約翰福音註釋 第 1 章 第 21/94 段

For at the beginning they marveled at the holy Baptist as an ascetic, as a lover of God, as a pattern of all reverence; but those who honor him with wonder, again do him outrage, not enduring him when he says: Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God. For in doing this very thing they are plainly caught in disobedience.

Now indeed, as I suppose, having kept to the well-worn and customary manner of interpretation of the passage that most follow, we have set forth the contemplation upon it according to the ability that is in us;

but since the word of the Saviour, stretching us out toward deep meanings, is seen well-nigh to compel us to lay hold of sharper thoughts—signifying not simply that John was a lamp, but that he was also burning and shining—we deem it necessary, applying ourselves more keenly to the force of the things spoken, to track out the beauty of the truth.

And the text itself shall again be brought into our midst.

He was the lamp, He says.

It would have sufficed even by this alone to mark out the holy Baptist, so that the hearers might run back in their thought to the prophecy concerning him, which runs thus: I have prepared a lamp for my Christ. But since to the saying of lamp He adds, burning and shining, it would surely be plain that He refers the hearer not only to the voice of the prophet alone, but also to a certain legal delineation, as though again in figure and shadow prefiguring the torch-bearing of John, which he nobly performed in bearing witness to the Master Christ.

And thus, showing that the conceited Pharisees, though conversant with the words of Moses, were even in this continually convicted of being ignorant and of being wise in appearance rather than truly learned in the law.

This, then, is the entire aim of the passage;

but I hold that we ought, beyond all dispute, bringing forward the divine oracle itself, now to show the blessed Baptist to be a lamp not simply, but one burning and shining.

When, therefore, God was laying down the ordinances concerning the holy tabernacle, after the completion of the ten curtains, He says to the hierophant Moses: And do thou charge the sons of Israel, and let them take for thee pure beaten oil of olives, without dregs, for the light, to burn, that the lamp may burn continually in the tabernacle of witness, outside the veil that is upon the covenant;

Aaron and his sons shall keep it burning from evening until morning before the Lord: it shall be an everlasting statute throughout your generations from the sons of Israel.

And do thou bring near to thyself Aaron thy brother and his sons from among the sons of Israel to minister to me as priests. Let the divine oracle, then, stand thus before us in these words; and now we must proceed to the clarification of it that is within our reach.

The oil, without dregs and pure, seems to intimate the most pure and untroubled nature of the Holy Spirit, which, running into us after the manner of oil, in a way beyond conception, nourishes and holds together and increases the illumination within the soul, as one laid up in a lamp.

And thus also we believe that the divinely-inspired Baptist made the light of the testimony concerning our Saviour to shine forth, having received the power to guide by light from no other source than through the spiritual oil—which is able and fit to kindle the divine light within us. This the Saviour Himself also disclosed, as in an enigma, saying: I came to cast fire upon the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled? A lamp, therefore, as in type again—the one burning and shining continually in the tabernacle of witness—was the blessed Baptist;

and his shining in the tabernacle of witness also signifies well, that the illumination from him is acceptable in the churches, and does not lie outside the sacred and divine court of the Saviour.

But the lamp's being seen outside the veil seems to intimate that he brought in a more simple and introductory illumination, saying: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand; but of the things hidden within the veil—that is, of the mysteries of our Saviour—he shows nothing at all.

For he did not baptize into participation in the Holy Spirit, nor did the illumination from him bring men in within the veil;

for it was in the outer tabernacle, which still had its standing, according to the voice of Paul.

But since He says that Aaron and his sons also shall keep it burning from evening until morning before the Lord, an everlasting statute throughout your generations, I think it fitting to understand what is said in this way again.

Aaron and his sons indicate those who from time to time perform the sacred service in the churches—that is, the teachers in them, and the ministers of the divine altars;

these are charged to keep the spiritual lamp—that is, John—ever shining;

for this is what is meant by, They shall keep it burning from evening until morning. For the whole time in which it was fitting that the light of the lamp should shine is the length of the night, by which is signified the measure of the present age.

For we understand the age to come as light.

The lamp indeed is kept burning, that is, bright, ever making its torch-light concerning Christ acceptable to those who believe in Christ, and being attested as true in saying such things concerning Christ through the voice of the priests of each season.

And that God might teach thee that through this He was prefiguring the herald of the Saviour, He straightway joins on the choice of those who serve as priests.

And thou shalt ascend again, chewing over the whole account of the chapter, to some such contemplation—and not an inelegant one, as it seems to me at least.

At the end of the account of the tabernacle the ordinance concerning the lampstand is introduced, and immediately after it the presentation and appointment of the priests.

For at the end of the Law and the Prophets there shone forth the Voice of him who went before, crying in the wilderness, as it is written: 'Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God'; and immediately after him came, through Christ, the ordination and manifestation of the holy Apostles.

For the Lord chose twelve, whom he also named apostles. And now that our contemplation concerning the lamp has been thus completed, let us again consider the voice of the Saviour: 'He was the lamp,' he says, 'that burned and shone, and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light.'

He charges the Pharisees with a disposition ignorant and hard to be brought to obedience, and he convicts them again as suffering from an incomparable want of instruction, unable even to understand the very things they professed to know, greatly estranged from any exact knowledge of the Law, and utterly ignorant of what the Lawgiver had prefigured, as it were in outlines, through Moses.

For by saying that John was the lamp that burned and shone, he reasonably puts them to shame as not yet having understood that which was signified in the enigmas of the Law and long ago sketched in shadow.

But by saying, 'And ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light,' he again brings against them the charge that they always set their own will before the decree from above, and were accustomed to follow only those whom they themselves chose.

'For though the Lawgiver,' he says, 'ordained that the lamp should shine and burn continually, ye were not willing that it should shine forever, but only for a season'—that is, for a very brief time.

For at the beginning ye marvelled, and then, so far as in you lay, ye quenched the light of the lamp, most unreasonably assailing him who was sent from God, and not only refusing baptism yourselves, but even hindering others from baptizing.

For ye sent to him, saying, 'Why then baptizest thou?'—that is, why dost thou enlighten men unto repentance and the knowledge of Christ? Therefore the Saviour brought against the foolish scribes and Pharisees an indictment both of folly and of transgression of the Law, once more contending on behalf of the words of John.

Which I think the blessed Luke also perceived, and having rightly understood, he cries out against their senselessness, saying: 'And all the people that heard'—that is, the words of the Saviour—'justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John.'

'But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected within themselves the counsel of God, not being baptized by him. But I have the witness greater than that of John.'

'The works which the Father hath given me to accomplish, the very works that I do, bear witness of me that the Father hath sent me.'

'And the Father which sent me, he himself hath borne witness of me.'

'Though he was a lamp,' he says, 'both depicted through the ordinances of the Law and proclaimed beforehand through the voice of the holy prophets, as one who should at length be shown to shine before the true Light, and to announce among you that it behoveth the way of the Lord and God to be made ready;'

'yet since perhaps he seems to you not worthy of belief—though he is so great in virtue—because of the unbridled and utterly extravagant senselessness that is in you, I now proceed to what is greater, against which in all likelihood ye will again say nothing, being put to shame, even against your will, by the very beauty of the truth.'

'For I no longer glory in words and in the votes of men, nor shall I think it needful to gather for myself testimonies from bare words; but I will commit my own cause to things more weighty and far greater than what has been said, and I now shine forth from the very majesty that is in my works, namely, that I am God by nature and have proceeded from God the Father; and I do no wrong to my own laws in transforming them however I will, and in transmuting from the grossness of the letter into spiritual contemplation the things spoken enigmatically to the men of old.'

And let the lover of learning again consider that, when the Saviour says he is well attested through his works to be God by nature, he clearly teaches that it would be among the impossibilities for the energy and power befitting God to reside unaltered in anyone, unless he himself were also God by nature.

For he is attested through his works, not, I think, in any other manner, but precisely in this.

For if he is seen to be the perfecter of the works of him who begat him, and if whatever things might appear more befitting for that One alone, these he too accomplishes out of his own strength;

how would it not be clear to everyone that he has been allotted the same nature as that One, and that, shining with the properties of him who begat him, as being from him, he possesses power and energy equal to his? Yet he says that he has received the works from him, either because of the fashion of the manhood and the form of the servant, speaking even this too in a manner more lowly than was fitting, in accordance with the divine dispensation, or exalting by the name of a 'gift' the good pleasure and consent of God the Father in all that is wondrously accomplished.

For thus also he affirms that he was sent, inasmuch as he emptied himself, as it is written, of the dignity befitting God unmixedly, because of his love toward us;

for he humbled himself, and the lowliness of his having been humbled we shall find in no other ways than in those in which he sometimes speaks as a man.

With this accords that which is again spoken through the psalmist, as it were from him and for our sake in a manner befitting man: 'But I was set up king by him upon Zion his holy mountain, declaring the decree of the Lord.' For he who is always king with the Father, sharing his throne and his seat, as God with God who begat him, says that he was appointed to be king and lord, saying that he received as God the things he already possessed, when he appeared as man—to whom kingship does not belong by nature, but indeed the very name and reality of lordship is altogether something acquired from without.

That the Son is the image of God the Father, wherein also is a refutation of the Jews, as not understanding the things spoken through Moses rather enigmatically.

'Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his form, and ye have not his word abiding in you, because whom he hath sent, him ye believe not.'

One might see no simple arrangement of thoughts again poured forth upon the text before us, but a swarm of hidden contemplations, very easily galloping past the mind of those who listen without inquiry, and consenting perhaps to be seen only by those who examine more keenly.

Perhaps, since Jesus says that he is attested by the God-befitting energy, one might come, as to something of what lies near at hand and yet very far removed—I mean the saying that the Pharisees have neither heard the voice of God the Father at any time, nor indeed beheld his form, nor even have his word dwelling in them.

And I for my part shall agree, and so I think will everyone else, that such a difficulty raised by some would not be beyond what is fitting.

What sense, then, shall we fit to the passages before us, and what again shall we devise in seeking out arguments—holding fast to the truth in every way—this I shall try to declare through the energy and grace of the Spirit.

It is the custom of Christ the Saviour, when he often held profitable discourses especially with the senseless Pharisees, to fix his gaze upon the depth of their heart, and to survey in a manner befitting God the things still silently revolving and being stirred up in their reasonings within the mind, and especially to make his answers and words, and sometimes even his reproofs, directed against these; and he does not by any means keep the connection of his own words unbroken, but against whatever those men were plotting and pondering within themselves, he confronts them sharply, and by this shows that he is God by nature, as knowing the things lying in the depth, and searching hearts and reins.

And let anyone, if it seem good to him, receive the most clear demonstration of what has been said from the other evangelists—I mean Luke and those with him.

It is written, then, in the Gospels that there were once gathered together, from every region of Judaea, Pharisees and teachers of the law.

'And behold,' it says, 'men bringing on a bed a man who was paralysed, and they sought to bring him in and to lay him before him;'

'and not finding by what way they might bring him in because of the crowd, they went up upon the housetop and let him down through the tiles with his little bed into the midst before Jesus;'

'and seeing their faith, he said to the paralytic, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee;'

'and the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this that speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone? But Jesus,' it says, 'perceiving their reasonings, answered and said unto them, Why reason ye in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, Thy sins are forgiven thee, or to say, Rise up and walk?' Dost thou see how, not waiting for the answer uttered in words, or their murmuring, he answers as God to the thoughts within them? And thou wilt find again another image of the same matter marked out according to this fashion.

For the blessed Luke speaks thus: 'And it came to pass on another sabbath that he entered into the synagogue and taught, and there was a man there, and his right hand was withered.'

'And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him, whether he would heal on the sabbath, that they might find an accusation against him;'

'but he,' it says, 'knew their reasonings, and said to the man that had the withered hand, Rise up and stand forth in the midst.'

'And Jesus said unto them, I will ask you whether it is lawful on the sabbath to do good or to do evil.' Dost thou see again openly in these things how, looking upon the very heart of those who foolishly attempted to accuse him, he made his words? Some such thing again we shall suppose to have been contemplated by the Saviour, in the passage before us, in the thoughts of the Pharisees.

And thou wilt see that the word did not spurn either the straight or the natural setting of the matter, in no way shrinking from unravelling each of the things already spoken beforehand.

Having relaxed, so far at least as concerned their vote, the rest according to the sabbath—having, that is, dissolved the honour of the sabbath, or having, as it were, through this very thing especially transgressed the Law—he nevertheless most vigorously affirmed that he was sent from God the Father, and moreover declared plainly that he was attested by him and that he would consent to all whatsoever he might work.

In answer to these things, according at least to what is plausible in reasonings, the Pharisees again ponder among themselves—inasmuch as they attended upon the writings of the Law, and always put forward the commandments given through Moses, and claimed to have read them—'What is this word that comes from this man?'

'And how will God the Father consent with him who dissolves the Law? And when did he bear witness, or what vote did he cast concerning him? For from the ordinances of Moses we have learned that God came down upon Mount Sinai, his form was seen by the fathers, his voice,' it says, 'became audible;'

'he spoke to the whole congregation, he commanded to keep the day of the sabbath, plainly enjoining thus: Remember the day of the sabbaths to keep it holy;'

'six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work, but on the seventh day is a sabbath holy to the Lord thy God;'

'in it thou shalt do no work.' 'And it was no other,' it says, 'whom we heard speaking these things; the multitude of the fathers was itself a hearer of the voice from God, and after them the word of God is among us;'

'and who is this man?' Since he beheld them pondering these things again, he convicts them sharply in their ignorance, saying: 'Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his form, and ye have not his word abiding in you, because whom he hath sent, him ye believe not.'

For the things that had happened by way of type at that time, and by which the descent of God upon Mount Sinai was figured for them, of these again knowing nothing, they received them not as images of spiritual realities, but really supposed that the divine nature could be visible even to the eyes of the body, and had believed that it employed a bodily voice.

But that the word of the Saviour concerning them was true, and that they have neither at any time heard the voice of God the Father, nor indeed has anyone beheld his form with bodily sight—that is, the Word who is like him in all things—I judge that we ought again to show clearly, by setting the things written in Exodus alongside for examination and spiritual testing.

It stands thus: 'And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stood at the foot of Mount Sinai.'

'And Mount Sinai was altogether smoking because God had descended upon it in fire, and the smoke went up as the smoke of a furnace;'

'and all the people was greatly amazed.'

'And the sounds of the trumpet grew louder and exceedingly strong;'

'Moses spoke, and God answered him by a voice.' Thus, then, does the oracle of the all-wise Moses stand for us.

And I think we ought now also to convict the Jews as having slipped down into a most ridiculous opinion concerning God, both in supposing that they had beheld his very form and had heard the voice truly inherent in the divine nature.

Come, then, taking courage in the supply and grace of the Saviour, let us refine the grossness of the letter of the Law into spiritual contemplation;

for thus especially will that which was said to the Pharisees concerning God appear also to be true: 'Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his form.'

Now the fact that the people were brought out through Moses to meet God, as it is written, would be a clear sign and a word as in an enigma, that men cannot go to God without training and without guidance, but rather being led by the hand through the Law unto the knowledge of the things they seek to learn.

And such altogether are the partakers of the Saviour.

Wherefore also, practising the courage that is above man, they say: 'Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?' For all terrors are bearable to the godly for the sake of their love toward Christ;

and even if tribulation rise up like a mountain, those men will defy every danger, and will not remove their mind from friendship toward God.

But being said to come down, God appears not into some low place, but again somewhere on high and upon a mountain, that thou mayest thereby conceive within thyself some such thing as this: that even though the divine nature condescends to our understandings and offers itself to us for apprehension, yet it is again in things very far above us, both in words and in contemplations.

For the loftiness and transcendence of the doctrines concerning it is signified by the mountain, which it also says was all darkened over for us by the smoke.

For the words concerning the Godhead are indeed pungent and not exceedingly bright among us, stinging the eye of the understanding after the manner of smoke.

Wherefore Paul the most wise testified that we see in a mirror and in an enigma;

and that God has made darkness his hiding-place—God, that is—the psalmist again says somewhere, intimating by the name of darkness the incomprehensibility concerning him, whereof the smoke about the fire on the mountain might well be taken as a type.

And the Divine itself came down in the fashion of fire, at that particular time above all, fittingly and necessarily to the nature of the matter.

For it was needful, yea needful, that he who was calling Israel unto servitude and understanding through the Law that was about to be appointed should be seen as both an enlightener and a chastiser;

and both these are accomplished through fire.

'But moreover,' he says, 'the blasts of the trumpet went on becoming exceedingly strong' — that once again some such power of meanings may be woven for us.

For the Law also was proclaimed by God, yet not with full force at the beginning, because of the weakness of those who were being trained as children, but rather with a feeble voice, so to speak, and not possessing the whole power of the trumpeter.

For this very reason Moses also called himself slow of speech.

But as the appointed time advanced, and as those who believe in Christ were raised up from the shadow according to the letter into spiritual worship, the voices of the divine trumpet rang out exceedingly strong, the saving and evangelical proclamation resounding in a manner throughout the whole inhabited world.

For Moses speaks, and God answers him by a voice — not indeed by a voice of His own, for this it does not say, but simply and absolutely by a voice, one accomplished in a more human and paradoxical fashion through the sound of words.

For in what work could God ever grow weary? What would God not accomplish, if He willed it, and that very easily? Moses therefore spoke, and God answered him by a voice.

And this indeed is the type contained in these things.

You have therefore in the holy Gospels the Lord saying, 'Father, glorify Thy Son,' and the Father answering by a voice, 'I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.' But the Saviour showed that this voice was not truly that of God the Father, saying to those present at that time, 'This voice came not for My sake, but for yours.' You see how plainly He affirmed that the voice came into being, since it is not fitting to suppose that the divine nature makes use of a voice produced by sound, even though it should conform itself to our needs and speak in accommodation to us.

These considerations again have been necessarily introduced by us for the present discourse.

Concerning His own Begetter: 'You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form, and you have not His word abiding in you; because Him whom He sent, Him you do not believe.'

But that the Pharisees again, puffed up to outlandish boastings, feigned that the divine word was both with them and in them, and for this reason foolishly maintained that they had attained to a wisdom worthy of admiration — to this the Spirit itself also bears witness, Christ saying to them through the prophet Jeremiah: 'How do you say, We are wise, and the word of the Lord is with us? In vain has a false pen become to the scribes; the wise are put to shame, they are dismayed and taken; what wisdom is there in them? Because they have rejected the word of the Lord.' For how, having rejected the living and self-subsistent Word of God, shall they not be taken, since they have not received faith in Him, but have dishonoured the express image of God the Father — His truest form, as it were — refusing to behold Him through the God-befitting authority and power? For the divine and ineffable nature is not otherwise comprehensible to us, so far as is possible, than through the things He accomplishes and works.

For it is precisely on this account that Paul commands us to proceed, by way of analogy, from the greatness and beauty of created things to the contemplation of their Author, while the Saviour in turn guides us on to the comprehension of Himself, saying, 'If I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not.'

'But if I do, though you believe not Me, believe the works.' And He also somewhere quite reasonably found fault with His own disciple — this was Philip — for supposing that he could come to the contemplation of God the Father in some other way without seeking, although it was in his power and privilege to gaze upon the unaltered Image which accurately shows in itself the One who begot Him.

Wherefore also He said, 'Have I been so long a time with you, and hast thou not known Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.' 'Search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and they are those which testify of Me, and you will not come to Me, that you may have life.'

Now the smooth, level, and well-trodden interpretation of the saying — the one common to the many — persuades us to think that it was said imperatively by our Saviour to the Pharisees: namely, that those who search the divine Scriptures must gather from them the testimonies concerning Himself unto life.

But since, having placed a conjunction in between,

He joins on the words 'you will not come to Me,' He would evidently be signifying something else besides — akin indeed to what was said, yet having some slight difference.

For if it had to be understood imperatively, how shall we not say that it would be necessary, according to this form perhaps, to say the whole thus: 'Search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, and they are those which testify of Me,'

'and having searched, come to Me.'

But as of those unwilling to come, even though they were being led by the hand to this very thing through their searching, He finds fault, saying, 'And you will not come to Me.'

We shall therefore read it, looking to what is more profitable and to what follows from what has already been rendered, not at all imperatively, but rather as by way of understanding and with a pause.

And the sense of the passage before us will again be as follows.

For since He saw them ever running to the writings of Moses, and gathering from them without instruction the occasions for their contradictions, seeking nothing else, or accepting only whatever might furnish them with what they ought to believe,

on this account again He necessarily declares the labour of their searching in these matters to be useless and unprofitable to them, and plainly refutes them, showing that they have applied themselves — as though to a great and most beneficial thing — not in accordance with the fitting reason.