Commentary on John 1 part 86/94

The other disciples having been terrified, as it appears, and fleeing the immediate wrath of the murderers, Peter clings to his love for Christ, ever advancing toward this with warmer impulses, and follows recklessly, and watches for the end of the things that should come to pass, the other disciple running with him and mounting through equal boldness to a like state.

And this was John, the truly God-loving author of this divine writing.

For he says that he himself is the other disciple, but he does not name himself openly, avoiding the suspicion of boastfulness and the appearance of being among the better sort compared with the others, setting this far off from his own thoughts.

For excellent deeds of valour, even if they happen to be present in some of those who think rightly, will never go through their own tongue into the ears of others.

For it is altogether a most unseemly thing that certain persons should be praised out of their own mouth rather than through the voice of others.

The proverbialist says, 「Let thy neighbour praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips.」 And that disciple was known to the high priest, and went in with Jesus into the court of the high priest.

Most providently again he comes down even to the mention of these matters, and does not decline to speak in fine detail, because of its usefulness to all.

For since he was going to include in his own writings the things that were done and said in the court of the high priest, he provided us, as it were, with a most necessary explanation of his having been able to enter in with him;

for he says he was known to the high priest.

He therefore enters in with him unhindered, by reason of his acquaintance with the ruler;

for he did not deem it right to say 「friendship;」

his acquaintance procuring for him an unimpeded passage to the inside.

In order therefore that credit might be given also to the things he composes as done in the court, as being one who was not taught by the voice of others, but who himself became both an eyewitness and an ear-witness of what was done, he made for us a most useful account also concerning this acquaintance.

But Peter stood at the door without.

The other disciple therefore, who was known to the high priest, went out and spoke to her that kept the door, and brought in Peter.

Peter would not have lagged behind, so far as concerned the eagerness of his own soul, in entering in together, were it not for the door-

maid's keeping, which made the passage inside no small danger to those not previously known.

And to overpower the woman by a man was surely in no way difficult, yet was not free from charges that amount to disorder.

The disciple therefore is shut out, as of necessity, though he is greatly distressed, until the other, perceiving that on this account he was not moderately grieved, brought him in together with himself, having spoken to her who sat at the gates, and asked the favour of the entrance for him who shared his zeal.

The maid therefore that kept the door says to Peter, 「Art thou also one of this man's disciples?」 He says, 「I am not.」

Christ our Saviour having already foretold to Peter the denial that would come to pass three times, and that before the bird, the songster, should crow he would somehow grow weak concerning the faith, the wondrous Evangelist thereupon relates in turn where and how the thing was accomplished.

The woman stationed at the gates therefore inquires whether he might be one of those numbered among the disciples of him who was undergoing the unjust judgment.

But Peter denies, and as it were rids himself of one of the charges, saying 「I am not,」 and by no means because he greatly feared being caught, nor declining the confession of the truth, but placing the enduring of anything whatsoever, even of undesired things should it so happen, as it were second and behind his being with Christ.

The fault therefore was of love, and the denial has as its root the love of God, not coming to pass out of exact reasoning, yet nonetheless wooing what was earnestly sought by one longing to be present with him.

Now the servants and the officers were standing there, having made a fire of coals, for it was cold, and they warmed themselves;

and Peter also was standing with them and warming himself.

Peter, having pressed within the doors and being taken in among the household servants, feigns to do what they did, although he was afflicted with grief and had in his heart a hardly-bearable despondency, lest, being detected by a downcast and closed-up countenance, as one who loved to grieve together with him who was being judged, he should be driven out from the hunt for the things he longed for.

For it is altogether incredible to suppose the disciple to be so given to the flesh as, being in such heaviness of heart, to contrive a remedy for the chill of winter;

nay, not even if it had been possible to enjoy still greater goods, would he have endured to obtain them while Christ was thus in distress.

But very economically he pretends to share in the servants' indifference, and as though nothing at all were casting him down into despondency, he repels the harm that comes from the winter, in order that, as one of those familiar with the household, he might by this too be believed, and might so thereafter escape, and, if anyone should again ask, deny.

But it was not possible that the word of the Saviour should be belied.

For what he knew, as God, would altogether come to pass, this he had foretold to the disciple.

He asked Jesus concerning his disciples and concerning his teaching.

The one learned in the law and a teacher, to whom the divine proclamation declares, 「Judge righteous judgment,」 having seized the Lord as though he were one of the notorious robbers, by means of a band of armed soldiers and a multitude of unholy officers, asks about teachings and disciples, thereby signifying his perplexity as to the charges.

For he that was being judged knew not how to sin.

And he asks concerning his teaching, whether it be at variance with the laws given through Moses, or rather in step and running together with the things anciently ordained, and what then is the aim present in those made disciples under him: whether it is to love being trained in the ancient customs, or to practise some strange and novel manner of worship.

But he did this with evil intent;

for he supposed that Christ would plainly speak against the law, and, calling the things given through Moses things to be rejected, would himself stir up against himself the insolence of the Jews' garrulous railing, that so he might then appear, as it were, to be exacting a just penalty for his having chosen to fight against God.

For to set oneself against the divine laws was plainly to war against God, if indeed any man among us were ever caught saying or doing anything of the kind.

But they attend to Christ as though He were still a mere man, and they think it just to call the Lord of the Law to account for transgression of the Law, forgetting Him who says, 'Impious is he who says to a king, You are a lawbreaker.' Jesus answered him, 'I have spoken openly to the world; I always taught in the synagogue and in the temple, where all the Jews come together, and in secret I said nothing.'

To seek out as though hidden, He says, that which is known to all, would render the labour vain; and that to which not-being-unknown properly belongs—how could there still attach to it any supposition of concealment? Now Christ seems in some way to say these things to us in order to fling off the charges already framed and cunningly contrived through the wickedness of the rulers;

But I think that through these words He also hints at something further.

For 'I,' He says, 'have spoken openly to the world'—that is, the oracles given to you through the mediation of Moses come by types and shadow, and do not teach plainly what is pleasing to God, but rather fashion for them a mere supposition of the truth; and being clothed in the grossness of the letter, they do not bring in a naked knowledge of things needful;

'I have spoken openly to the world';

for without riddles and without shadow I have set forth the right accomplishment of the form of good things, and, doing away with every crooked path, I have shown the way of piety toward God to be straight.

'I have spoken to the world'—not, He says, to one race of those descended from Israel;

for even if what pertains to us is perhaps not yet made known to those throughout the whole inhabited earth, yet it shall be, in due seasons.

'I always taught in the synagogue.'

And what this is, how is it not necessary to see? He calls the leaders of the Jews, as it seems, to remembrance—and unwillingly at that—since prophecy holds thus concerning Him.

For what did the divine Isaiah again say to us, as from the person of Christ? 'I have not spoken in secret, nor in a dark place of the earth'; and again, 'All the day long I have stretched out My hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people.' For what else, in the end, could 'neither in secret nor in a dark place to speak' mean, than to hold one's discourses openly, and to speak in places that had no small assembly of hearers? And He very rightly and necessarily brings them to remembrance of the prophet's word, that they might learn that they judge impiously the One who was owed to them in their hopes.

For the promise belongs to the Jews, according to the word of Paul.

'Why do you ask Me? Ask those who have heard, what I spoke to them;'

'behold, these know what I said.'

He rebukes those learned in the Law, as having themselves done wrong to the very Law in which they take pride;

for having, as it were, prematurely brought punishment upon one not yet condemned, they still superfluously seek out his faults.

'Why then,' He says, 'do you ask, and summon to a defence one who has already suffered the assault, and who has received punishment older than any proofs against him?' And you may approach the words in yet another way.

'Having covered me over with dreadful insults, if I should say anything concerning myself, they would perhaps not shrink even from crying out that it is false.'

'Be taught, therefore, from the voice of others.'

'The search for the witnesses is altogether without toil;'

'for these have been hearers of my words.'

And someone might perhaps suppose that, knowing hearts and reins, He indicated certain of the bystanders as having heard Him by chance.

For He pointed out certain of the officers who had long before marvelled at the teaching that came from Him; and how or when, it is again necessary to say, for the sake of clarity concerning what has been spoken.

This same inspired Evangelist, then, has told us something of this kind: that once, when our Saviour Christ was expounding and unfolding to the assembled Jews the word concerning the kingdom of heaven, the leaders of the Jewish ranks were again cut to the quick, and, seething with hot envy against Him, were eager to make away with Him.

The Evangelist speaks thus: 'And the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to seize Him.' But as the word extended by our Saviour was long and lengthy, those sent by the Jews were persuaded along with all the rest, and marvelled more than any other among those belonging to the crowds.

'The Pharisees then answered them, Are you also led astray?' You hear how, finding the officers already convinced and marvelling, the Pharisees are in agony.

Knowing this, therefore, the Saviour says, 'Ask those who have heard;'

'behold, these know what I said.'

For seeing those very men who then stood by, He says 'these,' signifying either that, or else that even those who are the servants of your unholiness have marvelled at the beauty of My teaching.

'When He had said these things, one of the officers standing by gave Jesus a blow, saying to Him, Do You answer the high priest so?' This too was foreproclaimed through the voice of the prophet as something that would come upon Christ;

'I gave My back to scourges,' He says, 'and My cheeks to blows.' And it is carried through to the end long foretold: to the judgement of Jewish arrogance, and to the doing-away and overthrow of the dishonour owed to us, since we sinned in the first Adam, having trodden underfoot the divine commandment.

For He is dishonoured on our behalf, since He Himself bears our sins, according to the voice of the prophet, and is in pain for us.

For just as He wrought the loosing of death by delivering His own body to death,

in the same way, I think, the blow which fulfils the dishonour upon Christ holds the loosing of the dishonour that hung over us because of the transgression and the primal, evil-originating sin.

For One who is worth all was dishonoured on behalf of all.

Yet I think the whole creation would have shuddered, had it been endowed with perception of the outrage;

for the Lord of glory was maltreated by the unholy hand of the one who struck.

I think it would not be without profit for love of learning to desire to learn on what account this all-daring and unholy officer strikes Jesus, who said nothing at all harsh or ill-tempered, but made the very gentlest defence concerning all that was brought against Him.

But no one could see even the Jewish president himself having ordered him to strike, nor to leap upon such utterly unreasonable impieties.

And some will perhaps put forward the custom that is ingrained and practised among the officers, who, when they bring before the rulers those denounced for certain matters outside the Law, compel them to speak more mildly and against their will, and, whenever these blurt out anything unseemly, sometimes even dishonour them.

But I do not think this was the cause of the madness against Christ that then came about; rather we shall find another pretext for the daring deed, if we fix our mind on the things already said.

Just now we said that certain of the officers had given offence to the rulers—those who had been ordered to arrest Jesus, but returned so initiated and so full of wonder at Him that they said outright, 'Never did a man so speak.' At which the Pharisees, raging exceedingly, said, 'Are you also led astray? Has any of the Pharisees or of the rulers believed on Him? But this crowd, who do not know the Law, are accursed.' Since, therefore, the Saviour's word called the rulers to remembrance of the vexation then stirred up against the officers—

for He brought them forward as witnesses of His own teaching, saying, 'Behold, these know what I said,' warding off the suspicion of goodwill toward Him, and, as it were, turning the mind of the rulers to other thoughts—the one who among them was charged with having marvelled at Christ silences Him with a blow, not permitting the danger-loving band of those appointed to serve to say the things that grieved them.

'Jesus answered him, If I have spoken ill, bear witness concerning the ill;'

'but if well, why do you beat Me?' He convicts the officer of doing grievous wrong—and this even if the one being judged had been of those not very illustrious;

for he foolishly strikes one whom he least ought, having been moved to this not by any unlawful words, nor having any other occasion for his insolence, but rather being driven, out of his inborn madness alone, into a beast-like savagery of manners.

'Accuse Me then, if it seem good, and combat My words as not rightly spoken;'

'but if you cannot do this, why after all do you strike one who has spoken blamelessly?' Now this is a well-worn discourse, and very familiar in such considerations;

but for my part I think the force of the passage before us tends somewhere else.

For He perhaps convicts the officer as wronging Him the more grievously, not because he simply struck, but because, having already marvelled at the Teacher, and now condemning Him on no ground at all, he brought himself to dishonour Him.

'For if I was never caught out in the words that came from me,' He says;

'if I did not seem to you to teach the noblest things, and am not believed to be some wondrous expositor of the sacred writings;'

'if you yourself were not then crying out, Never did a man so speak—perhaps there might be some plea granting mercy to your inexperience, and setting you outside the charge in these matters;'

'but since you have both known and marvelled, and would perhaps not, He says, have borne witness against My words, if you had reckoned it good in the present moment to keep in remembrance your own voice—how would you not have your sin without excuse?' And you may approach these considerations in such a way;

yet it is possible to see how in these things the Saviour delineates for us an incomparable and surpassing pattern of forbearance carried to its very summit, and portrays the form of the highest and most excellent gentleness, sketching, as in the manner of a splendid image, the things that pertain to Himself.

For He who by one and only nod could utterly destroy all the Jews is struck like a slave;

and He does nothing, nor brings upon any of the wrongdoers immediate punishment, since He is not weak as we are, nor tyrannised by wrath or grief, nor overcome by the weight of covetousness; but gently He puts the one standing over Him to shame, saying that he ought not to beat one who had spoken nothing out of place; and, though caught among those who seemed to be formidable, He does not neglect His own accustomed practices.

For by fitting reasoning He persuades the servant of Jewish disdain to depart from his rashness in these matters—Himself having received evil things in return for good, according to what is written, but giving back to those who dishonour Him good things instead of evil.

But our Lord Jesus the Christ, even while being struck, bears it with forbearance, although He is true God, Lord of earth and heaven;

yet we wretched ones, we who are earth and ashes, we who are small and least, and likened to the green herb of the vegetables—

'For man, his days are as grass, and as the flower of the field, so shall he flourish,' according to what is written—

That the Son is God by nature, even though He is found for our sakes calling His Father His own God, from the text set forth: 'I go to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.'

'Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself;'

'they said therefore to him, Are you also one of His disciples? He denied it, and said, I am not.'

'One of the servants of the high priest, being a kinsman of him whose ear Peter cut off, says, Did I not see you in the garden with Him? Again therefore Peter denied it, and immediately a cock crowed.'

The inspired Evangelist usefully checks the manner of his exposition, like a swift-running horse, and carries himself backward again.

For what cause? For he needed, no doubt, to display beforehand the threefold denial of Peter that occurred as part of what follows; and, the matter being in this fashion, in the way that was most befitting and suitable to it—the very way in which it was actually accomplished.

In a fitting arrangement, therefore, he takes up the things at the beginning, and says that Jesus was sent from Annas to Caiaphas;

and he shows Peter being questioned both by the household servants warming themselves with him, and by one of the kindred of the man struck by him, and, in these, fulfilling the third denial.

Then he makes mention of the cock's crowing, showing that in no respect did the word of our Saviour fall to the ground, for He both foreknew and foretold the weakness of His own disciple amid tumults. Of this the writer who committed this treatise to writing, being taught of God, would perhaps not have made any mention at all, had he not taken into account the fault-finding and unbridled tongues of those who hate God.

For some of those who are especially resolved to war against the Saviour's glories would at once have said: 'Show us Peter's denial, and how and where that which was foretold by Christ came to pass — Christ, who according to you does not even know how to speak falsehood.'

For you say that He is Truth, and that He shone forth from a Father who is true.

Therefore the inspired Evangelist gave us also a most necessary account of these matters, showing that the Lord was in all things truthful.

But perhaps one of our opponents will refrain from assailing us any longer with such arguments, yet will show himself a fierce accuser of Peter, and will charge the genuine disciple with incomparable cowardice, and will say that he was so ready to fall in the matter of words that he even slipped a third time into denial, though he had not so much as touched the actual trial of dangers, nor come to the very gates of peril.

Such things will perhaps suit those who are as yet uninitiated.

But I, dismissing such matters as far as possible and bidding farewell to those men's quibbles, will turn to the defence of what happened, setting forth for a demonstration, to those already accustomed to understand mysteries, the things drawn from the mystical economy.

For it was needful — yes, needful — that the most wise Evangelist should carefully call to mind such matters, so that his hearers might understand what manner of men even the teachers of the world themselves were before the resurrection of Christ and before the descent of the Holy Spirit that came upon them, and what manner of men they were afterward, when they had received the grace that comes through the Spirit, which Christ also called power from on high.

For one might see them most eager to take up virtue, and most nimble in their willingness to follow Christ, and very often making bold attempts to contend against every danger.

But since our Saviour Christ had not yet abolished the might of death, the fear proceeding from it was still somehow harsh and altogether unapproachable.

And they, not having yet received the Spirit, nor being forged by the grace from above, having their mind not yet wholly freed from human faint-heartedness into the courage that is above nature, appeared not entirely unbroken before the terrors that come from suffering.

For just as iron, though by nature hard, could not meet with stones that are more unyielding without injury, unless it received the power that comes from being tempered,

so the soul of man, even though it be most youthfully vigorous in its unswerving desires toward every good thing, yet will never prevail over the hardness of the contests here below, unless it be first strengthened by the grace that comes through the divine Spirit.

The disciples, then, were themselves perhaps somewhat weaker at the beginning; but when they had received the Spirit of God who is over all, having now surpassed their own weakness, they were transformed into His steadfastness, mounting up through communion with Him to the courage that is above nature.

Profitably, therefore, has the weakness of the saints also been written down, unto the praise and glory of God, who transforms weakness into power, and raises up as an invincible tower that which was easily overthrown even by bare fears, and which at times was shattered by mere suspicions arising from the prospect of suffering.

And that which perhaps befell one or a few of the saints might serve as a type and consolation for us.

For hence we are taught not, by looking at our own weaknesses, to grow at times most senselessly slack in serving God, but rather to trust in Him who is able to give strength to all, and to glory in accomplishments that are above nature and are granted beyond hope.

'They lead Jesus therefore from Caiaphas into the praetorium.'

'And they themselves entered not into the praetorium, that they might not be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover.'

'Judge righteous judgment, and thou shalt not slay the innocent and righteous' — while the Law and the divine commandment cried aloud so explicitly, the wretched men blush somewhat, and against their will, at the utter lack of any charges;

but finding their madness against Christ now without pretext, and being kept from the killing by the purification that lay upon them —

for they were now about to sacrifice the Passover, according to the law that had no more force among them —

they bring Him to Pilate, out of very great folly believing that they would not at all be implicated in the charges of unjust murder, if they were not themselves the actual perpetrators, but rather delivered Him to another's hands to suffer that, even though this, which was according to their intent, was out of tune with the laws given through Moses.

And they will be caught having done besides this yet another most ridiculous thing.

For while arraigning as condemned to the uttermost one who had sinned in nothing, and pouring out upon their own head so most-dreadful an impiety, they flee the threshold of the praetorium as though it would become to them a cause of defilement, and they earnestly decline to mingle with men who are as yet unclean.

But the most shameful of all evils — the most unjust murder — they have reckoned brings upon them no harm at all.

And what is truly astonishing, or rather more silly and irrational than all else: they purify themselves for the slaying of the lamb, which represents to us nothing other than the shadow of the mystery concerning Christ;

yet they who honour the type of the thing insult the very truth itself.

For while feigning purity in respect of it, they were defiled by the murder against Christ.

Rightly, then, at one time He called them whited sepulchres, adorned on the outside with the coverings artfully hung upon them, but within holding foul-smelling and most grievous uncleanness;

and at another time again He said that they strain out the gnat but swallow the camel.

For often being scrupulously exact about the very least and smallest of all things, so to speak, or even about nothing at all —

for what, after all, is the gnat? — they set at naught the weightiest of the charges, and they wash the outside of the cup and platter, but of the uncleanness within they take no account whatever.

For behold, behold: although the prophet Jeremiah says plainly, 'Wash thy heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem, that thou mayest be saved,' they have become fully persuaded that the impiety within and in their minds is nothing at all;

yet in bringing Christ to Pilate, they shun places as accursed and the bodies of uncircumcised men, and they suppose in their folly that, if they do not themselves work the lawless deed with their own hands, but make Pilate as it were a servant of their own cruelty, they will remain wholly free of any charge.

And one might marvel to find that the holy prophets were not ignorant even of this impiety of theirs;

for the blessed Isaiah somewhere said concerning them: 'Woe unto the transgressor;

evil things shall befall him according to the works of his hands.' And Ezekiel again: 'As thou hast done, so shall it be unto thee;

thy recompense shall be recompensed upon thine own head.' And moreover the divine psalmist himself cries aloud: 'Render unto them their recompense, according to the works of their hands give unto them.' For just as they themselves brought the Saviour and Christ of all to the Roman governors, so, undergoing the like by reversal, they were delivered over to the Roman dominion, and were consumed by the hand of those who then held sway.

For so terrible a war was kindled against them, and they shared in such most dreadful calamities, that, had it been possible, some would rather have chosen to creep into mountains and rocks and die there before witnessing that war — and this was true of many;

which indeed the Lord foretold that they would choose, saying: 'When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed about with armies, then shall ye say to the mountains, Cover us, and to the hills, Fall on us.' 'Pilate therefore went out unto them, and saith, What accusation bring ye against this man?' They decline, as they supposed, defilement from stones and walls; but Pilate comes out and inquires the cause of their coming to him, and demands that they state the charges against the one brought before him, condemning in another way the leaders of the Jews.

For a man of another race reverences the ordinance of the Jews, and out of piety is ashamed to violate the custom that prevailed among them.