Commentary on John 1 part 38/94

For if indeed, according to you, sirs, when the season and the hour call us as by constraint and compel us, we are dragged perchance to some good thing or its opposite, then superfluous, it seems, is our reason that directs us toward each thing to be done, counseling us to stand aloof from base things, and rather urging us to hasten to the praiseworthy.

For what profit, tell me, is there henceforth from this? And what wholesome benefit is there from reasonings, if I shall in any case be persuaded and shall go, and that unwillingly, to whatever the hour may call and the season wish to compel? It follows, then, just as they say the helmsmen of merchant ships do, when they have given up all hope of the ship's being saved, when it happens to be in danger in a storm, to let go all the ropes, and now to release even the very rudders themselves, no longer enduring any of the art within it, and thus to give it over to the rushings of the waves, and to be tossed about upon the sea.

For nothing, absolutely nothing — as follows from what has already been said — will arise as gain for those who desire virtue, nor yet as harm for the workers of vice, unless for each of the things done we are recompensed by God, and receive rewards according to the quality of our deeds.

Will the season bring what profits, even if I am caught in the most shameful things? And again, if the argument be transferred to what is contrary, will the season on no occasion vote good things for anyone, but will rather bring — so to speak — what is more grievous than all, even for those who have well determined that it is fitting to prefer the working of good things?

'But nothing of these things will be so,' someone might perhaps say; 'rather, to each one the hour and the season give whatever befits him.'

Well then, forthwith we shall discern, and that without much toil, the shamefulness in these matters and the greatness of the impiety, which has obtained a foulness more manifest than that even of the very women whose nature it is to prostitute themselves.

But again, what comes up into the mind we shall say, because of its usefulness.

Superfluously, it seems, do the laws, both divine and human, appoint for the lovers of base things the penalties that befit them, and add honors for those who value more highly the desire to live more decently.

For if absolutely nothing lies in the wills that are in our power, but everything has fallen under the necessities that come from the hours, which lead us both ways inescapably and inexorably, how could we still justly confess that praise is fitting for the good, while for those who are not such we shall reckon the contrary as by way of a debt owed? And what, tell me, do the laws compel us to depart from base things and to hasten to run to the better, when others hold the reins of the counsels within us and easily conduct them to whatever they wish? For they both say and have determined that human affairs must be subject to the powers of the hours, taking no thought at all for the absurdity that comes from this.

For will they not say, even against their will, that he who has obtained the rule over all things upon the earth will be more wretched even than the irrational animals themselves, and will live pitiably?

But he who ought to be preeminent by reason of his nature, will he now be ranked in the second place, or rather even among the last? For if those creatures, by self-prompted impulses, incline toward what seems good to them with nothing hindering, and take to themselves what they know to be profitable, and run away from the things that are wont to harm, whereas we shall be enslaved to time as to a bitter master, and have held over us, like some scepter suspended above, the inexorable tyranny of authority that comes from the hours — how are our affairs not by some great measure among worse things than those in which those creatures are? But he who has been willing to consent, or rather to bear false witness, in favor of the hours and of the times that have been made for nothing of the sort, will blush, it seems; and, warding off the folly in the doctrines, he will come saying: 'Neither the hour, sir, nor even the time or the season do we define as ruling over human affairs; but we do say that there are evil hours, and seasons attending upon them, which sometimes leap upon us wretched men after the manner of violent gusts of wind.'

But we shall reply to these: O you who are deranged in mind and drunk with unmixed folly, how has it again escaped you that against the very highest Being of all you are arming your own mind? For will it not be a worker of base things, if anything that has come from it is evil? But this we shall pass over as already stated before; rather we shall be zealous to persuade you of that other point, how the hour or the season could wrong us, or on the contrary gladden us, if it be not that God who directs all things according as He wills, and who, according to what is owed to each, is willing either to grieve or to gladden by contrary means? For we heard you saying just now that nothing of our affairs is in the power of the hours, yet that some are by nature evil, and are poured down upon us all at once after the manner of a wind.

For to whom of beings will it not be plain, that the twelve intervals of the hours are measured out, some to day, some to night?

And night and day do not befall one man and not another still, but come upon all? But that which is evil by nature, and unalterably so, is not evil to this man and not to another still, nor perhaps to one or a second only, but rather will bring harm to all in equal portion, through whatever the interval of night or of day may pass.

How then, in the same day perchance or in one hour, is it possible to see one man faring well, and luxuriating in many things that know how to gladden, so as to go to splendid banquets, and with much eagerness to gather together those who will feast with him, but others exactly in the contrary state, so that someone is often even led away to die pitiably?

What is the account, tell me, or how could it be admitted that, one hour being the same, or even one season, this man is seen in those circumstances and that man in these? What will you call that hour? Evil, or the contrary? For I cannot say, looking upon the two, and finding one man luxuriating, but the other dead and breathless and pitiable.

Will not the doctrines concerning the hours be convicted as an ignorant fable and the inventions of a demoniacal madness? But I suppose that all will assent without delay, and will condemn those who hold such opinions.

And it would seem fitting, as it appears, to be content with what has been said; but that I may not, by entrusting the whole matter to probabilities and conjectures, leave to any the pretext of sophistry, I shall pass over to the exposition of facts, and from things that have come to pass I shall incontrovertibly set my seal upon the argument just now traversed by us.

Now then, the Assyrians once, encompassing round about the holy city —

I mean the holy Jerusalem —

at one time attempted beforehand by deceitful words to soften the mind of the warriors within it, and at another time devised to do this by threats.

And the blessed Hezekiah, at that time invested with the royal honor, does not put his confidence in his own armies, but ascribed to God, the Lord of all, the outcome of the victory, and called upon His help alone through most earnest prayer; and God at once inclined His ear to the righteous man, and set grace as a neighbor to his prayers.

'For an angel of the Lord went forth,' as it is written, 'and destroyed from the camp of the foreigners a hundred and eighty-five thousand.' What then, most excellent one, will you say to this? In one night, and at the same hour and season, the Assyrian was falling, consumed by the angel's hand, while the multitude of the men of Jerusalem was being saved; and some were in the uttermost extremity, but others in delight and joy.

Where is the power of the hour? How was it unequally divided between the two? And how did it work well for joy to these, but for death to those? For you would not dare to name it double-natured and many-formed, even if you rave exceedingly.

And some were in Hades, while the remnant of the congregation was being saved.

But it certainly ought to have been, if the punishment were altogether not from divine wrath but from the hour, that it should not simply have burst upon one portion of the congregation, but should have taken the whole, encompassing it equally.

Therefore we shall not admit that hour or day or season is the procurer either of that which grieves or of that which is by nature apt to gladden, so far as concerns its own nature, or however one might speak of it and not err.

But let us receive the profit that comes from an hour or a season, and the harm that comes from their opposites, whenever we approach either knowledgeably or ignorantly, and whether we fall in with things pleasant or with things not so.

But what kind of thing do I mean? 'There is a season for every matter,' as it is written; and to know the seasons is most profitable, but not to understand them is exceedingly harmful indeed.

For one ought not to sail in winter, but to do this in summer is not uninstructed.

And being so disposed concerning these matters, we shall commit the helm of our affairs to God, the Overseer of all.

This small and cheap little sparrow would not ever fall into a snare apart from the will of God the Father; how then could he who has been so honored, and has obtained the vote of authority over all things, suffer anything contrary to his will or his prayer, when Providence calls forth none of the things mentioned except in proportion to the things done by each? But I shall set beside these yet another matter, which was very nearly shaken off from memory and had departed, although being exceedingly akin to the subjects before us — or rather, demanding for itself the same inquiry, and having a solution not difficult, but even very easy to grasp for anyone at all intelligent, and having the senses of his understanding exercised toward the discernment of good and evil.

What then again is that thing concerning which we speak such things? The Cananaeans, dwelling as neighbors to the country of the Jews, were once celebrating a wedding.

And they were inviting the Lord together with His mother and the holy disciples to the feast, and the occasion of their festivity was the marriage bed.

And when the Lord was present, sharing the table with those gathered for this, in order to bless the marriage which He had ordained by law, wine failed the banqueters.

And still, as one having authority over a son, because of the exceeding great submission of the Savior, and at the same time having learned by much experience of Him now in godly power, His mother says: 'They have no wine.'

For she knew that He would accomplish, and that very easily, whatever the nature of the affair demanded.

But the Lord says to her: 'What have I to do with you, woman? My hour is not yet come.' The God-loving mind, then, delivered from strange doctrines, and having fled far away from Greek superstition, will receive what is said piously.

'For not yet is come,' He says, 'the season of my manifestation,' namely that which is through signs.

For being God by nature, He was not ignorant of the time befitting each matter — whence should He be? But he who, out of exceeding great want of understanding, twists this too into that meaning —

For evil, as it were, rides roughshod over the multitude, driving them like a charioteer.

And as for those who suppose—as certain triflers assert—that even Christ Himself is subject to the operations of the hours, such a man shall be convicted of folly by us from his own words; and by the very arguments through which he expected to prevail, he shall find condemned the absurdity inherent in his doctrines.

For if we grant that the nature of things is subject to the operations of the hours, and that it is on this account that Christ says to His mother, 'My hour has not yet come,' then tell me, according to your foul and most senseless argument, how is it that, not yet possessing the operation of the hour that lends its aid to His will, He nevertheless becomes the maker of what was requested? For at once He is manifestly seen changing the water into wine.

But if indeed you think that things must be subject to the powers of the hours, how was it not necessary that the Lord should not even from the outset attempt to accomplish at all that which the concurrence of the hour did not grant? Yet He is seen to have taken no thought of this, but bestowed His grace upon those men, as it were, before the hour.

Therefore it was not the power of the hour that stood in the way; rather, because the fitting season for proclamation through miracles was not yet present, Christ speaks such things.

We are therefore delivered from your suspicion in these matters; and by 'the hour' that is named let there be understood the season fitting to each particular thing.

But that we too stand free from any necessity imposed by the hours, I think the argument needs no more words.

For we have already discussed the matters bearing on this point sufficiently.

Yet this we shall be zealous to show, at least for the present, that in the divine Scriptures we shall find 'the hour' to mean the season fitting to each particular thing.

And the admirable Paul cries aloud and signifies the meaning of what is called 'the hour': 'And this, knowing the season, that it is now the hour for us to awake out of sleep.'

'The night is far spent, and the day is at hand.' You see that, having first set forth the season, he then brought in the hour, thus signifying the same thing by the same and nothing else.

For it was the season for those who had been drowsy in sins to rouse themselves at last, to open their eyes to what is profitable, and to be stirred up to the God-loving watchfulness.

'...to do the things which this man did?' It is worthwhile to see how great is the ordering that the discourse contains in these words, and how gracefully it has again advanced for us after those matters.

For having said beforehand that the Jews sought to seize Him and to bind Him with snares—driven by their madness into so savage and untimely a peril devised against Him—he points to the crowds who had believed, in order that thereafter the crimes committed against Him by the leaders might be openly acknowledged.

For the common people were so far from taking counsel to act insolently against Him, that they were already gathering the conclusions drawn from the miracles, and declaring plainly that henceforth it was fitting to cleave to the teachings that came from Him.

And there was a report, as was likely, spread abroad throughout the whole race of the Jews and diffused over all their land, that the coming of Christ had taken place attended by certain great things.

And He would work wonders beyond all telling, and would introduce a teaching far more worthy of note and better than the instruction of the Law.

For the woman of Samaria, when she had drawn water and had come to the well of Jacob, and was conversing with the Saviour, said, 'We know that Messiah is coming, who is called Christ.'

'When He comes, He will declare to us all things.' And this 'We know,' in these words, we shall reasonably attribute not to her alone and by herself, but attaching it to the whole race of both Samaritans and Jews, we shall confirm the argument just now brought forward by us.

But these people now, seeing that the things noised abroad concerning Him in bright hopes were not greater than those already present, all but say to one another such things as these: 'For what did the Law declare beforehand that the Christ would be made manifest to us? And what did the word of the holy prophets prophesy Him to be? A worker of wonders, clearly, and an introducer of the noblest things.'

'But we behold Him who is now present as pre-eminent in both respects to the highest degree.'

'What excess of signs is left over for those who still imagine something greater? Against what difficult thing has He shown Himself weak? What thing beyond speech and beyond expectation has He not wrought? In what respect shall we yet seek anything more? Let us see whether He does not indeed reach the very bounds of every marvel. What that is expected in the Christ is there that does not appear in this man? Shameless henceforth is the refusal to believe, ungracious the sloth, and the plea of delay is utterly unconvincing, at least as regards the duty of choosing the noblest things.'

For this the very nature of things demands, even from those who are unwilling.

Not inelegantly, then, nor removed from what is fitting, might one attribute such an utterance to the Jews.

It is to be noted, however, that through the perversity of the leaders the subject people were ruined.

For the common people were the best of judges, being guided by the splendour of the things accomplished toward the necessity of believing, and holding as their sole understanding concerning Christ that of their leaders.

But the leaders were so terribly bent on savagery that they endeavoured to do harm to Him who had been foretold amid great hopes, and who had already been believed on through the very works accomplished.

'The chief priests and the Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring these things concerning Him.'

The multitude is indignant against the leaders, and very reasonably so.

But they raised a great outcry concerning our Saviour Christ—not because He was a stranger and a worker of wonders beyond hope, nor because He surpassed and improved upon the worship of the Law—

but because to the chief priests and Pharisees He had not yet become acceptable, holding a glory equal in weight to the things spoken by Christ, and being in no respect at all inferior to that in which the reports circulating about Him proclaimed Him to be, or in which the word of the holy prophets had foretold Him.

As therefore men now mastered by envy rather than truly concerned for the salvation of the people, they justly bring accusation against them;

having a herdsman's mind, and subordinating men to their own inventions, and teaching for doctrines the commandments of men, they forsook the straight and level way and sent forth toward crags and pits those for whom salvation was already ready and near at hand, and who were being led by the hand from their own resources toward uprightness of reasonings.

'And the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to seize Him.'

Though the Law had proclaimed 'You shall not slay the innocent and the righteous,' and had clearly cried aloud, over and over, 'You shall not be with the many for evil,' the guardians of the Law thirst for blood, and while boasting arrogantly that they hold the things of Moses sacred, and being wont to rebuke all others unless they should be disposed after this same manner—

yet taking no thought of the Law in these matters, but spurning away, as it were, the things held most precious among them, they are zealous to cast their snares about Him who had committed no sin whatsoever, but who had already been believed, through the very works, to be indeed the Christ.

But surely it was altogether necessary—someone might reasonably say—that the impious teachers of the Jews, if indeed they were learned in the divine oracles and versed in the divine laws, should rather have spoken to the crowds, overturned by fitting reasonings the outcry raised about this matter, repelled the suspicions of envy, transferred them to think what was proper (if indeed the people were reckoned to have gone astray at all among them), being in travail with noble surmises concerning Christ;

they ought to have given full assurance by the testimonies from the prophets, and, passing through the whole of divine Scripture without exception, to have washed away the charges arising from the crowds, and to have taught the truer things concerning Christ, as those who knew something more.

But finding no defence from this quarter, and being put to shame by the holy Scripture—inasmuch as they found it accusing them together with the crowds—they fall into shameless audacity, and are zealous to remove Christ from their midst, because, being unable to convict Him, they had stumbled.

But what is more intolerable than all the rest, the plotting was not even of ordinary men, but the audacious deeds were those of the chief priests, who held their purpose running together with that of the Pharisees—though they ought rather to have led the others, as those who had the advantage in the matter of the priesthood, and, having been allotted precedence through it, ought to have shown themselves as guides both in good counsels and in taking the lead in a resolve not out of tune with God.

But since they had come to be outside a good mind, and, casting the divine Law behind their own devices, were borne along by undiscerning impulses toward that alone which seemed good to them;

for the head became a tail, according to that which is written.

For the leader follows, and, being of one mind with the impiety of the Pharisees, now makes his unbridled onslaughts even against Christ.

And somehow the war of the wicked against the lovers of virtue is ever found to be without pretext, and their manner of fighting all but limps, not being aided by any inventiveness of argument drawn from reasonable causes, but hindered by diseases arising from envy alone.

For, being unable to compete with the great works of those men, nor to carry off for themselves a glory of equal measure through equal magnanimity, or perhaps to be seen among the better through the better things, they fall into savagery of reasonings, and arm themselves unreasonably against the praises of the victors, being zealous to do away with that which compels them to bear themselves shamefully.

For the base is ever convicted by the setting of the better beside it.

But surely they ought rather to have loved to make themselves equal through equal deeds, and rather to have been eager to think and to do the same things as those who were praised.

And it is likely, too, that the Pharisees devised something bitter.

For when they learned that the crowds were murmuring and were now noising abroad among one another, 'Is not this the man whom they seek to kill? Behold, He speaks openly, and they say nothing to Him.'

'Have the rulers perhaps come to know that this is indeed the Christ?'—repelling once more by their familiar malice the supposition arising from this, they give command to bind Him, and send forth the officers to fulfil this very thing.

'Jesus therefore said to them, Yet a little while I am with you, and I go to Him who sent Me.'

...the audacities, and the unholy design of the chief priests against Himself.

And with the eyes of His Godhead He beholds as already present, and mingled with the crowds, those very officers who had been chosen by them to seize Him.

For this reason He makes His discourse common, as to all the assembled people, yet as having a particular answer directed toward those men; and at the same time and in the same words He teaches many profitable things.

For He threatens graciously, yet also convicts them of being fainthearted in matters over which they ought to have rejoiced;

and He shows that the undertaking would in another way also prove fruitless for them, even if it should come to pass.

And how, we shall say, by dividing the meaning bearing on each point.

For in saying 'Yet a little while I am with you,' He appears all but to teach this: 'Tell me,' He says, 'for what cause do you henceforth chafe against Me as one who tarries in this world? I am burdensome to those of your sort, I confess, and not very sweet to those who honour not virtue, crushing him who is no lover of God, and at times striking with rebukes the impious.'

'I am not unaware that I have cultivated hatred against Myself.'

'But do not thus, before the time, stretch out over Me the noose of death.'

'A little while yet I shall be with you; I shall depart rejoicing, when the season fitting for suffering comes; nor shall I Myself endure to consort with the wicked—the sojournings among murderous men are not pleasant to Me, He says—I shall flee away from the impious, as God, but I shall be with My own all the days of the age, even though I seem to be absent in the flesh.'

But in saying 'I go to Him who sent Me,' He again signifies something of this sort: 'In vain,' He says, 'have you whetted against Me the sword of your own impiety.'

'And why do you wear yourselves out with counsels that come to nothing? Stay the arrow of your envy!'

'Life shall not be subjected to death, nor shall corruption prevail over incorruption.'

'I shall not be held fast by the gates of Hades; I shall not be with you, a corpse in the tombs; I shall fly up to Him from whom I am, and I shall ascend again into the heavens, being seen by both angels and men as an accusation of your impiety.'

For some will marvel as He ascends, while others meeting Him will say, 'What are these wounds in the midst of Your hands?' And I will say to them, 'Those with which I was smitten in the house of My beloved.' Therefore the discourse is again composed in much graciousness and in surpassing gentleness, and this too as a pattern for us;

wherefore Paul also says that the servant of God must not strive, but be gentle toward all, in meekness instructing those who oppose. For I think that the God-loving mind must lie outside all tumult and the untamed motions arising from anger, and, as it were, must decline to love those things which come from faintheartedness—like some wild inrush of waves—and must delight, as in windless fair weather, in the reasonings that come from gentleness, and above all must love to pass life in longsuffering, to be seen as forbearing toward all, to cleave wholly to a good mind, and to make its speech toward enemies unshameful.

'You shall seek Me, and shall not find Me.'

This too is said graciously, and in much gentleness of manner.

For it signifies something which, taken according to its surface meaning, is not hard to grasp, yet it is in travail with some bitter mystery hidden away in a corner.

For since He says that He is to ascend to Him who sent Him, that is, to God and the Father, He declares that, even though they still attempt to lay their plots and do not cease from persecuting Him, in no way will He who has run up into the heavens away from them be capable of being seized by them.

But the truer meaning, hinted at in riddling fashion, is this: I, He says, was sent to bestow life upon you; I have come to remove from human nature the death that assailed it by reason of the transgression, and, forbearing all evil, to bring back to God those who by sin had slipped away.

But you will change your mind, and, wasting yourselves away in fruitless afterthoughts, you will bitterly lament over yourselves; and though you may still wish to find the Giver of life, it will not then be possible to enjoy the One you long for.

For once I have leaped away and turned aside from My love toward you, I shall wall off from you altogether even that which is profitable in the seeking.

And we shall find something of this kind concerning them also in the preachings of the prophets.

For one of them says concerning those of Israel: 'With sheep and calves they shall go to seek the Lord, and they shall not find Him, for He has withdrawn from them.' For those who, when life was present, were unwilling to choose it, and who by senseless reasonings thrust away the good that was in their hands—how could they still be fit to receive it? And those who let the opportune moment slip by, reckoning it as nothing—how could they possess the good things that come from the moments? For while the moment is at hand and still present, the things within it and from it must be sought;

but when it has already departed and passed on, the search for the useful things in it becomes henceforth superfluous and utterly vain.

And indeed the blessed Paul says, 'Behold, now is the acceptable time, behold, now is the day of salvation'; and again, 'While we have time, let us do good to all.' For it is fitting for those who are good in their disposition not to seek the good things that come from the moment when the moment is already past its prime, but rather when it is beginning and displaying, as it were, its presence at its very peak.

And there were many things still that could be said on these matters concerning the opportune moment from the divine Scripture; but leaving it to the diligent to search out those passages, I will say something brief—something indeed common and in use among us, yet not affording a small profit.

They say, then, that those who fashion figures upon their tablets, when they bring 'Opportunity' (Kairos) into human form, represent the rest of the body's shape according to their own judgment, but set upon it a head of this kind alone:

for from behind they portray it hairless and utterly smooth, anointing it with bright colors;

but from the middle of the skull they let the hair hang long over the forehead, poured forward and streaming down over the front—signifying by this very shape that, while a certain moment is at hand and, as it were, confronts one face to face, one may easily grasp it, but once it has passed by, how could one still lay hold of it? For while it is present it is shaggy and, as it were, easy to grip; but once it has run past, no longer so.

For this is what the smoothness behind hints at, all but mocking the hand of him who wishes to hold it back.