13. Look now to see a thing not less miraculous than lame men running, blind men seeing, the flight of devils, the life from the dead. There stands by my side, to guide me through the difficulties which I have enunciated, a poor fisherman, ignorant, uneducated, fishing-lines in hand, clothes dripping, muddy feet, every inch a sailor. Consider and decide whether it were the greater feat to raise the dead or impart to an untrained mind the knowledge of mysteries so deep as he reveals by saying, In the beginning was the Word76    St. John i. 1.. What means this In the beginning was? He ranges backward over the spaces of time, centuries are left behind, ages are cancelled. Fix in your mind what date you will for this beginning; you miss the mark, for even then He, of Whom we are speaking, was. Survey the universe, note well what is written of it, In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth77    Gen. i. 1.. This word beginning fixes the moment of creation; you can assign its date to an event which is definitely stated to have happened in the beginning. But this fisherman of mine, unlettered and unread, is untrammelled by time, undaunted by its immensity; he pierces beyond the beginning. For his was has no limit of time and no commencement; the uncreated Word was in the beginning.

13. Eadem piscatori revelata. Verbum est a tempore liberum.---Exspectate itaque nihil minus claudorum cursu, caecorum visu, fuga daemonum, vita mortuorum. Consistit enim mecum, in patrocinium editarum superius difficultatum, piscator egens, ignarus, 0060B indoctus, manibus lino occupatus, veste uvida, pedibus limo oblitus, totus e navi. Quaerite et intelligite, utrum mirabilius fuerit mortuos excitasse, an imperito scientiam doctrinae istius intimasse. Ait enim: 35 In principio erat Verbum (Joan. I, 1). Quid est istud, in principio erat? Transeuntur tempora, transmittuntur saecula, tolluntur aetates. Pone aliquod quod voles tua opinione principium: non tenes tempore, erat enim unde tractatur. Respice ad mundum, intellige quid de eo scriptum sit: In principio fecit Deus coelum et terram (Gen. I, 1). Fit ergo in principio quod creatur, et aetate continens quod in principio continetur ut fieret. Meus autem piscator illitteratus, indoctus, liber a tempore, solutus a saeculis est, vicit omne principium: erat enim 0060C quod est, neque in tempore aliquo concluditur ut coeperit, quod erat potius in principio, quam fiebat.