Commentary on John 1 part 78/94

for he who should even but suppose any such thing to be true concerning Him would incur the charge of the uttermost of all impieties, and that very justly.

But since the Spirit is consubstantial with the Son, and proceeds in a manner befitting God through Him, possessing His whole most perfect operation and power over all things, for this reason He says, 'For He shall take of what is mine.'

For it comes forth and proceeds from Him, having in itself by nature all that is His;

not by way of participation, nor indeed after a merely relational manner, and not as being something other than He, since it is proper to Him.

For just as the fragrance from the sweetest-scented flowers, having received in a certain manner the essential and natural operation—or quality—of the things that send it forth, conveys the knowledge of them to those without, falling upon the organs of smell in the body, and seems in a way, so far as the reasoning of thought goes, to be something other than the nature that sends it forth, yet when considered in itself is found to have no longer any nature other than that from which and in which it is;

so also, ascending to the meaning of the illustration, you will understand it in the case of God and of the Holy Spirit.

It is therefore beyond all reproach, and lies entirely outside every censure, to say that the Spirit receives something from the Only-Begotten, that Spirit which is His own.

For proceeding through Him naturally, as being His own, together with all that it perfectly possesses, it is said to receive what is His.

But if such a thing has been signified by somewhat coarse expressions, then, laying aside our taking offence, we should more justly blame the poverty of our own tongue, which is unable to utter what befits God in the manner it ought.

For what discourse is not inferior to the ineffable nature and glory? 'He shall therefore declare it to you,' He says, 'taking of what is mine, the Paraclete'—that is, He will speak nothing other than the purpose that is in me; and since He is my Spirit, He will assuredly say the very same things, and will declare what proceeds from my will.

That His Spirit—that is, the Holy Spirit—is naturally in the Son and in His essence, even as also in the essence of the Father.

'All things whatsoever the Father hath are mine;'

'and therefore said I unto you, that He taketh of mine, and shall declare it unto you.'

Here again the Son has clearly shown Himself to us to be the pure and most exact stamp of the Father's hypostasis, and by what He said gives us to understand that, being the fruit of His essence, He carries with Himself by nature all that belongs to it, and says that these things are His own—and very reasonably so;

for since nothing cuts off or separates the Son from the Father into any alienation—so far as concerns His being in every respect like and equal, save only in being Father—and since the essence shines forth in both without difference of manner, how could the things of both not already be common, or rather the very same in both, so that the things of the Father are in the Son, and the things of the offspring in Him who begat? For this reason, as I think, He framed His words concerning these matters with a certain keen precaution.

For He did not say, 'All things whatsoever the Father hath, I also have;'

lest He be conceived as a bare image, thought of only according to likeness of form and shaped after the archetype by external adornments, just as we ourselves are;

for we were made after the image of God;

but He says, 'They are mine,' thereby exhibiting in both the supreme union which He has with Him who begat Him, and the power of consubstantiality, which subsists in unvarying properties.

And this you may see Him saying most plainly elsewhere to the Father: 'For all mine are thine, and thine are mine.' For in those in whom there is no difference at all, and in whom there is essential equality and likeness in every single respect, how could they not be the same in nature? The God and Father, therefore, has from Himself and in Himself His own Spirit—that is, the Holy Spirit—through whom He dwells in the saints and reveals mysteries, the Spirit not being taken up for this in the rank of a servant;

for do not suppose anything of the sort;

but as being in Him essentially, and proceeding from Him without division and without separation, as one that interprets as its own the things in which and from which it is.

For God does not commune with the creation otherwise than through the Son in the Spirit.

But this is also the proper Spirit of the Only-Begotten, for He is consubstantial with the Father.

Let no one be troubled when he hears in these matters the term of 'receiving,' but let him rather ponder this:

that all things concerning God are indeed spoken in a manner suited to us, yet are not to be understood thus, but in a way beyond us;

and we say that the Spirit thus receives from both the Father and the Son what is theirs, not as though at one time it did not possess the knowledge and power inherent in them, and only then barely possessed it when it is conceived as receiving;

for the Spirit is always wise and powerful, or rather is very wisdom and power itself, not by any participation, but naturally.

And just as we might say that the fragrance from spices which strikes upon our sense of smell, being in a way as it were other than they—if one should grant this to the conceptions of thought—comes forth beforehand, yet would suppose it comes forth in no other way, perhaps, than as receiving from the things from which it is the power for its own manifestation, while yet not being other, because it is by nature from them and in them;

something of this kind—or rather even beyond this—you will conceive in the case of God and of the Holy Spirit.

For it is as it were a certain fragrance of His essence, living and manifest, conveying to the creation the things that are from God, and imparting through itself participation in the essence that is highest of all.

For if the sweet scent of spices imprints its own strength upon garments, and in a certain manner transforms into its own likeness the things in which it comes to be, how should not the Holy Spirit, since it is naturally from God, be able through itself to render partakers of the divine nature those in whom it comes to be? The Son, therefore, being the fruit and the stamp of the hypostasis of Him who begat Him, carries with Himself by nature all that is His.

For this reason He says, 'All things whatsoever the Father hath are mine;'

'therefore said I unto you, that He taketh of mine, and shall declare it unto you'—the Spirit, that is to say, which is through Him and in Him, through whom, as He Himself, He indwells the saints.

For His Spirit is not other than He, even though it be conceived as subsisting in itself and distinctly;

for the Spirit is Spirit and not Son.

'A little while, and ye behold me no more; and again a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father.'

Having foretold that He would reveal to them all things through His own Spirit, so far as was necessary and most needful, He now expounds also the Passion, after which the Ascension is immediately at hand through His journey on high, bringing in as most necessary the visitation through the Spirit;

for it was no longer possible for Him, once He had gone up on high to the Father, to dwell together in the flesh with the holy apostles.

But He frames His discourse very guardedly, thereby taking away the sharpness of their grief;

for He knew—yes, He knew—that the disciples would again be beset with no small fear;

and that they would be stung with keen sorrow, and would expect to fall into dreadful and unbearable evils, whenever it should come about that they were left alone, as the Saviour went up to the Father.

For this reason, I think, He does not say plainly that He would die—though the drunken frenzy of the Jews was summoning Him to come even to that—

but most gracefully He mingles much refinement into His discourse, and displays the gladness arising from the Resurrection as running together with the suffering, saying: 'A little while, and ye behold me no more; and again a little while, and ye shall see me.'

For the time of death was already within the doors, setting the Lord out of the disciples' sight for a very short season, until, having despoiled Hades and thrown open to those there the gates of darkness, He should again raise up His own temple;

and when this had come to pass, He shone forth again upon His own disciples, and promised to be with them all the days of the age, according to that which is written.

For even if He departs in the flesh, having presented Himself for us to the Father, and having taken His seat at the right hand of Him who begat Him, yet He dwells in the worthy through the Spirit, and is with the saints continually;

for He promised not to leave us orphans.

Therefore, as but a very little space of time divided off the beginning of the Passion, He says, 'A little while, and ye behold me not;'

for He was about to be covered over, as it were, by death for a brief space.

And again He says, 'A little while, and ye shall see me;'

I mean those still living upon the earth, but also to proclaim the release to those already departed and sitting in the recesses of the abyss in darkness, according to that which is written.

But observe how, concerning the Passion and the Resurrection, He said, 'A little while, and ye behold me not; and again a little while, and ye shall see me;'

yet having added, 'Because I go to the Father,' He is silent about what remains.

For He has not disclosed how long He would remain there, or when perchance He would return, and for what cause; for it is not for us to know times or seasons which the Father hath set in His own authority, according to the words of the Saviour Himself.

'Some of His disciples therefore said one to another, What is this that He saith unto us, A little while, and ye behold me not; and again a little while, and ye shall see me? and, Because I go to the Father? They said therefore, What is this that He saith, the little while? We know not what He speaketh.'

Not yet understanding what was said, the divinely-inspired disciples talk one with another, and are in doubt what the 'A little while, and yet a little while' might mean to signify to them, and the 'Ye behold me not;'

but Christ anticipates them as they are eager to inquire, showing again most opportunely that as God He knows hearts, and knows perfectly what is still turning in the mind and buried in the depth of the heart, as though it were already sounded forth by the tongue.

For what indeed could altogether escape Him to whom all things are naked? Wherefore He says also to one of the saints, 'Who is this that hideth counsel from me, and keepeth words in his heart, and thinketh to hide them from me?' He therefore benefits them in all respects, and makes the occasion that has arisen a nurse of firm and undoubting faith.

'Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask Him, and He said unto them, Do ye inquire among yourselves concerning this, that I said, A little while, and ye behold me not; and again a little while, and ye shall see me? Verily, verily, I say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice;'

'and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.'

As they inquire earnestly and examine somewhat over-curiously the force of what was said, He makes the explanation of the Passion clearer, and again graciously grants them to know beforehand what they were about to undergo—and very profitably.

For He did not think it right to foretell such things in order to breed premature tumult, but that, being forged beforehand by this knowledge, they might be found somewhat more valiant against the onset of the tumult.

For what is expected to come has a gentler assault than what was not at all hoped for.

And He again signifies both the vulgar and rabble multitude of the Jews, and the God-hated and unholy throng of those who had obtained the leadership—the scribes and Pharisees—who, mocking at the temptations of the Saviour, uttered many things against their own head, at one time saying, 'If thou art the Son of God, come down now from the cross, and we will believe thee;' and again at another, 'Thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it in three days, save thyself.' For these indeed were the foul scum of the utterly abominable tongue of the Jews;

'but though those in the world are so minded,' He says, 'and act and speak thus at the same time, ye shall indeed be sorrowful, yet ye shall not remain suffering this for a long time;'

for the sorrow shall be changed into joy.

'For I shall live again, and shall utterly do away with the occasion of dejection;'

'and I shall wipe away the tear, and shall restore you to a cheerfulness perpetual and unending.'

For the joy of the saints is unceasing.

And the death of all has been abolished through Him.

But it is somehow fitting to reflect that, conversely, those who belong to the world will assuredly meet with perpetual grief.

For if, when Christ died according to the flesh, His true disciples were grieved, while the world made His suffering an occasion of joy,

then, once death and corruption were vanquished, and our Saviour Christ had risen from the dead, the mourning of the saints was turned into joy;

and plainly, the joy of those in the world shall likewise be turned into mourning.

'A woman, when she is in travail, has sorrow, because her hour has come;'

'but when she has brought forth the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.'

'And you therefore now have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no one takes from you.'

Once again He heightens the invention of consolation, and proceeds through varied words, granting them from every side to repel the bitterness of grief.

For consider how by a vivid illustration He sets about persuading them that they must endure suffering, and not grow utterly benumbed by toils or sorrows, if these are wholly and inevitably destined to issue in joy.

For the infant, He says, is the fruit of bitter travail, and the joy that mothers have in their children comes to them through pains.

But if at the outset women had shown themselves faint-hearted before the pains of travail, they would never at all have consented to conceive, so as to flee the marriage that is the cause of it; nor would they ever have become mothers, forfeiting through timidity a thing thrice-desired and much-prayed-for.

In this same manner, then, for you too the suffering of pain shall not be without reward.

For you shall rejoice when you see a child brought forth that is a stranger to the world, incorruptible and imperishable.

He means that the gladness centred upon Him shall be inalienable and never to be cast away.

For according to the utterance of Paul—or rather according to the power of the truth itself—having died once, He dies no more. The gladness that rests upon Him is therefore firmly established, and very reasonably so.

For if we grieved over His death, who shall take away our joy, when we know that He both lives and abides for ever, the Giver and Dispenser to us of spiritual good things? From the saints, then, no one takes away the joy, according to the Saviour's word;

but it was straightway taken away from those who nailed Him to the cross.

For, the Passion being now undone—over which they thought they ought to rejoice—as by an inescapable necessity henceforth grief shall befall them.

'And in that day you shall ask Me nothing.'

'Verily, verily, I say unto you, if you shall ask anything'

'of the Father, He will give it you in My name.'

'Hitherto you have asked nothing in My name;'

'ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full.'

He says that the holy disciples shall become better and more understanding when they are clothed with power from on high, according to what is written, and when their mind is illumined by the torch-light of the Spirit, so that they may henceforth be able to comprehend all things, even if they were not to question Him about things perhaps not yet present.

For the Saviour does not say such things because they will no longer need enlightenment from Him, but because, having received His own Spirit and having Him dwelling in their hearts, they shall possess a mind in need of nothing, filled full with every good thing and with the most perfect knowledge.

And we say that perfect knowledge is that which is upright and undistorted, which will not endure to think or speak anything discordant, but holds right opinions concerning the holy and consubstantial Trinity.

For even if we now see through a glass and in a riddle, and know in part, according to the word of Paul, yet, not straying outside the exactness that is in the doctrines, but following the aim of the holy and God-inspired Scripture, we have a knowledge that is not imperfect—one which no one could otherwise attain, unless the Holy Spirit had shone upon him.

For this reason, then, urging the disciples on to ask for the spiritual gifts, and at the same time giving them confidence that in asking they shall not fail to obtain, He confirms them unto faith by the addition of 'Amen,' assuring them that whatever they may wish to draw near and ask, they shall receive from the Father—He Himself, that is, both mediating and joining with the Father in the bestowal.

For this is the meaning of 'In My name;'

for we draw near to God and the Father in no other way except through the Son.

For through Him we have obtained access in one Spirit unto the Father, according to what is written.

Therefore He also says, 'I am the door;'

being Son and God, together with the Father He supplies good things to the saints, and is found to be a fellow-giver of the blessing bestowed on us;

and indeed the divinely-inspired Paul set before us most clearly the faith concerning this, writing thus: 'Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.' And in that He is named Mediator and High Priest and Advocate, He brings before the Father the supplications on our behalf;

for He Himself is the confidence of us all before the Father.

In the name, therefore, of our Saviour Christ ought our petitions to be made;

for thus most readily would the Father assent, and He will grant good things to those who ask Him, that receiving we may rejoice.

For being filled full with spiritual gifts, and having obtained by lot a rich supply of the understanding that comes from Him, through the Holy Spirit that dwells in us, we shall wage war—and that very easily—against every strange and abominable pleasure;

and, doing good in this way and pressing on to the pursuit of every virtue with singular eagerness, and being nerved for anything whatsoever that appears to lead to sanctification, we rejoice exceedingly in the hope of the recompense, and, having sent away the dejection that springs from an evil conscience, we fatten our own mind with the gladnesses that are in Christ.

And to the men of former times this was unpractised;

for such a manner of prayer had somehow not been cultivated, by reason of ignorance;

but now it is appointed through Christ, and very reasonably so, when the season of amendment has shone forth, and the perfection of every good thing has been brought in through Him.

For just as the Law perfected nothing, but the righteousness cultivated according to it was imperfect, so also was the manner of prayer.

'These things have I spoken to you in figures;'

'the hour comes when I shall no longer speak to you in figures, but shall tell you plainly of the Father.'

He says that a figure is a dim and not very manifest saying, overshadowed somehow by obscurities so subtle that, He says, those who hear cannot very readily understand it;

for such is the form fashioned for things spoken in figures.

'What things, then, I have said,' He says, 'I have spoken to you as yet in figures and riddles, reserving for the fitting season—one now all but present—the unambiguous revelation.'

'For there shall come, there shall come,' He says, 'an hour'—that is, a season—'in which I shall expound to you expressly the things concerning the Father's glory, and shall implant in you an understanding that surpasses the human mind.'

And what this season is, He did not indeed declare very clearly;

but we shall suppose Him to indicate either that very time in which we were enriched with the knowledge that comes through the Spirit after the resurrection from the dead, Christ having supplied it to us;

or perhaps the time to come and yet to be, after the contraction of the world, in which we shall behold the glory of God unveiled and vividly, He casting into us the most radiant knowledge concerning Himself.

Wherefore Paul also says that prophecies shall be done away, and that knowledge shall cease—meaning no other than this which we have acquired for the present.

For we see through a glass, and know in part, as we were just now saying;

'But when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away.' How, or in what manner—if you would learn—I will tell you again.

For just as, when the night is without light, the bright beauty of the stars shines forth, each flashing out its own proper light;

yet when the radiance of the sun rises, the partial brightness is somehow already done away, and, overcome by that beam, it holds its own light feeble and ineffectual;

in the same manner, I think, the knowledge that now belongs to us shall be brought to a stop at that season, and that which is in part shall come to an end, when the perfect light drives in and pours upon us the fullest radiance of the knowledge of God.

Then, to those already able to make room for it with confidence, Christ will declare the things concerning His own Father.

For now, through shadow and examples, and through the image and types of our own affairs at times variously employed by means of things, we are scarcely guided to some dim knowledge, because of the weakness that is in us according to the mind;

but, with nothing—not even riddles or parable interposed—with, so to speak, unveiled face and unimpeded understanding, we shall conceive the beauty of the divine nature of God the Father, having contemplated the glory of Him who has shone forth from Him.

For we shall see Him as He is, according to the word of John.

For now we saw Him, but not in the entire glory befitting God, because of the human element;

but when the season of the dispensation in the flesh has passed by, and the mystery that is for our sake and on our behalf has been accomplished, He shall henceforth be seen in His own glory and in that of the Father.

For being God according to nature, and on this account consubstantial with Him who begot Him, He will assuredly be in equal dignities, and shall henceforth shine forth in His own glory befitting God.

'In that day you shall ask in My name; and I say not to you that I will ask the Father concerning you;'

'for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from the Father.'

He grants that petition be made at all, through prayer and entreaty, for nothing whatever, except in His name.

And He promises that the Father will most readily grant them the things sought in their prayers, and not at all as one persuaded merely by the exhortations of the Son—inasmuch as He is Advocate and Mediator—but as one who somehow goes of His own accord into acts of generosity toward them, and, as it were, is eager to discharge as a kind of debt to those who love Christ, His supreme and utmost benevolence.

And let no one of sense suppose again, nor let anyone in ignorance say, that in no way whatever will the disciples—or perhaps others of the saints—need the mediation of the Son in the things that concern themselves.

For all things are through Him from the Father in the Spirit, since He is the Advocate, according to the word of John, not for our sins only, but also for those of the whole world.

And showing profitably here again that the honour and love shown toward Him who shone forth from Himself is exceedingly dear and thrice-longed-for by God the Father, He speaks these words:

This the wretched throngs of the Jews did not understand, and did not shudder to strike Him down with unbearable revilings, and sought to kill Him, as it is written, because He was transforming the mind of those who believed from the fleshly and gross commandment of the Law into the fine subtlety of the evangelical way of life.

For, understanding nothing, the miserable men said—or rather, sharpening their unholy tongue against Him—'If this man were from God, He would not have broken the Sabbath.'

He says therefore most readily that the favour of God the Father shall be given to them who have believed without doubting, and who are very well disposed to believe that He came forth from God the Father.

For He will, as it were, spring forth first, He says, and will perhaps anticipate the request of the Mediator, and will flood with spiritual blessings the mind of those who hold a right understanding concerning Me—and not such as the lovers of the letter thought fit to think.

As for the phrase 'I came forth from God,' here again we shall suppose it to signify either that 'I was begotten and shone forth from His essence,' according to a procession unto being and unto being conceived, in a manner self-subsistent, yet not divided off entirely;

for the Father is in the Son, and the Son again is by nature in the Father;

or else 'I came forth' stands for 'I became like you,' that is, man, putting on your form and nature.

For, as it were, a place to each of existing things is its own nature, from which it might go forth by passing over to something else, becoming that which it was not.

And we by no means say that, because the Only-begotten was seen and truly became man like us, He departed from being God;

for yesterday and today He is the same, and unto the ages; but rather, having assumed that which He was not while preserving His own, He is in some way understood, according to the mode of speech that enters into contemplation, to have gone forth.

But you may also take 'I came forth from the Father,' if you will, in yet another manner:

For the Pharisees, who are most prone to sheer ignorance, supposed, as I have already said, that the Lord had come forward like one of the false prophets—not sent from God, but on his own opinion—just as it was their custom to prattle to those who came to them things contrary to the Law.

They said that the Law was most beloved by God the Father, yet was being dissolved through His teachings.

Therefore they shook off Christ as one fighting against God and as having chosen to withstand what had been decreed by Him through Moses, reckoning Him on this account to be alien even from God.

But not so the blessed disciples.

For they loved Him, thinking better things than the ill counsel of the Jews, and they truly believed that He came forth from God, according to the modes we have just now set forth.

For this very cause they too were loved by the Father, receiving as it were in exchange an equal grace.

But if they who believe that the Son came forth from God are most beloved by God the Father and exceedingly pleasing to Him, then plainly those who have grown sick with the opinion contrary to these are detested and truly hateful to God.

And if God is most ready to hearken to those who love the Son, then plainly He will not accept the prayers of those who are not such;

and this then was that which was spoken to them by the voice of Isaiah: 'When you stretch out your hands to Me, I will turn My eyes away from you; and though you multiply your supplication, I will not hearken to you, for your hands are full of blood.' 'I came forth from the Father and have come into the world;'

again I leave the world and go to the Father.'

This is a plain and indisputable demonstration that the Lord is not one of the false prophets, nor one who would speak from his own opinion and discourse contrary to what seemed good to the Father in coming to us—according to the ignorant and abominable surmise of the Jews—since He returns to the Father and journeys back with authority to the place whence He knows He came forth.

'Yes indeed,' someone perhaps might say, setting himself against the ignorance of the Jews, 'Christ was not, according to you O Jews, perhaps a true one; nor did He, with the consent of God the Father, introduce the discipline of the evangelical way of life, thereby showing the legal commandment now to be ineffectual and useless for perfection in piety.'

'For you somehow accuse Him of having broken the Sabbath, and if He should work any of the miracles among you, you impiously said that He does even this by Beelzebul the prince of the demons, who is accustomed to do such things.'