Commentary on John 1 part 40/94

Those who had been sent by the chief priests and Pharisees to lay hold of the Lord made the discord of the crowds among themselves an opportune pretext for their audacity;

for they supposed that the people would more readily permit them to carry Him off, since they would no longer feel any zeal on His behalf whatever He might suffer, but, He having become as it were an occasion of war and sedition, would altogether rejoice at His being outraged.

'But no one laid hands upon Him,' not out of reverence toward Him, nor because they cast upon their wrath the bridle that comes of godly fear, but being rendered utterly powerless by His power alone;

for in His own time He graciously granted to suffer for us, and the plot of the Jews is with difficulty put to shame, being hindered by impediments from above.

For it was not fitting that the murder should be attempted before its due season, but rather that they, unholy though they were, should await the appointed time of their unholiness.

The officers therefore came to the chief priests and Pharisees;

and these are exceedingly troubled at the arrival of the officers, not seeing them holding the one they sought.

And that which was a matter of suspicion to them—believing it had already been done—strikes them with no small terror.

For since Christ was marvelled at both through supernatural signs and through the excellence of His words, they wasted away with their inbred envy;

and again they were in no small fear lest perchance the people of the Jews, having judged that henceforth it were fitting to follow Him, should escape out of their hand.

supposing this to have come to pass;

for things that are matters of suspicion are always more readily believed.

The officers answered, 'Never man spake thus.'

It is truly fitting to say concerning our Saviour Christ: 'He that taketh the wise in their own craftiness.' For behold, behold—according to that which is written—He confounded their intricate counsel, and showed the whole nature of the matter turned to its contrary, on every side convicting the abomination of the leaders and the unholiness of their ways as feeble and reckless, men who do not shrink from fighting against God.

For the chief priests and Pharisees, fearing lest the peoples of the Jews should be persuaded by the words of the Saviour, sent out the officers to arrest Him, thinking that Christ's being removed from their midst would take away from them their anxiety concerning Him.

But since they say such things as an excuse for not bringing the Lord, come now, let us again expand into words what was said by them, everywhere taking care for the clarity of what is spoken.

'For if,' say they, 'we take delight in the learning of the sacred writings, if we boast that we have been instructed in the divine laws, if we marvel at wisdom as a thing among the good things above the world, why do we impiously drive out one so wise, and wrong beyond measure the very one whom we ought least of all to wrong—owing Him rather a peculiar love?

But we even subject our own heads to the perils of the Law, thirsting unreasonably to slay one innocent and righteous?' We may reasonably suppose the words from the officers to have been in travail with this thought.

But I for my part think that, having considered something even more pointed, they said, 'Never man spake thus';

for they all but say this: 'You do not reasonably reproach us now for having been unable, any more than you yourselves, to bring away the one you seek;

for how could anyone force even against His will one who, as far as words go, has a divine nature? For He spake not as a man, nor were the words that came from Him fitting for a man, but rather befitting God who is by nature, without any ground for censure.'

'For let someone say,' they say, 'if he remembers, whether any of the holy prophets shall be found calling himself a torrent, or who ever dared to say, "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink"; and when did great Moses himself say to us, "He that believeth on Me [though he die, yet shall he live]; out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water"? But these things we heard Him speaking.'

He therefore who without peril made great boasts in words above man was in fact God by nature;

and to attempt to hunt down, as by necessity and force, the One who is above creation—how would one not call this most perilous? Or how could One so far above us, as much as God is above man, have been caught by us against His will? Therefore the officers set forth as a clear proof that the Lord is by nature God the words 'Never man spake thus.'

But the God-fighter is struck on every side, and by the very means through which he supposes he is achieving what he desires, by these same means he is, unawares, slaughtered.

The Pharisees answered them, 'Are ye also deceived?' It is very likely indeed that the officers should Judaize more vehemently, both as always attending upon the Pharisees and sharing a common mind with them, and as being ever drenched with the words of the leaders, and persuaded, as men constantly in their company, to think these very things.

But since they came bringing the Lord by no means, and being struck with amazement beyond expectation, and at last and with difficulty marvelling at one whom they ought not to have hated in the beginning, and reckoning that all the others too were being persuaded by these men, with much agony they say, 'Are ye also deceived?' For consider how the saying is in travail with a certain despair of their hope concerning the peoples.

For as though the rest of the throng were already deceived—all of them who were no more secure—they put forward their fear regarding the officers.

'For as for the rest,' they say, 'the herd-like multitude, not versed in the sacred writings, nor even fortified by attendance upon us—let it perhaps be granted that they were joined to Him by uncritical inclinations, and rather too easily carried away by what He said and did;

but how has this being deceived been admitted even by you? In what manner have you yourselves also been beguiled? What is it that has drawn you toward love of Him, though you were hardened with the same unbelief as we?' For I think the saying of the Pharisees hints at something of this kind.

'Have any of the rulers believed on Him, or of the Pharisees? But this crowd, which knoweth not the Law, are accursed.'

They fall back again into their customary boastfulness, casting a charge of ignorance upon those who were struck with amazement at Jesus as one working wonders and introducing things befitting God, while crowning their own heads alone with knowledge of the Law and expertise in the sacred writings;

and because they themselves do not consent with those who rightly marvel at those things, they believe they are passing through every virtue.

To bring a contrary verdict beyond what is worthy of marvel—at this they preen themselves in no small measure, both raving and, out of great excess of levity, easily flinging themselves into every kind of boorishness.

Whence they ought rather to have recognized Jesus as already present, from that very quarter they are caught wronging themselves, and they make heavy their own yoke, according to that which is written;

'For professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.' And yet it were far better to confess that they knew not the Law, than, thinking and professing that they knew it well, then dishonoring Him who is proclaimed through it, to fall into a bitterer judgment and to be pierced through with inescapable evils.

'For he who knoweth,' it says, 'his Lord's will, and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes;

but he who knoweth not, and doeth it not, shall be beaten with few.'

Therefore, having confessed that they knew the Law, they have unwittingly resolved to accuse their own unbelief, while they deride the crowd as ignorant, and on this account as ensnared by the wonders of our Saviour;

then, being unable to persuade them otherwise by the narratives from the Law, they boastfully insult them, calling those who are ready for understanding uninstructed.

For this is ever the custom of the more ignorant among teachers, who, having nothing to say concerning the matters inquired into, repel with fits of anger the exactness of those eager to learn.

They say that those who believe are accursed, though they themselves, with better justice, might be persuaded to say this against their own selves.

For it is far more fitting that the disobedient one should be accursed, since the Lawgiver has plainly declared, speaking of the Prophet who is our Saviour Christ: 「And it shall come to pass that whosoever will not hearken unto whatsoever that Prophet shall speak in my name, that soul shall be utterly destroyed from among his people.」 Nicodemus, who had come to Him earlier, being one of them, says to them: 「Doth our law judge a man, except it first hear from him and know what he doeth?」 Now Nicodemus is one of the rulers, and is reckoned among those who have obtained office; yet he is not wholly disobedient, nor does he vie in every way with their senseless folly. Rather he is already pricked in conscience, and though he does not yet possess a free and open love for Christ, he is nonetheless quietly abashed before the reproaches that arise from his own conscience.

For that he came to Him by night, and firmly affirmed that he clearly knew Him to be a teacher come from God, and that no one could do such signs unless he had God with him—all this, I think, everyone has learned, since the blessed Evangelist said it plainly at the beginning.

Having therefore joined the crowds in their admiration of Jesus, he is somehow smitten to find himself, along with them, shut out as accursed.

For it is a hard thing to persuade the conscience to keep quiet in matters that go against its judgement.

Grieved therefore at this, he throws back upon them an equal reproach—not yet openly, but by words drawn from the Law, which carry persuasion—and he brings out his indignation not altogether unveiled.

「The Law,」 he says, 「concerning each matter under inquiry, declares to the judges: And thou shalt inquire diligently and clearly whether this thing be so. Yet you have hastily condemned those not yet summoned to judgement, and before hearing any word from them, you pass your verdict so recklessly.」

「You then,」 he says, 「are more truly the accursed, you who despise the Law.」

For it is written: 「Cursed is every one who continueth not in all things which are written in the book of this law, to do them.」 And by the fact that he again expresses indignation at the populace of the Pharisees condemning Jesus merely for having admired Him, he shows himself to be in agreement with those who believe.

For, still suffering from a harmful bashfulness, and not yet having tempered his boldness with zeal, he does not allow the faith within him to be seen unveiled; but wrapping it, as in a dark cloak, in dissimulation, he still somehow secretly pleads on Christ's behalf.

Yet nonetheless he suffers from a grievous malady.

For one ought to believe without shrinking back, glorying rather than being ashamed, practising a transparent boldness and rejecting the slavish dissimulation.

For this very reason the wise Paul also laid down that he who rightly divides the word of truth must be a workman that need not be ashamed.

And somewhere he shows the virtue shining forth in himself, saying: 「For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.」 So then it came to pass.

Bitter was the word of Nicodemus.

For why did he alone set himself against the words of the Pharisees, speaking by himself—though the murderous faction had many others as well? But it is now plain to everyone that, since he was reckoned among those who admired Christ, he declares accursed those who most unlawfully brought down the curse upon those on whom they ought least to have brought it.

They answered and said unto him: 「Art thou also of Galilee? Search and look, for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet.」

「Being a Jew,」 they say, 「and native-born, why hast thou put on the ignorance of the Galilaeans, and, along with those wholly unacquainted with our affairs, dost thou play the fool so absurdly? Having consorted most of all with the most sacred writings, and being versed in the ordinances of the Law, how didst thou not know that one is not to expect a prophet out of Galilee?」 Such, then, is the aim contained in the words of the Pharisees.

But that other point must again be considered.

For those who spit upon the crowds as knowing nothing of what they ought to have understood, and who blame them for exceeding great ignorance, loathing them and arrogantly calling them uneducated—these very men are found to suffer from a worse malady, and are in no way superior to the inexperience they charge upon the others.

For those crowds, having received the miracles wrought through Christ, and now little by little gathering faith in Him, at one time said: 「When the Christ cometh, will he do more signs than these which this man hath done?」 But at another time, drawn away from so right a judgement, they stumbled solely over Nazareth, which lies near Galilee, in which the divine Scripture declares the Lord to have been reared.

For behold, they too say: 「Search and look, for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet.」

But someone, justly stirred at these things, might say to them: 「O you who yield to none in winning the prize of ignorance, you barren and hard men, where is the boast of your lofty wisdom? Where is any trace of it in you? And where, in you learned in the Law, is the understanding that befits you? For you ought not to have doubted concerning Christ the Saviour, but rather to have submitted, in no way drawing back at all from God and the Father, who says of Him to the holy Moses: I will raise up for them a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee. And the phrase 'from among their brethren'—how must it not by all means mean from among the Jews and from Israel? Moreover, you will have no need of accusers from outside, but through your own selves, being without understanding, you will be convicted.」

For when our Saviour Christ was teaching and had said expressly: 「Because I am come down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me,」 you were then reasoning bitterly, and, brooding no small anger over these words, you again said: 「Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that he saith, I am come down from heaven?」 When therefore you confessed that you clearly and plainly knew His father and mother, you knew well enough that He was by all means from the root that is of Israel.

How then do you say that He who is of the Jews is a Galilaean? How is He of another race who is of Israel? For surely to have been reared in the region of Galilee, and to have dwelt there for some time, does not by any means remove even from his lineage the man who is of Israel; since nothing hinders a man who springs from Galilee from being a Jew by race, if he should come to the region of the Jews.

It is therefore idle for the self-conceited Pharisees to say concerning our Saviour Christ that out of Galilee no prophet ariseth.

For they ought rather to have inquired how He who is of the Jews could be a Galilaean, and so henceforth to have considered His upbringing in Nazareth, and not for this reason to have deserted the faith.

Having no way at all to lay hold of His miracles as ground for reproach—though whetted to the utmost enmity—they contradict Him solely on the score of the region, since He was of Galilee according to the suspicion that was in them.

The suspicion arising from this having therefore been dissolved, faith is henceforth no longer doubtful—if indeed they were wise.

Again therefore Jesus spake unto them, saying: 「I am the light of the world.」

Just as we said that Jesus fashioned His discourse fittingly to what was written concerning the feast, when on the last day He stood crying: 「If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink,」 since He was recalling Moses' oracle about the torrent—

so now also He makes a most timely exposition, one owed to the very nature of the circumstances.

For since He beheld the teachers playing the fool along with the crowds, and those who laughed suffering the same malady as those laughed at, all baptized as it were in one night of ignorance, and seeking indeed to lay hold of the mystery concerning Him, yet finding nothing at all—He brings into the midst the cause, as it were, of the want of understanding that was in them, crying: 「I am the light of the world.」

「Passing,」 He says, 「through all the holy Scripture, and supposing that you are testing the things said concerning me through the prophets, you go far astray from the way of life.」

「For there is not among you the one who reveals mysteries, and who illumines the whole world, and, after the manner of the sun, shines into the hearts of those who receive him.」

But he who does not have the light within himself—the divine and spiritual light—must by all means walk in darkness, and on this account stumble against many absurdities.

That the Only-begotten is light by nature, as having shone forth from the Light that is by nature—God and the Father—has been shown by us at length in the first book, where the text was set forth: 「He was the true Light.」

And it must again be observed that He says He Himself is light, not peculiarly or exclusively of those of Israel, but of the whole world.

And by this He states a most true thing.

For we say that He is the very one who instils the spiritual light into the whole of nature, and who, like some sowing of seed, sows into every man called into the birth befitting a human being the understanding proper to him—according to what is said of Him: 「He was the true Light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world.」 Yet I think there is again something bitter buried in the saying.

For if the saying were not in travail with some such meaning, He needed only to have said: 「I am the light.」

But since He added 「of the world,」 I think He is now also willing to hint at some such thing.

For God was known in Judaea only, and in Israel only was His name great; but a deep darkness, as it were, filled all the rest of the earth, none of those in the world having the divine and heavenly light, save Israel alone.

But just as at that time, when all the nations together in this world had been banished from the knowledge of God and were lying, as it were, in a class of their own, 「The Lord's people, His portion, became the lot of His inheritance, Israel」—so again, when the spiritual sun was transferred to the whole world, and the light was removed from those of Israel and shifted its anchorage to the nations, Israel was found outside of all.

「For while they tarried, light became darkness to them,」 according to what is written; 「waiting for brightness, they walked in gloom.」 Not in vain, then, does the Saviour say to the Pharisees in His discourse: 「I am the light of the world.」

For He aptly threatens that He will remove Himself from Israel, and will transfer the grace to the whole world already, and will henceforth spread out to others the ray of the knowledge of God.

And it must be observed how, although seen by His hearers as a man and with flesh, He does not say 「the light is in me,」 but 「I am the light,」 lest anyone should divide Christ into a duality of sons after the dispensation of the Incarnation.

For there is one Lord Jesus Christ, as Paul says, both before the flesh and after the flesh, and He is one and only in truth the Son, the Word who is of God the Father; and even when He became man, the temple taken from the woman was not set apart as a portion.

To divide Him at all after the incarnation, at least as regards the principle of sonship, is not free from blasphemy.

Nevertheless it must be understood that, even though we say He was made flesh, we do not say that the Word of God was clothed with flesh only, but by the name of 「flesh」 we signify the whole man.

「He that followeth me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life.」

Again He persuades them to love to pursue their profit from every quarter, and to be willing rather to be trained by His ordinances, than, choosing to follow their own ignorances, to be deprived even of eternal life itself.

And He shows how much profit will accrue to those who become obedient to Him, since He is by nature good and 「willeth that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.」 But since He knew that they would again contradict Him as God, He moulds His discourse together with a more ancient image of events, and from the things that befell their forefathers He plainly declares that it will be to their great profit to be willing to follow Him.

It is written, then, concerning those of Israel, that 「He led them with a cloud by day, and all the night with a light of fire.」 For when they were traversing the broad—

—wilderness, hastening toward the land of promise, a cloud, shaking off from them the sun's flame by day—according, of course, to the divine will—hung over them like a roof.

And a pillar of fire led them by night, fighting against the darkness, and marking out for the travellers a most unerring way.

Just as those at that time, following after the fire that led and went before them, escaped wandering, and were borne straight toward the right and holy land, taking no thought at all for night or darkness—

so 「he that followeth me,」 that is, he who walks in the footsteps of my teachings, shall in no way be in darkness, but shall gain the light of life; that is, the revelation of the mysteries concerning me, which is able to lead him by the hand into life eternal.

And the Lord, being again skilful in words, in no way further provokes the Pharisees—already savage and not a little enraged—by saying more nakedly that they will both remain in darkness and die in their own disobedience.

But He is found saying this in yet another way, having turned the force of the saying toward the kinder side.

For by the words in which He here promises that the one who chooses to follow Him shall have the light of life, by these very words He covertly intimates that those who refuse to follow shall have also a desolation of the light that is able to bring them back to life.

For is it not plain to all, and indisputably admitted, that to those who flee good cheer the opposite must of necessity befall? Therefore the word of our Saviour was true, and what was dispensed through the skill that was in Him was not doubtful.

The Pharisees therefore said: 「Thou bearest witness of thyself;

thy witness is not true.」

The Pharisee is sluggish and slow of mind, and very hard to lead into the ability to discern the Godhead of the Lord.

And he again is deceived on account of the flesh, and imagines nothing beyond the things seen.

For seeing Him making much use of words beyond man, and having heard sayings most befitting God, he still thinks Him a common man, not looking to the manifest glory of the Godhead, nor opening the eye of the mind to behold Emmanuel.

For whom would it befit to say 「I am the light of the world,」 save the one and only God by nature? Which of the holy prophets dared to utter such a voice? What kind of angel broke forth to us with such a word? Let those who traverse the whole God-inspired Scripture and pry into the sacred and divine word show us this very thing.

But laying down no necessary argument, they think it fitting to contradict, and they proceed hotly to that which alone they know accurately—I mean the charge of fault-finding.

For they tear to pieces, as though it were not so, the light of the world, accusing the things said by Him, and firmly asserting that the witness from Him is not true.

to do harm, but to do good they have not learned; and they suppose that they can overturn His testimony, and reckon it exceedingly counterfeit, on the basis of a bare and mere custom prevailing among us, undertaking to invalidate it not from any commandments of the Law.

For where does the Law—let them once more instruct us—say that a person's testimony concerning himself is unreliable?

For it is in some way burdensome, and at times intolerable to certain people, that anyone should perchance bear witness to himself concerning his own exceptional qualities.

And indeed the most wise composer of proverbs says, 'Let your neighbour praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips.' Nevertheless, what someone chances to say about himself is not altogether seen to be false.

For let one of the Pharisees come forward into our midst; then let him teach us what we are to do with the blessed Samuel, who bore witness to himself concerning the most excellent things.

For he is found somewhere making his defence to those of Israel and saying, 'The Lord is witness among you, and His anointed is witness this day, on this very day, that you have not found anything in my hands.' But if the Law forbade anyone to bear witness to himself, how, tell me, did Samuel count it as nothing—and this though the divine Scripture says of him, 'Holy was Moses, and Aaron among His priests, and Samuel among those who call upon His name'?

They called upon the Lord, and He answered them; He spoke to them in the pillar of the cloud.

He spoke to them in the pillar of the cloud.

They kept His testimonies, and the ordinances that He gave them. Do you see that he was joined with the blessed Moses, having virtue that ran together with his, and that he is testified by the Spirit to be a strict guardian of the Law? How then did he transgress the Law by bearing witness to himself, someone might say? But he did not transgress it.

For he is testified to be one who kept it, and yet he bore witness to himself.

Therefore, then, the Law forbids none of those that exist to bear witness to himself.

Nevertheless, taking it up again, we say this: that the objection of the Pharisees is not compelling on the ground of legal commandments, but is made solely from the custom that prevails, and from what seems unbecoming to men of moderate character.

Rather, this legal-sounding objection is more of a reviling, in some way stealing away from Him those who already admired Him and were persuaded that they ought to believe.

For they tear Him down as one not speaking the truth, and, corrupting the faith in the things just now spoken, they even say that He is not truly light—the wretched men pouring out upon their own heads the ruin that comes from blasphemy.

Jesus answered and said to them, 'Even if I bear witness concerning Myself, My testimony is true, because I know whence I came and where I am going.'

This—affirming that which He is by nature and truly, namely, that He is the Christ—He proclaimed openly: 'For I am the light of the world.'

But once again the danger-loving multitude of the Pharisees supposed that He was lying.

For in their strange stupidity they did not know that when certain persons expound their own nature and speak of the things that essentially belong to them, we shall not, if we think aright, suspect that they do this out of boastfulness, nor shall we say that they are hunting after empty glory, but rather that they are making clear what they truly are.

For example, what shall we say again in this case, when an angel says, marking out his own nature, 'I am an angel'?

Even so when a man, showing forth what he is, says, 'I am a man.'

And when, teaching, one should say, 'I, coursing through the heavenly circuit, send forth bright light to those upon the earth.'

One will reasonably think that such a person is not bearing witness to himself concerning things that do not belong to him, but concerning that which he truly is by nature.

In the same way, I think, also in the case of Christ our Saviour: even if He says that He Himself is light, He will be speaking the truth, and no less will He be found not to be boasting from without.

The many, then, living in ignorance and not understanding Emmanuel, suppose that He is seeking glory, and they set upon Him as upon one of us, and do not shudder to say, 'Your testimony is not true'—to Him who knows not how to lie.

For no guile was found in His mouth, as it is written.

But it was needful once more, for those who had strayed exceedingly far from the truth and had wandered from becoming reasoning, to lead by the hand the ones going astray, and, forbearing with them, to tell them that they had failed of what is fitting—they who impiously ascribe even a love of lying to Him who is from above and begotten of God the Father.

'For My testimony is true,' He says, 'even if I bear witness concerning Myself.'

For with human beings, out of self-love, the desire to bear witness to themselves concerning the finest things is at times seen to be deeply ingrained, even if they do not happen to possess those things.

For our nature is prone to slip into what is base.