約翰福音註釋 第 1 章 第 44/94 段

Since, then, the Son is convicted of being deficient in power and wisdom whenever he is seen to have received something from another, and in these things already bears the whole charge, how is it not utterly foolish for us to applaud our hearers with stale arguments, and to fasten the accusation upon them by deceitful inventions, through supposing that we must acknowledge no one else, but only the Father, as supplier? And I marvel how, though you seem to be wise and not moderately trained in outward learning so as to be able to devise bitter things, even this escaped you: that in belittling the character of God the Father—that is, the Son—you have resolved to accuse not so much him as the one whose very character he is, who must of necessity so be as he appears in the Son.

'But the voice of the Son,' he says, 'will constrain you, even against your will, to consent to those things which he did not disdain to speak.'

For he himself confessed that he does nothing of himself, but that whatever he might be taught by God the Father, these things he speaks.

But to you, O noble one, even the things rightly said seem not to be held rightly, since you have denied the light of the truth.

We, however, will again walk our own road, and will think our customary and beloved thoughts concerning the Only-Begotten, applying ourselves to the passages before us with the piety that befits us.

For if the Only-Begotten had said, 'I do nothing of myself, but receiving the power from God the Father, I both work wonders and am marveled at,' there would indeed have been some argument even so, showing that he ought on this account by no means to be accused; nevertheless our adversary would somehow have seemed to make a more plausible case against us.

But since, when nothing at all had been brought forward, he simply and absolutely says, 'I do nothing of myself,' we shall by no means say that he is somehow accusing his own nature as being in some respect weak, but rather that he is signifying something else that is true and free from any charge.

For, that by transferring the force of the statement to the case of a man, we may see accurately what he means:

let there be, say, two men, having, of course, obtained the same nature, equal in strength to one another and of one mind; then let one of them say, 'I do nothing of myself.'

Would he say such a thing as being weak, or as being able to do nothing at all of himself, or rather as having the other, joined and yoked with him, as one who consents and is of one mind with him in all things? So understand it for me also in the case of the Son—or rather far above this.

For since, when he was working the marvels, the Jews leapt upon him unreasonably, accusing him up and down of the loosing of the Sabbath, and charging him with lawlessness, thereafter he displayed God the Father as being of one mind and consenting with him in all things, shaming by artifice the unbridled wrath of the disobedient.

some wanting to accuse him who says that he does all things according to the will of the Father, and who shows his own will in that of the Father.

But the Son's working all things according to the will of the Father will show him to be neither lesser nor a subordinate servant, but from him and in him and consubstantial.

For since he himself is the Wisdom of the Father, and the living Counsel, he confesses that he does nothing other than what the Father might perhaps will—the Father whose very Wisdom and Counsel he is—seeing that even the understanding within us does nothing of itself, but fulfills the whole of what seems good to us.

And this is a small thing indeed as compared with that example, yet it holds an image of the truth that is not faint.

And just as the understanding within us is reckoned to be nothing other beside us,

in the same way, I think, also the Wisdom of God the Father—that is, the Son—is nothing other beside him, so far as I speak of identity of essence and unvarying likeness of nature.

For the Father is the Father, and the Son is the Son, each subsisting in his own proper being.

But since to this he says, 'As the Father taught me, these things I speak,' let no one suppose that the Son is at all in need of instruction in any respect whatever;

for great is the absurdity of such reasonings in these matters;

but the force of the statement signifies something of this kind.

For the Jews, being unable to understand any of the good things, were scandalized not only at the wonders he was working, but one might see them affected the same way even when he uttered any of the words that befit God.

And indeed, when he was saying, and saying truly, 'I am the light of the world,' they were cut to the quick and were considering that they must dare the most dreadful deeds.

But our Lord Jesus Christ, in order that he might convict them of raging in vain over this, says that his own words are the words of God the Father, using the more human expression, 'He taught.'

Nevertheless, we shall find the force arising from the wording to be not outside a subtle contemplation.

And even if the enemy of the truth should perhaps not accept the human things, most of all he does wrong to the Word in respect of the economy in the flesh.

For the Only-Begotten humbled himself, having become man, and on this account he often speaks as a man.

But let him again know that it does the Son no wrong as to his God-befitting dignity to say, 'As the Father taught me, so I speak';

for we shall show that this word of his too is in every respect sound and good.

But let that accuser of the doctrines of piety answer us as we question him: Who, tell me, teaches the newborn infant to use the human voice? Why does it not roar like the lion, or imitate at some time some other of the irrational animals? But surely it must in every case run to that which is common and habitual to all;

nature being the teacher, fashioning that which is from it after the proper character of the one who sowed it.

It is possible, then, to learn without being taught, from nature, the whole—so to speak—of the property of the one who sowed having been implanted in the offspring.

So, then, the Only-Begotten himself also affirmed in these words that he learned from the Father.

For what nature is to us, this would altogether and fittingly be conceived to him as God the Father; and just as we, since we are men and from men, speaking after the manner of men, learn from nature without being taught, so also he himself, since he is by nature God from God, learned, as it were, to speak from his own nature as God, and to discourse of the things befitting God—which is, 'I am the light of the world';

for what he knows himself to be, by reason of the Father from whom he is—

this he said he learned from him, having an unteachable learning of the God-befitting works and words from the property and nature of the one who begot him, as by necessary ordinances ascending to identity of will in all things and identity of speech with God the Father.

For how could it not be necessary that identity in will and equality and likeness in words should indisputably be present in those who indeed have one nature? But the argument is altogether about God, not about us;

for us both perversions of character, and differences of wills, and excesses of passions draw us away from the bounds of what is fitting.

what deviation toward anything else could it have?

Or how shall it not altogether run straight toward its own aim, and both speak and accomplish the things befitting itself? Being therefore of the very same essence as His own Begetter, and pre-eminent in the dignities of the one Godhead, the Only-begotten will assuredly and of necessity work whatever the Father Himself would work;

for this is what it means to do nothing of Himself.

And He will assuredly speak the things of His Begetter, not as a servant or as one commanded or as a disciple, but as having it for the fruit of His own nature to make use even of the words of God the Father.

For in this it is clearly seen, and free from all reproach, that nothing is spoken by Him apart from the Father.

'And He that sent Me is with Me.'

In this He shows plainly that He interprets the counsel of God the Father, not having Himself any counsel other than that which is in Him.

Whence comes this? For He Himself is the living and self-subsistent counsel and will of Him that begat Him, according to that which is said in the book of Psalms by one of the saints: 'By Thy counsel Thou didst guide me'; and again, 'Lord, in Thy good pleasure grant strength unto my beauty'; for all good things in Christ belong to them that love Him.

but as bringing forth for our knowledge the things that are in God the Father.

For in the same manner as this our uttered word, poured forth through the tongue, makes clear the things in the depth of our mind, and the will that is in the intellect concerning certain matters—as though having received it like some lesson, and from it set in motion to speak in this or that way—

so again, thinking piously, let us suppose that the Son—inasmuch as He Himself is both the Word and the Wisdom of God the Father—ascending in the force of this analogy, discourses the things that are in Him;

and inasmuch as He is not without subsistence like the human word, but is essential and living, having His existence of His own in the Father and with the Father, He says that He is not alone here, but that with Him also is the One that sent Him.

But when He says 'With Me,' He signifies again something both befitting God and mystical;

for surely we shall not suppose Him to mean this—that just as God might perchance be with a prophet, evidently shielding him with His own power and succouring him with His good favours, or rousing him to prophecy by the illuminations that come through the Spirit—in such wise also the Begetter is with Him.

Rather, even in these words He sets down 'With Me' in another manner;

for 'He that sent Me,' He says, 'is unto the same nature with Me'—that is, God and Father.

According to this you will understand also the figure that lies in the prophet Isaiah concerning Christ: 'Know, O nations, and be overcome, for God is with us'; for the saying about this will fit also as applied to Him, addressed to those who have made their hope of salvation in Him;

yet these also say 'God is with us,' not as one might perchance suppose—that God will be a fellow-worker and a helper standing by—but that He is 'with us,' that is, 'of us.'

For the Word of God became man, and in Him we have all been saved, and have burst asunder the bonds of death, and have put off the corruption that comes from sin, since He came down to us and became with us—He who, being in the form of God, is God the Word.

As therefore in this passage we understand 'God is with us' as meaning that the Word from God the Father became of the same nature with us, so also here, preserving the like proportion in our contemplations, when Christ says 'He that sent Me is with Me, and hath not left Me alone,' we shall clearly take Him to signify mystically that, as we have already said before, God the Father is unto the same nature with Me, and hath not left Me alone.

For indeed it was truly impossible that I should not altogether have with Me the God and Father from whom I have been begotten.

Let it henceforth be believed that He speaks the things of the Father as God the things of God, and being urged on from the natural property of His Begetter to speak the things befitting God—just as the children of men, having some learning untaught from nature, as we said in what went before—He truly knows the things proper to manhood.

One must not therefore be scandalised when the Son says that He learned something from the Father;

for He will not on this account be less than He, nor yet, as those men hold, be found to be of an alien kind;

and let us examine the matter by such a reasoning as this.

For it is not in knowing or not knowing something that the account of the essence is tested, but in what each thing is according to nature.

For example, let Paul be supposed and Silvanus;

and let Paul know and have been perfectly instructed in the mystery concerning Christ;

but Silvanus somewhat less than Paul.

Are they then not alike according to nature, or will Paul surpass Silvanus in respect of the account of essence, since he knew the depth of the mystery more greatly than the other? But I do not suppose anyone to trifle to such a degree as ever to think that their nature has been made different because of the more or less in knowledge.

Since therefore it is not in learning or teaching something that the things of the essence are accurately tested, as we have said, it will in no way wrong the Son as to His being God according to nature, when He says that He also learned something from His own Father.

For He will not on this account depart from His consubstantiality with Him, but altogether remains what He is—that is, God of God, Light of Light.

But perhaps you will say: How then? The Father is greater in knowledge;

for on this account He teaches the Son.

But we shall say again that we have indeed already demonstrated through many arguments that the Wisdom of the Father is in no need of learning and teaching, and, marshalling many reasonings upon this, we have refuted the argument that turns into measureless blasphemy.

Then it now seems necessary to say to you in addition even this: that there is zeal in the Son and very great watchfulness so as always to abridge His own dignity, and not to discourse in too God-befitting a manner, on account of the form of the servant and the abasement thence assumed for our sakes.

For whither has He come down, or from what state into what has He then passed over, if He does not speak somewhat in a lowly fashion and not too fully worthily of His God-befitting glory? For through such words often, even the things which He knows as God, He fashions Himself as not knowing, in the character of a man.

And you will see this plainly in the history concerning Lazarus of Bethany, I mean—him whom by a marvellous power and a most God-befitting voice, being already four days dead and stinking, He then prepared to run back to life;

but consider with me the dispensation feigned in the matter.

For knowing that Lazarus was dead, and having foretold this to His own disciples as God, He inquired in human fashion, saying, 'Where have ye laid him?'

He who dwelt somewhere far from Bethany, and was not ignorant as God that Lazarus was dead—how did He seek to learn where the tomb was? But you will say, thinking most excellently, that He feigned the question, dispensing something useful.

Receive therefore in this case too, again as a matter of dispensation, that He says He learned from the Father those very things which He knows as God;

and not permitting the frenzy of the Jews to be provoked more greatly, and chastening the wrath of the more ignorant, He does not bring the God-befitting word unmixed against them, although it were rather fitting for Him to discourse thus.

But since they still supposed Him to be a mere man, tempering as it were the dignity of the Godhead with words befitting man, He addresses them somewhat more modestly than accords with Himself, by way of dispensation: 'For I do always the things that are pleasing to Him.'

Receive for me again in this too the solution of what seems difficult, and observe clearly, rightly interpreted, the saying 'I do nothing of Myself.' For on this account, He says, I testified to you a little before, discoursing, that I do nothing of Myself, since it is My custom and practice to work nothing discordant with God the Father, nor to know how to do anything except what pleases Him that begat Me.

As though, if perchance He did not work such things, He would then have done something also of Himself—that is, something contrary to the will of His Begetter.

It is not therefore because of being inferior to the Father's excellence, nor because of not being able to accomplish anything of His own strength, that He affirmed in these words that He does nothing of Himself, but because He is of the same mind and ever a fellow-willer with His Begetter unto everything whatsoever, and having devised nothing to accomplish alone and, as it were, separately.

And we shall surely not suppose, slipping down into strange notions, that the Son displays in these words some deliberative and acquired virtue, but rather the fruit of an unchangeable nature, which does not deem it worthy of what befits God to be in deliberating over what to do.

For in the case of created things—inasmuch indeed as they are able to be turned toward the worse, and to yield to changes from better to more shameful—the good would be the fruit of a God-fearing and virtue-loving disposition.

But in the case of the divine essence, which is above all things, it is not so.

For since all alteration and change is removed from it, and it has no place whatever for such, the good will henceforth be the fruit of an unalterable essence—just as, indeed, heat in fire, or cold in snow;

for fire is not seen to have its own operation in a matter of will, but rather natural and essential, being unable to be otherwise, unless indeed it be forced to act by the beckonings of Him that made it.

Not therefore as we do, nor yet as any other of the rational creatures—held fast by a distinctive choice so as to be urged to do what is pleasing to God the Father—does the Only-begotten say such things, but as following the ordinances of His own nature, and knowing to think and to do nothing else except the things that are in the will of Him that begat Him.

For how could this Godhead, being consubstantial and one, ever be at variance with itself? Or how could it work what is not dear to itself, some other being strong enough to turn it aside toward anything else? For if God the Father subsists individually and by Himself, and likewise also the Son and the Spirit, yet the holy and consubstantial Trinity shall not be torn apart into a complete division, but rather the whole of its fulness ascends into one nature of Godhead.

And in addition to these things, this too must be well considered: that no argument could reasonably overthrow the Son's natural identity with the Father;

since He affirmed that He does the things pleasing to Him always, and being rather consubstantial with Him, by this also He shall be known to be both God of God according to nature and true.

For who, tell me, will think the things of God in a God-befitting and unaltered manner, unless he too be God according to nature? Or who could accomplish always what is pleasing to Him, unless he have his nature untrodden by the worse, and have obtained the excellent dignity of the divine nature—I mean, the not knowing how to sin? For concerning created things it is said, 'Who shall boast that he has a pure heart, or who shall speak boldly that he is clean from sins?' when indeed the divine Scripture, stretching the saying to the utmost extreme, says, 'The stars are not clean in His sight.' For the angels, although differing greatly from our estate and having a more stable standing in virtue, kept not their own beginning; for because certain of them were altogether dragged down from thence and fell into sin, the whole nature of rational creatures is accused as receptive of sin, and unable to be free from the change toward the worse;

and the creature upon the earth that is rational and God-like slipped not even in long ages, but fell in the first Adam.

The immovable and unchangeable, therefore, and the ability to remain in the same state by nature, is utterly denied to the creation;

for it will befit Him alone who is in truth God.

And this shines forth well in the Son;

for 'He did no sin,' as Paul says, 'neither was guile found in His mouth.' God therefore, and of God according to nature, is the Son, who knows not how to sin or to change, and who never runs out beyond what befits His own nature.

Being God according to nature, He ascends unto identity of will and, so to speak, identity of operation with Him that begat Him.

'As He spake these things, many believed on Him.'

The wise Evangelist here again marvels that Christ often practised the lowly manner in His speech, on account of the weakness of His hearers, and was wont thereby to accomplish something great;

for though it was possible for Him as God to speak all things, and to make His discourse having free and kingly authority over all, He, measuring Himself by way of dispensation, will hold His word in check, netting many unto ready obedience, and henceforth persuading many to sit more diligently by Him.

The practice, therefore, was not without purpose for the Saviour—I mean His speaking to the crowds in a manner more befitting man;

for they grew not a little bold, and some of the more ignorant readily departed from Him, seeing a man and hearing God-befitting words.

But since He was at the same time both God and man, having authority over both that was beyond reproach, and being able to discourse blamelessly in whatever manner He willed, doing very well He fashioned Himself to the fickleness of His hearers, oftentimes expounding variously about Himself the things befitting a man—such as, I mean, 'I do nothing of Myself,' and the things akin to these;

for understanding nothing at all, but rather assailing what was said without examination, they went off to this common and ready-to-hand meaning that lies open to the multitude.

They supposed that He was saying: 'Having received from God the power to work wonders, and because He is with me, since I always do the things that please Him.' The accursed enemies of the truth are therefore of one mind with the unholy Jews, and, opposing the doctrines of piety, they contrive petty contentions concerning the Lord; and seizing upon what was spoken by dispensation and rightly, so as to overthrow the glory and authority that belong to Him, they filch away the beauty of the truth.

For they do not, as would be fitting, remember Paul when he says that we must cast down reasonings and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bring into captivity every thought unto Christ and unto obedience to Him.

And again they have been ignorant of that which was spoken concerning the divine oracles through one of the prophets: 'Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? or prudent, and he shall know them?' For unless a very great obscurity lay heavy upon them, and some deep and dark veil floated over them, what need would there be to seek out a wise and prudent man who might be able to find the knowledge of these things? But of these matters enough for the present; rather let us take up something useful from what lies before us.

They believed on Christ as He spoke such things, as the Evangelist says—not all, but many.

But although He is true God, and has nothing before His eyes that is not wholly bare, and knew—yea, most exactly—that He would not draw all men to ready obedience, yet He persevered, expending long discourses upon those who came to Him, thereby giving us a most excellent pattern, and setting Himself forth as a type for the teachers of the Church.

For even if not all should perchance be benefited, on account of their own wickedness, yet since it is likely that some will profit from the diligence thus expended, one must not shrink from the guidance that concerns things advantageous.

For if we bury as it were in fruitless silence the talent given to us—that is, the grace that comes through the Spirit—we shall be like that wicked servant who said recklessly to his own master: 'I knew that thou art a hard man, reaping where thou didst not sow, and gathering where thou didst not scatter, and being afraid I hid thy talent.'

'See, thou hast what is thine.' But unto what an end so cowardly a man brought himself, and what judgment he called down upon himself, the lover of learning who has more than once met with the Gospel writings assuredly well knows.

and taking pains, it is fitting to consider very soberly that which was spoken by our Saviour: 'A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his lord.'

'It is enough for the disciple that he become as his teacher, and for the servant as his lord.' For if the Lord does not persuade all men, because of the perversity and hardness of heart of the hearers, who shall find fault with our word as being weak, seeing that it demands an understanding that is voluntary and not of compulsion? So then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed on Him: 'If ye continue in my word, ye are truly my disciples.'

He demands of those who have believed a manner firm and fixed and ready for perseverance in the good that has once for all been chosen by them.

And this was the faith that is toward Him.

For to waver in both directions He declares to be foolish and altogether unprofitable, since also 'a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways,' as it is written.

But to press on to lay firm hold upon the things that profit is truly wise and most beneficial.

So far, then, as it belongs to understanding it readily, He says this: that if they should be willing to yield obedience to the words that come from Him, then indeed they will also assuredly be reckoned His disciples.

But so far as it concerns the understanding of something hidden, He makes this plain:

For in saying 'If ye continue in my word,' He appears in some way, gently and mildly, to be drawing them away from the Mosaic teachings, and removing them from their adherence to the letter, no longer bidding them to cleave to the things spoken and done in figure, but rather to the word that comes from Him, which is plainly the evangelic and divine preaching.

For He was speaking to us in former times also through the holy prophets; but there were mediators, those namely through whom He made His discourses unto us.

But His word, properly speaking, is to be understood as the evangelic preaching;

for we find that it came to us not through another, but through Himself.

Wherefore also, having become man, He says: 'I that speak am present.' And Paul too will bear witness, saying in the Epistle to the Hebrews: 'God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son.' Therefore the Son Himself became for us the very worker of our instruction in the last times of the age.

For this very reason His word, properly so called, shall be named the evangelic lesson.

For it would have been consistent to say somewhat more nakedly and unveiled: 'Ye who have received the faith that is toward me, and who, though late, have nevertheless come to know Him who was of old proclaimed to you through the law and the prophets, be no longer fastened to the figures given through Moses, nor be persuaded to cleave to the shadows according to the law, nor define in those things at all the power of salvation, but rather in spiritual lessons, and in the evangelic preaching that comes through me.'

But it was not unlikely—rather it was already beyond doubt—that they, having but now and scarcely received the faith, and having a mind that was wavering and easily overturned to a change of position, would not have endured such words, but would by no means have held out at all, ever falling readily into anger, as though the all-wise Moses were being insulted through these things and reduced to nothing by the despising through Him of the ordinances laid down for the ancients; and so they would easily have turned to their own audacity, and, ever practising to plead the cause of him, would have counted as nothing their willing still to believe on Christ.

By dispensation, therefore, and still under a veil, distinguishing His own words from those of Moses—that is, setting the evangelic preaching over against the law, and placing the new instructions far and away among things better than the ancient ones—He says: 'If ye continue in my word, ye are truly my disciples.'

For they who shine with an entire and undivided faith, and have received without doubting into their mind the evangelic lesson, and are not overmuch concerned with the shadow that is according to the law, these are in truth the disciples of Christ;

they mock, not having the being of disciples in truth, and for this reason having fallen away from salvation.