Letters & Polemics (CSEL) 30 part 13/14

'He goes before you into Galilee; there you shall first see him,' or 'there only shall you see him,' or 'nowhere but there shall you see him,' then Matthew would without doubt be at variance with the other evangelists. But since it was said:

'Behold, he goes before you into Galilee; there you shall see him,' and it was not expressed when this would be—whether at once, before he had been seen by them elsewhere, or after they had seen him somewhere even besides Galilee—and since the very fact that Matthew says the disciples went into Galilee to the mountain does not specify the day nor so weave together the order of the narrative as to force the understanding that nothing else is to be grasped except that this happened first, it does not indeed contradict the narratives of the others, and leaves room for their being understood and accepted. Nevertheless, the fact that the Lord commanded himself to be seen not where he was first going to show himself, but in Galilee, where he was necessarily seen afterward, and this both through the angel who says:

'Behold, he goes before you into Galilee; there you shall see him,' and through his own words when he says: 'Go, announce to my brethren that they go into Galilee; there they shall see me'—this makes every faithful person intent on inquiring in what mystery the saying is to be understood. But first it must be considered when he could have been seen even bodily in Galilee, since Matthew says 'the Lord,' where Thomas first saw him, who had not seen him on the day of his resurrection. For surely, if within those same eight days the eleven had already seen him on the mountain of Galilee, how did Thomas, who had been among those eleven, first see him after eight days?

Unless someone should say that it was not those eleven who by then were called apostles, but disciples—eleven of them there out of the large number of disciples. For as yet only those eleven were called apostles, but they were not the only disciples. It could therefore be that not all, but some of them were there, and other disciples with them, so that the number eleven was made up; and thus Thomas, who first saw the Lord after those eight days, was not there. For Mark, when he mentioned those eleven, did not say merely 'the eleven,' but 'he appeared,' he says, 'to the eleven.' Luke also says: 'they returned to Jerusalem and found the eleven gathered together, and those who were with them.' And this too shows that those eleven, that is, the apostles, are meant.

For when he added, 'and those who were with them,' he sufficiently declared that those eleven were named as the more eminent, with whom the rest were; and by this those are understood who were already called apostles. It could accordingly have happened that from the number of the apostles and of the other disciples, eleven disciples were made up, who saw Jesus on the mountain of Galilee within those eight days. But another difficulty presents itself to oppose this. For John, when he recorded that the Lord was seen not on the mountain by the eleven, but at the Sea of Tiberias by seven who were fishing, says, 'This now is the third time that Jesus was manifested to his disciples, after he had risen from the dead.'

But if we should take it that within those eight days, before Thomas had seen him, the Lord was seen by some eleven disciples, then this at the Sea of Tiberias would not be the third manifestation but the fourth. And indeed we must beware lest anyone suppose that John said 'the third time' as though only three manifestations of his had taken place; rather he must be understood to have referred this to the number of the days, not to the number of the manifestations themselves, nor of consecutive days, but at intervals, as he himself testifies.

For on the very first day of his resurrection, apart from his being seen by the women—that is, what is clear in the gospel—he manifested himself three times: once to Peter, again to those two, one of whom was Cleopas, a third time to the many now conversing with him at the beginning of night; but all this John, referring it to one day, reckons as once. Then again—that is, on another day—when Thomas too saw him; and then a third time at the Sea of Tiberias, that is, on the third day of his manifestation, not at the third manifestation. And by this we are compelled to understand that after all these things it took place

that the eleven disciples saw him on the mountain of Galilee according to Matthew, whither he had gone before them according to the appointment, so that there might be fulfilled even to the letter what he had foretold both through the angel and through his own self. We find, therefore, in the four evangelists, that the Lord is recorded as having been seen by men after the resurrection ten times:

once to the women at the tomb; again to the same women returning from the tomb on the way; a third time to Peter; a fourth to the two going to the village; a fifth to the many in Jerusalem where Thomas was not present; a sixth where Thomas saw him; a seventh at the Sea of Tiberias; an eighth on the mountain of Galilee according to Matthew; a ninth, which Mark mentions, at the last, as they were reclining at table, because they were now no longer to feast with him on earth; a tenth on that very day, no longer on earth, but lifted up into a cloud, as he ascended into heaven—which Mark and Luke record; Mark indeed after that appearance to them as they reclined, thus continuing so as to say, 'before he had ascended into heaven.' Yet he had not appeared to them throughout all the forty consecutive days.

For after the first day of his resurrection, John says that another eight days intervened, after which he again appeared to them, and then a third time at the Sea of Tiberias—perhaps on the immediately following day, for nothing forbids it—and thereafter, whenever he willed, appointing them, as he had also foretold before, that he would go before them to the mountain of Galilee; and altogether throughout those forty days, as often as he willed, to whom he willed, in what manner he willed; as Peter says when he was preaching him to Cornelius and to those who were with him: 'who,' he says, 'ate and drank together with him after he rose from the dead, throughout forty days'—not that they ate and drank with him daily throughout the forty days;

for this would be contrary to John, who interposed those eight days during which he was not seen by them, so that he might be manifested the third time at the Sea of Tiberias. From this point, even if he was seen by them daily and feasted with them, nothing is contradicted. And perhaps it was said 'through forty days' for this reason, because forty is four times ten, in the mystery either of the whole world or of the whole temporal age; for even those first ten days, in which those eight days fell, can, after the manner of the Scriptures, be reckoned as a whole from a part, without discord. Let there be compared, then, also what the apostle Paul says, whether it raises any question.

...that it happened thus according to the Scriptures; but the angel spoke by the Lord's command, and afterward the Lord himself, while the evangelist narrates; but the fact that it was thus said by the angel and by the Lord must be received as spoken prophetically. For 'Galilee' is interpreted either as 'migration' or as 'revelation.' First, then, according to the signification of migration, what else presents itself to be understood by 'he goes before you into Galilee; there you shall see him,' except that the grace of Christ was to migrate from the people of Israel to the Gentiles? To whom the apostles, preaching the gospel, would in no way be believed unless the Lord himself prepared a way in the hearts of men; and this is understood by 'he goes before you into Galilee.'

But that they, rejoicing, would marvel that, the difficulties being broken down and overcome, a door was opened to them in the Lord through the enlightenment of the faithful—this is understood by 'there you shall see him,' that is, 'there you shall find his members, there you shall recognize his living body in those who have received you.' But according to the interpretation by which Galilee means 'revelation,' it is now to be understood not in the form of a servant, but in that form in which he is equal to the Father, which he promised in John to those who love him, when he said: 'and I will love him and show myself to him.'

Not indeed according to that which they were already seeing, and which he showed even when rising, with his scars, to be not only seen but afterward also touched; but according to that ineffable light by which he enlightens every man coming into this world, according to which he shines in the darkness and the darkness comprehends him not—there he has gone before us, whence coming to us he did not depart, and whither going before us he did not forsake us. That will be the revelation, as it were the true Galilee, when we shall be like him; there we shall see him as he is. That will be also the more blessed migration, out of this age into that eternity, if we so embrace his precepts as to deserve to be set apart at his right hand.

For then those on the left shall go into eternal burning, but the righteous into life eternal. From here they shall migrate thither, and there they shall see him, as the wicked do not see him. For the wicked shall be taken away, that he may not see the brightness of the Lord, and the wicked shall not see the light. 'And this,' he says, 'is life eternal, that they may know thee the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent'—as he is known in that eternity, whither he will lead his servants through the form of a servant, that being made free they may contemplate the form of the Lord. BOOK FOUR.

Now, then, since by considering Matthew's narrative continuously and comparing the other three with it to the very end, we have shown that they nowhere contradict either themselves or one another, let us likewise examine Mark, so that, apart from those things which he said together with Matthew—concerning which we have already settled what seemed to need discussion—the rest of his matter, once examined and collated, may be shown to contradict none of them, up to the Lord's supper. For from that point onward we have treated of all the matters of all four, how they agree with one another, considered to the very end. Thus, then, Mark begins: 'The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God'; and 'having' teaching, 'and not as their scribes.' And 'there was in their synagogue a man in an unclean spirit, and he cried out' to be made clean; and so on, up to that place where he says:

'And they cried out, saying' unto him; 'and he was beside the sea'; and so on, up to that place where he says: How is it not contrary to his so great knowledge and foreknowledge that Mark says he charged them to tell no one; but the more he charged them, so much the more did they proclaim it? For if he knew, as one who had men's wills, present and future, known to him, that they would proclaim it all the more, the more he charged them not to proclaim it—why did he charge this, unless because he wished to show the slothful how much more zealously and how much more fervently they whom he commands to preach ought to preach him, when those who were forbidden could not keep silent? Chapter V. Mark continues:

'In those days, when there was again a great multitude and they had nothing to eat'; and so on, up to that place where he says: 'He that is not against me, is on my side; and he that gathers not with me, scatters.' For how was he who was not with him not against him—he of whom John reported that he did not follow him along with them—if he is against him who is not with him? Or if he was against him, how does he say to the disciples, 'Do not forbid him; for he who is not against you, is for you'? Or will someone say that there is this difference: that here he says to the disciples, 'He who is not against you, is for you,' but there he spoke of himself: 'He who is not with me, is against me'?

As if indeed anyone could not be with him who is joined to his disciples as to his members. Otherwise, how will it be true: 'He who receives you, receives me,' and, 'when you did it to one of the least of mine, you did it to me'? Or can anyone even not be against him, who has been against his disciples? For where then will be that saying: 'He who despises you, despises me,' and, 'when you did it not to one of the least of mine, neither did you do it to me,' and, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?'—when he was persecuting his disciples? But doubtless he wishes this to be understood: that anyone is so far not with him, as he is against him, and so far not against him, as he is with him.

For example: as that very man who worked mighty deeds in the name of Christ, and yet was not in the fellowship of Christ's disciples—insofar as he wrought mighty works in that name, so far he was with them and not against them; but insofar as he did not adhere to their fellowship, so far he was not with them and was against them. But because they forbade him to do that in which he was with them, the Lord said to them: 'Do not forbid him.' For they ought to have forbidden that which was outside their fellowship, so that they might urge the unity of the Church upon him, not that in which he was with them—namely, commending the name of their Master and Lord in the casting out of demons.

Just as the catholic Church does, not disapproving in heretics the common sacraments—for in these they are with us and are not against us—but she disapproves and forbids division and separation, or any opinion adverse to peace and truth; for in this they are against us, because in this they are not with us and do not gather with us, and therefore they scatter. Chapter VI. Mark continues and says: 'For whoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because you are Christ's, amen I say to you, he shall not lose his reward.'

...unquenchable, as though a heretic were to be disapproved; but as men are wont, not yet daring to receive the sacraments of Christ and yet favouring the Christian name, so that they even welcome Christians and pay them service for no other reason than that they are Christians—of such he says that they do not lose their reward. Not because they ought now to seem to themselves safe and secure by reason of this benevolence which they have toward Christians, even if they are not washed in Christ's baptism nor incorporated into his unity; but because they are now so governed by God's mercy that they may attain also to those things, and thus depart secure from this world.

Such persons indeed, even before they are joined to the number of Christians, are more useful than those who, though already called Christians and imbued with Christian sacraments, urge such things as to drag with them into eternal punishment those whom they have persuaded of them. These, under the name of bodily members, as a hand or an eye causing offence, he commands to be plucked from the body, that is, from the very fellowship of unity, so that one may rather come to life without them than go with them into Gehenna. But by this very fact they are separated from those from whom they are separated, namely that consent is not given to them as they counsel evil things—that is, as they cause offence.

And if indeed to all the good with whom they have acquaintance they also become known for this perversity, they are utterly separated from the fellowship of all and from participation in the divine sacraments itself; but if they are known thus to some, while to many this perversity of theirs is unknown, they are to be tolerated just as chaff is tolerated on the threshing-floor before the winnowing, so that neither is consent given to them for communion in iniquity, nor for their sake is the fellowship of the good abandoned. This is done by those who have salt in themselves and have peace among themselves. Mark continues: 'And rising from thence he came into the borders of Judea beyond the Jordan, and the multitudes come together to him again, and, as he was accustomed, he taught them again'; and so on, up to that place where he says:

'For all these out of that which abounded to them cast in; but she out of her want cast in all that she had, her whole living.' In this entire connected passage all the earlier matters have been considered, lest they should seem to have anything contradictory, when we were comparing the others with Matthew's order; but this concerning the poor widow, who cast two mites into the treasury, only two tell—Mark and Luke—yet without any question they agree.

From here now up to the Lord's supper, from which we have treated of all the matters of all together, Mark says nothing that need be compared with anyone for investigation, lest anything should seem to contradict. Now therefore let us next handle Luke's gospel in order, excepting those things which he has in common with Matthew and Mark, since all those have already been handled. Thus, then, Luke begins: 'Forasmuch as many have undertaken to set in order a narrative of the things which have been fulfilled among us, even as they delivered them to us who from the beginning themselves saw and were ministers of the word'—in his narrating he did not touch on it. Of all things, therefore, he made his account by selecting from all things whence he might make his account those which he judged apt and fitting to suffice for the office of his dispensation.

And when he says that many have undertaken to set in order a narrative of the things which have been fulfilled among us, he seems to signify some who were not able to accomplish this task once undertaken; and therefore he says that it seemed good to him to write diligently in order, since many have undertaken it;

but we ought to take those whose authority carries no weight in the Church, because they were by no means able to accomplish what they undertook. This one, however, not only carried his narrative up to the resurrection and taking up of the Lord, so that among the four authors of the evangelical Scripture he might have a place worthy of his labour, but furthermore he so wrote the things which were afterward done through the apostles, which he believed sufficient for building up the faith of readers or hearers, that his book alone might be held worthy of faith in the Church, narrating of the acts of the apostles—all being rejected who, not with that faith with which they ought, dared to write the deeds and sayings of the apostles.

For Mark and Luke wrote at that time when they could be approved not only by the Church of Christ, but also by the apostles themselves still remaining in the flesh. Thus, then, Luke begins to narrate the gospel: 'There was in the days of Herod, king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia, and his wife of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth'; and so on, up to that place where he says: 'I have recorded in my book,' or, as is more probably understood, he proceeds along with both.

For although in more things he agrees with Matthew, yet in certain others he agrees rather with Luke, so that by this very fact it may be shown that to the lion and to the calf—that is, both to the royal person which Matthew, and to the priestly person which Luke, suggests—there pertains that which Christ is as man; which figure Mark bears, pertaining to both. But the divinity of Christ, by which he is equal to the Father, according to which he is the Word and God with God, and the Word was made flesh that he might dwell among us, according to which he and the Father are one, was taken up to be chiefly commended by John, who, like an eagle, dwells upon those things which Christ spoke more sublimely, and in a manner descends to earth only rarely.

Finally, although he plainly testifies that he knew Christ's mother, yet he neither says anything with Matthew and Luke concerning his nativity, nor records his baptism with the three; but only there, commending the testimony of John loftily and sublimely, leaving these matters, he proceeds with him to the wedding at Cana of Galilee, where, although the evangelist himself records that his mother was present, yet he says: 'What is that to me and to thee, woman?'—not repelling her of whom he took flesh, but then chiefly making known his own divinity, as he was about to turn water into wine; which divinity had made even that woman, and had not been made in her. Thence, after a few days spent in Capernaum, he returns to the temple, where he records that he said concerning the temple of his body:

'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.' Here he chiefly makes known not only that God was in the temple—the Word made flesh—but also that he himself raised up that same flesh, and this indeed only according to that which is one with the Father, nor does he work separably; whereas in perhaps all other places Scripture does not say anything except that God raised him up, nor is it anywhere so expressed that, when God raised up Christ, he himself also raised himself, because with the Father he is one God—as in this place, where he says: 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.' Then, with that Nicodemus, how great, how divine were the things he spoke!

From there he proceeds again to the testimony of John, and points out that the friend of the Bridegroom rejoices at nothing except because of the Bridegroom's voice. Here he admonishes the human soul that it does not shine for itself from itself, nor is it made blessed, except by participation in the unchangeable Wisdom. From there he passes to the Samaritan woman, where the water is mentioned, of which whoever drinks shall never thirst for ever. From there again to Cana of Galilee, where he had made wine out of water; where he records that he said to the nobleman whose son was ill: 'Unless you see signs and wonders, you do not believe' — so far does he wish to raise the mind of the believer above all changeable things, that he does not want even those very miracles, which, though they are wrought by divine power upon the changeableness of bodies, to be sought after by the faithful. From there he returns to Jerusalem.

A man sick for thirty-eight years is made whole. From this occasion, what things are spoken! and how long they are spoken! There it is said: 'The Jews sought to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath, but also called God his own Father, making himself equal with God.' Here it is sufficiently shown how it was not in the ordinary way, as holy men are wont to speak, that he called God his own Father, but rather insinuating that he was equal to him; for a little before he had said to those who slandered him about the Sabbath: 'My Father works even until now, and I work.' There they blazed up, not because he called God his own Father, but because he wished to be understood as equal to him by saying:

'My Father works even until now, and I work' — showing it to be a consequence that, since the Father works, the Son also works, because the Father does not work without the Son. For there too, a little earlier, he had said to those who were already angry on this account: 'For whatever things he does, these the Son also does likewise.' From there at length John descends to join those three who walked upon the earth with the same Lord, that five thousand might be fed with five loaves; where, however, he alone records that, when they wished to make him king, he alone fled into the mountain. In which matter nothing else seems to me that he wished to admonish the rational soul, except that he reigns over our mind and reason by this: that he is in the heights, alone with no fellowship of nature with men, because he is the only-begotten of the Father.

But this mystery escapes carnal men who creep along below, because it is exceedingly sublime; wherefore he also fled from them into the mountain — from those who sought his kingdom with an earthly mind — whence he also says elsewhere: 'My kingdom is not of this world.' Nor indeed does anyone but John himself record this, as one soaring, in a certain ethereal flight, high above the earth and rejoicing in the light of the Sun of righteousness. From that same mountain, after the miracle wrought from the five loaves, having tarried a little with those same three until they had crossed the sea — when he walked upon the waters — immediately he again raises himself into the word of the Lord: how great, how extended, how long, how lofty and exalted, arising from the occasion of the bread, when he had said to the crowds: 'It is prepared.'

…they might rejoice that they were inscribed, or that by humbling himself — which he showed by the bowing of his head — he might work signs upon the earth, or that it might now be the time that his law should be inscribed upon the earth that would bear fruit, not upon barren stone as before! Therefore, after these things, he called himself the Light of the world, and said that whoever followed him would not walk in darkness, but would have the light of life. He also said that he was the Beginning, which was what he was speaking to them. By which name he certainly distinguished himself from that light which he made — as the Light through whom all things were made — so that what he had called himself, the Light of the world, should not be understood in the way in which he says to the disciples:

'You are the light of the world' — as a lamp which is not to be placed under a bushel, but upon a lampstand, just as also concerning John the Baptist he says: 'He was,' says he, 'a lamp burning and shining' — but he himself as the Beginning, of whom it is said: 'Of his fullness we have all received.' There he said that he, the Son, was the Truth, which unless it sets free, no one will be free. From there, after he had enlightened the man blind from birth, from that very occasion John dwells at length in a long discourse of his, concerning the sheep and the shepherd and the door, and concerning the power of laying down his life and of taking it up again, in which he showed the most excellent power of his divinity. From there, when the feast of the Dedication was being held in Jerusalem, he records that the Jews said to him:

How many and how exalted are his words that John records, which the others passed over in silence! Not only concerning the commendation of humility, when he washed the disciples' feet, but also, when the one who was to betray him — clearly designated by the morsel — had gone out, and the eleven remained with him, John likewise lingered in that discourse of his, marvelously astounding and exceedingly long, where he said: 'He who has seen me has also seen the Father.'

There he spoke many things concerning the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, whom he was about to send to them, and concerning his own glorification, which he had with the Father before the world was, and that he might make us one in himself, just as he and the Father are one — not that he and the Father and we are one, but that we are one just as they are one — and many other things marvelously sublime, concerning which to discourse as is fitting, even if we were now competent, in this present work — who would not perceive that we have not undertaken it? What perhaps ought to be rendered elsewhere is certainly not to be sought here.

For we wished to commend to the lovers of the word of God and the zealous students of holy truth that, although John was in his Gospel a herald and preacher of the same Christ, who is true and truthful, and the other three who wrote the Gospel, and the other apostles who did not indeed undertake to write that narration but nevertheless in that preaching fulfilled the duty of their office — yet this John, borne up into the higher things of Christ, from the very beginning of his book was rarely with the others: that is, first about the Jordan on account of the testimony of John the Baptist; then across the sea of Tiberias, when he fed the crowds from five loaves and walked upon the waters; thirdly at Bethany, where he was anointed with precious ointment through the devotion of a faithful woman — until from there he met with them at the time of the Passion, which he was of necessity going to narrate together with them, where, however, he set forth that very Lord's Supper, of which none of them was silent, far more richly, as if from the storehouse of the Lord's breast, upon which he was wont to recline.