Commentary on John 1 part 70/94

but He says that the most perfect and most exact revelation of the mystery would come to us through the Comforter, that is, the Holy Spirit sent from the Father in His name, I mean the Son's.

For this reason He says that 'He shall teach you all things that I said to you.'

For since He is the Spirit of Christ and His mind, according to what is written, being not something other than Him, according to the principle of natural identity—although conceived of and existing in His own right—He knows all things that are in Him.

And Paul will bear witness, saying: 'For who knows the things of a man, save the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the things of God no one has known, save the Spirit of God.' Therefore, as knowing the things that are in the will of the Only-begotten, He announces all things to us, not having His knowledge from learning—lest He should appear to fulfill the rank of a servant, and to be conveying, as it were, the words of another—but as His Spirit, as we have just said, and knowing without instruction all the things of Him from whom and in whom He is, He reveals the divine mysteries to the saints; just as, indeed, the human mind also, knowing all the things within it, serves outward things—by uttered speech, perhaps—conveying the wishes of the soul, whose mind it also is, being seen and named as something other than it by our conceptions, yet not being other according to nature, but as a part completive of the whole, subsisting in it, and believed to spring forth from it.

But above this again is the divine and ineffable nature;

for the whole force of examples is small, even though it proceed by subtle reasonings.

Therefore the perfect learning is implanted in the saints through the Spirit.

And indeed the divinely-inspired Paul writes to certain persons: 'And I, having heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your heart being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of the might which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.' For in the revelation of such things, wrought ineffably in us through the Spirit, we behold the depth of the dispensation in the flesh and the power of the hidden mystery.

And that His Spirit, dwelling in the saints, fulfills the very presence and power of Christ, and teaches all things which He Himself spoke to us, Paul again will no less clearly show us, saying: 'For this cause I bow my knees to the Father, of whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell through faith in your hearts; being rooted and grounded in love, that you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God.' And it is to be noted again that, having said that all things would be revealed to the saints through the Spirit, He gives them to no other teacher;

but presents them to Himself through the Spirit, no longer appearing to fleshly eyes, but beheld in a manner befitting God by the spiritual eyes of the heart.

'Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you;

not as the world gives, do I give to you;

let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.'

The word had instilled in them a moderate alarm, but had grievously disquieted them, and, overburdening the mind of each with the weight of grief, had clouded it.

For what could be harder to bear than grief? And what so oppressive as the removal of the sweetest things, and to endure the unexpected loss of what is most dearly beloved? He therefore establishes them, who were troubled by grief and fear.

For the occasion and root of grief—namely, that He was about to depart from them and return to the Father—was indeed most just; but it made suspicion the mother of the fear that they would suffer everything, and that very readily, since He who was mighty to save was no longer present with them, at least according to the visible aspect of the body.

But how does He establish them, or in what way is the cheerfulness that comes from good spirits made to dwell in them, and the mind again lulled to divine tranquility? 'I give to you,' He says, 'peace, and I leave with you My peace.'

I have said, He declares, many times, that I will not leave you orphans; nor will you dwell on the earth alone, bereft and naked of one to help;

for I will be with you again, and though absent in body, I will again fortify you by My favors as God, I will set you above all disturbance, and no one shall prevail over your good courage;

for all fear shall grow faint, and cowardice shall depart out of the way, and a certain divine power shall arise in you, guiding the mind at leisure and the tranquil heart toward the revelation of things beyond the human mind.

But now 'I give you peace'—not simply so, but 'My peace.'

And this was plainly to say nothing else than that 'I will supply the Spirit, and will be with those who receive it through Myself.'

For that the peace of Christ is His Spirit, I think, needs no long discourse for full assurance and demonstration;

yet I suppose it necessary to say this: For if He Himself is the peace both in the heavens and on the earth, how would it not henceforth be plain to everyone that, as we have said, the peace is surely His Spirit? And indeed the divinely-inspired Paul said to certain persons: 'And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts.' And yet how is it not right to consider that he speaks such things not concerning this peace which is understood in the common sense, both in word and in reality? For the disposition that is unwarlike and unquarrelsome, insofar as it lies in its own inclinations and in the will proper to itself, has and works peace;

and we shall never suppose the peace so understood to be something subsistent and existing in its own right, but shall surmise that it comes to pass in the disposition of those who love it;

how then could anyone think that such a peace surpasses all understanding? For that which in no way whatsoever exists according to its own subsistence, how could it be conceived as greater and better than men, perhaps, or angels, or even those understood to be yet higher? For these also we say are 'mind.'

Therefore the peace that is above principalities, above authorities, above thrones or dominions, and above all understanding, is the Spirit of Christ, through whom the Son reconciled all things to God the Father, by willing His things, and by desiring to think and do them, and by not going off elsewhere into apostasy through the turning aside to evil.

And it does no harm to take up on this matter also a not unintelligent reflection.

For just as, since the Son is by nature life and wisdom and power, and His Spirit is called and is such, it is a Spirit of life and of wisdom and of power;

so, since He Himself and none other is truly and properly peace, His Spirit would fittingly be called, and again be conceived according to Him, as peace.

For this very reason, having specially ascribed to His own nature His own peace—that is, the Spirit—He says concerning it: 'My peace I leave with you.'

And that among the holy prophets also the Spirit of Christ has been thus named, you will understand very well by learning it through the voice of Isaiah: 'For, O Lord our God,' he says, 'give us peace;

grant us therefore peace, he says, O Master, for You have rendered all things to us.'

For we shall confess that we have all things then, and nothing of good things shall appear to be lacking to him who has once received the fullness of Christ;

for the filling with every good thing is for God to dwell in us through the Spirit.

Since, therefore, the Spirit is exceedingly sufficient to smooth away every tumult of the mind, and to abolish all cowardice within us, He promises to bestow it as a suitable provision, as it were, for manliness and imperturbability, saying: 'My peace I leave with you;

let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.'

'You have heard that I said to you, I go away, and I come to you.'

It was not from another, He says, that you inquired concerning My departure hence;

for you have become hearers with your own ears of My words.

And what did I promise you, I who know not how to lie? 'I go away, and I come to you.'

If, then, the word had threatened you with a comfortless departure and a perpetual abandonment, it would indeed have been very likely that, being exceedingly distressed at this, you should be unbearably grieved and should slide down into unmitigated despondency;

but since I said to you that I will not only depart, but that I will also return in due season, why then, He says, admitting into your minds only what causes grief, do you outrage with forgetfulness that which is by nature apt to gladden? Let that which knows how to heal be raised up against that which smites; let the [power] of hope contend against those things whose nature it is to distress.

For I have arranged to ascend to the Father and God, but I have also promised that I will return again.

He therefore smooths away the grief, finding it at its very height among the disciples;

and just as if some man, truly loving his children and most kindly, being forced by some necessity to depart from his homeland, then seeing the copious tears of his own children, drenching their most tender and dear cheek, resorts to every kind of word, and, ever bringing into their midst the good that will come from his departure, arms in a manner, against their griefs, the hope set on the sweetest things;

so also our Lord Jesus Christ tenderly wraps up the grief of the soul of the saints.

For He knew, He knew, being true God, that His leaving would be most burdensome to them, even though He was ever present through the Spirit;

and this is a proof of love and of holiness in the highest degree.

For to wish to be with Christ—how is it not truly most fitting for the saints? And indeed the admirable Paul, having this aim within himself, says: 'For it is better to depart and to be with Christ.' CHAPTER 1

That the Son of God and the Father is in no respect less than He, but rather equal to Him and like Him according to nature.

'If you loved me, you would rejoice that I go to the Father, for my Father is greater than I.'

He turns the occasion of their grief around into a ground for gladness, and plainly blames them for not rather rejoicing over that which now vexes them.

At the same time He tries to teach that those who practice a genuine and unfeigned love toward others must of necessity seek not merely and by all means what is pleasant and dear to themselves alone, but also what is profitable to those whom they love, the occasion itself likewise urging that this be done.

Therefore Paul also writes, saying: 'Love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own'; and he says to certain persons, 'not seeking your own things, but also the things of others.'

For it is the work of perfect and exact love, not by any means only to provide for our own goods, but also to look about for what is useful to our neighbor.

For through the matters here set forth the Savior persuades His own disciples to think in this way.

And come now again: sketching out upon ourselves, as upon a tablet, the power of this contemplation with finer pens, let us ascend from here to the mystery of Christ,

and to those things believed to be held incomparably.

It was pleasant, then—come, let us say—to Paul's disciples to be with him continually;

but it was better for Paul to depart and to be with Christ, just as he himself firmly affirmed when he wrote.

It was therefore the task of those who had chosen to love him, to press on to fulfill their love toward him, and not to make forever hard to bear that which was pleasant to themselves alone, but rather to consider also what was profitable for their teacher as he was departing.

For he was pressing on to be with Christ.

You have the shadow of this contemplation in the things that pertain to us.

Come now, therefore: laying the power of the mysteries concerning Christ, like some manifold color, upon these shadows, let us now plainly display the truth itself.

For being in the form of God and the Father, the Only-Begotten, and in equality according to the Spirit, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; yet, on account of His love toward us, He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, and endured this by suffering it, that He might direct us all toward every knowledge of virtue, and that through the incomparable splendor of His wonders He might prepare us to become beholders of the power and glory and supernatural authority that reside in the divine nature.

For thus it was possible to persuade those who had slipped into the utmost ignorance to recover again unto understanding, and no longer to worship the creation beside the Creator, but to inscribe as God the One who is truly and by nature God.

But the Only-Begotten benefited us in other ways as well by becoming man.

For He overthrew the dominion of death, dissolved the power of sin, and gave us to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy. It was therefore also very reasonably pleasant and dear to us ourselves, or even to the holy disciples, and worthy of every account, to be always with Christ, the giver of so many goods to us, and to have Him ever present and dwelling together with us.

But it did not appear very useful to Him to linger for such long times in the guise of humiliation, which He had usefully accepted on account of His love toward us, as we have already said before.

For it was rather necessary, the economy concerning us being now consequently brought to completion, that He should ascend into His own glory, and, together with the flesh taken for our sake, run back to that equality with God and the Father which He did not consider robbery;

for it was possible for Him to hold it as His own proper good.

He descended into human dishonor.

For as long as He was still upon the earth, although being true God and Lord of all, He was reckoned no better than any of us, at least by those who did not know His glory.

And so He was struck, and spat upon, and crucified, and endured the mockery of the impiety of the Jews, who dared to say, 'If thou art the Son of God, come down now from the cross, and we will believe thee.' But when, having accomplished the mystery concerning us, He was borne up to the Father and God in the heavens—inasmuch as the time of humiliation had now passed by, and the seasons of the voluntary self-emptying had been completed—He was now manifested as God to the powers above.

'The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle, the Lord of hosts, He it is who is the King of glory.' For there was made known to the principalities and powers the manifold wisdom of God, which He wrought in Christ, just as Paul says.

The Father Himself is brought forward as the one who says that the Son should be seated at His right hand, saying, 'Sit thou at my right hand.'

And no one who has sense will say that the Father has honored the Son with the second place by having Him at His right hand; rather he will reckon and carefully consider this:

For it was fitting that the one at the right hand should truly be conceived as holding the place free from any suspicion of diminution—by no means the Father, but rather the Son, on account of the voluntary self-emptying and subjection, since He was charged with lesser things by those unable to understand the mystery concerning Him.

For this reason He is at the right hand of the Father, who can in no wise be charged with anything, that equality of honor might be preserved for the Son.

And these accounts have been introduced by us usefully for the present, having a bearing not unprofitable to the matters set forth.

But taking it up again, and, so to speak, unwinding the whole aim of the exposition from the beginning, I will now go on to say that it is indeed pleasant to us, and a matter of prayer and dear, to be always with the Savior Christ—even though for our sake He emptied Himself, as it is written, and came into the servile form, and into the dishonor of human nature;

for what is the nature of man, as compared with God? Yet this was not useful to the Son Himself; rather it was profitable for Him to ascend to the Father, and to recover His own glory and authority and the God-befitting dignity, now openly and no longer under a shadow.

For He has sat down at the right hand, the Father Himself also willing this.

For He loves Him as His own offspring, and as the fruit of His own essence.

Therefore on account of this He says, 'If you loved me, you would rejoice that I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.'

Truly, the proof of love toward Him was not to grieve so greatly over the seeming abandonment and the departure necessarily undertaken,

but rather to reflect that He has gone to the glory that befits Him and is owed to Him, and to His ancient dignity—that is, to the God-befitting glory—made plainly manifest.

And indeed the psalmist, though uttering mysteries through the Spirit, says, 'O clap your hands, all ye nations'; then, recounting the cause of the festival, he set forth the ascension of the Savior into the heavens, saying, 'God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet'—naming as 'shout' and 'trumpet' the lofty and far-heard voice of the Spirit;

when he charged the powers above to lift up the gates, and named Him Lord of hosts, just as we were saying a moment ago.

And upon this very thing we shall find that the very choir of the saints came to be in much gladness.

Therefore it also said, at one time, 'The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice,' and then again, 'The Lord reigneth, He is clothed with majesty;

the Lord is clothed with strength and hath girded Himself.' For the man who was with us, before the resurrection from the dead, when He ascended to the Father in the heavens, then clothed Himself with His own majesty, and girded Himself with the power that belonged to Him from the beginning;

for He has sat down reigning together with the Father.

It is therefore right and fitting that those who love Him should rejoice, because He has gone to the Father in the heavens to take up His own glory, and again to reign together with Him, just as He was in the beginning.

But He says that He is greater—not in that He has sat at the right hand as God, but as He still was with us, that is, in our condition.

For as still having the servile form, and the time not yet being present at which He had to take it up, He says such things.

And indeed, when He endured the precious cross for us, the Jews offered Him vinegar and gall when He thirsted, and having drunk, He said, 'It is finished.'

For the time of humiliation had now been fulfilled, and He was indeed crucified as man;

but He conquered the dominion of death not as man, but rather as God—I mean according to the operation, and the glory and power that came with conquering, not according to the flesh.

The Father, therefore, is greater, inasmuch as the Son was still a servant and in our condition;

since He also calls Him His own God, and this too He ascribes to the human form.

It will be manifest to all that He descended from some pre-eminence into diminution—or rather, from equality with the Father to that which is not so; but the Father has undergone none of these things,

but has remained, and is, in those things in which He was from the beginning.

Greater, therefore, is He than the One who by the economy chose the diminution, and was for a while in it, until He should again be restored to that—I mean His own and natural good, in which He was in the beginning.

And a place, as it were, proper and natural to Him would reasonably be understood to be the equality with the Father, which, though it was possible for Him to hold unhindered, He did not consider robbery for our sake.

And since much discourse has been made by us concerning the equality of the Son with God and the Father, in the preceding books as well, perhaps it would now be fitting to come to the elucidation of what follows, letting go for the present of speaking at length about these matters.

But since one of the senseless heretics—having obtained among the Jews a not altogether unadmired knowledge of the sacred writings—undertaking to interpret the things in the passage set forth, has committed to writing intolerable blasphemies against the Only-Begotten, I judged it a feeble thing, and one very ill-suited to me, to be willing to undertake to pass over in silence the so grievous folly of the man mentioned.

Therefore I shall deem it necessary to meet him with reason, and to show plainly that his little fables are both rotten and old-wifely, utterly devoid of good sense, and full of the twistings of aimless reasonings.

And I will read out to you upon the very wording the things that he has dared to compose, expounding, as he himself supposed, the contemplation of the passage: 'By clearly proclaiming the Father greater than himself, he not only exhibited the right-mindedness befitting himself, but indeed also refuted the falsehood of those who suppose it to lie in both.'

And having thus applauded the opinion of Sabellius, being clever, as he thinks, and sharp, he leaps upon those who place the Son in equality with the Father, speaking again thus: 'To such a pitch of madness, once again, have certain persons come, that they will not at all endure to say the Father is greater than the Godhead of the Only-Begotten, but hold that He excels only by the comparison with regard to the flesh—unable to grasp even this, that things of different kind can in no way be compared.'

'For no one would ever say that a man is wiser than a beast, nor that a horse runs faster than a tortoise; rather, that one man is more reasonable than another man, and that one horse runs faster than another horse.'

'Since, then, only things of the same kind admit of comparison with one another, they must of necessity confess that the Father is greater than the very Godhead of the Only-Begotten.'

'For those who err in the opposite way, by comparing Him with the flesh, so far as it lies in them, tear down the paternal dignity.'

Such are that man's silly drivelings;

but we must consider how we may show that, without even knowing it, he fights against his own words.

For he accepts the Son as having preserved the right-mindedness befitting Him, by His saying, 'The Father is greater than I';

but I marvel how he did not take even that also into his mind.

For what was there at all that persuaded him to lay hold of theology just now? And yet no one who is of sound mind would reckon as nothing the knowing of the time befitting both word and deed.

'And hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.'

'Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me? I and the Father are one.' Now at that time, when he wove for us a fitting discourse upon these words, he was reasonably admired;

but now, what occasion has the matter, or what reasoning at all will it admit — namely, that he should wish to soothe the grief among the disciples and devise for them, as it were, remedies of consolation, and yet command them to rejoice because he goes to the Father? Would it not then become plain, even to the exceedingly foolish, from the very fact itself, that inasmuch as he was hastening to return again to his own glory together with the Father, he was charging those who loved him to rejoice at this, having devised this manner also, along with the others, as worthy for him to comfort them? But I will pass this over for now, and I shall not press hard upon that man's derangements of mind;

rather I say that we must proceed to those matters.

For he supposed, perhaps, that in comparing the flesh with the nature of the Godhead we make the counter-examination altogether profitless, when we say that the Son was emptied because he became man;

but it is not so — how could it be? For when we call the divine glory a servile measure and a slave-befitting rank, we say that the Son was made less than the Father in that he became man, yet that he was restored again to being on an equality with the One who begot him after his departure hence, not clothed in a new or acquired or unwonted glory, but having come to be again in that glory in which he was in the beginning with the Father.

And indeed our divine mystagogue — I mean Paul — no longer investing him with the lowliness befitting men after his return to life from the dead and his ascent into the heavens, writes saying: 'For even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no longer'; and again concerning himself: 'Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, not from men neither through man, but through Jesus Christ.' Yet why, pray, when he elsewhere says that Christ will come again to us to 'transform the body of our lowliness into conformity with the body of his glory,' does he now deny it, saying 'not from men, neither through man,' though he had been appointed to apostleship through Jesus Christ? And why does he say that he does not know him at all according to the flesh? Tell me then: did he deny the Master who purchased him? By no means, for he thinks rightly.

For since the time was already fulfilled and had come to its end regarding the emptying — or lowliness — conceived of the Only-begotten, he hastens both to proclaim and to acknowledge him not from those things in which he is seen emptied, but rather from those things in which he is by nature God.

For once it had been known and accepted that he became man, it remained that those who had believed should be taught this also: that he is by nature God as well; and for this reason he takes more delight in words befitting God concerning him than in the others.

But I marvel how he does not blush, saying that, inasmuch as only things of the same kind admit of comparison with one another, they must of necessity confess that the Father is greater than the Godhead of the Only-begotten.

For he does not perceive, as is likely, that he has armed against himself the very argument that is his own;

for let him tell us this, since we wish usefully to inquire: from what are comparisons of things of the same species with one another more fittingly accomplished? Is it from what they are, according to the common principle of their nature, or from what each of them has of the things that accrue and depart, that are present and not present, for good reasons? And here is the sort of thing I mean;

for I shall set forth that very illustration which he himself has introduced to us by way of an example.

If someone should wish to compare a man with a man, looking to the one common principle of the essence, he would find no difference between the two;

for a man will never differ from a man, at least in respect of being a rational, mortal living being, receptive of mind and knowledge;

for this is in all of them one and the same definition of the essence itself;

but neither will a horse differ from a horse, I say, in respect of that very thing which is being a horse; yet a man does differ from a man in respect of some knowledge, such as grammar, or also in respect of certain other such modes.

It does not touch the essence, but rather each is seen to have obtained a different cause.

But again, one horse is swifter than another, or smaller in body or more massive; only, we shall find the superiority in these things, or the inferiority, not lying in the definition of the essence.