Commentary on the Gospel of John 6 part 5/6

'...wilderness ate the manna, and died. He who eats this bread will live forever.' For the manna, even if given by God, was a bread of progress, a bread supplied to those still under a tutor, a bread most suited to those under guardians and stewards. But the new bread, from the grain of the holy land, harvested with Jesus procuring it — others having labored, and his disciples reaping — was a bread more life-giving than that one, given to those able, on account of their maturity, to receive the paternal inheritance.

For this reason, he who is still being trained on that former bread can receive death through the word, while he who has arrived at the bread after that one, having eaten it, will live forever. All these things, I think, have not been set forth out of season, since the baptism at the Jordan, which took place in Bethabara by John, is being examined.

Furthermore, this too must be observed, that when Elijah was about to be taken up in a whirlwind as if into heaven, taking his mantle and rolling it up, he struck the water, which was divided this way and that, and both crossed over, namely he himself and Elisha. For he became more fit to be taken up by having been baptized in the Jordan, since Paul, as we set forth before, named the more marvelous crossing through water 'baptism.'

Through this same Jordan, then, Elisha obtained the gift he desired to receive through Elijah, having said: 'Let there be, let there be a double portion of your spirit upon me.' And perhaps for this reason he received the gift, double, in the spirit of Elijah upon himself, since he crossed the Jordan twice — once with Elijah, and a second time when, having taken Elijah's mantle, he struck the water and said, 'Where is the God of Elijah, even he?' — and struck the waters, and they divided this way and that.

But if someone stumbles at the phrase 'He struck the water,' on account of what has been handed down to us concerning the Jordan — which was a type of the Word who descended our descent — it must be said that, clearly, in the Apostle 'the rock was Christ,' which is struck twice with the rod, so that they might be able to drink from the spiritual rock that followed them.

There is, then, even for those who love [the Scriptures], a certain wound in the perplexity that comes before one learns what is sought, when things are brought forward contrary to the conclusion of the argument. From this God delivers us: where they thirst he gives drink, but where something is deep and impassable for us because of its depth, he makes it passable by the dividing power of reason — most things being made clear to us by this dividing reason.

Further, in order to accept the interpretation concerning the most drinkable and most gracious Jordan, it is useful to set forth both Naaman the Syrian, who was cleansed from leprosy, and the things said about the rivers among the enemies of true religion.

Concerning Naaman, then, it is written: 'He came with horse and chariot, and stood at the doors of the house of Elisha. And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying: Go, wash seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will return to you, and you shall be cleansed.' At which Naaman also became angry, not understanding that it is our Jordan that releases from uncleanness those who are unclean because of leprosy, and heals them — not the prophet; for it is the prophet's work to send to that which heals.

Not understanding, then, the great mystery of the Jordan, Naaman says: 'Behold, I said, surely he will come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and lay his hand upon the place, and take away the leprosy.' For to lay the hand upon leprosy and cleanse it was the work of my Lord Jesus alone — he not only said to the one who with faith made request, 'If you will, you can cleanse me,' 'I will, be cleansed,' but along with the word he also touched him, and he was cleansed from his leprosy.

Naaman, still further wandering and not seeing how far the other rivers fall short of the Jordan in the healing of those who suffer, praises the rivers of Damascus, Abana and Pharpar, saying: 'Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Shall I not go and wash in them, and be cleansed?' For just as no one is good except the one God the Father, so among rivers none is good except the Jordan, which is able to exchange leprosy for the one who, with faith, washes his soul in Jesus.

I think that it is on account of this river that those who remembered Zion are recorded as weeping while sitting by the rivers of Babylon. For, having tasted other waters after the holy Jordan, those who were taken captive on account of wickedness come to remembrance and longing for their own and saving river. Hence, concerning the rivers of Babylon they say: 'There we sat down' — clearly because they were not able to stand — 'and we wept.'

Jeremiah too rebukes those who wish to drink Egyptian water and forsake the water that comes down from heaven and bears the name of Dan — the Jordan — saying: 'What have you to do with the way of Egypt, to drink the water of Geon? or to drink the water of the rivers?' — or, as the Hebrew has it, 'to drink the water of Shihor' — concerning which it is not now our purpose to speak.

That the leading discourse of the Spirit who speaks in the divinely inspired Scriptures is not concerned with sensible rivers can also be seen from the things prophesied in Ezekiel against Pharaoh, king of Egypt, which run thus: 'Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the great dragon that lies in the midst of his rivers, who says: The rivers are mine, and I made them. And I will put hooks in your jaws, and I will cause the fish of the river to stick to your fins, and I will bring you up out of the midst of your river, together with all the fish [of it], and I will cast you down speedily, together with all the fish of the river; upon the face of the field you shall fall, and shall not be gathered, and shall not be assembled.'

For what bodily dragon was ever recorded as having been seen in the bodily river of Egypt? But perhaps the river of Egypt — which was able to kill the infant Moses — is a place belonging to our enemy the dragon. And just as the dragon is in the Egyptian river, so is God in the river that gladdens the city of God; for the Father is in the Son.

For this reason, those who come to be washed in it lay aside the reproach of Egypt, and become more fit to be taken up, and are cleansed from the most defiling leprosy, and receive a doubling of gifts, and become ready to receive the Holy Spirit — since it is upon no other river that the spiritual dove alights.

Wherefore, having understood in a manner more befitting God the Jordan, and the washing in it, and Jesus washing in it, and the account of its arrangement, let us draw up from the river as much of such benefit as we need. [Verse:] 'On the next day he sees Jesus coming toward him.'

Formerly, the mother of Jesus, as soon as she had conceived him, visited the mother of John, while she too was pregnant, at which time the one being formed granted to the one being formed a more exact impression, working it so that he became conformed to his glory — so that, because of the commonality of the form, John was suspected of being Christ, and Jesus, having risen from the dead, was thought to be John, by those who do not distinguish the image from that which is according to the image. But now Jesus, after the testimonies of John concerning him already examined above, is himself seen by the Baptist, coming toward him.

It must be observed that there, because the sound of Mary's greeting had come into the ears of Elizabeth, the infant John leaped in his mother's womb — at that time, as it were from that sound, receiving the Holy Spirit: 'And it happened,' it says, 'that when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and cried out with a loud voice, and said…' Here [in turn]: John sees Jesus coming toward him, and says: 'Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.' For by hearing about things that are better, one is first instructed, and afterward becomes an eyewitness of them.

That indeed John was benefited toward his formation by the Lord — who was still being formed † when he came to be in the mother, [when Mary came] to Elizabeth — will be evident to the one who has grasped what has been said concerning John being a 'voice' and Jesus being 'the Word.' For a loud voice arises in Elizabeth when she was filled with the Holy Spirit because of Mary's greeting, as the very wording shows, being thus: 'And she cried out with a loud voice' — clearly [Elizabeth] — 'and said.'

For the sound of Mary's greeting, coming to be in the ears of Elizabeth, filled John with itself; wherefore John leaps, and the mother becomes, as it were, the mouth of the son and a prophetess, crying out with a loud voice and saying: 'Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.'

It can now become clear to us also why Mary journeyed with haste into the hill country, and her entrance into the house of Zechariah, and the greeting with which she greets Elizabeth: for all these things happen so that Mary might impart, from the power she possesses — [the power] from which she had conceived — to John, who was still in the womb of his mother, so that he in turn might impart to his mother the prophetic grace which he had received.

And most fittingly such dispensations are accomplished in the hill country, since nothing great can be contained by what, because of their lowness, would be called 'valleys.' And here also, after the testimonies of John — the first being that spoken while crying out and theologizing, the second toward the priests and Levites sent by the Jews from Jerusalem, and the third toward those from among the Pharisees who questioned more bitterly — Jesus is now seen by the one who bore witness, coming toward him, still advancing and becoming better; of which advance and improvement the word 'tomorrow' is a symbol. For, as it were in a subsequent illumination and a second day beyond the former, Jesus comes, not only being known as standing in the midst, even of those who do not know him, but now also being seen, having arrived, by the one who had previously declared these things.

On the first day, then, the testimonies occur; and on the second day, Jesus comes to John; but on the third day, John, standing with two disciples, having looked upon Jesus walking, and having said 'Behold the Lamb of...,' urges those present to follow the Son of God. And on the fourth day, wishing to go out into Galilee — he who had gone out to seek that which was lost — he finds Philip and says to him:

'Follow me.' On the third day counting from the fourth — which is the sixth of the days we have listed from the beginning — the wedding takes place in Cana of Galilee, concerning which we shall know more when we come to that passage. This too must be observed: that the more excellent Mary comes to the lesser Elizabeth, and the Son of God to the Baptist — through which examples we are helped toward eagerness in benefiting our inferiors, and toward moderation.

Since it is not stated by the disciple John from where the Savior comes to the Baptist, we learn this from Matthew, who wrote: 'Then Jesus comes from Galilee to the Jordan, to John, to be baptized by him.'

But Mark also added the place, Galilee, saying: 'And it came to pass in those days, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized in the Jordan by John.' Luke, however, passed over in silence the place from which Jesus comes.

Having yielded the account to those who have spoken of it, [John] himself teaches us what we have not learned from them: namely, that after the baptism, while he was praying, heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form, as a dove.

Again, that John forbade the Lord, saying to the Savior, 'I have need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?' — no one added this to what Matthew had said, so that they might not repeat the same thing. And that which was spoken by the Lord to him, 'Permit it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness,' Matthew alone recorded. [Verse:] 'And he says, Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.'

Since five kinds of living creatures are offered at the altar — three land animals and two winged — it seems to me worth inquiring why on earth the Savior is called by John a 'lamb' and by none of the other [names], even though, in the case of the land animals, victims of three ages each are brought forward, and he named him 'lamb' from the genus of sheep. The five creatures are these: calf, sheep, goat, turtledove, dove.

And the three ages of each of the land animals are these: calf, ox, young calf; ram, lamb, lambkin; he-goat, goat, kid. Of the winged, [there is] the pair of doves, only as nestlings, and the pair of turtledoves, full-grown. One must therefore inquire, for the one who wishes precisely to grasp the spiritual account concerning the sacrifices, of which heavenly things these were a pattern and shadow, and for what purpose the law legislates that each of the animals be sacrificed; and separately one must gather together the matters concerning the lamb.

That the account concerning the sacrifices must be understood as concerning certain heavenly mysteries, the Apostle somewhere says: 'who serve a pattern and shadow of heavenly things'; and again: 'It was necessary, then, that the patterns of the things in the heavens be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.'

But to be able, upon discovering each of these, to grasp the truth of the spiritual law that has come to be through Jesus Christ — a thing far surpassing human nature — is the work of none other than the perfect person, one who, through habituation, has his senses trained for the discernment of good and evil, and who is able, from a disposition that speaks truly, to say: 'But we speak wisdom among the perfect.' And truly, of these matters and things similar to them, one may say: 'which none of the rulers of this age has known.'

Nevertheless, we find the lamb offered among the sacrifices of the continual offering. Thus it is written: 'And these are what you shall do at the altar: two unblemished yearling lambs each day, continually upon the altar, a whole burnt offering of the continual offering. The one lamb you shall offer in the morning, and the second lamb you shall offer at evening; and a tenth of fine flour mingled with beaten oil, a fourth part of a hin.'

'And a drink offering, the fourth part of a hin of wine, for the one lamb. And the second lamb you shall offer at evening, according to the first sacrifice and its drink offering; you shall offer it for a sweet-smelling savor, a whole burnt offering to the Lord — a sacrifice of the continual offering throughout your generations, at the door of the tabernacle of testimony before the Lord, where I will be known to you there, so as to speak to you. And there I will appoint a meeting with the sons of Israel, and I will be sanctified in my glory, and I will sanctify the tabernacle of testimony.' What other sacrifice, then, can be a continual sacrifice, intelligible to the rational being, other than the word/reason that flourishes?

The word/reason, called symbolically 'lamb,' is sent down together with the illumination of the soul (for this would be the morning sacrifice of the continual offering), and again is offered up at the end of the mind's occupation in the more divine things; for it is not always able to endure being among the better things, for as long as the soul is allotted to be yoked with the earthly and burdensome body.

But if someone asks what the holy one shall do in the interval between morning and evening, let him transfer the reasoning from the matters of [Levitical] service, and then follow it also in these things. For there too, the priests offer, as the beginning of the sacrifices, that of the continual offering, and next, before the evening [sacrifice] of the continual offering, the remaining sacrifices according to the law, such as those concerning trespass, or involuntary [sins], or the peace offering, or the vow, or jealousy, or the sabbath, or the new moon, and the rest — which it would be long to speak of at present.

So then, we too, having made our beginning from the discourse concerning the image, which is Christ, will be able to treat of many most profitable matters. And again, when we conclude our discussion concerning Christ, we shall arrive at, as it were, the evening and night, coming also to bodily matters.

But if we examine the discourse concerning the Jesus who is pointed out by John according to the words 'This is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world,' standing upon this very dispensation of the bodily sojourn of the Son of God into the life of men, we shall suppose the lamb to be none other than the man; for 'he was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent,' saying: 'I was like an innocent lamb that is led to be sacrificed.'

Wherefore also in the Apocalypse a Lamb is seen standing as though slain. This lamb, then, having been slain, has become, according to certain unspeakable principles, a purification of the whole world, on whose behalf, in accordance with the Father's love for mankind, he also underwent the slaughter, ransoming with his own blood us, who had been sold under sins, from the one who had sold us.

But he who brought this lamb forward for the sacrifice was the one who, in the man, was God, the great high priest, who shows this through: 'No one takes my soul from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down …,' and again, 'I have power to take it again.'

And akin to this sacrifice are the other, [lesser] sacrifices — the legal ones are a symbol [of it]. But the other sacrifices akin to this sacrifice seem to me to be the outpourings of the blood of the noble martyrs, who are not in vain seen by the disciple John standing at the heavenly altar. 'But who is wise, and will understand these things? Or who is understanding, and will know them?'

But toward the more contemplative sense — even to some extent to receive the account concerning such sacrifices, which purify those on whose behalf they are offered — one must consider the account of the whole-burnt daughter of Jephthah, [offered] because of the vow made against the sons of Ammon, [a vow] which the girl who was wholly burned also consented to, saying to her father, who had said, 'I have opened my mouth against you unto the Lord': 'And if you have opened your mouth against me unto the Lord, do your vow.'

An impression, then, of much cruelty is suggested through these things, [in the case] where such sacrifices are performed for the salvation of men. But we need a more magnanimous mind, one that looks toward resolving what is said against providence, offering, all at once, concerning all such matters — as being more ineffable and beyond human nature — an apology: 'For great are the judgments of God, and hard to explain; therefore uninstructed souls have gone astray.'

It is also attested among the nations that many, when plague diseases have broken out, have handed themselves over as sacrificial victims on behalf of the common good. And the faithful Clement — attested by Paul, who says, 'together with Clement, and the rest of my fellow-workers, whose names are in the book of life' — accepts, not without reason, believing the histories, that these things happened thus.

A similar dissonance is present in the case of one who wishes to accuse the many mysteries that escape most people's notice, [as it is present also] in the things prescribed concerning the martyrs — since God is well pleased that we should rather undergo all the most grievous outrages in confessing his divinity, than be delivered from so many things reckoned as evils for a brief time, by being carried along in word with the will of the enemies of the truth.

It must therefore be reckoned that a dissolution of evil-working powers comes about through the death of the holy martyrs — as it were, their endurance, and their confession unto death, and their eagerness for piety, blunting the sharpness of those powers' plot against the sufferer, so that, their power being blunted and enfeebled, many others of those who had been overcome are also released, being set free from the burden with which the wicked powers, lying heavily upon them, had loaded and harmed them.

But even those who have suffered, if those who worked worse things against others have not been weakened, would no longer fall into the [same] suffering — since the one who has offered such a sacrifice has conquered this opposing power — just as, to use in part a useful image for the matters at hand: he who destroys a venomous creature, or lulls it to sleep by incantation, or by some power empties it of its venom, benefits many who would afterward have suffered something from it, had it not been destroyed, or lulled to sleep, or emptied of its venom.

And if it should also become evident to one of those who have been bitten, concerning release from the harm of the bite, that if he should gaze intently upon the one who harmed him, now dead, or should step upon the corpse, or should touch the dead one, or taste a part of it, there would come to be, even for the one who had previously suffered, healing and benefit from the one who had destroyed that which harmed [him]. Something of this sort, indeed, must be understood to occur through the death of the most pious martyrs, many being benefited by some unutterable power from their death.

We have dwelt at length in order to see the distinctive character of the one who was led as a sheep to slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer, silent, through the discourse concerning the martyrs and the narrative concerning those who died because of plague conditions. For if these things have not been recorded in vain by the Greeks, and those other things have been well said concerning the world's offscourings that come to be — and all the apostles are called, on account of these very things, the 'refuse' of all — what, then, must we suppose, and how great a thing, concerning the Lamb of God who is for this reason sacrificed, in order that he might take away the sin, not of a few, but of the whole world, on behalf of which he also suffered?

'And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he himself is the propitiation for our sins' — not only for our sins, but also for the whole world's — since he is the Savior of all men, especially of the faithful, he who has blotted out the handwriting that was against us with his own blood, and taken it out of the way, so that there might not even be found [any trace], the sins being wiped out, and having nailed it to the cross; who, having stripped off the principalities and powers, made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

And so, when we are afflicted in the world, we are taught to be of good courage, learning that the reason for our courage is this: that the world has been conquered, and that it is, evidently, subjected to the one who conquered it. For this reason all the nations, released from those who formerly held sway over them, serve him, because he rescued the poor out of the hand of the mighty, and the needy who had no helper, through his own suffering.

This Savior, having humbled the false accuser by having humbled himself, abides together with the intelligible sun before the most radiant church — called, more figuratively, the 'moon' — being unto generations of generations. And the Lord, strong and mighty in war, having destroyed the enemies through his suffering, needing a purification that could be given him by the Father alone on account of his valiant deeds, forbids Mary to touch him, saying: 'Do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go, and say to my brothers: I am going to my Father and your Father, and my God and your God.'

But when he goes as a bearer of victory and trophies, together with the body raised from the dead — for how else must one understand 'I have not yet ascended to my Father' and 'I am going to my Father'? — then certain powers say: 'Who is this that comes from Edom, the redness of his garments from Bosor, thus beautiful?' And those who escort him say to those stationed at the heavenly gates: 'Lift up the gates, you rulers of yours, and be lifted up, you everlasting gates, and the King of glory shall come in.'

And they inquire further, as it were, if one may so speak, seeing his right hand bloodied and filled with the works of his valor: 'Why are your garments red, and your clothing like one who treads in a wine-vat full and trodden down?' And then he answers: 'I have trodden them down.'

For truly, on account of these things, he had need to wash his robe in wine, and his garment in the blood of the grape. For having taken our infirmities and borne our diseases, and having taken away the sin of the whole world, and having benefited so many, then, perhaps, he received the baptism that is greater than everything supposed among men — concerning which I think he had said: 'I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I constrained until it is accomplished!'

For, in order that I may examine the argument more boldly, taking my stand against what is supposed by most people, let those who suppose martyrdom to be his 'baptism' — the greatest baptism, beyond which it is not possible to conceive of another baptism — tell us why on earth, after this, he says to Mary: 'Do not touch me'; for it would rather have been fitting for him to offer himself to be touched, since he had received the perfect baptism through the mystery of the passion.

But since, as we said before, having accomplished his valiant deeds against the adversaries, he needed to wash his robe in wine and his garment in the blood of the grape, he went up to the Father, the husbandman of the true vine, in order that, having there washed himself clean after ascending to the height, having led captivity captive, he might come down bearing the various gifts — the tongues as of fire distributed to the apostles, and the holy angels who would be present in every deed, and who would deliver them.

For before these dispensations, since they had not yet been cleansed, they could not contain the sojourn of angels among them — perhaps not even the angels themselves willing yet to be present with those not yet prepared and cleansed by Jesus.

For it belonged to the love for mankind of Jesus alone to eat and drink with sinners and tax collectors, and to offer his feet to the tears of the repentant sinful woman, and to go down even to death on behalf of the ungodly — he who did not consider being equal with God a thing to be grasped, and who emptied himself, taking the form of a servant.

But in accomplishing all these things, he was accomplishing, rather than his own will, the will of the Father who delivered him up on behalf of the ungodly. For the Father is good, and the Savior is the image of his goodness. And benefiting the whole world, since 'God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself' — a world that had formerly become his enemy through wickedness — he benefits, by way and order, those who are being benefited, not taking all his enemies at once as a footstool for his feet. For the Father says to him, the Lord of each one of us: 'Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.'

And this continues until the last enemy, death, is abolished by him. But if we understand what it means for [all things] to be subjected to Christ, especially from: 'But when all things are subjected to him †, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who subjected all things to him †' — we shall understand, in a manner worthy of the goodness of the God of all, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.