約翰福音註釋 第 1 章 第 13/94 段

'A lesson,' He says, 'which does not rise above the understanding befitting men, you have not received, out of measureless irrationality; and how then should I expound to you the more divine things? And they who are utterly unlearned in matters within their own reach, how could they be wise in things that transcend them? And those who have failed at the lesser, how would they not find the greater unbearable? And if,' He says, 'you do not believe Me alone when I speak, but seek many witnesses for each thing, whom shall I bring forward to you as beholder of the heavenly mysteries? For no one has ascended into heaven except He who came down from heaven, the Son of Man.'

But though it was the Word of God who came down from heaven, He says that the Son of Man came down — refusing that after the Incarnation He be divided into two persons, and not permitting some to say that the son taken from the Virgin as a temple through need is one, and the Word who shone forth from God the Father is again another, except only as regards the distinction proper by nature to each.

For just as He is Word from God, so also He is man from a woman; and henceforth Christ is one out of both, undivided in respect of sonship and of God-befitting glory.

Otherwise, in what way does He attach, as proper to the temple from the Virgin, the things befitting the Word bare and alone, and again appropriate to Himself the things befitting the flesh alone? For now He says that the Son of Man came down from heaven;

yet He fears and is dismayed and is in anguish at the time of the Passion, and, as Himself having suffered, there are recorded of Him the sufferings befitting the manhood alone.

'And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that everyone who believes in Him may not perish, but have eternal life.'

Having given sufficient defense, and set before him the reason why the discourse of teaching addressed to him does not run up to anything immeasurable and beyond nature, He descends again to the things wrought of old typically through Moses — knowing full well that by leadings-by-the-hand through figures he can scarcely come to a recognition of the truth, rather than by spiritual precisions.

He says that He must by all means be lifted up, like the serpent through Moses, showing the examination of the history to be most necessary, and all but again saying to the one who understands nothing: 'Search the Scriptures, for these are they which testify concerning Me.' For serpents leaped upon those of Israel in the wilderness, and they, falling like ears of grain and grievously distressed at the danger that had unexpectedly assailed them, sending forth most piteous cries, called upon the salvation that comes from above and from God.

And He, since He was good and compassionate, as God, commands Moses to set up for them a bronze serpent;

and indeed in it He enjoins them to rehearse beforehand the salvation that is through faith.

For the remedy for the one bitten was to look upon the face of what was set up, and faith, together with the sight, procured for those who looked deliverance from their last extremity.

The facts of the history, then, are in these things;

but again He inscribes the whole mystery of the Incarnation, as in a type by the event.

pouring out the manifold venom of wickedness.

And there was no other way for us to escape her who thus prevailed, except through the help alone from the heavens.

God the Word, therefore, came to be in the likeness of sinful flesh, that He might condemn sin in the flesh, as it is written, and that He might be shown forth as procurer of indissoluble salvation to those who gaze upon Him through a more intense faith rather than through investigation of the divine doctrines.

And the fact that the serpent was set up on some lofty base surely signifies that Christ came to be in conspicuousness and distinction, so as to be unknown to no one; or that He was lifted up from the earth, as He Himself somewhere says, on account of the suffering upon the cross.

'For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that everyone who believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.'

In these words He hastens openly to make clear that He is God by nature, since one must needs understand that He who shone forth from God the Father is assuredly also God — not having the dignity as something adventitious, as we do, but being in truth this very thing which He is believed to be.

And He says this in a manner suited to the divine economy, and very fittingly, having gracefully yoked in the love of God the Father toward us, and coming most opportunely to the discourse concerning this.

For He puts Nicodemus, who disbelieves, to shame — or rather already shows him even to be impious.

For not to come very readily to believe, when it is God who teaches something, what else would this remaining be, than to invest the truth with the charge of falsehood? Then, besides this, saying that He was given up on behalf of the life of the world, He earnestly persuades them to consider how great a punishment they would be liable to, who out of madness held as nothing the grace of God the Father, so worthy of all admiration.

'For so,' He says, 'God loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son.'

Let the Christ-fighting heretic hear again, and let him come forward and say what is the greatness of the love of God the Father, or how we may reasonably marvel at it.

But he will surely say that the admirableness of the love is seen in the Son's being given on our behalf, and this the Only-begotten.

Therefore, in order that the love of God the Father may remain and be preserved as great, let Him be understood as Son, not a creature;

and by Son I mean Him who is from the substance of the Father, that is, of one substance with the One who begot Him, and truly and in truth God.

But if, according to your account, my good man, He does not have being from the substance of God the Father, He will also cast away with it being by nature Son and God, and the far-famed wonder of the Father's love will thereupon lie idle.

For He would have exchanged a creature for creatures, and not truly a Son;

and in vain will the blessed Paul disturb us, saying: 'Anyone who set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses; of how much worse punishment, do you think, will he be deemed worthy who has trampled underfoot the Son of God?' For assuredly he who despises Him tramples Him — yet not as a true Son, but as a fellow-servant of Moses, if indeed the creature is by all means brother to what was made, at least in respect of the account of being made, even though it may exceed the other's glory by superiorities toward the greater or the better.

But the word of Paul is true;

and he who has trampled the Son will pay a more grievous penalty, not as one offending against a creature, nor against one of the fellow-servants of Moses.

Great, therefore, and surpassing nature is the love of the Father, who for the life of the world gave the Son who is from Himself and His own.

'For God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.'

Having expressly named Himself Son of God the Father, He thinks it needful not to leave the statement unattested, but brings the proof from the quality, so to speak, of the deeds, rendering His hearers more secure for faith.

'The law into justifying grace,' He means; 'I release from sin the one bound fast in the cords of his own transgressions; I have come to save the inhabited world, not to condemn it.'

'For it was needful, yea needful,' He says, 'that Moses, as a household servant, should become minister of the condemning law, but that I, as Son and God, should loose the whole inhabited world from the curse of the law, and by excesses of loving-kindness heal the weakness of the world.'

But if the justifying grace is better than the condemning commandment, how is it not already consistent to understand that He who brings in an authority thus God-befitting, and who releases man from the bonds of sin, transcends the measure of a servant? This, then, is one of the interpretations set before us, and not an inelegant argument, as I think;

and a second one after this, revolving through the same cycles and bringing in a contemplation somewhat akin to the foregoing, shall be stated out of love of learning.

The Saviour beheld Nicodemus fixed fast in the Mosaic laws, and clinging tenaciously to the more ancient commandment, but somehow shuddering back from the regeneration through the Spirit, and hesitating toward the new and evangelical way of life, supposing, as was likely, that this would be more burdensome than the things already ordained.

Not being ignorant, therefore, as God, of the fear that had leaped in out of ignorance, He, employing one abrupt reasoning, frees him from his troubles over this, and shows the commandment through Moses, by its condemning of the world, to be the more grievous to bear, while He brings Himself forward as dispenser of gentleness, saying: 'For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.'

'He who believes in the Son is not judged;

but he who does not believe is already judged, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God.'

Having given full assurance by deeds that He is Son of God the Father, He brings to the world a grace more worthy of account than the ministry of Moses;

for how is not being justified by grace better than being condemned by law? He devised for us another way, as God, alluring to faith, driving together from every side those who had perished, into salvation.

He therefore sets before the one who believes, as a reward, the not being called to judgment; and before the one who disobeys, punishment — bringing both by the two means into one and the same road, and calling together, some by longing for the grace, others by fear of suffering, to come eagerly to belief;

and He shows the charge of unbelief to be grievous and great, since He is Son and Only-begotten.

For by however much the one outraged may be worthy of credit, by so much the more grievously will that which dishonors Him be condemned for committing dreadful things.

He says that the unbeliever has already been condemned, inasmuch as he has himself already pronounced against himself the verdict that he must be punished, in that he chose to reject the very One who bestows exemption from judgment.

«And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light.»

He does not leave the judgment of the disobedient without its reasons set forth;

he adds the causes, and shows plainly that, according to the proverbial saying, «Not unjustly are nets spread out for the birds.» For those who, though they might be illuminated, esteemed rather to lie in darkness—how would they not with good reason be themselves the authors of their own calamities, and deserters who run of their own accord to suffer the very things they might have escaped, if only they had been upright examiners of matters, choosing rather to be enlightened than to remain otherwise, and taking care to make the baser things secondary to the better? But he again preserved man's will free from the bonds of necessity, so that it moves toward either course by its own inclinations, that it may justly receive both praise for good deeds and punishment for the contrary.

just as, indeed, he showed this in other places too, saying: «If you are willing and hearken to me, you shall eat the good things of the land;»

«but if you are unwilling and do not hearken to me, the sword shall devour you.» For «everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be reproved.»

He reproves what is base, and shows that it has as its root the unwillingness to learn those things by which one might become wise and good;

for the worker of wicked deeds, he says, flees and shuns coming into the divine light—not out of shame that would veil him because of his baseness;

for then he would have been saved by suffering this;

but because he loves to remain in ignorance of what is fitting, that he may not be smitten while transgressing, since he would then come up against the sharper reproofs of conscience, and, through henceforth knowing the good clearly, would incur a more grievous penalty from the Judge, if he should be unwilling to do the things that please God.

«But he who does the truth»—that is, the lover and doer of the works of truth—«comes to the light, that his works may be made manifest, that they have been wrought in God;»

for he does not decline the illumination in the Spirit, being led by hand especially by it toward the ability to understand without being led astray, provided that he has not transgressed the divine commandment, and has wrought all things according to the law of God.

There is, then, a clear proof of an unbridled inclination toward baseness and of an unrestrained pleasure in what is worse: namely, the unwillingness to learn those things by which one might have strength to run up again toward the better;

and a proof of the desire for the noblest things is the thirst to be enlightened, and to make God's law, as it were a rule and straightening-instrument, the standard for that manner of life which is pleasing to God;

which the inspired psalmist, knowing it to be so, sings: «The law of the Lord is blameless, converting souls; the testimony of the Lord is faithful, making wise the simple;»

«the ordinances of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is radiant, enlightening the eyes.» «And after these things Jesus came into the land of Judaea with his disciples;»

«and John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there, and they came and were baptized;»

«for John had not yet been cast into prison.»

The discourse with Nicodemus having now reached its close, the inspired Evangelist once more prepares another most useful matter.

For being guided by the divine Spirit into the exposition of the most necessary things, he perceived that it would greatly profit those who would read, to discern clearly how great is the pre-eminence—and by how great measures it surpasses—of the baptism through Christ compared with the baptism of John;

for it was in truth not far from likely that there would one day appear those who out of folly would dare to say either that there is no difference at all between them, and that they ought to be crowned with equal honors, or—slipping into a yet more savage lack of instruction—that the verdict for the better should be taken away from the baptism through Christ, and that the victory should shamelessly be lavished upon the baptism by water alone.

For what audacity is not passable to the untaught, or through what railings do those not drive who rise up against the sacred doctrines of the Church, and pervert all right things, as it is written? Therefore, that the most wise Evangelist might beforehand remove the occasions of their unbridled tongues, he brings before us the holy Baptist himself, setting out to his own disciples the solution of the question in dispute.

Christ, then, baptizes through his own disciples;

and likewise John also, though not at all through the hand of others; nor yet did he baptize in those very springs in which Christ was seen doing this, but near Salim, as it is written, and at one of the neighboring springs round about.

And by this very thing—by the separation, so to speak, of the springs of water—I say that he was showing the difference in the baptism, signifying as if in a riddle that the baptism through him is not the same as that from our Savior Christ;

yet nonetheless near it, and around it, bringing in a certain preparatory exercise and introduction to the more perfect one.

Just as, then, the law also given through Moses is said to have a shadow of the good things to come, not the very image of the realities—for the Mosaic letter is a certain preliminary training and preparatory catechesis for the worship in spirit, travailing inwardly with the truth hidden within;

so also you will understand the baptism unto repentance.

«And they came to John and said to him.»

The Jews, being unable to maintain the standing of their legal purifications by sprinkling, and having nothing to plead on behalf of the cleansing by the ashes of a heifer, weave something against John's disciples, by which they thought they would grieve them not moderately—although they themselves were most readily overcome in their own affairs.

For since those who attended upon the blessed Baptist appeared already better and more intelligent than the Pharisees, marveling at the baptism practiced by their own teacher, and prevailing over the purifications according to the law;

those who are swift only to revile, and most ready for every mischief, are vexed at these things;

and so, twisting their own argument, they praise the baptism through Christ, yet not being rightly disposed, nor pouring out true praises of the matter, but goaded only to grieve, and borrowing a purpose contrary to their own conviction, until their endeavor should run out into deed.

They have, then, no rational demonstration to make, nor do they advocate for Christ from taking their stand upon the sacred Scriptures;

for whence would such understanding come to the untaught? But this alone they put forward for the confirmation of their own words: that those running to John are very few in number, while men go in droves to Christ.

For they supposed, perhaps being exceedingly foolish, that they would carry off the verdict for being able to prevail, and would insolently exalt the legal purifications by sprinkling, as though already victorious, over the hand of John, setting the baptism through Christ—bestowed on those who came to him—among the better things.

And they do indeed grieve those to whom the word was addressed;

but they scarcely get away with this, and depart from John's disciples, being far more greatly worsted by their inconsiderate wrangling of words.

For with praises wrung from them of necessity, and against their will, they crown the Lord.

«Rabbi, he who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have borne witness—behold, this man baptizes, and all are coming to him.»

«John answered and said.»

Being stung by the words of the Pharisees, and looking to the very nature of the matter, the disciples were not able to convict them of lying, but they are with good reason perplexed; and not knowing the great dignity of our Savior, they are greatly dismayed at John's inferiorities. And having tempered with reverence and wonder the word that sprang from love, they now think it right to learn for what cause the One who was attested by his voice both outstrips him in glory, and leaps ahead in grace, and by baptizing draws in as with a net not merely a portion of the whole Jewish multitude, but already all men.

And they made their inquiry, as was likely, not without God's leading;

for from this the Baptist is called forth into an exact and extended exposition concerning the Savior, and brings in the most manifest difference of the baptisms.

«A man can receive nothing, unless it be given to him from heaven.»

There is, he says, no good among men that must not by all means be also God-given.

«For what have you that you did not receive?»—it would befit the creation to hear.

And I think it right to be content with the measures allotted, and to delight in the honors marked out from heaven, and by no means to extend oneself further, nor ungratefully—being ever seized by a longing for what is greater—to dishonor the verdict from above and to fight against the Master's decrees, out of shame at seeming to carry off the lesser rather than the more perfect;

but whatever things God is willing to honor one with, these indeed one ought to hold in great esteem.

Let not my disciple, then, be distressed, he says, if I do not leap beyond the measure given, if I do not think upon what is greater, and confine myself to a glory befitting a man.

«You yourselves bear me witness that I said, ‹I am not the Christ, but that I have been sent before him.›»

He brings his own disciples to remembrance of the words they have already heard many times, at once reproving them skillfully as being drowsy with forgetfulness of profitable things and nodding off around so venerable a teaching, and at the same time persuading them to remember the divine Scripture, inasmuch as they had been nurtured together with the love of learning in these matters;

the one he proclaims will be the Christ;

and who, again, is the forerunning Baptist;

for thus, having received the knowledge concerning each, they were bound to be in no way vexed, seeing each of them in the things befitting each.

I shall need, then, no other witnesses to this, he says; I have my own disciples as those who heard for themselves;

I confessed my servitude, proclaiming beforehand, ‹I have been sent.›

Let him conquer, let him prevail, let him shine forth more greatly, as Master and God.

«He who has the bride is the bridegroom;»

«but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices with joy because of the bridegroom's voice;»

«this joy of mine, therefore, is fulfilled.»

Once again the discourse has proceeded, as it were, by likeness to our own condition, and it leads on to the knowledge of subtle contemplations;

for types of intelligible things—those things that endure the touch of the hand—and the grossness of bodily examples often bring in a most exact demonstration of spiritual realities.

There is, then, he says, Christ as bridegroom and master of the festival, but I as the summoner to the feast and leader of the bride, having the highest gladness and a conspicuous dignity: to be ranked among the friends alone, and to listen attentively to the voice of the One who gives the banquet.

I therefore already have what I long for, and my endeavor is fulfilled for me;

for I proclaimed not only that Christ would come, but I now both behold him present, and I lodge his very voice within my ears.

But you, O most wise disciples, seeing humanity, betrothed to Christ, going to him, and ascending into spiritual kinship through holy baptism—beholding the nature that had been cut off and had run away from love toward him—do not be vexed, he says, that it does not rather come to me, but runs very readily to the bridegroom according to the spirit;

for this was in truth both just and more fitting.

For «he who has the bride is the bridegroom;»

that is, do not seek in me the crown of the bridegroom—it is not for me that the psalmist sings, saying: «Hearken, O daughter, and behold, and incline your ear, and forget your people and your father's house, for the King has desired your beauty;» nor is it seeking my bridal chamber that the bride says: «Tell me, you whom my soul has loved, where you feed your flock, where you make it lie down at noon;» she has the bridegroom who is from heaven.

But I shall rejoice; and, leaping up to render the honour that befits a servant, I shall find my delight in the name and in the reality of friendship.

The meaning, then, of the passages before us has, I think, been quite well expounded;

and having now sufficiently treated of the spiritual marriage, we count it burdensome to write yet further concerning it.

He must increase, but I must decrease.

He rebukes the disciples for still being troubled over small matters, for having stumbled prematurely at things which least of all warranted it, and for not yet knowing with any accuracy who Emmanuel is and whence He comes.

For it is not, he says, only up to this point that the wonders concerning Him shall be marvelled at, nor is it merely because more are baptized by Him that on this account alone He shall surpass my honour; rather, He shall ascend to so great a measure of glory as would befit God.

For He must go forward into the increase of His renown, and by the daily additions of His signs ever leap up towards what is greater, and shine forth more brilliantly upon the world.

But I must decrease, remaining within the bounds in which I am seen to be, not sinking below the measures once given me; and, in comparison with Him who ever ascends into the increase of glory, being surpassed just so much as He runs and is borne onward.

And these things the blessed Baptist expounds to us.

But the discourse will proceed usefully by means of examples, setting forth more vividly the force of what has been said.

Let a piece of wood, say, some two cubits high stand upon the ground;

and let there be set beside it also a plant, just now peeping up out of the earth, stretching its green shoots into the air, and ever thrust upward towards a greater height by the irrepressible impulses springing from its root.

The form maintains itself, in respect of which it is ever found to have the lesser share compared with that which is going forward into increase.

And you will take again an example akin to this, when the most conspicuous of the stars cries out concerning the sun, saying: He must increase, but I must decrease.

For as long as the ethereal depth is darkened by the gloom of night, one might reasonably marvel at the morning star, flashing forth its golden ray and resplendent in its whole and unimpaired glory;

but when the sun already threatens to rise and sprinkles the world with a moderate light, it is overcome by the greater, and gradually yields to the one that prevails over it.

And it too might fittingly utter the words of John, suffering this very thing which he endured when he said:

That the Son is not among created things, but above all, as God from God.

He that cometh from above is above all.

It is no great thing, he says, nor exceedingly worthy of admiration, if Christ surpasses the glory of humanity;

for He does not set the bounds of His own renown up to this point only, but is over all creation; as God, He is above all created things, not being counted as one among all, but as removed above all and, in a manner befitting God, riding over all.

And he adds the reason, putting the opponent to shame and silencing the one who resists:

He that cometh from above, he says—that is, He who has sprung forth from the root that is above, preserving in Himself by nature the Father's excellence—will confessedly possess this: to be above all.

For it was indeed impossible that the Son should be seen as otherwise than altogether such as He that begot Him would be conceived to be, and according to His dignity.

For the Son who is pre-eminent in the identity of nature, the effulgence and the express image of the Father—how could He be less than Him in glory? For either that which is proper to the Father will be dishonoured in the Son, and we outrage the features of the Begetter by ranking Him among lesser things; but, I think, this will be evident to all.

For this very reason also it is written: That all may honour the Son even as they honour the Father;

he that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father. But He who is resplendent with honours equal in measure to those given to God and Father, on account of His being from Him by nature—how could He henceforth be conceived not to ascend above the essence of created things? For this is what 'above all' is.

But I perceive again that the mind of the Christ-fighters will by no means rest quiet, and that they will come, as is likely, prating with unbridled tongue and saying: When the blessed Baptist says that the Lord sets out from above, what argument will compel us, on account of the word 'from above,' to suppose that He comes from the essence of the Father, and not rather from the heavens, or even from the pre-eminence over all things that is in Him—so that on this account He is both conceived and spoken of as over all? Whenever, then, they hurl at us such arguments, they shall hear in turn: We shall follow, most excellent sirs, not your utterly unsound reasonings, but rather the divine Scripture and the sacred writings alone.

We must, then, search in those writings how they define for us the force of 'from above.'

Let them therefore hear one of the Spirit-bearers crying aloud: Every good gift and every perfect present is from above, coming down from the Father of lights. Behold, he plainly says that 'from above' is 'from the Father';

for knowing that nothing else lies above created things beyond the ineffable nature of God, he properly attached the word 'from above' to that alone.

For all other things whatsoever fall under the yoke of servitude, but God alone leaps up above being mastered, and reigns as king;

whence in truth He also is above all.

But the Son, being God and from God by nature, will not be excluded from the splendour that belongs to this.

But if you think that 'from above' must be taken as 'from heaven,' let the expression be said of every angel and rational power also;