Commentary on John 1 part 76/94

He plainly fixes the charge of godlessness upon those who, out of an unholy mind and a perverted understanding, have chosen to hate Him.

For those who dishonour the Son, or rather who have deemed it right to hate Him, will not be acquitted of the offence against the Father.

For just as those who disparage the sun's radiance, as though it shone and existed to no useful purpose, direct the reproaches of worthlessness and the verdict thereon against the very source from which it comes;

and whoever thinks to find fault with, say, the fragrance that comes from flowers, will surely refer the accusation to that from which it is produced;

in the same way, I think, will it come to pass concerning the Only-begotten and the One who begat Him.

For it is not, indeed it is not possible, when some are censuring that which springs from a source, to be praising the source from which it comes.

For this reason Christ said to the Jews, 'A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit;' and He also enjoined that an exact and unimpeachable discernment be made in this matter: 'Either make the tree corrupt and its fruit corrupt.' For whatever might happen to be truly said of one such thing, this, I think, must of necessity extend to both.

For if they are of one nature, how shall not the things reckoned inferior—or rather the things able to shine forth in another manner—be altogether common to both? And whatever one might do against that which comes from some fountain, this he would assuredly have done against the very fountain itself.

For this reason Christ says that 'He that hateth Me hateth My Father also.'

And He usefully applies to the person of the Father also whatever may be attempted against Himself by any.

For by these words He will no less fully assure us that, in respect to Himself, He is not another—that is, according to the principle understood as identity in every respect.

And besides this He strikes fear into His hearers, showing that the offence of choosing to hate Him is still perilous; and He firmly asserts that whoever attempts not to worship Him shall be utterly an easy prey and altogether without defence, inasmuch as he is insolently affronting the very person of the Father.

For He will assuredly be moved to indignation together with His own Offspring, as being insulted along with Him.

And how is it not exceedingly evident that this too, when received into faith, rendered the holy apostles most courageous? At the same time, together with these things, Christ accomplished another thing that was, I think, both necessary and wise.

For out of incomparable derangement of mind and prodigious madness, some supposed that in offending against the Son and in opposing the words of the Saviour, they were pleasing God the Giver of the Law; and that by ever seeking to prevail on behalf of the things ordained through Moses, they were found to be genuine guardians of the love toward God.

against the Son, through disobedience and through so long and thenceforth inexcusable unbelief—which He most firmly affirms is committed not only individually against His own person, but also against those who deliver the message on His behalf and for His sake.

Therefore he is a fighter against God and an insolent reviler, and one set against the whole ineffable and unutterable nature—he who attempts to oppose even the holy apostles themselves.

For they proclaim not themselves, but the God and Lord of all, that is, Christ.

'If I had not done among them the works which no other man did, they had not had sin;'

'but now have they both seen and hated both Me and My Father.'

That no plea was left to the Jews for their not deserving to be punished and to fall into irremediable calamities—this too Christ no less declared by these words.

For He is seen to have left out nothing of the things that conduce to their benefit: a long discourse was set before them, by which they might most easily have gone forward to salvation; and miracles too were displayed, such as no one of those in the world has ever beheld.

For which of the saints ever vied with the Saviour's miracles? Then, since the Jews were so far from being willing to marvel at Him that they even chose rather to hate Him out of an unholy mind, how shall not the intolerable burden of the charges lie heavy upon them? For it would surely have been far better and more advantageous for them neither to have listened to His wise words nor even to have come to behold such ineffable wonder-working.

For perhaps they might have contrived a not ungraceful excuse for their needing to be pardoned, saying, 'We have neither heard anything of the necessary things nor indeed beheld any of the things that lead to faith.'

But since it was not from one of the holy prophets, but from Christ Himself—who came from above and was sent to us—that they inquired, and moreover they became beholders of strange miracles;

for Christ opened the eyes of a blind man, though no other had ever been able to accomplish any such thing;

what shall deliver the Jews from their folly? Or what plea shall exempt them from being punished? For having heard and having beheld, they have hated both the Son and the Father.

But in what way have they hated? For they neither honoured the word which came from the Father through the Son, nor, indeed, by dishonouring the wonder befitting the works of the divine nature, will they escape being convicted of manifest impiety against the whole nature of God who is the worker of these things.

For when the Son wrought miracles, the Father Himself was assuredly present with Him in every way—not as one working through another the things worthy of wonder, but as being in the Son by reason of the identity of nature and the unchangeableness of essence.

Ungrateful therefore are the wretched Jews, and greatly to be accused for their much ungracious folly, who set at nought by no reasoning the incomparable teaching of the Saviour, and moreover dishonour the nature of the Father through the Son and in the Son, though it was shown to be the Maker by the miracles that surpass reason wrought among them—by which it was fitting that even the very hard and unmanageable man should thenceforth be led and called to be able to think rightly and to do the things whereby God ought to be honoured.

'But that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated Me without a cause.'

That not even this was unknown to Him who through the Law had proclaimed all things beforehand, He plainly shows.

Yet we do not say that the Law foretold those things in order that the hatred of the Jews might unjustly be kindled against the Son and the Father; but since it was going to come about at their hands, the divine and sacred Law proclaimed it beforehand, thereby showing that the Spirit was ignorant of nothing that should come to pass.

For it is written in the book of Psalms, in the person of Christ blaming the folly of the Jews and saying, that 'they hated Me with an unjust hatred.' For how is it not an unjust hatred? And how were they not embittered without a cause, they who were so far from having any reason to hate—so far as concerns the nature of the things done for them—that they ought rather to have loved with the very highest zeal, and to have cherished a love inclining them to be willing to follow Him?

For let him who pleads on behalf of the Jewish disobediences come forward and tell what occasion of hatred one could have.

Did He deliver them? Was it because He freed them from diabolical rapacity, and destroyed the tyranny of sin, and restored what was in bondage to sonship toward God? Because out of loving-kindness and remembrance-of-no-wrong He declared righteous those who were dead in their sins? Because He made them partakers of the Holy Spirit and of the divine nature, and procured for us the very dwelling-place of the holy angels, and showed heaven to be accessible to men? How then is it still just to hate Him who has become for us the bestower and dispenser of these things, and not rather to be honoured by unceasing praises and requited with never-ending thanksgivings on our part? But nothing, I think, moves the unbending Jew to be willing to think the things he ought to think.

For he has hated without a cause Him whom he ought rather to have loved with his whole mind and to have crowned with the honours that spring from ready obedience.

Nevertheless, even in this the Lord usefully showed that He was not ignorant of the Jews' malice, but had rather foretold it and known beforehand that it would be, while employing gentleness and a forbearance befitting God.

For even to those who were so unseemly disposed He set before them the word that calls to salvation, so as also by miracles to confirm the confession of faith in Him, if any were good and right-minded.

And in this too He greatly benefits the disciples, that they may without remembrance of wrong hold forth the word of salvation even to those who attempt to insult them, and in this very thing may be seen to walk in the footsteps of the virtue that shone forth in Him first and foremost.

For if there is any good thing, it is in Christ first and thence unto us, and from Him all the fairest things spread abroad.

'But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of Me;'

'and you also bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.'

Saying that both He Himself and the Father are hated by the senseless Jews, and this without a cause and for no reasonable ground, He usefully brings in the Spirit alongside, at once producing for the Word the completion of the Holy Trinity, and showing that the Spirit too was dishonoured along with them, so that they who beheld the marvels might be convicted of having done despite wholly in the Son, and of having insulted the so surpassing power of the essence that is highest of all—by reason of which they thought it right not merely not to receive Christ, though He wrought wonders in strange fashion for their full assurance, but even to do the things they have already done.

For they have committed impiety against Him such as it is dreadful even merely to conceive.

And yet—for one might perhaps say—O senseless Jew, Christ has become for you the worker of miracles which surpass even the glory of Moses and the splendour of every saint;

for the Lord's saying, 'If I had not done among them the works which no other man did,' introduces to us such a meaning.

Then, do you crown with such brilliant honours the minister and servant of the lesser things—I mean Moses—but so senselessly thrust aside the incomparably superior One, the Worker of the far better things, and are not ashamed, though He brings to the fulfilment long since announced the oracles given through Moses, and thenceforth seals up the shadow into truth?

Together therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ has of necessity brought in, alongside Himself and the Father, the mention of the Spirit;

and He at the same time proves true that which was said—namely, that if anyone should choose to hold the Son in hatred, he will assuredly also utterly abhor the Father from whom He is;

and how, or in what manner, behold once more.

For lo—behold!—having called the Spirit of truth, that is, His own, the Comforter, He says that He proceeds from the Father.

For just as the Spirit is by nature the Son's own, existing in Him and proceeding through Him, so also is He the Father's;

and to those to whom the Spirit is common, to these assuredly the things of the essence also would in every way be undivided.

For let none of those accustomed to impiety, who out of ignorance carry off our words to things it is not lawful to conceive, suppose that the Son, as fulfilling some ministerial need, dispenses to the creation the Spirit that is from the Father;

but rather it is consistent to believe that, since He is His own, just as of course He is also the God and Father's, He sends Him to His holy disciples for sanctification.

But if they think in some fashion to think and speak subtly, again bringing in the Son here as a minister and servant to us, how is it not consistent to say: You fools and blind, whither again are you going that you do not perceive, and lift yourselves up against the glory of the Only-begotten, stringing together wretched reasonings out of the ignorance that is in you? For if the Son at all supplies the Spirit from the Father, being reckoned in the rank of some servant, how is it not necessary to confess that He is wholly foreign to His essence, and perhaps even better than He and by much superior—if it be so, at least according to the ignorance among you? For if the Son does not proceed from the Father, that is, from His essence, according to you, how would not the Spirit be conceived among the better things above the Son? Then what shall we say, when we hear Him saying concerning Him that 'He shall glorify Me, for He shall receive of Mine, and shall declare it unto you'? And in addition to what has been said, this too, of necessity, will thereupon enter in.

For if you suppose that the Son fulfils a servile ministry in supplying to us that which is foreign—that is, the Holy Spirit, which is by nature holy, given from God and the Father—then the Son is not holy by nature, but by participation, just as we are.

For according to the ignorance of the impious He is said to be foreign to the essence of the Father, from which the Spirit also proceeds, the Spirit that is supplied through Him.

It will therefore be among the things possible—if the Spirit is not the Son's own, but He too has an adventitious sanctification, just as the creation does—that He should at some time be able even to fall away from the holiness that is in Him.

For that which is acquired in the manner of an addition, how would it not be liable to pass away, at least according to the principle of what is admissible? Then who would not flee from such doctrines? But I think it is more fitting to speak thus.

Dear to us therefore is the truth, and the doctrines that spring from the truth; and we shall not follow those men, but tracing out the faith of the holy Fathers, we say that the Comforter is the Son's own—that is, the Holy Spirit—and is not introduced from without, nor acquired in Him, as it is in those receptive of holiness, whose coming into being is even out of things that were not, but consubstantial with Him, just as of course also with the Father.

For thus the power of the doctrines of the Church will not depart into a polytheistic fable-telling, but the Holy Trinity is bound fast into one principle of Godhead.

In the same act, therefore, exhibiting also the unity of essence—I mean His own and that of God the Father—by saying that the Comforter is the Spirit of truth, He says that He proceeds from the Father, and He clearly and incontrovertibly convicts the fighter against Christ of being wholly a fighter against God.

For he who has been willing at all to insult the Son would rightly be understood to have offended also against Him from whom He is.

'When therefore the Comforter is come,' He says, 'the Spirit of truth,' that is, My own, 'which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of Me.'

But in what way shall He testify? For having wrought the marvels in you and through you, He shall be a righteous and true witness of My divinely-befitting authority and of My majesty in power.

For it is my Spirit that works in you.

And as it is mine, so likewise it belongs to God and the Father.

It follows, then, that we must reckon that those who, through the one good Spirit, wrought marvels for the full assurance of the faith—as in the person of Christ, in whom, according to Paul, there dwelt not some portion of the ineffable Godhead, but all the fullness bodily—are dishonoured together with him. And since the Spirit bears witness, he says, you yourselves shall also bear witness together with him.

For you have become eye-witnesses and beholders of the things accomplished among his own, being ever present with him as disciples.

These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble.

The wretched men, however, will so heap insult upon the words spoken in defence of the truth that, even were there perhaps two witnesses of his glory, they would not even so be willing to receive it—although the Law expressly cries aloud that whatever is attested by the voice of two or perchance three must be believed and accepted without any hesitation.

But this he does not say as being of use for the present.

For indeed it would have cast upon them no small dejection, and, breaking the disciples as it were into despair, it would have opened within them an unimpeded passage for sluggishness and cowardice.

For it was likely, I suppose, that they would reason within themselves thus: If the multitudes of the Jews will not be persuaded at all, but will esteem the Comforter himself as nothing—though he confounds them with wonders beyond all reason—and none the less will be found even after this hating Christ, and with him the Father, then what need is there to endure toil in vain? Why should we not rather be quit of all these troubles, preferring silence to teaching those who will not hear? Not being ignorant, then, that in all likelihood the disciples would reason thus, he skilfully veils over whatever was too grievous to relate and apt to breed cowardice and reluctance toward the necessary work of teaching.

But he usefully redirects the force of his discourse to the need of being prepared beforehand and of bracing themselves manfully for the things that were to come from those men, or rather were to be looked for.

For that which comes upon anyone suddenly and unexpectedly is enough to trouble even the soul that stands very firmly.

But what has been foreseen as about to come and to be has a smoother approach, and its burden is easier to bear, as being already foreknown and worn smooth by hopes that make suffering seem beyond doubt.

And I think that Christ wishes to hint at something of this sort as well.

For if I, he says, have already wrought so many wonders, and that with you as witnesses, the Comforter also will work wonders among you.

And the audacity of the Jews' folly will not slacken, but they will be found again in these same deeds, and in yet worse ones. Do not be made to stumble, he says, when you yourselves also are found suffering this; but remember everywhere my words.

For the disciple is not above his teacher, nor the servant above his lord. They will put you out of the synagogues.

But an hour is coming, when whoever kills you will think that he is offering service to God.

He brought his discourse up to what one might call the very extremity of all terrors—the foretelling of the danger—not that he might work in his own disciples an unmanly panic.

For it would not have been fitting for one who wished by every means to spur them on to proclaim the gospel word with the utmost boldness to do such a thing.

But rather that, thrusting aside the uttermost fear—as already foreknown and therefore rendered familiar—they might now defy every evil, and take no account whatever of anything, not even if there should draw near any of the things reckoned to be among the more unbearable evils.

For upon those who do not fear the greater, what harm can the lesser inflict? And those who have resolved to make light even of terrors reaching to the extreme—by what else among other things could they yet be troubled? Therefore, that they might have their mind ready to endure all things very gladly, and to withstand so far the injury from the Jews as not to fear even cruel death itself, should it chance to be present.

He does not say that only the customary things will happen, nor that the plot—that is, the uprising of the Jews—will stop at this, namely at their being merely put out of the synagogues; but he foretold that their impiety would slide into such cruelty that they would one day even suppose that their utmost inhumanity against them was treading the path of piety toward God.

he may be put out of the synagogue. But even if, he says, some are unable to bear this plot of the Jews, let them know from this that your affairs will not stop at these things.

For by no means, he says, be dismayed, even should it come to pass that you suffer this.

For the audacity of their wickedness will sink to such depths of vileness that they will suppose the death they inflict upon you to have the force of a service pleasing to God.

And indeed we shall find that this came to pass both in the case of holy Stephen, the first-fruits of the martyrs, and in the case of the divinely-inspired Paul.

For in the case of Stephen, they wove around him the charge of blasphemy, and feigning thereby a zeal for God, they brought upon him death by stoning.

And against the holy and most wise Paul, certain of the Jews so gnashed their teeth that they bound themselves under a curse neither to eat nor to drink until they should have killed him; for so we shall find it written in the Acts of the holy Apostles.

The foretelling, therefore, is good and exceedingly profitable, since it eases beforehand the fear of the dreadful things, and, as though they had already suffered, forges the disciples anew unto courage.

For the heat of the danger will somehow be cooled beforehand for those who suffer, being foreknown, and it makes its onset weaker.

And these things they will do, because they have not known the Father, nor me.

He showed that the zeal of the Jews was not according to knowledge—just as, indeed, Paul also says.

But that it was greatly deluded and had strayed somewhere outside the straight way, even though it seemed, according to the aim that was in them, to be carried out for God's sake.

For they supposed that in championing the commandment given through Moses they were gladdening God, the giver of the Law, and, in fighting against the ordinances given through Christ, the wretched men imagined they were winning no small approval.

For this very reason they pressed hard also upon those who proclaimed the gospel word; but they were ignorant, having fallen into utter folly, and, through their dishonouring of the Son, sinning against God the Father himself—or rather, they were wholly convicted of not knowing what the Father is, nor again who is the Son who shone forth from him.

And the strange thing is this: they hastened to crown Moses the most wise with the highest honours, though he was a minister of the Law that was given through angels.

But our Lord Jesus the Christ, who expounds the ineffable will of the Father and plainly says, 'Of myself I do nothing, but the Father who sent me, he himself gave me commandment what I should say and what I should speak'—him they did not shrink from clothing with the utmost dishonours, although God the Father worked wonders together with him, and from above bore witness by an audible voice, crying aloud and saying expressly, 'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.' It is therefore beyond doubt that whoever should choose bitterly to assail those who convey the divine word will lie in ignorance of the whole holy and consubstantial Trinity together.

For neither does he know the Father who sets outside the fitting glory the Word who shone forth from him—at least according to his own intent.

For how is it not to be received without any doubt, by those who are able more intelligently to apply themselves to the nature of things, that since he is consubstantial with the Father, he will assuredly speak the things according to the Father's will, and, having the Father as sharer of his glory, he will assuredly also have him grieving together with him over the offences that any commit against him?

In these words, then, our Lord Jesus the Christ makes his defence, and all but accuses the Jews' audacious deeds, thereby laying a bitter and ruinous sentence upon those who dishonour him through their cruelty toward the holy Apostles themselves.

For the reckoning of the transgression will not properly be turned upon them, but will ascend to him who laid upon them the ministry of the divine apostleship—just as, indeed, he once said to holy Samuel concerning the sons of Israel, 'It is not you they have rejected, but me they have rejected.' It is therefore a most perilous thing not to be willing to render to the saints the honour most fitting to them.

For the reckoning of the offence against them runs back to him who sent them.

But these things I have spoken to you, that when their hour comes, you may remember them, that I told you.

He insists that for no other reason has he made this discourse to them than that they might know that, having assuredly encountered on his account the temptations of sin, they will thereby gain glory for themselves.

For I have not foretold these things, he says, to unnerve beforehand the sinews of your understanding; nor yet, devising fear prematurely for you out of anything to be expected, but rather granting you foreknowledge, that hence you might gain a twofold benefit.

For first, remembering that I foretold it, you will marvel at him who foreknew; and the very season of danger will turn out for you unto the full assurance of a steadfast faith.

For he who knows the things that shall be, how would he not be God by nature? And in addition to this, the other benefit.

For he who has been prepared beforehand and has foreknown that he will suffer will meet with a gentler fear, for he will easily rise above everything that seems to be dreadful, and will possess in the very midst of his toils an unshaken mind.

For to suffer unexpectedly and against hope has, I think, a more bitter assault.

And so the psalmist says, 'I was prepared, and was not troubled.' He therefore bids the disciples remember, usefully and necessarily, him who foretold to them the things that were to be.

For it was beyond doubt that they should for this reason also believe him to be true God.

For it is proper to him who is truly God to know all things.

and that they should believe that he will easily deliver them from the dreadful things.

And these things I did not tell you from the beginning, because I was with you.

But now I go to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, 'Where are you going?' But because I have spoken these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.

Christ made provision for yet another thing, useful and most exceedingly necessary.

For it was beyond doubt that, having been called to discipleship by him at the first, being ever present with him and living together with him, and having had much experience of his marvels, and having considered his incomparable power and authority, they supposed that they would conquer every temptation and would altogether prevail over all dreadful things.

For how could they still waver and be faint-hearted about this, having obtained the goodwill of one so mighty? But since Christ had foretold that they would fall into dangers beyond hope, lest they should be greatly troubled at this, pondering and saying, 'Have we then failed of our first hopes and missed the mark, supposing that we were called unto all good things, yet ending thus in unexpected calamities?'—the Lord necessarily explains the reason why he did not foretell these things at the first, and says, 'These things I did not tell you from the beginning, because I was with you.'

For while he was still present with them, it sufficed readily to preserve them, to deliver them from every temptation, and to give fitting teaching and correction in all that befell.

But since he departs to the Father, he usefully and at the fitting season sets forth the inevitable arrival of the things expected to come.

For if even by ourselves it is a matter of care not to err against the fitting season, how would it not much rather be pleasing to God? There was, then, a season of silence at the first, since the time for their needing to learn had not yet of necessity come in.

But since he was departing to the Father, the season for speaking came in.

Did the Saviour, then, sever himself from the disciples when he went up to the Father, or was he present with them by the energy and power and grace of the Spirit? How, or in what manner? For he does not lie when he says, 'Behold, I am with you all the days, even to the consummation of the age.' Except only as regards the flesh and his presence in the body, this is in no way doubtful.

But the Saviour knew that the ascension into heaven of his own flesh would be most necessary for the human nature; yet he was not ignorant, as God, that the heart of the disciples was drunk with the bitterness of sorrow.

For Christ's departing grieved them exceedingly, since they wished to be with him always.

he will depart, or what it is that presses or persuades him to journey upward.