Commentary on John 1 part 43/94

but those who distinguish the natures of things according to the law of God say that the truly lovable and enviable man is he in whom there dwells the will to live according to the counsel and will of his Maker.

For the meanness of one's condition according to the flesh will in no way harm the soul of a man accustomed to do good; and conversely, the splendour of this life and the distinction that comes from wealth will in no way profit those who refuse to live lawfully.

They judge, therefore, according to the flesh, as we were just now saying, who do not look to holiness, nor are accustomed to test a man's manner of life or his ways, but turn their own mind only to earthly things, and deem worthy of all admiration the man reared in wealth and luxury.

You then, O most senseless teachers of the Jews, although trained by the law given through Moses toward exactness in judging, having condemned Him on no charge, condemn — merely because of the meanness of His flesh — the One who was shown to you as God through many wondrous deeds.

'But I will not imitate your want of instruction, nor will I bring forth such a verdict concerning you;'

'for the nature of man is altogether nothing;'

'for what could this perishable body, made from the earth, be? Corruption and a worm and nothing else.'

'But not for this cause will I condemn you, nor, because you are by nature men, will I on that account at all determine that you must be spat upon;'

'I have many things to speak and to judge concerning you' — that is, all the accusing word against you abounds; I will charge not one thing only, but many, and in nothing will I speak falsely, as you do.

'I can judge you as disobedient, as arrogant, as insolent, as fighters against God, as thankless, as ungrateful, as wicked, as accustomed to love pleasure rather than to love God, as receiving glory from one another but not seeking the glory that is from the only One; as having set fire to the spiritual vineyard, as not having pastured according to reason the flock entrusted to you by God, as not having led men by the hand to Him who is proclaimed through the law and the prophets — that is, to Me.'

Such things might the Saviour utter against the Jews;

and by adding 'I have yet many things to say and to judge concerning you,' He in a way threatens them, that He will one day be shown to be Judge — He who seemed to them to be nothing on account of the flesh.

'But He who sent Me is true, and I speak to the world the things which I heard from Him.'

He reserved this frankness not so much for the present as for the fitting time, preserving His own aim in accordance with the manner of His sojourn;

for He came not to judge the world, but to save the world, as He Himself says somewhere.

On this account, holding fast to what befits Him, and taking up again the word that calls to salvation, He intensifies His exhortation.

For in this above all it is worthy to marvel at the measure of His forbearance, and at the surpassing greatness of the love toward mankind that is in Him;

for this reason Peter also writes concerning Him: 'Who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges justly.' Therefore, He says, 'I will now especially not spend My word against you upon those things in which you are wont to spend it;'

'namely, upon fault-finding, and upon a waste of time on nothing profitable;'

'but, reserving the judging of you for the fitting time, I will hold fast to the things that profit you, and I will not depart from My forbearance toward you, even though out of the madness that is in you, you insult Me senselessly.'

'I was therefore saying to you just now: I am the light of the world;'

'he who follows Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life.' At this you, being unreasonably vexed, leapt up bitterly, crying out outlandishly: 'You bear witness concerning Yourself; Your witness is not true.' To such things I again reply: 'Even if I bear witness concerning Myself, My witness is true, because I know whence I came and whither I go.' But if I seem to be someone burdensome in saying these things among you, if I am not accepted as a witness concerning the natural dignities that belong to Me, yet He who sent Me is true, and I speak to the world the things which I heard from Him.

'I speak the same,' He says, 'as the Father who sent Me; I utter things in harmony with His words, having said that I am light by nature.'

'The things, therefore, which I heard God the Father saying concerning Me, these I speak to the world.'

'Therefore, if according to you I lie, and My witness is not true, it is altogether necessary for you to say that the Father lied first.'

'Therefore I have not lied; and if you are not persuaded by the words that come from Me, be shamed, He says, by the utterances of Him who sent Me.'

'For what did He say concerning Me? "Behold a man; the Dayspring is His name;" and again, to those who revere Him: "And unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of righteousness arise, and healing shall be in His wings." Concerning Me, then, He says — whom you insult without knowing: "Behold, I have given You for a covenant of the race, for a light of the Gentiles." And that I am also light was said to you by Him: "Be enlightened, be enlightened," He says, "O Jerusalem, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you." These things I heard the Father who sent Me saying concerning Me, and for this reason I say that I Myself am the light of the world; but you, judging not rightly, belittled Me merely on account of the flesh, and for this reason you often make bold to say: "You bear witness concerning Yourself;"'

'Your witness is not true.' Therefore—

For it is fitting to recapitulate the whole train of thought consistent with the subject before us.

He plainly declares the Jews to be fighters against God, and to be contending not only against His own words, but also against the very verdict pronounced by the Father.

For the Father knows His own Son to be light by nature, and for this reason calls Him the Dayspring and the Sun of righteousness.

But they, drawing down upon their own heads the destruction that comes from unbelief, reject the truth, calling the good thing evil; and therefore the 「Woe」 will justly follow after them.

They did not know that He was speaking to them of the Father.

The Spirit-bearer is again astounded at the insensibility of the Jews, and with very good reason.

For what could be more senseless than such men, who, though much discourse had often been addressed to them concerning God the Father, understand nothing about Him, even when they hear our very Saviour saying, 「But He that sent Me is true.」 What then is the pretext, and for what cause does the blessed Evangelist say that the Jews did not know that Christ was signifying to them by these words God and Father — it is necessary to state.

By this again He is found to speak truly, showing that those who were ignorant of the Son are ignorant also of the Father.

For the Son is, as it were, a door and a gate to the knowledge of the Father.

Wherefore He also said, 「No one comes to the Father except through Me.」 For just as the mind, ascending from an image to the archetype, forms an impression of the latter from what lies before it,

it was therefore necessary to show that the Jews understood nothing concerning the Father, since they were unwilling to be led up, from the knowledge of the Son, toward the apprehension of Him.

For this reason the Evangelist sharply, all but expressly notes that, when Christ said, 「He that sent Me is true,」 they did not know that He was speaking to them of the Father.

「When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He.」

Imitating the best of physicians, He lays bare the cause of the sickness that dwells in their soul, and clearly reveals what hinders them from coming swiftly to understanding of and faith in Him.

For since, looking to the flesh and to His descent therein, they were persuaded to think somewhat meanly of Him, having this as a veil upon the eyes of their understanding, and did not know that He was God even though He had appeared as man, He necessarily addressed them, saying, 「When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He」 — that is, when you cease from that petty and grovelling opinion about Me, when you conceive of Me things lofty and above the earth, and believe that I have shone forth as God from God, even though I have become for your sakes a man like you, then you will clearly recognize that I am the Light of the world.

For this is what I said to you just now.

For what, He says, could any longer hinder Him who has been altogether acknowledged to be true God from being the Light of the world? For surely no one will sink into such madness and audacity as even then to dare to say, 「Your witness is not true」; for He who is God by nature and true will in no way speak falsely in whatever things He may declare.

It is therefore most manifest, even from the words of the Saviour, that if we hold a mean opinion of Him and imagine Him to be a mere man, bereft of the deity that is His by nature, we shall assuredly and reasonably disbelieve Him, and shall not receive Him as Saviour and Redeemer.

And then what follows? We have fallen away from hope.

For if salvation is through faith, and faith is gone, what is there any longer to save us? But if we believe and exalt on high the divine dignity of the Only-begotten, even though He has become man, coming as it were with a fair wind, and running across the exceedingly perilous sea of this life, we shall put in at the city above, there to receive the honours that come from believing.

「When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He.」

Having drenched the wrath of the Jews with many good words, He nonetheless sees it swelling again no less than before.

For blaspheming recklessly they do not desist, but at one time render His word void and impiously call Him a liar;

for what else, in the end, could the saying 「Your witness is not true」 be but this? And at another time again, when out of love He was introducing to them the things that lead to salvation, and for this reason was saying, 「Unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins,」 they rose up hotly against Him, and setting words of frenzy against the words He spoke to them out of love, they said, 「Who are You?」 It was therefore fitting that, for those so unrestrainedly wallowing in irrational audacity, there should be a word to bring them to their senses and persuade them to a more moderate mind, and to lay thereafter a bridle upon a tongue that was unwilling.

For this cause He threatened them, saying most plainly that they would not escape the punishment for their impieties, but even though for the present they see Him bearing with them patiently, yet in the end, when their impiety against Him has run its full course — that is, His death and the cross — they will undergo a most terrible sentence and receive an unbearable calamity, namely that from the war against the Romans, which befell them after the Saviour's cross by wrath from above from God.

The Saviour again indicated this to them somewhat more clearly, saying at one time to the weeping women, 「Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children」; and at another time again, 「When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then you will say to the mountains, Cover us, and to the hills, Fall upon us.」 For to such a pass have the sufferings of the war come upon the Jews, that from the experience thereof every form of death has become sweeter and more choiceworthy.

And the uprooting of their land, and the enslavements of its inhabitants, and the most savage slaughter, and the famines in each city, and the eating of children therein — these Josephus also recounts in his own writings.

When therefore, He says, having delivered up the Son of Man to the cross, you undergo the counterbalancing punishment, and pay penalties of equal weight for your outrages against Me, then, weeping, you will know that I am He who is mighty over all things — that is, God.

For if not even one sparrow will fall into the snare of the fowler apart from God, how, He says, could a whole land, and a nation once beloved, go on thus to utter destruction, unless the God who rules over all had by all means assented to this coming to pass? Contempt of God, therefore, is an evil and most terrible thing, leading in the end to what is to be prayed against.

Wherefore Paul also rebukes certain persons, saying, as concerning God, 「Or do you despise the riches of His kindness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But according to your hardness and impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath.」 ANOTHER TREATMENT OF THE SAME.

Christ passed long times dwelling together with the Jews, and, so to speak, spoke in every synagogue, and discoursed on every sabbath, and often set before them ungrudgingly the profitable teaching, calling them frequently to the illumination that is through the Spirit.

And indeed He said, inasmuch as He is God by nature and true, 「I am the Light of the world」; but as He said these things they opposed Him, thinking most irrationally, 「For You,」 they said, 「bear witness concerning Yourself;

your witness is not true.」 And the audacities of the Jews do not stop at contradictions in words, nor is their untamable insolence brought to its consummation merely in the delight of railing.

But proceeding unsparingly through every kind of savagery, in the end they delivered Him over to the cross and to death.

But since He was Life by nature, having burst the bonds of death, He was raised from the dead, and reasonably departs from the abomination of the Jews; and He leaped away from Israel, and very justly so, and transferring Himself to the Gentiles, He called all to the light, and to those who were blind He bestowed recovery of sight.

It came to pass, then, after the death on the cross of our Saviour Christ, that the understandings of the Jews were darkened, inasmuch as the light had departed from them, while the hearts of the Gentiles were made bright, since the true Light had shone upon them.

「When therefore,」 He says, 「you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He.」

In the sense of: I will await the end of your impiety, and I will not bring wrath upon you prematurely; I will wait to suffer and to die, and among all else I will endure this too;

but when you deliver up to the cross the Son of Man — reckoned by you a mere man — then you will know, even against your will, He says, that I have not spoken falsely in saying that I am the Light of the world.

For when you see yourselves darkened, but the boundless multitude of the Gentiles illumined because I have come among them, how will you not, even unwillingly, at last agree that I am truly the Light of the world? For that the Saviour was to depart from the Synagogue of the Jews after His resurrection from the dead was doubtful to no one;

for it has been accomplished and brought to fulfilment.

And again, the presence of light works the vanishing of darkness.

Christ, therefore, is shown to be truly Light, having darkened the Jews through His departure from them, but illumined the Gentiles through His presence among them; and the experience of these dreadful things became a bitter lesson to the Jews.

「When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He.」

Since, looking to the flesh alone, He says, you believe Me to be a mere man, and reckon Me to be one of your own kind, while the dignity of the Godhead, and the glory that comes therefrom, does not so much as enter into your mind;

there will be to you a most manifest sign that I am truly God from God, and Light from Light — namely, your most dreadful and most lawless outrage, that is, the cross and the death of the flesh upon it.

For when you see that the outcome of your senselessness has been rendered ineffectual, and that the snare set for the death has been shattered —

for I will rise up from the dead —

then, even unwillingly, as now at last by necessity, you will assent to the words that have come from Me to you, and will confess that I am God by nature.

For I shall be mightier than death and corruption, and as being Life by nature, I will raise up My own temple.

But if indeed to prevail over death and to triumph over the snares of corruption befits God who is such by nature, and no other of existing things, how shall I not, with every contradiction and all hesitation removed, be shown to conquer all things through this, being mighty and without toil? The Saviour, then, said that His own cross would be a sign to the Jews, and the most manifest proof that He is God by nature.

And you may see Him saying this clearly also elsewhere;

for 「as Jonah was in the belly of the sea-monster three days and three nights, so also will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.」 You hear how, when the Jews asked for a sign as a proof that He is truly God — although they asked it while tempting Him — He says that no other will be shown them except the sign of Jonah the prophet, that is, the three-day death and the rising again from the dead. For what could be so great and conspicuous a sign of divinely-befitting authority as to abolish death and overturn corruption, even though, by a divine sentence, it had prevailed over human nature? For the earth that is in Adam heard, 「You are earth, and to earth you shall return.」 But it was in the Saviour Christ's power both to set an end to His own wraths, and by His blessings to overturn the death that had gained strength again out of His own curse.

And that the Jews greatly shuddered at the sign from the resurrection, as a thing terrible in its power to persuade that Christ is truly God, their final piece of stage-management will plainly teach;

for when they learned of the Saviour's resurrection, and that He was not found in the tomb, being greatly disturbed and terrified at this, they contrived to buy off with much money the false accusations that came from the soldiers.

For they gave silver to them, that they should say, 「His disciples came and stole Him away while we were sleeping.」 Great, therefore, is the sign from the resurrection, having incontestable proof that Jesus is God, at which the hard and inflexible heart of the Jews was thrown into confusion.

That the Son is not less in power and wisdom than God the Father, but rather is Himself His wisdom and power.

「But as the Father taught Me, these things I speak.」

He speaks in a more human manner, since the Jews were not able to understand otherwise, nor did they endure to hear from Him unmixed the things befitting God.

For over such matters they are found even hurling stones at Him, defining it as blasphemy on His part, that, being a man, He made Himself God.

Therefore, withdrawing the greater part of the dignity that befits God, and stripping His word of much of the splendour attaching to this, He accommodates Himself exceedingly well to the weaknesses of His hearers; and, since in searching out the mind within them He finds them not knowing Him to be God, He makes His word suited to human nature, lest again their thoughts be kindled to wrath against Him, and lest they leap away irrationally from at least partially attending to Him.

「You will know then,」 He says, 「when you have lifted up the Son of Man, that I am He; you will likewise know again that of Myself I do nothing, but as the Father taught Me, so I speak.」

「And what need is there of such words? tell me,」 someone might perhaps say;

「and what, again, in these does Christ teach us?」 We shall then answer with clear distinction, piously refining each of the things said;

you have not ceased, He says, laying charge against My works, as though they had been done out of place and unholily; you have often condemned Me as one who does not refrain from transgressing the law, as one accustomed to do things discordant with the Lawgiver.

For I loosed from so long a sickness the man who was paralysed, I showed mercy to a man on the sabbath.

But seeing you, He says, fond of accusation over this — you who ought rather to marvel — and having greatly missed the mark of what befits Me, yet even lately I was introducing to you the things that lead to salvation, and was persuading you to walk toward the will to partake of light.

Then I was showing you the true light;

for expounding My own nature, I said, 「I am the Light of the world」; but you again, acting and willing most foolishly, rose up against My words, and had the audacity to say without restraint, 「Your witness is not true.」 When therefore you have lifted up the Son of Man — that is, when you have compassed Him about with death, and see Him mightier than the bonds of death —

for I will rise from the dead, since I am God by nature.

Then you shall know, he says, that I do nothing of myself, but as the Father taught me, so I speak.

For you shall learn, when you see that I am by nature God and Son, how I am in no way self-willed, but ever willing in concert with God the Father; and whatever things he might work, these I too do not shrink from doing; and again, I speak only such things as I know him also to say.

For I am of the same essence as the one who begot me.

For I was healing the paralytic on the Sabbath, yet you again were bitterly disposed toward me on this account; but I showed you that the Father too is at work even on the Sabbath.

For I said: 'My Father works until now, and I work.' Therefore I do nothing of myself.

Again I said: 'I am the light of the world,' but you supposed that I was saying something out of tune with him; and in this too I again put you to shame, pointing out that it was said concerning me: 'Behold, I have set you for a covenant of the race, for a light of the nations.' In vain, then, do you accuse me, he says, who ever will in concert with the Father, and who do nothing out of tune with him, nor endure to say anything that is not from him.

This I think must be applied in mind to the passages before us.

But perhaps the bitter beast will leap upon us—I mean, of course, the Christ-fighter, the Arian.

And, as is likely, he will cry out and come saying: 'You there, forcing the argument to run against the wind, why do you again strain to push it back toward what seems right to you alone, and are not ashamed to steal away the force of the truth? Behold, plainly the Son affirms that he does nothing of himself, but whatever he might learn from God the Father, this also he speaks; thus he knows his own Father to be among the greater things rather than among those in which he himself is.'

Is it the nature of created things? For to those which received their coming-to-be out of non-being, whatever might come to belong to them, this is altogether also God-given.

For the divine Scripture both knows and proclaims him to be true God.

For I think that to the one who is truly by nature God all good things must belong perfectly.

But that which does not possess it perfectly—falling short at least in some of the things that ought to be admired—how could it be by nature God? For just as incorruptibility and immortality must altogether belong to him naturally, and not from without nor as something imported, so also must the perfection and want-of-nothing in respect of all good things.

But if, according to your unholy and ignorant reasoning, O you, the Son is imperfect both in his power to do what befits God and in speaking as he ought—yet he is, according to the divine Scripture, the power and wisdom of the Father—then this charge will fit the Father rather, and not so much him.

For having so construed these matters, you will no longer say that God the Father exists perfect in power, nor yet perfectly wise.

You see, then, whither the boldness of your ignorance again slides down.

And I marvel how even this escapes your understanding.

In what manner, tell me, will God the Father again supply power to his own Power, or how could he make his own Wisdom wiser? For it is necessary either to say that he is always ascending to something greater and progressing little by little toward being able to do something more than the strength inherent in him—

which is both foolish and utterly impossible—

or, acting impiously, to suppose that he is rather being strengthened by another.

How could the Son still be named Lord of the powers, or how could he still be conceived as wisdom and power, if, according to you, he is being empowered and made wise by another? Away with the blasphemy, and with the absurdity of such reasonings!

For either grant plainly that the Son is a creature, so that you may have the whole God-inspired Scripture crying out against you; or, if you believe him to be by nature God, then grant—yes, grant—that the things proper to the Godhead belong to him perfectly.

And it is proper to the natural property that he neither be weak in anything, nor fall short of the highest wisdom, but rather that he himself be by nature wisdom and power.

But in Wisdom there is nothing acquired by teaching.

Nor could we ever contemplate the ability to do as being something imported in the first and truly conceived Power.

But that we too, examining the very nature of the matters, may test more precisely the things said by Christ, we shall add this also to what has been said.

What so great thing did the Only-Begotten, having become man, accomplish, that should overpass the power inherent in him? For it is likely, I suppose, that some would say it was then fitting to say, seeing that he had borrowed his ability from God the Father: 'I do nothing of myself'—because he drove out a demon, because he released the paralytic from his sickness, because he freed the leper from his affliction, because he gave sight to the blind, because he satisfied an uncountable multitude of men with five loaves, because by a word he lulled the raging sea to sleep, because he raised Lazarus from the dead.

—those who say that wisdom is supplied to him who is the Wisdom and Power of the Father? 'But if,' he says, 'we were saying that some other supplies to the Son what is lacking to his power, that is, teaches him, you would reasonably have laid hold of our words, as having resolved to plead on behalf of one being insulted.'

'But since we say that God the Father gives these things, what remaining occasion for grief has thence appeared to you? Therefore, if you think it does the Son no wrong to be by nature unlike the one who begot him, even though he is said to have something supplied to him, remember, O man, the recent words, and be persuaded thereby not to be scandalized.'

But grant to him that he exists in all things equal to his own begetter, and is in no way whatever, in any manner or account, inferior.

But if this draws you away from right reasonings and persuades you to think about him what is not lawful, why do you attempt in vain to outwit us with arguments so rotten? For it will make no difference at all whether God the Father himself, or some other beside him, is said to give something to the Son.

For being once accused of receiving something, what benefit could he have, even though the person of the giver be exceedingly illustrious? For tell me, what difference does it make to the one who begs off being struck, whether he is beaten with a wooden or perhaps a gilded rod? For it is not to suffer in this or that way, but to suffer not at all, that is the good.