Fragments on John 1

Since a certain preeminence befitting God is signified by the name of heaven, according to the words 'the heaven of heaven belongs to the Lord,' he who later became the devil, while looking down toward the earth, though he was in heaven when he was holy, said:

'I will ascend into heaven,' as one situated somewhere below in relation to that heaven.

Into the heaven so called no one has ascended except the Son of God alone, since he alone also descended from thence, being called Son of Man on account of the dispensation.

Even though the angels ascending into heaven and descending by a ladder were seen by Jacob, yet the vision spoken of by Scripture is not about the heaven previously mentioned.

... These things are said concerning the rational beings.

And since among all these there are also some that have become worse, I inquired how they will attain a stable condition once they have come into the hand of the Son—that is, once they have cast off the evil they had and taken up virtue.

For no heed should be given to the one who has devised sophistries, that only those things possessing holiness are said to be 'all.'

But not having life is not the same as not seeing it;

this is shown from the words 'you shall see life set before your eyes, and you shall not believe.'

If someone should inquire into these things—which is worse: not to see life nor to believe in it, or not to have life yet to see it? One person will say that he who lacks both is more wretched than the one who has the one thing.

But another will say that it is a lesser evil, when one does not see life, to disbelieve in it;

for there will be pardon for one in such a condition.

But the one who does not believe in life is rather to be blamed, even though he is capable of seeing it, since its beauty draws him toward assent.

Since God is invisible, and the incorporeal immediately follows upon the invisible, therefore God, being incorporeal, is invisible.

And if this is so, then when he is called Spirit, he would not be moving air;

for it is not because among men 'spirit' denotes a body that this must necessarily be signified also in the case of God.

Just as, therefore, when he is called light, since he illumines not the sight but the understanding, he is not a body but an intelligible light; and again, when he is called love, he is not a disposition but a substance that loves the things he creates and provides for; so too when he is addressed as Spirit, he presents himself not as wind, but as an incorporeal and life-giving substance.

But everyone who has learned that God is Spirit, worshipping him spiritually in spirit and in truth, no longer worships the God of all things in a figurative manner.

In contradistinction to the letter he says 'in spirit,' and in contradistinction to the figure he says 'and in truth';

for these things were useful for a season, but when the truth had come—that is, the presence of Christ—all of them ceased.

If what is said by Jesus—

for whatever that one does (clearly the Father), these things the Son likewise also does—has reference to the wonders that were done by him in the Gospels, one must consider how the Father did these things.

Since the Son, being consubstantial with the Father, has an activity inseparable from the Father's activity, being a spotless mirror, everything that the Father does, the Son also works simultaneously and inseparably; and whatever the Son accomplishes, the Father at once brings into being—so that in this respect neither does the Son do anything apart from the Father, nor the Father apart from the Son.

This same contemplation must also be applied to the works of creation;

for it is not that, while the Father creates certain things, the Son then gives substance to other, different things;

for it would follow from this that there are two suns and that each of existing things is double; but the creatures are plainly not so constituted.

Therefore the activity of the Father and of the Son is beheld as one and the same in the things that are created.

If 'to be raised' and 'to be made alive' are spoken of concerning a dead man, they differ in word alone;

for to be made alive when dead and to be raised are the same thing, and they entirely convert with one another, since one who is raised from the dead is made alive.

But if 'to be raised' should ever be said not of a dead person but of a living one, then it would not be the same as 'to be made alive';

for one who is raised up from sitting or from lying down to sleep is not thereby made alive.

It signifies a receiving of life, but the one who is living does not receive this;

for he already has it—unless indeed it be according to another meaning, for the word 'life' is equivocal.

As the one who transgresses the law dishonors God by his transgressing, while the one who keeps it honors him who gave it, so the one who honors the Son by acting according to the law and right reason will honor the Father, and conversely.

The phrase 'all who are in the tombs' means the same as 'all who have died';

for if he had not said this, then those whose bodies have been consumed by wild beasts or by fire and are not laid in tombs would not rise.

But since there shall be a resurrection of all men, these too will therefore be numbered among those in the tombs.

And if those who contradict should be contentious, one must set before them that those who do good and evil deeds are not the bodies laid away in the tombs.

Hence the argument will not prevent them from admitting also the bodies that have been consumed by fire or otherwise.

Since men are divided according to their disposition into the ungodly (that is, the unbelieving) or the godly (that is, the believing), when all men alike rise, the unbelieving and ungodly do indeed rise, but not unto judgment, since the one who does not believe has already been judged.

But there are those who have believed in the Savior and, in addition to this, have also done good works, who rise unto the resurrection of life and are not to be judged, whereas those who have sinned after believing are raised unto judgment.

But the condition of infants—since they too rise—God alone knows, and perhaps also those to whom the revelation of the truth concerning this has been given.

... One is drawn by the Father in this way: man having been made rational, according to the image and likeness of God.

there have been implanted in him the notions concerning virtuous deeds and the word concerning truth and knowledge.

The one, therefore, who according to the common notions has heard and judged the good, and has learned from the Father, comes to Christ through faith.

Or also through revelation he draws to himself those who hear and learn.

In the manner in which he also says to Peter, who had confessed:

that 'flesh and blood did not reveal it to you, but my heavenly Father.' In this very respect too—according to the image and likeness—man having been made rational,

there have been implanted in him by God the notions concerning praiseworthy deeds, and also those of knowledge and of truth.

The one, therefore, who according to the common notions has heard and learned from the Father, comes through faith to the Lord;

the Father, teaching through revelation the things concerning the Son, leads to him those who hear and learn;

for in this way too he led Peter through revelation to believe in the Son, having revealed him.

He says that by 'heaven' is signified, as it were, the vantage-point and condition of God, which is none other than his intelligible substance.

And the bread of life that comes down is the nourishing Word of God, which he eats who comes to him by practicing virtue.

But since one must go to him not only through action but also must knowingly believe the things that are true according to contemplation, one drinks from him living water from a spring and, from the vine, wine that gladdens the heart of man.

Hence, partaking according to practical virtue we eat, but according to intellectual virtue we drink, so as ever to live satisfied and, having drunk from him, never to thirst.

But if the saying 'blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness' seems contrary, there is by no means any discord;

... of the immortal drink; yet nevertheless, on account of the loveliness and praiseworthiness of the food and of the drink, the one who has been filled still hungers and the one who drinks still thirsts, so as both ever to be satisfied and to hunger.

Which heaven does he signify here, out of the three heavens—the primordial, the firmament, the air?

One should understand none of these, but rather the vantage-point, as it were, and condition of God, which is none other than his intelligible substance.

And the bread of life that comes down is the nourishing Word of God, which he eats who comes to him by practicing virtue.

Or also, those who by partaking of his teaching pursue practical virtue are said to eat, while by the intellectual examination of what is hidden in Scripture they are said to drink, as Christ says:

'blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness'—those who pursue both the practice and the understanding of it.

When the Savior had said that the one who keeps the word would not see death, the Jews who were present, having erred, supposed that to see death was the same as to taste it;

for it seemed to them, on the basis of their own words, that the one who does not taste death is he who has not received experience of worldly death;

and this seemed to overturn the Lord's promise, since even those who had kept his word had died; but it became a deception for them, cunningly to shirk his will by means of the equivocation;

for the one who keeps the word of Jesus will by no means see the death that follows upon sin, even if he tastes the common and bodily death.

And since the prophets also said, without qualification, 'they died,' not adding 'all,' it does not conflict with the fact that Enoch and Elijah did not die.

One must inquire what day he means—the intelligible day of the Lord.

He has been enlightened, the eyes of his heart being illumined by the true light.

The man who stands in the opposite condition, blinded by the ignorance he labors under, seems to have no sin, because he has not willfully committed his grave transgression.

Yet this very ignorance is, in another way, itself a sin.

For it lay within his power, being a rational creature, to possess the knowledge of good and evil.

Since, therefore, he neglected this, he is held accountable for the ignorance itself.

In this sense you will understand the saying, 'The servant who did not know his lord's will shall be beaten with few stripes.'

The Word of God is a Door for those who enter in unto God, according to the words, 'Enter into His presence with rejoicing.'

Moreover, since the inner man is the mind, and the outer man is that which is more bodily, he who takes care of the inner man enters through the Word, who is the Door; likewise he who mortifies his members that are upon the earth, and carries about in his own body the dying of Jesus, goes out through the Door, being ambitious not even, while dwelling in the body, to be well-pleasing to it.

The Father gives to the Son those who have been fashioned according to the good, with a quality that cannot be surpassed.

For 'all that the Father gives me will come to me,' and 'behold, I and the children whom God has given me.'

For just as the Son leads to the Father and delivers to Him those to whom He has touched Himself, giving Himself for their contemplation, according to 'He who has seen me has seen the Father,' so the Father gives to the Son those to whom He makes Him known, as He did with Peter.

For it was not flesh and blood, but the Father who revealed the Son.

All who thus come to know the Son from the Father attain to those things given to the Son, by reason of the surpassing perfection of these things being so.

How then Judas? He too was one of those given by the Father to the Son, according to 'those whom you gave me I kept, and none of them was lost except the son of perdition,' yet he fell away from so great a height as to be styled a son of perdition.

There was room, from his constitution, for Judas to be evil, as the heterodox suppose, since so great a change was found to occur in him.

In what sense has He here taken the word 'greater'? Is it as concerning magnitude of bodies? Or as greater in time? Or as adorned with more abundant virtue? But all these lie within the realm of quantity, of the contingent and the measured.

But nothing contingent or measured is in God.

Therefore 'greater' and 'less' are not spoken of the Word of God, nor of the Father.

For God is by nature not such as to be measured or delimited.

But if you say that the Father is greater because He is unbegotten, while the Son is begotten, we shall reply that these are modes of the essences, not of the existences.

And especially in the case of things without quality and incorporeal, those who attribute 'less' or 'greater' to this one or that do not thereby diminish the dignity of things consubstantial.

For that which is simple in essence and in knowledge is not of a nature to be compared by measure or by quantity of magnitude.

Why then was it said? The Saviour, in a single utterance, stretched forth a twofold manner of teaching.

For the sense of the saying that was spoken is twofold.

For instance, by the words 'He who sent me' and 'I go away,' He hinted at the body that is contained in places and is circumscribed, and not at His uncircumscribed Godhead which contains all things.

And by the comparative expression of saying 'greater than Himself,' He shows His Godhead as compared with the Father, in that it is consubstantial; but by the assumption of the body, it is conceived as inferior to the Father, in respect of His becoming man.

And do not marvel if the Saviour, having become man, says He is inferior to the Father, since He is also said to be made a little lower than the angels, according to this passage:

'We behold Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour.'

He was said to be inferior even to His own disciples.

'But I,' He says, 'am in the midst of you as one who serves, and as the lesser.'

Things therefore that are compared are consubstantial; but things that are simple both in knowledge and in essence do not admit of the greater and the less.

But if, concerning the Godhead of the Son apart from His having taken flesh, you wish to interpret 'the Father who sent me is greater than I,' you will make Him contained and enclosed in places, sent to where He was not, and removing from where He is.

The Father indeed glorified His own Son, subjecting to His sceptres all that is under the sun; and He too in turn was glorified through Him.

For the Son was glorified by the Father, being believed by all to be the offspring and fruit of Him who is almighty.

And the Father in turn was glorified, as it were, by His own offspring.

For since the offspring was known to accomplish all things with ease, being almighty, the grace of that glory passed over to Him who begot it.

'Just as, therefore,' He says, 'you glorified me and were glorified, giving me authority and lordship over all, clearly in the manner spoken of, so I will that none of those given me should be lost.'

For this glory too passes over unto us.

For it was fitting, yes fitting, that what had wholly been brought into subjection and under the hand of the almighty Word of God, once saved, should remain also in unending good things, so as no longer to be tyrannized by death, nor mastered by corruption, nor subject to sins and the ancient evils.

'Reveal me to those who do not know me, manifest my glory which I have with You, being God the Word.'

'For no one,' He says, 'can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.'

Likewise it is possible to hear of the Son also glorifying the Father, in that He reveals Him to those who do not know God.

In this same manner the Holy Spirit too is said to glorify the Son, in revealing Him to those who are ignorant of Him.

But if here too — meanwhile to form an imagination concerning Him.

And this is the eternal — they will cast out the Son of God.

But this one must know, that He speaks of the cause instead of the effect.

He procures for us eternal life.

What could the pre-cosmic glory of the Son of God be other than God the Word Himself, the very true Light? For it is not as being other than the glory that He is glorified by another glory through another; rather He Himself is, as I said before, the Lord of glory and the King of glory.

But since He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant — for 'the Word,' it says, 'became flesh, and we saw Him, and He had no form nor comeliness' — and many disbelieved at so great a condescension as had come to pass, many disbelieved that God had become man; for this reason, wishing His Godhead to be revealed to those ignorant of it, He says:

'Father, glorify the Son' — that is, 'Reveal me to those who do not know me, manifest my glory which I have with You, being God the Word.'

Wherefore Paul said, 'When it pleased God to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles.'