'How do ye say, We are wise, and the word of the Lord is with us? In vain has the lying pen of the scribes wrought.'

'The wise were ashamed, they were dismayed, they were taken.'

'What wisdom is there in them? Because they have rejected the word of the Lord.' For how have they not rejected it, in not receiving it? Or how do they not dishonour it, when they do not refuse to say of Him ignorantly, 'Where is that man?' For to say 'that man' belongs to those who are beside themselves and do not yet deem Him worthy of wonder, though through His exceedingly great works He ought to have held among them a most distinguished repute.

'And there was much murmuring concerning Him among the multitudes.'

'Some said, He is a good man;'

'but others said, Nay, but He deceiveth the multitude.'

Let those therefore hear who, out of much madness, do not wonder at Jesus, but have determined indiscriminately that it is fitting to accuse Him: 'O taste and see that the Lord is good.' For just as those who test the excellence of honey in its quality of taste receive, even from a very slight tasting, the perception of what they seek, so those who come to even a brief trial of the words of the Saviour will recognize that He is good, and having learned it, will marvel.

Now those among the Jews who were more sensible speak in defence of Christ, and cast a right verdict upon Him, agreeing that He is good—doubtless reasoning altogether thus, that it could not belong to anyone to be able to accomplish those works of which God is seen to be the worker, unless he were God by nature, or a partaker of God, and therefore good, to whom also it would befit both to be well esteemed in all things and to be empowered by the grace from above—even though it was not thus in Christ;

for He Himself is Christ, the Lord of the powers.

But they float upon utterly irrational opinions, and stand far off from the truth, who did not shrink from calling a deceiver the One who directs unto the unerring path of righteousness.

Let the senseless Jew therefore hear: 'Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness.' For in equal rank with commending baseness stands the accusing of the good, and the withdrawing of the most reasonable censure from shameful things, while casting upon those ranked in the portion of the best a reproach in no way owed to them.

And the charges against them for these their revilings were also foreproclaimed;

for He says, 'Woe unto them, for they have started away from me;'

'they are wretched, because they have dealt impiously against me;'

'but I redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies against me.' 'Howbeit no man spake openly of Him for fear of the Jews.'

He says that for fear of the Jews no one was able to speak openly.

Therefore he specially names 'the Jews' as the rulers of the Jews, the God-inspired Evangelist not deeming it worthy—as it seems to me—to call them elders, or priests, or any other such title, being sharpened by zeal for godliness against his grief over them; whom indeed also reasonably, as corrupting the spiritual vineyard, God accuses in the prophets, saying: 'Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard, they have defiled my portion, they have made my desirable portion a trackless wilderness; it is become unto desolation of destruction.' For how shall we not suppose that the Lord's vineyard was in truth corrupted by their abominations, when they showed even the mere agreeing with the good and marvelling at what was worthy of marvel to be perilous? And who among those of right mind can doubt that this also, among other things, works a heavier punishment for the rulers of the Jews? For behold, behold, all the people both feared and shuddered before them, yet is not trained according to the law, nor is even taught to live according to the fitting reason, though most readily subject to whatever they might command.

For fear is a demonstration of subjection to the utmost;

the people were therefore compelled to transgress, or dutifully to regard what seemed good to the lawgiver, and through those very things whereby they dare not so much as praise the good, to cast—in no way willingly, but as it were most forcibly, against whomsoever those men might wish—the verdict of baseness, and to condemn as shameful the one worthy of praise and wonder.

Just as, therefore, some man who knows best how to sail, and sits at the rudders of the ship, and has her obedient to him, if he should lead her upon rocks, would himself be reckoned to have become responsible for the disaster;

or as if someone accustomed to drive horses were mounted upon very swift-running colts, and able to have their course wherever he wished easily managed by the checking of the reins, and then, dashing the wheels against a stone, would with good reason lay the cause of the mishap not upon the colts but rather upon himself;

in the same manner, I think, the teachers of the Jews, having the people not only honouring them but even enslaved through the fear owed to them, yet governing discordantly with the divine commandments, would justly themselves render account for the destruction of all.

And that they themselves became the occasion of the peoples' destruction, the prophet Jeremiah will testify, saying: 'For the shepherds have become senseless, and have not sought the Lord;

therefore the whole pasture understood not, and they were scattered.' 'But now about the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and taught.'

The teaching of our Saviour is befitting of holy things;

for where else more fittingly ought the divine voice to be heard, than in the places in which the Deity is believed to dwell? For God cherishes all things, and could not be conceived as circumscribed by place; yet, as regards His own nature, He is wholly uncontainable by things that are;

we shall somehow more fittingly suppose Him to dwell in the holy places, and shall most reasonably reckon that what is fitting to the divine nature to be heard will be for us especially in sacred places.

And what again was described above in type and shadow, this Christ now transforms into truth;

for God says to Moses the hierophant: 'And thou shalt set the mercy-seat upon the ark above, and into the ark thou shalt put the testimonies which I shall give thee;

and I will be known to thee from thence, and I will speak to thee from above the mercy-seat, between the two Cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, according to all things whatsoever I shall command thee unto the children of Israel.' Now our Lord Jesus Christ, when the feast was already at its midst, as it is written, having come as God into the sacred places dedicated to God, there speaks to the multitudes—and this though He had gone up secretly, just as also upon the mercy-seat of the tabernacle the descent of God was secret, and was then perceived only with difficulty, when the time for speaking was at hand;

God, not speaking to another;

so also Christ, being still training the race of the Jews alone, discourses with one people, not yet having spread the grace in common to the nations.

And very well indeed the blessed Evangelist says not simply 'He entered,' but 'He went up into the temple;'

for it is a lofty thing, and far surpassing lowly baseness, to enter into the divine school and to sojourn in the holy places;

and the type of the matter is true in our case.

For Christ was the One who sanctified the temple, and a type of this was Moses of old, anointing the tabernacle with the sanctified oil and hallowing it, as it is written;

and yet it would rather have been fitting for man to be sanctified through the holy places, than to sanctify them;

but there is no account of things accomplished in type, for the sake of the truth, for whose sake indeed the things in shadows were fashioned;

just as one may see also in the case of the holy prophets.

For one of them was commanded, even unwillingly, to dwell with a harlot woman; and another to walk naked, and even to lie upon his right side for no small number of days.

And these things were performed for the sake of the things they signified, and by no means for their own sake;

so therefore also the blessed Moses was commanded to sanctify the tabernacle, though he ought rather to have been sanctified by it, in order that Christ might again be understood as, in Himself, sanctifying His own temple, though sojourning with the Jews in the flesh, and in Himself speaking to the multitudes, just as God did of old from the mercy-seat.

'The Jews therefore marvelled, saying, How doth this man know letters, having never learned?' The wonder of the Jews is not out of tune, but the account concerning it is somehow refined;

for it was indeed likely that they should be astounded, seeing One excelling strangely in both word and knowledge, in whom it was not possible for such riches to come from learning.

For the human mind is receptive of wisdom, even if a man does not yet appear to be wise; and its nature is exceedingly well suited for the acquisition of understanding and of knowledge concerning various matters.

But in those who are not much occupied with the practice of learned discourse, that useful faculty in their nature is in a manner closed up and lulled to sleep;

whereas in those accustomed to come through such labours and to delight themselves in the exercises of discourse, it is found to be exceedingly brilliant, ready unto a good sobriety, and possessed of no small store of words and wise discoveries.

The Jews therefore are astonished, regarding Christ the Saviour not yet as God by nature, but still as a mere man; and they marvel that He is rich even in wisdom, though He lacks that which is most conducive to it—namely, training in the reading of the Scriptures—since He knew letters without having been taught.

This accusation, then, along with the rest, is also a mark of Jewish folly;

for otherwise it would have seemed to them nothing strange that the Wisdom which fashions all things—that is, the Only-begotten Word of God, who was among them concealed in the form of a man—should have no need of letters.

But we must again observe this profitably.

For when they were seeking Jesus in what went before, they say, 'Where is that man?'—as though they knew Him only from His miracles;

but who He precisely was, or whose He was, or whence He came, they did not yet clearly know;

yet in these words they speak not as though ignorant of anything concerning Him, but as though they knew all things clearly, saying that He even knows letters, though He has not learned them.

Therefore the seeking after Him on the part of the common crowd was of the less notable kind, and by those who did not accurately know Him the cry 'Where is that man?' was raised contemptuously;

but by those who knew Him, the other saying was uttered.

Those, then, who are not ignorant will pay a fiercer penalty than those who are in ignorance;

for to the one, not knowing is an excuse, but to the other, knowing is a condemnation.

For this reason it is said by some to be better not to have known the way of truth;

for in knowing, the punishment is greater, since they are lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Jesus, then, according to the Jews' perplexed inquiry, knew letters, not having learned them.

We are initiated by Christ, and from Him we truly receive the understanding that comes from above and from God.

Christ, therefore, is that which is perfectly good in all things; and one of all these is both wisdom and understanding, wherein He is conceived to possess His brilliance not by teaching, but as inborn.

And accordingly the prophet Isaiah somewhere says concerning Him: 'For before the child knows good or evil, he refuses wickedness so as to choose the good.' And surely we shall not, playing the fool, suppose that, as in a discernment of thoughts, or by the choice of the better, He turns away from the base—He, that divine and heavenly Offspring—and rather inclines toward the good;

but just as one might say of fire that it refuses the cold, not admitting to be among the cold, this signifies in it no choice arising from acts of will, but rather a most firm standing of its nature in its own property;

for in God all good things are natural, and are not introduced from without;

and thus was wisdom also in Him—or rather, He Himself was properly and peculiarly the fountain, Wisdom, through which the creatures endowed with reason, heavenly and earthly, are wise in part by participation.

'Jesus answered them and said: My teaching is not mine, but his that sent me.'

We shall find that what has been recorded by one of the wise men is truly the case: 'That the Spirit of the Lord has filled the world, and an ear of hearing hears all things.' But against those who suppose, quite foolishly—or rather now even impiously—that when they utter anything they will escape the notice of the divine mind, the inspired psalmist somewhere says: 'Understand now, ye senseless among the people; and ye fools, at length be wise.'

'He that planted the ear, does he not hear?' For how could it possibly be that He who implanted in the beings made through Him the very sense of hearing should not by all means hear all things? Behold therefore, in this also, that the Lord is God by nature.

For that which was whispered secretly, as in a crowd, by the Jews He does not fail to know;

but He receives it, as it were, in His ears in a manner befitting God, even though out of fear of the rulers they spoke nothing openly concerning Him.

And since certain of those who had run together in the temple had once been amazed and were reasoning, as was natural, or even were saying quietly to one another, 'How does this man know letters, having never learned?'—He of necessity again shows Himself equal to God and the Father, who has learned absolutely nothing, yet possesses the knowledge of all things naturally and without teaching, because He is set above all mind and soars above every prudence found in the things that are.

It was, then, possible to show this from other matters as well, and to give full assurance to His hearers that whatever belongs to the Begetter is manifestly present also in Him, by reason of natural identity.

This He was doing also in other places, when from being able to do the same things, and from having in all respects an unaltered operation, He fittingly ascended to equal dignity: 'For whatever things the Father does,' He says, 'these also the Son does likewise'; and again, 'For as the Father raises the dead and gives life, so also the Son gives life to whom he wills.' But in these matters there was something most timely and most fitting,

from which above all it was necessary to make the demonstration.

For the discourse, to those who were pondering those things, was concerning understanding and love of learning apart from letters.

It was needful, therefore, to show that this belonged to Himself, just as it certainly did also to the Father.

What, then, is the manner of the demonstration? From His having wisdom equal to Him: since indeed, according to true and sound reasoning, He Himself is the Wisdom that is also from God the Father, to whom being in all things like, He says that He teaches the same things as He, in no way differently.

For either, because His own teaching has been made in the highest degree like to the teaching of the Father, He says that this teaching is His; or, because He Himself is the Wisdom of the Father, through which the Father speaks and gives laws in all things, He says that the teaching also is the Father's;

and at the same time, along with this, He also arranges something else, of no small profit unto the salvation of those being instructed.

By ascribing the teaching to God and the Father, He at once both says a true thing, and, through fear of appearing to be fighters against God, persuades them—still contending against the decrees from above—to accept the things spoken.

But we must know that, by saying again that He has been sent, He does not show Himself to be in a second place below the dignity of the Father;

for the being sent is not to be understood as befitting a slave, even though, having in the highest degree put on the form of a servant, He might blamelessly say these things also concerning Himself.

But He was sent thus—as word from mind, as the solar radiance from the sun.

For these are in a manner declarative of those in which they are, through seeming to project outward; yet they exist naturally and inseparably in those from which they come.

For not because word has been put forth from mind, and radiance perchance from the sun, must we by all means suppose that the begetters are left destitute of those that have gone forth; but rather we shall again behold both those existing in these, and these existing in those.

For a mind will never be without word, nor yet will there be word that does not possess the mind formed within it.

And analogously to this we shall also understand the other saying.

'If any man will do his will, he shall know concerning the teaching, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.'

Without inquiry and apart from all hesitation men ought to have received the words of the truth, and to believe that what has once been spoken cannot be otherwise than as He who spoke has defined it to be;

yet, on account of the disobedient, He does not leave what is said without demonstration, but brings forward for it a most evident and exceedingly clear solution, tempering the fashion of His discourse with much skill.

And what the skill is, and what the reason of the arrangement, we shall again tell.

They were seeking to kill Him on account of the paralytic—I mean the man healed on the sabbath.

Therefore, at the same time and gently, He both rebukes them as already devising the dreadful deed against Him, and plainly convicts them, as travailing with murder against Him, in that they chose to have their own will fulfilled rather than that which seemed good to the Lawgiver.

'For then above all,' He says, 'you shall know my teaching, that it is of God and the Father, whenever you are willing to follow His will rather than your own.'

But the will of the Lawgiver and God is to abstain wholly from murders.

'For then,' He says, 'then indeed most of all, being no longer forestalled by unrighteous hatred, nor thrust by a beast-like manner into ill-timed fits of wrath, you shall clearly discern whether the word of my teaching is of God, or whether I speak of myself.'

Accordingly, having interwoven the rebuke with what is profitable, He justly lays the charge against them, as scoffing unreasonably at the very things which He might say when teaching—God and the Father approving and willing together with Him, or rather, what is the truth, teaching and expounding together with Him.

And He sets down the phrase 'of myself' in the sense of 'separately' and 'wholly cut off' from that which is according to the concurring will and identical purpose of the Father.

And surely no one who thinks rightly will suppose that He is accusing His own words as spurious, but rather that He speaks such things as never being at all otherwise, save according to the will of God and the Father.

For He speaks as through the Word and Wisdom that are His own—the Word and Wisdom of His own Offspring;

and He speaks by all means not out of tune with Himself;

for how could it be? 'He that speaks of himself seeks his own glory.'

He sets down this as a clear sign that He does not at all procure for Himself the glory that comes from teaching, namely, that He does not make use of any strange and alien words apart from the law;

for this would have been to speak of Himself;

but rather to counsel them to be persuaded by the things already prophesied, removing only the unprofitable and gross shadow of the letter, and skilfully transforming into spiritual contemplation the things that still lie hidden in types;

which very thing He says also in the Gospel according to Matthew: 'I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil it.' This same thing here again He obliquely intimates;

the evangelical polity has only the transformation of the letter into truth; and having refashioned some Mosaic type into what is more fitting, it holds the form of worship in spirit.

Christ therefore speaks, and not of Himself;

that is, nothing strange from the things already foretold.

He teaches them to decline the instruction that is in the law—no, but upon the things sketched out in shadowy type, as upon some more conspicuous colour, to lay on the truth as an overlay.

And very deftly buying up the goodwill of the Jews, He assigns to God and the Father both honour and glory.

For since the Jews, not knowing the Word who had appeared from God the Father, supposed that the law had been given by the Father alone, He reasonably maintained that the Father was glorified when the law was kept, and that He endured the contrary when it was not observed according to reason.

But even if the Son is a partaker of the glory of the Father, and through Him God and the Father spoke to Moses, nevertheless He condescends, by way of dispensation, to their suppositions.

But in speaking nothing from himself which is not approved by the law, he confesses that he is by no means striving to build up his own glory, but rather that which is owed to the law.

And in addition to this, that also must be considered.

For obliquely still and in veiled fashion he strikes at the Jews, who ignorantly fall into the very things of which they accuse others, and who are rather accustomed to snatch glory for themselves than for God the Master of all; and in what way, I will tell.

For turning aside from the ordinances of the law, each was carried away toward what seemed good to himself, teaching, as it is written, the precepts of men as doctrines. On this point again Christ skilfully convicts them of transgressing the law and of sinning against the lawgiver himself, in that they persuaded their hearers not to live by his ordinances, but rather to cling to the teachings that came from themselves.

Therefore, even though Christ still speaks indefinitely and without restriction, saying, 'He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory,' he convicts the disease of the Pharisees' madness, inasmuch as by wishing rather to speak their own things they steal the glory of the lawgiver, and divert to themselves what is owed to God; and for this reason, henceforth, they even recklessly plot to murder him.

For it is chiefly on this account that he convicts them of transgressing the law, having made, by way of dispensation, the pretext of his discourse to be a zeal to keep the law, and thereby to honour God the Father.

But he who seeks the glory of him who sent him, he is true, and no unrighteousness is in him.

This implies that the one who does not seek rather the glory of God, but his own, is neither true, but is even exceedingly most unrighteous.

For he is not true, inasmuch as he slanders the law and smuggles his own will into it;

and he is most unrighteous, inasmuch as he thrusts aside the just judgement of the lawgiver, and sets his own things as better than the Master's.

Christ therefore is just and true, falling under none of the aforesaid charges.

Did not Moses give you the law? and yet none of you keeps the law.

For being judged concerning the breaking of the Sabbath, and enduring for it a most unjust indictment of lawlessness, he convicted, no longer one by one those who offended against the law, but already the whole nation of the Jews, that it had counted the things of Moses as nothing.

It is evident: that you persecute me who have sinned in nothing, and strive unjustly to kill one who can in no way be accused of anything for which it would be fitting for him to suffer this.