Commentary on John 1 part 9/94

For to say that Christ is greater than himself, when he held so great a repute for holiness — what else could this be, henceforth, than to bear witness to Him of the surpassing glory? 'For He was before me.'

'For He was before me,' he says, instead of 'always and throughout everything better and more glorious';

and through the comparison with one of created beings, the verdict against all is gathered up in favour of Him who is above all.

For not in this alone shall we behold the great and admirable dignity of the Son — in that He outruns the glory of John — but in that He is set above all created substance.

'For of His fullness we all received.'

Through these words the Evangelist accepts the true testimony of the Baptist, and makes clear the demonstration of the pre-eminence of our Saviour, and that He possesses the greater portion essentially over every created thing — both in respect of that very glory, of which the discourse now especially treats, and in respect of the glorious catalogue of all other good things besides.

'For the Baptist,' he says, 'is shown to speak most excellently and most truly concerning the Only-Begotten when he says: For He was before me — that is, far better and greater.'

since we also, all who are ranked in the choir of the saints, have become rich with His own proper good; and human nature glories in His endowments rather than in its own, whenever it is found to possess anything worthy of admiration;

for from the fullness of the Son, as from an ever-flowing spring, the gift of divine graces, welling up, comes to each soul that may appear worthy to receive.

But if the Son supplies as from a natural fullness, while creation is supplied,

how could He henceforth be conceived as having glory not like that of others, but such as would befit the Only-Begotten of God, who has as the fruit of His own nature the endowments that surpass all things, and as the dignity of the paternal property His pre-eminence? And I for my part think that the most wise Paul too, when discoursing about the nature of all things, was moved through these considerations to true notions, and thus henceforth spoke as toward creation: 'For what have you that you did not receive?' For along with existence, well-being too is thus, as it happens, given to creation by God, and it has nothing of its own, but is rich only in the bounty of the Giver.

And it must again be noted that he says the Son is full — that is, altogether perfect in all things, and so far removed from being in any respect deficient, that He can even supply all, declining to be lessened, and ever preserving the greatness of His own pre-eminence in identity.

'And grace for grace, because the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.'

Having said that the glory of the Only-Begotten shines forth more brilliantly than the renown among all men, and bringing forward His incomparable greatness in holiness as compared with the saints, he is eager to make the demonstration of the aim he has set forth from those who have risen to the summit of virtue.

Now concerning John the Saviour says: 'Truly, truly I say to you, there has not arisen among those born of women one greater than John the Baptist.' But he presented this man, so great and enviable, as already, according as he himself says, having cried out and said with a great voice: 'He who comes after me has been placed before me, for He was before me.' And since John's glory is surpassed and gives place to the Only-Begotten, how is it not henceforth necessary to conclude that none of the other saints is brought to an equal measure with the Saviour Christ, at least in respect of the account of renown, which is beheld in the brilliance of His works? Those saints, then, who came into being at the times of the sojourning, being unable to surpass the virtue of John, nor rising to the measure that belonged to him, will yield together with him the victory to Christ, seeing that if the blessed Baptist, who has the utmost of good things and has left no manner of pre-eminence untried, receives the verdict of being lesser — not through another's voice, but he himself has set his own seal upon the matter, speaking as one truly holy.

Again we shall know: 'If there be a prophet of yours to the Lord,' He says, 'I will make myself known to him in a vision, and I will speak to him in a dream.

Not so with My servant Moses; in all My house he is faithful;

mouth to mouth I will speak to him, in manifest form and not through riddles.' Since, then, even the all-wise Moses has so great a pre-eminence over the more ancient saints, he shows the Only-Begotten to be greater and more glorious in every way, so that He may appear in all things Himself having the first place, as Paul says;

and on this account he says: 'And grace for grace, because the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.'

For I myself think that the blessed Evangelist wishes to indicate something of this sort.

'The great Baptist,' he says, 'made a true confession concerning the Only-Begotten when he plainly declared: He who comes after me has been placed before me, for He was before me; for indeed of His fullness we all received. And let no one suppose that, while the Only-Begotten rises above John or the other saints who came into being at the times of the sojourning,'

'yet He is surpassed in glory by the more ancient ones, who were resplendent in sanctification in the earlier times of the sojourning';

'for he,' he says, 'will behold Him rising far above the measure of Moses, although the latter had acquired the greater portion, as compared with those others, in sanctification';

for the lawgiver affirmed clearly that He had known Him above all.

John, then, was convicted by his own voice as walking behind the glory of Christ;

and He comes after his brilliance, and there is nothing at all in question concerning him, nor anything that roughens the finding of the truth.

Whence, then, indeed shall we find even the hierophant Moses himself surpassed by the glory of the Lord? Let the lover of learning, he says, examine the grace of the gospel given to us through the Saviour, in place of the grace of the law given through Moses;

for then indeed he will behold the Son as much greater as He would appear to legislate the better things of the polity according to the law, and to bring in things more excellent than all that came through Moses.

For the law, he says, was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

What, then, is the difference of the law in relation to the grace that is through the Saviour, the lover of inquiry and companion of good toils will behold again;

but we shall say a few things in place of many, believing the number of the contemplations upon these matters to be endless and vast.

The law, then, condemned the world;

for God through it shut up all things under sin, as Paul says;

and it showed us to be liable to punishments, whereas the Saviour rather sets it free;

for He came not that He might judge the world, but that He might save the world. And the law too gave grace to men, calling them altogether to the knowledge of God, and drawing those who had gone astray away from the worship of idols, and moreover pointing out to them the evil and teaching the good — if not perfectly, yet in the manner of a tutor and usefully;

but the truth and grace that is through the Only-Begotten does not bring in the good to us in types, nor sketch out the beneficial things as in a shadow;

but by ordinances luminous and most pure it leads us by the hand toward the perfect knowledge of the faith;

and the Law indeed gave a spirit of bondage unto fear, but Christ gives the Spirit of adoption unto liberty.

Likewise the Law introduces circumcision in the flesh, which is nothing;

for 'Circumcision is nothing,' as indeed Paul writes to certain persons;

but our Lord Jesus Christ procures the circumcision that is in spirit and in heart through faith.

The Law baptizes the defiled with bare water; the Saviour, with the Holy Spirit and with fire. The Law brings us into the tabernacle that is the copy of the true things; the Saviour raises us up into heaven itself, and leads us into the truer tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not man. And it would be no difficult thing to heap up other proofs upon those already spoken; yet we must nevertheless honour due measure.

Nevertheless, we shall say that thing usefully and necessarily:

having spoken to the point at issue concerning both the Law and the grace of the Saviour, he says: 'For if the ministration of condemnation was glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.' For by 'the ministration of condemnation' he means the commandment given through Moses, and by 'the ministration of righteousness' he names the grace that comes from the Saviour, to which also he grants the possession of the greater glory, judging the nature of things most excellently, as one who bears the Spirit.

Therefore, since the condemning Law was given through Moses, but the justifying grace came into being through the Only-begotten, how then is he not more glorious, he says, through whom the better things have been ordained? The psalmist, too, speaking in the Spirit, will speak truly when he cries aloud that our Lord Jesus Christ is set above the whole shining multitude of the saints together: 'For who,' he says, 'among the clouds shall be equal to the Lord, or who shall be likened unto the Lord among the sons of God?' For the clouds, that is, the spiritual ones—namely the holy prophets—will yield the victory to Christ, and will in no wise think it right to contend with him on equal terms of honour, since even the one known above all others by God, that is, Moses, bears off but the second rank.

And those who were called sons of God at the time of his sojourning shall not be likened to the natural Son without difference, but shall acknowledge their own proper measure—since the holy Baptist himself declares that he was set very much behind him, of whom he who knows the hearts says: 'Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist.' Truly, then, does the blessed Evangelist speak, saying that he beheld his glory, glory as of the Only-begotten from the Father—that is, such glory as would befit the Only-begotten Son from God the Father, and not rather those who have been called into brotherhood with him, of whom he is the firstborn.

That the Only-begotten alone is by nature Son from the Father, as from him and in him.

No one hath seen God at any time;

the Only-begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

Behold again in these words the sober vigilance of the Spirit-bearer.

He was not ignorant that some, examining more bitterly the things said concerning the Only-begotten, would surely say: You, sir, have declared that you beheld his glory, glory as of the Only-begotten from the Father; then, when you ought to have refined for us the exposition of these matters and to have spoken of some thing befitting God and extraordinary, you framed your demonstration from his pre-eminence over Moses and from the measures of John, as though his glory could not be seen otherwise—and yet the blessed prophet Isaiah says: 'I saw the Lord of Sabaoth sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and the house was full of his glory, and the Seraphim stood round about him; six wings had the one and six wings the other, and with twain they covered the face, and with twain they covered the feet, and with twain they did fly;'

and they cried one to another and said: 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Sabaoth; the whole earth is full of his glory.' And Ezekiel again cried aloud plainly to us that he beheld the Cherubim, having above their own heads a firmament as in the form of sapphire, and likewise the Lord of Sabaoth upon a throne;

for he says in these very words: 'And behold,' he says, 'a voice from above the firmament that was over their head; and above the firmament that was over their head was as the appearance of a sapphire stone, the likeness of a throne upon it, and upon the likeness of the throne a likeness as the appearance of a man above;'

the more untutored, the blessed Evangelist is necessarily eager to cut short their attempts, saying: 'No one hath seen God at any time;'

for the Only-begotten himself, being God, who is in the bosom of God and the Father, made this declaration to us—having said most plainly indeed to the hierophant Moses that 'No one shall see my face and live,' but to his own disciples, in due season: 'Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is from God, he hath seen the Father.' For to the Son alone who is by nature is the Father visible, and in such wise as one might reverently conjecture that the divine nature both sees and is seen, but to no other of things that are.

By no means, however, shall the word of the holy prophets be found false, when they cry aloud that they saw the Lord of Sabaoth;

for they do not maintain that they beheld that very thing according to essence, which the nature of God is, but they themselves too cry aloud plainly, saying: 'This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.' Therefore from things that are among us the figure of the divine glory was enigmatically fashioned, and it was rather a likeness, bearing as on a tablet the things that befit God, while the truth concerning these things ascends to a pre-eminence above mind and speech.

Most excellently, then, the most wise Evangelist, saying 'And we beheld his glory, glory as of the Only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth,' brings forward the demonstration of the argument from his pre-eminence over all.

For just as from the beauty of created things the power of the Maker of all is proportionately contemplated;

and 'the heavens declare without voice the glory of God, and the firmament proclaimeth the work of his hands;' so again shall the Only-begotten be shown forth as more glorious and more resplendent, ascending—so far as it pertains to the power of the eye—in comprehension, as God, but by those very things whereby he surpasses creation being thereby understood and glorified as existing above it.

This meaning, then, and no other, do I suppose the force of the passage before us to be labouring to bring forth;

but again we must observe that he calls the Son 'Only-begotten God,' and says that he is in the bosom of the Father, so that once more he may appear as lying outside consanguinity with creation, and as having his existence peculiarly from the Father and in the Father.

For if he is truly Only-begotten God, how is he not by nature other, as compared with those who are gods and sons by adoption? For the Only-begotten will not be conceived of as among many brethren, but as being alone from the Father.

And since, according to the voice of Paul, though there are many that are called—

or even named—gods both in heaven and on earth, yet the Son is Only-begotten God, he will clearly lie outside the others, and will not be ranked among the gods that are so by grace;

but he will rather be true together with the Father;

for thus does Paul harmonize things for us, saying: 'But to us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things;' for since there is by nature one God the Father, the Word who is from him and in him shall not remain outside being God, but shall be distinguished by the property of the one who begot him, and shall essentially rise to the equal dignity, at least as to being by nature God.

For the things begotten from men proceed from the womb;

so also, when he says 'In the bosom,' he all but wishes to signify that in the womb of the Father who begets the Son manifestly, as in a divine radiance and in a certain ineffable procession toward his own hypostasis, yet again holding him—since the divine offspring did not issue forth from the Father by a cutting off, that is, a bodily division.

And indeed the Son somewhere says that he himself is in the Father, and that he again in turn has the Father in himself.

For that which is proper to the essence of the Father, passing naturally into the Son, shows the Father in him;

yet not by division or local separation, but as indwelling and ever co-existing;

thus, then, we shall the more piously receive the Son as being in the bosom of the Father, not as certain of those accustomed to war against God have understood it,

those whose condemnation is just; for they pervert all things that are right, according to the voice of the prophet, unhinging the ears of the simpler folk, and sinning without restraint against the brethren for whom Christ died. For it is necessary to say what indeed they think and say and attempt to teach others:

When the holy Evangelist says that the Son is in the bosom of God and the Father, and then the children of the Church, understanding rightly, affirm on this ground that he exists from the Father and in the Father, and that the genuineness in his begetting must be preserved—and very reasonably—when they contend for this, straightway those who are drunk with every ignorance laugh them to scorn, and even dare to say: Nonsense, you people, are the things among you;

for you do not glorify the things concerning God with good instruction, in that, because the Son is said to have sprung forth in the bosom of the Father, you altogether suppose him to be of his essence, and foolishly assume him to be the fruit of the unbegotten nature.

For have you not heard, they say, in the Gospel parables, when Christ himself was uttering the words concerning the rich man and Lazarus, that 'it came to pass that Lazarus died, and was carried by the angels into the bosom of Abraham'? Will you then grant, on the ground that Lazarus came to be in the bosom of Abraham, that he exists from him and in him by nature—or will you refuse to say this, doing rightly, and by the 'bosom' will you too together with us concede that affection is to be understood? We say, therefore, that the Son is in the bosom of God and the Father, in the sense of 'in affection,' just as he himself somewhere says: 'The Father loveth the Son.' But when these fault-finders strike at us with such arguments—swift though they be for reviling alone—then we too shall answer back, bringing forward the right word of the truth: The 'bosom,' O good sirs, signifies for us, according to you, affection;

for we have just now heard you saying this.

Since, then, God loved the world, according to the voice of the Saviour;

and 'the Lord loveth the gates of Zion' also, according to the holy psalmist, shall we then say without danger that both the world itself and the gates of Zion are in the bosom of God and the Father? And when he says also to the hierophant Moses, 'Put thy hand into thy bosom,' does he command him, tell me, to love his hand, and not rather to have it hidden away? Then how shall we not incur great ridicule on these grounds—or rather, how shall we not commit impiety against the Father himself—by saying that all things are in his bosom, and by making common to the others the excellent good peculiar to the Only-begotten alone, so that the Son might have nothing more than creation? Therefore, having bidden farewell to their follies, we shall walk in the straight path of the true reasonings, understanding him, whenever the Son is said to be in the bosom of the Father, as being from him and in him;

and having accurately wiped clean the force of the meaning, we shall find it to be thus and not otherwise.

'The Only-begotten,' he says, 'the God who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.'

For since he said 'Only-begotten' and 'God,' he immediately adds: 'Who is in the bosom of the Father,' in order that he may be understood as Son also, from him and in him naturally, having called the bosom of the Father in place of the essence, as by a bodily example.

For the more manifest things are in a manner types of the intelligible, and the things among us lead us by the hand to the comprehension of the things above us;

and corporeal things are often taken in the rank of an image, and bring to us the comprehension of subtler contemplations, even though they are thus understood in due season, so that it may seem to have been fittingly said—of what sort I say to be the passage concerning Moses, 'Put thy hand into thy bosom.' And it will do no harm at all to the argument to say that Lazarus was set in the bosom of Abraham; rather it will plead in its favour, and will run together with our contemplations.

For the divine Scripture all but says this:

having ended his life, he was carried into the bosom of Abraham—in the sense that he was ranked among the sons of Abraham;

for God said to him, 'A father of many nations have I set thee'; and thus it is somewhere written concerning him: 'For a father of many nations have I set thee.' 'And this is the witness of John, when the Jews sent from Jerusalem priests and Levites to ask him: Who art thou? And he confessed and denied not;'

and he confessed: 'I am not the Christ.'

The Evangelist calls his own words to remembrance, and is eager to expound them to us more at large—doing very excellently indeed—the things which he had already, in advance, indicated summarily as in a heading;

for having said 'There was a man sent from God, whose name was John;'

'this man came for a witness, that he might bear witness of the Light,' he necessarily brings forward also the manner of the witness that came from him;

for when, he says, the teachers of the Jewish orders according to the Law sent to him priests and Levites, bidding them inquire what he might say concerning himself, then indeed he confessed very plainly, spitting away all shame for the sake of the truth;

for he said: 'I am not the Christ.'

Therefore neither have I, he says, the writer of the book, spoken falsely in saying concerning him: 'He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.' 'And they asked him: What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith: I am not.'

'Art thou the prophet? And he answered: No.'

Speaking again as in an exposition, 'he confessed: I am not the Christ,' he attempts to show how, or in what manner, the word of the confession came about;

and it seems to me that by these things he wishes to lay bare the untutoredness of the Jews.

For professing themselves to be wise, they became fools; and, priding themselves haughtily on their knowledge of the Law, putting forward up and down the commandments given through Moses, and maintaining that they had been made accurate concerning the words of the holy prophets, by the very questions through which they inquire so untutoredly they are convicted of being exceedingly ignorant;

for the hierophant Moses, saying that the Lord would be shown forth as in the rank of a prophet, foretold to the sons of Israel: 'A prophet from among thy brethren, like unto me, shall the Lord thy God raise up unto thee; him shall ye hear;'

'according to all that thou didst desire of the Lord thy God in Horeb.' And the blessed Isaiah, bringing forward for us the forerunner and herald, says: 'The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight his paths;' and third besides these, the prophet Joel says concerning the Tishbite:

'And behold, I send unto you Elias the Tishbite, who shall restore the heart of the father to the son, and the disobedient to the understanding of the righteous, lest I come and smite the earth utterly.' Since, then, there were three who were announced as about to come—Christ, that is, and John and Elias—the Jews expect that more will arrive, so that they may justly hear: 'Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures.' For having questioned the blessed Baptist, and having learned that he himself was not the Christ, they answer: 'What then? Art thou Elias?' And when he says 'I am not,' they ought thereafter to have inquired concerning the forerunner;

for this was still what remained;

yet untutoredly they run back to Christ himself, the one who was made manifest as a prophet through the Law.

For behold what they say, not knowing the things through Moses: 'Art thou the prophet? And he answered: No;'

for he himself was not the Christ, as also he had already before insisted.

'What do you say concerning yourself?' 'I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness.'

He sharply refutes them as knowing nothing, and by prophetic testimony he confirms the task—or rather the intent—entrusted to him.

Prepare yourselves for whatever road he might command you to walk. You walked the way given through Moses; now take up the way given through Christ.

This is the way which the choir of the holy prophets proclaimed to you beforehand.

A collection of sayings concerning the way that is according to Christ.

'We will walk in it.' (The same prophet.) 'There shall be a way there wholly clean, and it shall be called a holy way; no lion shall be there, nor shall any of the wicked beasts go up upon it; but the scattered shall walk in it.' (The same.) 'I will give a beginning to Zion, and I will comfort Jerusalem unto the way.' (The same.) 'And I will lead the blind in a way that they knew not, and I will make them tread paths which they did not know.'

(Jeremiah.) 'Stand upon the ways and ask for the eternal paths of the Lord, and see which is the good way, and walk in it, and you shall find purification for your souls.' What then is the good way that purifies those who walk in it? Let Christ himself declare it: 'I am the way.' 'And they had been sent from among the Pharisees.'

Those who were sent by the Jews.

They were Levites, and some of those in the priesthood.

They were convicted of asking without understanding.

For supposing the Christ to be one person and the prophet foretold through the Law to be another, they said—after the holy Baptist had declared, 'I am not the Christ'—'Are you the prophet?' But behold, the multitude of the Pharisees too is detected priding themselves on wisdom rather than truly possessing an exact knowledge of the divine oracles.

'Why then do you baptize at all,' he says, 'if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?' Once more they are shown to be in travail with no small madness against the Baptist.

For they do not think it fitting to reckon him, as would be reasonable, in the list of those expected; but sick with the arrogance bred in them, they count as nothing even one proclaimed beforehand by the voice of the prophet.

For when they heard, 'I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord,' they would not receive the word, but all but openly they rebuke him, saying: 'There is nothing worthy of credit in you, fellow; nothing marvelous or great.'

'Why do you baptize at all? Why do you undertake so great a matter, being yourself nothing?' It is the custom of the impious Pharisees to belittle the one already present, and rather to pretend to honor the one who is to come.

For in order that they might always contrive to gain honors from the Jews, and procure for themselves gains of money, they wish no one among the rest to be seen as distinguished.

The blessed Baptist bears their rebukes with long-suffering.

And very aptly he made his own affairs the occasion for expounding the saving proclamation.

And he now teaches, even against their will, those sent by the Pharisees that Christ is already within the doors.

'For I,' he says, 'bring a preparatory baptism, washing with water those defiled by sin as a beginning of repentance, and teaching them to be brought up from lower things to those that are more perfect.'

'For this was to fulfill in deed what I was sent to proclaim—namely, Prepare the way of the Lord.'

'But the giver of greater and more excellent things, the bestower of all perfection unto good, stands in your midst, still unknown because of the covering of the flesh, so far surpassing me the Baptist that I think I ought not even to be reckoned in the rank of a household servant beside him.'

For this, I think, is what is meant by, 'I am not worthy to loose the strap of his sandal.'

And while speaking a true thing, he accomplishes something else useful as well.

He persuades the arrogant Pharisee to be humble-minded, and presents himself as a pattern of the matter.

He says that these things took place in Bethabara beyond the Jordan.

Setting down this too, as it were, as a sign of exact and careful remembrance.