Greek original · 126 verses · some words can be tapped for a gloss · long chapter, split into parts; this part covers 1:12033–1:12158 (13790 verses in all)
For that our own doings are altogether nothing, unless there be added to them the things that come from the divine grace, hear the psalmist crying: 'Except the Lord build the house, they that build it labour in vain;
except the Lord guard the city, in vain has the watchman kept awake.' I say, then, that it is necessary for us, on the one hand, to bring in the self-control that is from within, practising the God-loving habit, and to be seen as vigorous men toward accomplishing the loving of our own salvation; and, on the other hand, thus to ask for the things that come from God, and, having seized the help from above as an invincible and unbreakable panoply, to play the man.
But once God has given and assented to us for this, it is now permitted us to overcome the power of the enemies who war against us, and to gain the advantage over the hand of the devil, if we are not willing to obey him when he calls us to pleasures, that is, to some other mode of sin.
If we bestow upon him our own will, and, having let ourselves down into his snare by inclinations toward baseness, are convicted, how could we still fittingly blame another, and not rather ascribe the suffering to our own ill-counsels? Or is this not what Solomon said before: 'The folly of a man ruins his ways, but he blames God in his heart'? Nay, it is not disputable.
If, then, it did not belong to the traitor to enjoy, equally with the other disciples, the help that is from the Saviour, let someone demonstrate it, and we are defeated;
but if, having the covering that is from the divine grace equally with the others, he slid down, by his own wills, into the pit of perdition, how has not Christ kept them—having given the things that are from His own gentleness, and, as far as pertained to the bestowal of security, having saved the man—if only that man had not, of his own wills, willed to suffer?
For everywhere he has preserved for us a twofold presentation of his own person, both displaying the divine dignity that shines forth in himself, and not casting away the measure befitting his humanity by reason of the dispensation.
For being in need of nothing, but perfect in all things from a perfect Father, he emptied himself, not procuring for himself anything of advantage, but obtaining for us the good that comes from his self-emptying.
Therefore, presenting himself at one and the same time as both God and man, he persuades his disciples, as it were, to understand that whether absent or present he will no less work the things that accomplish for them the salvation that is according to God; and just as he guarded them while still present on earth by reason of his humanity, so also, when absent, he will guard them divinely by reason of the pre-eminence of his own essence.
And when conversing with his own Father and saying, 'Holy Father, keep them,' he at once introduced the power of the Father that is effective over all things, inasmuch as it also truly subsists;
and at the same time he shows that he is not outside his own nature, but existing in it and from it he possesses an indissoluble union, even though he be conceived as subsisting in his own individual existence.
For 'keep them,' he says, 'in thy name which thou hast given me'; and again, 'While I was with them, I kept them in thy name which thou hast given me.' It is therefore necessary to understand that, if indeed he himself has already kept them in the name given by the Father — that is, in the glory of the Godhead —
for he graciously bestowed upon him the name that is above every name — he wishes that the Father himself likewise should keep them in the name given to him, since he will not lie outside the operation that is present in the matter;
If therefore he has kept them, even with the flesh, by the authority and glory of the Godhead, in what manner shall he be seen to fall short in accounting the disciples worthy of the due protection? And how shall it come about that they fall away from the safeguarding that is from him, seeing that the God-befitting authority of the Only-Begotten abides ever, and the strength that is by nature inherent in him stands fixed in identity? For change altogether, and any transference to something else, which is customary to those wont to do wrong, is foreign to the Godhead, which ever shines forth in the unfailing prerogatives inherent in it.
For the blessed disciples thought that, while Christ was with them and dwelling among them — clearly, I mean, according to the flesh — they would easily be delivered from every calamity, and would readily escape the dangers from the Jews, and remain invulnerable to those wishing to harm them;
but that, once he was separated and had gone up on high, they would readily fall into every danger, and would undergo the utmost peril, as though there were no longer anyone sufficiently defending them and turning aside the assault of temptations.
For this reason, then, our Lord Jesus Christ, neither disowning the humanity once assumed, nor showing himself to have come into any want of the God-befitting authority, made both this and that plain through his words: saying, on the one hand, that the name of the Godhead was given to him as man, but that, on the other hand, there was accomplished in him and through him, from the Father, the protection and keeping of those who reverence him.
'Therefore nothing,' he says, 'will harm the disciples by his not being present with the flesh, since the divine authority of the Only-Begotten is able easily to preserve them, even if the flesh should not perhaps appear to be present.'
And we say these things, not counting the holy body of Christ as nothing — God forbid! — but because the operation over those being perfected would rather befit its being ascribed to the glory of the Godhead.
For the Lord's very body was also sanctified by the power of the Word who was united to it, and is thus rendered effective for us unto the mystical blessing, so as to be able to implant in us its own sanctification.
Wherefore the Saviour himself also, when once holding his discourses with the Jews and saying many things concerning his own flesh, and calling it truly and genuinely life-giving bread — for 'the bread,' he says, 'which I shall give you is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world' — and when they were greatly astounded, and not moderately perplexed as to how the nature of earth-born flesh could become for them the procurer of eternal life, defending himself he said: 'The flesh profits nothing; it is the Spirit that gives life;
the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.' For here again he says that the flesh can profit nothing — plainly, that is, unto the sanctification and life-giving of those who receive it, so far as concerns the nature of human flesh;
but when it is conceived and believed to be the temple of the Word, then indeed it will altogether be the procurer of both sanctification and life — yet not at all through itself, but through the God who was united to it, who is holy and life.
Ascribing, therefore, the whole to the operation of the Godhead, he says that it will be without loss for his own disciples, so far as concerns their seeking to be kept, that he departs with the flesh.
For even if he should perhaps be withdrawn into the heavens, yet the Saviour will not be absent from those who love him, but will again be present with them by the authority of the Godhead.
What, then, is the fulfilled and perfect joy? To know and to believe, not only that Christ was man like us, but that, together with being like us, apart from sin alone, he is also true God.
It is therefore manifest, and in no wise doubtful, that there will altogether be present to him the power to preserve those who reverence him, at whatever time he may wish, even if he be not seen present with the flesh.
For in this it will consist — that we too are able to have perfect joy — inasmuch as we have ever near, and as a fellow-champion at our side, him who is mighty to deliver from every evil.
He declares the gift from above and from the Father to be most needful for us, which also, in the rank of a just and most fitting recompense, he all but says is owed by him to those who are endangered for his sake.
For the world hates, on God's account, those who wait upon God, and yield to the laws appointed by him, and make no account of the pleasure that is in the world — who might also fittingly obtain co-operation and grace from him, and the abiding unto well-being.
For leaning upon him, in a manner, and taking courage, and taking up the war for his sake, and not being terrified to encounter dangers beyond their strength — how should they not by now henceforth, in proportion to the goal set before them, receive the recompense? Therefore the Saviour says that 'I have given them thy word, and the world hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.'
'For they received,' he says, 'and that very gladly, thy word, O Father, which came to them through me' — that is, the evangelical proclamation, which readily carries away those who admit it to somewhere outside the worldly life and the more earthly ways of thinking.
For the words of the saints are not pleasant to those in the world, as they ever tear apart the evils in this life, and declare abominable the life in the world, and accuse the sin that is in it, and shoot down with bitter reproofs those to whom it seems sweet to stumble and to wallow in earthly evils; and, waging war against all covetousness, spitting upon vainglory, and teaching men to renounce and to set as far away as possible the love of money, the mother of all evils; but also enjoining that men must be carried outside the ancient deceit, and go to the God of all, those who have been caught within the diabolical snares.
For it is not as being condemned for any shameful or unholy deeds that they have become somehow more burdensome to those in the world, but because I have given them thy word, so that henceforth they too, on this account, have become outside the world, just as I.
For the polity and life in Christ is wholly removed from the more earthly way of thinking and the worldly condition; and even coming after it, so far as is attainable, we too might drive past being reckoned among those in the world.
and we shall follow best of all then, when we love to think on the things above the world alone, and, having set our own mind above carnal thinking, we look only unto the things in the heavens.
And again he ranks himself together with the disciples by reason of his humanity; and in imitation of this, whenever he may be conceived as man, we ascend to every form of virtue, as we were just now saying, running through all the sin in the world, and being shown to be alien and strangers to the evils in it.
but in what way did he imitate? Or is it plain that, fashioning the most admirable pattern of the polity shown to us by him in his own character and ways, so far as it was permitted to attain;
for who could ever come to be on an equality with Christ? Having therefore yoked himself together with us by reason of his humanity — or rather, what is indeed true, as having also led the way for us into this good, I mean the going forth out of the world, through the supra-mundane life;
And the world hates Christ, in that it fights against the words that come from him, and makes his exhortation unacceptable, having given over its whole mind to inclinations towards baseness;
and in imitation of Christ our Saviour, it has plainly hated the disciples also, who are ambassadors of the word that comes from him for his sake — which Paul also did, saying: 'We are therefore ambassadors on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating through us;
we beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.' What, then, is the request, after the demonstration that the disciples are hated by those who are nailed fast to the worldly evils? 'I pray not,' he says, 'that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil one.'
We shall find, at least, one of the saints drawing near to the virtue-loving God and singing: 'Take me not away in the midst of my days'; for it is not without loss to God-loving souls to fall away, before perfection, as it were, from the life of the pre-eminent polity that is with the flesh.
For this reason also the law given through Moses, teaching that death not at the fitting season is cast upon those who love sin as in the rank of a certain wrath and punishment, often proclaimed that men must stand outside evils, 'that thou die not out of thy season.' And besides, that the saints should wish to depart from our affairs was likely to procure no moderate loss to those weak in the faith;
And knowing this, Paul says: 'For it is better to depart and to be with Christ; but to abide in the flesh is more needful for your sake.' Having therefore taken forethought for the salvation of the uninitiated, the Lord says that those in the world must not be left without luminaries and salt, but rather asks that the saints be preserved, ever remaining outside the perversity of the evil one, and shunning the assault of temptations by the power of the all-mighty Father.
And it must again be noted that he says that his own word, which came from him — I mean the evangelical word — belongs to God and the Father, not showing himself to be other than the Father, by reason of the consubstantiality.
For we shall find in the evangelical writings that the peoples of the Jews were astonished at him, since he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes; for they, both up and down putting forward that which seemed good to the law, appeared to be making their discourses to them;
but our Lord Jesus Christ, not at all following in every respect the figures that are in shadow and letter, but with God-befitting authority making his own word illustrious, said: 'It was said to the ancients, Thou shalt not commit adultery;
but I say to you, Thou shalt not lust,' although the law declared concerning the divine oracles that one must neither add to them nor take away from them;
for to whomever it might belong by nature to be ranked among slaves, to that one there would altogether also somehow belong the necessity of being subject to law.
因為凡按本性理當被列在奴僕之中的，對他也總必附帶著必須服在律法以下的這件事。
1:12107
ἴδιονοὖνἄραλόγοντὸντοῦΠατρὸςἐποιήσατοΧριστός
Christ therefore made the word of the Father his own.
In these words He once more showed and made plain on whose behalf He needs to ascend to God the Father, and for what things it would be most fitting, so long as He is still conceived, according to us, as mediator and high priest and advocate, in accordance with the Holy Scripture: that if ever it should happen that we stumble in any way and sin against right reasoning and conduct, or at times be beaten down by unexpected temptations, or indeed be storm-tossed by the devil's mischief, He might approach on our behalf, in the manner befitting His mediation, and might, together with His own Begetter, bestow good things upon those who are worthy.
Therefore, He says, those who through Me have received Thy word, O Father, have My image shining forth within themselves, and have become conformed to Thy true Son, running past the surging billows of worldly wickedness in imitation of Him, and have been shown to be alien and strangers to the love of pleasure and to all the shamefulness of this life.
For He is true God, who knows not how to fall under sin nor tolerates it, but rather exists as the fountain of all virtue and of that splendour which is conceived in sanctification.
But in the holy disciples, that is, in all who believe in Him, purity—that is, no longer being defiled by worldly evils—cannot come to be in any other way than through the forgiveness and grace from above, which removes the pollution of former transgressions and the charges of the life that has passed away, and rather introduces the splendour of the life lived in sanctification; yet this abiding in that same state is not free from toil.
For most wisely, it seems to me, did Paul also say: 'So let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.' For our affairs are ever in turmoil and our condition is variously shaken, since the evil one tempts us unceasingly, forever lying in wait and desiring, if he could, to defile with his hard-to-detect devices even those who have already been cleansed.
Having therefore borne witness to His own disciples of their life outside the world, and of their conformity in imitation to His own essential purity, He then asks that they be kept also by the Father, as if to say: O all-holy Father, if indeed they were in the world—that is, if they lived the life honoured in this world, if by sowing their own mind into earthly and transient pleasures they inscribed within themselves the utterly unlovely likeness of the evil one—then that tempter would not have risen up against them, nor would he himself have armed his own children against them, since he would find in them the imitation of the wickedness that is in him.
But since they too, in likeness to Me, deriding the deceit that is in this world, have come to be outside the world, and now imprint in their own ways the most transparent form of My incomparable brightness, and therefore have as one lying in wait and most hostile that Satan who ever grinds his teeth against the saints—for this reason I necessarily will that they be preserved.
But observe how, throughout, so to speak, all His sayings, by inserting His own person into the Father's operation—the operation conceived in a certain sense—He introduces it entirely alongside, thereby perhaps demonstrating as true that saying: 'All things were made through Him, and without Him was made not even one thing.' Now, a little earlier, He entreated that the disciples be kept by His own Begetter in the name given to Him.
What then is this, or what does the diversity of the words mean? Is it not to show that the operation from the Father, accomplished through Him for the protection of the saints, is one? For in those earlier words, saying that the disciples must be kept in the name of the Father, He said that being outside the hand of the one who wills to do harm—as it were, being in the glory and power of the Godhead—would belong to those who are in danger for God's sake; even as indeed happened to them, according to what is left unspoken, which Christ, revealing it to His own disciples at the appointed times, said: 'Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded to have you, that he might sift you as wheat.'
'But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.' For most of our affairs are governed unnoticed, since Christ evidently provides for and shields the life of each one.
But here, saying 'Keep them in the truth,' He clearly signifies that it is through the illumination of the truth that one is led by the hand to the apprehension of the truth.
For apart from the enlightenment that comes through the Spirit, no one could come to the knowledge of the truth, nor could he at all procure for himself an accurate apprehension of the divine doctrines, so far, that is, as we say is attainable to men.
For the mysteries in the God-inspired Scripture are above our mind; yet the gift is not without glory, namely, to come even to a moderate knowledge concerning Christ.
'Thou art Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but My Father who is in heaven.' For He reveals to the saints His own Son, who is the truth, not permitting Satan to turn aside to a counterfeit knowledge the mind of those who believe; and it was to Satan that Hymenaeus and Alexander, inclining at times, made shipwreck concerning the faith, having thrust away the right word of the truth.
It is therefore a great thing, for abiding well and in uprightness of thoughts and deeds, to be kept by the Father in the name of God and in truth, that we may neither stumble concerning the splendour of practical life, nor, through deviations into ignorance, wander far off from the doctrines of the godliness that is in truth.
It should be noted again that very usefully in these words He calls the Father holy, all but reminding Him that, being holy, He delights in the saints.
And holy is everything that appears to be freed from the stain that is in the world; which is naturally so in Christ, in likeness to the Father, but is added and imputed in the holy disciples through the sanctification that is according to grace and through the splendour and gentleness in their manner of life.
'As Thou didst send Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world; and for their sake I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.'
For Jesus became the apostle and high priest of our confession, according to the word of Paul, in the manner befitting His humanity and the mode of His self-emptying.
But having once been appointed for this, He says that the disciples altogether need to be sanctified by the holy Father, who evidently indwells them with the Holy Spirit through the Son.
For truly the disciples would never have attained to such splendour of the Saviour as to become luminaries of the whole world, nor could they have withstood the grievous harms coming from the tempters, that is, from the devil, had they not fenced their mind with participation in the Spirit, and been empowered by Him unto some unaccustomed and superhuman commandment, and been guided without toil, through the torch-bearing of the Spirit, into a pure knowledge of the God-inspired Scripture and of the sacred doctrines of the Church.
And indeed the Saviour, gathering with them after the resurrection from the dead, as it is written, and commanding them to proclaim to all throughout the whole world the grace that is through faith, charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to await the promise of the Father, which they had heard both from His own lips and through the voice of the holy prophets.
conceived as being in each and indwelling each; but since the Son is by nature from the Father and in the Father, being the true fruit of His essence, He brings with Him by nature the Father's own Spirit, which is poured forth from the Father, yet is supplied to creation through the Son Himself—not in any ministerial manner, that is, one conceived as in service, but, as I said just now, springing forth from the very essence of God the Father, and poured out upon those worthy to receive it through the Word who is consubstantial and who shone forth from Him, that is, in respect of His manifestation into being in Himself, and while ever remaining and existing in Him, both immediately and, as it were, in a distributed manner.
But that the Spirit of the Father appears as the Spirit of the Son, and that when the Father sends—that is, promises to distribute Him to the saints—the Son again imparts Him as His own, on account of the identity of essence which He has with the Father, and that the Father is operative unto anything whatsoever through Him, He Himself again most clearly indicated, saying: 'It is expedient for you that I go away.'
'But when I go away, I will send Him to you,' saying in another place: 'And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter'; in these words He openly promises that He Himself will send down to us the Comforter.
Since therefore, He says, the disciples who attend upon My words have been put forward for the mission that is in the world in likeness to Mine: 'Keep them, holy Father, in Thy truth'—that is, in Thy Word, in whom and through whom the sanctifying Spirit both is and proceeds.