ℹ️ This corpus has no verse-level morphological tagging. Lemmas come mainly from word-level tagging of other books in the same language (not from this verse), falling back to dictionary form-matching for the rest. Rare homographs can still be misread; verify against the original and a specialist lexicon where precision matters.
ℹ️ The Chinese and English alongside are this site's own translation, made directly from the original text on this page (not the CUV or the WEB, which follow the Masoretic Text and a different textual tradition).
The apostles, whose feet are beautiful, and their emulators, were not able to proclaim good things as good tidings unless Jesus had first proclaimed those things to them as good tidings -- as Isaiah says: 'I myself, the one speaking, am present; like the season upon the mountains, like the feet of one proclaiming good tidings of a report of peace, like one proclaiming good things, in that I will make your salvation heard, saying to Zion: Your God shall reign.'
For what are the mountains upon which he himself, the one speaking, confesses to be present, other than those who are inferior to none of the loftiest and greatest things upon the earth? These must be sought out by the sufficient ministers of the New Covenant, so that they may keep the commandment which says: 'Go up upon a high mountain, you who proclaim good tidings to Zion; lift up your voice with strength, you who proclaim good tidings to Jerusalem.'
It is not surprising, then, if Jesus proclaims good things as good tidings to those who are themselves about to proclaim good things as good tidings, these being nothing other than himself; for the Son of God proclaims himself as good tidings to those who are able to learn him not through others. Nevertheless, he who steps upon the mountains and proclaims good things to them as good tidings, having been taught by the good Father who makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust, does not disdain those who are poor in spirit.
For he proclaims good tidings to these as well, as he himself testifies, having taken up Isaiah and read: 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; for this reason he has anointed me to proclaim good tidings to the poor, he has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind.' For, having rolled up the book and given it back to the attendant, he sat down, and, as all fixed their eyes on him, he says: 'Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your ears.'
And it is necessary to know that within this vast Gospel is also comprised every good deed done toward Jesus, just as also [the deed] of the woman who had done evil works and had repented, who, through her genuine turning away from evil deeds, was able to pour out fragrance upon Jesus, causing the scent of the ointment to fill the whole house for the perception of everyone in it.
For this reason it is also written: 'Wherever this gospel is preached among all the nations, what this woman has done will also be spoken of, in memory of her.' And it is clear that whatever is done for those who have been made his disciples is also [reckoned as] done toward Jesus; for indeed, pointing out those who have been well treated, he says to those who did it: 'Whatever you did to these, you did to me.' So that every good deed done by us toward our neighbor is referred back to the Gospel -- that Gospel which is written on the tablets of heaven and read by all who have been deemed worthy of the knowledge of all things.
Thus, the betrayal of Judas, and the outcry of the impious people saying, 'Away with such a man from the earth,' and 'Crucify him, crucify him,' and the mockeries of those who crowned him with thorns, and other things similar to these, are included within the Gospels.
It follows from this to understand that every betrayer of the disciples of Jesus is reckoned a betrayer of Jesus. At any rate, to Saul, who was still persecuting, he said: "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" and "I am Jesus, whom you persecute."
But who are those who have the thorns with which they crown Jesus while dishonoring him? Those who, being choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, receive the word of God but do not bring it to fruition.
Therefore we must be on guard lest we too, crowning Jesus with our own thorns, be recorded as such and be read about by those who, among all things and among all rational beings or saints, come to know Jesus — in what manner he is anointed with myrrh and feasted and glorified, or, on the contrary, dishonored and mocked and struck.
These things have necessarily been said by us to show that our good deeds, and the sins of those who fail, are inscribed within the gospel, leading either to eternal life or to reproach and eternal shame.
But if among human beings there are those who have been honored with the ministry of evangelists, and Jesus himself proclaims good tidings and preaches good news to the poor, then it was not fitting that those whom God made spirits — the angels — and those who are a flame of fire, ministers of the Father of all, should be deprived of also being themselves evangelists.
For this reason an angel too, standing before the shepherds and having made glory shine around them, says: "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which shall be for all the people, for there is born to you today a savior, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David" — at a time when human beings did not yet understand the mystery of the gospel, those greater than them, being the heavenly host of God, praising God, say: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, among men good will."
And having said these things, the angels depart from the shepherds into heaven, leaving it for us to understand how the joy that was announced to us through the birth of Christ Jesus is glory to God in the highest, since those who were humbled into dust are returning to their rest, and are, in the highest places, about to glorify God through Christ.
But the angels also marvel at the peace that will come upon the earth through Jesus — upon that place of war, into which the day-star, the one rising at dawn, having fallen from heaven, is being crushed by Jesus.
In addition to what has been said, this too must be known concerning the gospel: that the gospel belongs, in the first place, to the head of the whole body of those being saved, Christ Jesus, as Mark says: "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ"; and already it belongs also to the apostles, wherefore Paul says: "According to my gospel."
Yet the beginning of the gospel — for its magnitude has a beginning, and what follows, and a middle, and an end — is either the whole of the old covenant, John being a type of it, or, on account of the connection of the new covenant with the old, the end of the old is represented through John.
For the same Mark says: "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet: Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who shall prepare your way. A voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare..."
"...the way of the Lord, make straight his paths." Hence it occurs to me to marvel how the heterodox attach the two covenants to two different gods, being refuted no less by this very saying. For how can John — who, as they suppose, belongs to another god, being a man of the Demiurge and, as they think, ignorant of the new deity — be, as they hold, the beginning of the gospel?
Angels are not entrusted with only one, brief evangelical ministry, nor only the one that took place toward the shepherds; for indeed, at the end, an angel, suspended aloft and flying, having a gospel, will preach good news to every nation, since the good Father does not wholly abandon those who have fallen away from him.
At any rate, John the son of Zebedee says in the Apocalypse: "And I saw an angel flying in mid-heaven, having an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people, saying with a loud voice: Fear God and give him glory, for the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth and sea and springs of water."
Since, then, we have set forth, according to one interpretation, that the beginning of the gospel is the whole old covenant, signified through the name of John, in order that this interpretation should not be without witness we shall adduce what is said in Acts concerning the eunuch of the queen of the Ethiopians, and Philip: "For Philip," it says, "beginning from the scripture of Isaiah, 'He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer,' proclaimed to him the good news of the Lord Jesus." For how could he, beginning from the prophet, proclaim the good news of Jesus, unless Isaiah were some part of the beginning of the gospel?
At the same time, what we said at first concerning the possibility that all divine scripture can be gospel can also be shown from this: for if he who proclaims good news proclaims good things, and all those before the bodily coming of Christ proclaim as good news Christ, who is the good things, as we have shown, then in some way the words of all of them are part of the gospel.
And this gospel, which is said to be spoken in the whole world, we understand to be proclaimed in the whole world — not only in the region around the earth, but also in the whole system composed of heaven and earth, or of heavens and earth.
And what need is there to prolong further the discourse concerning what the gospel is? These things having been sufficiently said, and those not lacking in resourcefulness being able from these to gather similar things from the scriptures, and to see what the glory of the good things in Jesus Christ is, arising from the gospel that is ministered by human beings and by angels — and I myself think also by principalities and authorities and thrones and dominions and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come, if indeed also by Christ himself — at this point we shall bring to a close what precedes the joint reading of the writings.
And now let us ask God to work together with us, through Christ, in the Holy Spirit, toward the unfolding of the mystical sense stored up as a treasure within the words. "In the beginning was the Word."
Not only do the Greeks say that there are many meanings of the term "beginning" (arche); but if one should observe, gathering this word from everywhere, and, examining it exactly, should wish to understand in each passage of the scriptures to what it is applied, one will find, also according to the divine scripture, the multiple senses of the term.
For one sense is as of transition, and this is the sense as of a road and a length; which is shown from: "The beginning of a good road is to do what is just." For since the good road is a very great one, in respect of the first parts one must understand the practical, which is set forth through "doing what is just," but in respect of what follows, the contemplative — into which I think its end also issues, in the so-called restoration, because at that time no enemy will be left, if indeed it is true that "he must reign until he puts all his enemies under his feet; and the last enemy to be abolished is death."
For then there will be one activity for those who have arrived at God through communion with him — namely, that of contemplating God — so that thus, having been formed in the knowledge of the Father, all may become, precisely, son [reading uncertain in the source text], as now only the Son has known the Father.
For if one should examine carefully when those to whom the Son, who has known the Father, reveals the Father, will know him, and should observe that the one who now sees "through a mirror and in an enigma" does not yet know as one ought to know, one would not err in saying that no one — whether apostle or prophet — has yet known the Father, but only when they become one, as the Son and the Father are one.
But if someone should think that we have digressed, while clarifying one meaning of "beginning" and having said these things, it must be shown that the digression was necessary and useful for the matter at hand. For if "beginning" is used as of transition and of a road and a length, and the beginning of a good road is "doing what is just," one can know that every good road in some way has as its beginning the doing of what is just, and after the beginning, contemplation — and in what manner, contemplation.
There is also "beginning" in the sense of origination, which one might suppose applies to "In the beginning God made heaven and earth." But I think this meaning is announced more clearly in Job, according to: "This is the beginning of the Lord's creature, made to be mocked by his angels."
For someone might suppose that, among the things that came to be in the origination of the world, heaven and earth were made beforehand, at the beginning; but it is better, with respect to the second saying, to understand that, there being many things that came to be in bodies, the first of those in a body is the one called "the dragon," also somewhere named "the great sea-monster," which the Lord subdued.
And it is necessary to consider whether the one called "the dragon," having fallen away from a life that was wholly immaterial and incorporeal — or rather from the life of those living in the blessedness of the saints — that is, from the pure life, became deserving, before all others, of being bound to matter and a body; so that for this reason the Lord, speaking through the whirlwind and the clouds, says: "This is the beginning of the Lord's creature, made to be mocked by his angels."
It is possible, however, that the dragon is not simply and absolutely the beginning of the Lord's creature, but that, of the many things made in a body to be mocked by the angels, this one is the beginning of such things — since it is possible for some to exist in a body not in this way; for indeed the soul of the sun exists in a body, and so does the whole creation, concerning which the apostle says: "The whole creation groans and travails together until now."
And perhaps it is concerning that creation that it is said: "The creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of the one who subjected it," in hope — so that futility might be the bodies, and the doing of bodily things, which is necessary … for the one in a body … to exist. The one in a body does not do the things of the body willingly; therefore "the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly."
And the one who does the things of the body, not willingly, does what he does for the sake of hope; as we might say that Paul wished to remain in the flesh, not willingly, but for the sake of hope — for although in himself he preferred to depart and be with Christ, it was not unreasonable for him to wish to remain in the flesh for the benefit of others and for the progress, in the things hoped for, not only of himself but also of those benefited by him.
According to this meaning of "beginning" as origination, we shall also be able to understand what is said by Wisdom in Proverbs: "For God," it says, "created me as the beginning of his ways, for his works." It can, however, also be referred to the first sense, that is, the sense as of a road, because it is said: "God created me the beginning of his ways."
Nor would it be inappropriate for one, clearly anticipating the point, to say that the God of all is also "beginning" — since the Father is the beginning of the Son, and the Demiurge is the beginning of the things made, and, absolutely, God is the beginning of the things that exist. And one will find confirmation of this through "In the beginning was the Word" — understanding by "Word" the Son, who is said to be "in the beginning" because of his being in the Father.
A third sense is that of "that from which," such as beginning from underlying matter — "beginning" among those who hold matter to be unbegotten, but not among us who are persuaded that God made the things that exist out of things that did not exist, as the mother of the seven martyrs in Maccabees, and the angel of repentance in the Shepherd, taught.
In addition to these, "beginning" is also used in the sense of "that according to which," as for instance: if the "firstborn of all creation" is "the image of the invisible God," then the Father is his beginning. Likewise also Christ is the beginning of those who have come to be according to the image of God.
For if human beings are according to the image, and the image is according to the Father, then in the sense of "that according to which," the Father is the beginning of Christ, and Christ is the beginning of human beings — human beings having come to be, not according to that which he is in himself, but according to the image. And "In the beginning was the Word" will fit this same paradigm.
There is also "beginning" in the sense of learning, according to which we say that the letters/elements are the beginning of grammar. According to this the apostle says: "Though by this time you ought to be teachers, you again have need for someone to teach you what are the elements of the beginning of the oracles of God."
The beginning as of learning is twofold: one by nature, the other as it relates to us. For example, if we were to speak concerning Christ: by nature his beginning is his divinity; but as it relates to us — since we are not able to begin from his greatness to reach the truth about him — his beginning is his humanity, according to which Jesus Christ, and he crucified, is proclaimed to the infants; so that in this respect it may be said that the beginning of learning is, by nature, Christ insofar as he is Wisdom and the Power of God, but as it relates to us, "the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us" — since we are able, in this way alone, to receive him at first.
And perhaps for this reason he is not only "the firstborn of all creation," but also "Adam," which is interpreted "man." And that he is Adam, Paul says: "The last Adam became a life-giving spirit." There is also "beginning" in the sense of action, in which action there is some end after the beginning. And consider whether Wisdom, being the beginning of the actions of God, can be understood as "beginning" in this sense.
So many meanings of "beginning" having occurred to us for the present, we now ask in which of them we must take "In the beginning was the Word." And it is clear that it is not in the sense as of transition, or as of a road and a length; and it is also not unclear that it is not in the sense as of origination either.
Yet it is possible to take it in the sense of "that by which," that is, that which does what it does, if indeed "God commanded, and they were created." For Christ is, in a sense, the Demiurge, to whom the Father says:
"Let there be light," and "Let there be a firmament." And Christ is the Demiurge as "beginning," insofar as he is Wisdom, being called "beginning" by being Wisdom. For Wisdom, in Solomon, says: "God created me the beginning of his ways, for his works" — so that the Word may be "in the beginning," that is, in Wisdom: understood, on the one hand, according to the constitution of the contemplation and concepts concerning all things, as Wisdom; and, on the other hand, according to the communion of the things contemplated with rational beings, taken as the Word.
And it is not surprising if, as we have said before, the Savior, being many good things, has within himself things conceived as first, second, and third. At any rate, John went on to say concerning the Word: "That which was made, in him was life." Life, then, came to be in the Word; and the Word is not other than Christ — the God-Word, who is with the Father, through whom all things came to be — nor is Life other than the Son of God, who says: "I am the way and the truth and the life." So then, just as life came to be in the Word, so also the Word was in the beginning.
Consider, then, whether it is also possible for us to understand "In the beginning was the Word" according to this meaning as well, so that all things come to be according to Wisdom and the patterns of the system of the concepts within her.
For I think that, just as a house and a ship are built or constructed according to architectural patterns, the house and the ship having their beginning in the patterns and rational principles that are in the craftsman, so too the universe as a whole has come to be according to the rational principles of the things that would be, which were made clearly manifest beforehand by God within Wisdom: "For he made all things in wisdom."
And it must be said that God, having created — if I may put it so — an ensouled Wisdom, entrusted to her the task of providing, from the patterns within her, both the form and the shapes to the things that exist and to matter as a whole; and I am considering whether also their substances are so provided.
It is not difficult, then, to say, in a rather coarse manner, that the Son of God is the beginning of the things that exist, since he says: "I am the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last." But it is necessary to know that he is not "beginning" in respect of everything he is named.
For how, insofar as he is Life, can he be "beginning" — since Life came to be in the Word, the Word evidently being its beginning? And it is even clearer that, insofar as he is "firstborn from the dead," he cannot be "beginning."
And if we should examine carefully how many his conceptions [epinoiai] are, only insofar as he is Wisdom is he "beginning" — not even insofar as he is "Word" is he "beginning," if indeed the Word "was in the beginning"; so that one might say, with confidence, that Wisdom is older than all the things conceived under the names of the "firstborn of all creation."
God, then, is altogether one and simple; but our Savior, on account of the many things — since God set him forth as a propitiation and as the firstfruit of all creation — becomes many things, or perhaps even all these things, according to what all creation, insofar as it is able to be set free, has need of from him.
And for this reason he becomes the light of men, when men, darkened by evil, have need of the light that shines in the darkness and is not overtaken by the darkness — a light which would not have become the light of men, had men not come to be in darkness.
The same thing can be understood also concerning his being "firstborn from the dead." For if, hypothetically, the woman had not been deceived, and Adam had not fallen, but man, having been created for incorruption, had held fast to incorruption, he would neither have descended into the dust of death, nor would he have died, there being no sin on account of which, out of love for mankind, it was necessary for him to die; and had he not done these things, he would not have become "firstborn from the dead."
It must also be examined whether he would not have become "shepherd" either, had man not been compared to the senseless cattle, nor become like them. For if God saves both men and cattle, he saves — whatever he saves as cattle — by granting them a shepherd, since they are not able to receive the king.
It must therefore be tested, by gathering together the names of the Son, which of them would not have come to belong to him — being of such number as they are — had the saints begun and remained in blessedness. For perhaps only Wisdom would have remained, or also Word, or also Life, and certainly also Truth; but not, however, the other names as well, which he has taken on for our sake.
And blessed indeed are those who, having had need of the Son of God, have become such that they no longer need him as physician, healing those who are ill, nor as shepherd, nor as redemption, but as Wisdom and Word and Righteousness, or whatever else applies to those who, through perfection, are able to receive his most excellent names. So much, then, concerning "In the beginning."
But let us look more carefully at what the "Word" in it is. It often occurs to me to marvel, when considering what is said about him by certain people who wish to believe in Christ, why, when countless names are applied to our Savior, they pass over most of them in silence — and even if ever mention of them is made, they take them as being applied to him not properly but figuratively — while, standing on the single appellation "Word" alone, they say, as it were, that Christ is only the Word of God, and do not, in accordance with the rest of the names, investigate the force of the meaning from the sound of the word "Word."
What I say I marvel at concerning the majority — for I shall speak more clearly — is this. The Son of God says somewhere: "I am the light of the world"; and elsewhere: "I am the resurrection"; and again: "I am the way and the truth and the life." It is also written: "I am the door." It is also said: "I am the good shepherd." And to the Samaritan woman who says: "We know that the Messiah is coming, who is called Christ; when he comes, he will proclaim all things to us," he answers:
"I who speak to you am he." In addition to this, when he washed the feet of the disciples, he confesses through these words that he is their Lord and Teacher: "You call me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am."
But he also clearly proclaims himself to be the Son of God, saying: "Do you say of him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, 'You blaspheme,' because I said, 'I am the Son of God'?" and: "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you." And we find him proclaiming himself to be king as well.
As when, answering Pilate to the question "Are you the King of the Jews?" he says: "My kingdom is not of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight, that I might not be delivered to the Jews; but now my kingdom is not from here."
"I am the vine, you are the branches." Let there also be numbered together with these: "I am the bread of life"; and again: "I am the living bread that came down from heaven and gives life to the world." These, then, are the things that have for the present occurred to us, which we have adduced from what is set down in the Gospels — so many things the Son of God says himself to be.
But also in the Apocalypse of John he says: "I am the first and the last, and the living one; I became dead, and behold, I am alive forever and ever." And again: "I have become the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end."
And there are no few similar things that one who reads the holy books with attentiveness can gather also from the prophets — as, for instance, that he calls himself a chosen arrow, and a servant of God, and a light of the nations.
For thus says Isaiah: "From my mother's womb he called my name, and he made my mouth like a sharp sword, and under the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me as a chosen arrow, and in his quiver he hid me; and he said to me, 'You are my servant, Israel, and in you...'"
And a little further on: "And my God shall be my strength. And he said to me: It is a great thing for you to be called my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to turn back the dispersion of Israel; behold, I have set you for a light of the nations, that you may be for salvation to the end of the earth." But also in Jeremiah he likens himself thus to a lamb: "I was like an innocent lamb led to be sacrificed."
These things, then, and things similar to these, he says of himself; but it is also possible to gather from the Gospels and from the apostles and through the prophets countless appellations by which the Son of God is called — whether it is those who wrote the Gospels setting forth their own understanding concerning what he actually is, or the apostles, glorifying him out of what they have learned, or the prophets, proclaiming beforehand his coming advent and announcing what concerns him under various names.
As, for instance, John proclaims him the Lamb of God, saying: "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world"; and proclaims him a man through these words: "This is he of whom I said, After me comes a man who has come to be before me, because he was before me; and I did not know him."
And in the catholic epistle John says that he is an Advocate on behalf of our souls before the Father, saying: "And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father..."
"...Jesus Christ the righteous." And he adds that he is also the propitiation for our sins; in like manner Paul says that he is the propitiatory sacrifice, declaring: "Whom God set forth as a propitiation through faith in his blood, on account of the passing over of sins previously committed, in the forbearance of God."
And, according to Paul, he has been proclaimed to be the Wisdom and Power of God, as in the letter to the Corinthians: "Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God"; and in addition, that he is also sanctification and redemption: "who became for us," he says, "wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption."
But he also teaches us that he is a great high priest, writing to the Hebrews: "Having then a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession."
But the prophets, besides these names, also call him by other names: Jacob, in the blessing to his sons, calls him Judah; for it is said: "Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hands shall be on the neck of your enemies; the sons of your father shall bow down to you; Judah is a lion's whelp; from the prey, my son, you have gone up; he stooped down, he crouched as a lion and as a lioness — who shall rouse him up?" ... But it is not for the present occasion to set forth word for word how the things said concerning Judah are about Christ.
But also an objection that could reasonably be raised — "A ruler shall not fail from Judah, nor a leader from his loins" — will be discussed more fittingly elsewhere.